Dark Book - Blood and Cruelty/ Draco

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 177306

> Betsy Hp:
> Hmm...  Not on purpose I assure you.  If anyone can point to the 
> Slytherin table cheering "We've got Malfoy!" or heck, the 
Gryffindor 
> table cheering "We've got Granger!" at Harry's Sorting...  Or if 
> someone could point out the scene where Draco's hand is 
continuously 
> shaken by strangers thrilled with the chance to meet him...  Or if 
> someone could point out a teacher falling off their chair because 
> they're so excited that Draco's in their classroom...  Or if 
someone 
> could point out another student that has a top-of-the-line broom 
> purchased for them by Hogwarts...
> 
> Then, yeah, I'll agree that it's just my *opinion* that people in 
the 
> WW are a bit more interested in the name "Harry Potter" than "Draco 
> Malfoy". <g>

Magpie:
I'm trying to think of places where Draco's name is remarked upon, 
since Lucius--like many other adults--is known by other adults. Ron, 
for instance, also has a reputation attached to his name. 

Hagrid speaks of the general bad character that comes from Draco's 
blood, Fred or George identifies him as "Lucius Malfoy's son" and 
looks at him like he's something nasty on the bottom of a shoe, Barty 
Crouch as Moody could make a remark about his father.

On the plus side, Umbridge mentions telling Lucius what a good boy 
Draco is. Slughorn seems like he should give Draco some positive 
attention due to his name, but makes a point of not doing that. 
Kreacher seems primed to like him because he's related to the Blacks. 

In general no, I see nothing comparitive to Harry's actual personal 
fame when he arrives at Hogwarts. Lucius' pull at the Ministry 
exists, but is also always undermined (Neville seems to have a better 
background, Lucius threatens the Board of Governors and then gets 
kicked off, he's put in jail...).  In terms of family name Draco's 
basically in the same boat as Neville, only Draco's family seems to 
have bad stuff attached to it.

Harry, otoh, seems to be the WW's main celebrity. He's an ordinary 
guy the way Brad Pitt is ordinary--iow, not at all, which is why he's 
got personal relationships with all the MoMs. Draco is actually far 
more ordinary--albeit wealthy. He's a good student, but not the best, 
a good Quidditch player, but no the best. He gets attention because 
he dances on tables and screams for it. If he shut his mouth he might 
have been one of the nameless hoards who know Harry's name without 
Harry knowing his. He does get himself a certain social status within 
his house, but he certainly seems to work for it. In terms of being 
popular in general, well, he can't be popular the way Harry is, can 
he? Or even Ron is? Because he's a Slytherin and they seem to be in 
their own world there. He does seem to get attention from other 
students when he makes loud comments, but that's it.

And yes, of course I agree that being "popular" has nothing to do 
with being liked. Popular people are often resented terribly and can 
have as many "frenemies" as friends. I can't imagine anybody going 
through high school and knowing who the popular people were thinking 
these were people who were universally liked or never turned on by 
the school. They're turned on due to pent-up resentment of jealousy 
half the time--which is pretty much what happens to Harry. (Goodness, 
just look at the most "popular" person in HP-fandom--if anybody 
doesn't know who I'm talking about, suffice to say think of hundreds 
of anonymous people desperate to be her friend and just as many 
baying for blood as if this person killed their child.)

I think any indication that he's some sort of nerd (one of new kinds 
of nerds who are cool sports heroes and not into nerd pursuits, 
apparently) is just due to nerds being hip at the moment. Nerds are 
natural underdogs and sometimes a shorthand for 
kind/tolerant/incapable of discriminating against. Nobody nowadays 
wants to be identified as the popular person. Naturally JKR threw 
some of that at Harry, even if she didn't give any of the real 
problems an actual nerd would have. Harry doesn't get picked for 
teams because Dudley artificially prevents it. Harry dresses funny 
pre-Hogwarts because the Dursleys impose bad taste on him. At 
Hogwarts he's socially skilled, physically acceptable and at 16 
wildly popular so cool apparently he has to get the cool qualities of 
a nerd as well. Even Draco doesn't identify him as a nerd. On the 
contrary, he talks about him like the popular kid: Everybody thinks 
he's so great! He's not so great! Marvelous Potter with his scar and 
his broomstick! He's not even that good, he's just famous!"

Yes, that would pretty much be the standard complaint about the BMOC 
from the Lesser MOC. It's lonely at the top and the bottom. Harry's 
at the top (a top so high it reaches out of his school into the 
celebrity world).

-m