Draco Malfoy was first introduced to us all the way back in 2001 as an arrogant, evil Slytherin student motivated by an evil intention, surrounded by his subservient lackeys and always trying to get one up on Harry Potter himself.
As the Harry Potter franchise developed from a friendly, heartwarming children’s film into a selection of dark battles against pure horror, the character of Draco Malfoy developed too. Here are the ten biggest ways he changed from The Philosopher’s Stone to The Deathly Hallows.
He Became Good(ish)
Skipping right to the very end of The Deathly Hallows, we see a version of Draco Malfoy who isn’t sneering and aggressive. He might not be warm, friendly and welcoming, but his personality has become just that little bit kinder. It was being foreshadowed for a while: he couldn’t kill Dumbledore; he didn’t give Harry away to the Snatchers.
However, seeing Malfoy as a redeemed Death Eater, avoiding the commands of the Dark Lord and walking around from the final fight at Hogwarts shows how Malfoy took seven books to finally realize he was on the wrong team.
He Defended Harry
The very first time we see Malfoy, he is trying to recruit Harry into his team of evil and stupidity. He describes Ron as “the wrong sort”, and looks down upon the boy wizard as soon as Harry rejects his advances. This leads to book after book and film after film of abuse and treatment way beyond what could be considered bullying.
Then towards the end of the series, Malfoy’s arc of redemption begins. Over at Malfoy Manner, he knows with certainty that Ron, Hermione, and Harry are standing right in front of him, yet in a way that goes against everything Malfoy has ever been, he “doesn’t know”.
He Lost His Bravery
Again, looking back to that very first interaction with the blonde-haired wizard, we see innate bravery beyond that of a normal eleven-year-old. He sneers like his father and struts like a man five times his age.
This is kept up for a long time, with no real moment of weakness being shown at any point. However, by The Deathly Hallows, we had already seen Malfoy shake and flail as he failed to kill his headmaster. Then in the last film, he cries like five times and shows that he isn’t as brave as he pretended to be.
He Became A Death Eater
Considering his father Lucius was a Death Eater before Draco was born, then went into hiding, then came back when his master returned, you can assume Draco was surrounded by some pretty evil stuff as a child. It was no real surprise that he became a death eater aged just sixteen.
This meant he was on the same murder-hungry team as the likes of Bellatrix Lestrange and Greyback, despite still going to school every day. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but his Dark Mark proves it.
And A Trusted One At That
Making Malfoy a Death Eater at such a young age would surely come with some issues of trust, skill and loyalty. With people serving Voldemort for years, carrying out just about any task imaginable, you’d think he had access to a few people who could kill Dumbledore for him.
Instead, Voldemort chooses little Draco Malfoy. Sure, it’s a test for him and his family devised by the Dark Lord, but he had to at least trust in his abilities a little bit, or he wouldn’t have given him such an important task.
He Lost His Wand
Draco’s wand becomes quite a key part of the final Harry Potter book. Harry had disarmed him, taking ownership of his wand. The 10-inch hawthorn and unicorn hair wand became Harry’s property during the fight at Malfoy Manor, leaving Harry in charge, and Malfoy to borrow his mothers’: “it’s powerful, but it’s not the same”.
Little did Malfoy know, but he was technically the true master of the Elder Wand, as he had been the one to disarm Dumbledore.
He Became Good At Quidditch
Maybe ‘good’ isn’t the right word to use here. Maybe he ‘played’ Quidditch? His father ended up buying the Slytherin team Nimbus 2001 brooms, allowing them to zip around the playing field with incredible speed.
Hermione claims that Malfoy bought his way onto the team, which is probably true to an extent, but if he was really bad, then there would be no way that the Slytherin captain would give him the most important position on the field. So beyond providing the brooms, Malfoy obviously had a bit of a wasted talent for Quidditch.
He Was Civil To Harry
The last few moments of The Deathly Hallows fast forward by nineteen years, showing Harry and Ginny escorting their children to Platform 9¾. Down the other end of the platform is Draco Malfoy, who looks at Harry without rage, hatred or aggression.
Considering that a few years ago, Draco had almost directly caused Harry to die multiple times, this seems to be about as good a relationship as we can hope for between the two.
He Had A Wife
It was hinted throughout the franchise that Draco would end up with Pansy Parkinson. She might well have been the most dehumanized example of evil in the entirety of Slytherin house, willing to do a lot to make others suffer, as well as attempt to hand Harry to Voldemort to save herself.
However, this doesn’t happen, and Malfoy ends up meeting and marrying Astoria Greengrass. The theatre production The Cursed Child reveals that Astoria, unfortunately, died in 2019 due to a blood curse.
And A Child
Beyond his wife, Draco Malfoy even ended up having a child. The Deathly Hallows Part 2 shows him waving off his son as he boards the Hogwarts Express. Despite trying to reinvent themselves as nice, non-Death Eaters, they made the bold decision to call him Scorpius, a decidedly evil name.
We learn a lot about Scorpius in The Cursed Child, from the fact that he is actually a really nice guy, that there are rumors that he is the son of Voldemort himself, and that he ends up becoming best friends with Harry’s son.