Weasels, Ferrets, and Draco Malfoy.
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| Title: | Weasels, Ferrets, and Draco Malfoy. |
| Creator: | Aja |
| Date(s): | May 15, 2004 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Harry Potter |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | Weasels, Ferrets, and Draco Malfoy. |
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Weasels, Ferrets, and Draco Malfoy. is a 2004 essay by Aja. The focus is Harry Potter, figuring out various clues Rowling was providing regarding canon, and trying to find justification for various head canons: "(In conclusion, I think Harry should read up on ferrets, and then snog Draco a lot. Thank you.)"
It is part of a 2002-04 series of essays. See About Writing.
From the Introduction:
This is a really long essay thingy, so I will give you the condensed version first. Courtesy of Orphne, and, er, Joss Whedon.
- 1. [weasel] = [ron]
- 2. but JKR said the family name
- 3. [insert pictures of all the various animals] including [badger] = [hufflepuff badge] and ferret = [draco]
- 4. ferrets were almost extinct! [ferrets with x's over their eyes]
- 5. but they were not! [happy ferrets]
- 6. weasels and ferrets are often misunderstood [sad weasels and ferrets] [angry people]
- 7. just as draco is misunderstood! [draco looking sulky]
- 8. people should understand draco [[[draco/harry]] snogging]
- 9. orphne: the end.
Interaction with Rowling's Official Website and Reaction to a Fic
This essay was created as a response to J.K. Rowling's recent (at the time) update to Rowling's official website. This site had little clues under various items shown on the screen (coffee cups, etc.): "...let me just make the disclaimer at the beginning of this post that I am utterly delighted that we have new canon. NEW CANON YAY YAY YAY.
[snipped]
I love this website. It has renewed my love for J.K. Rowling, who really is wonderful to her fans."
The essay was also a response to an unknown fic (now lost in the mists of time) on Fanfiction.Net: "This essay is dedicated to the author of this fic. If you have to pick between reading the essay or reading this fic--please don't read this fic."
Excerpts
So it's not really that surprising that, reading all the wonderful wealth of new canon JKR has given us at www.jkrowling.com, this immediately jumped out at me.
In the section under Characters (under Extras--click the coffee cup), she writes the following regarding the Weasleys:
"In Britain and Ireland the weasel has a bad reputation as an unfortunate, even malevolent, animal. However, since childhood I have had a great fondness for the family mustelidae; not so much malignant as maligned, in my opinion."
What interests me most is that here J.K. Rowling clearly had an opportunity, since she was talking about the Weasleys and their connection to the weasel, to limit her hints of redemption to the weasel itself. But she didn't; she expanded her reference to the entire family. Which just happens to include the ferret.
I've always wondered if there was any connection between her linking the Weasleys to the weasel so obviously, and her turning Draco into a ferret. It is one of the types of things you think of when you are trying to determine every possible angle from which to approach a character given the relatively little information you have about him. It has always been a possibility for me that it was intentional; now that Rowling has made this statement, I'm certain that it was.
We learn in Book 5 that the Weasleys and the Malfoys are distantly related. Moreover it is widely acknowledged throughout the wizarding world that most pureblood wizards are related in some way or other. So when JKR chooses her wording to refer not just to weasels but to "weasels, stoats, polecats, ferrets, mink, marten, fishers, tayras, wolverines, grisons, badgers, skunks, otters, and others," according to the Animal Diversity website, one wonders if she was not in fact implying a commonality of more than blood. She certainly seems to me to be referencing the homogeny of the wizarding world, between the opposite ends of the pureblood wizarding scale, the Malfoys and the Weasleys. But she is also, you can argue--and I do--referencing the general theme that seems to run throughout the books: the prejudice and sweeping assumptions that members of both the Malfoy family and the Weasley family encounter. It is impossible not to note the fact that among the much-maligned Mustelids are badgers--Hufflepuffs are often written off by the other houses but prove their worth as loyal, hardy team players--and ferrets. Both Hufflepuff and the two sets of wizarding families are constantly judged on the basis of their names only, and on legends belonging to generations of house/family lore and reputation, rather than on their deeds and misdeeds.
It has always been my opinion that all arguments that Draco Malfoy is simply misunderstood rather than evil ultimately center around the Ferret Scene. In this one scene is encompassed at once Draco's crudeness, his malevolence, his humor and his appeal--and his power to incite a hurt/comfort response in many of the readers. In this one scene we see more of his character truly exposed than we have in arguably any other scene except his "I'll have you" confrontation with Harry in Book 5. I have read countless arguments over whether the bouncing ferret punishment was suitable for his crime, and I have read countless arguments about whether this scene is meant to subtly incite sympathy for Draco in older readers--as it very obviously does, whether or not it is intended to do so. Above all, one of the things I think it's very easy to say about this scene is that Draco reacts like any normal boy would after having something like this happen to him--he is no cardboard bully here, no twisted evil death eater youth in training; he is a boy who has been incredibly humiliated and has possibly just undergone a rather traumatic physical experience. He manages to keep his composure, and come off without any extra loss of dignity at the hands of a character who really does turn out to be evil. Whatever else you can say about him, Draco Malfoy manages to endure a great deal of personal humiliation and, like a true Slytherin hero, get right back up and keep at the Sisyphean task that defines his role in the ecosystem of Hogwarts--competing with Potter and friends within an often-hostile environment, in an ongoing struggle to re-establish Slytherin at the top of the food chain. One might say he is, in a way, acting in a manner true to his mustela counterparts, who have managed to survive for so long against the constant threats of extinction and displacement, and severely unfavorable odds against them.