Draco and the RoR (Draco's Actions)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 192123



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Bruce Mull <bpmull at ...> wrote:
>
> > Corey:
> > Yeah I guess you are right. But remember what Malfoy said to the
> deatheaters - I am on your side. And Ron said - that's twice we just
> > saved your life, you two faced bastard.
> 
> Bruce:
> Well. You do need to remember that he was more interested in saving
> his own life. He's not a Gryffindor who acts heroic for other's sake.
> Also, he knew that neither Harry nor Ron were going to attack him in
> the back -- not so the Death Eaters.
>  

Pippin:
It's interesting you would say that, since Draco passed up a chance to attack Harry from the back in the RoR. Harry and Ron, OTOH, attacked Death Eaters from under the Invisibility Cloak. 

It would be convenient if the characters only did what their philosophies say they should do -- but JKR's characters are a lot more complicated than that. 

It could be that "proper wizard feeling" requires you to engage your enemy in a duel, a convention imposed by more fair-minded wizards which Draco is nonetheless conditioned to respect. Even Voldemort seems to understand that if he wishes to impress his followers, he can't just present them with a dead Harry. 

 OTOH, it could be that gloating is the only part of of being a badass dark wizard that Draco actually likes. The point is, we don't know, just as Draco doesn't know why Harry does what he does. But both were conditioned to see the worst in one another. 

If I were in Draco's pointy wizard boots, I would probably think Harry had squandered a large part of his claim to my gratitude for pulling me out of the fire when he interrupted the rescue and plunged  back into the fire in order to retrieve the diadem. 

*We* know why the diadem was so important. We also know that Harry went looking for survivors first and did not even think of the diadem again until he saw the fire monsters playing with it.

 But Draco doesn't know that. He could be forgiven for thinking that rescuing him  and Goyle was, to Harry, just another daredevil stunt, like snatching the golden egg from the dragon in GoF. The more so since Harry does not even bother to take  them prisoner, but abandons them, wandless and alone in the midst of a battle. 

Harry pays more attention to finding a secure place to leave poor Fred's dead body than to the fate of the two living people he saved from the fire. I think, to Harry's credit, he realizes this was a mistake at King's Cross ("Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love. By returning, you may ensure that fewer souls are maimed, fewer families torn apart.") 


Pippin