Poor Draco?

[rj_anderson]

So in preparation for OotP coming out, I'm re-reading the HP books from the beginning -- something I haven't done in quite a long while -- and noticing all kinds of things I hadn't seen before.

About ten minutes ago I came across this, from the first meeting between Harry and Draco in Madam Malkin's robe shop:

"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."

Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley.

This struck me as extremely interesting. In fanon, Lucius is frequently portrayed as a cold and strongly domineering father with cripplingly high expectations of his son, while Draco is often revealed to be secretly struggling with resentment of Lucius and the feeling that no matter how hard he tries he can never measure up. He idolizes his powerful father, and he fears him, and he works hard to please him, but he's always in Lucius's shadow, and it's implied that the real Draco might have been a different and probably nicer person if it weren't for his father constantly pushing him to be a perfect little Death Eater-in-training.

In this quote from canon, however, the situation looks quite different. "My father's next door buying my books"? Draco makes him sound like Lucius is his servant, running errands for him because he's too busy getting his robes fitted. "I'm going to drag them off..." He evidently has no doubt that he can get both his parents to do whatever he wants. "I think I'll bully my father..."

How utterly different from the usual fanonical picture. Would fanon Draco even dream of trying to "bully" fanon Lucius into anything? Would most fanfic authors and readers even dare to imagine that Draco could do so?

And then Harry draws his own conclusion: Draco reminds him of Dudley. A spoiled, manipulative, demanding brat, who knows both his parents dote on him and has no doubt that they will indulge his every whim. And I can't see any reason to believe that appraisal of Draco isn't valid.

Oh, you might say, but Draco is playing tough, trying to look good. And Harry dislikes him, so he's assuming the worst about him, thinking he's just like Dudley. But there's no reason for Harry to be prejudiced against Draco at this point, because he knows nothing about the wizarding world in general or Slytherins in particular. Neither is there any reason for Draco to want to impress Harry by pretending he can bully Lucius around, because Harry hasn't any idea who Draco's father is.

Before I re-read this bit of PS/SS I was almost prepared to buy into the idea that Draco's deepest desire is to please his father and make Lucius proud of him, and that all his detailed reports and attempts to assist his father in Dark activities were efforts toward that end. Now, however, I really begin to doubt that has anything to do with it.

I don't think Draco is afraid of Lucius at all, much less desperate to measure up to him. I think that he wants to be part of Lucius's Dark activities for the same reasons Dudley and his gang liked to beat up on Harry at school -- because terrorizing the weak and helpless is such a lark really, and why should Daddy have all the fun?

Comments

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

Interesting theory. I tend to think Draco's a bit afraid, but that he knows he can manipulate his family into doing what he likes. Hubby of mine seems to think that once Draco sees what it's *really* like to be a Death Eater, that he'll begin to come around, but I don't buy that. I think Draco knows exactly what he's getting into.

It will be very interesting to see what Draco's character will become. I tend to think that he's going to be 'Voldemort Jr.'(tm) I will until I read different. He's shown no redeeming qualities thus far.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Well, I think Draco might be afraid of his father on occasion, but only in the way that Dudley was afraid when Vernon freaked out over Harry's Hogwarts letters. In other words, he knows his father has a dangerous side and that it's not smart to cross him, but at the same time he knows that he's Daddy's Favorite Boy, so he doesn't spend his life worrying that Lucius will make him pay if he puts a foot out of line.

Like most bullies (and like Dudley), Draco is essentially a coward, I think; if he were suddenly stripped of all the protection and prestige that come from being Lucius Malfoy's son, he might not like the idea of serving Voldemort so much and indeed might even try to get out of it. But that's not the same as having a genuine change of heart based on the moral conviction that Voldemort's agenda is evil and that he ought to be stopped. I have a hard time imagining Draco going the latter route.

[meril.livejournal.com]

I don't see why both can't be true, really; Draco is a manipulative spoiled brat, but Lucius is also, well, a cold guy with very high expectations for his son. They're not mutually exclusive.

Draco reminds me of this very odious character from another favorite series of mine; they're both rich boys who think their wealth and social status gives them the right to use and abuse people who they see as their social unequals.

I think Dudley can be redeemed--there are hints about the Smeltings staff trying to help him (well, the diet was the start, at least.) I don't see the same for Draco, and it honestly wouldn't be a satisfying end to that plot. I want to see his comeuppance, and I want it to be spectacular.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure, Lucius is frosty and has high expectations but my point is, Draco doesn't appear intimidated by him or desperately worried about living up to those expectations. To me it appears he's proud of his father's ruthlessness because he enjoys seeing it turned against other people, rather than cringing from it because he's afraid it's going to be turned on him.

Point is, if Lucius were as aloof and overbearing with his own family as fanon sometimes makes him out to be, there's no way a little weasel like Draco could bully him into anything. And he wouldn't be caught dead buying Draco's schoolbooks for him, to be sure.

[kalinalea.livejournal.com]

I agree completely and have tended to feel that almost every fanon portrayal of Draco I've ever seen has been a bit off. Of course, I loathe Draco and avoid reading about him whenever possible, so fics with a high Draco content get a pass from me. Thus, I haven't exactly wallowed in Draco-theory. But I agree that in canon he seems more like a spoiled brat who has long since learned to manipulate his parents and knows it than he does a cringing child afraid of his father. The latter approach helps to make him a sympathetic character, I suppose, but it doesn't seem directly supportable by canon.

I think the movie portrayals of both Draco and Lucius might be in part responsible for this slight skewing of the fanon interpretations. I thought Jason Isaacs was marvelous, but he seemed much colder toward Draco in the CoS movie than he came across in the book. I'm thinking of the Quidditch scene in particular, but there were other instances as well - would have to re-watch and re-read to name and compare specific scenes, and I don't have time to do that right now. I tend to see the movies as "fanon" too, actually, in that we're getting JKR's world filtered through another writer, but there's no question that the movies and the actors' individual interpretations of their characters have impacted a lot of fan fiction writers and their characterizations.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

I think the movie portrayals of both Draco and Lucius might be in part responsible for this slight skewing of the fanon interpretations.
I have to disagree. I wrote a fanfic with this type of interpritation starting back in the fall of 2000 (Surfeit of Curses, over on Schnoogle) and while it was one of the earlier fics with such a theme, it certainly predated the book by a good two years, enough so that when CoS actually was released, I got a flurry of reviews saying (jokingly) that Jason Issacs must've read my story.

I don't actually *think* he did - but my interpritation is certainly consistent with his.

Re:

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Well, she did say "might be" and "in part", so I think that leaves room for SoC to be an exception to the rule. The more recent Lucius and Draco fics are much more likely to have been influenced by the movie, though.

[flourish.livejournal.com]

((Oh, you might say, but Draco is playing tough, trying to look good. And Harry dislikes him, so he's assuming the worst about him, thinking he's just like Dudley. But there's no reason for Harry to be prejudiced against Draco at this point, because he knows nothing about the wizarding world in general or Slytherins in particular. Neither is there any reason for Draco to want to impress Harry by pretending he can bully Lucius around, because Harry hasn't any idea who Draco's father is.))

1. Sometimes one just dislikes a person on sight. I know I do. I look at someone, I judge them, and I dislike them until they do something VERY nice or good. Now, I agree that Draco's comment is Dudley-like, and I think that Harry's conclusion was valid from what he had seen of Draco so far. But...

2. Draco also has no idea that Harry doesn't know who Draco's father is. He doesn't even know who Harry is. We've seen that Draco has a high opinion of himself and his family and one might think that the average English wizard would know Lucius Malfoy (after all, considering how rich they are and how politically active...). So Draco could very well be trying to show off, assuming that Harry isn't Muggleborn and assuming that he knows who Lucius is.

I'm not sure I totally buy the poor-Drakkie thing either, but I just had to refute that :)

Re:

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

We've seen that Draco has a high opinion of himself and his family and one might think that the average English wizard would know Lucius Malfoy (after all, considering how rich they are and how politically active...). So Draco could very well be trying to show off,

But then he would have to think that the average English wizard would know him, too -- because he hasn't introduced himself to Harry as Draco Malfoy at that point. You might think it was because he assumed he was famous enough not to need introduction-- but then on the train, once he knows who Harry is, he introduces himself.

So I don't think Draco is just boasting when he says he's got both his parents wrapped around his little finger.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

But Lucius isn't there when Draco says this. It's not unusual for kids whose parents are controlling or manipulative to deny the reality of their lives when they're having conversations with peers, especially when there's a benefit to them in doing so - and here, Draco clearly sees an advantage to having Harry think he's able to boss his parents around - regardless of whether it's true or not.

I think that, in comparison to the bit you quoted, the fact that Draco never has a line of dialogue when Lucius and other people are around - he's totally silent once Lucius is on the scene in Flourish & Blotts and he doesn't speak once in the Top Box in GoF - is at least as telling, if not moreso, of his true relationship with Lucius.

Re:

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Draco clearly sees an advantage to having Harry think he's able to boss his parents around -

Does he? What advantage? He's only making idle conversation with a boy he's never met before and knows nothing about, who just happens to be having his robes fitted at the same time. Why would he think that a total stranger would be impressed by hearing that Draco can boss his parents around, when Harry knows neither Draco nor his parents and therefore has no reason to be impressed?

To me the whole tone of Draco's speech is that of a boy who takes his parents' cooperation with his whims entirely for granted. A boy who had a difficult or painful relationship with his parents would not be likely to speak about them at all -- unless someone asked him about them directly, in which case he well might put on a brave front as you're suggesting.

But Harry didn't ask, and there's no pressure on Draco -- Draco simply volunteered the information in a totally offhand way.

I don't think that's incompatible with Draco's silence in front of Lucius, though. I'm sure he knows enough to show respect for his father and let him take the lead in a public setting. Lucius is not Vernon, to be sure -- he is powerful and he is dangerous, and Draco would have grown up aware of that even if he didn't personally have to worry about it.

Which is not to say that I'm not willing to read fics in which Draco struggles with living up to his father's expectations and wonders whether he really wants to be a Death Eater or not. (That would be hypocritical in the extreme, because I'm completely hooked on Rising From Ashes at the moment.) But I do feel quite sure that JKR never planned to lead us in that direction with Draco's character, and that this particular scene at least was meant to be understood exactly as it's stated.

[bluemoon02.livejournal.com]

I'd always interpreted that smidge of canon fodder as him trying to look big in front of a new classmate....Draco's not the kind of person who'd want to look like he was ruled by anyone....And certainly wouldn't want to look like a Mummy's boy...Or, in this case, a Daddy's boy...But then...I'm all for tortured, beaten-up-by-Daddy!draco

Re:

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess it can be read that way, but to borrow a couple of theological terms, that's called eisegesis (reading your own preconceived notions into the text), rather than exegesis (interpreting what's actually in the text). At least that's how it looks to me, because JKR really hasn't given us any indication that Draco's relationship with Lucius is adversarial or abusive.

It is possible, however -- with a nod to heidi8 -- that at eleven years of age Draco was spoiled rotten by both parents and little was expected of him, but as he grew older Lucius decided it was time for him to assume more responsibility and started putting the pressure on. Thus his speech to Harry in PS/SS could have been the literal truth at the time, but not necessarily the way things are now...

[(Anonymous)]

It is possible, however, that at eleven years of age Draco was spoiled rotten by both parents and little was expected of him, but as he grew older Lucius decided it was time for him to assume more responsibility and started putting the pressure on.

Or, even more likely, that Draco at eleven was happily living up to expectations, but that things changed as he got older, stronger in his own self-image, and as rebellious as a typical teen. His parents may very well smile indulgently at his thinking he can boss them around when he's just a kid; they'd probably feel quite differently about it when he reached the verge of adulthood. But I do think he'd continue to do his best to use them and get everything he could out of them; I don't see him rebelling by going on anti-Voldemort protest marches or joining the wizarding equivalent of the Peace Corps. There'd be a considerable amount of "you can't tell me what to do," though -- which, given what we do know about Lucius from canon, could lead to some pretty forceful measures of control, though not necessarily physically violent ones.

As far as "Draco would have been a nicer person if" -- that's impossible to theorize. His inheritance is genetic as well as environmental. Many Draco-centered fics end up removing his father and/or mother from the picture either completely or partially, but unless you go AU and make that happen before his personality is really formed, it's unlikely to make him a "nice" person overnight. I suspect he will always be an opportunistic, manipulative brat -- though just possibly one who could be used in the service of good in some way.

Erica

Re:

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the idea of Draco as a little punk with his own agenda makes a good deal more sense to me than the idea of Draco completely overawed and fearful of Lucius. It makes him more potentially formidable as an enemy of Harry, as well -- but ironically it also makes it a little more plausible that he might switch sides if he thinks there's something in it for him. Not that I really expect that to happen, mind you, but...

[(Anonymous)]

Indeed, I strongly dislike canon Draco, and the whole ferret scene was one of the most gratifying for me, evil though it makes me sound to say that.

But I wasn't really surprised at the villifying of Lucius in fanfiction, because it's a standard kind of thing to do - in order to redeem the son, you have to make the father more evil. Because mistreating your offspring sows the seeds for them to rebel against you. And I agree that Lucius does not crush Draco with his high expectations, and spoils him in a way that benefits them both - as in, getting Draco on the Slyterin team presumably makes Draco happy and upholds the family honor. It's not as if Draco really never wanted the position, or buying his way onto the team was considered unworthy by his father.

The evidence for the contary view, I think, comes from episodes like the one in CoS where Lucius tells him off for not doing as well as Hermione. I mean, obviously he has expectations for his son - but I don't believe that Draco has lower expectations for himself. Maybe. I'm no authority on this topic.

Um, but, primarily, Draco in canon strikes me as very, very childish. He does the things he does not out of some deep-seated conviction about what is right for him, he merely parrots - he was raised to look down his nose at halfbloods and he goes on with it because it makes him feel superior. He plays annoying and mean-spirited tricks but he never does anything that is actually *evil*. One can only assume that Lucius is steering him that way.

And I don't think he imitates his parents because they've intimidated him into it, but because they have spoilt him, and, from his position, there's really no disadvantage for him in being what they want him to be.

Which is why, to redeem him, you need a catalyst, something to make him rethink his life, because in canon he's too narrow-minded a character to change his views just by philosophying on morality.

~Chresimos

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I strongly dislike canon Draco, and the whole ferret scene was one of the most gratifying for me, evil though it makes me sound to say that.

Oh, well, sign me up for the forces of evil, then, because it was at that point that I went from being intrigued and amused by Mad-Eye Moody to flat-out adoring him. Pity it wasn't really him...

And I don't think he imitates his parents because they've intimidated him into it, but because they have spoilt him, and, from his position, there's really no disadvantage for him in being what they want him to be.

Exactly. You put it much better and more clearly than I did. Thank you.