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12-22-2014, 02:55 PM
| | J.K. Rowling updates on Draco Malfoy's biography, Lucius' influence, Voldemort, more
J.K. Rowling's long-awaited biography on Draco Malfoy and his intentions in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince were released Monday on Pottermore.
Rowling confessed that Draco of course held his father in the highest of regards and modeled himself after Lucius. Draco was already friends with Crabbe prior to attending Hogwarts, which he only stayed at for the first six years.
The Harry Potter author discussed in further detail how broken down Draco became after his father's incarceration at the end of Order of the Phoenix, and the drive to proof himself in Half-Blood Prince, leading the tragic ending. In Rowling's personal notes, she gave high praise to actor Tom Felton, who of course played Draco in the film series, and voiced her bemusement that so many people were fans of his. More can be read here and below.
Some highlights can be read here: Quote:
While many people thought that Harry Potter, who had witnessed the Dark Lord’s rebirth, was a liar or a fantasist, Draco Malfoy was one of the few who knew that Harry was telling the truth. His own father had felt his Dark Mark burn and had flown to rejoin the Dark Lord, witnessing Harry and Voldemort’s graveyard duel.
The discussions of these events at Malfoy Manor gave rise to conflicting sensations in Draco Malfoy. On the one hand, he was thrilled by the secret knowledge that Voldemort had returned, and that what his father had always described as the family’s glory days were back once more. On the other, the whispered discussions about the way that Harry had, again, evaded the Dark Lord’s attempts to kill him, caused Draco further twinges of anger and envy. Much as the Death Eaters disliked Harry as an obstacle and as a symbol, he was discussed seriously as an adversary, whereas Draco was still relegated to the status of schoolboy by Death Eaters who met at his parents’ house. Though they were on opposing sides of the gathering battle, Draco felt envious of Harry’s status. He cheered himself up by imagining Voldemort’s triumph, seeing his family honoured under a new regime, and he himself feted at Hogwarts as the important and impressive son of Voldemort’s second-in-command.
Draco’s world now fell apart [after Order of the Phoenix]. From having been, as he and his father had believed, on the cusp of authority and prestige such as they had never known before, his father was taken from the family home and imprisoned, far away, in the fearsome wizard prison guarded by Dementors. Lucius had been Draco’s role model and hero since birth. Now he and his mother were pariahs among the Death Eaters; Lucius was a failure and discredited in the eyes of the furious Lord Voldemort.
Draco’s existence had been cloistered and protected until this point; he had been a privileged boy with little to trouble him, assured of his status in the world and with his head full of petty concerns. Now, with his father gone and his mother distraught and afraid, he had to assume a man’s responsibilities.
Worse was to come. Voldemort, seeking to punish Lucius Malfoy still further for the botched capture of Harry, demanded that Draco perform a task so difficult that he would almost certainly fail - and pay with his life. Draco was to murder Albus Dumbledore - how, Voldemort did not trouble to say. Draco was to be left to his own initiative and Narcissa guessed, correctly, that her son was being set up to fail by a wizard who was devoid of pity and could not tolerate failure.
Furious at the world that seemed suddenly to have turned on his father, Draco accepted full membership of the Death Eaters and agreed to perform the murder Voldemort ordered. At this early stage, full of the desire for revenge and to return his father to Voldemort’s favour, Draco barely comprehended what he was being asked to do. All he knew was that Dumbledore represented everything his imprisoned father disliked; Draco managed, quite easily, to convince himself that he, too, thought the world would be a better place without the Hogwarts Headmaster, around whom opposition to Voldemort had always rallied.
Voldemort and Snape underestimated Draco. He proved an adept at Occlumency (the magical art of repelling attempts to read the mind), which was essential for the undercover work he had undertaken. After two doomed attempts on Dumbledore’s life, Draco succeeded in his ingenious plan to introduce a whole group of Death Eaters into Hogwarts, with the result that Dumbledore was, indeed, killed - though not by Draco’s hand.
When Lucius was freed from Azkaban shortly afterwards, the family was allowed to return to Malfoy Manor with their lives. However, they were now completely discredited. From dreams of the highest status under Voldemort’s new regime, the Malfoys found themselves the lowest in the ranks of the Death Eaters; weaklings and failures, to whom Voldemort was henceforth derisive and contemptuous.
Draco survived Voldemort’s siege of Hogwarts because Harry and Ron saved his life. Following the battle, his father evaded prison by providing evidence against fellow Death Eaters, helping to ensure the capture of many of Lord Voldemort’s followers who had fled into hiding.
The events of Draco’s late teens forever changed his life. He had had the beliefs with which he had grown up challenged in the most frightening way: he had experienced terror and despair, seen his parents suffer for their allegiance, and had witnessed the crumbling of all that his family had believed in. People whom Draco had been raised, or else had learned, to hate, such as Dumbledore, had offered him help and kindness, and Harry Potter had given him his life. After the events of the second wizarding war, Lucius found his son as affectionate as ever, but refusing to follow the same old pure-blood line.
Draco married the younger sister of a fellow Slytherin. Astoria Greengrass, who had gone through a similar (though less violent and frightening) conversion from pure-blood ideals to a more tolerant life view, was felt by Narcissa and Lucius to be something of a disappointment as a daughter-in-law. They had had high hopes of a girl whose family featured on the ‘Sacred Twenty-Eight’, but as Astoria refused to raise their grandson Scorpius in the belief that Muggles were scum, family gatherings were often fraught with tension.
Quote: J.K. Rowling: My British editor questioned the fact that Draco was so accomplished at Occlumency, which Harry (for all his ability in producing a Patronus so young) never mastered. I argued that it was perfectly consistent with Draco’s character that he would find it easy to shut down emotion, to compartmentalise, and to deny essential parts of himself. Dumbledore tells Harry, at the end of Order of the Phoenix, that it is an essential part of his humanity that he can feel such pain; with Draco, I was attempting to show that the denial of pain and the suppression of inner conflict can only lead to a damaged person (who is much more likely to inflict damage on other people).
Draco never realises that he becomes, for the best part of a year, the true owner of the Elder Wand. It is as well that he does not, partly because the Dark Lord is skilled in Legilimency, and would have killed Draco in a heartbeat if he had had an inkling of the truth, but also because, his latent conscience notwithstanding, Draco remains prey to all the temptations that he has been taught to admire - violence and power among them.
I pity Draco, just as I feel sorry for Dudley. Being raised by either the Malfoys or the Dursleys would be a very damaging experience, and Draco undergoes dreadful trials as a direct result of his family’s misguided principles. However, the Malfoys do have a saving grace: they love each other. Draco is motivated quite as much by fear of something happening to his parents as to himself, while Narcissa risks everything when she lies to Voldemort at the end of Deathly Hallows and tells him that Harry is dead, merely so that she can get to her son.
For all this, Draco remains a person of dubious morality in the seven published books, and I have often had cause to remark on how unnerved I have been by the number of girls who fell for this particular fictional character (although I do not discount the appeal of Tom Felton, who plays Draco brilliantly in the films and, ironically, is about the nicest person you could meet). Draco has all the dark glamour of the anti-hero; girls are very apt to romanticise such people. All of this left me in the unenviable position of pouring cold common sense on ardent readers’ daydreams as I told them, rather severely, that Draco was not concealing a heart of gold under all that sneering and prejudice and that no, he and Harry were not destined to end up best friends.
I imagine that Draco grew up to lead a modified version of his father’s existence; independently wealthy, without any need to work, Draco inhabits Malfoy Manor with his wife and son. I see in his hobbies further confirmation of his dual nature. The collection of Dark artefacts harks back to family history, even though he keeps them in glass cases and does not use them. However, his strange interest in alchemical manuscripts, from which he never attempts to make a Philosopher’s Stone, hints at a wish for something other than wealth, perhaps even the wish to be a better man. I have high hopes that he will raise Scorpius to be a much kinder and more tolerant Malfoy than he was in his own youth.
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12-22-2014, 04:02 PM
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#2 (permalink)
| Mooncalf
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 6,309
Hogwarts RPG Name: isabella Macmillan Sixth Year Ministry RPG Name:
Laura Thomas International Cooperation |
awesome addition... |
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12-22-2014, 09:52 PM
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#3 (permalink)
| ICW Ambassador Billywig
Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Brazil
Posts: 3,433
| Portuguese Hippogriff Harrys Schokofrösche
Brilliant as always. |
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12-23-2014, 04:41 AM
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#4 (permalink)
| Banshee
Join Date: May 2007 Location: Gotham
Posts: 51,210
Hogwarts RPG Name: TBD Gryffindor Hogwarts RPG Name: Zara H. Bunbury-Foster Slytherin Fourth Year Ministry RPG Name:
Bernadette O. Grantham Law Enforcement Ministry RPG Name:
David O. Truebridge Mysteries | Professor Pink | Mrs. Bruce Wayne | I'm on a Goat | Glitterpuff | Dumbledore's Defense Squad | BHB
So..... she'll be writing a sequel about Scorpius, then?
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yeah, there's one thing about me that you should know________________________________ __________________________________________that I can't help from speaking my mind |
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12-23-2014, 05:05 AM
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#5 (permalink)
| Quintaped
Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: in my head [GMT-6]
Posts: 58,610
Hogwarts RPG Name: Amelia Adara Graduated Hogwarts RPG Name: Emma Montmorency (#301199) Hufflepuff Second Year Ministry RPG Name:
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TiaMarie Mancini Ecological Protection x12 x8
| YesJess! | Captain Goggles | Mama Badger | Eva's Soul Sister | An OG™ | It's all in the Numbers Quote:
Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl So..... she'll be writing a sequel about Scorpius, then? Scorpius Malfoy and the boy who lived .... didn't you hear about that latest release title? or maybe it's Scorpius Malfoy and the Dark Mark, I forget ;P
__________________ ______________So much is happening to me. So much that I can't even see.
So many words of wisdom that I am trying to be. It'll be in my own time. |
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12-23-2014, 05:08 AM
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#6 (permalink)
| DMAC & DMC Augurey
Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Winchesters Impala
Posts: 11,757
Hogwarts RPG Name: Zarina Rae Carraro Sixth Year Ministry RPG Name:
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Kace Troy Lecium Magical Creatures x6 x2
| Stephanoodle || Adorable Nerd
I am really glad she shed light on this because I love learning about Draco's story and what happened to him during the time Voldemort ruled. I mean it was obvious Draco knew Voldemort risen to power because of his father and that Harry was telling the truth but now people know why Draco was always jealous of Harry.
- Great Addition J.K Rowling *bows down*
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12-23-2014, 05:09 AM
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#7 (permalink)
| Banshee
Join Date: May 2007 Location: Gotham
Posts: 51,210
Hogwarts RPG Name: TBD Gryffindor Hogwarts RPG Name: Zara H. Bunbury-Foster Slytherin Fourth Year Ministry RPG Name:
Bernadette O. Grantham Law Enforcement Ministry RPG Name:
David O. Truebridge Mysteries | Professor Pink | Mrs. Bruce Wayne | I'm on a Goat | Glitterpuff | Dumbledore's Defense Squad | BHB Quote:
Originally Posted by PhoenixRising Scorpius Malfoy and the boy who lived .... didn't you hear about that latest release title? or maybe it's Scorpius Malfoy and the Dark Mark, I forget ;P Or she could call it "The Second Generation" .... heard there's a great fanfic out there by that same title.
__________________
yeah, there's one thing about me that you should know________________________________ __________________________________________that I can't help from speaking my mind |
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12-23-2014, 11:38 PM
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#8 (permalink)
| DIMC & MO Billywig
Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Riley's Brain
Posts: 3,262
Hogwarts RPG Name: Lola A. Second Year Ministry RPG Name:
Emily L. Valentine International Cooperation Ministry RPG Name:
Nick Moonston | Mischievous Niffler
The new info on Draco is some of the best Pottermore information we've gotten, it confirmed many things I was wondering about. It's great that Draco's wife is tolerant, I can now put her on the list of nice Slytherins. I wonder what happened to Pansy?
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05-02-2015, 07:00 PM
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#9 (permalink)
| DIMC & MO Billywig
Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Riley's Brain
Posts: 3,262
Hogwarts RPG Name: Lola A. Second Year Ministry RPG Name:
Emily L. Valentine International Cooperation Ministry RPG Name:
Nick Moonston | Mischievous Niffler
Please delete
Last edited by Goblinfrog; 05-06-2015 at 09:35 PM.
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