Apologia pro Draco (was Re: Wizarding Top Ten)

[sistermagpie at earthlink.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 188481

 
> Magpie:
> > Why would I be forgetting it? It's exactly the type of thing I was referring to. He rejects the opportunity to identify Harry. But neither does he say, "That's not Harry Potter at all! On your way, three strangers I've never seen!" When his parents press him he says it could be, yeah, it is. He's putting up passive resistance, but doesn't actively step in and save him--and again, we know the circumstances that prevent it, but that's still the way it is.


> Bart:
>     There's the Slytherin cleverness coming in. If Draco had said that, 
> the Trio would have still been kept prisoner, and, if they were found 
> out (which was likely), then Draco would have been in major trouble.
In 
> other words, he did the maximum possible to help out the Trio, and 
> managed to keep himself out of trouble at the same time. The thing is 
> that he could have been the "hero" from the point of view of the DE's, 
> and took a risk to help out the Trio.

Magpie:
We don't know at all that they would have been kept prisoner if he'd said that--it's the type of thing Hermione has been known to make work in the past. I'm not saying his doing that would have necessarily worked. But it would obviously have been an active attempt to protect them and set them free. He did not attempt to do the most he could do to help them out, he did the best he could do to not get them in trouble. He even tentatively agreed with his parents that it was them once they insisted. He kept himself out of trouble as best he could but didn't keep the Trio out of much trouble at all. He didn't stop them being identified. I think he genuinely wanted to, but that didn't wind up happening.

-m