Draco and the RoR was Ginny

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 192113

 
> Pippin:
> None of this  changes the fact that Draco's steps towards the bad seem so confident and his steps towards the good, if that's what they are, are  so halting and secretive. 
> 
> Geoff:
> Not sure I agree. 
> 
> They often mirror each other. 
> 
> For example: on the Tower, Draco's  bragging steps towards killing 
> Dumbledore are matched by his faltering and his hesitancy following 
> the latter's offer of sanctuary; at Malfoy Manor, you would think that 
> identifying Harry to gain the thanks of Voldemort would be paramount, 
> yet he hesitates and doesn't go that way; His apparent distaste and 
> horror at the beginning of DH at Voldemort gratuitous killing of Charity 
> Burbage.
> 
> Somewhere, conscience is trying to struggle through.

Pippin:

I agree, Draco has acquired a conscience. 

And because of that,  Draco has had to suffer helplessly while Charity Burbage is murdered, hate himself for having to torture Rowle,  work against his own father by hesitating to identify Harry, and risk his own life for Goyle, though it's doubtful whether Goyle would have done as much for him. And finally the nod to Harry, which Draco seems far from happy to give.  Draco's conscience is as cruel a master as Voldemort ever was.

But that could be JKR's point. Draco perceives his  conscience as making him do things, instead of presenting him with choices, and that is all the difference.

I think this is what JKR meant when she claimed to be subverting the genre. The great choice   is not, after all, the expected choice between good and evil. Nor is it between power and weakness as Voldemort thinks. It's between thinking there are choices, and thinking there aren't.


Pippin