H/D, post-OotP

[sistermagpie]

wayfairer asks the state of H/D in the wake of OotP. She makes a lot of great points about how writers are dealing with the questions OotP leaves us with, and asked other people's opinions of H/D in light of that...and my comment got long enough that I figured it was really a post. Basically, I'm

You know, I wonder if part of the problem too is that on Harry's side we know he's gutted at the moment--faced with Draco he feels detached, and what do you do with that? (Detached, but able to feel a distant pleasure in seeing Malfoy so angry)

On Draco's side, we've got Harry having just taken his father away--the ultimate thing, based on Draco's limited dialogue in canon so far. This must be dealt with if you're dealing with sixth year, and Aja wonders how many writers actually are. It strikes me, though, that they really can't because we have no canon to go on. Up until now H/D has dealt with Lucius whatever way the author wanted. Draco could secretly hate his father, or have grown out of his attachment, or Lucius could just be a regular rich parent or could abuse him. Because we really have no idea. Draco's a big performer, so must of what we hear about Lucius is an act. This is not to say the truth must be the opposite of what Draco is saying, but clearly he mostly invokes Lucius' name for effect, to impress, to threaten, etc. The very first thing we hear about Lucius is that he's going to buy Draco a broom whether he likes it or not-and it's an untruth.
There's only one scene of Draco and Lucius in canon and it's in front of a shopkeeper so even that, while more relaxed, isn't completely honest. I would say there's only one single unguarded moment between Lucius and Draco in canon and Lucius isn't even there--it's when Draco calls him "Dad." It's one word, but hey, apparently the entire dynamic of R/S was changed by just a few words in OotP (Sit down, Sirius!--and Remus becomes a dom at last;-) )

I know when I finished reading OotP, when I thought of Draco the scene that drew me had nothing to do with Harry either--I just had this picture in my mind of his being taken home and unsluggified, probably set out on a bench in the garden or on a couch inside, maybe with Crabbe and Goyle, humiliated, and facing his mother and an empty house for the first time. Yet I couldn't be sure how to even imagine Narcissa because we don't know her. Truth be told, we don't know how the dynamic between Lucius and Draco worked either. So while Draco seems canonically to have had the most important thing in the world taken away from him, we know nothing about how to approach it. Even if you're confident in your general impressions of their relationship (it's positive/it's negative/it's abusive/it's not) you've got no Draco/Lucius interaction to jump off from, like you would with the Weasleys.

Perhaps this is why Fanon!Draco, is often unattached to Lucius. The tiny hint we get in OotP suggests something different, a relationship that, imo, can change the way H/D has to work, one where Draco is the underdog in ways he hasn't been before. I don't mean to suggest Harry has completely triumphed within the *series.* He's still fighting his Big Bad, Voldemort. But from Draco's pov, it's all about Potter, who's taken just about everything. Up until now, "everything" has meant popularity, school power, Quidditch stardom. It could be funny. Draco could still strut around in fanfic, or be fanon!Draco and just a brat. But losing a father...that demands some respect. And no, I don't mean OMG HARRY IS SO MEEN AND DRACO IZ TOTALLY TEH VICTUM NOW!!!111 I just mean: you've got a character who's always been defined by family, whose family and personal god has been taken away by this person. Doesn't matter that Lucius had it coming or chose to break the law, because to me we're more in Godfather/Sopranos territory now. If Draco just let's Harry take his father and does nothing, he's not a man and can't ever be.

I think that's why, oddly, the one post-OotP fic that I remember really feeling was onto something was Cassie Claire's How to Disappear, which is unfortunately still incomplete as far as I know. What I loved about this fic is that Draco is, in his way, the hero. He hasn't been given any special powers, or become cooler. Harry isn't torn down to build him up, though he's in that same place as he was at the end of OotP, numb, but able to feel an echo of pleasure in seeing Malfoy suffer. What makes Draco a hero--to me--is just that he makes the decision to do something for his father, something very small and therefore able to be done by him. He grovels to Harry. Iow, he agrees to endure, to suffer, for somebody else. For someone believable--for Lucius, for his family.

But that's a very different dynamic from pervious H/D, which was about rivalry, often with Draco characterized as having nothing to really feel anything about. Even when people discuss Draco's position in sixth year they more often talk about the school and the other Slytherins rejecting him and how he will deal with the loss of status, which is the way fanfic usually focused on it when it got rid of Lucius and Narcissa as well.

Comments

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

God, there's so much to think about here. I'm going to think about it a bit more before I answer this fully. The discussions going around about this whole thing are so fascinating. My brain hurts but I love it.

As a short preliminary answer: I think that I might simultaneously both mistrust canon and take it at face value. That is, while resenting the veiled and ambiguous and contradictory and unknown parts that canon doesn't show us about the Malfoys, I also feel an obligation to read the parts I can know very straightforwardly--at least in terms of developing a believable characterization and family dynamic. (I will say that this is something that has changed since writing LUW; when I began it, I wanted to believe that Draco was able to hate his father. Now I honestly don't think that I could start writing such a fic because I take Draco's worship of his father as canon, regardless of the fact that we don't have much concrete Draco-Lucius action to work with.)

I essentially agree very much with all you said about Draco's reaction to Harry taking Lucius away from him, and how it very much is all about Harry for him. But I balk at thinking that he has to be spurred on necessarily to action by this event--but that it might well be that he is instead spurred on through thought.

And now I honestly wonder if you viewed Hamlet as a man or as a thwarted boy, because while it would be the same basic idea that could make or break Draco, I'd rather see Draco for once contemplating all aspects of the situation than going in heedlessly and attempting to wreak some sort of rash, carelessly acted vengeance per his usual modus operandi, which to me would prove him waker than anything else.

Have gotten totally off-subject and I said this would be short. whoops. :))

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

OMG-Draco as Hamlet, I love it! But I totally agree that it doesn't have to lead him to action. In fact, for Draco inaction is almost a bigger change. Because he always acts in canon, coming up with a plan and doing things to other people somehow. But a Draco who's shocked into thinking for once could be something much more important. That was sort of what I liked in Cassie's story, that Draco is really agreeing *not* to ask. He just says to Harry, "If you tell them not to give my father the kiss, you can do what you want to me." It's like stepping off a cliff.

The thing with Hamlet, it seems, is that he starts out from a more mature place, because part of the reason he's out for revenge is that he feels like it's a duty, whereas with Draco you've potentially got something he really does care enough to think about dying for. As little of Draco that we got in OotP, making his love of his father canon is certainly something!

Frankly, I think Draco being inspired to *think* here rather than just act is more potentially surprising as well. Because it's hard to imagine an action of his that couldn't be easily anticipated by Harry without it.

[malafede.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I think Draco being inspired to *think* here rather than just act is more potentially surprising as well. Because it's hard to imagine an action of his that couldn't be easily anticipated by Harry without it.

I think I have this dualistic pull to make Draco think (become self-aware at least partially) and don't make him think (because he's not like that!!!! omg, he's a homicidal creepy brat, leave him alone!!!111 etc, etc, everybody's bitter at something, both me and Draco). For me Draco's a very non-rational/non-thinking person, to the point where when his intellectual function is given too much attention in fanfic I get turned off badly. But this may be that drive Aja was talking about above to "simultaneously both mistrust canon and take it at face value", or at least, for me it goes something like this: we realise this is a fatal flaw, and since fiction is transformation, writing as a way to make Draco grow out of it seems not just a obvious choice but also an aut-aut.

Still, I do feel many many people confuse "a healthy level of self-awareness" with that "rationalisation fixation" Reena was talking about some time ago. Reading Draco's internal monologues detailing the ways his relationships are beneficial to all and the ways they are pathological creeps me. Not just because no human being works that way unless they're an enlightened sort of guy, but because Draco especially is characterised as being extremely immature in that department. So I guess... fixing a flaw in order to make a relationship work doesn't necessarily have to mean overturning someone's character so completely they become unrecognisable? For Draco to have that much-agonised moment of clarity doesn't require turning him into Dumbledore.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been thinking more about Aja's point about him loving Lucius, for instance, and being made to think and the thing is, with a character like that you could probably make him think without making him think. Which makes no sense--let me explain.:-)

Aja said, and I think this is an important thing, that it's hard for her to believe Draco could hate his father. It made me realize that to me the point isn't to get him to the point where he could hate Lucius, but perhaps to get him to the point where he could believe Lucius could possibly not love him. That, to me, is more in keeping with the Draco's we've seen so far, plus it's not an intellectual thing but an emotional one. He may not want to think about how other people might think about him, but his behavior indicates that instinctively he acts out when he gets a vibe of rejection.

That's one of the weird things about Fanon!Draco at times, is that his "ice prince" personality becomes so important. He doesn't care, he's above having feelings, so he's able to make these coldly rational decisions and that's how he comes to the conclusion Lucius needs to be dumped. But a Draco scorned is a terrible thing as well, and I think canon has set up that possibility more than the alternative. Not only has he often come across to me in canon as a kid covering up some insecurity about how he's regarded by his parents, but there's the Snape angle as well. People tend to describe Draco as a simple suck-up but to me he comes across as sucking up, yes, but also genuinely seeking approval from Snape and wanting to do things for Snape in return. It's a big contrast to Harry who's naturally suspicious and tries to avoid that kind of dependence on others.

And perhaps that's one of the things that Draco's situation at the end of OotP makes difficult. If you prefer the character stripped of that driving force of his personality, what happened at the end of OotP just isn't that big a deal. Losing Lucius is the same type of disaster as being humiliated at Quidditch.

[malafede.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! I have been thinking along the same lines recently. People who have not an intellectual outlook on life still manage to walk paths and make choices, don't they? So, yeah, I am agreeing with you. :D I wasn't denying that Draco can take his life somewhere else than the obvious - which is not his doing - yeah, that's the thing: I think Draco can do a lot of things; I am less sure about him thinking.

This may be caused by the fact that I'm having a huge crisis in my own writing since I've realised how little events define my storylines as opposed to how much introspection goes on. So at one point I was rereading the huge-ass school story I am writing and I guess an epiphany came to me: if one of your characters thinks a lot, then you're characterising him this way, because rationalism isn't a trait of human people in general, but a personality trait. Most other people has things happening to them and reacts to those in various degree of self-awareness. Eh, I guess I am thinking aloud/wanking about my personal issues now, so I'm stopping.