Draco and Harry initial meeting WAS : Re: JKR's lesson on prejudice

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 180549

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" <dumbledore11214 at ...> 
wrote:
>
> 
> > > Alla:
> > > 
> > > Well, again Draco is not in Slytherin yet, isn't he? I am only 
> > > talking about their initial meetings before they were sorted. 
> > 
> > Geoff:
> > Ah, but.....
> > '"Know what house you'll be in yet?"
> > "No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.
> > "Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, 
> > but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been -"'
> > 
> > ( PS, "Diagon Alley", p.60 UK edition)
> > 
> > Enough to trigger Harry's alarm bells, I suspect.
> >
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Ah, but......
> 
> Actually no, let me say that much - that COULD have been exactly the 
> statement that I was looking for to show that Harry's dislike of 
> Draco at least partially based on prejudice, IF.....
> 
> when Draco said this Harry knew anything bad about Slytherin.
> 
> Hagrid says his Slytherin is no good thing approximately four pages 
> after exchange that you quoted occurred.
> 
> 
> So, I am afraid not enough to trigger Harry's alarm bells, since at 
> this point Harry has no alarm bells to be triggerred.
> 
> I am quoting the exchange right since you started till Hagrid saying 
> his thing. And narrator tells us that Harry disliked the boy ONLY 
> after he starts making jabs on Hagrid.
> 
> Those are roughly pages 77-79 of PS/SS amer.paperback and no, I did 
> not type them all up right now - it was much earlier.

Geoff:
Yes, I've picked the wrong spot. I'm really tending to base my thinking 
on the train exchange because I think that most of the intense rivalry 
and dislike between the two boys stems from that seminal point where 
Harry refuses Draco's hand.

I don't see that as prejudice but as the slightly ruffled reaction when 
a first contact with someone new goes wrong. I can remember a similar 
situation years ago when I met a new teaching colleague and he said 
something in the first couple of minutes which raised my hackles and 
it was a long time before we really felt at ease working with each other.