Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory.
In today’s video, we’re going to be discussing what may be a bit of a controversial topic:
five things that made James Potter and Draco Malfoy the SAME.
Now, please.
Hold your gasps.
I know this may sound more than a little odd.
But if we really dig into it, these two characters have far too much in common to ignore.
So, let’s get started, shall we?
The first somewhat important similarity between these two wizards is their ancestral backgrounds.
Yes, as you may know – or have guessed – both James Potter and Draco Malfoy came from pure-blood
wizarding families.
Although, technically, if you go far enough back, I guess you could argue that the Potter
family occasionally married a Muggle or two – and anyone who knows anything about the
world of Harry Potter, knows that the Malfoys strongly opposed mixing their blood line with
poorer wizarding families, never mind MUGGLES.
However, you simply cannot argue with the fact that both the Potters and the Malfoys
were strong, powerful wizarding families, in their own right.
After all, James Potter was the descendent of IGNOTUS PEVERELL – the first known owner
of the fabled Invisibility Cloak from the tale of the Deathly Hallows.
Right, so both James Potter and Draco Malfoy were from “serious” wizarding families.
One arguably “weak” similarity.
You may be thinking, “if that’s all you’ve got, this is a joke!”
But, oh, there is so much more…
To start, did you know that both James and Draco were only children?
That’s right.
Neither James nor Draco had any siblings.
Now, I must admit that, in my experience, some only children can be a touch…different.
Not all only children, of course.
But if you think about it, there’s not a lot of social assimilation for an only child
until they reach school age, meaning that for many of their formative years, an only
child believes themselves to be the centre of well…EVERYTHING.
They are quite obviously showered with ALL of their parents’ attention and affection.
An only child never has to share.
They never have to prioritize caring for a sibling over doing something fun and exciting
with their friends.
Generally speaking, this can result in the establishment of a very strong sense of entitlement
and privilege, which more often than not is just simply not possible for a child growing
up with brothers and sisters.
This only-child attitude is, of course, incredibly obvious right from the start in Draco Malfoy.
We see it almost immediately when Harry encounters him for the first time in Diagon Alley in
The Philosopher’s Stone.
He’s rude, entitled and pays little attention to those around him, all of whom he clearly
sees as BENEATH him.
Okay, “that’s all well and good,” you may be thinking, “but James wasn’t like
that!”
But…wasn’t he?
While it’s true that we get a very limited view into what James would’ve been like
as a person, we do get glimpses of his behaviour through both Albus Dumbledore’s Pensieve
– a magical device used to store and review memories – and Severus Snape’s memories
– which he takes straight from his head and gives to Harry before he dies in The Deathly
Hallows.
Of course, memories like this do need to be taken with a grain of salt.
A memory is only as accurate as the person’s perception of the event.
That said, through various different scenes of the past we tend to see, time and time
again, James…misbehaving.
If you were to ask James’ friends, they would likely just chalk this behaviour up
to James being “mischievous” in nature.
But quite frankly, I think that’s just an excuse for him being, in all honesty, an entitled
brat.
Mostly, we see a school-aged James picking on a young Snape, whom James coldly referred
to as “Snivelly.”
Not a very nice nickname if you ask me.
Kind of reminds me of the “Potter Stinks” badge that Draco so proudly wore in The Goblet
of Fire…
Which is a perfect segue into how James and Draco are, in fact, both BULLIES.
Of course, it’s easy to see how Draco was a bully.
From the very beginning of the series, he was set up as the antagonist to our hero,
Harry.
Not only was he incredibly rude to Harry the first time they meet (only to be extremely
friendly to him once he discovered that Harry was THE Harry Potter), but over and over again,
we saw him belittle wizards like Ron Weasley simply for being – as he puts it – extremely
poor, and terrorize witches like Hermione Granger just for being Muggle-born.
He would even go out of his way to put down multiple wizards at once – like in The Philosopher’s
Stone when he said to Neville, “Longbottom, if brains were gold, you’d be poorer than
Weasley, and that’s saying something.”
Obviously, QUITE the bully.
But you may be questioning if you could really call James Potter an outright BULLY.
Well, the future Lily Potter did…
“You think you’re funny,” she said coldly.
“But you’re just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter.
Leave him alone.”
“I will if you go out with me, Evans,” said James quickly.
“Go on . . . Go out with me, and I’ll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again.”
Not the most flattering interaction, is it?
James, although clearly the more well-liked wizard in school (at least, according to those
who knew him), was actually quite cruel to a much less popular Snape.
Why?
Because he found out that Snape had feelings for Lily Evans – James’ future WIFE.
In my opinion, this is absurd and clearly comes from a place of insecurity, as it’s
quite clear that Lily isn’t romantically interested in Snape and just values him as
a friend.
After all, she’s known him since she was a child, and Severus was one of the few people
who understood her magic before she did.
Why then, would James choose to torment Snape.
Well, I believe it was because he COULD.
Seeing Severus as an easy target who was BENEATH him, James didn’t think Snape even had the
right to have feelings for the same witch as he did.
Not so different from a young Draco Malfoy, who judged witches and wizards based purely
on their families wealth and bloodline…
I mean I think we can all agree that EVENTUALLY, James outgrew this terrible behaviour, which
is likely how he ended up with Lily in the end.
But before then, he was…well, AWFUL.
And quite literally a bully.
So, yet another similarity between the two wizards was that they were both insecure.
We’ve just covered some of James’ insecurities, so let’s take a look at a few of Draco’s.
Of course, they were quite different from James’ for a variety of reasons.
Where James was concerned about popularity and girls, Malfoy always seemed to be trying
to live up to his father’s expectations to be the best, WORST kind of wizard.
Especially near the end of the series, we frequently see Draco struggling with his allegiances
to the Dark Arts (and therefore his family) and being a decent person.
He certainly didn’t seem comfortable or confident about the wizard he was expected
to be.
So, what else did these two wizards have in common.
Well, as you may recall, while at Hogwarts, both boys had what you may call “crews.”
James was the ringleader of his group of Gryffindor friends, which was comprised of himself, Sirius
Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.
They even named themselves the “Marauders,” which means one who roams from place to place
making attacks and raids in search of plunder.
Definitely not the friendliest of monikers – but definitely fits the bullying antics
we’ve talked about earlier.
Draco, of course, had his Slytherin-only gang.
It was made up of himself, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle – all of whom eventually
became members of the Inquisitorial Squad – an exclusively Slytherin group put together
by Dolores Umbridge in The Order of the Phoenix.
This group was meant to maintain order among the students.
However, they mostly abused their power, using it to bully students from rival Houses.
What’s more, the very word “Inquisitorial” is quite menacing, as it brings to mind The
Inquisition, a group infamous for its horrifying acts of persecution and t0rture.
Obviously, not a very positive affiliation…
So, there you have it!
From family status to the way they behaved, to personal qualities, those are the five
ways in which James Potter and Draco Malfoy were the SAME.
Were you at all surprised by these similarities?
Let me know your thoughts or if you think I missed any in the comments below!
As always, if you enjoyed the content, I’d be grateful if you liked it and subscribed
to the channel.
Also, happy to hear your input on this and other Harry Potter theories – just leave
those in the comments as well.
Until next time…
Remember
Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on
the light.