Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, we’re going to be
discussing what happened to the morally ambivalent MALFOY family - Draco, Lucius, and Narcissa.
It’s no question that in the end- in his heart- Draco wasn’t a villain- but his parents,
particularly his father, definitely had a lot of demons. They followed lord Voldemort
until near the bitter end- which begs the question- were they pardoned for their crimes?
The Malfoys are one of the most arrogant family’s from the entire series. They are actively
and extremely prejudiced toward muggles and muggle-borns- stemming from some sort of weird
blood-line superiority complex. Throughout the series, they are a nuisance to Harry and
the trio-particularly Draco, and what started off as harmless ‘bullying’ transformed
in to something more sinister as time went on. The Malfoys were the followers of the
dark lord himself, though obviously after his defeat at the end of the first wizarding
war, Lucius weaselled his way out of punishment by declaring that he only followed the dark
lord because he was under the imperius curse. His freedom was obviously not deserved, as
he was a fully-fledged death eater, however, his true colours were finally revealed when
he was imprisoned after the events of the order of the phoenix- particularly for his
role in the battle of the department of mysteries. When the books and films first start, the
Malfoys don’t appear to be much of a threat- but as Voldemort slowly regains power- they
too become a greater threat.
By the time the Deathly Hallows rolls around Voldemort is certainly back in some kind of
a position of power- his greatest threat Dumbledore is dead, he has amassed a legion of followers
once more, and he has taken Hogwarts. Provided that the Malfoys were followers of Lord voldemort,
one would presume that they were comfortable at this point- but it was actually quite the
opposite. Extremely upset and disappointed with Lucius’s performance in the order of
the phoenix- Voldemort made a point of punishing the Malfoy family. From the Half Blood Prince
onward, Draco was used and abused by Voldemort- later to be assigned the nearly suicidal mission
of killing Dumbledore himself- something which Voldemort knew Draco would never be able to
accomplish. Voldemort had waged psychological warfare on the Malfoys, and knowing that he
held total power over them- he fully took advantage of his situation. He wielded his
power to the point that they no longer wanted to follow him- but they were in too deep.
Which meant that when Voldemort was finally defeated- they were in a particularly strange
position. They were probably happy that he was defeated- but at the same time, they knew
that in the eyes of the wizarding world, they were..death eaters..they were Voldemort’s
loyal followers.
With Voldemort gone, they no longer had the security-blanket that came with any kind of
association to him, and this meant that their fate was entirely up to the good guys- the
rest of the wizarding world. When it started to look like Voldemort may be defeated, the
Malfoy family simply hung their heads and walked away from the Hogwarts grounds in shame.
So, what came of them? Were they given life imprisonment in Azkaban? Or were they forced
to endure some other equally awful fate?
It would appear that, after the events of the Deathly hallows, Lucius and his family
managed to avoid sentencing by revealing information, names etc about the surviving Death Eaters.
Ensuring that the wizarding world could move forward in perfect harmony, with no more spikes
in evil, meant that capturing the remaining death eaters was of utmost importance. Therefore,
when Lcuius willfully offered to reveal this information in exchange for him and his families
freedom- the ministry of magic (which was in tatters at that point) was more than willing
to take him up on it. During the epilogue scene of the films, we also clearly see a
much-more mature looking Draco Malfoy with a family of his own- sending off his own son
to Hogwarts- suggesting that Draco Malfoy was entirely pardoned for his role and actions
in the second wizarding war. So they were pardoned for their crimes- great, but what
was next for the Malfoys? Let’s take a look at Draco first.
Draco started at Hogwarts in the same year as Harry, Ron, Hermione, and many of the other
characters that we’re all so familiar with. Right from the beginning, Draco exhibits..questionable
behaviour. He is the archetypal bully, and when he first meets Harry in the film, he
extends his hand out to him, but not before taking an easy shot at Ronald Weasley, who
Harry had also just met:
“Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask you yours. Red hair... and a hand-me-down
robe... you must be a Weasley.”
Right off the bat, we sort of get a sense of the type of character that Draco Malfoy
is going to be. The only reason that he’s interested in befriending Harry is because
of his fame, and Draco, having been raised in a pure-blood family that places an exceptional
amount of value on status, leaps at the opportunity to associate himself with Harry. Throughout
the books and films, Draco is a constant nuisance towards the trio, and as he grows older his
behaviour turns from annoying, but still child-like and playful, to rather sinister. We are able
to witness first-hand his evolution from petulant, but innocent little boy to dark, troubled
young man- and what largely set him off was the imprisonment of his father.
We see Draco become more and more involved with the Deatheaters as the films progress,
but despite talking the talk, it appeared that Draco was almost always hesitant in performing
the duties of the Deatheaters when push came to shove. You see, Draco never wanted to be
a death eater, he just wanted to make his parents proud. He just wanted to live up to
the family name, even if it wasn’t truly him.
By the time the Deathly Hallows rolled around, it became rather evident that Draco was remorseful
for his actions, and that much of his behaviour was derived from increasing pressure from
his father. When Voldemort had finally been defeated, and his family was granted freedom,
Draco’s character matured considerably, and he ended up becoming a much better man
than his father. In an interview Rowling expressed that Draco was ‘sobered’ by his experiences
as a death eater, and went on to describe his life post-deathly hallows on pottermore:
“The biggest revelation was that he became less of a pure-blood fanatic:
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.”
“Also, he seemingly mellowed out a bit, leading a life of leisure instead of working
to overturn the forces of light or establish dominion over Muggles, like Lucius did:
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.”
Draco’s character was certainly always one of dubious morality, and whether you like
it or not, through the passage of time Draco did become a good, sound man. In Rowling’s
own words, ‘There is, after all, some unextinguished good at the heart of Draco.”
As for Lucius and Narcissa- it seems like they kept a relatively low profile after being
pardoned. However, we can derive from the text on Pottermore, particularly the segment
on family gatherings being ‘fraught with tension’ that they were a little too set
in their ways to change their whole philosophy. They weren’t openly evil anymore, and I
highly doubt that they could ever be convinced to join a pure-blood cause again, but they
certainly still held the same beliefs that they always held- and weren’t any more tolerant
of muggles or half-bloods.
And that’s it for this video! I hope you enjoyed it. Did you guys know that lal of
this happened to the Malfoys? Let me know in the comment section below
Until next time
If we are the ones to hand Potter to the Dark Lord, everything will be as it was, you understand?