Oh, breaking someone's nose is just not the same as eviscerating them on any level. Breaking someone's nose when they're helpless is about the same thing as beating them up when they're helpless because George Weasley is sitting on them also beating them up. Since that already happened in OotP, I don't think Draco has a damn thing to feel guilty for in re the nosebreaking, and it's absolutely not comparable.
I don't think that Draco's ideas of right and wrong are completely absent, either. It's pretty clear that Draco has been raised to think that terrible things in the abstract are okay, and he's simply accepted this (which is an awful thing to do, sure, but not the same as being utterly amoral). As soon as he's confronted with the brutal reality, he starts seeming appalled. He's clearly in the middle of a breakdown by Christmas, so saying his conscience kicks in around June is just wrong. And we must remember that his parents are both under threat of death as well as he - we simply can't know at which point Draco starts really not wanting to do the things he thought he could do, though (given the breakdown) I'd say Christmas.
Draco's done worse things than Harry has. Nobody's arguing with that. He owes Katie and Ron and Bill an apology. Harry owes Draco an apology. (An apology will not fix things for anyone. But it'd be a start.) And since we do not see Harry as being particularly bothered he almost killed Draco, I don't know if it's 'just the kind of thing Harry would do.' But I'd like to think so.
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Date: 2006-11-19 01:05 pm (UTC)I don't think that Draco's ideas of right and wrong are completely absent, either. It's pretty clear that Draco has been raised to think that terrible things in the abstract are okay, and he's simply accepted this (which is an awful thing to do, sure, but not the same as being utterly amoral). As soon as he's confronted with the brutal reality, he starts seeming appalled. He's clearly in the middle of a breakdown by Christmas, so saying his conscience kicks in around June is just wrong. And we must remember that his parents are both under threat of death as well as he - we simply can't know at which point Draco starts really not wanting to do the things he thought he could do, though (given the breakdown) I'd say Christmas.
Draco's done worse things than Harry has. Nobody's arguing with that. He owes Katie and Ron and Bill an apology. Harry owes Draco an apology. (An apology will not fix things for anyone. But it'd be a start.) And since we do not see Harry as being particularly bothered he almost killed Draco, I don't know if it's 'just the kind of thing Harry would do.' But I'd like to think so.