Apologia pro Draco (was Re: Wizarding Top Ten)

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 188508



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "bboyminn" <bboyminn at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> 
> ---  "Geoff" <gbannister10@> wrote:
> >
> > ---  sistermagpie@ wrote:
> > 
> > Magpie:
> > 
> > > So based on the "rules" I sort of get from the books, I'd say Draco's more in the "he's not evil, and has the potential for goodness" category rather than the "he's one of the great and good" category. I feel--and this is just a feeling so don't take it as a canonically based fact--that the author wants him in exactly that place.
> > 
> > Geoff:
> > Which, curiously, makes me lean more towards him. Mark you, it 
> > depends who the "great and the good" are. I'm not even sure I'd 
> > place Harry in that category; at least he appears to know and 
> > accept that. In the case of some folk, like Dumbledore, the 
> > revelation of feet of clay makes me want to look askance at 
> > almost everyone.
> > :-(
> >
> 
> bboyminn:
> 
> There is no denying that Draco is a nasty rat of a bully, 
> filled with arrogance and self-importance, not to mention
> a sense of privilege that always come with growing up in
> extreme wealth. 

<large snip!>

Geoff:
Steve, that was a brilliant summary of what I've been trying to 
get over in this thread.

Thanks.

The point I have also been trying to emphasis is that, drawing on 
32 years experience of teaching teenagers and 35 years of 
working in church boys clubs is that (1) kids can indeed be 
nasty rats because they've been given the wrong role models 
in their family and (2) they *can* change. I still meet some of 
these guys who are now grown up and completely changed in 
their outlook on life.

I still hope that in the years between Voldemort's fall and the 
epilogue, Draco did.

There is a lot of fanfic about this and I must admit that I often 
wonder how he rehabilitated himself in the eyes in the eyes of 
"the great and the good",
:-)