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.

In Canon
Draco is a spoiled brat and a bully who uses his rich, powerful father's name as a cudgel to get his way. He is ungracious in victory, vindictive in defeat, and cowardly in the face of danger – especially when separated from his strong friends/goons, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. Worst of all, he espouses his father's bigoted view of Muggles and non-pureblooded witches and wizards. He thinks nothing of using the word 'Mudblood', a particularly heinous slur in the Wizarding World.

He becomes Harry Potter's enemy in their first year at Hogwarts, after Harry spurns his friendship in favor of Ron Weasley (a 'blood traitor', and even worse, poor), and Hermione Granger (a Muggleborn). In retribution for this insult, Draco takes every opportunity to make Harry's and his friends' lives more difficult, even though he himself often winds up in trouble in the process.

By his sixth year, Draco takes his father's place as a Death Eater. However, he is ultimately unable to complete his mission to kill Albus Dumbledore, and after his challenging and frightening experiences leading up to and during the Battle of Hogwarts, he renounces Voldemort's ideals.

Relationships
Draco Malfoy has a few canon relationships. He is willing to risk his life for his parents' safety, has two best friends/bodyguards in Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, and in the Deathly Hallows epilogue he is revealed to be married with a young son named Scorpius.

His wife's identity is not revealed in the book, but J.K. Rowling has identified her as Astoria Greengrass, a younger sister of Daphne Greengrass, who was a Slytherin in Draco and Harry's year.

In Fanfiction
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.

A common piece of fanon speculation is that Severus Snape, who favours him as a Slytherin student, is his godfather.

Ships
In fanfiction, Malfoy has a few common and enduring pairings. Mary Sue pairings are popular, naturally, and Draco also seems to attract an intriguingly large share of Gary Stus.

Canon characters who often wind up in pairings with Draco are Pansy Parkinson, Ginny Weasley (despite her status as a blood-traitor), and Hermione Granger (despite her being a Muggle-born). 'Dramione' is a highly popular pairing, with a search for '[Draco M., Hermione G.]' returning about 2,700 hits with the Paring filter enabled on Fanfiction.net.

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 1:8 ratio of Draco/OC to Draco/Harry fics on Fanfiction.net, with the former having only about 300 stories under '[Draco M., OC]' and the latter boasting over 2,400 stories under '[Draco M., Harry P.]'. (Interestingly, the ratio holds true with or without the Pairing box checked.) Another source which proves this are the literally dozens of websites dedicated 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 Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter phenomenon 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 occurred in the short span of only two to three years – indeed, it would almost seem an unnatural phenomenon 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.