Analyzing Draco (Was: Re: Dark Book - Blood and Cruelty)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 177296

> > Carol:
> > Also, oddly, he expresses concern for
> > "that diadem thing" that Harry is trying to retrieve, afraid that
> > Crabbe will destroy it with one of his spells (DH Am. ed. 629). 
> 
> zgirnius:
> I did not find it odd. I found it very much in line with how Draco 
> handled his mission in HBP. He really did not want to kill anyone, 
> especially not in a personal, face-to-face sort of way. So he 
> poured his energy into something else - fixing the cabinet. When
> what he heard Harry say ed him to believe the tiara might be 
> importsant, I think he saw it as a way to achieve his goal (get his
> family out of Voldemort's doghouse) without having to kill anyone
> or turn them over to Voldemort (who Draco knows wants Harry only to
> kill him personally).

Jen:  This is a good explanation for Draco's interest in the diadem.  
Although I thought by this point in the story Draco would have heard  
enough to know that whatever mission Harry's undertaking would be 
important for the permanent defeat of Voldemort.  He's heard all the 
Chosen One stuff and knows now that Harry was on the tower the night 
Dumbledore died (thus with him when he went out that night).  There's 
no canon Draco knows about the Horcruxes, but it does appear he was 
in Malfoy Manor throughout the entire year, which means he was 
present when Voldemort got so enraged about the golden cup.  So if 
Draco thought taking the diadem to Voldemort might help him and his 
family, that's pretty short-sighted when there's good evidence 
Harry's working on something to thwart LV.  Is it the same barrier 
Snape had about Harry, Draco think's Harry is mediocre and not up for 
the job?  The schoolboy rivalry at work?  Draco's been so terrorized 
over the year that he's in survival mode and not thinking past 
himself and his family?  Maybe a little of all these things I 
suppose. 

I like the idea that Draco is in the ROR to make sure Crabbe and 
Goyle didn't hinder Harry's mission, especially since Draco parrots 
some of Snape's phrasing from the run across the grounds when talking 
to Crabbe.  But the fact that Draco is curious about the diadem and 
willing to tell Crabbe about it does indicate some self-interest at 
work, despite knowing Harry must want the diadem for some reason 
connected to Voldemort's downfall: " Potter came in here to get it," 
said Malfoy with ill-disguised impatience at the slow-wittedness of 
his colleagues, "so that must mean - " (DH, chap. 31, p. 630, Am. ed.)