Draco's Hand of Glory (was: Re: Half-Blood Prince)

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 183915

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Lynda Cordova" <sweenlit at ...> wrote:
>
> .
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> I'd have argued in the past (when I was young and foolish *g*) that
> Draco Malfoy *was* a major character. *Possibly* a step or two
> behind Ron Weasley, but certainly equal to Hermione Granger (we learn
> *far* more about Draco's home life than Hermione's, for example; and
> no one ever managed to motivate Harry to do something like Draco,
> back in the day). Which means plot points left entirely up to
> speculation are frustrating rather than fun. I was reading to see
> what happened to Draco. But that's not the audience JKR was writing
> for. (OotP had me worried, but I got suckered in by HBP, I'll admit.)
> 
> Betsy Hp
> 
> Lynda:
> 
> Do we really learn so much more about Draco's family life than we do
> Hermione's, though.
> We know from the text that Hermione has two loving parents, who, although
> unfamiliar with the WW join their daughter to buy school supplies. Hermione
> vacations with them in the summer in the earlier books. They are both
> dentists. They do all they can to support and protect her, as she does them.

Montavilla47:
Leaving aside the question of whether Hermione does anything to 
support her parents (protect them, yes, support them.... eh?)

You have summed up here ALL we know about Hermione's parents.  We
don't, for example, know their first names.  Hermione has never introduced
them to Harry--he's only seen them at a distance.  We don't know how
they feel about Voldemort.  We don't know if they even know he exists.

We don't know how they feel about their daughter being petrified
for over a month during her second year.  We don't know if they even
know that that happened.  We don't know if Hermione has any brothers
or sisters.  We don't know what town (or city) she lives in.  We have
no idea what her house looks like.

We know more about Luna's family than Hermione's.

Lynda:
>  With Draco, we learn that he has two parents who love him dearly. They are
> both powerful within the wizarding world and raised him in a way they
> thought was proper for their protection and the perserverence of the WW. He
> also has an aunt who will do anything to support LV including putting her
> own sister and nephew in jeopardy.  That's not really all that much more.
> 

Montavilla47:
Here's a few more things we know about Draco's family:

We know how old Lucius is.  We know that he was once a prefect.  We
know his opinion of muggleborn, his opinion about Dumbledore, and
his opinion of Draco.  We know that he has money and that he uses it
in order to gain political influence.  We know that he and Snape were
"old friends."  We know that he beats his elves.  We know that he had
enough respect for the Dark Arts that he wanted his son to attend
a school where they were properly taught.  We know that he was 
trusted with one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.  

We know that Narcissa was a member of the Black family.  We know
what political opinions the Black family held and how strongly they
felt about them.  We know that she shares her family's racist views. 
We know that she had enough affection for her aunt's elf to treat
him kindly.  We know that she calls the shots in her immediate
family.  We know that she loves her son so much she's willing
 to beg Snape for help--and that she refused to let him go to 
school in another country.

We know the name of Draco's paternal grandfather and his
maternal grandmother (I think... do we learn Walburga's name
in the series or just on the auctioned tapestry document?)  We 
know the names of his two aunts, his two uncles-in-law, and 
his only cousin.

We know that the Malfoys live in a "manor" house, with gates
and  white peacocks.  We know what the inside of the house 
looks like--and that there's a secret room under the dining 
room.

All in all, quite a bit.