Defending Draco was Re: CHAPTER DISCUSSION: COS 14, Cornelius Fudge

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 189205

Lastly, Draco had been beaten up, twice in the space of
a week or so, by his fellow students: those same helpless little lambs you are
so concerned to protect from him.


Alla:

Considering the fact that two of those students almost died from Draco's hand, yes I am.

Pippin:
<SNIP>
Draco has been hearing, all his life, that Dumbledore's reign is ruinous. I'l
bet he's even heard people say things like, someone should have "the guts to
act decisively and throw Dumbledore out of school for good." :) And now, Draco
will get the chance to prove his worth and restore his family's fortunes.

Naturally he'd be proud and happy to comply. Not with the noblest motives, to be
sure, but no worse than Ron's or Harry's. <SNIP>

Pippin:
<SNIP>
Draco didn't have any of that. All he had was a little tidbit of information
which he hoped Lord Voldemort might value. Certainly he didn't offer his
services as a killer. That would be absurd. He hadn't ever even seen a natural
death, much less done murder, while Voldemort already had in his service more
killers than he'd ever need. <SNIP>

Alla:

He attempted to commit murder twice, not once, but twice, at least. This to me states that he was quite all right with doing that and Katie almost dead was not enough to deter them, whether he had seen death or not, IMO of course

Pippin:
<SNIP>
Draco has been hearing, all his life, that Dumbledore's reign is ruinous. I'l
bet he's even heard people say things like, someone should have "the guts to
act decisively and throw Dumbledore out of school for good." :) And now, Draco
will get the chance to prove his worth and restore his family's fortunes.

Naturally he'd be proud and happy to comply. Not with the noblest motives, to be
sure, but no worse than Ron's or Harry's. <SNIP>


Alla:

Right, I understand that we can bring up many reasons explaining why Draco signed up for Voldemort service and what his mindset was. And of course I am sure he was hoping  Dumbledore would be thrown out ( or dead IMO ).  The thing is though, you argue that Dumbledore protects those who least able to protect themselves and my thing is Draco did not ask, need or want such protection and Dumbledore decided that somebody who signed up to serve the Head of murderers and torturers gang needs protection, more worthy to protect than  all other students who did not sign up to offer their services to Voldemort  AND  least able to protect himself. At the very least I do not understand this argument. If Draco came to Dumbledore asking for protection that would be different story, but not only Dumbledore IMO was being incredibly patronizing by forcing the protection on Draco, which he did not want to, he also by the same token withdrawn his protection from  *all* other students by allowing murderer to run free and hoping that maybe eventually he can save Draco. Who will save other students FROM Draco, Pippin? Dumbledore did not give them the courtesy of warning that such danger lurks in Hogwarts, right? At least let them know about that, that Katie's almost death from strangulation may not be the last, but nope he proceeded with business as usual for Hogwarts. 

I think that Headmaster of the school  first and foremost owes his protection to  those who want his protection and patronage and not to those who plot to kill him especially if that makes him not protecting the real innocents IMO.


JMO,

Alla