In DH he was "Draco", not "Malfoy": - Was "Draco redeemed?"

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 176953

Kat wrote:
> One of the things that stuck with me in Deathly Hallows was that JKR
referred to Draco as "Draco" throughout the book, not "Malfoy", as 
he'd been referred to in all previous books.  Granted, it could have 
been just to differentiate him from his parents, who were featured
more prominently in DH, but I think that Jo was maybe steering us 
towards viewing Draco in a different light, by using his first name.
<snip>

Carol responds:
I noticed that, too. Of course, he's also referred to as Draco in the
HBP chapter title "Draco's Detour," but that could be primarily for
the sake of alliteration. Also, we see the characters in "Spinner's
End" referring to him by his first name, whereas Harry has never been
on first-name terms with him (partly Draco's own fault, with his
emphasis on surnames back in SS/PS): "And my name's Malfoy, Draco
Malfoy" (SS Am. ed. 108). He also introduces Crabbe and Goyle by their
last names only (108), and earlier he asks Harry "What's your surname,
anyway?" (78), but is interrupted by Madam Malkin before receiving an
answer. At any rate, Draco's interest in bloodlines (whether a fellow
student has a known wizarding surname) puts them on a last-name basis
from the beginning of their acquaintance. Oddly, even Draco's best
friends (and it seems, surprisingly, that Draco does care about them)
never achieve the intimacy of being addressed by their first names.
OTOH, Snape, like Draco's parents, addresses him as Draco, at least
outside of class.

IMO, the narrator's use of "Malfoy" for Draco (and "Mr. Malfoy" for
his father) reflects Harry's point of view, just as Lupin and Snape
are always referred to by their last names even as kids. (I don't know
about anyone else, but I find it jarring for a little boy to be
referred to as "Snape" while two other little boys of the same age are
referred to as "Sirius" and "James.") Harry's first and only use of
"Severus" occurs in the middle name he gives his second son. The young
Dumbledore is also "Dumbledore" in Harry's mind rather than "Albus"
because, IMO, Harry met those characters as adults and retains their
last names when he thinks of them. The narrator, though he's just a
voice telling the story and not Harry himself, looks at the characters
and interprets their words and actions primarily from Harry's point of
view, so the characters are generally referred to by the names Harry
uses to refer to them. (Interesting that Professor McGonagall, like
Professor Snape, is referred to by last name only, a rare occurrence
for a female character other than Tonks.)

All of which makes the switch from "Malfoy" in the earlier books to
"Draco" in DH extremely interesting, reflecting, perhaps, Harry's own
belated realization that Draco, for all his flaws in personality and
upbringing, is a human being like himself with fears and feelings.

IMO, it's all part of the humanization of Draco that begins in HBP
when we see him in tears in the bathroom (American term--shouldn't it
be "toilet" as there are not tubs or showers in the room?) with
Moaning Myrtle.

On a sidenote, several posters have been complaining about the
narrator's implied attitude toward Draco and Hagrid in PoA in the
Buckbeak scene, but the narrator's attitude is *Harry's.* Of course,
Harry sides with Hagrid and can't or won't admit that Hagrid is at
least partly at fault, introducing dangerous beasts to a group of
third-years in his--and their--first-ever COMC lesson instead of
Knarls or Nifflers and not making sure that every student present
understood the danger. (Draco is not listening when Hagrid talks about
insulting a hippogriff possibly being the last thing you ever do. Yes,
that's his own fault, but Hagrid is nevertheless the only adult
present among twenty neophyte kids and six hippogriffs; it's his
responsibility to make sure that nothing happens to the kids.) That
the narrator seems to imply otherwise merely reflects Harry's pov. The
reader is free to interpret the events, and distribute the
responsibility, differently.

It's extremely interesting to me that the narrator's depiction of
Draco, emphasized by the use of his first name, is different from the
depiction in earlier books, just as Draco himself is different. Yes,
he's still not exactly brave, and he probably hasn't abandoned his
views on pure-blood superiority (though he may come to question them
off-page for all we know), but he's learned that he isn't a killer and
he hates casting Crucios. It's most unlikely that he still worships
"the Dark Lord" given what he's seen Voldemort do and been forced to
do himself.

In the case, of Snape, Harry has a dramatic epiphany reflected ever so
subtly in the abandonment of such terms as "the man he hated" (DH Am.
ed. 657) and "the magnitude of his crimes" (597). He becomes, with
Harry and Tom Riddle, one of "the abandoned boys" and, simultaneously,
a hero worthy of a public vindication, later honored in the naming of
his second son. With Draco, the change is more gradual and less of a
reversal. He first realizes, seeing Draco swimming in his own blood as
the result of a spell that he himself foolishly cast without knowing
its effects, that he doesn't want Draco dead. He's also aware, without
processing the information, that Draco is desperately afraid for his
own life and his family's lives. Then, on the tower, he sees Draco
lower his wand a fraction and hears Dumbledore tell him that he's not
a killer. Though still hating the "murderer" Snape and wanting revenge
against him, he now feels a touch of pity along with his contempt for
Draco. And then, in DH, he sees Draco forced to perform a Cruciatus
Curse that he clearly doesn't want to cast. Later, Draco pretends not
to recognize Harry. He has become, for Harry and the narrator, a boy
in a terrible predicament, partly but not entirely of his own making.
And though Harry never consciously thinks of him in that way, it's
clear that his perception has changed.

By "Malfoy Manor," even Lucius Malfoy has become "Lucius," perhaps
simply to distinguish him from Draco (as Rabastan and Rodolphus are
always called by their first names) but perhaps because he, too, has
become humanized (though his faults are much greater than Draco's and,
IMO, contrasted with his sons. (The women, Narcissa and Bellatrix,
have been called by their first names since "Beyond the Veil" in OoP
for Bellatrix and "Spinner's End" in HBP for Narcissa, reflecting the
way they're addressed by Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape rather than
Harry's pov. Possibly, JKR is following British customs as well.)

At any rate, the use of first names for male characters seems to mark
a degree of intimacy or friendship in most cases (interesting that
Lupin still sometimes speaks of Snape as "Severus" even after he
thinks that he murdered Dumbledore and even though they were never
more than colleagues and allies, not friends). Ron and Harry note with
surprised that Karkaroff and Snape are on first-name terms in GoF.
Dumbledore's use of "Severus" in speaking to Snape is not surprising
since he addresses most people by their first names, but it's
interesting that he uses that name to speak of him in third person in
the final chapters of HBP and again in "King's Cross" in DH. Harry
notes Mcgonagall's switch from "Harry" to "Potter" to indicate
disapproval in HBP as well.

Given all of these examples of the significance of first names for
male characters, and probably others that slip my mind at the moment,
it can't be coincidental or insignificant that the Harrycentric
third-person limited narrator suddenly starts referring to Draco
Malfoy as Draco just as Draco, like Harry, turns seventeen. You'd
think that the eleven- through sixteen-year-old boy would be "Draco,"
and the seventeen-year-old "man" would be "Malfoy," but that's not
what happens. 

IMO, the use of Draco's first name by the narrator reflects Harry's
way of thinking about him--not as a friend, but no longer as an enemy.
Slytherins, even Draco, who tried to kill Dumbledore and nearly killed
Ron and Katie in the process, are human, too. By the end of DH, Harry
is even willing to risk his life to save Draco, who, in turn, saves
Goyle or makes sure that he's saved.

Does all this constitute redemption of the sort that Snape receives,
forgiven by Harry, publicly vindicated, and almost certainly, finding
peace and mercy in the afterlife? It's hard to say since Draco doesn't
die or openly express remorse and merely ends up reunited with his
parents in a kind of limbo, separate from the other students and the
participants in the battle. I think it's more like a second chance of
the sort that Dumbledore extended to Snape. Even Lucius, it seems,
belatedly gets that second chance, escaping punishment for his crimes
because he didn't fight for Voldemort in the battle of Hogwarts. Like
Narcissa, he loves his son, and, in the end, their son is all that
matters.

Carol, who thinks that Draco has served his time in Purgatory and will
become, if not a good man, at least not an evil one