HP and Moral Choices

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 176090

Sharon wrote:
<snip> 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.
<snip canon>

> 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.

Carol responds:
I agree with zgirnius. At the end of HBP, though Harry still hates
Snape (as he does for most of DH as well), his perception of Draco has
clear. Instead of seeing just a nasty, bullying, pure-blood
supremacist who has joined the Death Eaters to kill Dumbledore, he
sees a terrified young man who can't bring himself to commit murder
even with four DEs trying to make him carry out his orders.

In DH, we see the same terrified Draco, not at all the blustering
bully of SS/PS through OoP. Perhaps having accidentally almost killed
Draco with Sectumsempra makes some difference; certainly, seeing him
through the scar connection having to Crucio someone against his will
and again in Malfoy Manor pretending that he doesn't recognize Harry
keeps Harry's view of him at the level it was at the end rather than
the beginning of HBP, or perhaps eliminates the hatred or contempt
altogether and replaces them with pity or compassion. These feelings
are never openly expressed (Harry doesn't state his emotions in words
and the narrator doesn't always specify them, either) but they can
sometimes be inferred from Harry's actions.

When he first encounters Draco and his cronies in the RoR, he seems to
think that they've gone back in time and Draco is his old self backed
by his thug cronies. But the balance of power has shifted; Crabbe
isn't taking orders from Draco, whose father has been disgraced.
(Crabbe and Goyle have also been using the Cruciatus Curse on fellow
students, as we learn from Neville in "The Lost Diadem." There's no
indication that Draco has joined them in doing so.)

Draco tells Harry that Harry is using his wand and Harry says the
equivalent of "finders, keepers." Then he asks Draco whose wand he's
using and Draco says it's his mother's, but he doesn't point the wand
or cast a spell. Harry asks why they're not with Voldemort, and
Crabbe, not Draco, says that they hung back to bring him in. It's
unclear whether he's speaking for Draco or only for himself and Goyle.
After some conversation (still no spells cast), Goyle asks what a
"die-dum" is. Crabbe, hearing Ron call out to Harry, shouts
"Descendo!" and part of the "mountain" of old furniture, books, and
junk begins to fall. Harry cries "Finite!" and the spell ends. Crabbe
starts to repeat his spell and Draco grabs his arm, shouting "No!" and
warning him that he might "bury that diadem thing." Like Snape
stopping the Crucio in HBP, Draco seems to be helping Harry here.
Crabbe says that he doesn't take orders from Draco "no more." Crabbe
tries to Crucio Harry but misses. Draco, again echoing Snape, calls
out, "Stop! The Dark Lord wants him alive--" to which Crabbe responds,
"So? I'm not killing him, am I? but if I can, I will, the Dark Lord
wants him alive, anyway. What's the diff--" Hermione tries to Stun
Crabbe, who actually casts a Killing curse at the "Mudblood." Draco
yells, "Don't kill him! DON'T KILL HIM!" Both Crabbe and Goyle point
their wands at Harry. Draco is wandless from a Stunning Spell aimed at
Crabbe. Harry disarms Goyle but Crabbe yells "Avada Kedavra" again.
Hermione hits Goyle with a Stunning Spell. Crabbe casts the Fiendfyre
spell. Draco grabs the Stunned (and huge) Goyle, dragging him along.
Draco and his two friends (if Crabbe deserves the label) disappear
from view. Harry finds a pair of broomsticks and swoops low over the
flames, trying to find them, thinking, "What a terrible way to die."
The narrator notes that "he had never wanted this." Despite Ron's
protests that it's too dangerous, Harry finds Draco with his arms
around the unconscious Goyle. They manage to rescue not only Draco and
Goyle but the tiara, and Draco expresses grief for  "C-Crabbe," who
has died in a fire of his own making.

As I read this scene, Goyle is his usual gormless self and is only
following the rather confusing lead of Crabbe and Draco, who are at
odds with each other. Crabbe has clearly gone over to the Dark Side,
willing to cast every Dark Curse he knows and three times trying to
kill someone. Ironically and fittingly, the only one who ends up dead
is himself. Draco does not cast a single spell and several times tries
to stop Crabbe from doing so. It seems to me that his purpose in
entering the RoR was not to help Crabbe capture Harry but to prevent
him from doing so. If not actively on the side of good, he is at least
morally neutral.

I'm not sure how much of this Harry realizes, but he certainly knows
that it's Crabbe who cast the Dark Curses, Crabbe who tried to Crucio
him and kill Hermione. He sees Draco trying to comfort the unconscious
Goyle, thinking that they're all going to die, and out of mercy or
compassion or plain human decency he saves Draco while Ron, against
his will and perhaps against common sense, pulls the unconscious Goyle
onto his own broom with himself and Hermione.

Carol, who thinks that Draco, though not a hero, has come a long way
from the beginning of HBP and that Harry's rescue of him (and Goyle)
was very much the right and proper thing to do