So, can we finally revisit that old question about Draco's thought's on Tolkien? I picked up a couple of hints in the chapter but I would like the full picture.
Yes! This was what I had to get past, first.
I ended up trimming that conversation with Malcolm down a bit, because it was getting too on the nose and too confessional for a strange Muggle that Draco jut met. But there was a version that went, roughly:
Malcolm: so am i correct in guessing that Harry is the Frodo in this situation?
Draco: i mean, yes, obviously.
Malcolm: yikes, do not envy him that
Draco: hard same, my new friend.
Malcolm: so wait, who does that make you?
Draco: do NOT get me started, Granger keeps saying I’m the Boromir but that has some implications that I find frankly insulting. I am willing to concede that Weasley is clearly the Sam but I insist on being at LEAST the Legolas and Granger is the Gimli AT BEST.
Anyway. Once Draco got past how the Middle-Earth version of wizards have nothing to do with the real kind, he got real into it. Especially when things were tense at home or at Hogwarts, because none of his real problems exist in Middle-Earth, and escapist fiction isn’t usually a thing for wizards as far as we know.
Some other facts:
Draco rarely thinks about the fact that Tolkien was, technically, a Muggle. That thought does not fit into his head very comfortably, especially before fifth year.
It’s mean to call the house-elves “Smeagol” but sometimes he does it anyway.
Some parts of it, especially the end of RotK, read very differently to him when he comes back to them as an adult, after the war.
He and Harry never agree about which of them was first to make the Wormtail/Wormtongue comparison. In fact it was basically a dead tie.
Draco never admits to being responsible for the White Tree on the wall of the Room of Requirement in seventh year, but the only people who would have known weren’t around, anyway.
