Apologia pro Draco (was Re: Wizarding Top Ten)

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 188498

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, sistermagpie at ... wrote:

Geoff: 
> > What would have been the result of declaring support for the "light"  
> > side in the presence of folk such as Fenrir Greyback or Bellatrix? In 
> > this situation, I cannot see the idea even crossing his mind. It certainly 
> > wouldn't cross mine. I would be too busy keeping my head down and 
> > letting the others argue and hoping the discussion wouldn't come back 
> > my way. 

Magpie:
> Actually, if we're talking about Draco just saying, "No, that's not Potter. That's that stupid X kid that looks like him" or whatever the idea would be that he would be declaring in a way that the reader and the Trio recognized but would not look like disloyalty to Voldemort to Fenrir or Bellatrix.
> 
> But I get it--it could have blown up in his face. He could have been caught and killed. His family could have been killed. (I don't think it's impossible that it crossed his mind to lie since it clearly crossed his mind to try to avoid identifying them at all and to originally lie to say he couldn't tell it was Harry when he could.) Too scary, too much risk, too much danger to his family. So he didn't do it, which is all I'm saying. He turned against LV inside, but due to circumstances and personality, never found himself in a situation where he definitively acted on it in a way that wasn't deniable. He did more clearly make a stand against non-lethal violence, which was a start. He's not Peter Pettigrew. But he was also a very limited ally.

Geoff:
The point that occurs to me is that being a limited ally would be a very 
real world thing. As I said before, if I were in that situation, I would be 
too busy trying not to be noticed and possibly too darned frightened to 
do anything. which makes both Draco and me either limited allies or 
wimps or both. 

I know that there have been situations in my life where I have had to 
play dumb or even lie to get myself off the hook - admittedly not a hook 
as dangerous as being killed or injured but to avoid embarrassment or 
for the sake of my reputation or, as in this case, to protect someone.

I think that a different response would occur in a scenario where standing 
up against strong opposition when there was a possibility of really saving 
people in danger seemed a viable option. Ron  in the chess game, Harry 
in the Chamber of Secrets or facing Voldemort in the Forest and even 
those students who orchestrated resistance to the Carrows come to mind. 
I think most of us would generally like to live quietly although sometimes 
the need can make unlikely and unwilling heroes of us. 

I think Frodo sums this up quite neatly:
"I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times 
when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words and have felt 
that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons  might be good for them. But 
I don't feel like that now..."
(Tolkien LOTR:FOTR "The Shadow of the Past")

I believe that the instances I gave in the last but one paragraph were those 
of people who felt that their contribution could help towards a distinct 
result. Draco perhaps was trying to keep himself in one piece and also felt 
some need to protect Harry because of his own increasing ambivalence 
towards Voldemort and what he stood for.