HP and Moral Choices

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 176084


> Sharon:
>   I agree with you about Dumbledore and Snape, I
>   just haven't come across anything quite like it in
>   literature.  It has been pointed out to me - -as
>   you do above -- that it often happens in movies,
>   but I still can't really find an equivalent
>   character. Although someone told me that the Dr
>   Who series (from UK) has some similar incidents, I
>   am yet to find those. Also apparently Batman also
>   saves an enemy. But there always seems to be some
>   redeeming feature of the baddie that makes them
>   deserve to be saved (such as being an ex of
>   Indiana Jones). Draco, on the other hand, doesn't
>   seem to have any redeeming features -- except
>   maybe that he is a fellow Hogwartian and
>   young/foolish?

zgirnius:
Draco has a number of redeeming features. First, Harry knows he would 
not have killed Dumbledore. Harry started to pity him at the end of 
HBP, when he realized this about Draco. Next, Draco surely lied for 
Harry in Malfoy Manor, when he claimed not to recognize Ron and 
Hermione. It did not help, but Draco does, in my view of things, get 
credit for trying. Finally, at the time when Harry rescues him, Draco 
himself is trapped by the flames partly because, instead of fleeing 
for his life, he attempted to drag the unconscious (and enormous) 
Goyle out of the RoR with him. Goyle is a 'bad guy' so this is not an 
action useful to the 'good side'. But in moral terms it is a selfless 
and courageous action.

> Sharon:
>   I still wonder what Harry's motive is for saving
>   Draco. Dumbledore is so disposed to Draco becuase
>   he sees some good in Draco, but I don't think
>   Harry sees any good in Draco -- he spends the
>   entire 6th book trying to prove what a baddie he
>   is. 

zgirnius:
What Harry sees and learns at the end of HBP causes him to reevaluate 
his views.

> HBP, "The White Tomb":
> Harry had not spared Malfoy much thought. His animosity was all for 
Snape, but he had not forgotten the fear in Malfoy's voice on that 
tower top, nor the fact that he had lowered his wand before the other 
Death Eaters had arrived. Harry did not believe that Malfoy would 
have killed Dumbledore. He despised Malfoy still for his infatuation 
with the Dark Arts, but now the tiniest drop of pity mingled with his 
dislike. Where, Harry wondered, was Malfoy now? And what was 
Voldmeort making him do under threat of killing him and his parents?

zgirnius:
And in DH, Harry sees what Draco is made to do through his connection 
to Vodlmeort. I see no evidence that Harry changes his mind (again) - 
Draco seems to be described as terrified and miserable when he is 
forced to torture others by Voldemort, which I think reinforces 
Harry's feelings of pity for him.