Dark Book - Blood and Cruelty/ Draco

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No: HPFGUIDX 177295


> lizzyben: 
> 
> Yeah, IMO he was. If JKR started out w/a Calvinist allegory, and 
> Slytherins are the non-elect, they're damned. That's why she was so 
> insistent on not creating a truly "good" Slytherin - they are meant 
> to be the House of the reprobate unsaved. It's also handy to have 
> them around to smite.

Amy:

Of course, to each his/her own reading, I realize that everyone has 
their own interpretations. But any conclusions drawn fron any one 
reading *aren't* automatically fact, and I personally have a very 
hard time believing that Draco was damned, or was meant to be damned, 
either. Again, because he is a Slytherin, you could see a possibility 
of his eternal damnation, but in my own opinion, based off the 
narrator's sympathetic responses to Draco, as well as the fact that 
he had a (from all appearances) healthy family of his own in the 
Epilogue, I can't believe that JKR shares your opinion. I don't 
believe that she sees Draco as "damned". I think she sees him as 
forgiven, but the very concept of forgiveness negates eternal 
damnation. I agree that the major Slytherin characters seemed to be 
forgiven (I personally think Snape was redeemed full-stop, but I'm 
willing to argue this point later); therefore, whether or not she is 
a good Calvinist, she can't see them as damned at the same time.

> lizzyben:
> 
> And a receding hairline! And a kid named "Scorpius!" (Scorpions, 
> like snakes, are symbols of Satan.* Coincidence?) Has Draco changed 
> his ideology, has he been forgiven by the author? I'm not sure. 

Amy:

The very fact that he's in the epilogue in the first place (not 
rotting in Azkaban) indicates to me that he's been forgiven by JKR. 
It's not like "Hugo" and "Albus Severus" are such prize names (by 
your argument, the fact that Albus is named after one of the damned 
indicates that either Harry or Ginny are damned, too).  

>lizzyben:
> But to a good Calvinist, this is bad. You shouldn't question God's 
> will or his Election - don't look at the damned, there is no help 
> possible. I think that's DD ordering Harry (and JKR) over & over 
> again to stop feeling sympathy for the reprobate. Harry learns to 
> tune out its cries, as does JKR, in order to finish the black-and-
> white, saved-and-damned allegory she had started.

Amy:

On JKR, though, (and I'm basing the entirety of this on your own 
statement on Calvinism) if she were such a good Calvinist there 
wouldn't be an issue of human Draco; he wouldn't need forgiveness 
because he wouldn't want it anyway, he'd have killed Voldemort, 
merrily gone on his way as a loyal Death Eater, and spent the rest of 
his days in Azkaban. If this were a strictly Calvinist series, we 
probably wouldn't be discussing this in the first place. Or, if it 
is, then it has to be mentioned that Draco, by a limit of only two 
categories (Saved and Damned) would most likely be in the Saved 
category.

I've heard the mutterings about JKR's Calvinist leanings, and while I 
agree that she applied at least some of them to the HPverse, I can't 
see them in every little thing the way others can. I grant you that 
there was something highly disturbing about the scene with Voldie!
Baby, though.

Amy