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Draco Malfoy is a fictional character in the Harry Potter book series written by J. K. Rowling. Beginning in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the character has been established as Harry Potter's principal rival and a foil.

Tall and slender, Draco has a pale, sharp-featured face, sleek white-blond hair, and cold, light grey eyes. His family is wealthy, and Harry considers him spoiled, arrogant, and selfish. Draco frequently taunts Ron Weasley about his family's poor financial standing and treats Hermione Granger with disdain for being Muggle-born, frequently calling her by the derogatory epithet "Mudblood". He and his family believe training in magic should be limited to students from pure-blooded wizarding families, and that wizards should shun those they consider "unworthy" to study magic. His birthdate, as given by J. K. Rowling, is 5 June 1980.

Tom Felton plays Draco Malfoy in the first five Harry Potter films and is tentatively scheduled to reprise the role in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Background

Draco is the only child of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy and is related to the Black family by his mother, who is a cousin of Sirius Black which in turn makes him Harry's Godcousin, and nephew of Bellatrix Lestrange and Andromeda Tonks. He is the scion of two old magical families. Three of Draco's grandparents are known (more than are known of any other character besides Sirius and Regulus Black): Abraxas Malfoy, Cygnus Black, and Druella Rosier.

Draco antagonizes Harry Potter at school, gradually growing more sinister and eventually serving Lord Voldemort. He is also the inheritor of generational racism. His father, Lucius, is one of Voldemort's Death Eaters, although to avoid Azkaban after the Dark Lord's downfall, he claimed to have been under the Imperius Curse. He returns to the Dark Lord's service when Voldemort acquires a new body. Draco's mother, Narcissa, supports her husband and Voldemort's goals.

Draco frequently serves as a foil for Harry, as they are often portrayed as reverse images of each other. He is Slytherin House's most visible adolescent representative and sometimes acts as a conduit for information, and, more rarely, provides comic relief. Although Draco often employs bullying tactics to obtain what he wants, he has also shown the ability to cunningly wield magic to attain his objectives. He has also been taught occlumency by his aunt Bellatrix. He is frequently accompanied by two Slytherins, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, who are often compared to bodyguards and follow his every order. Pansy Parkinson seems to have feelings towards him but Draco's interest in her has never been confirmed: they have been seen together many times, both ridiculing other students, and Harry even saw Draco's head laying on Pansy's lap once, but it seems Draco trusts her less than Crabbe and Goyle.

Although Harry claimed that Draco is not "one of the world's greatest thinkers," Draco is shown to be proficient in Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Transfiguration O.W.L. classes. He has also succeeded in using Occlumency against seasoned Legilimens; a skill that Harry struggles with. Draco singlehandedly fixes the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement and lets the Death Eaters into Hogwarts in the sixth book, The Half-Blood Prince.

Role in the series

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Eleven-year-old Malfoy makes his first appearance in Diagon Alley at Madam Malkin's robe shop, in contrast to the film where Harry first meets him when arriving at school. Malfoy, remarkably, is the only magical person to attempt to befriend Harry without knowing who he is, although he immediately alienates Harry with his arrogant conversation. When he says he is planning to persuade his father to buy him a new racing broom, it strongly reminds Harry of his spoiled cousin Dudley Dursley. Draco also disparages Hagrid, whom Harry has already befriended. Finally, Malfoy asks if Harry's parents are "our kind" (wizards), then tells him that he thinks "the other sort" (Muggleborns) shouldn't be allowed at Hogwarts because "they've never been brought up to know our ways." Unknown to Malfoy, Harry, although the son of two magical parents, is such a person. It is at this time that he receives a wand made of holly. They part without introductions, but meet again on the Hogwarts Express. After Malfoy ridicules Ron Weasley's family, Harry rejects his offer of friendship, and their mutual dislike is born.

Draco is portrayed as a rather cowardly bully who uses psychological manipulation and verbal taunts to denigrate his victims. Despite his cockiness, Malfoy is physically nonviolent, and his sharp tongue often gets him into trouble when Crabbe and Goyle are not around to protect him.

Malfoy is the favourite of Severus Snape, the Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House. As such, Draco often gets away with behaviour in Potions class that would land Harry or another Gryffindor in detention.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Draco is now 12 years old and is the new Seeker for the Slytherin Quidditch team. Hermione Granger speculates that his father bought his way in by donating high-quality Nimbus 2001 brooms to the Slytherin team, to which Malfoy then retorts with a snide jibe which reduces Hermione to tears. The new brooms allow the Slytherin team to outscore the Gryffindor chasers in the year's first match, but ultimately, Harry beats Malfoy to the Snitch, winning the match for Gryffindor.

Malfoy introduces open prejudice against Muggle-born wizards by calling Hermione a Mudblood, which is the word's first appearance in the series. Because of his expressed contempt for Muggle-borns, Harry and his friends suspect Malfoy is the Heir of Slytherin who opened the Chamber of Secrets. Harry and Ron, using Polyjuice Potion to assume the forms of Crabbe and Goyle, discern that Malfoy is not the Heir, though he does admit that he would like to know who the Heir was so that he could help him.

File:GoyleMalfoyCrabbePansy.jpg

From left to right, Goyle, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Pansy Parkinson.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

At the start of Book 3, Malfoy has turned 13 years old. During new instructor Hagrid's first Care of Magical Creatures class, the hippogriff Buckbeak attacks Malfoy after he insults it. Malfoy milks the "injury," giving Slytherin a chance to postpone their match against Gryffindor until later in the year. He and his father also use the incident in an attempt to get Hagrid fired. Although Hagrid is cleared, Buckbeak is sentenced to death (but is later rescued by Hermione and Harry). Hermione punches Malfoy in the nose when he mocks Hagrid for crying over Buckbeak's sentence.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Fourteen-year-old Draco Malfoy meets Harry Potter on the train to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and asks if Harry is going to take advantage of this latest opportunity to show off. Realising that Harry and his friends are unaware of the impending Triwizard Tournament, Draco then makes disparaging remarks regarding Ron's father, suggesting that the Ministry does not discuss important affairs in the presence of their minor staff members.

When Harry is chosen as one of the Triwizard Tournament Champions, Draco creates the "Support Cedric Diggory" badges for the Triwizard Tournament and shows them to Harry. When the badges are touched, the phrase is replaced with a second phrase, "Potter Stinks." He also gives malicious and often false information about Harry Potter and Hagrid to Rita Skeeter, a journalist and illegal Animagus who uses unethical methods to gain information for her stories, often eavesdropping while in her animagus form, a beetle.

Barty Crouch Jr., disguised as Alastor Moody, teaches Draco a lesson by transforming him into a ferret.

At the Yule Ball, Malfoy is accompanied by Pansy and wears dark robes with a high collar, which, in Harry's opinion, makes him look like a vicar.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Draco Malfoy is now 15 years old. He has been selected as a Prefect along with Pansy, and joined Headmistress Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad, which plays an important part in the exposure of Dumbledore's Army, a Defence Against the Dark Arts group led by Harry. Malfoy personally caught Harry, hitting him with a trip jinx and alerting Umbridge, which earned Slytherin fifty house points. He also caught Harry trying to break into Umbridge's office and looks eager to see Harry punished, although he has no way of knowing that Umbridge plans to subject Harry to the Cruciatus Curse. After the events at the Department of Mysteries, during which Malfoy's father and several others are captured and sentenced to Azkaban prison, Malfoy twice attempts to corner Harry to get revenge. In the first instance, he is interrupted by the arrival of Professors Snape and McGonagall; in the second attempt on the Hogwarts Express, he is jinxed by several members of Dumbledore's Army. It is also revealed, through a lesson involving thestrals, that Draco has never "seen death."

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Malfoy is 16 years old during his sixth year at Hogwarts. Before school starts, Harry encounters Malfoy in Diagon Alley at Madame Malkin's Robes shop, after which Malfoy and his mother, Narcissa Malfoy, leave, refusing to buy from an establishment serving Muggle-borns and their sympathisers. Harry and his friends, hidden by Harry's Invisibility Cloak, later see Malfoy at Borgin & Burkes, a shop featuring dark artifacts. His activity there leads Harry to suspect Draco has been branded with the "Dark Mark," the Death Eaters' sign. On the Hogwarts Express, Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak to spy on Malfoy and four other Slytherins - Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Blaise Zabini- and overhears Malfoy discussing a task given to him by Lord Voldemort. Malfoy realises that Harry is listening, and after everyone else in the compartment leaves, immobilises him and breaks his nose, leaving Harry stranded on the train to later be saved by Nymphadora Tonks (who is, incidentally, Draco's cousin).

Harry spends much of the school year spying on Malfoy, using the Invisibility Cloak, the Marauder's map and the house-elves Kreacher and Dobby, but finds he is unable to track his movements once Malfoy enters the Room of Requirement. When Katie Bell is nearly killed by a cursed necklace bought from Borgin & Burkes, and Ron is poisoned by mead intended for Dumbledore, Harry suspects Draco is behind both attacks. Harry later finds Malfoy sobbing to Moaning Myrtle in her bathroom. When Malfoy sees Harry, the two attempt to jinx each other. As Malfoy attempts to cast the Cruciatus Curse, the quicker Harry uses the obscure Sectumsempra spell on Malfoy, slashing his face and torso and causing him to bleed heavily. Snape arrives almost immediately thereafter and takes Malfoy to the infirmary.

When Harry and Dumbledore return to Hogwarts after a journey to find a Horcrux - during which Dumbledore was weakened by the effects of an unnamed potion found at the site of the Horcrux - they find the Dark Mark hovering over the Astronomy Tower. After landing on the tower, Malfoy ambushes and disarms Dumbledore, although Dumbledore had a crucial second to first immobilise Harry under his Invisibility Cloak to keep him safe. Dumbledore calmly converses with Malfoy and gets him to reveal the ways he attempted to murder him during the year. Malfoy explains that Lord Voldemort ordered him to murder Albus Dumbledore, and that he had been mending the broken Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement to allow Voldemort's Death Eaters to enter through it and invade Hogwarts. Dumbledore correctly surmises that as the school year progressed, Draco believed he would be unable to fix the cabinet. In desperation, he unsuccessfully attempted to curse and then poison the headmaster, nearly killing Katie Bell and Ron Weasley in the process. Finally successful, he tells Dumbledore that several Death Eaters have entered the school and set off the Dark Mark to lure Dumbledore to the tower. Dumbledore tells Draco that he knows that he is unwilling to kill the Headmaster, despite having him cornered and defenseless. Even after he is joined by several older Death Eaters, Malfoy makes no move to kill Dumbledore and lowers his wand. Instead, Snape arrives on the scene and he shoves Malfoy out of the way and kills Dumbledore himself. He and Draco, initially pursued by Harry Potter, escape the school. Harry believes Draco would have spared Dumbledore, and even though he still dislikes his rival, Harry feels sympathetic towards Draco and realises he was forced to do Voldemort's bidding or face the potential murder of himself and his family. For the first time in the series, Draco is portrayed in something of a sympathetic light; the reader feeling a sense of odd compassion towards the boy who has, as a result of his upbringing, been cast into a world with which he cannot cope. In Draco's conversation with Dumbledore we do not see a bully or sadist - rather, we note him as forced into servitude and immensely fearful of the consequences of any would-be resistance.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

At the beginning of the book, Draco and his parents remain reluctant followers of Voldemort, kept from escaping his grasp by their mortal fear of him.

At one point Harry, Ron and Hermione are captured and imprisoned within Malfoy Manor. When Malfoy is pressed to confirm their identities by his family and Voldemort's allies, he obliquely refuses to do so, making ambiguous statements such as "It might be." Due to the intervention of Aberforth Dumbledore and Dobby the house-elf, Harry and his friends manage to escape. In the process, Harry disarms Draco and takes his wand for himself, forcing Draco to borrow his mother's wand.

Near the end of the book, Malfoy's life is saved by Harry after Crabbe botches an attempt on Harry's life and seemingly burns down the Room of Requirement. Crabbe dies in the attempt and Malfoy is shown grieving for him. Although Malfoy doesn't directly participate in the final battle against Voldemort, he is revealed to have been the unwitting master of the Elder Wand (after Dumbledore) as he had disarmed Dumbledore prior to his death. Since the allegiance of the Elder Wand passes to whomever disarms its former owner, this meant that once Harry had disarmed Draco, mastery of the Wand lay in Harry's hands. This prevented Voldemort from accessing the Wand's full power, as he had assumed mastery of the Wand would pass to him once he had killed Snape.

In the epilogue, taking place nineteen years after the events of the book, Malfoy is shown as having a son, Scorpius, although we aren't told who the mother is, and he is described as having a receding hairline, making his face look even more pointed. He gives a brief, curt nod to Harry and his friends and family, indicating, if not exactly a cordial relationship, at least a reconciliation between the former enemies.

Name

Draco is a Latin word meaning "dragon". Like many Black family names, it is also the name of a constellation, in this case the constellation Draco.

"Draco" was the first lawgiver of Athens, who enforced a harsh legal code. The English adjective draconian, meaning "cruel," is inherited from him. Variations on the name "Draco" are also translated to "devil" in some biblical and other ancient texts. The name is related to "Dracula," which means son of the dragon/devil.

"Malfoy" is derived from Old French "mal foi" or "mal foy," which means "bad faith" or "bad trust". The Old French mal foy itself is derived from Latin mala fide, which as a judicial term means intentional mischief, ill will or evil intentions.

Rowling initially intended to name the character Draco Spungen (as evidenced in an old draft of the first Potions Lesson, revealed on the official website). The name Spungen can be found on Rowling's revealed classlist. It has, however, been struck out and replaced with the surname Spinks, whilst Malfoy was added in following the initial writing of the list. It is unclear from the format of the list if Spinks was intended to replace Spungen as Draco's surname, or was the name of a different character. See Students in Harry Potter's Year for more details.

Other Media

Draco Malfoy appeared in the Robot Chicken episode "Password: Swordfish" voiced by Quinton Flynn. He teaches the Sorting Hat a new trick which declared Harry Potter a virgin and Hermione a "second base". He also mocks Harry that Pubertis hasn't got to him yet.

References

External links

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 Rowling initially intended to name the character ''Draco Spungen'' (as evidenced in an old draft of the first Potions Lesson, revealed on the official website). The name Spungen can be found on Rowling's revealed classlist. It has, however, been struck out and replaced with the surname ''Spinks'', whilst ''Malfoy'' was added in following the initial writing of the list. It is unclear from the format of the list if ''Spinks'' was intended to replace ''Spungen'' as Draco's surname, or was the name of a different character. See [[Students in Harry Potter's Year]] for more details.
-==''Harry Potter'' fandom==
-[[Image:DFRLego 038.jpg|thumb| A [[Lego]] Draco Malfoy from the [[Harry Potter]] expansion]]
-{{NPOV}}
-Draco Malfoy has developed a large following among many Harry Potter fans. Actor Tom Felton escalated the character's claim to fame among fans by giving them a visual portrayal of Harry's nemesis.{{or}} Felton received more fan mail than the other actors (including the protagonist's actor) yet ironically had never read any ''Harry Potter'' books until after the filming of ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets''.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
-Author J. K. Rowling also has attributed Draco's popularity to the "bad boy" persona he has on film: "The trouble is, of course, that girls fancy Tom Felton, but Draco is NOT Tom Felton!" Rowling said in an interview.<ref>[http://veritaserum.com/media/mar/rowlingtranscript.shtml World Day Chat (March 2004 Interview)]</ref>
-Most people familiar with the fandom dismiss this notion, however, because he was already a very popular character before Tom Felton was even cast.{{Fact|date=March 2007}}
-==J. K. Rowling on Draco Malfoy==
-Below are the author's quotes about her character from the Connection Interview (October 1999, transcribed by Catwoman at SQ) and the Leaky Cauldron/Mugglenet Interview July 2005.
-*"...he is a bully of the most refined type in that, unlike Dudley, Harry's cousin, who's a physical bully, but really not - not bright enough to access all your weak points, Draco is a - he is a snob, he's a bigot and he is a bully, and as I said, in the most refined sense - he knows exactly what will hurt people."<ref>[http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/1999/1099-connectiontransc2.htm J.K. Rowling interview transcript, The Connection (WBUR Radio), 12 October, 1999] ''accio-quote.org.''</ref>
-*I think Draco would be very gifted in [[Occlumency]], unlike Harry. I thought of Draco as someone who is very capable of compartmentalising his life and his emotions, and always has done so. He's shut down his pity, enabling him to bully effectively. He's shut down compassion — how else would you become a Death Eater? So he suppresses virtually all of the good side of himself." <ref name="Interview 16 Jul 2005">[http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2005/0705-tlc_mugglenet-anelli-2.htm The Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet interview Joanne Kathleen Rowling: Part Two," The Leaky Cauldron, 16 July 2005] ''accio-quote.org.''</ref> ''(Note that in the sixth book, Draco applies Occlumency so well that he is able to block Snape from using Legilimency against him. He says that his Aunt Bellatrix taught him, foreseeing Snape's prying).''
-*"But then he's playing with the big boys, as the phrase has it, and suddenly, having talked the talk he's asked to walk it for the first time and it is absolutely terrifying. And I think that that is an accurate depiction of how some people fall into that kind of way of life and they realise what they're in for. I felt sorry for Draco. Well, I’ve always known this was coming for Draco, obviously, however nasty he was."<ref name="Interview 16 Jul 2005"/>
-*"Harry is correct in believing that Draco would not have killed Dumbledore, which I think is clear when he starts to lower his wand, when the matter is taken out of his hands."<ref name="Interview 16 Jul 2005"/>
 ==Other Media==