I'm impressed by your ability to pull off insightful meta without having read the book. This also reminds me of a meta post I read, where Dumbledore was the distant father figure, Sirius the father figure that wants to be your friend, and Snape the authoritarian, demanding one. I hadn't thought of Snape as father figure to Draco, and I think it's only in this book that we see it.
But going back from HBP and looking at the previous books, Draco gets treated as the favored child before but in HBP he's not. He becomes the troublesome one, the one who gets criticized, which is usually Harry's role. The potions textbook is Snape nurturing Harry by proxy, and on an equal basis. It's not a stretch to say that if Snape had treated Harry as he did Draco, Harry might have turned out a potions whiz and would have been obedient. I think the lesson for Snape would be that the manner he treats people affects his relationships with them. If he's demanding and critical of Draco, Draco rebels. If he'd just given straightforward advice to Harry, they'd have got on well.
And if we're really getting into symbolism, Draco and Harry could represent the two sides of Snape. Neither the DE nor the Order trusts him, but he's still doing his hardest to get the job done, and both sides are at odds with each other, just like Draco and Harry are at odds with each other. So Draco and Harry represent Snape's inner child, or perhaps it's just Draco and Harry mirroring each other in reverse in HBP. Unlike other books, Draco is the one who triumphs at the 11th hour, tries to keep Harry from foiling his plans, and gets to humiliate his enemy. Harry is the one who's obsessed, determined to foil the plans, and gets trounced upon and humiliated.
no subject
But going back from HBP and looking at the previous books, Draco gets treated as the favored child before but in HBP he's not. He becomes the troublesome one, the one who gets criticized, which is usually Harry's role. The potions textbook is Snape nurturing Harry by proxy, and on an equal basis. It's not a stretch to say that if Snape had treated Harry as he did Draco, Harry might have turned out a potions whiz and would have been obedient. I think the lesson for Snape would be that the manner he treats people affects his relationships with them. If he's demanding and critical of Draco, Draco rebels. If he'd just given straightforward advice to Harry, they'd have got on well.
And if we're really getting into symbolism, Draco and Harry could represent the two sides of Snape. Neither the DE nor the Order trusts him, but he's still doing his hardest to get the job done, and both sides are at odds with each other, just like Draco and Harry are at odds with each other. So Draco and Harry represent Snape's inner child, or perhaps it's just Draco and Harry mirroring each other in reverse in HBP. Unlike other books, Draco is the one who triumphs at the 11th hour, tries to keep Harry from foiling his plans, and gets to humiliate his enemy. Harry is the one who's obsessed, determined to foil the plans, and gets trounced upon and humiliated.