Saturday, 3 September 2011

The tragic life of Draco Malfoy

As I’ve said Draco Malfoy has always been one of those characters in the Harry Potter series which has fascinated me.  He started off as a snide little boy who thought that he was much better than everyone else, but as the story progressed his insecurities began to show. Particularly in Prisoner of Azkaban when Hermione punched him in the face for making fun for Hagrid or when the Griffin attacked him for being cheeky to it.

In a way I felt sorry for him, because he didn’t know any better, since he was raised to be a hater of Muggle-borns and a Pure-blood fanatic. Later on it’s clear that his love and loyalty for his family over-rides all his prejudices and hatreds. This fact is particularly true for the whole Malfoy family, who during the Last Battle of Hogwarts were so preoccupied with protecting each other that they didn’t even get involved in the battle.
By the sixth book my heart bleed for him. He had been given an impossible mission of killing Dumbledore by the Dark lord himself and the pain he felt about not being to go through it was also heart-breaking.
Draco’s confrontation with Harry in the bathroom when Harry uses the Sectrumsentra curse on him is one of the moments of the whole series which has stuck with me due to the intensity and graphic description of it done by Rowling. Even now I can just see all the blood mixed with the overflowing water in my mind. *Shudder
 It is clear that even though Draco comes off as an evil character Rowling wrote many hints to point out the fact that underneath that hard exterior he has a heart. By the end of the series we can see that he has completely changed his attitude towards the other characters. Even though we can see that Draco will never be close to his school rivals they seemed to have earned a grudging respect for each other.
A common mistake by made fans of the series is that many female are only fans of Draco, because they have a crush on Tom Felton, the actor who plays Draco in the Harry Potter movies and I must say that even though J.K Rowling pointed out that making this mistake is very faulty, because in her eyes Draco is not a good guy and he should not be admired. I think that, personally, Rowling did not see the potential in Draco quite like how the fans saw him.
A part of me wishes we could have learnt more about what happened to Draco after the battle at Hogwarts. Sure we find out that he turned his life around to eventually marry and have a son named Scorpious, who looks oddly like him, but I want to know more. I guess this will have to be a common trend of not knowing enough the rest of the characters stories. Draco Malfoy will always be an enigma in the Harry Potter world and I will still love him later on…



And Harry realised, with a shock so huge it seemed to root him to the spot, that Malfoy was crying - actually crying - tears streaming down his pale face into the grimy basin. Malfoy gasped and gulped and then, with a great shudder, looked up into the cracked mirror and saw Harry staring at him over his shoulder.

'SECTUMSEMPRA!' bellowed Harry from the floor, waving his wand wildly.
Blood spurted from Malfoy's face and chest as though he had been slashed with an invisible sword. He staggered backwards and collapsed onto the waterlogged floor with a great splash, his wand falling from his limp right hand.
'No-' gasped Harry.
Slipping and staggering, Harry got to his feet and plunged towards Malfoy, whose face was now shining scarlet, his white hands scrabbling at his blood-soaked chest.
'No- I didn't-'
Harry did not know what he was saying; he fell to his knees beside Malfoy, who was shaking uncontrollably in a pool of his own blood. Moaning Myrtle let out a deafening scream.
'MURDER! MURDER IN THE BATHROOM! MURDER!'
The door banged open behind harry and he looked up, terrified: Snape had burst into the room, his face livid. Pushing Harry roughly aside, he knelt over Malfoy, drew his wand and traced it over the deep wounds Harry's curse had made, muttering an incantation that sounded almost like song."