Dark Book - Blood and Cruelty

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 177233

Amy wrote:
> 
> Well, I agree that Draco is definitely not in the superior position
during his confrontations with Harry. But taking on the Man? Really?
<snip>

Carol responds:

It occurred to me as I was reading this post that Draco *really* takes
on "the Man" in HBP when, through a chain of circumstances that are
only partially his fault (but mostly his father's and Voldemort's), he
finds himself trying to kill Dumbledore. It's a dark parallel to Harry
taking on Voldemort, unqualified boy against a much older and much
more powerful wizard in both cases. I don't think that Harry ever sees
the parallel, but I think that the reader is supposed to. (Of course,
Draco is in no danger from Dumbledore, but he doesn't know that.
Ironically, his danger, like Harry's comes from Voldemort. Ironically,
too, he actually does have both the means and opportunity to kill
Dumbledore but, like Harry with LV but for different reasons, doesn't
cast a Killing Curse.)

Draco, like Harry, has a tendency to get himself into situations that
escalate beyond his control, but, unlike Harry, it's usually his own
fault that he got involved in the first place. Elsewhere in this
thread, someone asked what compels Draco to act as he does (other than
JKR's plot needs). IOW, considering Draco as a character who exists in
the pages of the books independent of JKR's intentions (which may or
may not have been realized) or her view of him (which may or may not
be shared by any given reader), what makes him act as he does?

It seems to me that Draco, unlike Theo Nott (a fellow Slytherin in a
similar position), cares what people think. He wants to be a leader.
He likes attention and wants to be admired, if only by his fellow
Slytherins. He seems to be jealous of Harry, who receives attention
from the whole WW without seeking it and, at first, without having
done anything more than survive an AK through no skill or power or
effort of his own. Draco resents Harry's choice of friends (a
"Mudblood" and a "blood-traitor") and his rejection of Draco's
mentorship ("I can help you there," meaning I can help you make
connections with the "right" people--Draco at eleven seems to be a
budding Slughorn except that he fails to influence or impress Harry).

Draco may be indulged by his mother, but he's a bit afraid of his
father, whom he tries to emulate and whose influence he brags about
(until Lucius's arrest). Lucius is, of course, quite willing to
indulge his son when it suits his own ends, whether it's buying brooms
for the Slytherin team so that they can (in theory) beat Gryffindor or 
trying to get Hagrid fired. But Draco has bought his parents'
philosophy hook, line, and sinker: Pure-bloods are superior, money and
influence can get you whatever you want, the end justifies the means.
Having no experience with fear or death, he naively hopes that
"Granger" will be killed by the Heir of Slytherin (as Harry in HBP
rather less naively hopes that the DADA "jinx" will kill Snape). At
the end of GoF, he sees his beliefs as validated by Voldemort's
return: he and his parents are "on the winning side." With Lucius's
arrest at the end of OoP, Draco's perspective shifts. He blames Harry
and he wants revenge (making him easy prey for Voldemort). He suspects
Snape of usurping his father's place and wanting to "steal his glory."
Yet he still, at the beginning of HBP, believes in the Dark Lord's
cause, and he has confidence in his own ability to fill his father's
shoes. Not only can he repair that cabinet and let the DEs in, he can
become LV's most honored follower by killing Dumbledore despite being
sixteen years old and still a schoolboy. Death threats and repeated
failure and Sectumsempra change all that. He can't kill Dumbledore, he
hates being a Death Eater, and he's no longer Harry's implacable
enemy. He's not a hero, but he's not his father's clone, either (any
more than Harry is James's clone, despite the physical resemblance in
both cases).

So what motivates Draco to continually oppose or confront Harry and
his friends? I think it's a combination of jealousy, resentment,
interhouse rivalry, belief in the "principles" he's learned from his
parents, overconfidence in his own abilities and (in the early books)
his father's influence. The Dark Lord's resurrection makes him certain
that he's on the winning side. His father's arrest gives him the
desire for revenge (and, having triumphed over Harry in the Hogwarts
Express, he thinks he can move on to bigger enemies). I think that
confrontation, mostly through taunts but occasionally through actions
such as stealing Neville's Remembrall or threatening to get Hagrid
fired, is a compulsion for Draco, a form of attention-seeking that he
simply can't resist, any more than Hermione can resist raising her
hand and giving the right answer to a question. While the pre-HBP
Draco holds Hermione and Ron in contempt, one for her "blood" and the
other for his and his family's philosophy, I think his opposition to
Harry is more of an attempt at conversion or a desire to prove to
Harry that he's right and Harry is wrong. Harry had a chance to be
part of Draco's gang and turned it down to be with "riffraff," a
chance to be on the winning side and turned it down to follow a
foolish old Muggle-lover who actually trusts Severus Snape, the
"stupid old man."

Anyway, I don't think it's masochism that keeps Draco coming back for
more. I think it's a perverse sense of the rightness of his cause, at
least in the sense of "might makes right," the right side being the
winning side, the side in power. But he also resents Harry for
receiving so much attention, and if he can't eliminate that attention,
he can at least make sure that it's directed against Harry ("Support
Cedric Diggory") or against his friends ("Weasley I Our King").

Carol, trying to see Draco whole, without the Harry filter, and not
sure that she's succeeded