I think I mentioned someplace that I recently read a book called "Odd Girl Out" that was about the secret aggression of girls in schools...it dealt with a lot of that kind of thing, where the whole school ganged up on one girl. That book mostly dealt with girls who had once been very popular, so jealousy was very much a factor in what was going on. With girls it's very strange because they are supposed to be "nice" so they can be horrid to each other and then turn right around and say, "Oh, but I like you. I'm not mad at you."

It's interesting in a thread in Aja's journal, I think, Aza said that she was picked on when she was younger, and then picked on others. She said she thought Draco was probably picked on too and I could definitely believe that. First, because he's totally dominated by Lucius and his mother seems rather cold as well. But more importantly, we're shown that Dudley's size keeps him from getting beaten up. A lot of overweight kids are picked on, but Dudley seems to be described as making his size work for him--this becomes even more symbolically true when Dudley loses weight and just becomes big and brawny as a teenager.

Draco, by contrast, is described as pale and pointy, and Crabbe and Goyle seem to dwarf him. He gets beaten up a lot in canon and he's got a big mouth that just would have to get him into trouble with the big dogs, I'd think. I can definitely imagine him getting into situations as a kid where he was picked on by others...it's funny, but we think of Draco's showing with C&G on the train as purely a sign that he's planning to bully others, but they've never been used that way. His wanting them around may be described as cowardice, but they could be a safety measure he learned he needed not by being a bully himself but by being a small kid who hung out with bigger, meaner kids.