Thanks to all readers and reviewers, especially:
Rinney, dgloves70, SomethingsWicked, brittnymalfoy15

+++
So. This is a very big topic, and it’s challenging to even know where to start. Let’s start with the context of everything I’m about to say regarding D/G, and why I’m putting so much time and energy into saying it.

I decided a year ago that I was totally done with FIA, D/G, anything connected with Harry Potter, etc etc etc, and that I was now going to concentrate completely on writing original fiction.

It wasn’t a good idea. I grew to understand that. And I now think I know at least some of the reasons why. I’ll talk about that much more at the end, but it’s worth saying now that in a way, that’s what this entire essay is about. That’s why I believe that D/G matters, and always will. The reasons are very complex. We need to look at what D/G was, what it should have been, what it can be, and why it can get there.

There’s a lot to this. So where do we start?

HP canon is how we all got interested, so that’s where I think that the beginning has to be. What were Draco and Ginny in canon? Even more importantly, what could and should they have been?

I haven’t thought about all of this in a long time, but I think that if I’m really going to do all of this work on behalf of D/G, if you’re going to participate, and if we’re going to make this community what it can be… it needs to happen. Actually going over canon again; what a concept! But a very necessary one ;)

Looking at this now, after a stretch of several years, I think we can do something that wasn’t so easy before-- to analyze the books as literature, not only the stuff of which fandoms are made. Draco, Ginny, and their relationship are vital in terms of the structure of these books. And I think that now we can see exactly why, understanding this issue step by step. We’ll end up with answers that are surprising—and important for the future of the fandom community, too.


Okay, so here comes the FIRST thing that may get me some hate mail (maybe not the last, though.) I think that readers will probably react strongly one way or the other to this next idea. But I also think this is something that has to be said, and MUST be said in order for us to move forward as a fandom in the best ways that we could.

JKR is a great writer; her accomplishment with HP was unprecedented in the history of publishing. People responded to her work, and still do. There is something about this series that spoke to so many of us. It strikes a very profound chord in readers for some real reasons. She is one of the great storytellers of our time, without a doubt.

And now I’m going to say THIS…

(laces up New Balance shoes to run if necessary)

There are some aspects of the way the series was wrapped up that are just bullshit. And almost all of these revolve around Draco, Ginny, or both. No other characters were shafted as thoroughly as Draco and Ginny were by the conclusion of the books. No other characters saw so much potential cut short. They certainly weren’t the only ones in that situation, but what made Draco and Ginny different is that they were tied up with plot developments that were cut off so completely—and we do have canon evidence that plans for these developments must have originally existed; there’s too much that doesn’t make sense otherwise, including statements that JKR made in interviews.

I think that because some time has elapsed since the end of DH, now that the movie canon is even complete, we can finally really analyze these questions. It takes some time and distance to be able to do that. And if we don’t do it, I think that we’ll only be causing problems for ourselves in taking D/G fics and art to the next level—which is where all of the creative work has to go.

So let’s look at these questions.

In canon, I really think that Draco and Ginny were the two most fascinating characters with the most potential. But a lot has already been written by many different authors about the reasons why this is the case, so I won’t go over all of it in detail again here. The important point is how their characters relate to the plot arc in the entire series, and this is where a lot of new things begin to crop up.

These are the only two characters among the students who are not what they seem to be, who have much more complexity than they seem to have when first introduced. This isn’t true of Hermione and Ron. They never really change, and neither do any of the other younger characters. In fact, neither does Harry. They’re all just as they appear from beginning to end. Draco and Ginny are different. In the first book, we’re led to believe that Draco is nothing more than the rich, privileged bully, that Ginny is the stupid little girl who has a crush on Harry. But that is not what we learn that they are.

Where do we start to learn these things? Where are the plot points related to D/G really set up? Remember that JKR quote about how the CoS narrative held all the keys to what happens at the end of the series? Well, if that’s what JKR herself thought, I think we should take it seriously. So let’s examine CoS from that point of view.

We see complexity in both of them after they’ve first been introduced, and it’s in this book. This is where also see that they are the only two characters who seem to have supportive families, but actually may not. Draco’s family is not what it seems to be. The scene in Borgin and Burkes where we see the father/son dynamic is one of those which becomes more significant when we analyze it in terms of the entire Draco/Lucius character and plot arcs. If we actually picture this scene as an event one of us might have experienced, it’s clear that there’s something very wrong going on at home with the Malfoys. To be told by your father in front of a shopkeeper the family has known for years that you’ll never amount to more than a common thief is as telling as it gets.

Looking at the Weasleys, Ginny’s family didn’t figure out for an ENTIRE YEAR that she was possessed by the spirit of Tom Riddle. What kind of parenting is this? All we see is some pretty cold criticism after the fact (Arthur Weasley telling her not to trust anything if she couldn’t see where it kept its brain.) She had suffered severe trauma. She needed care, concern and therapy, and she certainly didn’t get any of it.

So Draco and Ginny are alone in a way that nobody else in the younger group is—except for Harry. (And, of course, HE was the golden boy, his way smoothed all the time and by every means possible. Everything always ended well for him, even when maybe it shouldn’t have. He never had to fight on his own, without help, without backup, without support—never. But that’s another argument. So we’ll stop here. ;)

The next thing that is so interesting in that in a way, Draco and Ginny essentially have the same relationship with Harry. They’re both on the outside trying to get in. In the first book, this desired relationship was set up. Draco wanted to be Harry’s friend (the handshake in the first book that Harry refused, remember?), and Ginny wanted to be Harry’s romantic interest (chasing after him at the train station. Can we step into fiction and smack Harry here??)

But it’s in CoS that we see how both Draco and Ginny behaved in terms of the relationship they want from Harry but aren’t getting. They did deal with this failure very differently. Draco decided that he’d take what he could get; if he couldn’t be Harry’s friend, then he’d be his enemy. Ginny tried harder for a positive relationship—and she tried very hard. When Draco said “you’ve got yourself a girlfriend”, he was right. Except that Harry wasn’t responding to her or to Draco in the ways that they wanted. And he was dismissive, uninterested, rejecting both of them casually.

We can honestly say that Harry has to bear some responsibility for the darker path that Ginny took with the diary. It’s hard to believe that she ever would have gotten so involved with that kind of dark magic if Harry hadn’t ignored her so carelessly. That was where and when Draco picked up so quickly on the dynamic between Ginny and Harry. He showed that he knew and understood what was going on, and that he felt jealousy as a result. And it’s significant, I think, that he made this clear to Ginny but not to Harry. He reacted to Ginny in this sense, not to Harry. Certainly, he knew that she spent that year chasing Harry, he commented on it more than once, and I think he saw that Harry would eventually respond to her. Hermione may have annoyed him, and she was actually closer to Harry, but he didn’t react to Hermione in this way. (Sorry, D/Hr fans… and we’ll get into the pairing aspect much more in the next chapter.) And it was because Draco saw that Hermione was Harry’s friend, but that Ginny would one day be much more.

When Draco almost got hold of the diary, he almost had something of Ginny. This was where he almost had the chance to do what Harry ended up doing. If he’d kept her diary, he would have been the one who made that choice to rescue her from the chamber. Even the exact wording of what he says in this pivotal scene is significant (he refuses to let go of the diary, saying “not until I’ve had a look.”) In CoS, Draco is always the one who looks, the only one who sees clearly. If he’d seen Ginny’s diary, he would instantly have known what was really happening.

So JKR was right. The keys really were in CoS. The clues for how this three-way interaction was intended to go were all in CoS. The Draco/Ginny/Harry triangle was set up there. And the only way the interactions make any sense is as a triangle. Look at it this way. Draco was always jealous of everything that Harry had—his Quidditch mastery, his easy friendships, his fame, his prominence; in fact, the first really negative interaction they ever have is when Draco is jealous of Harry’s dragon in Book 1. (And as we all saw, even that plot point was followed up on when Harry was able to ride the dragon in Book 7.) It was clearly logical that he’d be jealous of Harry’s girlfriend, that in some way, at some point, he would try to get what Harry had in Ginny. In fact, it’s the only development that could have been logical. This isn’t rocket science, y’all. The lack of this plot development made no sense whatsoever.

So CoS is the foundation for the argument I’m about to make. D/G made sense in canon, not as a romantic ship, necessarily, but as important interaction that did not end up happening. And this interaction was the only element that could have caused a number of other things to make sense, to fill in significant gaps that are more obvious now that we look back on canon rather than writing in the middle of it.

Here’s how it should have gone, and how I truly believe that the plot did go to some extent at one time, before JKR decided to abruptly pull back the narrative from the darker, more adult, more complex themes. If the narrative had been allowed to breathe, if JKR hadn't suddenly felt the need to start squashing it into something that would “fit the epilogue”, then this is the D/G that we would have seen. (Does this remind anyone else of those “How The Phantom Menace Could Have Been Good” videos? ;)

So let’s examine the facts, and see how they add up to what could and should have happened here.

Draco felt jealousy of Harry over Ginny, and as we can see, it was set up as far back as CoS. Maybe this was romantic, maybe it wasn’t, but it was significant. These feelings didn’t vanish. He certainly noticed Ginny as she matured (remember the train scene in HBP?) The triangle set up in CoS was still there in HBP, so it wouldn’t have disappeared by DH. So what happened as a result?

I think the clue lies in the question of exactly where Draco even was during seventh year. Was he at Hogwarts, or was he at home? Overall, I’d say that he couldn’t have been at Hogwarts. If he were at school, we should have seen some kind of interaction between him and other students. He certainly would have interacted with teachers, and especially with Snape. Even Harry wasn’t dense enough to not pick up on any news about that, and he certainly heard a lot about what other students were doing. Also, we’re shown that Draco is at home more often than I think could have been covered by school vacations.

So essentially, Snape brought him back to Malfoy Manor, and that’s where he stayed. The question is why. Why didn’t Draco go back to school? Education was very important in his family. (Remember Lucius harassing him about grades?) It wasn’t a question of being “caught” if he returned. There wasn’t anyone there who would have any interest in catching him. Everyone knew that Snape was the one who had killed Dumbledore, and yet there he was, the new headmaster. Of course Draco could have gotten away with his part in what had happened.

So Draco could and should have gone back to school… unless there was a very good reason why he didn’t. Otherwise, all that Draco really does that year is hang around the Manor with Voldy and the Death Eaters. Voldy uses him to torture his prisoners (gives traumatized!Draco a big hug and sends him to therapy), but anyone could have done that. So why is he kept at Malfoy Manor?

Let’s consider what the Death Eaters and Voldy wanted almost more than anything else that year—to get ahold of Harry. Everyone was chasing him; nobody knew where he really was. Getting him to Malfoy Manor would have been their first priority; a lot time and energy and thought would have been expended on it.

So what could have possibly made Harry walk into the last place on earth where he wanted to go? What kind of leverage could have been used to get him there?

The most obvious answer in the world is that they would have kidnapped someone who Harry cared about and used him/her as a hostage. But who would it have been in Harry’s case? He didn’t have parents. He didn’t have siblings. His two best friends were already with him.


There’s only one logical answer, and if possible, it’s more obvious than the last one. Ginny was the only person could be used to lure Harry. And everyone knew this. Harry even knew it. Otherwise, what on earth was the point of the scene at the end of Book 6 where Harry broke up with her for “noble reasons”? But Harry didn’t tell anyone. The relationship had been public, but the breakup was a secret. We are being set up to know that everyone, whether friend or enemy, was going to think that Harry and Ginny were still together.


Ginny would have been kidnapped by Lucius Malfoy; this was set up by his putting the diary in her cauldron during her second year. (Otherwise, it just doesn’t make sense that this was the only interaction he ever had with her.) And the purpose would be to get Harry to go to Malfoy Manor in order to try to rescue her.


Think about it. The Death Eaters certainly kidnapped other people. That’s why the dungeon was full, and this is just what happened to Luna so that they would have influence over her father. Are we supposed to believe that none of them would have thought of kidnapping Ginny in order to do the same thing to Harry? Really? And Ginny was at Hogwarts, which everyone knew. Snatching her would have easy. And it would have been the one and only way to get Harry to Malfoy Manor, where Voldy and the Death Eaters so desperately WANTED him to be.


Wouldn’t a third grader be able to figure all of this out? Are we seriously supposed to believe that none of it crossed JKR’s mind?


(Hint: The answers are YES and NO.)


So now we see how these plot points could have happened, and why, But it’s only the setup to everything that this would have meant for D/G… that’s in the next chapter. :)

+++


A/N: The third D/G video is now UP on our YT channel! We won’t talk about how much time I put into this. It was kind of nuts. But it was quite the learning experience. ;) Anyway, click on the Videos tab.


Secrets of the Internet, D/G Style
Leave a Review
You must login (register) to review.