Draco Malfoy

Draco Malfoy is one of the more frequently lusted after characters of the Harry Potter fandom. The son of Lucius Malfoy is described in the books as having 'a pale, pointed face, sleek white-blond hair and grey eyes'. Unfortunately Suethors tend to interpret this as 'a handsome face, gelled platinum-blond hair and piercing silver eyes'. In the movies he is played by actor Tom Felton.

Characterisation
Draco Malfoy is normally characterised in fanfiction as an evil personality who can be redeemed with enough work, or by the love of a Mary Sue. In stories set at Hogwarts he is often portrayed as a bully with a superiority complex, who is never left unattended by his two goons and Pansy Parkinson. Outside of Hogwarts he is shown as an aristocratic pureblood who takes any opportunity to denigrate those of 'lower birth'. In either setting he will often try to draw the Golden Trio into a fight or argument.

Sometimes the author will write Malfoy as an abused child, who is regularly beaten or raped, normally by Lucius Malfoy. In these cases he almost always turns to 'the Light' for assistance, normally taking a downtrodden Narcissa Malfoy with him.

Relationships
Draco Malfoy has a few canon relationships. He is willing to risk his life for his parents' safety, has two best friends/goons in Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle and in the Deathly Hallows epilogue he is revealed to be married with a young son. It is never revealed who he is married to, but fanon commonly identifies Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin who fawns on him all through Hogwarts as his wife. J.K. Rowling, however, has identified his wife as Astoria Greengrass, a younger sister of Daphne Greengrass, who was a Slytherin in Draco and Harry's year. Another piece of fanon speculation is that Severus Snape, who favours him as a Slytherin student, is his godfather.

In fanfiction Malfoy has a few common and enduring pairings. The most popular, naturally, were until recently Mary Sue pairings, though this trend has been replaced at an alarming rate by Gary Stu pairings. Canon characters who often wind up in pairings with Draco are Ginny Weasley (despite her status as a blood-traitor), Pansy Parkinson, and Hermione Granger (despite her being a Muggle-born). Malfoy slash fics are also common, and have actually surpassed the numerous Malfoy Suefics. An indicator (though certainly not proof) of this can be found in the 1:13 ratio of Draco/OC to Draco/Harry fics on fanfiction.net, with the former having over 2,500 stories under 'Draco M. and OC' and the latter boasting over 27,000 stories under 'Draco M. and Harry P.'. Another source which proves this are the literally dozens of websites deditcated to little else but Potterverse slash. In these he is normally paired up with Harry Potter, Ron Weasley or Lord Voldemort/Tom Riddle.

The ascent of the Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy phenomena has been attributed to several different factors, not the least of which being the mad lust of fangirls for their movie counterparts. It is almost terrifying that the rate of ascent for this pairing as the top pairing in Potterverse fanon has occurred in the short span of only two to three years - indeed, it would almost seem a natural phenomena were it not for two facts. First, the general fan population (being for the most part female) is now finding two men in love to simply be 'hot' (or "HAWT!!!1!!" in Sue-terms). Second, the audience itself has matured, and though badfic is still rampant in the Harry Potter universe, it is somehow against all probability becoming easier and easier to find goodfic being written for this pairing (named aptly: 'Drarry') that utilizes canon clues as well as decent grammar and adequate storyline. Thankfully, the maturing of the original Harry Potter audience has affected not only this pairing, but has seemed to spread to the entirety of the fandom, though it is found most commonly where slash is involved.