Totally agree on the meta story with Draco--you're right, it does add dimensions to the character that probably would not be there otherwise in canon. If he got sympathy in the books I probably wouldn't feel the need to take up the cause!
The only thing comparable is that during 4th grade two boys picked on me all year and I swore with every bit of my 9-year-old self that I would hate them forever, and then when I was 16 one of them ended up being a friend of my boyfriend. When I met him again, I got over it in about five minutes.
I remember another boy who used to be mean to me because we were both friends with this one family of kids and I think we both saw each other as a threat. I was better friends with them, I think, so maybe that's why he was ruder to me. Anyway, I only really knew him when I was about 6 and then when I was 12 we were going to visit this family who had moved away. My mother suggested (I'm not sure why because it's not like something we really would have done) that we take this boy, who went to a different grade school so I didn't deal with him much now. I said absolutely not--I hated him. My mother said, "He was 6 years old then." I said, "Not to ME. He's just Andrew to me--why should I like him now?"
I was sort of right and wrong, really. I do think that the personality you have at 6 is you, and that was really what I was referring to. Not that he would tease me now but that he was a little jerk and so probably still was. But also of course at 16 a person is going to have better social skills and no longer have whatever reasons they once did for picking on you.
In some ways with Harry and Draco types in canon they might really be friends by this point because they're two leader boys in their class--it would make sense for them to deal with each other civilly, respecting their positions with their respective houses. Sometimes I wonder if it's Harry's refusal to do that that exacerbates things.
It's really more discussions that move me about Draco, actually. Canon often just makes me feel icky--like watching him get turned into a slug just makes me feel like I'm watching somebody tease an animal or something. It's more demeaning than moving and I think that's the point, that we shouldn't be moved. So it's only after the story's over and I can think about it from the other side that it's moving.
Also ITA on the house points thing--it always amazes me anybody in the school submits to that. Who cares? I'd think.
I'm trying to remember exactly how I felt that day at camp...see, nobody knew what was going on at first. I think she wasn't in whatever activity in the morning, then at lunch she either got up and ran out or ran in to get something and was sort of crying and ran out. So I knew something was up but had no idea what it was. I can't remember if I found out before or after that her father was there. So I never saw her with her father. I could watch it sort of distantly. It was probably more like a story happening. But it's always a complicated experience, I think, seeing someone you don't like brought low. Harry gets that in the pensieve with Snape, but that's even a bit different because Snape is an adult. The pensieve cuts him down to size from the very first because he's suddenly a teenager, so he's robbed of power right at the get-go.
no subject
The only thing comparable is that during 4th grade two boys picked on me all year and I swore with every bit of my 9-year-old self that I would hate them forever, and then when I was 16 one of them ended up being a friend of my boyfriend. When I met him again, I got over it in about five minutes.
I remember another boy who used to be mean to me because we were both friends with this one family of kids and I think we both saw each other as a threat. I was better friends with them, I think, so maybe that's why he was ruder to me. Anyway, I only really knew him when I was about 6 and then when I was 12 we were going to visit this family who had moved away. My mother suggested (I'm not sure why because it's not like something we really would have done) that we take this boy, who went to a different grade school so I didn't deal with him much now. I said absolutely not--I hated him. My mother said, "He was 6 years old then." I said, "Not to ME. He's just Andrew to me--why should I like him now?"
I was sort of right and wrong, really. I do think that the personality you have at 6 is you, and that was really what I was referring to. Not that he would tease me now but that he was a little jerk and so probably still was. But also of course at 16 a person is going to have better social skills and no longer have whatever reasons they once did for picking on you.
In some ways with Harry and Draco types in canon they might really be friends by this point because they're two leader boys in their class--it would make sense for them to deal with each other civilly, respecting their positions with their respective houses. Sometimes I wonder if it's Harry's refusal to do that that exacerbates things.
It's really more discussions that move me about Draco, actually. Canon often just makes me feel icky--like watching him get turned into a slug just makes me feel like I'm watching somebody tease an animal or something. It's more demeaning than moving and I think that's the point, that we shouldn't be moved. So it's only after the story's over and I can think about it from the other side that it's moving.
Also ITA on the house points thing--it always amazes me anybody in the school submits to that. Who cares? I'd think.
I'm trying to remember exactly how I felt that day at camp...see, nobody knew what was going on at first. I think she wasn't in whatever activity in the morning, then at lunch she either got up and ran out or ran in to get something and was sort of crying and ran out. So I knew something was up but had no idea what it was. I can't remember if I found out before or after that her father was there. So I never saw her with her father. I could watch it sort of distantly. It was probably more like a story happening. But it's always a complicated experience, I think, seeing someone you don't like brought low. Harry gets that in the pensieve with Snape, but that's even a bit different because Snape is an adult. The pensieve cuts him down to size from the very first because he's suddenly a teenager, so he's robbed of power right at the get-go.