A few days ago I wrote a post about how I hate Dumbledore and now I'm sticking up for Draco. Most of you are probably thinking I'm insane or that I read a different series. But let me tell you how I view Draco and maybe you'll understand why I love him and feel so sorry for him.
Spoiler Warning.
When we first meet Draco he's only 11 so you can't really hold him accountable for anything he says. He's just spouting out things he's grown up hearing. You blindly follow your parent's beliefs until you are old enough to form your own.
As he gets old he stops using the term mudblood and starts to be at least a little nicer. He is still a twat but I believe that by year 3 or 4 he only acted that way because he had to. He grew up around so many terrible people and never really had the option to be nice. Or at least decent.
When he got old enough to realize his Dad is a shity person he also realized that if he changed his ways he'd be cast out of the family and/or killed. Once he was old enough to make his own choices he didn't have any. He never had any. It was join Voldemort or die.
When it came down to it Draco was incapable of killing Dumbledore and I believe that he never would have been able to do any dark magic asked of him. He doesn't have a heart of gold but he doesn't have the heart of a Death Eater either.
What I really hate is how the movies depict him worse than he was. Like when he approaches buckbeak in the books he does it like he's supposed to. He doesn't arrogantly walk up to him like he does in the movies.
People look at Draco like he was the boy that made all the bad choices but he didn't have a choice in any of it. He went from being a dumb kid who blindly believed in his father to a scared kid who did what he had to do to stay alive.
Some people argue he had a choice on the bridge during the final battle but I don't think so. His father made him become a Death Eater, if he betrayed Voldemort on the bridge Voldemort most likely would have killed him. Or kill his mother.
I don't think Draco did everything out of self preservation. I think part of it was the fear that something would happen to his mother. He didn't leave his fellow classmates until he looked over and saw his mother. She knew how dangerous it would have been for him to stand up to Voldemort in that moment and begged him to come to her.
Draco wasn't evil. He was a kid raised on the wrong side of a war he never asked to be in. I firmly believe that after his 3rd or 4th year he only kept up of the bullying because he had to keep up appearances.
I'm not one of the girls who romanticise Draco but I won't condemn him either. He was just a boy who wasn't given a choice. I look at Harry and Draco like two sides of a coin. Harry was always told he had to be the hero, Draco was always told he had to be the villain.
When you look at it neither of them was given a choice. Harry was just lucky enough that he was forced into being a hero to all. Draco on the other hand was forced into darkness. Neither boy decided their own lives, that decision was made for them by Voldemort.
I love Draco. He was forced into a dark life that no one deserves. I feel so bad for the kid. I firmly believe that, had the sorting hat actually touched him, he would have been a Ravenclaw. And I really wish he would have. His family would have disowned him and he would have been free of his fate. He would have made better friends and he would have been a lot like Sirius Black.
What do you think of Draco? Let me know in the comments below!
Thanks so much for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a like if you did, it's much appreciated!
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to message me or leave them in the comments below.
Photo Credit: photo taken by me with a Canon Rebel T5 camera with a 18-55mm lens and edited by me in photoshop.
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This was such an interesting post to read! I love love love Harry potter. The books and the movies were both amazingly done, but I can completely see where you are coming from. I actually never thought of this from his perspective. I'm actually going to read the dumbledore post right now! xxx
ReplyDeleteMelina | www.ivefoundwaldo.com
I've always secretly loved Draco. Even though he was a bit of a dick early on he did become quite likeable in the later books. I totally agree with the point that he didn't have a choice, he was forced to be like his dad and everyone around him that was bad!
ReplyDeleteLiv x
livwrites.co.uk
I have always argued that Draco is massively misunderstood. First, there is the fact that no one looks at exactly what you did here, that he was raised in this environment... While he still is by no means perfect later in the series, you do see him growing into his own and realizing he had been led in a dark direction that he wasn't entirely comfortable following. I also think that a good part of the dislike for Draco is the point of view the book is written from. Its similar to the dislike for Slytherin. The book is written to share the heroic tale of Harry Potter, and much of the people portrayed are done through that lens. Harry and Draco weren't friends, and the bias of the book takes that into consideration. Should the same story have been told from Draco's POV it would have been a very different tale to tell.
ReplyDeleteBritt | http://alternativelyspeaking.ca/