Draco's Allegiance

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

God, I feel an idiot. When I was writing "Protean Charm" I looked very carefully at evidence for Draco's having started working against the Dark Lord. But I totally missed the biggest clue of all.



When the Trio, Dean, and Griphook were thrown into the basement of Malfoy Manor, Luna used a nail to untie the new prisoners.

And Draco fully expected her to.

When Draco was sent to fetch the goblin, he ordered the captives, "Stand back. Line up against the back wall. Don't try anything or I'll kill you!"

He expected them to be free, not tied together in a clump. And sure enough, they were; he was able to seize "the little goblin by the arm and back[] out again, dragging Griphook with him" without untying him first.

And he didn't warn his fellow Death Eaters that the prisoners were unbound, or cast Incarcereous on them to remedy the matter.

For that matter, how did Luna get hold of that conveniently large nail, anyhow? It's a weapon as well as a tool.

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

So if he considered them a lost cause then hiring Horace had nothing to do with providing support for defectors among them. It was all about getting that memory from him. Nothing else mattered.

[corycides.livejournal.com]

Like I said, a sop to his conscience. A good person would give them a chance, even if he believed they wouldn't take it, so he gave it to them. Or might have been.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

No, I don't think he cared about the Slytherins at all. He is never shown doing a single thing to protect any Slytherin, as far as I can remember. Basically, he really does seem to think they are all damned at 11, on the basis of what is said to them by a hat! (quoting Sydpad!)

If we had seen him showing compassion and understanding to young Severus, I might have felt differently. But he was nothing but cruel, manipulative, and controlling in that conversation. I don't remember him ever showing the least regard for Severus as a human being. He certainly didn't trust him, and he manipulated him unto death.

I also agree with Condwiramurs, btw, that Dumbledore seems more interested in people in the abstract than in the children actually in front of him.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

I'm going to agree with Corycides here. No, Dumbledore probably didn't care about the Slytherins; but he did care about himself, or more specifically with himself as this good, kindly father-figure. I think he'd have quite liked the idea of being the sort of person who'd give the Slytherins a second chance. IOW he's like the wizarding equivalent of somebody who votes Labour and gives to charity because they like the idea of themselves as a kind, ethical person, but who doesn't actually care about the people they're supposedly trying to help. (Come to think of it, that would seem a rather good description of one J. K. Rowling...)

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

Couldn't agree with you more. In fact, the idea of Dumbledore as someone who cares very much for the abstract greater good but can't be bothered to care for those under his care is very much like the clichéd type who wil do a lot of fundraising and public speeching etc. for the suppressed masses/ the poor in other countries/ you name it - but can't be bothered to behave fairly towards their cleaner/ shopgirls etc.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Yes. This is why it seems to me that people aren't *real* to him - they exist only as what he needs them to be in the moment, and what they actually think and feel isn't important to him when it conflicts with his own views. They don't exist as individuals for him, and the individuals around him don't fully link up in his mind with that abstract mass of "the greater good." It's precisely the same issue as was at the root of his desire to conquer the Muggle world: do it for their own good, because he obviously knows what that is better than they do, of course, and the harm to them isn't real to him in a way that would make him question his position. Which is to say, he didn't really grasp the real problem with that whole enterprise, he just found a different angle on it to soothe his stunted conscience.