Draco Malfoy
Draco Lucius Malfoy is a fictional character and a major antagonist in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. He is a student in Harry Potter's year belonging in the Slytherin house. He is frequently accompanied by his two cronies, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, who act as henchmen. Draco is characterised as a cowardly bully who tricks and hurts people to get what he wants; he is also a cunning user of magic. He was played by Tom Felton in the Harry Potter film series, while Lox Pratt is set to portray him in the TV series adaptation.
Character development
Draco serves as a foil to the hero, Harry Potter, and is loosely based on bullies Rowling encountered during her school days. Harry first encounters Draco's snobbish bigotry after their initial encounter at Madam Malkin's. Rowling uses the Malfoys to introduce themes of intolerance and bigotry into a setting where people are often judged solely by their blood lineage rather than their good character or accomplishments. Draco, adhering to his family's beliefs, thinks that Muggle-born witches and wizards, which he and other characters derogatorily describe by the epithet Mudbloods, should be denied a magical education. Harry's first impression that the Wizarding community is a "magical wonderland" is instantly shattered. Says Rowling, " found out that many people in power in the wizarding world are just as corrupt and nasty as they are in our world."Malfoy was originally named "Draco Spungen" in the earliest drafts of Philosopher's Stone. "Spungen" also appeared on her pre-canon class list, but it was crossed out and replaced with the surname "Spinks", while "Malfoy" was later added after the completion of the list. Philip Nel believes that Malfoy is derived from the French phrase mal foi, meaning "bad faith".
In an article published in 2002, Nilsen and Nilsen argue that "Draco" has connotations with draconian, and that his name starts with "mal", a French prefix for "bad" or "evil".
Many of Draco's relatives on his mother's side of the family are named for stars or constellations. Another constellation is Draco. Draco Malfoy eventually named his son for yet another constellation, Scorpius.
Appearances
''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone''
Draco Malfoy makes his first appearance in the series when he and Harry meet while being fitted for school robes at Madam Malkin's, a clothing shop in Diagon Alley. Not realising that the boy in the store is Harry Potter—a child whose parents were murdered when he was one year old by the powerful dark wizard Lord Voldemort—Draco engages him in polite conversation. Harry, however, is alienated by the arrogance of Draco, who asks whether the orphan's parents are "our kind". Draco then proclaims that "the other sort" should not be allowed at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, 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, demonstrated by a handshake, and their mutual antagonism is born.According to Rowling, Malfoy originally makes an effort to be Harry's friend because "it will be cool to turn up at the school being Harry Potter's friend, because Harry is so famous." However, Harry did not want Malfoy as a friend because he "has been so rude about Rubeus Hagrid and about Ron, who Harry likes so much".
At the first years' Sorting Ceremony, the Sorting Hat places him instantly into Slytherin, the house that has developed all of the bad wizards, where he becomes an instant favourite of Potions teacher and Slytherin Head of House, Severus Snape, an apparent follower of Lord Voldemort. Draco attempts to get Harry expelled by falsely challenging him to a midnight duel and informing Argus Filch in advance of Harry's plans to be out of bed; Draco's attempt fails when Harry evades Filch and safely makes it back to his dormitory.
''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets''
In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Draco becomes the new Seeker for the Slytherin Quidditch team after his father, Lucius Malfoy, donates new, high-quality Nimbus 2001 broomsticks. When Hermione Granger comments that the Gryffindor players made the team through talent and not bribery, Draco responds by calling her a "Mudblood", a derogatory term for people of mixed magical and human ancestry. This provokes an immediate, violent response from Ron. Because of Draco's contempt for Muggle-borns, Harry, Ron, and Hermione 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, whereupon they realise that their initial suspicion about Draco is incorrect.''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban''
During Hagrid's debut as Care of Magical Creatures instructor in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Buckbeak the hippogriff attacks Draco after he fails to observe proper protocol while approaching it and 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. Hermione punches Draco when he mocks Hagrid for crying over Buckbeak's death sentence. Draco, who implies that he is aware of how Sirius Black was supposedly involved in the deaths of Harry's parents, also taunts Harry about the impending threat of Black: "If it was me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt him down myself."''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire''
After Harry is unexpectedly chosen as a Triwizard Tournament champion in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Draco shows off a "Support Cedric Diggory" badge to Harry, then presses it to replace the phrase with "Potter Stinks." 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 humiliates Draco by transforming him into a ferret and repeatedly slamming him against the ground as well as dropping him down Goyle's pants.''Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix''
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Draco is named a Slytherin prefect along with Pansy Parkinson. He gets Harry and the Weasley twins banned from the Gryffindor Quidditch team when they attack him during a postmatch brawl after Draco insults their families following Gryffindor's win over Slytherin. He later joins Dolores Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad, with whom he plays an important part in the exposure of Dumbledore's Army. As the D.A. flees the Room of Requirement, Draco earns Slytherin fifty points after catching Harry, and helps hold several members captive in Umbridge's office, letting them free only after Ginny Weasley performs her famous Bat Bogey Hex. After his father and other Death Eaters are captured and sentenced to Azkaban following the events at the Department of Mysteries, Draco twice attempts to get revenge on Harry, but Snape and Minerva McGonagall thwart his first effort, and while returning home on the Hogwarts Express, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle are transformed into giant slugs by a barrage of hexes cast by several D.A. members coming to Harry's defence.''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince''
Draco is drawn into Death-Eaters' activities more directly in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Because of Lucius' arrest and fall from Voldemort's favour, Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange visit Snape at his home to discuss a dangerous task that Voldemort has assigned Draco. Narcissa, deeply worried that her son will be killed in his attempt to complete it, begs Snape to make an Unbreakable Vow to aid Draco with this task and protect him at all costs, and if Draco fails to complete the mission, he will complete it himself; he agrees.Under the Invisibility Cloak, Harry, Ron, and Hermione follow Draco to Borgin and Burkes, a dark magic shop in Knockturn Alley. Draco threatens Mr. Borgin about repairing one item and keeping another safe for him. Draco shows Mr. Borgin something on his arm that Harry believes to be the Dark Mark, Voldemort's sign, though whether or not Harry is correct is never confirmed. On the Hogwarts Express, Harry invisibly spies on Draco and overhears him discussing Voldemort's task with several other Slytherins. Draco knows Harry is present and, once alone in the compartment, immobilises him and breaks his nose causing Harry to hate Draco even more. Harry is left stranded on the train until Nymphadora Tonks rescues him. Harry spends much of the year trailing Draco's whereabouts on his Marauder's Map, but loses track of him once Draco enters the Room of Requirement. When Katie Bell is almost killed in Hogsmeade after handling a cursed necklace and Ron nearly dies by drinking poisoned mead, Harry suspects Draco is behind both attacks.
In this book, Draco is, for the first time since being introduced in the series, portrayed as having considerable initiative, ingenuity, and perseverance. However, unlike Harry, who always relies on his friends' support and help, Draco mostly works alone in the Room of Requirement, refusing to confide in or involve his own circle of friends, whom he treats more as underlings. This, and the realisation of what he is ultimately expected to do, nearly drives him to a nervous breakdown. When Harry walks in on Malfoy crying in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, Draco 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, resulting in severe blood loss. Snape, alerted by Myrtle's screams, swiftly arrives and heals Draco's cuts, then takes him to the hospital wing.
Near the conclusion, Draco ambushes and disarms a gravely weakened Dumbledore at the Astronomy Tower. After Draco disarms him, Dumbledore calmly reasons with the frightened teenager and persuades him to reveal how he was, according to Voldemort's orders, to kill the headmaster through the cursed necklace and the poisoned mead. Malfoy reveals that he mended the broken Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement to act as a portal enabling Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts. Draco is hesitant to kill Dumbledore and he eventually lowers his wand. Snape arrives, dispatches Dumbledore himself and then flees Hogwarts with Draco in tow. As revealed during his confrontation with Dumbledore, Draco was an insecure boy incapable of committing cold-blooded murder and was forced to do Voldemort's bidding under the threat of his and his parents' deaths. Harry, who was horrified by the result of his duel with Draco in the bathroom incident, feels "the tiniest drop of pity mingled with his dislike" for his old rival.
During an interview in 2005, Rowling revealed that she enjoyed writing Draco in this book, and that the character "did a lot of growing up" as well.