Draco to be bad (was: Snape's the Rescuer - Really?/Justice to Snape)

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 170776

Biff:
> I have been tempted over the years to feel sorry for Snape and to 
> hope that there is something more there, just like I did with Draco 
> (hey I like bad boys, ok?), and in some ways I do. But then I 
> remembered part of an interview with Jo Rowling where she spoke 
> about Draco. She was just amazed to find there were those who 
> thought Draco was "misunderstood". They think he can be changed with 
> love and tenderness. She wrote Draco to be bad. I believe she wrote 
> Snape in the same way. 
> My opinion only, of course.


SSSusan:
Weeeeeeell, I'm not so sure. :)

I mean, yes, I know the interview to which you refer, but I also know 
how JKR wrote HBP.  In HBP we encounter a Draco who's crying in a 
bathroom to Moaning Myrtle, his whole body wracked with emotion 
(iirc).  We encounter a Draco for whom **Harry** now harbors a small 
bit of pity, not just hatred.  

Do you not think JKR moved Draco along in Book 6?  Turned him into a 
person somewhat more easy to sympathize, if not quite empathize, 
with?  

I know your main point is about Snape and JKR writing him 'to be bad,' 
but since you made that claim about Draco, too, I just felt compelled 
to say that I think JKR is not really writing Draco 'to be bad' 
anymore.  We have decidedly encountered a lot less black-and-white in 
the later books and a lot more grey.  I think Draco and what he is, 
what he faces, what he elicits in Harry, is no longer just 'written to 
be bad' but is written to be more fully considered, even to be pitied 
a *little* (even if we still loathe much about him).

Siriusly Snapey Susan