Draco Lucius Malfoy Fictional character and main rival of Harry Potter Country: Great Britain

Biography of Draco Lucius Malfoy

Draco Lucius Malfoy is a fictional character and the main rival of Harry Potter in J.K. Rowling's series of novels. He attends the Slytherin house at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and is often accompanied by his two lackeys, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.

Draco, a pure-blood wizard and the heir to a wealthy and influential family, is cowardly and arrogant. He manipulates people and is willing to harm others to get what he wants. However, Draco is also cunning and talented in magic. His family ties and character traits lead him to join the ranks of the Death Eaters, the followers of the dark wizard Lord Voldemort. But in the end, Draco, saved by Harry from certain death, stops being his enemy.

In the films, Draco Malfoy is portrayed by British actor Tom Felton. Thanks to Felton, Draco became one of the most popular characters in the series, gaining a huge number of fans, which greatly concerned Rowling.

Draco Malfoy serves as Harry Potter's main school enemy in the books. Rowling has mentioned that she created this character based on the bullies who teased her during her school days. The author uses Draco to introduce themes of intolerance, snobbery, and fanaticism in her books. Draco, following his family's beliefs, judges people solely based on their bloodline and believes that wizards born into Muggle families, like Hermione Granger, should be forbidden from attending Hogwarts. It is Draco who first uses the derogatory term "mudblood," ironically not hurting Hermione at first because she grew up outside the magical world and didn't know its meaning.

Draco is the only son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, and he is connected to many characters in the books, both from the dark and light sides. Interestingly, the Blacks, his mother's family, often name their children after stars and constellations, such as Sirius Black, Regulus Black, Andromeda Black Tonks, and Orion Black. In turn, Draco names his son Scorpius, also after a well-known constellation.

The first time Harry meets Draco is at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, where both boys come to buy their school robes. Not knowing that the boy next to him is Harry Potter, Draco starts a polite conversation but quickly dismisses Harry, mocking those born to Muggles. They meet again on the train, and Draco offers friendship to the famous Potter, but Harry rejects him because Draco insulted Ron Weasley's family. From that moment, they become enemies.

At Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat immediately places Draco in Slytherin, where he becomes the favorite of the head of the house and Potions professor, Severus Snape, and continues to plot against Harry and his friends. As the books progress, Harry Potter grows older, and so do the characters, including Draco Malfoy. With time, Draco develops a romantic interest in his fellow Slytherin classmate Pansy Parkinson. Their relationship becomes strained, and in the sixth book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," it is revealed that Lord Voldemort assigns Draco an impossible task – to kill Albus Dumbledore, the school's headmaster and the most powerful wizard in magical Britain. Fortunately for Draco, there is still hope for his soul. Despite Voldemort's threats to kill his parents, Draco cannot bring himself to perform the deadly curse. In the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," Draco once again cannot bring himself to condemn Harry, Ron, and Hermione to certain death. He pretends not to recognize them, and in the final chapters, Harry saves Draco's life from the Fiendfyre spell, and then Narcissa Malfoy lies to Voldemort, ultimately saving Harry's life.

Rowling describes Draco as a tall, blond boy with a pale face and impenetrable gray eyes. He takes pride in his heritage and uses it to belittle those born into less affluent families. Not relying on physical strength, Draco prefers to act cunningly but always has his physically strong yet dim-witted Slytherin friends by his side. He is a racist, a bully, and he always knows how to hit where it hurts. Draco never feels remorse for his actions, but he is not entirely hopeless. He is ambitious, plays Quidditch (though he is noticeably inferior to Harry as a Seeker), and wields a ten-inch hawthorn wand with a unicorn hair core. For a time, he even becomes the true owner of the Elder Wand, but he is unaware of this fact. Additionally, Malfoy proves to be a talented wizard and excels in Potions, Occlumency, and Dark Magic.