deathtocapslock | GOF Chapter 22: The Unexpected Task

Today's Transfiguration lesson is about turning an animal from one species to an animal from a different one. What's the point? Does the animal retain the neurology of its original species or acquire that of the new one? Even in the latter case, surely its memories are those of the original species? How do the poor creatures know how to do things?

Ron and Harry are having a sword-fight with fake wands. At least Minerva criticizes them. She announces the Yule Ball, where 4th years and up (as well as any younger guests some of them might invite) have a chance to socialize with the 24 guests. Because the guests are living on their respective vehicles and hardly have a chance to socialize with anyone. Unless you count Viktor ducking his fans in the library.

The champions and their dance partners traditionally open the ball. Now Harry has a task to distract him from preparing for the second task (something he hasn't thought about yet, despite his experience with the danger of the first one). Well, now he thinks of the dragon as a fun diversion, so maybe there is no contradiction.

Molly was right - at least among the 4th years and higher everybody is staying for Christmas, regardless of how they rank their prospects of getting a date to the ball. (Did Ginny think of going home before she got an invitation or was she counting on someone inviting her?) Harry suddenly notices the girls at Hogwarts, now that he needs one as a date. Until now he only noticed boys like Ron, Cedric, Viktor and Draco. Maybe he really is gay.

Well, at least Harry knows whom he'd like to ask, if given a chance. Now that he needs a date, he refuses 4 girls who ask him. Yes, they only care about him because he's famous, but so does almost everyone else, so what's the difference? Even Ron (and Draco!) originally got interested in him because he was TBWL.

The Hufflepuffs are letting Harry be. Which does not mean any of them believe he wasn't a cheat. Aw, Draco's audience has shrunk!

Rita's interview with Hagrid was mostly about Hagrid's opinion of Harry, of course. At least Hagrid acknowledges Severus' criticism about Harry's constant line-crossing wasn't entirely off. Oh, Hagrid will attend the ball. Guess with whom?

Why would Dumbles need to buy 800 barrels of mead for the ball? Buy one bottle and multiply however many times. Unless he wasn't that great at Transfiguration? But he did book the Weird Sisters, the only wizarding band in Britain (as far as we know). Wizarding cultural life is so exciting.

Filius let the students play games in class so he could chat with Harry and praise him. Is he the new Hagrid? Binns still insists on making goblin rebellions boring. That's because goblins are no longer rebellious. Now 'Moody' has them working seriously, he doesn't just impress them with Dark Arts demos. And he's teaching the entire class now, not just Harry. Severus would no sooner let them play games in class than adopt Harry. Little does Harry know. Right, how evil of a teacher to give students until the end of term to prepare for a test. (Which happens to be on a topic that is supposed to be crucial for Ron and Harry's preferred career path, BTW.)

Wizarding cards are cooler than Muggle ones because they explode occasionally, but skrewts are beasts from hell. I follow the logic, almost.

There are only 2 kinds of books Harry ever enjoys reading - Quidditch books and Dark Arts books. Now he is with the former. Despite having a potentially dangerous task to face in some 2.5 months. Hermione is such a spoil-sport to remind him of that.

The twins want Ron's owl to send a letter, but they won't tell him to whom. Fred knows he'll attend the ball with Angelina before he even asked her. Of course for all we know they have been dating since 1st year - Harry wouldn't be able to tell.

Ron wants to attend the ball with the best-looking girl he can manage, and that does *not* mean Hermione. This is his second major personal insult to her (in addition to many minor ones), which is why she made it a life mission to force him to acknowledge his mistake and marry her. Soulmates indeed.

Neither Harry nor Ron have a date, but Harry's fate is worse, because he is a champion. Harry can't get Cho alone. After all these years he finally discovered girls' preference to have company on the way to the bathroom.

A bezoar is a key ingredient of an antidote. Harry will remember this better coming from a younger version of Severus.

Harry manages finally to ask Cho, but he is too late. Oh, Cho would so have agreed if only he had asked before Cedric did! Even when he loses Harry gets affirmation that he really is the best. See, Cedric is pretty and brainless. As opposed to Harry who is not (yet) pretty and, er, well... (let's not discuss his brains here).

Harry's one consolation is that Ron failed even worse than he did, by asking someone who more obviously outclassed him. Ron's consolation is that Neville was refused by Hermione - ie Neville ranks even lower than Ron because the girl who turned Neville down ranks much lower than the one who completely ignored Ron. Of course Ron can't imagine anyone (but Neville) asking Hermione of his own will. Not happening, right? (Notice how Neville is better socialized and braver than both trio boys - he dares to ask a girl before they do, and his choice is based on the girl's behavior rather than purely her looks. Also, he didn't give up when he was turned down. Also, Ginny is so popular that the only one who asked her to the ball was Neville, and only because Hermione refused him.)

Suddenly Ron has the realization of the century - Hermione has 2 X chromosomes! (Do wizards know about chromosomes? Never mind.) But despite her repeated insistence, he can't get that she already had a date. Ron even tries setting Ginny up with Harry - again, too late. Not that Ginny likes Neville, in any way. Not that he was her preference. He was just her ticket to the ball. As she leaves for dinner we part for ever with Ginny V1.0, the one who, among other things, keeps Hermione's confidence.

Finally Harry asks Parvati, who for plot-contrived reasons is still available. Lavender was already asked by Seamus, but Padma might go with Ron. We can all sigh with relief that this messy business was completed in a single chapter.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com

Well, I think oryx's point was more that Molly's encouragement of her boys' ambitions comes across sometimes as nastily-underhanded criticism of her husband --

I didn't see that in Oryx's original comment; probably because I never saw that in the books either. Percy knocked his dad's lack of ambition, sure, but can you tell me if Molly ever did? Or if she actually *defended* him to Percy? I'm not even sure what book it was in, otherwise I'd go look.

We don't see Draco trying to use one parent to do a side run around the other.

We don't see much of Draco with both his parents at all!

I think you're trying to extrapolate too much from too little. We see a lot of the Weasleys, hardly anything of Draco with both his parents.

I do think that both Lucius and Narcissa by 1981 entirely agreed with you that joining that Dark Lord fellow's organization was the worst possible error of judgment on Lucius's part.

Where do you get that from? All the Malfoys were touting the party line up until book 7, as far as I can recall. Or book 6.

if the dark lord was around they had to "support the dark lord's depredations.

Well, no, they didn't. Or at least they could have thought about it. But no, Lucius was back in the graveyard split seconds after Riddle was reincarnated.

the Weasleys brought up at least 3 bullies

I once called Ginny ver 2.0 a 'bully' only to be corrected by a devout canon-thumper. Ginny didn't go around looking for weak people to torment; she only exhibited bullying behaviour when the poor little darlin' was put out by someone.

The twins, though, I think you've got a case there.

As to point b: the Weasleys brought up at least 3 bullies ... and a boy whose response to the disorder in his family life is to become morbidly obsessed with rules and order (Percy).

But all of this pales in comparison to a boy who's raised to desire the deaths of innocent children (based on their blood), who tries to murder, who brings in terrorists. If the Weasleys were bad parents then the Malfoys were abominations!

Arthur "I'll get your brother off from charges if you get my family tickets to Top Seats at the World Cup" Wealey is as guilty of partaking of the WW's general corruption as Lucius;

Nice one ...

... he just has less leverage to exploit.

So we'll never know if he'll sink to the depths of Malfoy. Hopefully he would not have.

(Do we actually see any adult in the WW who doesn't partake of the general corruption?)

It's pretty bad, isn't it? I thought my outlook on the Ministry as a hive of corruption was influenced by all the fanfics, but you've prompted me to think it's canon after all.

From:

terri-testing.livejournal.com

Of course, you're entirely correct. Lucius had every opportunity to emulate Severus, turn his cloak too, and start working for Twinkles. Of course, the only sure way to protect Narcissa and Draco from the Dark Lord's reprisals would have been to kill them, but hey! The Lucius we see in canon would have had no problems with tossing a few AKs at hie best beloveds.

Of course, being sent to Azkaban for their murders might have inhibited his potential usefulness to The Right Side....

Bother! There's always something.

Thanks, by the way: you've inspired me with a drabble about Karkaroff. His last precaution before he went on the run....

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com

*snort*

Malfoy didn't have to turn spy. Just turn over a new leaf.

Still, you've got a point about Karkaroff; he was hunted down after OotP, wasn't he? Or was it GoF? Still, you'd think Malfoy would have had other options, other than to continue killing people or supporting the world's most evil murdering terrorist. Surely the Ministry had some sort of witness protection program?

From:

oryx_leucoryx

Surely the Ministry had some sort of witness protection program?

Hmm - protection from a non-existent Dark lord? How would he convince the Ministry to do that?

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com

Damn, I walked into that one. Hopefully my blushing embarrassment will motivate me to think things out in the future. Thanks. :-)

Well, for Lucius, there's always Australia.

From:

oryx_leucoryx

Only if he gets Narcissa and Draco there with him in time. And the three of them need to remain in hiding for however long.

From:

oryx_leucoryx

Or if she actually *defended* him to Percy?

The one time she defends Arthur that I remember she is more apologizing for him to Albus, in Harry's presence (in the hospital wing in GOF). I don't remember her defending him to Percy (or the twins, or Ron, neither of whom respect Arthur any more than Percy does), but I can't swear she doesn't. Albus is looking for how many troops he can gather for his cause. So in this context one can read Molly as saying 'of course we'll support you, look what a sacrifice in status Arhtur has always made for your cause' or 'sorry we can't help much with the recruitment effort, Arthur isn't all that influential because he has this odd hobby that keeps him behind'. And we know what Molly thinks of Muggles from PS.

Where do you get that from? All the Malfoys were touting the party line up until book 7, as far as I can recall. Or book 6.,/i>

Where do you see them supporting Voldemort except under duress? It seems Lucius wanted to oust Albus and probably topple Fudge's Ministry (who would have been held responsible for further monster attacks once both Hagrid and Albus were gone from Hogwarts? Who was being accused for the QWC riots?) but his attack on Muggles stopped at terrorizing convenient victims, nor is it clear if and how much of a threat he believed the diary would be to Muggle-born students at Hogwarts. IOW his proven independent acts are bad but in a very limited way - he doesn't go out to seek more victims, and he does stop short of physically harming them, let alone killing them (similar to the claims of Sirius apologists that he only wanted to scare Severus). That is a far cry from the claim that DEs wantonly killed Muggles for fun. And when he faces kids at the Ministry - shouldn't partyline touting Lucius just go and torture Hermione or one of the Weasleys to get the prophecy from Harry? But that's all Bellatrix's idea.

Well, no, they didn't. Or at least they could have thought about it. But no, Lucius was back in the graveyard split seconds after Riddle was reincarnated.

Of course he was. He has brains. And a heart. And a family. What he didn't have was a contingency plan.

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com

The biggest thing damning Lucius Malfoy, I guess, is his role in bringing the diary to Hogwarts in year 2. He wasn't told to do so by the dark lord; he wasn't pressured into doing it; no, he did it of his own volition, to achieve his own ends.

And just that, on its own, is enough to damn Lucius Malfoy.

nor is it clear if and how much of a threat he believed the diary would be to Muggle-born students at Hogwarts.

But when it *was* clear - innocent students being petrified, warnings that more would be killed - a good man would have confessed to the authorities, helped repair his crimes, stop the rampaging monster. But not Lucius Malfoy.

He only kept up with the plan in HBP because he was terrified for his mother, who was within easy grasp of Voldemort

So we have a boy who was willing for any number of innocents to be killed - from the world's leading wizard of the light down - just to save his mother. And he *never* even *tries* to find an alternative, a way out.

Maybe the older Draco wasn't all-out evil but he was definitely a cowardly fool. He could have consulted with Snape, for example, tried to find another way out. But no.

From:

majorjune.livejournal.com

The biggest thing damning Lucius Malfoy, I guess, is his role in bringing the diary to Hogwarts in year 2. He wasn't told to do so by the dark lord; he wasn't pressured into doing it; no, he did it of his own volition, to achieve his own ends.

IIRC, in canon Lucius had no conception that the diary was anything except a personal possession of Voldemort's that was left in Lucius' safekeeping.

As the Ministry was conducting a pogrom against wizards and witches who had any objects considered questionable (IOW, "dark") and were invading homes ("Warrants? We don't need no stinkin' warrants!") at the slightest suspicion to do their searches.

Malfoy had held on to Riddle's diary for more than 11 years, there's nothing to show that to him it was anything more than a blank diary. There's nothing in canon to show that he was holding nightly conversations with Diary!Riddle, and the simplest explanation was that he didn't want to be caught holding on to even a seemingly innocuous artifact of Voldemort's...

Therefore, he needed to get rid of it; perhaps he was originally going to just chuck it in a trashbin in Knockturn Alley, but then he has the confrontation with Arthur in Diagon Alley, and figured a good way to get back at his enemy was to have his own daughter be caught with the Dark Lord's own diary.

Or maybe it just fell out of his pocket during the fight with Arthur, and just happened to fall into Ginny's cauldron.

But when it *was* clear - innocent students being petrified, warnings that more would be killed - a good man would have confessed to the authorities, helped repair his crimes, stop the rampaging monster. But not Lucius Malfoy.

But there's nothing in canon to suggest that there was anything about the diary from which Lucius could have drawn a correlation between the diary, and subsequent events at Hogwarts.

Again, unless you're suggesting that Lucius constantly conversed with Diary!Riddle and was told by Diary!Riddle to sneak Diary!Riddle into the possession of the 11 y.o. daughter of an OotP member, because then Diary!Riddle would possess her and impel her to release a monster that kills you just by your looking at it, within the very same school that Lucius' own son, and the sons and daughters of fellow DEs, attend?

Edited Date: 2011-06-11 07:07 pm (UTC)

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com

Come now, June. It's as clear as daylight that Lucius Malfoy deliberately foisted the diary on Ginny in order to cause harm. Just read the last chapter of the book.

... and figured a good way to get back at his enemy was to have his own daughter be caught with the Dark Lord's own diary.

Yes. Naughy, evil Lucius Malfoy!

Oh, and in the last chapter we also have this:

Several of them seemed to think that you had threatened to curse their families if they didn't agree to suspend me in the first place.

Not a nice man, Lucius Malfoy.

From:

majorjune.livejournal.com

Come now, June. It's as clear as daylight that Lucius Malfoy deliberately foisted the diary on Ginny in order to cause harm.

Whether Lucius did or did not deliberately target Ginny, there's no dispute that he planned to "foist" the diary onto someone else to avoid it being discovered in his possession.

What is open to question is what exactly he expected to occur when Ginny had the diary, and I doubt he'd have kept his son in the school, especially over the Yule break, if he knew there was a correlation between a mysterious monster who killed just by glancing at it, and the diary. But Draco stayed at Hogwarts the whole term, and as I pointed out, also thru the Yule break. As evil as Lucius may have been, I doubt he'd have put his only child in harms way.

Several of them seemed to think that you had threatened to curse their families if they didn't agree to suspend me in the first place.

Not a nice man, Lucius Malfoy.

I never claimed that he was.

But Dumbledore repeating alleged hearsay is not actual proof. Dumbledore could be outright lying. Or the members of the BoD who told Dumbles that they only voted to remove him because Malfoy threatened them could be lying. The key phrase is "Several of them seemed to think..."

"Several" doesn't mean "all"; "seemed to think" is not the same as "Board members told me uncatagorically that you had overtly threatened them"...

Again, no one is saying that Lucius is a nice man; but that comment of Dumbles' proves nothing.

And considering how Dumbles continually puts the school (meaning students and staff) in danger, quite frankly Malfoy wanting to have him removed as Headmaster wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

From:

oryx_leucoryx

I agree with majorjune that both Dumbles and the governors are suspect here. The governors may have decided to accuse Lucius of blackmail as an excuse for their previous support of his move. And Dumbles could be lying, since he is using the weasel words 'seemed to think' - even if the lie is caught he could claim he misunderstood. Also, shortly afterwards Dumbles goes and blackmails Lucius - he is telling him that he will tie any future of Tom's school-things to Lucius - without bothering to check if the connection was true. If he was declaring an intent to frame Lucius what is one more lie?

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com

The governors may have decided to accuse Lucius of blackmail as an excuse for their previous support of his move.

But that doesn't make sense. If the governors *weren't* bribed/forced by Malfoy to support Dumbledore's expulsion ... why then did they relent and allow Dumbledore back in? They got rid of Dumbledore the first time without Malfoy, they can keep the headmaster out without Malfoy.

I agree with what else you said, there's wriggle room for Dumbledore there. The thing is, though, we have no reason to believe that the governors would have wanted Dumbledore axed. In coming up with these theories you're assuming they wanted to get rid of Albus. We never see this, we're never told this, and if it was true they could have simply never let him back.

The simplest scenario is the one we're given - it was just Malfoy that wanted Dumbledore removed. Once Malfoy was neutered the governors then were happy to have Albus returned.

From:

lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com

Sorry, but the governors' switch back and forth makes almost no sense no matter what. Lucius hadn't been "neutered" at the point when Dumbledore returned to the school, and if they'd gotten rid of Dumbledore only because Lucius had threatened them, why would they change their minds while he was still a danger?

But if they didn't remove Dumbledore because of Lucius, why would they change their minds, anyway? Like I said, not a lot of thought went into this one. JKR just threw around words like "threats" and decided it works. It doesn't.

I think the best theory I've come up with is that Dumbledore didn't actually have anyone's approval for coming back to the school, but he came back as soon as Fawkes disappeared. Fawkes' disappearance would have signaled to him that Harry was about to solve things, and so Dumbledore could return to the school knowing that the problem was about to be solved, and that he could return to his job on Harry's coattails.

No, there isn't a lot of support for this in canon. The trouble is, canon makes the governors look like mindless puppets who agree with whoever spoke to them last. Not even spineless cowards who go along with whoever threatens them, because then they wouldn't've changed their minds while Lucius could still threaten them.

(Actually, when is Lucius supposed to have been "neutered," according to your reading? He was fired from the board of governors *after* Dumbledore returned, but that wouldn't've stopped him from cursing his former colleagues' families. He was as dangerous as ever in almost every respect.)

Re: Functional couples

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-06-18 11:59 pm (UTC) - Expand

Re: Functional couples

From:

oryx_leucoryx - Date: 2011-06-19 12:24 am (UTC) - Expand

Re: Functional couples

From:

lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-06-19 01:18 am (UTC) - Expand

From:

oryx_leucoryx

perhaps he was originally going to just chuck it in a trashbin in Knockturn Alley,

I wonder how this would have worked out: Harry returns from the graveyard (assuming that the elimination of the diary plot doesn't prevent Tom's return roughly at its canonical time - though all that's absolutely required to trigger it is Bertha Jorkins' trip to Albania and we don't really know why she went there just then) with a take that Albus interprets as evidence for multiple Horcruxes. He eventually gets the correct number from Horace. Harry and friends find all but one. They never even find out what the object is. Tom wins.

Heck, without the diary plot the sword of Gryffindor would never have become imbued with basilisk venom. Harry would have had to Fiendfyre the Horcruxes. Gets himself (and maybe some friends too) killed. Diary still at large. Tom wins.

From:

majorjune.livejournal.com

Heck, without the diary plot the sword of Gryffindor would never have become imbued with basilisk venom. Harry would have had to Fiendfyre the Horcruxes. Gets himself (and maybe some friends too) killed. Diary still at large. Tom wins.

Hmmmm...I originally was thinking that Malfoy would have chucked it into a dustbin in Knockturn Alley thinking that someone would find it and take it and get in trouble for having it instead of himself.

But now you've got me wondering just what sort of trash collection/disposal system the WW has...I mean, magikal trash can't be risked being mixed with Muggle trash, can it? Does the Ministry have a Public Works department, maybe they have a Magikal Fiendfyre Trash Incinerator...

Either that, or even if Tom "won" by your scenario, it wouldn't be much of a victory if the diary was at the bottom of a couple of tons of trash in some landfill...Tom would be thinking that had he just decided to remain Vapor!Mort in Albania, he'd have been much better off than covered with stale coffee grounds, rotting produce, and dirty disposable diapers! LOL

From:

oryx_leucoryx

Either that, or even if Tom "won" by your scenario, it wouldn't be much of a victory if the diary was at the bottom of a couple of tons of trash in some landfill...Tom would be thinking that had he just decided to remain Vapor!Mort in Albania, he'd have been much better off than covered with stale coffee grounds, rotting produce, and dirty disposable diapers! LOL

I don't see why. The location of the Horcrux doesn't matter as long as its integrity is maintained. And Tom doesn't need access to it in any way. In any case, he'd add Nagini to his collection at some point.

From:

majorjune.livejournal.com

I don't see why. The location of the Horcrux doesn't matter as long as its integrity is maintained. And Tom doesn't need access to it in any way. In any case, he'd add Nagini to his collection at some point.

Ah! But we're talking about circumstances at the beginning of CoS...

If Malfoy had tossed the diary into a trashbin at that point, and the diary then ended up at the bottom of a landfill, it really would be a useless artifact. Even if all the other horcruxes -- including Nagini -- were eventually destroyed in a few more years and then the resurrected Voldemort then killed, that diary with the one remaining bit of Tom's soul would be lying helplessly at the bottom of a ton of trash.

Only if it somehow could get out from under all that garbage would it be able to do anything, but unless there was some spell that Tom had cast on the diary to prevent it from succumbing to the elements, if it remained buried the diary would eventually rot away...but in the meantime, Tom's soulbit would be stuck in a type of Hell...

Re: Functional couples

From:

oryx_leucoryx - Date: 2011-06-15 02:08 pm (UTC) - Expand

From:

oryx_leucoryx

The biggest thing damning Lucius Malfoy, I guess, is his role in bringing the diary to Hogwarts in year 2.

We do not know what he expected to happen. We know he wanted to get rid of a dark artifact when the ministry was raiding homes. We don't know if he knew what the diary would do.

But when it *was* clear - innocent students being petrified, warnings that more would be killed -

No. Because we don't know he understood all that was related at all to the diary.

So we have a boy who was willing for any number of innocents to be killed - from the world's leading wizard of the light down - just to save his mother.

Yes. I'm pretty sure much of humanity is in that boat. The majority of the voting public in assorted western countries supports the death of many innocents of the other side (whichever it happens to be) to save even a smaller number of their own side. Even when those being saved are soldiers who joined their respective forces voluntarily.

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com

We know he wanted to get rid of a dark artifact when the ministry was raiding homes. We don't know if he knew what the diary would do.

Okay, Malfoy might not have known that a person with the diary would be possessed and start scribbling messages on walls.

But he did know that it was a 'dark artifact', as you say. Dark artifacts do dark things. And Malfoy didn't do the right thing as an upstanding citizen and hand it in to the government for safe disposal. Because he knew that his having it would show that he wasn't an upstanding citizen.

So he gives the dark artificact that does dark things to the daughter of his political enemy. To do dark things. To that sweet innocent little girl!!!

SHAME, Lucius! SHAME!

I'm pretty sure much of humanity is in that boat.

The non-heroic majority? Fair enough.

From:

oryx_leucoryx

Because he knew that his having it would show that he wasn't an upstanding citizen.

Even that isn't at all clear. Because Borgin and Burkes sell Dark artifacts all the time, in the open. So it isn't illegal to be in possession of Dark Artifacts, nor is it a sign of bad citizenry. Plenty would say the Ministry raids were politically motivated. Or an example of nanny-statism.

The non-heroic majority? Fair enough.

No, even people who see themselves as heroic. Very few people, mostly those with degrees in philosophy, don't prefer the lives, welfare and comfort of those close to them over lives, welfare and comfort of people less close to them.

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com

So it isn't illegal to be in possession of Dark Artifacts, nor is it a sign of bad citizenry.

Yet Malfoy chose to surreptitiously discard his dark artifact by deceitfully slipping it to the poor innocent child.

If it wasn't an evil dark artifact he either (a) wouldn't have had to get rid of it at all, or (b) could have discard it via conventional 'upstanding citizen' ways. He did not. Therefore, he was an evil man performing an evil deed to do what he did.

No, even people who see themselves as heroic.

I confess I wouldn't want a 'hero' to amble past and decide to sacrifice my life for a stranger's on the other side of the planet. :-)

I wish I had a good grasp of history so I could dig up if there were examples, say, of people being charged with war crimes for protecting their loved ones over mass murder (which is equivalent to your defence of Draco). Yours is a stronger case of "just obeying orders" I guess.

From:

oryx_leucoryx

But all of this pales in comparison to a boy who's raised to desire the deaths of innocent children (based on their blood), who tries to murder, who brings in terrorists. If the Weasleys were bad parents then the Malfoys were abominations!

We don't know he desired any of that. He only kept up with the plan in HBP because he was terrified for his mother, who was within easy grasp of Voldemort (when did he move into the Manor? And when did Bellatrix?) Sirius tells Peter he should have died before betraying his friends, but would we sympathize with Sirius if he had told Peter he should have also sacrificed his mother?