Draco's Redemption
Draco's Redemption
If you asked me post-GoF whether Draco will be redeemed, I would have told you "I don't know, but I hope so." If you ask me the same question now, post-OotP, I would answer "I don't think so, but I still hope he will."
After reading OotP I could see no build-up for a Draco redemption and by the end of Book Five (out of seven) there should be build-up. Instead we have Draco doing the dumb thing and joining the Umbridge Youth. And I guess, while the redemption of nasty bully is imaginable, the redemption of a stupid, nasty bully, who doesn't see that opposing your whole school for a puny bit of power is a very, very stupid thing to do, is hard to believe.
However the nearly inevitable damnation of Draco is more than just a bit problematic. Damnation... well, whatever Rowling has in store for Draco, if it isn't redemption then it won't be nice. Whether she will kill him, make him a Death Eater, Azkaban inmate or disfigure him, doesn't really matter, because unredeemed Draco has nearly no chance to get out of the story unscathed.
However Rowling will shoot herself majorly in foot if she just condemns Draco to his unpleasant fate without much further ado. See, one of the most important messages of the books is "It isn't your talents, your abilities, your background that makes you, it is your choices." And while Draco has the talents, abilities, family, name to be a racist, nasty bully, he had never the choice to choose to be something else. The only opportunity Draco ever had to escape his genetically engineered fate was securing Harry's friendship, but even there the choice was made for him - by Harry.
Draco Malfoy never had a chance, an opportunity to grasp redemption, there have been no offers to join Dumbeldore's Army, to be something else but the resident evil Slytherin.
If Harry's foil is condemned without getting a clear choice in that matter, then the whole "it's our choices that makes us" thing will look extremely phony. No, Draco doesn't need to be redeemed for Rowling not to ruin that message, but he has to get a choice regarding his redemption. If he rejects his redemption then everything is fine as the message is confirmed by the text rather than contradicted, but if he doesn't get the choice in the first place, then Rowling has a problem with one of her central themes.