Blog Post 2--The Evolution of Draco Malfoy

From the beginning of the series, Harry has had some serious bullying from literally every area of his life. The Dursley's are emotional bullies, as well as physical ones. He's grown up in a house--not a home--where he is not tolerated and isn't considered part of the family. When he enters the wizarding world, although he is vastly more accepted (due in part to his renound fame), he still has to deal with bullying, like any eleven-year-old boy with crazy hair and clothes too big for his body would. Significantly, the most outstanding bully is Draco Malfoy. Within his first meeting with Draco, he doesn't seem to recognize Harry the way the other members of the wizarding world do. Harry sees him for who he truly is: he's cruel and vile. He uses slanderous language to insult anybody who isn't him or his family, he criticizes Hagrid, and he insinuates that, had Harry's parents been muggles, their death would have been just. When he next sees Harry it is on the Hogwarts Express, and here he tries to befriend him. Harry, on the other hand, has already made friends with one of Draco's targets, Ron Weasley. Harry, showing his true colors (and certain elements that would make him a Gryffindor) stands up to Draco and says he doesn't need his friendship. From this moment on, up until the fourth book, we see Draco shamelessly bully Harry and his friends, teasing Ron for being more lower class, calling Hermione a Mudblood...you know, the works. There is a shift in consequence, however, when it is revealed that Draco's father is a Death Eater in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Harry hated Draco already, but now he had reason to believe the family was truly pure evil. Up until this point, the bullying seemed mean, yet harmless. Just words. "Boys will be boys." In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Lucius is seen again, working for Lord Voldemort, and more of the crazy Malfoy family is exposed (bat-shit crazy Bellatrix (whom I secretly, not-so-secretly love)). However, throughout all this, all that Harry can conclude about Draco himself is that he is, simply, a bully. Yet he has his suspicions, and they are in full focus in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Harry is certain--absolutely certain--that Draco is a death eater. However, like the boy who cried wolf, nobody is willing to believe him. A sixteen-year-old being chosen by the Dark Lord himself? Sure, he's a foul git, but not a death eater. Right? In the beginning of the Half-Blood Prince, when Harry spies on Draco on the Hogwarts Express, Draco seems overtly confident, showing who he has been from the first book. However, as the book progresses, we see Draco very shaken by his new situation, that has yet to be proven true. Harry still has his suspicions, and all signs would point to correct, but we don't know until the scene with Dumbledore at the Astronomy tower. And even then, Draco cannot complete the task that Voldemort set out for him to do. One could assume that Draco is, indeed, all talk, and no walk, but I think it is deeper than that. I think Draco grew up in a home that had certain ideals, and in a time when it was between life or death, these ideals "made sense" to them. Yet as the world changes, and as Harry progesses with what needs to be done, I think people are realizing (Draco specifically, and in some ways, his mother Narcissa--although more blatantly so in The Deathly Hallows) that there are other means to protecting the ones you love, and that at this point, it is really fair game. The prophecy states that one cannot live while the other survives. At this point int he series, it still could be either one of them.

--Michael Woodson