Harry Potter Character Development Essay

Fictional books have a powerful way of opening minds. Fiction plays an important part in making one’s mind creative and allows you to explore different ideas of change, and experience complex emotions and situations. These books allow one to understand people who are different from the rest. They help in improving one's attitude towards different stigmatized groups, allowing one to become more accepting towards them. These fiction books help in creating empathy for characters which makes one get attached to them and you wish to find out more about them.

J. K Rowling is a British novelist and screenwriter and is best known for writing the Harry Potter series. Her stories became the world’s best-selling books and have been featured in the New York Times Bestseller List on multiple occasions. Draco Malfoy is a malicious character in the book, which plays an important part throughout the story.

Throughout the entire series, his character has been portrayed as an evil-minded person, who thinks he’s superior to others and is seen taking revenge on Harry for the pettiest of things. However, the sudden change in his character throughout the 6th and the 7th book has raised some questions. “Draco Malfoy is a Werewolf” is the topic of research that I’ve chosen. According to Brittany & Nick, Rowling has said in her interviews that there are some precedents mentioned in the books that help in revealing some characteristics of characters in the future by peeling off that first layer. I’ve chosen this topic to address these sudden changes, as to what happened to him. Draco is one of my favorite characters from the book and his sudden character change has left many Harry Potter fans hanging in the dark, including myself.

According to many readers, Draco’s sudden change in character is due to the huge responsibility that he has been assigned. People presume that Draco did not want to do the Dark Lord’s bidding hence why he was stressed out.

Others believe that Draco was given the dark mark and was made a Death Eater.

However, one thing that people fail to understand is that Draco was happy at the chance to prove himself to the Dark Lord and took on the challenge happily. According to Rowling, 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Page 38, Bellatrix Lestrange is seen telling her sister and Severus Snape how Draco wasn’t shrinking away from his duty and was excited at the prospect, and that he wanted to prove himself to the Dark Lord.

Also if Draco was a Death Eater, he would not have allowed Harry to hear his conversation in the Slytherin compartment, when he was discussing the plan he was assigned. Draco knew Harry had connections at the Order of Phoenix and was on good terms with Dumbledore which meant he could easily have Draco expelled if it was confirmed that he had the Dark Mark. According to Rowling, 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Page 147, Draco is seen telling Harry that he doesn’t care about what Harry heard, and it doesn’t matter, although he does make sure to stomp on Harry’s nose as payback for sending his father Lucius Malfoy, a Death Eater, to Azkaban.

Also, one thing that was very clearly mentioned in the book is that Voldemort was extremely angry at Lucius, who had not only failed to bring him the prophecy he wanted but had also gotten other Death Eaters caught as well. Apart from that, the Dark Lord was also angry at Lucius for using Tom Riddle’s diary, which also happened to be one of the seven Horcruxes that Voldemort had created, for his gain. In the book Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Lucius secretly gives Ginny Weasley Tom Riddles a diary in hopes of getting her expelled and having Arthur Weasley kicked out of the ministry. According to Rowling, 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Page 38, Snape is seen telling Narcissa that the Dark Lord was indeed angry at Lucius.

Furthermore, according to Rowling, 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Page 121, Draco Malfoy is seen asking Borgin, the owner of the shop Borgin and Burkes, about something he wants to get fixed. And when Borgin shows some hesitation about helping Draco, Draco shows him something, which ends up scaring Borgin. After the incident, he mentions Fenrir Greyback, a werewolf, and tells Borgins how he happens to be a family friend. It is necessary to bear in mind that Draco’s father is well well-known Death Eater and so his is Aunt, Bellatrix. There was no need to mention a werewolf when Draco could have simply mentioned any other Death Eater to get Borgins to his work.

A comparison between two different extracts from the 3rd and the 6th book reveals something very interesting.

Rowling, 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Page 301, Harry’s observation of Malfoy tells us how he thought that Malfoy looks ill. According to Harry’s observation, Malfoy had dark shadows under his eyes and his skin had a noticeable grayish tinge to it.

Rowling, 1999, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Page 138, tells us how Professor Lupin, a werewolf, when returns to work looks quite ill, his robes hang loosely over his body and he has dark shadows under his eyes as well.

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Rowling, 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Page 240, Professor McGonagall is seen telling Harry and his friends how Draco had failed to submit his homework twice in a row. Bear in mind, that getting into Professor McGonagall's N.E.W.T class is not easy, which means Draco was capable of doing the given work.

Rowling, 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Page 275, during the Quidditch match between Slytherin and Gryffindor, Malfoy called off sick. He did not play the match, despite knowing the intense relationship between the two houses, and their teams.

Rowling, 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Page 313, Lupin is seen telling Harry all about Fenrir Greyback, the most feared and savage werewolf. He mentions how it is Fenrir’s wish to bite and contaminate as many people as he can. And that Voldemort has promised Fenrir prey in return for his devotion and services.

Rowling, 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Page 121, Draco when talking with Borgin mentions Fenrir Greyback and tells him how Fenrir happens to be a family friend. However, according to Rowling, 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Page 554, Draco contrary to what he said before seems afraid of Greyback and refuses to even look at him.

Claire, Theory: Draco Malfoy is a Werewolf, seems to agree with the above-mentioned evidence and also observes how Dumbledore is more concerned with the fact that Draco invited Fenrir to his school where all his friends are, rather than being for Draco himself.

Rowling, 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Page 578, tells us that Malfoy had slipped passed the Order and had gone up to the tower, followed by other Death Eaters. One of the Death Eaters had blocked off the staircase with a curse, whoever ran towards it was thrown into the air. Only people who had the Dark Mark were able to go through the barrier, while others were thrown away.

In Rowling, 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Page 579, tells us that a hex fired off by one of the Death Eaters caused half of the ceiling to fall, and this lifted the curse. And following that, Malfoy appeared with Snape from the tower and ran. The barrier was created right after Malfoy went up the stairs and was lifted right before he came back.

Brittany & Nick, also points out how the barrier was set up right after Draco had gone up the stairs and how it broke right before he came back.

Rowling, 2007, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows PDF, Page 10, Voldemort is seen taunting the Malfoy family, about their niece, Nymphadora Tonks marrying the werewolf, Remus Lupin. While Voldemort mocks the entire family, however only asks Draco if he would babysit the cubs.

Page 458, Fenrir Greyback brought Harry (who was stunned and was unrecognizable), Ron, and Hermione to the Malfoy Manor, as he believed that he had caught Harry Potter. Draco was called to check and see if it was Harry, however, Malfoy seemed scared and kept a distance from Greyback and made no effort to see if it was Harry or not.

Rowling, 2007, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows PDF, Page 9, Bellatrix is seen telling the Dark Lord ho her family is honored to have him at their family house. Meanwhile, Draco’s father claims that his family desired nothing more than the Dark Lord's rise to power.

However, in Rowling, 2007, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows PDF, Page 726, Narcissa, Draco’s mother lies to the Dark Lord about Harry being dead, treachery that leads to the fall of Voldemort. She no longer cared whether Voldemort would win or not, and that was something that was never expected of pure blood, let alone a Death Eater.

So bearing in mind all that has been said and done by various characters of the book, I’ve come to this conclusion, alongside many other Potterheads that the only valid reason as to why the Malfoys betrayed the Dark Lord was because they no longer cared about their pureblood status, as it was already tinted by the werewolf’s bite. Draco Malfoy was indeed bitten by Fenrir Greyback, as the Dark Lord's vengeance for Lucius’s mistakes and he was indeed a werewolf.