thalthanmadanus

[thalthanmadanus]

Yule Ball, 1994

"Can we talk?"

[thalthanmadanus]

"It's a Show vs Tell situation. Harry telling us directly that character A (Tom, Sirius..) is beautiful is less truthful imo than being shown through subtext that he thinks a character is attractive (Draco) through implications (gleaming hair, glittering eyes, handsome robes..) rather just saying plainly he's "handsome" or "beautiful". Like with him telling us it just feels like he's just commenting to the reader something obvious, meanwhile with subtle wording like the case with Draco (especially the repetition) it feels like attraction At least that's my opinion." - can you explain more on this? See Draco antis and certain shippers will say Draco isn't attractive because Harry doesn't use Handsome/Pretty directly to describe him but then you'll see him describing Draco in a poetic sense that I thought feels like Harry is more attracted to Draco than those he described as handsome/pretty directly Also, jkr has great hate for Draco but why hasn't she written Harry, who is judgemental and very direct at describing those he hates, to ever call Draco ugly or something? Kinda feels like those characters write themselves moment

To answer you, let's make a comparison anon.

Here are two examples of Harry describing Sirius as Handsome:

1.

2.

Now here are two examples of Harry describing Draco normally:

1.

2.

How do you feel when you read both examples?

I, for one, know that if HP was a romance Draco would've easily been the male lead just by his description.

Sirius' description is.. well.. boring to me. It's normal. He stares handsomely. He's good looking. His hair is casually elegant unlike Harry and James messy hair.

But there is no sensuality behind this description. It feels distant. A commentary. A comparison. A passive description if you may.

Meanwhile with Draco, something active is happening. We are given a more specific description.

We know Sirius' hair is dark but what shade? Is it black, brown?? Compare that to Draco's "white-blond" or even "silver-white". It's very specific lol.

With the second example we know that Harry thinks Sirius' hair falling elegantly over his eyes is a handsome trait, but the moment Harry treats it as an element of comparison to him and his dad it decreases the feeling of attraction to me. Compare that to Draco's description with Pansy stroking his hair. Here the subject of attraction is supposed to be Draco but Harry is not comparing himself to Draco like he did with Sirius. It can be read that Harry is comparing himself to Pansy with the "as though anyone would have loved to be in her place" line.

Like it's just sensual to me, more emotional, more dynamic and more alive.

Harry tells us Sirius is handsome directly without taking time to even show us why does he think so.

Compare that to Draco's usual descriptions in the book. Harry wastes lines of thought just to bring up Draco's glittering eyes and his sleek hair. like look at these lines

His focus on always bringing up his glittering eyes and his sleek blond hair makes me think that Harry is maybe attracted to these features, while reading these lines.

Telling me said character is "handsome" doesn't tell me much about neither the character or Harry. Meanwhile, Harry's mental descriptions of Draco show us not only what features attract him but also the reason why it's Draco specifically. It shows us Draco is a very animated character, very expressive and dramatic so his descriptions are very fun to read. He's very fun to watch and maybe that's why Harry notices him a lot.

I think at the end, this is just a subjective watsonian reading of these lines. Maybe another person would look at this line in the third book for example:

Malfoy stood to one side, the sunlight gleaming on his white-blond head. He caught Harry's eye and smirked.

and not feel anything. Maybe they think Harry's description of Tom is gayer. I, for one, again if I saw this line out of context I would think this a gay fanfic.

Although, I also met people who said Draco is probably ugly. I saw someone say that he was called rat-faced in the books.. which is not true at all? he's actually never ridiculed physically at all even by Ron. Hermione calls him a twitchy ferret once but that's because he was turned into a ferret, not because he looks like it.

And I feel if he were ugly, Harry would have not wasted time to insult the shit out of him like he does with others. Harry is very honest. When he thinks someone is ugly he doesn't refrain at all. When he finds someone handsome or pretty he says it. Harry not insulting or complimenting Draco directly kinda makes him a neutral exception.

Except, instead of complimenting Draco or insulting him, he goes on to overdescribe Draco so much that we know more about Draco's features, how he laughs, how he smiles, how his hair gleams, how his eyes glitter and shine... etc more than for any other character.

Another aspect is Draco's parents are also atrractive? Narcissa is described as attractive directly in the books by Harry, and Lucius... I'm sorry but ain't no way that man is ugly. He's too classy to be ugly 🤧

And even if Lucius were ugly, Kreacher tells us directly that Draco inherited some of Narcissa's physical features too.

I will end this with saying that I don't care about how jkr intended to write her characters. Most of the stuff I said in this post was definitely not intended by her. She imagined Sirius to be handsome and she told us he is handsome not taking in account that Harry is supposed to be straight 😆 I don't think she intended for Draco to be seeen as attractive, because she always added non-physical negative descriptions to him like "cold drawl, glinting maliciously.." except she also didn't take account that over negative description can become positively sensual.

[thalthanmadanus]

Poor Lucius😂😂😂

[thalthanmadanus]

i'm sorry but harry actually talked to ginny about draco TWICE(like, what, do they talk so much and 2 of them should be about draco?!)

in one he just realized has "feelings" for ginny and only STARES at her when she says malfoy is sick(omg what happened to him is he ok?)..and another one is before match when harry talks to ginny about how draco is going around with TWO GIRLS(how can this even be related to mission that harry needs to think about?) and ginny is like : does it even matter right now?(tbh she has every right to kill him at that moment lmao)

Yeah. Literally the first interaction with Ginny after he realizes he's attracted to her is him not paying attention to her till she brings up Draco being sick and him then being super interested in that topic while she's like 'wtf Harry? why does this matter"...followed by a convo where he's almost late to another match because he wanted to follow Draco and where once again he wants to talk about Draco while she's all 'why does this matter?." This is also notable because it shows how he keeps her at arms length. She isn't subjected to his constant 'Draco is a Death Eater' talk the way Ron and Hermione are so she's not even clued in on what's going on. He also ditches her on the train in the middle of a discussion to go sneak into Draco's compartment. Not to mention that even though Quidditch is Harry's main opportunity to spend time with her he is suddenly not interested in it bc Draco's not involved.

[thalthanmadanus]

CUNTY DRACO

Thank you to @the-forbidden-forest for creating the best Draco dtiys chain ever! I had to draw my own!

[thalthanmadanus]

"It's a Show vs Tell situation. Harry telling us directly that character A (Tom, Sirius..) is beautiful is less truthful imo than being shown through subtext that he thinks a character is attractive (Draco) through implications (gleaming hair, glittering eyes, handsome robes..) rather just saying plainly he's "handsome" or "beautiful". Like with him telling us it just feels like he's just commenting to the reader something obvious, meanwhile with subtle wording like the case with Draco (especially the repetition) it feels like attraction At least that's my opinion." - can you explain more on this? See Draco antis and certain shippers will say Draco isn't attractive because Harry doesn't use Handsome/Pretty directly to describe him but then you'll see him describing Draco in a poetic sense that I thought feels like Harry is more attracted to Draco than those he described as handsome/pretty directly Also, jkr has great hate for Draco but why hasn't she written Harry, who is judgemental and very direct at describing those he hates, to ever call Draco ugly or something? Kinda feels like those characters write themselves moment

To answer you, let's make a comparison anon.

Here are two examples of Harry describing Sirius as Handsome:

1.

2.

Now here are two examples of Harry describing Draco normally:

1.

2.

How do you feel when you read both examples?

I, for one, know that if HP was a romance Draco would've easily been the male lead just by his description.

Sirius' description is.. well.. boring to me. It's normal. He stares handsomely. He's good looking. His hair is casually elegant unlike Harry and James messy hair.

But there is no sensuality behind this description. It feels distant. A commentary. A comparison. A passive description if you may.

Meanwhile with Draco, something active is happening. We are given a more specific description.

We know Sirius' hair is dark but what shade? Is it black, brown?? Compare that to Draco's "white-blond" or even "silver-white". It's very specific lol.

With the second example we know that Harry thinks Sirius' hair falling elegantly over his eyes is a handsome trait, but the moment Harry treats it as an element of comparison to him and his dad it decreases the feeling of attraction to me. Compare that to Draco's description with Pansy stroking his hair. Here the subject of attraction is supposed to be Draco but Harry is not comparing himself to Draco like he did with Sirius. It can be read that Harry is comparing himself to Pansy with the "as though anyone would have loved to be in her place" line.

Like it's just sensual to me, more emotional, more dynamic and more alive.

Harry tells us Sirius is handsome directly without taking time to even show us why does he think so.

Compare that to Draco's usual descriptions in the book. Harry wastes lines of thought just to bring up Draco's glittering eyes and his sleek hair. like look at these lines

His focus on always bringing up his glittering eyes and his sleek blond hair makes me think that Harry is maybe attracted to these features, while reading these lines.

Telling me said character is "handsome" doesn't tell me much about neither the character or Harry. Meanwhile, Harry's mental descriptions of Draco show us not only what features attract him but also the reason why it's Draco specifically. It shows us Draco is a very animated character, very expressive and dramatic so his descriptions are very fun to read. He's very fun to watch and maybe that's why Harry notices him a lot.

I think at the end, this is just a subjective watsonian reading of these lines. Maybe another person would look at this line in the third book for example:

Malfoy stood to one side, the sunlight gleaming on his white-blond head. He caught Harry's eye and smirked.

and not feel anything. Maybe they think Harry's description of Tom is gayer. I, for one, again if I saw this line out of context I would think this a gay fanfic.

Although, I also met people who said Draco is probably ugly. I saw someone say that he was called rat-faced in the books.. which is not true at all? he's actually never ridiculed physically at all even by Ron. Hermione calls him a twitchy ferret once but that's because he was turned into a ferret, not because he looks like it.

And I feel if he were ugly, Harry would have not wasted time to insult the shit out of him like he does with others. Harry is very honest. When he thinks someone is ugly he doesn't refrain at all. When he finds someone handsome or pretty he says it. Harry not insulting or complimenting Draco directly kinda makes him a neutral exception.

Except, instead of complimenting Draco or insulting him, he goes on to overdescribe Draco so much that we know more about Draco's features, how he laughs, how he smiles, how his hair gleams, how his eyes glitter and shine... etc more than for any other character.

Another aspect is Draco's parents are also atrractive? Narcissa is described as attractive directly in the books by Harry, and Lucius... I'm sorry but ain't no way that man is ugly. He's too classy to be ugly 🤧

And even if Lucius were ugly, Kreacher tells us directly that Draco inherited some of Narcissa's physical features too.

I will end this with saying that I don't care about how jkr intended to write her characters. Most of the stuff I said in this post was definitely not intended by her. She imagined Sirius to be handsome and she told us he is handsome not taking in account that Harry is supposed to be straight 😆 I don't think she intended for Draco to be seeen as attractive, because she always added non-physical negative descriptions to him like "cold drawl, glinting maliciously.." except she also didn't take account that over negative description can become positively sensual.

Edit: thanks @yumeurl for the correction because I literally reread the parts about Draco in the books back to back to find the rat comment before and couldn't find it for some reason, but you specified the book and so I found it. Here is the line:

“Of course I am!” said Ron. “You heard him—‘You’ll be next, Mudbloods!’—come on, you’ve only got to look at his foul rat face to know it’s him—”

Though I find it funny that people rely on Ron's insult made in (understandble) anger and see it as reliable description and proof that Draco is ugly. lol. how about, maybe a person when they hate another person (especially a vile person who hurts them) they see them always as ugly?

[thalthanmadanus]

reblogging again to add smtg to my anti James/Draco parallels agenda 🙄

When Harry sees the memory of James bullying Snape, do you know what his first thought?

When he saw what his father did, he didn't think "omg, that's just like Malfoy", instead Draco here is presented as the example of the victim (although a victim deserving to be punished).

I don't understand this Draco hasn't done anything absolutely evil but why does Harry consider him as his archnemesis?

Also, the post about Snape, Marauders, and bullying

Does it mean that what Draco does isn't bullying if Harry and the others fight back?

I'd say the difference between a bully and an enemy is the power dynamic. Enemies have roughly the same amount of power, while a bully has significantly more power then the person they're messing with. Bullies also know that they have more power, and kind of relish throwing their weight around. You can still fight back if you have less power, it just probably isn't going to help much.

Draco actually seems pretty aware of the relative power levels of all the people around him. There is a brief window in Book 1 where he DOES have more power than Harry, just because Harry is SO clueless and so new to everything. For a second, Harry is actually intimidated by Draco.

“Oh, you’re going to fight us, are you?” Malfoy sneered. “Unless you get out now,” said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron. “But we don’t feel like leaving, do we, boys? We’ve eaten all our food and you still seem to have some.”

(Draco talks like a baby mobster, I can't even....)

There are also bits like -

Harry didn’t have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.

Here, Draco is communicating that HE belongs in this world, and Harry does not (to a comical extent.) Which Harry IS worried about at the beginning of Book 1, so this time the teasing hits.

However... Draco very quickly loses whatever leverage he has. Harry figures out the world pretty fast, does well at Hogwarts, becomes the youngest Seeker in a century, has all this notoriety as "the Boy Who Lived." Draco *tries* to bully him and... fails.

[Malfoy] had tried to get everyone laughing at how a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing Harry as Seeker next. Then he’d realized that nobody found this funny, because they were all so impressed [with Harry]

Draco is trying to use his power to make Harry's life more difficult, only to realize that that he can't. He is flailing around, trying to to be intimidating, trying to tease Harry in a way that will actually upset him, and it's not working:

“I do feel so sorry,” said Draco Malfoy, one Potions class, “for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they’re not wanted at home.” He was looking over at Harry as he spoke. Crabbe and Goyle chuckled.

Swing and a miss. Harry KNOWS the Dursleys don't want him back for Christmas, and is THRILLED about this.

Draco will sometimes tease Harry about his fame, which kind of works. (“'Everyone line up!' Malfoy roared to the crowd. 'Harry Potter’s giving out signed photos! 'No, I’m not,' said Harry angrily, his fists clenching.") BUT, Draco mostly pivots to going after Harry's friends, people with less societal/social power. People Draco CAN bully. So instead of going after Harry directly, we see him mess with Hagrid, Neville, Ron and Hermione. Very good way to get on Harry's bad side.

Harry does seem to have this continuous low-key obsession with Draco though. When nothing else is going on, he snaps back to What Suspicious Thing is Malfoy Doing Now (lets discuss). He goes undercover to spy on Draco during Book 2, in Book 3 he has all kinds of thoughts about what *Draco* might know about Sirius Black, and in Book 6 he gets Kreacher and Dobby to tail him, all while Harry stalking-Draco-via-Map. Ron & Hermione tell him to tone it down.

It's not hard at all to take this in a Drarry direction, but even if you don't... yeah, I can see why Draco specifically bothers Harry. Draco is a magical only child, with parents who adore and protect him, who are always writing him letters and sending him care packages. Draco is maybe the closest to what Harry's life would have looked like if James and Lily survived. That the one thing Harry wants more than anything, and Draco didn't do anything to earn all this love and good fortune! Draco sucks! I wouldn't be surprised if young Harry feels he's had to earn *everything.*

[thalthanmadanus]

Ten people I want to get to know better:

tagged by @mintisgay (thanks 💕)

Last song: "This is love" by Air trafffic Controller. I found it accidentally and the more I listen the more it sounds like a Drarry song. like every other song I listen to

Favorite color: It keeps changing every month but for now anything blue and purple 😈🥶.

Last movie: Nosferatu 🧛‍♂️ The old one. For a movie with no color or talking in it, it was so good. It made me want to check out other older movies.

Last TV show: Arcane was my last one. I didn't have time to check out other shows yet, but I'm free now.

Sweet/spicy/savoury: How about switchy? I switch between savoury and sweet food. Also, I don't or cannot eat spicy food at all.

Relationship status: *sigh* does a relationship with my bed count?

Last thing I googled: AO3... lmao

Current obsession: ⚡️Epic the musical⚡️ I LOVE. I'm obsessed with Odypen. oh, yeah and Drarry ofc which had been my current obsession for 4 years now. yay. I'm never escaping

Looking forward to: trying to make an animatic, also want to try writing a drarry fanfic but I'm too lazy. Wish I could just manifest it into existence.

tagging (no pressure): @blorger @cluelessascanbe @slyssnakes @wordrage @hsvh-hp @littlewinnow

[thalthanmadanus]

Why did Harry use only Expelliarmus on Voldemort but Sectumsempra on Draco? Also, if Expelliarmus was Harry's go to spell why use Sectumsempra when he could use it against Draco's Crucio?

Harry fights Draco really differently than he fights everyone else.

So okay. Normally when he fights, Harry's go-to spells are:

Impedimenta (slow down)

Petrificus Totalus (paralyze)

Stupefy (knock out)

Expelliarmus (disarm)

Which means his strategy is get away from/incapacitate his opponent as quickly as possible and that's IT. Harry is not a flashy or creative fighter the way Dumbledore, Voldemort, and heck even side characters like Percy are. Which makes perfect sense. Fighting has never been a game for Harry. It's never been abstract. He'll do all these badass things but when he talks about fighting (like we see during the DA segments) he's not thinking about it like it's something interesting or cool. He's picturing going up against a more powerful opponent, probably while injured and scared. And what's the best thing to have in that situation? Four useful, all-purpose spells that you've practiced enough times that you don't have to think about them anymore.

Zachariah Smith gives Harry a hard time for relying on spell as "basic" as expelliarmus, which tells us that in-universe, Harry's stripped-down dueling style might be considered kind of plain or boring. But Harry's a very effective duelist, probably because he is so practical. He doesn't care about showing off, looking powerful, or intimidating his opponents.

... except when he's fighting specifically Draco.

When he's fighting DRACO MALFOY, Harry brings out the fun spells:

Rictusempra (tickling)

Furnunculus (boils)

Leg-Locker jinx

Levicorpus (levitate by ankle)

Toenail-growing hex

And also Sectumsempra, which he THINKS is going to be another embarrassing/fun spell, because levicorpus and the tonail-growing hex also came out of the Half-Blood Prince's textbook, and Harry thinks this third spell is going to be another one like that.

So my conclusion is that Harry just kind of... uniquely enjoys fighting with Draco. He's not trying to end the encounter as fast as possible, there probably is some element where he wants to show off, hit Draco with something new or something clever. Harry and Draco have a dynamic where it's *fun* to one-up/get the upper hand over each other, and duels are perfect for that.

To me this is a very natural extension of Harry's "lets plot hypothetical ways to get Malfoy expelled" (which he does with Ron, for fun) and "lets try to figure out what Suspicious Thing Malfoy is up to now" (one of Harry's very favorite past times.) So long story short - when Harry fights Draco, he fights like a teenager. When he fights anyone else, he fights like an auror.

[thalthanmadanus]

Harry's POV:

Am I late for this dtiys? @the-forbidden-forest

[thalthanmadanus]

This plus the sequel. They're such goood fics. They're both my favorite multiverse drarry fics.

"Potter always stares at me," he said, looking back at his plate. "He has this thing where he doesn't like me. I don't remember why. Oh, wait, there was something … no, it's gone." Goyle snickered. Zabini raised his eyebrows. "You know, I think it might have been the Dumbledore thing, most recently. Which reminds me, is that what your latest scheme is about?" He stretched in his chair, luxurious as a cat. "Because you should probably be careful if it is. I don't think the school will allow you more than one dead teacher." "That's true," Nott said, picking pieces of onion out of his salad. "Even Potter's only been allowed one actual death." Draco scowled. "Stop saying that," he said. "I didn't kill Dumbledore." He stabbed at his plate and Zabini laughed. "Only you could find murder so funny," Draco muttered. "I swear, Zabini, you must have had the weirdest childhood." Zabini shrugged. "Being able to see Thestrals was cool, though."

"You know, I had a great uncle on the Black side who collected early Ministry memorabilia. He had this sash of office from the seventeenth century that was designed to strangle any incumbent of impure blood. When I was a kid he used to artfully slip it round my neck every time we went to visit because of this mad theory that there was Veela blood in the Malfoy line." Potter glanced across at him. "You have the wierdest family, Malfoy."

from The If Sieve by bmouse( cest_what)

[thalthanmadanus]

I don't understand this Draco hasn't done anything absolutely evil but why does Harry consider him as his archnemesis?

Also, the post about Snape, Marauders, and bullying

Does it mean that what Draco does isn't bullying if Harry and the others fight back?

I'd say the difference between a bully and an enemy is the power dynamic. Enemies have roughly the same amount of power, while a bully has significantly more power then the person they're messing with. Bullies also know that they have more power, and kind of relish throwing their weight around. You can still fight back if you have less power, it just probably isn't going to help much.

Draco actually seems pretty aware of the relative power levels of all the people around him. There is a brief window in Book 1 where he DOES have more power than Harry, just because Harry is SO clueless and so new to everything. For a second, Harry is actually intimidated by Draco.

“Oh, you’re going to fight us, are you?” Malfoy sneered. “Unless you get out now,” said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron. “But we don’t feel like leaving, do we, boys? We’ve eaten all our food and you still seem to have some.”

(Draco talks like a baby mobster, I can't even....)

There are also bits like -

Harry didn’t have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.

Here, Draco is communicating that HE belongs in this world, and Harry does not (to a comical extent.) Which Harry IS worried about at the beginning of Book 1, so this time the teasing hits.

However... Draco very quickly loses whatever leverage he has. Harry figures out the world pretty fast, does well at Hogwarts, becomes the youngest Seeker in a century, has all this notoriety as "the Boy Who Lived." Draco *tries* to bully him and... fails.

[Malfoy] had tried to get everyone laughing at how a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing Harry as Seeker next. Then he’d realized that nobody found this funny, because they were all so impressed [with Harry]

Draco is trying to use his power to make Harry's life more difficult, only to realize that that he can't. He is flailing around, trying to to be intimidating, trying to tease Harry in a way that will actually upset him, and it's not working:

“I do feel so sorry,” said Draco Malfoy, one Potions class, “for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they’re not wanted at home.” He was looking over at Harry as he spoke. Crabbe and Goyle chuckled.

Swing and a miss. Harry KNOWS the Dursleys don't want him back for Christmas, and is THRILLED about this.

Draco will sometimes tease Harry about his fame, which kind of works. (“'Everyone line up!' Malfoy roared to the crowd. 'Harry Potter’s giving out signed photos! 'No, I’m not,' said Harry angrily, his fists clenching.") BUT, Draco mostly pivots to going after Harry's friends, people with less societal/social power. People Draco CAN bully. So instead of going after Harry directly, we see him mess with Hagrid, Neville, Ron and Hermione. Very good way to get on Harry's bad side.

Harry does seem to have this continuous low-key obsession with Draco though. When nothing else is going on, he snaps back to What Suspicious Thing is Malfoy Doing Now (lets discuss). He goes undercover to spy on Draco during Book 2, in Book 3 he has all kinds of thoughts about what *Draco* might know about Sirius Black, and in Book 6 he gets Kreacher and Dobby to tail him, all while Harry stalking-Draco-via-Map. Ron & Hermione tell him to tone it down.

It's not hard at all to take this in a Drarry direction, but even if you don't... yeah, I can see why Draco specifically bothers Harry. Draco is a magical only child, with parents who adore and protect him, who are always writing him letters and sending him care packages. Draco is maybe the closest to what Harry's life would have looked like if James and Lily survived. That the one thing Harry wants more than anything, and Draco didn't do anything to earn all this love and good fortune! Draco sucks! I wouldn't be surprised if young Harry feels he's had to earn *everything.*

[thalthanmadanus]

THANK YOU!!!

I have read a lot of time travel/ fix-it fics where Draco becomes Harry's friend and they always go the route of making a new rival for Harry and then they just make the new rival, who's either Theo Pansy Blaise, say the same words and commit the same actions Draco did originally.

Lol what's the point of making Draco time travel or become Harry's friend in an AU if you're just going to replace him with any person??? How dare you replace him with any random person Like change one action from the first book and that shit changes everything. There is a whole thing about how Draco stealing Neville's rememberball in the 1st book led to him discovering the vanishing cabinet in 6th book and trying to fix it.

I mean yeah maybe you want the story to stay compliant but Draco and Harry to be friends and see how the original plot can be slowly changed with Draco as a fruend in the picture , maybe that's what you're interested to read. Good for you, I guess. and I'm not bashing any fics. I just, personally, think it's boriiiiing and annoying a lil bit since it's a repetitive choice of writing Draco's character that I see a lot in fanfics.

Especially since a lot of the story happens because of Draco. It's like treating Draco like random NPC that had no active role whatsoever in moving the plot. And it's Draco specifically, not Theo. not Pansy. not Hermione. because of who Draco is as person too and his complex relationship with Harry (and Lucius).

Anyways, may I introduce y'all to this short fic where Draco was born a squib and the world became an apocalypse nightmare because of

For want of Magic, a war was lost

When Draco Malfoy was born, great things were expected of him. He was born into greatness.

But he wasn't born into magic.

Or: what would happen if Draco Malfoy was a squib?

you sincerely cannot take away draco away from his role in the books without having to tweak major plot points to either accomodate it or still make it happen as draco somehow becomes essential to it for some funny reason. its not like it was intentional too

his initial role is to just be a foil to harry, introduce concepts like blood purism or houses and make harry be the good guy out of the two. he lit would only remember spouting slurs when the story needs to (like in gof where his mudblood counter started ramping up bc jkr needed harry to snap and duel draco, causing him to miss and affect hermione's teeth)

then in books 6-7 especially, despite his aversion to violence and spent 99% of his time being terrified he still manages to become the master of the elder wand fmekfmfm and so much more

you can't take him away from his role without making major changes because he unintentionally causes shit in the plot. having a new DE student to do the mission instead of draco? very unlikely as draco's only a DE as punishment for lucius after all. he was supposed to die trying. fiendfyre scene? the way crabbe and goyle are written they would've never had the idea to sneak back in to hogwarts and look for harry, they were only there because i suspect draco wanted his wand back. a new slytherin rival for harry if draco turns out good? would either be unlikely or would need to have the same chemistry as drarry for the rivalry to even make sense

it's interesting to see how draco's existence and choices can drastically change the story. if he didn't bragged his privilege harry most likely would've never become a gryffindor, he had no frame of reference about the houses. he didn't like the thought of being in slytherin not only because of voldemort, but because draco will be there LMFAO

which makes me think how interesting a time travel fix it would work...the complexity of it...knowing that draco has years of complicated history with harry from the first timeline, but has none of that with harry from the second, as he has the maturity and growth enough to move past his braggy privileged phase, atleast enough that harry considers him as fine. would being an environment where draco can understand better strengthen their relationship? or it'll just be a different type

[thalthanmadanus]

add Sectumsempra scars to the list 😭

Artists take a shot every time you forget Harry's scar or put Draco's dark mark on the wrong side

[thalthanmadanus]

does this count as a draw drarry badly?? @julcheninred

[thalthanmadanus]

About the gender in hp thing: I know JKR wrote the books wanting the patriarchy to have minimal impact on the world but even through a couple of the metas you wrote you can see that that’s not the case. In your character crying post there’s a clear implication that showing that kind of emotion is a weakness but also that it is not masculine. Equating strength with masculinity is foundational for cultures with strong patriarchies, and this idea infests every other aspect of their lives. Idk because of that and many other reasons I have a very hard time of writing the wizarding world as anything other than a patriarchy

This is a watsonian analysis vs doylist analysis issue.

I 100% do think that JKR went out of her way to really, really downplay the importance of gender in her worldbuilding - and this contributes a lot to the specific feel of the world. You could genderflip, idk. Neville. Snape. Draco. Hermione. McGonagall. and almost no plot elements or character dynamics would change. (Maybe James would bully Severus slightly differently? Idk. He honestly might not.)

Compare HP to something like His Dark Materials, another British fantasy series released at the same time, marketed to the same demographic... in which gender politics are REALLY important. Lyra conforming or not conforming to specific gender norms hugely impacts the way a lot of other characters treat her. So much of Mrs. Coulter's character has to do with how she's navigated the back ways and side avenues into power, because the patriarchy that runs *that* world is extremely explicit and plot relevant, and there's a lot she just can't do.

Now is JKR *good* at writing a gender-blind world? Not really no. So she's stripped out the importance of gender in a fairly surface way, while leaving evidence of the foundations intact. Everyone's a het couple, women take the husband's last name, Molly and Petunia are at home while their husbands work and there's no inverse of that situation, Fleur's father walks her down the aisle at her wedding, it's important that Hermione be able to tame her hair when she wants to, but for Harry it doesn't matter...

There is ALSO the narrative voice poking through and putting its own spin on everything. This is where we start getting judgment (for example) directed both at girls who are too feminine, and at girls who aren't feminine enough. Or sexual assault not really "sticking" if it's directed at boys. We don't have a character talking, in-universe, about how it's wrong for a woman not to want children. We just have a book where the only women who don't have kids (or take care of kids) are villains. Same thing with masculinity = strength = no crying. That's something the narrative framing / bias of the author brings to the table, but it's kept out of the mechanics of the magical world. I guess you could say Harry and Draco equate crying/fainting with weakness (but not explicitly anti-masculinity)... but then Lupin goes out of his way to separate 'fainting' from 'weakness' anyway.

Interestingly, gender is much more baked into the muggle worldbuilding. (Part of why I think leaving that aspect out of the wizarding world was a deliberate choice.) Smeltings is an all-boys school, so is St Brutus.' Dudley teases Harry about his "boyfriend" Cedric, Vernon sizes up Arthur and Mad-Eye by how masculine they are. At the beginning of Book 4, Dudley's diet is this very gendered conflict between Vernon and Petunia, where Vernon doesn't want a "little nancy boy for a son" - and that is one of the only truly gendered insults in the whole series. "Crybaby" almost counts... but the Slytherins tease Hermione for crying too, so idk. They tend to go for pretty gender-neutral insults, like "poor" "unimportant parents" "looks like a chipmunk" ... etc.

Like... I'm trying to imagine a scene were Lucius lays into Draco for not being masculine enough, and I can't. I think that in a canon-compliant fic, a scene like that would feel odd. The conflict would need to be framed more like a "you disgrace the name of Malfoy with your weakness" or "never tell anyone outside the family what you're thinking" or "your believe yourself to be more intelligent than you truly are." Not "you need to man up."

[thalthanmadanus]

The movies will make you think that Ron is the most unhinged when actually he has the most hinge in that entire friend group.

Harry was (understandably) crashing out every other chapter. Ron got protective over his friends and family sometimes, but Luna was the witch equivalent of a flat earther holding a gun to your head until you admitted lizards run the government.

And don't get me started on Hermione "Light Yagami" Granger and her normal reaction to gossip (turning them into a beetle).