Draco Malfoy

    Some part of me feels absolutely terrible for Draco Malfoy. Forced into following a madman without choice of breaking away in fear of the death -- murder -- of your parents at the hand of the aforementioned loon. There is a part of me that says that he did deserve a wake-up call to reality, because he had thought that Voldemort was this great guy, and that his father was amazing despite Lucius being a very horrible and evil man, and that he was safe because he had money, that he was pureblood and therefore better than everyone else and was an overall little snooty-puss. I mean, if we counted the time he said ‘My father will hear about this,’ I’m sure we’d run out of fingers and toes and possibly greasy strings of hair (of which I have many).

    However, just because he was a real jerk as a child, doesn’t mean he deserved all the hardship he had to face when he was older. In fact, Voldemort was trying to kill Harry Potter, but did we ever stop to think about all those poor souls who were being crucio’d for offenses that they probably weren’t even aware that they committed. So, yes, Draco had been a prat for five whole years, but then he was truly tested and he couldn’t handle the pressure that was being forced upon him. Just like he had previously taunted Harry for not being able to handle certain stressors.

    So, when Draco was first introduced in Madam Malkin’s Robe Shop we already see that he is a snobbish brat. Too much like Dudley Dursley for Harry to like. So, when he later finds Harry and offers his friendship, the first, bad, impression that Harry saw was what he had based it on. Knowing that Draco was rejected, only to then be sorted into the rival house, there was bound to be tension and the bullying on Draco’s part was a natural progression. Don’t mistake my words for saying that his behaviour was by any means ‘right’. Could Draco’s bad reaction to the rejection by someone like Harry Potter be out of fear?

    Draco Malfoy was clearly very deferential towards his father. In fact, he seemed to idolize Lord Malfoy by the way he spoke so highly of him. Lucius isn’t the best idol for a child, but he was better than the Dark Lord whom, in the second year, is encouraged by Draco’s words albeit not directly to him. He was raised in a pureblood home with a notoriously pure blooded mother, Narcissa Black Malfoy, a Black, and Lucius Malfoy, son of Lord Abraxas Malfoy. Not only did both of his parents likely, if not surely, raised him with pureblood morals (the same ‘we are better than those filthy mudbloods’ as most pureblood children are probably taught) but Lucius always seems to aloof and distant. Was he like this at home? Was Draco perhaps not very fond of his parents as they were too busy praising his misbehaviour which they saw as proper in their deep-seated racism to be an actual healthy, loving family. We can admit that with the descriptions given by Sirius Black of his parents, Sirius’ cousin, Narcissa, couldn’t have fared much better than he and his brother. Praised they may have been, but forced to follow rules in fear of being viciously disowned like so many of the family who had somehow ‘tarnished’ their pure family?

    Abraxas was never really mentioned, but seeing the way the majority of purebloods behaved, basing this mostly on the Blacks and Gaunts who are the most explicitly discussed parent figures that are pure blooded and rooted in their ideals of pureblood supremacy, I assume that Abraxas was cold and distant towards Lucius. Look at the photo of Lucius in the “Slug Club” he looks like an angsty little teenager, and he looks very angry. Anger that could have easily led him straight into the charismatic arms of the Dark Lord.

    As a child with more money than they can handle, there is no doubt, as a child brain is still developing the skills and pieces which control unhealthy urges like spending and inappropriate behaviours, that he spent far too much money. It is also known that the Malfoys flaunted their money and used it to win them respect and higher positions in the wizarding world. There is a show of such actions when Lucius Malfoy bought the entire Slytherin Quidditch team Nimbus 2001’s, the latest broom, to gain Draco a position on the Quidditch team. While this may be reminiscent of affection, which disregards my entire aforementioned indifference towards Draco, money could have been used to placate the desires that Draco had for a loving family. He may have never known how to act around his family and by them buying him things was his acceptance that they cared. He wasn’t raised in a healthy, loving household, that much I’m pretty sure on, but there may have been some slips of affection. Like when Narcissa made Severus Snape take the Unbreakable Vow to protect Draco no matter what. She was clearly fuelled by emotions, which Bellatrix seemed to disapprove of, since she didn’t trust Severus at all and made it known of her dislike towards him. Whom, let me remind you, is Draco’s ‘crazy’ aunt and Draco’s godfather as well. Family, no matter relation, fighting and clearly distrusting each other isn’t something that is conducive to a happy living environment.

    So, what did a eleven year old boy who was constantly being told he was evil, that is father (to whom he looked up to) was evil, was sorted into the ‘evil’ house, was raised on pureblood upbringings, and was basically sold to the Dark Lord before he was out of nappies have to do to save himself? He had to play into the act of course. He had to do as his father wanted, since, from other facts about purebloods lead me to believe that a pureblood childhood is remarkably similar to an aristocratic Victorian childhood, the patriarch is who the family was obsequious, just as it was the women who dressed nicely and played the part of a mother, their need to birth the heir and look pretty. (Which, by the way, I don’t agree with at all.) So young Draco, did what was expected of him. His father followed the Dark Lord, the Malfoys and Blacks were both families of Dark Wizards and Witches, therefore Harry Potter was an enemy when he rejected him, or at least he became his primary nemesis.

    To assert his dominance over Harry, Draco often tried to humiliate him as seen when he tries to one-up him during their first Care of Magical Creatures class and he get’s injured (leading to the subsequent ‘execution’ of Buckbeak) and of course during the same time, when Draco and his Slytherin goon-followers mocked Harry for his fear of dementors after the attack on the train. Both of these events during the Prisoner of Azkaban, or their third year, where he would have been thirteen years old. I don’t know if you remember your thirteen year old days, but I do, and I was a vicious little jerk.

    While there was seemingly no redeeming qualities in Draco, it is seen that he will do anything for his family. Even if his father is a coward,  a traitor, a criminal, a Death Eater, and a loser. Draco seemed to love his mother, actually love her like a child should love their parents, more than he loved his father in which he seemed to just accept as the head honcho and do as commanded.

    All-in-all, I feel bad for Draco. He’s a sad story and sometimes I wish that his story would have been a little different, or at least revealed more because I am honestly curious as to what was happening to make him so mean at the age of eleven, as a little boy (although at eleven I was bullied too so sometimes children are just mean).