It occurred to me, though, that while I dismiss the importance of this Draco-the-shadow thing in terms of writing H/D, I did get pretty depressed/discouraged on the shippiness front post-HBP, at least partly because Draco became more self-enclosed and that took away the romanticism of seeing him in the Harry-frame.
I actually think that's a really valid thing to feel (heh--I sound like a therapist). But it is! HBP really did close some doors and open others, and there was something appealing about Draco as just a character there to get Harry to respond and respond to Harry. Many H/D fics are very claustrophobic and loving that, where the two of them are almost in their own world with each other. Other people might still exist, but they're not part of their dynamic, which is so strange and so personal to them they didn't quite fit into the bigger canvas. Like sometimes their very relationship was a secret with Harry not understanding what he was even doing.
So it's a huge thing that the book ends with Harry consciously thinking he has a drop of pity for the kid. Not because suddenly he likes him or Draco's part of the group but you lose what Harry felt for him before, which was seeing him as almost completely a foreign object. I think that's why it's funny to see people just turn the dynamic around and make it that now Draco doesn't care about Harry and Harry is obsessed with Draco because that's not really it. I mean, when Draco was trying to get Harry's attention it was canonically attached to a personal validation since Harry insulted him. It's different with Harry--it's about seeing something in this kid that other people don't (though that can also be said of Draco's pre-HBP Harry-focus; he wants everyone to see that Harry isn't really so great, he's the way Draco sees him). It's still a pretty cool focus of Harry's you can work with, but making it just personal doesn't really work. With Draco you could at least imagine it was totally personal because we weren't in his head and didn't know what the rest of Draco's life was like.
it's like, H/D became a lot less inevitable as their paths diverged (though they're still linked/reflective of each other in terms of their arcs).
Absolutely! They're two parallel people now instead of Draco existing as part of Harry's story and Harry is the only story of Draco's we saw.
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I actually think that's a really valid thing to feel (heh--I sound like a therapist). But it is! HBP really did close some doors and open others, and there was something appealing about Draco as just a character there to get Harry to respond and respond to Harry. Many H/D fics are very claustrophobic and loving that, where the two of them are almost in their own world with each other. Other people might still exist, but they're not part of their dynamic, which is so strange and so personal to them they didn't quite fit into the bigger canvas. Like sometimes their very relationship was a secret with Harry not understanding what he was even doing.
So it's a huge thing that the book ends with Harry consciously thinking he has a drop of pity for the kid. Not because suddenly he likes him or Draco's part of the group but you lose what Harry felt for him before, which was seeing him as almost completely a foreign object. I think that's why it's funny to see people just turn the dynamic around and make it that now Draco doesn't care about Harry and Harry is obsessed with Draco because that's not really it. I mean, when Draco was trying to get Harry's attention it was canonically attached to a personal validation since Harry insulted him. It's different with Harry--it's about seeing something in this kid that other people don't (though that can also be said of Draco's pre-HBP Harry-focus; he wants everyone to see that Harry isn't really so great, he's the way Draco sees him). It's still a pretty cool focus of Harry's you can work with, but making it just personal doesn't really work. With Draco you could at least imagine it was totally personal because we weren't in his head and didn't know what the rest of Draco's life was like.
it's like, H/D became a lot less inevitable as their paths diverged (though they're still linked/reflective of each other in terms of their arcs).
Absolutely! They're two parallel people now instead of Draco existing as part of Harry's story and Harry is the only story of Draco's we saw.