Draco & Hagrid

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 172856

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "prep0strus" <prep0strus at ...> 
wrote:
>
I wanted to comment on two of the series most prominent characters
being short shifted in this final volume.
First, Draco... I know we learned reasons why Snape AK'd Dumbledore in
HBP, but I feel one big reason was so that Draco wouldn't. So that he
could remain innocent, at least from murder, so he could turn around
and have a chance at a life, and... I just don't think he earned it in
book 7.
<snip)
> 
If Draco is going to move on and join society, he should have had some
change of heart other than simple defeat and dishonor.

va32h here:

I do agree with this to an extent. Based on the great emphasis placed 
on saving Draco in HBP, I thought it would come to fruition too. 

But perhaps that is the way of life - you can offer a man the chance 
at redemption, but you cannot force him to take it. 

Draco *is* different. He does not enjoy the violence he is forced to 
witness - that alone is a world of difference from the Draco who 
looked forward to the execution of Buckbeak, and took such pleasure 
in bullying others. 

At Malfoy Manor, Draco is very reluctant to identify the trio - he 
knows exactly who they are. Is it to spare them the torture and 
violence that is sure to come, or spare himself having to witness it?

But there is no "quitting" the Death Eaters, as so many others have 
learned, and the Malfoys seem to have accepted that they cannot 
leave, and are just trying to protect each other as best they can. 
Draco came back to the castle in hopes of catching Harry - but I 
firmly believe that his desire was not so much to kill Harry but to 
restore his family into favor with Voldemort and spare them whatever 
punishment they had been receiving.

In the end Narcissa proves to be far braver than her husband or son, 
baldly lying to Voldemort to save her son. It would be wonderful if 
any of the Malfoys had a genuine change of heart - but as the 
Slytherins they are, they put themselves first. 

In the epilogue, Draco at least acknowledges Harry - I doubt he ever 
sent Harry a note "Thank you for saving my life - repeatedly!") but 
there doesn't seem to be the kind of lasting hatred that say...Snape 
and James had.

prep0strous here:
> The other character similarly left out to dry is Hagrid.  I've been
> put out ever since he didn't get a wand after he was exonerated in
> book 2 (you don't need to go to/graduate hogwarts to have a wand and
> be a wizard. let him buy a new one and be a real wizard!)  And he 
gets treated not too nice pretty often by the trio (like the other 
sad,slightly annoying, but often loyal background characters - Dobby,
Myrtle, Nick).
> 
> But he did have a couple plotlines all his own - Grawp, which... I
> mean, it's nice he was at the battle, and on 'Hagger's' side, but 
was that really the payoff?  Of Hagrid's treacherous journey, of being
> beaten up taming his brother, of the whole giant...everything?  It
> feels like something is left out.

va32h here:

Hagrid's role in this book doesn't bother me - Hagrid's a pretty 
simple guy when all is said and done. 

I don't think Hagrid would want a new wand anyway - he seems quite 
fond of his pink umbrella. 

Hagrid had the most important symbolic role in the whole book, IMO. 
Just as he plucked baby Harry from the wreckage of Godric's Hollow, 
and rescued him from the hut on the rock, when the Dursleys would 
have denied Harry his birthright, so it is Hagrid who carries 
Harry's "dead" body out of the forest, and back to the castle, back 
to life. 

>From the epilogue, it sounds as if Hagrid is back at Hogwarts, doing 
what he loves, and is still as beloved by Harry as ever. 

Yes I would say Grawp's appearance at the battle is Hagrid's payoff. 
He has "tamed" his brother and earned his love and loyalty - they are 
as much brothers, in the end, as the Weasleys, fighting for and with 
each other, rather than Grawp being some wild sort of animal. 

va32h