One of the most beloved fan-favorite characters from the Harry Potter series is Draco Malfoy. Many fans feel like Draco deserved a more developed redemption arc over Severus Snape. While Draco did get somewhat of a redemption arc, it wasn’t explored very much. There are many people who feel like this should have been acknowledged more in the series.
While Draco undoubtedly did some awful things and made many mistakes, he was also redeemable in many ways. He was treated poorly and put in a situation where he had little choice to be better since he was a child. There were also many times where he deserved better.
Being put into Slytherin would bring out the worst personality traits
One of the worst things that ever happened to Draco Malfoy was probably being put into Slytherin. This seems like a bad thing for almost any student as it seems like a place where being awful and interested in the dark arts is almost encouraged. Slytherins are also rather ostracized from the other Hogwarts houses. Draco likely would have been able to explore his more positive personality traits if he wasn’t put into this house.
Growing up with parents that clearly weren’t great
The family dynamic between the Malfoys isn’t explored in-depth because the series is told from Harry’s perspective. However, what we did see shows that it wasn’t the best situation. Lucius seemed rather hard on Draco, and Narcissa seemed rather doting but judgemental. They also spoiled him in many ways, similar to Dudley, but didn’t give him the warmth and affection that a child really needs.
The fact that he never had any actual real friends
It seems that in Slytherin no one ever really has true friends. This seems like a stereotype of the house that was unfortunately written into the series, but this means that Draco never seemed to have anyone he could actually connect with.
His friends were usually more just cronies or people who didn’t actually like him that much. Not having anyone to confide in would have made it difficult to feel cared for. While he wasn't a great friend either, it was just a sad situation all around.
When he was stuck hanging out with Bellatrix but saved Harry’s life anyway
Having to spend so much of your adolescence around unstable, evil Death Eaters would be horrible for anyone. While Draco was often stuck around people like Bellatrix, in the end, he still did the decent thing. He didn’t actually tell her who Harry was, even though he knew it was him, and doing this ended up saving Harry’s life. This is also something that could have put Draco’s own life at risk, but he still decided to do the right thing and lie.
The fact he didn’t have enough happy memories to make a Patronus
This is something that is a bit of an extrapolation, but it makes a lot of sense. J.K. Rowling revealed that Draco never produced a Patronus Charm, and she thought it was because he just never learned the spell. But, many fans have speculated that this is also because Draco doesn’t have many true happy memories that one would need to call forth a Patronus.
When Harry used Sectumsempra on him
Harry and Draco had it out for each other ever since they started at Hogwarts. They both had moments where they took things too far. One time where Harry totally crossed the line is when he uses Sectumsempra on Malfoy. While he might not have known what the spell did, he shouldn’t have used a spell for enemies without knowing what it did. He almost killed Malfoy, and Malfoy didn’t deserve that.
Voldemort forcing him to torture people
In one of Harry’s visions where he was connected to what Voldemort was seeing, he saw that Voldemort had forced Malfoy to torture people. Malfoy clearly didn’t want to do this and seemed quite upset by it. If he didn’t do so, Voldemort likely would have killed him. Having to be put in this situation as someone who wasn’t even 18 yet. The fact that Malfoy was basically forced into proximity with Voldemort is quite tragic.
Growing up with Death Eater parents
So much of the awful things about Malfoy can be blamed on his parents. He was literally raised by Death Eaters and as he neared adulthood, he spent so much of his time around Death Eaters and even Voldemort.
This put him in a basically impossible situation where he was a victim. He didn’t really have much choice but to stick around for his own safety, and given how he was raised, he surprisingly didn’t buy into it all the way.
When Voldemort punished Draco for the actions of Lucius
One of the worst things that ever happened to Malfoy that wasn’t fair to him was when he was forced to go along with whatever Voldemort wanted because of what Lucius did. Because Voldemort was angry at Lucius for what happened at the Department of Mysteries, Voldemort wanted to punish him and knew that one of the best ways to do this was by hurting his son.
Being ordered by Voldemort to kill Dumbledore
Voldemort manipulated Malfoy in many ways, but the worst and most apparent thing he did was to task Draco with killing Dumbledore. Voldemort knew that Draco wouldn’t be able to do this, so it was clearly to punish Lucius and with the intent of getting Malfoy killed. Draco didn’t deserve this, and he was punished for things he didn’t even do.
It was only because of his parents that he ever got put into that position. It’s really a shame that this wasn’t touched on more in the books. Draco had many flaws and could be cruel, but he wasn’t a killer at heart.