 |
| Art by Katikut on DeviantArt |
Let's revisit the Draco Malfoy we all know and love to hate, shall we?
The first time we see young master Malfoy, he is a wee eleven year old getting fitted for school robes all by his lonesome in in Madam Malkin's shop. He appears, for all intents and purposes, to be a very sweet little boy, attempting to chat with Harry about Hogwarts houses and the all-important sport of Quidditch as they get fitted side-by-side. His attempts to make polite conversation show A) How excited he is to be finally going to Hogwarts and B) How genuinely friendly this little boy his. He knows absolutely nothing about who Harry is or what sort of upbringing he had, yet he talks to him anyways. Sure, he spews off a bit of his parents' ideology regarding muggle born witches and wizards and is shocked by the sight of Hagrid waiting for Harry, but...he's eleven. Those things are bound to happen. The important thing is that, for all Malfoy knows, he's chatting amicably to Justin Finch-Fletchley or Ernie Macmillan rather than Harry "Freakin" Potter, and he treats him like a potential friend nonetheless.
The second time we see Malfoy is the infamous scene on the Hogwarts Express where he extends a hand of friendship to Harry. Harry obviously turns him down, Scabbers bites Crabbe in the finger, and a series-long animosity is born. One thing I would like to point out in this scene, however, is that, though Draco does begin his offer of friendship with a bit of a scathing remark about the Weasley family, Harry is no less culpable in this scene when it comes to prejudice. His main reasons for disregarding Draco's hand of friendship is that the young lad reminds him a bit too much of Dudley Dursley. In this case, Harry is citing a prejudice all of his own, whereas Draco simply regurgitates his father's way of identifying Ron as a Weasley, something that I am hesitant to blame an eleven year old for.
Throughout the rest of the first book, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle begin fulfilling their destiny as a foil trio, causing mischief and making Harry, Ron and Hermione dislike them. The eleven year old Draco, however, does only two "reprehensible" things to the trio this year. The first is very early on in the book when he challenges Harry to a duel, most likely due to a bruised ego after Harry denies his friendship and then goes on to break rules and get rewarded for it by a spot on the Gryffindor Quidditch team!!! That's not how things are supposed to work!!!! So Draco sets Harry up to break rules and actually get punished for it (and fails.)
The second bit of mischief he does isn't actually mischief at all. He overhears word from the trio that THERE IS A DRAGON IN THE CASTLE! Little Draco then borrows a book from Harry with a letter from Charlie Weasley inside of it illustrating a plan to SMUGGLE SAID DRAGON OUT OF THE CASTLE! WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE OF AUTHORITY! Please take a moment to put yourself in Draco's position. You find out that there is a dragon in the castle. You're eleven. You have been raised to obey authority and conduct yourself with a sense of propriety. Also, IT'S A DRAGON!!! So, yeah, duh, Draco does the responsible thing and tells Professor McGonagall about this plan. She's the main trio's head of house, after all, and perhaps she can do something. By reporting the dragon problem, Draco loses a bundle of house points for Slytherin and gets detention (which is totally unfair since all he did was report a problem), and this, I think, marks a turning point in Draco's development.
From here on out, Draco acts with much more vindictiveness towards Harry, Ron, and Hermione. He learned from that experience that perhaps the world isn't fair, even to little rich boys. He starts going to only Professor Snape, the Slytherin head of house, for his troubles rather than trusting McGonagall again. He starts calling Hermione a "filthy Mudblood," and, all in all, plays a little dirtier to get what he wants. Even so, he remains pretty harmless up until Half Blood Prince, where things start getting a little bit stressful for our favorite bleach-blonde boy...
More on that next week :)
Throughout the rest of the first book, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle begin fulfilling their destiny as a foil trio, causing mischief and making Harry, Ron and Hermione dislike them. The eleven year old Draco, however, does only two "reprehensible" things to the trio this year. The first is very early on in the book when he challenges Harry to a duel, most likely due to a bruised ego after Harry denies his friendship and then goes on to break rules and get rewarded for it by a spot on the Gryffindor Quidditch team!!! That's not how things are supposed to work!!!! So Draco sets Harry up to break rules and actually get punished for it (and fails.)
The second bit of mischief he does isn't actually mischief at all. He overhears word from the trio that THERE IS A DRAGON IN THE CASTLE! Little Draco then borrows a book from Harry with a letter from Charlie Weasley inside of it illustrating a plan to SMUGGLE SAID DRAGON OUT OF THE CASTLE! WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE OF AUTHORITY! Please take a moment to put yourself in Draco's position. You find out that there is a dragon in the castle. You're eleven. You have been raised to obey authority and conduct yourself with a sense of propriety. Also, IT'S A DRAGON!!! So, yeah, duh, Draco does the responsible thing and tells Professor McGonagall about this plan. She's the main trio's head of house, after all, and perhaps she can do something. By reporting the dragon problem, Draco loses a bundle of house points for Slytherin and gets detention (which is totally unfair since all he did was report a problem), and this, I think, marks a turning point in Draco's development.
From here on out, Draco acts with much more vindictiveness towards Harry, Ron, and Hermione. He learned from that experience that perhaps the world isn't fair, even to little rich boys. He starts going to only Professor Snape, the Slytherin head of house, for his troubles rather than trusting McGonagall again. He starts calling Hermione a "filthy Mudblood," and, all in all, plays a little dirtier to get what he wants. Even so, he remains pretty harmless up until Half Blood Prince, where things start getting a little bit stressful for our favorite bleach-blonde boy...
More on that next week :)
No comments:
Post a Comment