rj_anderson | Poor Draco?

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?

Threaded | Flat

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.

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.

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.

((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 :)

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.

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

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

Poor Draco?

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