Crying in the Bathroom

[sistermagpie]

I was on HP4GU today and realized there was an actual Draco-related issue in HBP that I hadn't written thousands of words about--and it relates to Snape too! Anyway, we were talking about Harry feeling remorse about Sectumsempra even though it was self-defense yadda yadda, and I realized there was something I was kind of dancing around in talking about the scene that seemed really obvious but I actually don't think I've ever read much about it from this angle.

Ironically, the main references I have seen to Draco’s tears in discussions of Harry’s remorse were strictly defenses of Harry, saying that was moved by Draco's crying and maybe would have helped him if Malfoy hadn't gone postal, so Harry’s all the more innocent. (Regarding Draco the main question I've seen discussed is whether he's just afraid of failing or feeling anything more.)

To me the crying is more important than that. I think it was an intentional and important decision of JKR's to put the crying together with Sectumsempra. She was, as usual, pulling lots of threads together into one dramatic scene. On the mundane plot level, of course, she's just using this scene to get a number of things out of the way--she reveals that the boy Myrtle was meeting was Malfoy, reveals Malfoy's fear and the fact he's being threatened, and also reveals Sectumsempra and shows Snape that Harry's got his book etc. One poster (Carol) I think was also correct in saying Harry is learning the same important distinction Snape feels for him--he hates Draco, but he does not want him dead (more importantly, he doesn't want to kill him).

But I think there's another thing going on as well. I had in the past said I didn't think we could take it as a given that Harry would have been so sympathetic to Malfoy just because he saw him crying--after all, he's upset over the very thing that Harry wants to get him for. However Harry might have felt if Malfoy hadn't attacked him, he actually isn't sympathetic in the scene. His feelings are described as:

"And Harry realised, with a shock so huge it seemed to root him to the spot, that Malfoy was crying -- actually crying -- tears streaming down his pale face into the grimy basin. Malfoy gasped and gulped and then, with a great shudder, looked up into the cracked mirror and saw Harry staring at him over his shoulder. Malfoy wheeled round, drawing his wand. Instinctively Harry pulled out his own."

At the point Malfoy wheels around all Harry has felt is shock, a shock so huge that it "roots him to the spot" and keeps him from doing what he probably would have done had he found Malfoy just talking to Myrtle, which is hide and listen. Not stand there like a sitting duck in full view for a pretty long moment.

And the question is--why is he so shocked for so long? He's not just surprised here (like Malfoy when he found Harry and Snape doing their Occlumency lessons), he's so shocked he's having trouble taking it in. That shock is drawn out for two sentences, first Harry being physically rooted to where he's standing, then having to go over what he's seeing ("Malfoy was crying --actually crying --"). He's transfixed watching the physical crying--the tears falling into the basin, the gulping sobs. But what's so shocking here? I mean, so shocking that Harry has so much trouble processing it?

It's not shocking to a lot of readers, presumably. Myrtle's already told us some boy was crying in the bathroom and the law of character conservation made Malfoy the obvious candidate. Harry himself has been watching Malfoy's physical deterioration all year and been pleased by it because he knows it means the Voldemort plot isn't going well. Usually Malfoy in any kind of distress makes Harry pleased.

So what's so different here that it's so shocking? I think the idea is that Harry is shocked at suddenly seeing Malfoy, cliché as it sounds, as a real person. In the past the only feelings Harry's ever saw in Malfoy were negative ones: he's menacing, he hates Harry, he's a coward. He's also seen fake ones: he sucks up to people, he boasts, he struts, he plays up injuries. Did Harry really not see the vulnerability in him that many readers saw? Well, no, he probably didn't. As early as the Sorting scene Harry has actually imbued Malfoy with a sense of well-being and confidence so big he sees any evidence against it as a welcome, temporary aberration. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that up until that moment Harry really never has seen Malfoy as a boy like himself who might actually feel the same things Harry feels at times and have similar motivations. (It's really interesting the way it's both like and unlike the Pensieve scene with Snape, perhaps because Snape and Malfoy represent different shadows to Harry.)

I realize this sounds really cliché--but JKR isn't afraid of clichés when she's set them up well, and she has here. There's a reason this moment had already occurred in a hundred H/D fics before she wrote it. It's not about Harry suddenly feeling sorry for Malfoy--he doesn't in the scene. It's somehow exploding something that until that moment he'd taken for granted about Malfoy, something I doubt he'd ever really been aware of. Apparently Malfoy crying -- actually crying -- really is a shock for Harry who has more than once in the past wanted to cause him as much pain as possible. I’m not even sure just what it’s exploded—but maybe Harry doesn’t either. It’s not something he can immediately articulate like he can with James and Snape in the Pensieve (James is being an asshole and he’s supposed to be cool; I felt sorry for Snape and that’s all kinds of wrong because he’s usually the bully).

There's something about that moment that makes Malfoy different, and then it's immediately choked off--just as Harry's fleeting confusion about Snape after the Pensieve is choked off by Snape attacking him. Malfoy attacks him (he knows it's a naked moment, certainly), Harry instinctively defends himself. And this is the fight that leads to Harry hurting Malfoy more than he ever has, more than he imagined or really intended. I feel like you can't separate the two things completely. Even acknowledging that Harry was acting in self defense, this isn't just another scene where Harry strikes back at the Malfoy he knew before who was asking for it. Throughout the whole fight Harry is actually more strangely empathetic than Malfoy than he ever has been, I suspect.

Perhaps that's another reason Harry doesn't think about Malfoy at all after that. It's not just guilt at his (fixed) actions, perhaps, but the discomfort of his new intimacy with Malfoy. I'm not even sure if Harry told his friends about the crying--you'd think they'd have said something about it. He may still be having trouble processing it. The fight can distract him from it, but I think it's also connected to why he feels badly. I don't mean anything so literal as just Harry feels bad because he not only hurt Malfoy but Malfoy was sad right before he did it. I think it's more subtle.

Subtle, btw, in a way I again think parallels Snape. Harry also saw him in the exact kind of vulnerable moment he didn't associate with him, Snape also responded by attacking Harry, Harry defended himself again, focusing more on the unfair accusations. It's also kind of funny that this is Snape and Malfoy, both of whom are connected to Occlumency by Rowling. Occlumency, which she relates to cutting oneself off from feelings, which both Snape and Draco consider potential weaknesses even though they seem at heart more emotional than Harry (or in different ways). Harry has seen exactly what these two characters are always trying to hide, and up until the moments they hit him in the face, they were successful at hiding them from Harry.

Btw, how much do I love Stephen Colbert for putting Gwyneth Paltrow's head on his shelf? It's still the best moment in her career, imo.

Comments

[earth-magic.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, interesting throughts. I've never really thought about that scene in this way before and it's interesting that from this moment on Harry no longer stalks Malfoy to try and find out what he's doing. It's almost as if he doesn't want to have to face the emotion that he saw in Malfoy again.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

The last time I read it it was really striking how Malfoy disappears practically from the book after that scene until his reappearance on the Tower. The last time Harry saw him he was bleeding profusely, yet we don't even get the first time he comes back to class and they see each other.

[ptyx.livejournal.com]

It's also kind of funny that this is Snape and Malfoy, both of whom are connected to Occlumency by Rowling. Occlumency, which she relates to cutting oneself off from feelings, which both Snape and Draco consider potential weaknesses even though they seem at heart more emotional than Harry (or in different ways).

Yes! That was what I was thinking while I was reading your post. The weird thing is that I think Harry either represses his feelings or he doesn't know how to feel... The way he reacted to Cedric's and Sirius's death, for instance. We don't see him really feeling anything. Hmmm... I would think about that, if I had time!

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you took this much time to read it!

But yeah, Harry's lapses in emotion maybe just aren't seen the same way. Some of them seem like they might be plot points. He tends to be a lot more consistent about hate than things that are more positive. He thinks about Snape way more than Sirius, alive or dead.

[frayach-nicuill.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is all very interesting and very well said.

It is remarkable - the irony behind JKR's association of Occlumency with the severing (yes, pun intended) of heart from mind. Because the inference is that Harry's not good at it because it's somehow suspect and "unnatural." However, Harry as I read him is, in many ways, just as cut off from his emotions as Malfoy (in some ways even more so). I realized that for the first time, really, when I read the scene in GoF when Harry can't permit himself to cry when Molly hugs him. Harry struggles with the experiencing/processing/display of "weak" emotions as much as anyone else, if not more so.

I really like the way you've completely isolated JKR's exact description of Harry's reaction, namely, shock. Shock is one of those words like "depression" - we use it sloppily to describe a whole range of experiences when, in fact, it actually has a very precise and exclusive meaning. I've only experienced true honest-to-god shock once in my life. I was driving behind (too closely) a flatbed truck full of rocks and stumps when it went over a bump and a rock about the size of a person's head flew out and crashed through my windshield, grazed my cheek and landed in the backseat. It happened so fast and was so out of the realm of expectation, that I quite literally could not believe it. There was this palpable sensation of time slowing down to a crawl - of seeing the rock bounce up and out of the truck, make contact with the glass, etc. I felt NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. Not fear, not alarm, not anything. And I remember my reactions being so rational. I glanced in my rearview mirror to see if someone was behind me, put on my blinker, braked and pulled slowly and carefully over to the side of the road. It's a cliche, but I remember really and truly thinking: that did not happen. It was like time was going to go backwards and I was going to "snap out of it" and discover I was still just driving along with an intact windshield and without a boulder in my backseat. Then people started to pull over to see if I was o.k., and when I went to find the button to roll down my window, I discovered my hand was shaking so violently that I literally couldn't do it. But I still wasn't scared. It was still shock. Something so pure and fundamental that it doesn't even really involve emotion - or somehow doesn't have room for emotion. If one experiences emotion in such a moment, then what they've experienced isn't technically shock... It's something - perhaps equally or even more powerful - but it's not shock.

And that is precisely the experience JKR describes Harry having when he sees Draco crying. Like you said, there is no processing, no cognitive reaction of any kind. It's a purely physiological thing. Which in many ways is really telling, isn't it? It took a boulder crashing through my windshield for me to experience true shock, but Harry experiences it simply by seeing Malfoy crying. He's had his world rocked, and it's so interesting to think about how and why that is. But one thing we can know for sure: Harry's reaction does *not* suggest indifference or disinterest.

Thanks for the thought-provoking post. Very interesting.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Wow! That sounds incredible. I've never had anything so scary happen to me, but I know just what you're describing. With regards to canon I do feel like there's a reason all Harry gets to is shock. JKR's really clear about emotions because they're always connected to the plot. If she wanted Harry to either be sympathetic to Malfoy or not sympathetic, she'd have let him move on to that.

[kungfuxcandy.livejournal.com]

I know this is a few days old, but I want to say I completely know what you are talking about. It's almost like with small children. They'll fall and bump their heads and they'll give you this look at first that is so blank and so unfazed before it hits them that they are hurt and they begin their wailing. But for that time period before they begin to cry there is almost a nothingness, a calmness.

I had a friend die a few years ago and when I got the call from one of our mutual friends I felt much like you did. "This can't be happening. It's not real." "I'll wake up in a few minutes and the phone will still just be ringing." I remember feeling this odd wash of calmness overcome me and thinking that couldn't be possible. I held the phone out to my mother and calmly told my friend to tell my mom what he'd just told me. It wasn't until she handed the phone back to me and asked me if I was going to be ok that I had a swell of emotions hit me hard. For the first few moments it was shock. Just like a child.

I think that if Harry had gone undetected for a bit longer then emotions would have taken over and his motor skills would have returned and there would have been a different ending to that scene between him and Draco. The emotions always come eventually. He was still in the middle of the nothingness. Unfortunately, we never got to see what would have happened if. But it's fun to speculate on!

Oh, you are incredibly lucky! That could have turned out so much worse than it did. Did the truck stop to see if you were ok or did the driver even realize what had happened?

[ishtar79.livejournal.com]

Well spotted, and I always enjoy Draco-Snape parallels! It's an especially nice touch that the moments of Harry acknowledging them as people rather than cartoonish presences in his life (Harry, and a lot of the readers) aren't linked to his feelings for them changing-we don't have to *like* people to better understand them after all.

Btw, how much do I love Stephen Colbert for putting Gwyneth Paltrow's head on his shelf? It's still the best moment in her career, imo.

?! I'm guessing it wasn't her *actual* head, but you could you elaborate?

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Hee! It wasn't her actual head afaik.

Gwyneth apparently gave yet another interview where she explained how America's not intellectual enough for her, saying that England was much more intelligent or something like that. She claims she was mistranslated but wow, funny how she's always saying the same stuff in English!

Anyway, SC just had a box delivered from the set and put it on the shelf while his cameraman hysterically asked "What's in the box?" (If you've not seen Se7en, at the end Kevin Spacey has her severed head delivered to her husband Brad Pitt who says that line.)

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

Apparently Malfoy crying – actually crying – really is a shock for Harry who has more than once in the past wanted to cause him as much pain as possible...And this is the fight that leads to Harry hurting Malfoy more than he ever has, more than he imagined or really intended.

It's a "Be careful what you ask for – you just might get it!" moment for Harry, isn't it? He's been waiting years for this, but now that it's happening it isn't AT ALL what he expected.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! (He even specifically wishes for it at the opening feast.) And even more ironic because of course Draco's going through the same thing. He's been wanting this kind of job for years and, uh, it's not so fun.

[ravenna-c-tan.livejournal.com]

I quite enjoy your analysis of this scene. I've re-read it so many times now as I've worked on different fics and it always comes up. I don't have a lot to add, still digesting your thoughts, but thanks for writing it!

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It was the scene in HBP that I always remember as being the part where the book got really good. (With some shippy lapses, of course.)

[saylee.livejournal.com]

It's been awhile since I've read this scene, so I don't have a lot to say, but I do think you're absolutely right. I've been reading your meta for awhile and I always find it brilliant, and this is no exception.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Thanks! What a nice thing to say!

[edido.livejournal.com]

Great post, I totally agree. I think his shock is due to an inability to see Snape or Draco as victims; usually they are the perpetrators victimizing him. In Snape's case, his shock was twofold because he was also seeing his dad and Sirius as the perps. The ramifications there and the distance of many years from the event, would have somewhat superseded the mind-blowingness of realizing Snape was the victim.

Witnessing Draco in absolute despair (and knowing from Myrtle that it isn't a lone incident), his shock is absolute; nothing mitigates it. Besides the crying, he hears that Voldemort has threatened Draco and his family with death. They are victims! And they can like...cry and stuff? Whoa! What universe is this? I think for Harry it must have been something like opening a door and entering another dimension.

And then, as you say, he becomes the perp with his spell gone wrong. Then Snape, rightly, points out Harry has done Dark magic and also, cheated! It's really no wonder to me that he doesn't want to ponder it. It was the day Harry Potter went to Bizarro land, LOL.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Hee! It's true--I love Harry in bizarro land. He should be able to justify himself but can't quite do it.

I like the way it's not quite the same as with Snape, but is similar, with the two incidents each bringing different kinds of confusion. With the Snape scene not only do you have Snape being a total victim in the scene but his dad being the jerk. Totally does not compute. It's really kind of a relief that the two of them helpfully attack him moments later so the world can right itself again!

[charlotteschaos.livejournal.com]

What was interesting to me also was in the follow up scene where he went back to Gryffindor an was explaining what happened, Hermione was very, "omg you could've killed him, will you put that book away now, plz?" and Ginny defended Harry saying it was justified and Malfoy got what he deserved. Harry was initially pleased with Ginny's defense, but as it went on, he started wondering why Ginny was fighting with Hermione over this and even thought 'hey, aren't they friends?'

I really enjoyed that part of the book and how it threw Harry into this other frame of mind and you're right, he did put off thinking about it or dealing with it for a bit after that. Which was a pretty bad time to ignore Draco, as obviously it steeled him to do what he needed to :)

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

It really struck me the last time I read it...it's consistent for Harry to forget about things when they've served their plot purpose but this is just so huge and Harry almost seems to be looking for things to fill up his day so he doesn't notice what Malfoy's doing anymore. Yet through the whole book he's been focused on it. He doesn't come back to it again until the last night when he warns Dumbledore.

Here via the Daily Snitch

[lanjelin.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is exactly how I interpreted the scene, actually. I think it also ties in with how both Draco and Slytherin House has been entrenched in Harry's mind as one-dimensionally bad; though we as readers can see the flaws in his reasoning (and thus feeling sympathy for characters a Draco and Snape), to Harry everything that's happened up until now has only reinforced his perception of Draco.

It's also kind of funny that this is Snape and Malfoy, both of whom are connected to Occlumency by Rowling.

I think it's actually very fitting. Harry is more "in touch" with his feelings in that he almost always act upon them, and never tries to deny them; he doesn't talk about them though, or reflect upon them, and there is where I think he differs most from Draco and Snape.

The way I see it, both Draco and Snape are able to analyze their feelings; they'll be aware of what they are and how to handle them (at least moreso than Harry), making it easier for them to use Occlumency. It doesn't mean they feel any less; they just know how to put the feelings away to a certain degree when they have to. It's the "compartmentalising" JKR talked about in an interview, I think.

Of course, it doesn't mean they'll always do so - just look at Snape's unreasonable hate for Harry - but they're able to, in a way Harry isn't.

Re: Here via the Daily Snitch

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yup--I remember writing something once about the difference between Slytherin and Gryffindor looking at how Harry's a natural at throwing off Imperio while Draco's a natural Occlumens. Some felt they went together, but to me it seems like the two personality types are sort of reversed. In Gryffindor the will is the main thing, only the will can be manipulated through emotions. Voldemort can't impose his own will on Harry a la imperio, but he can produce an emotional reaction through trickery that makes Harry point his will where Voldemort wants it to go. Slytherin is the water house and that's linked to emotion (as fire is will). So they have the same conflict only the opposite way: they have strong emotions that can make them do great things, only they can be perverted through the use of will (cutting off "weak" stuff like compassion).

[fictualities.livejournal.com]

I think the idea is that Harry is shocked at suddenly seeing Malfoy, cliché as it sounds, as a real person.

Yes yes yes yes yes, and to the Snape parallel as well. This moment also reminds me of the episode in OotP when Ginny has to remind Harry that erm, yes, she's had dealings with Voldemort too, and Harry says, "I forgot." (That has to be one of my favorite descriptions ever of what it's like to be fifteen.) In the earlier book Harry had to be forcibly reminded that his friends have their own experiences and interior realities; in HBP I really do think you're right: he's being forced to expand his horizons and consider that even his enemies have feelings and so on. And yeah, he goes into such shock that he doesn't think about Malfoy much, but it's very telling that he has that moment at the end of HBP when notices that Malfoy is missing. When he does get around to thinking about Malfoy, the way he thinks about him has changed.

I really love the connection you make here between the Harry understanding Malfoy a bit and Harry hurting him more than he ever has -- wow! Now that you've pointed it out, this makes such huge psychological sense. Snape's spell is "for enemies," and maybe the whole scene is about the consequences of putting someone in the enemies box -- for real, as an adult, when it's not just about schoolboy rivalries any more.

Harry's viscerally horrified and experiences the consequences of the spell as a huge disjunction between what he did and what he meant to do. Maybe he learns here that over the long haul, the whole concept having an enemy is incompatible with what he wants to be. I'm not saying that Harry is supposed to hand everyone flowers and chocolates and hold their hand, just that maybe he's headed for a Dumbledore-like state of always giving people a second chance and refusing to categorize them as just an enemy. No matter what Harry will have to do to people on the other side, he has to confront the fact that they're human beings.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

It's funny since I'm just re-reading PS for DTCL and honestly, Harry whips up a lot of hatred at Malfoy early on--I think more than Malfoy actually has for him. Because Malfoy's hatred for Harry seems like it could be (we're not in his head so I can't say for sure) less intense. He likes Harry fine as a person upon meeting him--it's Harry who dislikes Malfoy just for being himself. And once they get to school Malfoy dislikes Harry of course for rejecting him, but Harry's hatred of Malfoy, to me, seems much more impossible to overcome. He really has the "because he exists" thing down with Malfoy so that any time his attention falls on Malfoy the scene escalates to a red state of alert.

Malfoy's own baiting of Harry almost starts to make a different type of sense when you look at it. It's just so often fandom takes for granted that Harry is the "hated" in the situation since Malfoy does bait him, but reading it from the beginning I actually feel like Malfoy is more hated by Harry more completely and more quickly. I can almost start to make more sense of the way Malfoy keeps poking him. Especially in HBP where to use it feels like things are reversed--ah, now Harry's the one obsessed with Malfoy! But Malfoy's own response isn't quite that. He's not, like, suddenly disturbed by Harry's interest. I'm not explaining it well, but...obviously Malfoy knows that it's usually him (Malfoy) who's trying to figure out what Harry's up to and bug him. That's a change. But after reading as far as I have in PS I can see the idea of Potter glowering at him 24/7 as kind of normal. Harry always notes places where Malfoy gives him looks, but his own bad feelings about Malfoy he thinks of as more private.

For instance, in the first flying lesson Harry's totally not looking forward to "looking like a fool" in front of Malfoy--yet in the lesson itself he and Ron are "delighted" when Hootch tells Malfoy he's been holding his broom wrong. So there's that (totally common) disconnect. It's only if you put yourself in Malfoy's shoes (which Harry wouldn't) that you think that not only does he have every reason to feel insecure in front of Harry as much as Harry does in front of him, but that Harry and Ron are doing *exactly* what Malfoy does in delighting at his failures.

It's obviously not that Malfoy is the better person, but I actually do see a more James-like attitude in Harry's hatred of Malfoy than in Malfoy's of Harry. Malfoy seems to mostly hate Harry himself (maybe with a little of Lucius frustration thrown in). Harry slots Malfoy into the ENEMY box much earlier, and Harry's enemy box is serious.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

The evedence really is beginning to stack up that one of the most dangerous things you can do is settle down for a good cry in a Hogwarts bathroom.

Basilisks, Trolls, enemies with unclassified curses...

Just making yourself a sitting duck, y'know?

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I know! I was thinking the same thing. The bathroom is totally the place of vulnerability at Hogwarts (and probably a lot of other schools). One wonders if Snape/Snivelus was ever caught in one...

(Corrected version of comment)

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

As early as the Sorting scene Harry has actually imbued Malfoy with a sense of well-being and confidence so big he sees any evidence against it as a welcome, temporary aberration. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that up until that moment Harry really never has seen Malfoy as a boy like himself who might actually feel the same things Harry feels at times and have similar motivations.

Extremely cool and provocative observations, as always. I never gave enough attention to the "shock" before, or to thinking about what it might mean other than the obvious pity thing, which is Harry's icy approximation of empathy.

But now I'm thinking especially about the first half of what you say here -- the way Harry has always magnified Draco's power in his own head. You hit some of this in the deathtocapslock post, too. Harry typically feels justified in what really is aggressive and bullying behavior on his own part, because of all the things he projects onto Draco -- Draco seems to possess, in Harry's mind, the accumulated power of everyone who's ever humiliated or hurt him. So when he lashes out at Draco, Harry feels he's just playing defense, when actually he himself is being really offensive (in both senses of the term.)

At some level, Draco intimidates him, which is a feeling Harry just can't acknowledge or accept. So he redefines what he's feeling. He recasts himself as a valiant warrior fighting back against evil, which takes care of both his potential fear and any moral qualms about his own aggressiveness.

And I wonder if part of his shock here is not just about seeing Draco as vulnerable, but more viscerally about seeing himself as having been totally mistaken. This is the boy that frightened me so badly? This is the boy I built up to such a terrible thing in my head? And the implicit question he can't face is -- why did I do that? So, as you point out, he goes on to avoid Draco afterwards, because there's so much about this that he can't deal with -- because he'd have to acknowledge he'd been frightened, been intimidated, and that he'd built up this whole edifice to defend against that feeling. It's connected to, but slightly different from saying that he suddenly sees Draco as a "real boy." He also has to consider the possibility of seeing himself as having had issues he didn't want to admit.

Just playing with ideas, here, as usual, turning things on their heads. But this spin would make Harry's feelings more about Harry, which is sort of typical for him, no?

Re: (Corrected version of comment)

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

This is so cool you said that--I even was just saying some of the same things in response to the thread on HP4GU. I said (snipping):

Draco seems like he's doing more than he is, because Harry describes behavior of Draco's that's got nothing to do with him and imbues it with aggression. Harry sees Draco's behavior as being intentionally offensive, thus Harry's behavior always seems defensive--it's a common thing (see: anonomemes). But perhaps that's part of Harry's shock--it's quite possibly the only time in canon when Harry can't slot Malfoy's behavior into one of his two categories: intentionally annoying/paying for such in some way.

What it also brought up for me was that I could finally see a little strange logic in Draco's own behavior. I just never buy the idea that Draco's just so stuck up he can't get it through his head Harry always beats him up because that's just not Draco's character. Draco's *particularly* sensitive to getting hurt--twitching at the mention of Moody's name, getting jumpy in Hagrid's class. There's no way he doesn't remember getting hit by Harry and his friends; but his need to provoke is stronger.

But reading these early chapters I could almost see how Draco developed his own behavior at least partially as a form of control. I know it's often been suggested that Draco, having been rejected as Harry's friend, chooses to be his enemy rather than nobody. But maybe it's a step further--if Harry hates him as he obviously does why not make that part of his own performance (he always performs)? It allows Draco the illusion of control-he's making Harry lose it for his own amusement. Harry's real issues with Draco are thus obscured all around because they're upsetting to both of them.

Harry doesn't pick on Draco the way James did Snape, but they're all different people. Not only is Harry not James but Draco isn't Snape. Among other things Snape couldn't have turned James' hatred of him around quite this way.

I guess I like it because again, there's a nice symmetry with both boys using aggression to cover up things. Harry can't accept feeling intimidated so makes himself a warrior fighting evil. Draco can't accept...what? Perhaps such total rejection and disgust? So where Harry sees Draco as doing things to earn Harry's hatred so does Draco.

Interestingly, both possibilities kind of relate to reactions to bad parenting. The Dursleys have always been the evil forces behind Harry's oppression. Draco may have equal practice turning pain at Lucius' rejection into his own doing in different ways.

[professor-mum.livejournal.com]

A mutual friend says you have an excellent essay along the lines of "Make Room for Snape Daddy" whereby you make the case that Snape is the defacto Step-Daddy of both boys in HBP. Can you provide a link?

Also --- understand what you are calling out above. I see it as a 'rehersal' for the jaw dropping moment when Harry discovers Snape is really "Dumbledore's Man Through and Through" in B7. When you turn a paradign on its head: major shock. Hard to be a cool James Bond (the Daniel Craig variety) on the spot.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Definitely of the Daniel Craig variety!

That's nice to hear that someone liked that post. I do remember the one you're talking about. Here's a link>-) :

http://sistermagpie.livejournal.com/98168.html#cutid1

[khilari.livejournal.com]

Interesting ideas, definitely. I think there is a parallel with the pensieve scene, but also a big difference. When Harry sees Snape being bullied and doing his best to fight his attackers, he sees himself as Snape. He's been in that position.

When he sees Draco I think he's partly shocked because it is so far out of his experience. He can connect to what Draco must be feeling, but not to showing it that way and making himself that vulnerable. Harry wouldn't cry in a bathroom where anyone could walk in, he keeps his feelings deeper than that. Or not deeper, exactly, but with different ones on the surface. Um, I kind of hope you know what I mean there, because I didn't express it very well.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yes--and I do think an especially big difference in the Snape scene is that Harry can immediately identify with Snape. There's no shock in the Pensieve scene, because he's seeing things unfold gradually and understands everything he's seeing. Plus he and Snape do seem to have a bit more in common personality-wise, so even if he were seeing Snape in a private moment where he was more vulnerable, it might not be as dramatic a change.

One reason for it might also be that Malfoy is a performer, in ways Harry and Snape aren't. (Not that they don't ever project an attitude purposefully, but it's a different thing.) Malfoy wears masks, so there's a bigger difference between what he usually sees and what's underneath.

[woman-ironing.livejournal.com]

It is hard to decide what Harry is making of Draco's crying. It is an unexpected sight. I think a significant amount of Harry's shock is at finding himself precipitated into this personal drama. He'd just been walking along and checked the map out of habit, not really expecting anything, and then in place of the usual disappointment he gets Malfoy in terror and despair. The event comes out of nowhere for Harry and for us reading it. (Even if afterwards we can see that Harry, intent on the map, crashing into the suit of armour was a comic foreshadowing!) There's no reason for Harry to feel sympathetic to Malfoy, given their history and all that Harry learnt on the train and at the time of Slughorn's party about Malfoy's attitude to the task he's been set. Malfoy going into shoot-first-and-ask questions-later mode, culminating in the Crucio that led to Sectumsempra, prevents Harry from having the time to work out what it is that he does feel. But what Harry witnesses here is essential to his understanding of Malfoy on the Astronomy Tower.

Malfoy's vulnerability (before Voldemort took an interest in him) is a strange thing because it's something he's unaware of. We see him as vulnerable because we know he was born onto the wrong side and is in for a shock. Malfoy meanwhile thinks he's perfectly right and perfectly safe. Until HBP he is perfectly safe. (Schoolboy hexes and hurt pride don't coun.) Harry's ignorance of Malfoy pales into insignificance before Malfoy's ignorance of Harry, but then Malfoy's experience is limited.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Tight--it's a big thing for Harry but then it's swept away. I do think, as you say, that it's something that prepares him for the way he thinks later. But it's not something he thinks about after--or has time to process at the time. He probably would have if he'd been able to sneak out after that first moment. But as it is he gets the crying and then this big violent scene.