Long title, I know. But it explains everything I want to say.
I’ve written about the interpretation of canon showing that Draco could have had a crush on Hermione (this essay, also linked below, says it better than I ever could, even when I wrote about it in this WoDM series!). But one thing people should think about is that if, in fact, Draco had a canonical “forbidden” crush on Hermione, it would be reminiscent–nay, parallel–to another famous “forbidden” pairing: Severus Snape and Lily Evans (eventually Potter).
First, to fully understand my point of this post, a small crash course on the “Draco had a crush on Hermione” theory:
- There are times when Draco initiates conversation (albeit conversations with backhanded compliments) with Hermione
- Draco warns Hermione about the Death Eaters at the beginning of the fourth book, making his motives and emotions toward her ambiguous
- Both have similar personalities (bossy, smart, big readers, etc.)
- Draco is blindsided by Hermione’s beauty at the Yule Ball in Book 4, so much so that he blushes and can’t even form proper words.
- Hermione, does, on occasion, worry about Draco’s safety and actually agrees with Draco’s logic
For more on this theory, click here , here and here.
The similarities are fairly obvious. The male in both situation is an outcast in one form or another (Snape was greasy, unkept and unpopular; Draco is the son of a big-time Death Eater and is disliked by most of his peers. Draco doesn’t really realize that he is an outcast until the War is over). The female in both situations are understanding, intelligent, and are easily angered when they see mistreatment. The main difference between Snape/Lily and Draco/Hermione is that Snape and Lily were actually friends. If Draco or Hermione had reached out to the other one, they would probably be friends like Snape and Lily. In fact, I would argue that if a certain event didn’t happen in Chamber of Secrets, there might have actually still been some hope for Draco and Hermione to be at least allies.
The event in question is when Hermione is called “mudblood” by Draco after she humiliates him in front of his friends (and especially in front of Harry Potter) on the quidditch pitch. He never really goes out of his way to call her this before; it’s only when she insults his pride. The way he calls her that name, however inexcusable it may be, is in the same manner of a boy calling a girl they like a very ugly name, or, like how in Hey Arnold, Helga always called Arnold “football-head” to hide that she liked him.
Anyway, this event is very similar to an event in Snape’s adolescence that shapes his entire world from that point on. When Lily defends him in front of James and the Marauders, Snape’s pride is hurt. He feels like, even though he welcomes her protection, that it is an insult to his manhood. Therefore, out of sheer idiocy,lapse in judgement, what-have-you, he calls Lily a mudblood, therefore hurting her and turning her away from him. By doing this, he completed his self-fulfilling prophecy of not having anyone to love him, something he could’ve avoided if he just accepted her help.
The point I’m trying to make is that there could’ve been a glimmer of redemption for Draco early on if he had never called Hermione the M-word. Sure, you can argue that the basis on which people think Draco had a crush on Hermione is shaky at best, but if it was canon, his story would immediately be on the path that Snape’s was on, just by saying that one word. In a way, it still is on that path, because the one friend he could have had, the one friend who would have gone out of their way to understand him, the one friend who would have stuck by him no matter what anyone else thought about him, was now lost to him. As stuck into his pride as he was, he probably didn’t realize the possibilities for he and Hermione, as slim as they were, were gone until it was too late, just like Snape.
However, that’s where atoning after the war comes in!
