mijan | HBP and Eclipse: Connecting the dots.

So, I was thrilled at the number of similarities between HBP and Eclipse. There were some similarities with Harry… he’s grown up a lot in both stories. He’s got a more mature, cynical edge to him, without the CAPSLOCK!Harry that drove us mad in the last book. But the big similarities are in regards to Draco. I mean, where are we at right now? Draco is facing a mission that terrifies him, under the threat of Voldemort killing both him and his parents. We had him wrapped up between the choices that he must make, his fear of Voldemort, his love for his parents, his anger, and the inner human being that he’s suppressed for years. Let’s see what we can find…

First, although the explanation isn’t quite the same, we find Draco sneaking around Hogwarts undetected by the Marauder’s Map.
HBP: Draco is in the Room of Requirement, which shields him from detection by the Marauder’s Map.
Eclipse: Using the Mislocator.

Pineapple.

HBP: Slughorn has an obsession with his crystallized pineapple.

Eclipse: Harry and Draco have an inside joke about pineapple.

(Hey, I think it’s cute.)

HBP: (Chapter 24) “…[Harry] fell to his knees beside Malfoy, who was shaking uncontrollably in a pool of his own blood…”
Eclipse: (Chapter 9) "Harry rushed to Draco and fell to his knees next to the boy's prone form. Draco's hand was pressed to his temple, a trickle of blood oozing through his fingers, and his cheeks were drawn and sallow.”

Draco’s ability to kill... this is a huge theme in both stories, as far as they relate to Draco. Here's how JKR and I tackled the issue, respectively:

HBP: (Chapter 27): 'Draco, Draco, you are not a killer.'
'How do you know?' said Malfoy at once. He seemed to realise how childish the words had sounded; Harry saw him flush in the Mark's greenish light. 'You don't know what I'm capable of,' said Malfoy more forcefully, 'you don't know what I've done!'
'Oh, yes, I do,' said Dumbledore mildly. 'You almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, Draco, but they have been feeble attempts ... so feeble, to be honest, that I wonder whether your heart has been really in it...'
[SNIP]
'I'm not afraid!' snarled Malfoy, though he still made no move to hurt Dumbledore. 'It's you who should be scared!'
'But why? I don't think you will kill me, Draco. Killing is not nearly as easy as the innocent believe ... so tell me, while we wait for your friends ... how did you smuggle them in here? It seems to have taken you a long time to work out how to do it.'

Eclipse: (Chapter 2) Draco felt his face flush. How did this boy manage to infuriate him so easily? "You're in a bloody fine position to talk. You're just lucky I didn't decide to finish you off myself."
"You couldn't have." Potter sounded quite sure of himself.
"Only because I had to bring you back alive."
"That's not what I mean." Those vivid green eyes leveled themselves at Draco, who found himself blinking involuntarily.
"Then what exactly do you mean, Potter? Do you think I actually give a rat's arse about you?" What was Potter playing at?
"No."
"Think there's some sort of 'inner good' in me?" This was starting to become damned uncomfortable.
Potter scoffed, "No."
Draco could feel his heart thudding nervously. "Well then, what are you getting at?"
"I don't think you're strong enough to kill me yourself."
*******
Eclipse (Chapter 2): Bloody Merlin's beard; if it hadn't been for the Dark Lord's express wish to have the boy alive, he would have killed the insufferable little scar-head himself.
Draco would have run the poison-laced blade across Potter's slender throat instead of just puncturing his shoulder like a harmless bee sting. He would have stood there, and laughed at the glory of watching Potter's blood seeping out across his skin, drenching his jumper and pooling on the floor. Relished in the ways it puddled, memorized the exact shade of deep crimson red. It would have been a sweet revenge indeed to smell the metallic tang of Potter's life force seeping through his fingers like sand. He would have reached down and wiped the blade on Potter's sleeve, placing that final smudge of blood to stand as testimony to his victory, and watched as the final ebbing of life drained from Potter's body. He would stare down into the terrified eyes in triumph and...
Draco glanced down at his splayed fingers and the flattened palms of his hands, lying in his lap. They were shaking. That was just it, wasn't it? Now, thinking about it, he really wasn't so sure he could have done it. The mission had been a success precisely because the responsibility was minor and the rewards great. But what if the mission had been to kill? He hadn't actually considered the possibility, not really, until Potter had thrown the challenge in his face, bold and defiant.
"I don't think you're strong enough to kill me yourself."
Could he? Could Draco take the dagger to Potter's throat? If he'd been told to, could he have actually poisoned Potter instead of merely stunning him? Could he honestly stare down the length of his wand, directly into Potter's piercing green eyes, and say, out loud, "Avada Kedavra" ?
Draco tipped his head forward into his trembling hands and dug his fingers into his face. More than anything, he wanted to be able to answer those questions with a resounding "yes", but he had seen something burning in those eyes, something alive, something very human. You don't think of your enemy as another person, but merely as a means to an end. Could he have killed Potter? He didn't know anymore. He just didn't know.

And now, we speak of killing, and personal choices:

HBP: (Chapter 27) 'My dear boy, let us have no more pretence about that. If you were going to kill me, you would have done it when you first Disarmed me, you would not have stopped for this pleasant chat about ways and means.'
'I haven't got any options!' said Malfoy, and he was sud denly as white as Dumbledore. 'I've got to do it! He'll kill me! He'll kill my whole family!'
'I appreciate the difficulty of your position,' said Dumbledore. 'Why else do you think I have not confronted you before now? Because I knew that you would have been murdered if Lord Voldemort realised that I suspected you.'
Malfoy winced at the sound of the name.
'I did not dare speak to you of the mission with which I knew you had been entrusted, in case he used Legilimency against you,' continued Dumbledore. 'But now at last we can speak plainly to each other ... no harm has been done, you have hurt nobody, though you are very lucky that your unintentional victims survived ... I can help you, Draco.'
'No, you can't,' said Malfoy, his wand hand shaking very badly indeed. 'Nobody can. He told me to do it or he'll kill me. I've got no choice.'
'Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban... when the time comes we can protect him too... come over to the right side, Draco... you are not a killer...'
Malfoy stared at Dumbledore.
'But I got this far, didn't I?' he said slowly. They thought I'd die in the attempt, but I'm here ... and you're in my power ... I'm the one with the wand ... you're at my mercy ...'
'No, Draco,' said Dumbledore quietly. 'It is my mercy, and not yours, that matters now.'
Malfoy did not speak. His mouth was open, his wand hand still trembling. Harry thought he saw it drop by a fraction -

Eclipse: (Chapter 5) "Fuck, Potter! I'm just doing my job!" Without considering the implications of his words, Draco continued to rant. "It's not as though I would even have a real choice in the matter! It's the Dark Lord's work, not my responsibility. I'm not killing anyone here!"
(Chapter 5) "But don't fool yourself into thinking you can lay the blame on that bloody, royal Malfoy name. Your choices make you what you are." He laughed bitterly. You said it wasn't your choice. Bull shit, Malfoy. Even by not choosing a different path, you make the decision to be what you are. I chose not to be a Slytherin. For you, Slytherin was exactly what you wanted; your choice. I've made the choices I wanted, whether I live or die. Your choices... are totally up to you."
(Chapter 6) The conversations of these past few days were running circles in Draco's head, and his underlying exhaustion wasn't making this any easier. Draco's frustration with this train of thought reached a peak. He let go of the bars and stomped his foot irritably. "And I already told you, this isn't my choice! This is just what I have to do! It's my name, my heritage..."
"Isn't it what you want?"
"Yes! No! What the hell are you doing? Stop trying to trip me up!" This wasn't funny anymore. Why did his words always seem to fall out at the wrong angle around Harry? What happened to all the retorts he'd saved over the years? Why was the razor edge of his wit suddenly as dull as the broad side of a cauldron?
Harry shrugged nonchalantly, inciting Draco even further.
"Listen here, Potter. This is exactly what I want. Who wouldn't want to be on the winning team? Who wouldn't want more power than anyone could possibly imagine?" He jabbed one thumb at his own chest. "It's what I want."
Green eyes flicked from Draco to the floor, then back to Draco. Harry spoke in a soft, almost caring tone. "Then why are you so scared?"
The look in Harry's eyes, one of almost gentle honesty, the suddenness with which his own fear was turned back on him and the truth behind the simple question - it all shot through Draco, shaking him to the core. Biting his lower lip, he spun around and slammed his back against the bars of the cell. He wrapped his arms tightly across his chest, furling his fingers into the folds of his shirt, and squeezed his eyes closed against the hot pain pressing behind them, hoping against futile hope that Potter hadn't seen the look on his face. After a moment spent trying to compose himself, he opened his eyes and took a shuddering breath.
"Because, Potter," he said as evenly as possible, still facing away, "sometimes, when you want to play for the winning team, the price you pay for failure is very, very high."

((And to bring it full circle, please compare the meaning of the above bolded line to the one below.))

HBP: "No one can help me," said Malfoy. His whole body was shaking. "I can't do it. ... I can't. ... It won't work . . . and unless 1 do it soon ... he says he'll kill me. ..."

HBP: (Chapter 2): "Draco should be proud," said Bellatrix indifferently. "The Dark Lord is granting him a great honor. And I will say this for Draco: he isn't shrinking away from his duty, he seems glad of a chance to prove himself, excited at the prospect —"
"If Draco succeeds," said Snape, still looking away from her, "he will be honored above all others."
"But he won't succeed!" sobbed Narcissa. "How can he, when the Dark Lord himself—?" Bellatrix gasped; Narcissa seemed to lose her nerve. "I only meant… that nobody has yet succeeded….”

Eclipse (Prologue/chapter 1): Weeks of scheming and preparation over the summer - not to mention reducing himself to begging for this chance to avenge his father's temporary imprisonment - had paid off richly. Everything had happened just as he'd planned. If Draco had failed, there would have been punishment, but it had been worth the risk. His father would greet him with praise, and the Dark Lord himself would honour his success. The world was at his fingertips, where it belonged. He had accomplished a task which was the envy of all Voldemort's senior Death Eaters. He, Draco Malfoy, had caught Harry Potter.

And now, we come to the crux of the matter... in a nutshell, what does JKR think of Draco? What does she tell us, directly, about him as a character? Well, we're lucky enough to have a post-HBP interview that tells us exactly that. And, joy of joys, I have something from Eclipse to compare it to!

JKR’s interview: Harry’s problem with it was always that his emotions were too near the surface and that he is in some ways too damaged. But he's also very in touch with his feelings about what's happened to him. He's not repressed, he's quite honest about facing them, and he couldn't suppress them, he couldn't suppress these memories. But I thought of Draco as someone who is very capable of compartmentalizing his life and his emotions, and always has done. So he's shut down his pity, enabling him to bully effectively. He's shut down compassion — how else would you become a Death Eater? So he suppresses virtually all of the good side of himself. But then he's playing with the big boys, as the phrase has it, and suddenly, having talked the talk he's asked to walk it for the first time and it is absolutely terrifying. And I think that that is an accurate depiction of how some people fall into that kind of way of life and they realize what they're in for. I felt sorry for Draco. Well, I’ve always known this was coming for Draco, obviously, however nasty he was.

Eclipse: (Chapter 6):
Draco was caught between the tremendous pulling urge to give himself over to the release he felt in allowing himself to be human, to speak openly, to touch; and the fear that was welling up in the back of his mind like icy black water. For Merlin's sake, he was in Voldemort's headquarters! To be weak here was to forfeit your life, and Potter was right. He was scared.
Terrified.
Withdrawing his hand suddenly, he pulled it tightly to his chest, hugging it close to him, and stood as straight as he could against the terror thundering through his veins. He looked at Harry despairingly. "Don't you ever do that again."
"What? I only thought... "
"Well you thought wrong, Potter!" he howled. "You have no idea what you just did."
Harry took a step back, visibly stunned. "What do you mean, what I just did?"
"What you did! You... you just ruined everything!"
"How did I ruin anything? For someone who you stabbed, captured, and handed over to Voldemort, I'd say that I've been inhumanly kind to you! I was trying to help you! From what I could tell, we're both up against Voldemort, and you're scared stiff! I happen to know what that's like. Obviously you don't."
"You have NO idea what it's like for me right now!"
"Fine, Malfoy. Next time you're at the point of tears, remind me to be a heartless bastard to you! Apparently that's how you people function around here!"
Draco stomped his foot in frustration, hot emotions pulsing behind his eyes again. "That's exactly what I need! You just don't get it!"
"Well, fuck, Malfoy. Explain it to me then, because for once, you're right. I don't get it."
Draco turned his head to the side, trying desperately to pull a coherent thought the haze that seemed to be permeating his mind, before giving the calmest response he could muster.
"Five days ago, Potter, when I was planning all this, I was ready. I could have faced Voldemort. Detached, cold, calculating; that's how you've got to be around him. Raw anger is the only emotion you can allow yourself, because it covers your fear, allows you to hate. That's what I was trained for. I was barely ready and only because I had taught myself not to feel, but I could have done it. That's what it's all about Potter. Controlling your fear, controlling your emotions. The Dark Lord can look right through your eyes and into your soul. Did you know that?"
Harry cringed inwardly, but said nothing.
"If your walls break down, if he sees your fear, then you're not worthy. If you're not worthy, you get discarded. I hope I don't need to explain that to you."
"Not at all, I think I can work it out for myself" Harry said bluntly. "I just figured a little bit of support might not hurt..."
"That's exactly what's going to kill me here, Potter! You really don't get it, do you?"
Draco squashed the palm of his hand into his face in frustration. There was no reason not to just spill everything out. He barely had the strength to hold it in anyway, even if he'd wanted to. It was time to be honest, with himself as much as with Potter. He sucked in a slow breath through his shaking fingers before pulling his hands away.
"I've been taught to stand on my own, not to feel anything. You're the only person who could pull emotion out of me that I couldn't stop, but as long as that was anger, I was still safe. You just broke down the only defense that I had, Potter. In three bloody days, you destroyed me."
Harry's jaw hung loosely as he listened to Draco's ranting.
Draco barely noticed the ease with which he was giving away so much himself through his words. It felt good to let it all pour out. His thoughts boiled freely to the surface, coming hot and fast.
"As long as you were pushing at me, I could still hate you. But no, you had to go and turn into a human being on me. Had to become real. Fuck, you even decided to be nice. All of a sudden, you forced me to actually feel. I have no defense against that. Now, I've got nothing, no walls, no safeties... nothing to defend me against The Dark Lord."

So, there you have it! This is what I could come up with in an hour. As I re-read both stories (I really need to go through my own fic again... I'm starting to blur the details!), I'll see if I can come up with more stuff. I'd like to find some more direct quotes, if I can, but those take the longest to find. In the meantime, let me know what you think of the comparison. :)

~Mijan