Weasels, Ferrets, and Draco Malfoy.

Originally posted May 15, 2004:

For weatherby, 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. I am horrified that a character named Malfalda Weasley was almost in Slytherin and nearly upstaged Rita Skeeter, who is one of my favorite characters. I am horrified that Hermione was almost named Puckle. I am absolutely brokenhearted that the scene at Malfoy Manor with Draco got cut. Reading about the basis for Gilderoy Lockhart makes me want to do a songvid to "You're So Vain." And I love Nearly Headless Nick's song. I love this website. It has renewed my love for J.K. Rowling, who really is wonderful to her fans.

Now that I have said that, let me dive into talking about the one subject which must necessarily consume me at the moment: more information about Draco Malfoy.

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.

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.



I have been thinking of little else regarding canon but the question of Draco lately--his possibilities for redemption, lack thereof; pretty much everything we were talking about on the Draco panel at Nimbus last year.

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.

According to Animal Diversity, mustelids are agile carnivores, excellent hunters with an acute sense of hearing. They are also the largest family of carnivores, containing 65 species in all. The weasel and the ferret are