Chapter Discussion: Goblet of Fire Ch. 4: Back to the Burrow

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 191491

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

Otto:  
> WHAT is Narcissa asking of Harry. She is asking about the life of her son. At that moment she is no different than Lilly Potter. Her overriding concern is not Voldemort, not the battle of good and evil, but her son-- Draco. It's the tale of a mother's love, and if Voldemort had attempted to blast Draco for some reason, she would have stepped in front of him and the question would have been would Voldemort's body been blasted out again when, after "taking the bullet" for Draco, he attempted to kill Draco. Would Narcissa's self-sacrifice (even though she is evil) shrouded Draco as Lilly's did for Harry. Would Draco and Harry have achieved a sort of symbiotic brotherhood in BOTH being destroyers of Voldemort.

> But remember, Harry owes Narcissa nothing. She cares nothing for him, she only wishes to know if her son is alive. Her gratitude to him is for that news.
 
> No, sorry there's no virtue in Narcissa's action, only concern and lover for her own son, and Harry owes her nothing. "Nomen est Omen" her name betrays her soul. She is interested only in herself and her son. There's small virtue there. Harry owes her nothing. 

> She was thinking only of her son.

Geoff:
You've rather made that point of view fairly clear....

Harry does owe her something. If she had not lied to Voldemort, he 
would have probably repeated Avada Kedavra on Harry. This raises an 
interesting side issue. If he had, would the Elder wand have rebounded 
the curse on him? We are told later that Harry was by this time its owner 
because he had disarmed Draco. We know that Voldemort's first use of 
the spell in the forest had affected him in some way. Interesting to 
speculate. Her lie certainly increased the false sense of security which 
Voldemort was exhibiting by totally misunderstanding the change in
allegiance of the Elder Wand

You've already said that, in asking about the life of Draco, she was no 
different to Lily (one l) Potter. And yet, you are now saying that she is. 
But, she is following a similar course to Lily in trying to protect her son 
because of her love for him. It seems that Slytherin parents do love their 
children like parents in the other houses.

To me, one of the great strengths of JKR's writing is the gradual revelation 
to Harry that, despite the fact that in his First Year, people he met were 
either good or bad, by the end it was clear that almost everyone had grey
areas, some darker grey than others.

Maybe he did owe her nothing because my scenario above might have 
played out anyway but that was not obvious to him at that point in time.