[wnewman]

Not just his enemies. For me, a number of the most memorable flourishes of the book are how formidable it makes some of the other people, at least in some respects --- the defense professor especially, but at various points in the story he turns the formidability firehose on people like Hermione and Aurors and the prankster brothers. It's a bit of a dramatic problem, actually, because it leaves people who haven't been sprayed looking so ineffectual that it's hard to understand why they take up so much dramatic space. E.g., I think the story would work better if Draco got more formidability to justify his apparent importance. At least Draco could have gotten a chance to win big by applying some of the applied organization theory tips from his father, perhaps by being the one to deploy effective staff/delegation/incentive techniques in the war games. Or the unimpressive frontline support security provided by his father could be backed by a second-line security specialist chosen by his father who shows up on call and gets some of the formidability and formidabilitytrainer love that the story gives to Aurors and defense professors.

[loup-vaillant]

Err, Draco sounded pretty formidable to me. He came close to overcome his education, and even did overcome it to some extent. Crabbe and Goyle are very apt bruisers, formidable broomstick riders, and once showed a rather sophisticated education (being able to change the level of politeness at will without sounding fake is quite a feat at that age --"Da boss want to speak with ya" vs "Mr Malfoy requests an audience with you").

Your suggestions do sound good, though.