As far as Harry Potter characters go, Draco Malfoy is up there with the worst. While he’s not as cold as Lord Voldemort, he lacks the unchecked villainy of Bellatrix Lestrange, and he isn’t as reprehensible as Dolores Umbridge, the Slytherin student is still a pretty repulsive individual. He bullies just about everybody at Hogwarts and struts with an air of superiority, lauding his family's status as one of the few pure-blooded wizarding broods.
Tom Felton did a brilliant job at playing Draco in all eight movies, but not every little detail from the source material made it onto the big screen. Here are a few details about the character only those who've read the novels will know.
Updated on March 2nd, 2022 by Tanner Fox: Influenced by his blood-purity-obsessed father and essentially bred to be a major part of the Dark Lord's return, Draco Malfoy had little choice but to become a villain from a young age. However, while he fulfills that role perfectly most of the time, there was a good-natured side of him that ultimately saw him through to the end of the seven-part novel series.
While his background isn't as well-explored as those of Harry, Hermione, and Ron, he's still a vital character, and quite a bit of detail surrounding his life was totally removed from the Harry Potter film adaptations.
He Meets Harry Before Hogwarts
In The Sorcerer’s Stone movie, Harry and Draco meet for the first time in the Entrance Hall at Hogwarts. It’s here that Malfoy offers friendship, but he’s snubbed by the Boy Who Lived, who, after seeing him make remarks about Ron Weasley, refuses to shake his hand. However, in the book, things are different.
Harry and Draco actually meet for the first time in Diagon Alley in Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions. Unintentionally, Draco makes his future enemy feel rather thick and foolish by talking about the wizarding world, oblivious that Harry is only just getting his head around the whole thing.
He Was Furious When Buckbeak Escaped
Draco very nearly gets Buckbeak the Hippogriff killed during the events on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The Slytherin student insulted the creature, who then retaliated by slashing him with his huge talons. As punishment for this, despite the fact he was provoked, Buckbeak was sentenced to death by the Ministry of Magic in a huge miscarriage of justice.
Luckily, Harry and Hermione save the day by using a time-turner. What the movie doesn’t reveal, though, is just how angry Draco and his father were when they found out about Buckbeak’s miraculous escape. Yet, the two were essentially powerless to do anything, which must have made them all the more furious.
He Meets Harry While Death Eaters Cause Havoc
In the film version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, chaos breaks out at the Quidditch World Cup. Vile Death Eaters run amok, determined to round up muggle-borns and send a message to the rest of the world that, while Lord Voldemort may be gone, their support for him and his twisted ideology remains.
In the book of the same name, Harry, Ron, and Hermione encounter Draco in the woods while the Death Eaters are on the loose. There, he taunts them and warns Hermione that she, in particular, would be of great interest to them. They resist the urge to retort and instead flee off into the night, determined to evade capture.
He Helped Rita Skeeter Discredit Harry
Rita Skeeter is an abhorrent journalist, one who takes great pleasure in writing nasty, horrible, and untrue stories about the heroes of the wizarding world. She makes life particularly difficult for Harry during his fourth year at the castle, driving an agenda of hate against the Boy Who Lived.
This doesn’t really happen in the Goblet of Fire movie, though it is vaguely touched upon. In the source material, it’s revealed that Draco is acting as an informant to Rita, giving her all the latest news and gossip surrounding Harry to discredit him amid his Triwizard Tournament campaign. Hermione eventually finds out that Rita is an Animagus, and, instead of letting the world know, uses it to blackmail her further down the line.
His Son Befriends Harry's Son
The post-Hogwarts lives of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco are briefly touched upon at the very end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and the accompanying two-part film adaptation. While the effects used to age the actors in the film were a bit suspect, the scenes were touching, nevertheless.
What movie fans won't know, however, is that Albus, Harry's son, becomes great friends with Scorpius. Malfoy's son. It's a neat subversion of the infamous rivalry which began almost immediately between Harry and Draco, though only those who read or saw the stage play of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will be privy to this fact.
He Receives A Beating On The Hogwarts Express
Harry is depressed at the end of his fourth year, with Lord Voldemort’s return and Cedric Diggory’s death having big consequences for the wizarding world. But Draco, being the bully that he is, attempts to mock the Boy Who Lived and Cedric on the train journey back from Hogwarts. Unfortunately for him, it doesn’t go as planned.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred Weasley, and George Weasley all attack him before he can even finish speaking, leaving Draco extremely battered and bruised as a result. One would think he’d learn his lesson after this, but, alas, he continues to act like he’s something special. Leopards can’t change their spots, right?
He Got Harry Banned From Quidditch
The train journey home from Hogwarts following his fourth year isn’t the only time where Draco attempts to taunt Harry; he does it again during the Order of the Phoenix book, mocking him for the death of his parents and also taking aim at the Weasley twins following Slytherin’s defeat to Gryffindor in their Quidditch showdown.
Harry, Fred, and George all respond violently and receive bans from Quidditch as a result. Dolores Umbridge takes great pleasure in dealing them the blow, defending Malfoy despite the fact he’d provoked them. Harry is banned until the end of the year and becomes Gryffindor Quidditch captain in the summer, replacing Angelina Johnson in the role.
He Threatens A Werewolf Attack
Fans of the Potter movies know that Draco helps the Death Eaters enter Hogwarts by repairing an old pair of vanishing cabinets. One is placed in the Room of Requirement, while the other is in Borgin & Burkes. When Draco feels Borgin isn’t being a great help to him, he then threatens him with violence.
Specifically, he threatens a werewolf attack, one that would be carried out by Fenrir Greyback. Greyback is close to the Malfoy family and would have likely carried out Draco’s bidding. The werewolf does appear in the Half-Blood Prince blockbuster film, but he barely he any screen time, and, throughout the final few movies of the series, the character is drastically underused relative to his role in the novels.
He Made Crabbe And Goyle Take Polyjuice Potion
During Draco’s sixth year at Hogwarts, he completely abandons his studies. He instead devotes himself to repairing the two vanishing cabinets in a plot that he hoped would end with the death of Albus Dumbledore and earn himself the trust of Lord Voldemort in the process. But, because of the size of the operation, he can’t do it alone.
Therefore, Malfoy gets Crabbe and Goyle to take Polyjuice Potion. This is so they can keep an eye on the Room of Requirement without anybody being suspicious. Harry finds this out, but, by the time he does, it's too late, and, by the end of the year, Dumbledore is gone—albeit with Severus Snape, rather than Draco, carrying out the deed.
He Gets Punched By Ron
Harry, Ron, and Hermione save the lives of Draco and Goyle after they’re all nearly burned to death inside the Room of Requirement. This comes close to happening as a result of Crabbe casting a spell he can’t control, one that ends up costing himself his own life.
Afterward, Draco is seen begging a Death Eater to let him join their cause. Ron, seeing this, then punches him in the face and labels him a ‘two-faced b******.' This would have been fun and satisfying to see, but Warner Bros chose to omit it from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. The colorful use of language may potentially be why.
He Was A Surprisingly Great Parent
Given his terrible and imposing father figure, one might assume that Draco Malfoy went on to be a bad parent in his own right. That couldn't be further from the through, and, though he continued his family's pure-blood legacy by marrying another pure-blooded witch, the two left the Malfoy family's obsession with blood purity behind.
Later, when his mother falls victim to a familial curse, Scorpius is greatly affected, but Draco steps up to console him. He displays the sort of warmheartedness of which he seemed incapable in his school years, and it highlights just how far he's come since The Battle of Hogwarts.
He Was At Hogwarts After Voldemort’s Death
After Voldemort dies, it’s a time for mourning and celebration in equal measure. Everybody in the wizarding world is jubilant about his passing but sad at the sheer scale of life lost with the likes of Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, and Fred Weasley all perishing in battle.
In the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the Malfoys flee before the Dark Lord’s passing. This isn’t the case in the source material, though, with Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco all seen sitting in the Great Hall afterward, unsure if they belong there. It’s a subtle change, however, and was perhaps made just to give the trio more closure.