BEST BLOG ENTRY: Draco Malfoy: Truly What He Appears To Be?

One of the major characters that Harry comes into contact with and has to deal with throughout the series is his arch enemy: Draco Malfoy.  Now, at first glance, Draco seems bad.  As a follower of Voldemort and a Death Eater, he appears to have no good in him.  However, does the fact that he is a Slytherin and seems to be at the scene of every crime really show his true colors?  I think there is more to Draco Malfoy than meets the eye.

In the early books, Draco introduces himself to Harry and tells him that in respect to making new friends, “I can help him with that.” Although this seems like a jerk move, which it kind-of is, I believe that Draco was merely taking pride in the house that his family for generations and generations back had come from.  Just as Harry wanted friends who were in Gryffindor, Draco viewed the members of the Slytherin house as the kind of friends that he would like to associate with.  Nobody can fault him for that.  However, later in the first movie, Draco insists on being cruel and disrespectful to Harry and his friends multiple times.  On one occasion, he takes Neville’s remembrall, and brings it to an area in which Neville could never retreive it.

Some of the more contraversial times in the series is when Draco is dealing with the conflict of having to be a Death Eater.  I truly believe that he is a good kid on the inside, and that responsibility was thrust upon him before he was ready.  Although he is a jerk at times, and makes Harry’s life more difficult, he is merely trying to have a little fun.  When he has actual responsibilities that deal with life and death, the poor kid doesn’t know what to do.  For example, when he first learns of what he has to do at the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, he literally goes and cries in the bathroom.  How sad is that?  He doesn’t really have anybody to back him up or help him out.  That would be a lonely place.  I think that if Draco didn’t have Lucius as a father, then he and Harry could be genuine friends. 

When Harry is disgusied in Malfoy Manor, and his face is totally distorted, Draco is asked if he knows who this person is.  Although, he knows without a doubt that it is Harry, he does not say anything.  Does he want Harry’s life to be preserved?  Does he want Voldemort taken down?  It’s hard to know, but one thing we do know is that Draco protected Harry in this situation, when he had all the power in the world to end his life.  There must be something good inside him.

Finally, Draco deals with the ultimate battle between good and evil.  He has the responsibility of killing Dumbledore, one of the greatest wizards ever known to the wizarding world.  That’s like trying to kill the President of the United States times twenty.  So many people would hate you for that.  Plus, good luck.  Dumbledore has the power to save himself whenever he wants, so if he doesn’t want to die, he’s not going to.  When the time comes to kill the Hogwarts Headmaster, Draco successfully disarms him.  However, he cannot bring himself to say the unforgivable words, “Avada Kedavra.”  Why?  Everything we know about him tells us that he would kill Dumbledore in the blink of an eye.  In addition to being scared, I don’t think that Draco ever had it in him.  He was a pretty good kid, who didn’t want the blood of another wizard, especially one of the greatest, on his hands. 

The last sign that Draco is really good on the inside is when he walks away from Voldemort and his army at the end of the last movie.  Although he does not join the good side, he is turning away from the evil in his life.  It’s a hard thing to do-to walk away from the one wizard who has the most power to kill you.  In the end, I believe Draco was a noble wizard, who just got mixed up with the wrong kind of people.  On the inside, he had the potential to be a true hero.