A Harry Potter reader named (?) Cassidy posted a thought on @jkrowling social media that “I would give anything to read Harry Potter from Draco’s perspective.”
The Presence herself responded, believe it or not. Unlike other authors — Orson Scott Card and his disciple Stephenie Meyer come immediately to mind — Ms Rowling does not promise to re-tell the stories from another character’s point of view to re-invisage, reinvent, or critically review the first telling. She just shares a list of the book titles from Draco’s Hogwarts Saga.
- Draco Malfoy and the Rejected Handshake
- Draco Malfoy and the Better-Than-Potter’s Broomstick
- Draco Malfoy and Hagrid’s Bloody Chicken
- Draco Malfoy and the Year His Father Would Hear About
- Draco Malfoy and the Inquisitorial Squad
- Draco Malfoy and the Vanishing Cabinet
- Draco Malfoy and the Year He Realized He Had Been a Douchebag
Three notes:
(1) The ‘Douchebag’ final note indicates that Ms Rowling needs a social media handler or she should just say no to drinking and twittering.
(2) The idea that Draco and company think of Hippogriffs as “bloody chickens” really is funny. And, yes, I know that ‘bloody’ in the UK carries more weight on the playground than ‘douchebag’ or even the f-bomb. Not so in the US, so we can give it a pass. The note, funny as it is, however, reflects such a degraded mind and disenchanted workdview, that we can be grateful all we have is the titles.
(3) Books 1-2 reflect Draco’s Harry obsession, I confess to not ‘getting’ Book 4’s title (either just a note that the TriWizard Cup would be well publicized or an aside about Draco feeling neglected or… what?), and Books 5 and 6 actually sound interesting. Draco actually was a player in these two years. I can imagine reading and enjoying these two installments.
Link below the jump — comments and corrections, coveted as always! Hat tip to Ideal James.
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It’s been great to see the recent activity here. I always enjoy reading your thoughts, Mr. Granger! I’m no Twitter user, but I did notice this post of Rowling’s the other day. I wouldn’t read anything into its content. It’s something that’s been floating around the internet for a while, and she evidently shared it on a whim. I think it is interesting, though, that she was aware of it in to first place. It amuses me to think that she’s ever taken the time to dig through the internet’s great rubbish pile of ‘memes’ that are related to her work. By the way, is ‘bloody’ really more weighty than the dreaded F-bomb in the UK? Down here in Australia, ‘bloody’ is no more off-limits than ‘noodle’ or ‘heffalump’. I couldn’t imagine Ron’s occasional, ‘bloody hell’ would get past British parents like it does were it truly considered so taboo.
Perhaps “bloody,” an elision of ‘by Our Lady,’ is only historically so weighted! Thank you for the kind correction.
Aye, that’s quite likely. I have heard of some folk being offended by it, so you were probably not too far from the truth in some cases!
Have to admit, I find this funny. Book #4’s title, I think, is alluding to the fact that Draco constantly says, “You wait until my father hears about this!” He may have even said that after Moody turns him into a ferret.
If JNA is right and these titles have been circulating about, then Ms Rowling only cut-and-pasted them. Which makes the above, as JNA points out (kindly), a wasted effort. Oh, well!