Unbreakable Vows

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 165638

> Carol responds:
> Exactly. "Killing isn't as easy as the inocent believe." Not that
> Draco is innocent; he's certainly guilty of trying twice to kill
> Dumbledore and of recklessly endangering fellow students with the 
mead
> and necklace, not to mention endangering the whole school by 
bringing
> in the DEs and making the murder of Dumbledore not only possible 
but
> inevitable, but actually casting an AK on a helpless old man who's
> standing there talking to him is harder than he expected (just as 
it's
> harder than Harry expected when he points his wand at Sirius Black,
> though Draco has the advantage of knowing the spell), and it gets
> harder with every moment as Dumbledore expertly manipulates him 
into
> talking about it, explaining his situation and almost bragging 
about
> the coins and the cabinet and how he's succeeded in spite of all 
the
> adults who expected him to fail. 
> 
> Unlike Magpie, I don't see any remorse on Draco's part for almost
> killing Ron and Katie, but he's had a recent brush with death 
himself,
> Harry's Sectumsempra curse, and when it comes time, he can't make
> himself commit murder, even when the DE backup arrives. He just 
stands
> there "irresolute," not putting down his wand and refusing to do 
the
> "job" now that the "plan" has succeeded, but unable to go through 
with
> the actual killing. He's not cocky now. He's just a kid on the 
verge
> of realizing that being Voldemort's man is neither glorious nor
> exciting. It's just doing the dirty work of a vicious dictator 
who's
> as cruel to his own supporters, his *servants*, as he is to his 
enemies.

Magpie:
Right--just wanted to clarify that I don't think this is dependent 
on what I might personally imagine what's going on in Draco's head. 
We're not in that pov, so there's rooms for a lot of shades of 
interpretations as long as they fit with what we see him doing. But 
just to make my own clear, I feel like sometimes it comes across too 
much like I'm saying that after Katie and Ron get hurt Draco is 
stricken with remorse and starts "turning good" on some level, and 
that's not quite what I think it has to mean. He could be horrified 
in that way--as I said in my other post I don't think we can say 
that Draco *must* not be effected by Katie and Ron that way because 
that's what a Death Eater would be and they're blood-traitors etc., 
because the point is Draco's discovering he's not what he's always 
presented himself as being.

But for me part of the importance for Draco (along with the way it 
alerts others to what he's doing) is just that the murder becomes 
more real throughout the year. What happens to Katie and Ron is one 
more step out of the fantasy--he's sent these things into the school 
with, I think, the vague idea that this is how one commits a murder, 
and then something real happens as a result. Draco's entering the 
world of the real, even if he's not ready for it. I don't think it 
has to be about remorse on his part, like the way someone like, say, 
Ron might feel remorse, but it's part of the nudge towards Draco 
having to take a stand one way or the other. I, uh, sort of have a 
much longer thought on that but it's going in a paper so I won't get 
on a tear now.:-)

-m