General

My own thought on it is that although at this point it's known in the wizarding world that Voldemort is gaining power and his followers are becoming more bold, even if some in Slytherin sound/seem like they are siding with Voldemort, unless they outright show that to be true, they can't be banned from Hogwarts.

Perhaps Dumbledore, who has the authority as the headmaster, feels that the students, no matter who they are, are safer at the school.

Maybe Dumbledore is treating this as a "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" situation? By keeping Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle at school, perhaps he can gain information about what the Death Eaters are planning, what Voldemort is planning.

Which platform are you listening to the books on? 9¾? 😉

Ha! Great reference.

I am listening on Audible, so hearing them read by Jim Dale, who does a fantastic job.

Anyway, thanks for your input! Always good to hear other's thoughts on the matter.

ChosenOne wrote:

The old belief that the sins of the father shouldn't be paid by their children. Malfoy and his crew are just being teenage edgelords at this point in the story. They're trying to come off as better than Harry and the rest of their classmates, acting like they back this true evil without fully comprehending the weight of the situation. We all knew kids in high school who would draw swastikas on a desk to seem like they didn't care about what society deemed "right" or "wrong" (at least, I did).

Most of the world is against Voldemort, but just as in real life, there will always be that sect who need to go against the grain to feel superior to others. That's not necessarily to say that Malfoy and his pals don't share Lucius' ideals, but they themselves haven't carried out any truly deplorable criminal acts themselves, so there would be no reason to punish them or forbid them from attending school. Just look at Nazis, or any other real-world equivalent to Death Eaters... they themselves are the criminals, not their descendants. Some of those descendants may share the same gross beliefs, but plenty of them likely disavow them as well.

I forget if there are any blatant representations of this in the books, I know there aren't any in the movies, but within the lore of Harry Potter and the wizarding world, it's known that not every Slytherin is inherently evil. MOST of them are just normal wizards. Heck, even Harry was considered by the Sorting Hat to be placed in Slytherin. Slytherin himself was a big old racist, but I think in the "modern" day (or the 1990s, where the books take place), it's just Harry's class that gives the Slytherin House itself a bad name to us book readers. Classic Malfoy family.

ChosenOne wrote:
What are your own thoughts on it?

nonamesleft wrote:

As I was writing my initial post, I realized that, similar to what @theJaw wrote, Malfoy and the bunch have technically done nothing wrong. Same goes for his mother. I guess it is not a crime to be the son or wife of a criminal, so long as you did not partake in the activities.

I think the bigger surprise for me was that, until this point, Draco had plausible deniability that his dad was a DE. Now, there can be no doubt - Lucius is a DE and everyone knows it. Nevertheless, Draco is upset that his dad is in jail, and not a simple "I stand by my dad no matter what" upset, but more so a "what's wrong with what he is/did" upset. Therefore, Draco's plausible deniability is gone, and his acceptance and approval of his dad as a DE leaves no doubt as to where he stands.

Draco was barely in book 5, and certainly did not play a large role in it. So it's almost as if before this revelation at the beginning of book 6, Draco was just a school bully but not a true nemesis outside of the schoolgrounds. Now, though, he is an unequivocal "bad guy."