Draco Malfoy

Template:HP character Draco Malfoy is a fictional character in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. He is a Slytherin student in Harry Potter's year, and his house's most visible adolescent representative. He is frequently accompanied by his two extremely dim-witted accomplices, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, who act as his bodyguards. Although Draco is often regarded as a cowardly bully who uses psychological manipulation and verbal taunts to denigrate his victims, he reveals an ability to wield magic cunningly in order to attain his objectives. Draco is described as a tall boy with a pale, pointed face, sleek white-blond hair, and light grey eyes. He is the only child of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy.

Character development

In addition to serving as the counterpart foil of the hero, Draco was loosely based on bullies Rowling had encountered during her school days. Harry is first aware of Draco's bigotry and snobbiness after their initial encounter at Madam Malkin's, where Draco says that a Hogwarts education should be restricted to those from non-Muggle families. According to Rowling, Harry's impression of the wizarding community being a "magical wonderland" is instantly shattered. "[Harry] found out that many people in power in the wizarding world are just as corrupt and nasty as they are in our world."

Draco is at heart insecure, much like Dudley Dursley; the difference is that Draco opts to hurt his enemies through psychological warfare rather than use his fists. A case in point is his use of his elitist upbringing as a weapon to belittle the less prosperous Ron Weasley. He also insults the Muggle-born Hermione Granger's blood status by referring to her as a "Mud-Blood." As Rowling explained in 1999, "He’s a bigot and he’s a bully, and as I say, in the most refined sense, he knows exactly what will hurt people."

In a July 2005 interview, Rowling added that Draco, unlike Harry, never feels any kind of remorse for his actions: "I thought of Draco as someone who is very capable of compartmentalizing 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?"

Draco, ironically, functions as the basis of a pivotal turn in the storyline and as an example of a rare moment of regret late in the series. Harry himself takes pity on Draco when he grasps the gravity of the expectations, including murder, with which Draco was coping as one of Voldemort's minions: "...suddenly, having talked the talk, he's asked to walk it for the first time and it is absolutely terrifying."

He was named "Draco Spungen" in the earliest drafts of Philosopher's Stone. "Spungen" also appeared on her pre-canon classlist, but it was crossed out and replaced with the surname "Spinks", while "Malfoy" was later added after the completion of the list.

Appearances

First three books

Draco makes his first appearance in the series when he and Harry meet while being fitted for robes at Madam Malkin's. He does not recognise Harry yet tries to befriend him, but he promptly alienates Harry with his arrogance. He asks whether Harry's parents are "our kind" (pure-bloods), then tells him that he thinks "the other sort" (Muggle-borns) shouldn't be allowed at Hogwarts because "they've never been brought up to know our ways." The two boys part without introductions, but meet again on the Hogwarts Express. After Draco ridicules Ron Weasley's family, Harry rejects his offer of friendship, and their mutual antagonism is born. The Sorting Hat places Draco in Slytherin as it barely touches his head, and he becomes the instant favourite of Potions teacher and Slytherin Head of House Severus Snape. He attempts to get Harry expelled by tricking him into participating in a midnight wizard's duel after secretly informing Argus Filch in advance, but the plan fails when Harry evades Filch and safely makes it back to his dormitory. He is left shocked at the fact that Harry was able to evade the caretaker.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Draco becomes the new Seeker for the Slytherin Quidditch team after Lucius donates new, high-quality Nimbus 2001 broomsticks. When Hermione comments that the Gryffindor players made the team through talent and not bribery, Draco responds by calling her Mudblood. This provokes an immediate, violent response from all of the Gryffindors present, except Hermione and Harry, who, having been raised by Muggles, do not know what the epithet means. Because of his contempt for Muggle-borns, Harry, Ron and Hermione automatically suspect that Draco is the Heir of Slytherin who has recently reopened the Chamber of Secrets. Harry and Ron disguise themselves as Crabbe and Goyle with Polyjuice Potion and infiltrate the Slytherin common room in an attempt to collect additional information, but they also realise that their initial suspicion of Draco was incorrect.

File:GoyleMalfoyCrabbePansy.jpg

Left to right: Goyle, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Pansy Parkinson

During Rubeus Hagrid's debut as Care of Magical Creatures instructor in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the hippogriff Buckbeak attacks Draco after he insults it. He exaggerates the extent of his injury, giving Slytherin a chance to postpone their Quidditch match against Gryffindor until later in the year, and as an attempt to have Hagrid fired. Although Hagrid is cleared, Buckbeak is sentenced to death. Hermione slaps Draco when he mocks Hagrid for crying over Buckbeak's sentence. Draco also taunts Harry by needling him about the impending threat of Sirius Black: "If it was me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt him down myself." Though irked by the comment, Harry does not give it much thought.

Fourth and fifth books

After Harry is unexpectedly chosen as one of the Triwizard Tournament champions in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Draco shows off a "Support Cedric Diggory" badge to Harry, then presses it so that the phrase is replaced with "Potter Stinks." When Malfoy says that he didn't "want a Mudblood sliming it up" in reference to Hermione, both Harry and Draco simultaneously fire off spells, which ricochet off each other and hit Goyle and Hermione instead. Draco also gives malicious and often false information about Harry and Hagrid to muckraking Daily Prophet journalist Rita Skeeter. When Draco attempts to curse Harry behind his back, the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor Alastor Moody (actually Barty Crouch, Jr. in disguise via Polyjuice Potion) humiliates Draco by transforming him into a ferret and repeatedly slamming him against the ground. Draco later attends the Yule Ball with Pansy Parkinson.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Draco is named a Slytherin prefect along with Pansy, and gets Harry and the Weasley twins banned from the Gryffindor Quidditch team after they attack him during a postmatch brawl following Gryffindor's win over Slytherin. He later joins Dolores Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad, with which he plays an important part in the exposure of Dumbledore's Army. As the group flees the Room of Requirement, Draco earns Slytherin fifty points after catching Harry with a Trip Jinx, and helps hold several members captive in Umbridge's office. After his father and several other Death Eaters are captured and hauled off to Azkaban following the events at the Department of Mysteries, Draco twice attempts to get revenge on Harry: he is first thwarted by the arrival of Professors Snape and McGonagall, and on the Hogwarts Express at the end of the term, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle are all turned into giant slugs after being hit with a barrage of hexes by several D.A. members.

Sixth book

In the second chapter of the sixth book, Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange visit Snape at his home. The three of them discuss a dangerous task that Voldemort has assigned Draco to complete, and Narcissa expresses her worry that Draco will be killed in his attempt to complete it. Narcissa begs Snape to make the Unbreakable Vow to aid Draco in the task and protect him at all costs; he agrees.

Under the Invisibility Cloak, Harry, Ron, and Hermione spot Draco at Borgin and Burkes. Draco harasses Mr Borgin about repairing one item and keeping another safe for him. Draco shows Mr Borgin something on his arm that Harry correctly deduces to be the Dark Mark. On the Hogwarts Express, Harry invisibly spies on Draco and overhears him discussing with several other Slytherins a task given to him by Voldemort. Draco realises that Harry is listening, and once alone in the compartment, immobilises him and breaks his nose, then leaves Harry stranded on the train until he is rescued by Nymphadora Tonks.

Harry spends much of the year attempting to discover Draco's whereabouts, but loses track of him once Draco enters the Room of Requirement. When Katie Bell is nearly killed in Hogsmeade after handling a cursed necklace and Ron is nearly poisoned by tainted mead, Harry suspects Draco is behind both attacks.

In this book Draco is, for the first time since introduced in the series, portrayed as having considerable initiative, ingenuity and perseverance, and making extensive use of the same Room of Requirement, which was helpful to Harry in the previous book. However, unlike Harry, who could always rely on the help and support of his friends, Draco works alone and does not confide in or involve his own circle, which he had always treated as underlings rather than friends. This, and the realisation as to what he is ultimately expected to do, nearly drives him to a nervous breakdown and he finds an unlikely confidant in Moaning Myrtle. Harry walks in on Malfoy crying to Myrtle in her bathroom. When Draco is aware of his presence and attempts to cast the Cruciatus Curse, Harry is faster to the draw with an obscure Sectumsempra spell that he learned from the mysterious Half-Blood Prince's book. The spell cuts deep gashes into Malfoy's face and chest and results in severe blood loss. Snape feels the effects of the Unbreakable Vow, and swiftly arrives to heal the cuts and take Draco to the hospital wing.

Near the conclusion, Draco ambushes and disarms a gravely weakened Dumbledore at the Astronomy Tower. Dumbledore calmly converses with Draco, persuading him to explain how he was supposed to, according to Voldemort's orders, kill the headmaster through the cursed necklace and the poisoned mead. Malfoy reveals that he had mended the broken Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement so that it could act as a portal enabling Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts. Draco is extremely hesitant to kill Dumbledore, to the point that he gives up and lowers his wand. Snape arrives, dispatches Dumbledore himself, and then flees Hogwarts with Draco. Harry, who was horrified by what he had done to Draco in the bathroom incident, feels a twinge of compassion for his enemy when he realises that he was forced to do Voldemort's bidding under the threat of his and his parents' deaths. As revealed during his confrontation with Dumbledore, Draco had been an insecure, terrified boy incapable of committing cold-blooded murder.

Final book

The Malfoys remain reluctant followers of Voldemort, who now uses their home as his headquarters, and Draco witnesses the death of Muggle Studies professor Charity Burbage. Harry has occasional and disturbing visions of Draco doing the Death Eaters' bidding against his will and feels "sickened... by the use to which Draco was now being put by Voldemort". When Harry, Ron, and Hermione are captured and taken to Malfoy Manor, Draco is asked to identify them as Harry and his friends. Draco gives only the ambiguous reply, "It might be." During the successful escape attempt headed by Dobby, Harry disarms Draco and steals his wand.

When Harry, Ron, and Hermione seek Ravenclaw's diadem in the Room of Requirement, Draco, reunited with Crabbe and Goyle, attempts to capture Harry alive and preserve the diadem. However, Crabbe defies Draco's orders and attempts to kill the trio by casting Fiendfyre, but he dies in the blaze while Harry, Hermione and Ron rescue Draco and Goyle. Once they are outside of the Room of Requirement, Draco, despite his often authoritarian and belittling attitude toward Crabbe and Goyle, grieves for the loss of his friend. During the final battle of Hogwarts, Draco is seen pleading with a Death Eater who seems on the verge of murdering him but is once again saved by Harry and Ron.

At about this time it is revealed, through the Pensieve, that Dumbledore knew long before his death that he was going to die from injuries sustained while trying to destroy a Voldemort artifact. However, his main concern at the time was Draco's soul since he did not want the boy tainted by murder. Voldemort himself did not expect Draco to succeed: it was merely another way of putting pressure on the Malfoy family.

Although Draco does not directly take part in Harry's final confrontation with Voldemort, he does influence the outcome. After Harry is hit with the Avada Kedavra curse, Narcissa is asked by Voldemort to ensure that Harry is actually dead. She feels his heart beating but rather than give him away, Narcissa chooses to lie to Voldemort, knowing that she will be allowed to search for her son only if the Death Eaters return to Hogwarts "as part of the conquering army." A plot twist reveals that Draco became the unwitting master of the Elder Wand when he disarmed Dumbledore prior to his death, even though Draco had never actually possessed the wand. The allegiance of this wand passes to whoever disarms its former owner, so Harry, having taken Draco's wand at Malfoy Manor, is its new master; this prevents Voldemort from accessing its full power. When Voldemort attempts to kill Harry for the last time with the wand, it causes the spell to rebound and kills Voldemort instead. In the end, it is Narcissa's lie to Voldemort concerning Harry's death that enables the Malfoys to narrowly avoid imprisonment in Azkaban, but it is most likely that they lost whatever slight respect they had in the wizarding world and fell out of power at the Ministry.

Epilogue

In the epilogue, Draco is the father of a young son, Scorpius Hyperion. Rowling also revealed that Draco married Astoria Greengrass, the younger sister of Daphne Greengrass, his fellow Slytherin classmate. Draco's hairline has receded, making his face look even more pointed. Though they are still not friends and do not speak, he gives a brief, curt nod to Harry, Ron and Hermione while all are seeing their own children off to school at King's Cross.

Family

The Malfoy family is one of the last pure-blood and most wealthy wizarding families in the Harry Potter story. Lucius Malfoy was a Death Eater during both wizarding wars. He married Narcissa and together had one son: Draco. Draco was the first member of the family to be introduced in the series. The Malfoys are related to the Black family through Narcissa (a first cousin of Sirius Black, Harry's godfather), which makes Draco a nephew of both Bellatrix Lestrange and Andromeda Tonks. Draco is also Nymphadora Tonks' first cousin through their mothers. Three of Draco's grandparents are identified: Abraxas Malfoy, Cygnus Black, and Druella Rosier. Abraxas died before the series begins and was a friend of Professor Slughorn. Draco is, therefore, the scion of two old magical families.

The Malfoys were respected because of Lucius' influence on both Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic due to his monetary donations to the Ministry and St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, until he was first removed from his post of governor of the school at the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and later imprisoned after the break in at the Department of Mysteries at the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Despite giving a false, respectful impression before these events, some people in the wizarding world previously knew about the Malfoys' devotion to Voldemort and the Dark arts. The Malfoys were also devised to introduce the topics of intolerance and bigotry into a setting where people are sometimes judged by their blood status. Draco constantly threatens others with his father's name and influence. Lucius is also known because of his numerous counts of bribery and threats.

Film portrayal

Tom Felton has played Draco Malfoy in all of the Harry Potter movies to date. Malfoy grew into one of the series' most popular characters due to Felton's performances, and Felton quickly became synonymous with the character to many female fans, much to Rowling's dismay. "I'm trying to clearly distinguish between Tom Felton, who is a good looking young boy, and Draco, who, whatever he looks like, is not a nice man. It’s a romantic, but unhealthy, and unfortunately all too common delusion of girls...it actually worried me a little bit, to see young girls swearing undying devotion to this really imperfect character...I mean, I understand the psychology of it, but it is pretty unhealthy."

In popular culture

Wizard rock band Draco and the Malfoys' lyrics are inspired in the Harry Potter books but from Draco Malfoy's point of view. One chorus goes: "My dad's always there to open all my doors, you have to call a patronus just to catch a glimpse of yours/My dad is rich, and your dad is dead." As well as Harry and the Potters, the members of Draco and the Malfoys disguise themselves as students of Hogwarts, in this case in Slytherin-themed costumes. The band is part of a movement of about 200 bands of young musicians playing music inspired in the Harry Potter series.

External links

• Draco Malfoy on Harry Potter Wiki, an external wiki
• Draco Malfoy at the Harry Potter Lexicon
• Mugglenet: Role in the Books
• The Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet interview Joanne Kathleen Rowling: Part II
• JKR's Quotes: The Younger Generation
• The JKR Audio Transcription Thread - SugarQuill.net