reenka

It's interesting making the point about Draco's focus being childlike because I think it's both true and not true. It's true because he does seem SO immature to me, still stuck in a very early stage of development, trying to get the basic self-confidence he needs to be sure of his parents and then venture out in the world without them. So as you say rejection becomes a threat to his identity. In his world it seems like when he's acknowledged he is good and when he's dismissed or criticized he is bad. But otoh what's not childlike is the way he doesn't give up. I mean, children in general forget pain more easily than adults do. It's adults that hold grudges. So I feel Draco's kind of both...like, look at his relationship with Lucius. When Lucius is showing him contempt in B&B he's angry and sulky, but then he goes right back to thinking his dad's the best. I can see that being a pattern early on. When Dad was nice he was the best but when Dad (or Mummy) was mean Draco, like most small kids, probably forgave him fairly quickly. Draco still seems stuck in that mode with his parents--Lucius is easily as insulting as Harry in the B&B scene and Draco doesn't seem to hold a grudge about it (I think he just transfers that grudge to Harry). So on one hand he's acting like the kid and always giving his parents another chance, otoh he's an adult who resents the way that this is the world works...or something.

This also makes me think of that fanon convention that always has Draco insulting everybody in Slytherin with them walking on eggshells around him, yet we've not seen this in canon. (He's jocularly bullying to C&G as underlings, but there's no hint he calls Pansy names, for instance.) What's ironic is that this fanon Draco is actually more related to Canon Harry, especially in OotP. Harry is prickly, always ready to cut someone off if they say the wrong thing--Ron and Hermione *do* have to walk on eggshells at times. With Harry I think it's part of him overidentifying as the outsider. He's paranoid of people being against him so he's always letting them know if they have a problem with him they had better piss off. Harry's very all-or-nothing in OotP. Draco, by contrast, seems always shown as the one working hard for people to not abandon him, imo. This is not to say he's not demanding as well--presumably hating Harry Potter is as much a pre-requisite for being Draco's friend as hating Voldemort (and Draco) is for being Harry's. But I still think Harry's based more on the, "I really don't need anyone!" message while Draco's is more, "Fine. See if I care. I don't need you. Bastard." Both of which, ironically, seem to really be about both boys needing or wanting people and being unhappy about that need.