Today on Pottermore, J.K. Rowling granted the wishes of every Felton fangirl on the internet, and provided us with Draco Malfoy’s full life story—as well as her in-depth thoughts on the character (and the girls who love him).
Though the majority of details in J.K.’s post are things we already knew about Draco from the Harry Potter books: he idolized his father; he was envious of Harry’s popularity and skill at flying; he eventually questioned his family’s loyalty to Voldemort and to the Death Eaters. But there are interesting bits and pieces that J.K. drops that Potter fans had only previously guessed at.
For example, unlike Harry, Draco found himself particularly talented at Occlumency, which made him excellent at undercover work. The War also left Draco unable to align himself with his family’s pureblood mania, marrying Astoria Greengrass (who herself had experienced a similar path to tolerance, and greatly disappointed Draco’s parents as a daughter-in-law). Astoria “refused to raise their grandson Scorpius in the belief that Muggles were scum, [so] family gatherings were often fraught with tension.”
The best pieces of information, though, are in the “J.K. Rowling’s thoughts” section. Rowling writes that Draco was a natural at Occlumency because
he would find it easy to shut down emotion, to compartmentalise, and to deny essential parts of himself […] 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.)
Rowling pities Draco for how he was raised, but also asserts that the Malfoys did love each other greatly. But for all that,
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) […] [T]his 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.
Despite that, Rowling says that though Draco’s name comes from the dragon constellation, his wand core is unicorn, because there is “some unextinguished good at the heart of Draco.”
Draco fans have always been, in my mind, incredibly perceptive about his personality and underlying motivations, and if the ridiculous about of Harry Potter fanfiction and Tumblr discussions that I’ve read prove anything after J.K.’s revelations, it’s that I wasn’t wrong. If you want to read the whole shebang, you can find it right here.
(via Daily Dot)
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Published: Dec 22, 2014 01:58 pm