5. Draco Malfoy
Draco probably gets the award for most improved. While I scoff at the "Snape is misunderstood" argument, I believe it with Draco. He had an awful father, but like any kid, he just wanted his father to be proud of him. He was forced into the life of a Death Eater and forced into a task that he felt unprepared, unable, and unwilling to perform. He never seems like a bad person, just one who has been taught to value the wrong things. At the end, he even looks genuinely ashamed of his family and the side they have chosen. Draco is often written off as the villain in the story, but I think if you look more closely, the Malfoy family, and Draco in particular, actually exists to show the differences between the Malfoys and the Weasleys, between Arthur's parenting style and Lucius'. Arthur teaches his family that love and acceptance are things to be valued and that all people, pureblood or muggleborn, magical or muggle, are entitled to your respect and have something to offer. Lucius teaches his child that he is better than everyone else, that muggleborns and house elves are second class citizens, and that his life is of more value than that of the people around him. When raised in an environment like that, it's natural, even understandable, for a child to turn into a bully. But Draco sees the hypocrisy in his father's lifestyle and does his best to get out from under it as soon as he could. I think that Draco is a perfect example of what would happen to a child when he finds out that his role model, his own father, is valuing all the wrong things and he actually becomes one of the most nuanced and complicated characters JK Rowling created, one that is understandable and relatable even when he's clearly in the wrong.
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The Definitive Ranking of Harry Potter Characters
عشوائيOk, so it's not really definitive. It's actually almost entirely opinion based. But please, read, discuss, and give your feedback. There's even a list of criteria for you to play along if you'd like, and I'd love to hear how your list differs from m...
