Likeable Regulus.

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 178062

Mike:
> > My thinking is that, though Regulus was a follower of Voldemort,
it was him parroting his parents views that led him to become a DE. 
Further, I perceive that Regulus was enamored with the idea of 
royalty, of being in charge more than belief in the pureblood dogma. 
I see that as a much more likely idea for a 16-year-old to latch 
onto, than the more nebulous pureblood fanaticism that has no obvious
benefits to one of his age.
> > 
> > Does that make him a better person, if my postulation is correct?
In my mind, yes. Beleiving your parents, parroting their ideals is 
not admirable in and of itself. But thinking yourself special is much
less distasteful than espousing bigoted pulchitrude. 
> 
> Magpie:
> So, wait. Regulus was another one of those DEs who actually wasn't
being racist by joining the DEs even though that seems to be the most
obvious belief they espouse? Does this apply to Draco to? Because they
seem exactly the same to me. Being attracted to the DEs is being
attracted to evil even if the primary attraction isn't wiping out
Muggle-borns--although though Pureblood superiority seems to be
exactly the beliefs that Draco and Regulus got from their parents that
sent them to the DEs to be "right little heroes." That's how they're
special. Espousing bigoted pulchitrude is a way of thinking youself
special.
> 
> I think Regulus is pretty much absolved in the end too--he made the
greatest sacrifice he could to bring Voldemort down. But I still 
agree with Adam's point as I understand it. I still consider him a DE
who did something brave when something he loved was threatened--
whether this led to a change of heart and seeing that his other 
beliefs had been truly wrong and that he had *therefore been evil for
espousing them to begin with* I don't feel confident in saying at all.
I think Regulus was always brave--he joined the DE to help the holy
cause of putting Purebloods in charge or everyone else and getting rid
of Muggle-borns. It's possible he rejected those beliefs along with
Voldemort. It's also possible he didn't.

Carol responds:

Both Draco and Regulus seem to have been raised with a belief in their
superiority (we can see vestiges of that "practically royal" arrogance
even in Regulus's Gryffindor brother), but their motives seem
different to me, both in joining the DEs and becoming disillusioned
with them. Regulus has been collecting press clippings of Voldemort,
worshipping him from afar as if he were a rock star, before actually
joining up, not realizing, according to Sirius, how far Voldie and the
DEs were prepared to go in enacting their agenda. As Mike points out,
he was sixteen and still in school. Probably he has not been involved
in their activities. When he offers his family's own House-Elf to
Voldemort's cause, it's obvious that he doesn't know that the
House-Elf will be abused. He's still full of the idealistic glow of
his glorious cause until Kreacher's suffering brings the truth home to
him and he finds a way to simultaneously avenge Kreacher and harm the
Dark Lord that involves his own excruciatingly painful death and a
self-sacrifice obviously paralleling Lily's and Harry's. At the same
time, he protects his family by not allowing Kreacher to tell them
what happened, at the same time ordering him to destroy the locket
that he (somehow) knows to be a Horcrux. Love and courage. A name
signifying the brightest star in the constellation Leo. Like Snape, he
was perhaps sorted too early. At any rate, we are surely supposed to
admire him and grieve for him. Both his idealism when he offers
Kreacher's services and his disillusionment and determination to
destroy the evil he now perceives in Voldemort suggest to me that he
was never deeply steeped in evil, only deluded, and when the truth was
revealed, he deliberately chose a terrible and inescapable death to
help destroy that evil.

Draco is rather different. He has a similar upbringing and some of the
Black arrogance (at one point we see him "holding court" at the
Slytherin table). He also takes for granted his father's influence,
even after Lucius is removed from the Board of Governors in CoS.
Unlike Regulus, whose father was not a DE, he has a fairly clear idea
of what the DEs are all about, smugly watching the Muggle-baiting at
the QWC, in which his father and perhaps his mother take part, and
predicting, after the murder of Cedric Diggory, that "Mudbloods" and
blood traitors will be next. He sees a war coming and intends to be on
the winning side, to benefit as a pure-blood with strong family
connections to the Dark Lord (and perhaps follow in his father's
footsteps as a DE when the time comes though he never expresses an
inclination to do so). At the end of OoP, everything changes. His
father is in prison and disgraced in the eyes of both the WW and the
DEs. He expresses a desire for vengeance against Harry, whom he blames
for his father's arrest. Whether he's approached by LV (or Aunt
Bellatrix) or whether it's his own idea to join up, he's eager to
serve the Dark Lord, to earn "glory" by somehow killing the old Muggle
lover, Dumbledore (and certain that his Vanishing Cabinet idea will
work). We know that he uses the Imperius Curse on Rosmerta, attempts
to smuggle in a cursed necklace, successfully smuggles in poisoned
mead, which strikes the wrong target, and succeeds in getting DEs into
Hogwarts. But we also see that, like Regulus, he becomes
disillusioned. Unlike Regulus, who sacrifices himself on principle,
Draco simply grows fearful of what will happen to himself and his
family if he fails to kill DD, trying desperate measures that endanger
his classmates and then, deterred from those by Snape, focuses again
on the cabinet, reduced to tears and hysteria as the threats become
harsher and the fear of failure more pressing. It isn't the Dark
Lord's cruelty to his followers or a change in principle that
motivates him, AFAICT. It's simple fear. He still fights and attempts
to Crucio Harry, whom he still perceives (rightly) as an enemy. But
when Harry uses Sectumsempra on him and then kneels there helplessly,
not glorying in what he's done but horrified, perhaps Draco realizes
that Harry doesn't want him dead. Almost certainly, he gets a taste of
death, which could not have been real to him before. So he can
celebrate fixing the Cabinet and bring the DEs in, thinking that he
can now save himself and his family and prevent Snape from "stealing
[his] glory," but he can only get as far as disarming DD, not actually
killing a helpless and obviously ill old man. He realizes that he is
not a killer but he lowers his wand only a fraction of an inch until
he is shoved aside by Snape and saved from the consequences of his
indecision by Snape and DD together. Unlike Regulus, he does not have
a moment of rejection of LV and his cause, nor does he try to do
anything about it for fear of consequences to himself and his family.
(Of course, unlike Regulus, he's heard nothing of the existence of
valuable relics that might be Horcruxes and has no means of carrying
out revenge even if he wanted to.) He also learns that he doesn't like
torture, but he lacks the strength of will to refuse to do LV's
bidding. He does at least refuse to definitively identify Ron and
Hermione, but only in the RoR do we see him using Snapelike arguments
to deter Crabbe and Goyle from attacking Harry and actually grabbing
Crabbe's arm to prevent him from casting destructive spells. And he
makes sure that the unconscious Goyle (who has done no more than point
his wand at Harry) is saved from the Fiendfyre. (He even mourns the
unworthy Crabbe, who had been his friend.) But when we see him
wandless, at the mercy of a DE, we see him arguing that he's on the
DE's side, placing self-preservation above principle. 

Draco is not Regulus or even very much like him despite the similarity
in their situations. Regulus is a hero whose name becomes a rallying
cry for House-Elves. Draco is just a chastened, humbled, disillusioned
young man, stripped of his delusions of "glory" in the service of the
seemingly all-powerful Dark Lord who was, after all, mortal. He has
seen evil and been forced to perform it, and he has, I think, learned
his lesson. He will not become another Lucius, just an ordinary,
balding, middle-aged father of a son who, we can hope, has not been
taught that he is "almost royalty." Draco lacked the strength to
rescue himself, but he knows now which is the right side. It's
unlikely, IMO, that he will fall into evil again or allow his son to
do so. And that's a big improvement over the Draco who hoped that
Hermione would be killed by Slytherin's monster and who later thought
he could earn "glory" by murdering Dumbledore.

I personally don't care whether Regulus still believed that
pure-bloods were superior to Muggle-borns when he died. No doubt he
did because he had been raised to believe it. But he wasn't willing to
condone cruelty to a House-Elf, so it stands to reason that he would
not have condoned cruelty to Muggles or Muggle-borns, either (even
though, as with Snape, it took the mistreatment of someone he
personally cared about to open his eyes). The point is, he acted on
principle. He not only put himself at terrible risk, he knew that he
was going to die horribly and chose to do so to hurt the leader he
recognized as evil in the worst possible way. There's a difference
between believing yourself and your blood status (not race--they're
all white) superior and killing or torturing those that you consider
inferior. We have no evidence to indicate that Regulus, whose room
reflects his schoolboy status and his interest in Quidditch, ever
engaged in Muggle torture or any other horrible crime. (LV had no
reason to punish his family by making him a murder instrument, for
example.) His reaction to Kreacher's treatment by Voldemort reflects a
deep-seated humanity that we don't see in Draco at the same age. It's
tragic that he didn't live to fight Voldemort in some other way (and
redeem himself in the eyes of his Gryffindor brother).

Carol, wondering whether Draco knows that he owes Harry a life-debt
 and whether that knowledge has any bearing on the curt nod on
Platform 9 3/4