Draco Malfoy

Age: 17

House: Slytherin

Distinguishing Characteristics: Draco has a pale, pointed face, grey eyes, and slicked-back, very fair hair. His face is contorted into a sneer so often the word contorted doesn't apply anymore. He speaks with a drawling accent.

Heritage: Pure-blood

Family: Lives with his mother Narcissa, as his father Lucius is now imprisoned. Draco is an only child but is related to other pure-blood families such as the Lestranges (Bellatrix is his mother's sister), and the late Blacks.

First Mention: Appears in Chapter 5 of Philosopher's Stone; is named in Chapter 6.

General: Draco is one of the school bullies your guidance counselor always glossed over, saying he was just unhappy with himself and if you ignored him everything would be fine. While Draco probably does have an inferiority complex, and in his early years did not have good moral examples to follow, he's running out of people to feel sorry for him.

When Draco first appeared in the books, it seemed he had no problems. Coming from a very wealthy, very prestigious wizarding family, and an only child, he certainly gave Harry the impression he had Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy wrapped around his finger. Dobby, the family house-elf, did all the work on the lavish manor where Draco grew up, and Draco's mother always sent gifts from home while he was at school. Success was assured him at Hogwarts as Draco's father was on the school's Board of Directors. You'd have thought he never experienced rejection before Harry Potter turned down his offer of friendship.

When we met Draco's father Lucius in Chamber of Secrets, however, it seemed Draco was quite familiar with rejection and criticism. Lucius is so conceited, the only good thing he sees in Draco is that the boy has him for a father. He has never been satisfied with Draco's marks, but expects him to be at the top of his class. Lucius had no qualms about voicing his displeasure in front of other parties; he humiliated Draco in front of Mr. Borgin on Knockturn Alley. All Draco has gotten from his father are possessions, and stories about the Dark Side, but these seem to be all he wants anyway.

Before entering Hogwarts, Draco was poised to attend Durmstrang Institute in northeastern Europe. His father, anxious that Draco become a powerful Dark wizard, felt Draco would get a more thorough training in the Dark Arts there. Only Draco's mother insisted he stay in the country. Lucius took on the task of indoctrinating Draco himself. Draco's father sent him clippings from the Daily Prophet when Arthur Weasley was fined for enchanting the Ford Anglia, and sent more two years later, when Mr. Weasley was questioned for helping Mad-Eye Moody. After Voldemort had returned and Lucius was again actively serving him, he let Draco in on their ongoing battle against Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix. This meant Draco could alarm Harry with veiled references to Sirius, and to Hagrid's movements. He may also know why the Potters were killed-he certainly had something to say on the matter when he found out who Harry was.

Like his archenemy Harry, Draco's school career has been marked with disasters and successes. Draco is popular in his own house, but certainly no further, as he bullies students of the other houses almost indiscriminately. He may have something going on with Pansy Parkinson, whom he escorted to the Yule Ball in their fourth year, but Draco seems to have other, undoubtedly devious, things on his mind most of the time. (After all, by all accounts Pansy is not very attractive, and surely Draco wouldn't stand for such inferiority even if she is pure-blood.) Draco has been the Slytherin Quidditch Seeker since his second year, when his father equipped the team with Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones, but he's never beaten the Hogwarts Quidditch Champions, Gryffindor.

In fact, none of his attempts to get Harry in trouble have paid off. During their first year, Draco hoped to get Harry expelled by luring him into the air to retrieve Neville's Remembrall, when they were forbidden to ride their broomsticks. All this accomplished, however, was to give Harry-and Professor McGonagall-a chance to discover his talent for flying, which secured him a place on the Gryffindor team. Draco then tried to get Harry caught out of bed, but his first attempt, challenging him to a Wizard's Duel to which Draco himself had no intention of attending, failed when Harry escaped Filch. The second attempt backfired when Draco himself got a detention for following Harry on his dragon delivery mission. Draco spent his detention alternating between bully and coward in the Forbidden Forest, frightening Neville but then fleeing at the first sign of danger.

In their second year, Draco actually did duel with Harry, in a supposedly controlled environment. Draco set a serpent on him, but Harry called it off in Parseltongue. This resulted in everyone believing Harry was the Heir of Slytherin, unpleasant for Draco because to him, a half-blood being the Heir sullied the reputation of Salazar Slytherin. In their third year at Hogwarts, Draco found a victim besides Harry: the newly promoted Hagrid. Draco couldn't bear to take instruction from a former Hogwarts 'servant,' and in disregarding Hagrid's lesson on hippogriffs, he was wounded by one. Hagrid didn't get fired; Draco had to settle for the offending hippogriff being executed-and even that didn't happen in the end. Draco also tried to sabotage one of Harry's Quidditch games by dressing up as a dementor with his friends, but Harry was prepared for a dementor attack. Draco and his cohorts found themselves mowed down by a stag-shaped Patronus Charm, and lost points for Slytherin without costing Gryffindor the game.

Draco led the smear campaign against Harry in the Triwizard Tournament the next year, by creating badges which read 'POTTER STINKS.' He also worked with Rita Skeeter to come up with negative stories about Harry, Hagrid, and Hermione for the Daily Prophet. In spite of successes on those fronts, and the ultimate success at the end of the year when Voldemort returned, Draco suffered humiliation when Professor Moody (actually Barty Crouch, Jr.,) turned him into a ferret and bounced him up and down the entrance hall in front of other students. Draco left Hogwarts thoroughly hexed after his fourth year, having spoken a touch too fondly of Voldemort's return in front of the wrong people.

He returned for his fifth year in better form, though-as a Slytherin prefect. This was ideal for two reasons: firstly, he had a badge and Harry didn't; and secondly, Draco had extra power with which to bully younger students. Finally his Harry-baiting began to work; Draco made Harry so angry after their first Quidditch match of the year that Harry attacked him and was banned from the game. Draco also composed the contemporary ditty 'Weasley Is Our King,' which nearly prevented Gryffindor's new Keeper, Ron Weasley, from doing anything right. Draco made a new ally as well; the Ministry of Magic's envoy Professor Umbridge. Pleased by his hatred of Harry, Umbridge made Draco a member of the Hogwarts Inquisitorial Squad, giving him the privileges of reading all Owl post and docking points from other houses whenever he felt like it. Draco was the one who caught Harry running from the Room of Requirement, which led to Dumbledore's temporary departure from the school. Just as Draco finished his O.W.L.S., however, the Department of Mysteries battle revealed Voldemort's return to the authorities. Dumbledore was reinstated, and Lucius Malfoy was imprisoned. Draco tried to avenge his father's reputation by attacking Harry, but Harry's friends saw to it Draco exited his fifth year in no more aesthetically pleasing fashion than he exited the fourth.

Draco, concerned with his father's reputation almost as much as Lucius himself is ('and between you and me, that is saying something'), determined to go to any lengths to avenge it. During the summer he turned sixteen, Draco was asked to serve Voldemort and most likely received the Dark Mark on his arm. He was supposed to kill Dumbledore at some point in his next year at Hogwarts. At first Draco was honoured by this chance to prove his, and his father's, loyalty. He devised a plan almost immediately, and bragged (without getting into specifics) to his Slytherin friends about working for Voldemort. He had to fix the school's old Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement, so Death Eaters could enter the school from the twin cabinet in Borgin and Burkes.

This repair job took nearly the entire school year, and in the meantime Draco neglected his studies, and even his Quidditch games. He confided in no one, using Occlumency to keep Snape from finding out his plans, but sometimes took solace from Moaning Myrtle's sympathy. He even promised her he'd come back to talk to her, a rare sign of sensitivity from him. His sensitivity also showed in his fear for his parents' lives, and in his inevitable showdown with Dumbledore, he found himself unable to kill the kind man in front of him. Although he was proud of the near-impossible feat he'd already accomplished-getting Death Eaters into the school-Draco was clearly horrified that they'd brought a werewolf with an appetite for children along. He successfully performed the Unforgivable Imperius Curse on Rosmerta, a barmaid in Hogsmeade, so she could spy for him, and he nearly killed two students in his attempts to get Dumbledore, but Draco could not perform the killing curse himself. It's probably worth wondering if he really could have worked the Cruciatus Curse on Harry when he tried to in the bathroom. Still bound by service to Voldemort, Draco will probably be forced to embark on another risky endeavour as he comes of age. And he probably won't want to do it. But with Dumbledore dead, will anyone think of rescuing Draco from the path put before him?

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