How would things have been different if it weren't for those two being friends with Draco?

DISCUUSS!

No chatting off topic, that's for another thread ;]

Topic idea thought of by the loverly Linda

Well Draco is a bully and he couldn't have been one without a posse. Just like Dudley. If there is no one around to laugh at your lame jokes and to pump your head up and to clap when you push someone around then what is the point of doing it? I think Crabbe and Goyle needed him as much as he needed them. It was like a host parasite relationship.

I agree. It was a mutual need kind of situation, much like the little gangs we see nowadays and have been around since the beginning of time. Draco fed off the support of the other two (who were nowhere near his level of intelligence, or anything else, for that matter!), and they benefitted by being around someone that was cool and looked up to by everyone. You can't beat a relationship like that!

Yeah thats my point, he needed them and they needed him. It was the same thing with Peter and the gang. Draco fed off their laughs like it was a drug and they fed off the elevated status that he gave them. They would never have ran in those circles if it weren't for Draco. Their parents were the same way thats why they became death eaters. They were spineless and couldn't stand on their own two feet.

I think I agree with what you say... partly. Sure, their relationship does prove that Crabbe and Goyle were spinless and couldn't stand on thier own two feet, but it proves the same for Draco. I mean, he hung out with them for a laugh, but also, in a sense, for protection. He was not well-liked throughout the school, and he knew it. But Crabbe and Goyle gave him the power to bully others, and to act as if he could do anything with no consequence, becasue he'd be protected. Brute force.

So, Draco is almost as spineless as his companions - he just has more brains and cunning, and knows how to use this to his advantage.

Draco really needed Crabbe and Goyle and I think that he realized that when he started running Voldy's errands and didn't have those two to back him up. A specific scene sticks out in my mind. The one at Slughorn's party where Snape confronts Draco about what he was doing. He seemed a bit terrified, and he had no cronies with him.

When he was younger and just bullying, I'm pretty sure that Draco didn't know how much he needed those two. Like all bullies, I think that Draco truly thought he could get rid of them if he wanted to. Only when he was an adult with a family do I think that Draco didn't need Crabbe and Goyle.

See the thing is I just always believed that Draco could have gotten better cronies than Crabbe and Goyle but I have a feeling that they were just together because they'd been so for a very long time (their partnership I'm assuming started before their arrival at Hogwarts). To be honest I don't think their loyalty to Draco was out of friendship but more so out of the fact that well...Lucius Malfoy was probably a little more powerful than their own fathers.

I do agree that every bully needs his cronies and as for in school though I agree that Crabbe and Goyle were the two cronies Malfoy needed to look tough...because again noting the point that in the party without the lack of his cronies he got scared witless =D I wish he could have acted slightly tougher but character is character and it's hard to change that. I wish he was just a tad bit braver or smarmy so that when he ran away from dangerous situations it wouldn't look so cowardly. Cowards are automatic turn offs. T.T

I hope that now he doesn't need Crabbe and Goyle now though. That would be a little spineless =D

Those two are his cronies, he didn't need them, but they were just friends because their Dads were friends and they pprobably hung together since they were kids. They're not intelligent and he is, he could have gotten better friends. But they were loyal to him, and they would do anything he told them to. I guess thats why he kept them.

Yes, they were loyal to him, and that is a very important point. Every big man needs their sidekicks, and who better than two loyal guys such as Crabbe and Goyle?

In addition, they could be fooled into doing anything that Draco wanted to be done. Remember, they drank polyjuice potion and turned into girls for him. So, I don't think anyone else would have done that. So they were very loyal to him.

I don't think Draco would have been quite the 'tough' guy had it not been for his sidekicks backing him up. They would remain loyal to him no matter what so he could use that to his advantage.
I do think they had a bond, as much as it seemed they were nothing more than henchmen to him. They were quite a unit - not like the Trio, but there was definetly something there.

Draco needed them about as much as they needed Draco.

Ah! Where would Draco be without his two sidekicks? They were his foils and mirror at the same time. They did the things that he most loathed but needed to be done. He needed them in that sense. And since they were quite a bit more brawny than him, they acted like muscles when physical actions spoke louder than magic. This was especially true when they were younger and least likely to be faced with a magically superior antagonist. But as they grew older and more adept with magic, they significance lessened as Draco became a stronger wizard. Wit and magical superiority usually had a better effect than a simple show of strength.

i reckon they just tagged along with him, because of they're dads and stuff, and Draco knew that he would get away with stuff when they are there - but i think there were times when Draco didn't want them there and got quite annoyed with them, as i don't think they are the most colourful crayons in the tub.