Draco Malfoy

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 grey eyes. He is the only child of Lucius (a Death Eater) and Narcissa Malfoy. He is related to the Black family through his mother (a first cousin of Sirius Black), which makes him a nephew of both Bellatrix Lestrange and Andromeda Tonks. He is, therefore, the scion of two old magical families. Three of Draco's grandparents are known: Abraxas Malfoy, Cygnus Black, and Druella Rosier. Draco is also Nymphadora Tonks's first cousin through his mother.

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.[1] The Malfoy family was also devised in order to introduce the topics of intolerance and bigotry into a setting where people are sometimes judged by their blood status rather than their abilities or personalities. Harry is first aware of Draco's bigotry and snobbiness after their initial encounter at Madam Malkin's, where Draco expresses his view 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."[2]

Draco is also an insecure bully much like Dudley Dursley, the difference being that he opts to hurt his enemies through psychological warfare rather than with his fists. A case in point is his usage of his elitist upbringing as a weapon with which to belittle the less prosperous Ron Weasley. He also insults the Muggle-born Hermione Granger's blood status. 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."[3]

In a July 2005 interview, Rowling added that Draco, unlike Harry, never felt 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?"[4]

Draco, ironically, functions as the basis of a pivotal turn in the storyline and as an example of a rare moment of redemption 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." [5]

He was named "Draco Spungen" in the earliest drafts of Philosopher's Stone.[6] "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.