rpandstuff | Draco Malfoy app @ high

[Name]: Maxine
[Age]: 27
[Contacts]:
♦ DW:

maxine_chan
♦ AIM: maxchan0125
♦ Plurk:

serasarahhhh
♦ E-mail: maxine_gw0125@hotmail.com
[Timezone]: EST (GMT-5)
[Other Characters]: Sanji from One Piece & Riku from Kingdom Hearts

[Name]: Draco Malfoy
[Canon]: Harry Potter
[Age]: 15
[Gender]: Male
[Canon Point]: Just after the 5th book, Order of the Phoenix, starts. Right before the first day of school.

[History]:
HP Wiki and also his page on the HP Lexicon.

[Personality]:
At first glance, Draco is a spoiled brat and a bully. Plain and simple. His entire purpose in a good chunk of the Harry Potter series is to be Harry's schoolboy nemesis. Though later in the series there are glimpses of the more complex character he is capable of being, he was honestly never intended to be seen in much of a sympathetic light, so his negative qualities far outweigh the positive.

Draco was born into a high class lifestyle which, in the view of his family, basically bordered on being wizard royalty. He is an only child, born to Lucius and Narcissa, and he comes from a long line of pure-blood wizards. Because of this, and due to his father being one of Voldemort's Death Eaters, Draco was raised to believe that 1) wizards are the superior "race", and those without magical blood are basically worthless, and 2) pure-blood wizards are superior in amongst themselves. Mixing bloodlines with the non-magical is something that is entirely looked down upon in Draco's family and circle of acquaintances, and almost worse than that are blood traitors, or those from the wizarding community who did not support Voldemort's reign of terror. Muggle-borns and half-bloods, these are people basically considered abominations to pure-blood supremacists, though muggle-borns (who Draco also refers to as mudbloods, aka people who have "dirty blood") are the bigger problem.

So when we first see Draco in the story, of course the first thing he does is unknowingly insult Harry by suggesting that they shouldn't let the "other sort" into Hogwarts, because why shouldn't everyone believe as he was raised to? It's second nature to him at this point, because he grew up entirely surrounded by his father's friends' families who all believed the same thing. Entering Hogwarts, he is already surrounded by several friends, or lackeys in some cases, who share the same beliefs that he does. Once he realizes just who that boy with the glasses was, though, Draco instantly tries to befriend him due to a misguided hope that many of Voldemort's followers shared that Harry might grow up to be an even darker and more powerful wizard than Tom Riddle himself was. Draco is obviously quickly proven entirely wrong when Harry refuses his hand and instead chooses a member of a blood traitor family, the Weasleys, over him.

And this is the start of Harry and Draco's mutual antagonism toward each other throughout the rest of the series.

Much of Draco's apparent hatred for Harry is honestly based in his jealousy of him. Being shot down from the get-go certainly didn't help matters, considering Draco was very used to getting what he wanted, but that Harry, who wasn't even raised in the wizarding world, can best him in certain areas only made things worse. For instance, one of the things Draco was sure he would be the best at in his year was flying on a broomstick, but because of his own need to show off and make fun of Harry, it was quickly discovered that Harry was actually the more naturally talented one in the air. Throw in Harry's instant popularity due to being the Boy Who Lived, and you have one extremely envious little 11-year-old boy. He then ends up dedicating much of the next five years of his school life to tormenting Harry and his friends. Unfortunately, Draco often doesn't think ahead when it comes to teasing or bullying Harry, and in his eagerness to always get the other boy in trouble, he sometimes winds up in detention himself. Or, you know, he gets turned into a ferret.

Everything changes after the end of their fifth year of school, however.

With Voldemort proven to be back in action and Lucius now in prison, Draco suddenly finds himself in a much different position. Namely, he is forced to join Voldemort's followers in his father's place. At first he considers this an honor, but as is typical for Draco, it soon becomes painfully apparent that he once again did not think things through and is now in way over his head. Though it may be that he did not really even have a choice and was forced to become a Death Eater because Voldemort holds the lives of his parents over his head, and if there is one positive characteristic of Draco, it is his fierce loyalty to his family, whether they deserve it or not. Thus, he spends his entire sixth year at Hogwarts trying to complete his mission to kill Albus Dumbledore, only to find out that he is incapable of doing so. Incapable because he truly does not have it in himself to go through with it. He makes several attempts throughout the year without seeming to care who gets hurt in the process, but even Dumbledore notes that these were halfhearted attempts at best. In the end, after months of declining health due to stress and fear for his parents, Draco actually begins to lower his wand rather than attack. Perhaps he was willing to accept Dumbledore's offer of protection for his mother and himself, but we'll never truly know because of course things immediately go wrong and Draco winds up further sucked into a world he is rapidly realizing he doesn't actually want anything to do with.

Draco, as we have always known throughout the entire series, is extremely good at talking the talk, but not so much at walking the walk. He is very unwilling to actually get his hands dirty as a Death Eater, and is shown to be extremely frightened living in his own home whilst Voldemort occupies it. At this point, the reality of what being a Death Eater meant had finally started to sink in and was just way too much to handle, so he basically reverts to trying to keep his head low and do as told so that he can survive.

Because another thing we have known about Draco since the beginning is that he is also a coward. There are only a few instances where we get a glimpse of the fact that he might be capable of being a stronger character, like when he doesn't identify who Harry is at the manor, and when he orders his comrades not to kill him in the Room of Requirement. But both times he can't seem to follow through and actually side with Harry, as he almost instantly ends up in a half-assed wand fight (that he loses) against Harry at the manor, and at Hogwarts the next time they come across him he is trying to convince a fellow Death Eater that he's on their side so that he won't be killed.

Much of Draco's world seems to revolve around his obsession with Harry, but that is partly because the story is told from Harry's POV. Outside of that, Draco actually seems to function fairly well at school. He is popular in his house (though, yes, Crabbe and Goyle in particular seem to be more subordinates than friends), and is shown to have a sense of humor, though more often than not he enjoys being the reason the others are laughing, rather than laughing with them. He likes being the center of attention and many of his jokes involve making fun of others, whether it's mocking them or doing insulting impressions of them. He does well in his classes, though we know that Hermione has the best grades in their year. In particular, Draco is good at Potions, but there are other classes that he also excels at. He's quick-witted and intelligent outside of classes, too, as he's able to figure out how to fix the Vanishing Cabinets and use them to his advantage. He's also able to master using non-verbal spells before many of his classmates, and in later years we find out he's adept at closing off his mind and compartmentalizing his emotions, thus he is capable of using Occlumency, as well. Though not a positive thing, Draco is also able to use at least two of the three Unforgivable Curses, something that even many adult wizards can't do, and he is skilled enough at the Imperius Curse that he was able to keep Madam Rosmerta under it for almost an entire year. He's a talented flyer and Quidditch player, regardless of the fact that he may or may not have bought his way onto the team. Quidditch seems to be something that he truly enjoys, which is why it was such a huge red flag to Harry when he dropped it in their sixth year.

At the end of everything, Harry and Draco never really become friendly with one another, though as adults they do understand each other better and are able to have a civil relationship. Because of this, it's not a stretch to say that Draco did truly come to regret the choices he made as a child, and it's actually his wishy-washy indecisiveness and reluctance to really be gung-ho Voldemort in the final Hogwarts battle that keeps Draco out of Azkaban.

For High Seas, Draco is being pulled from just before their fifth year of school starts. Unfortunately this means that his father is still very much a huge influence in Draco's life, and he hasn't yet even begun to realize that perhaps Voldemort's way of doing things isn't all that great. Basically, he'll be a smug, arrogant little prick when he comes in, and he'll be horrified that he's now surrounded by so many non-magical people.

[Abilities / Strengths & Weaknesses]:
Well, Draco is an incredibly flawed and unlikeable young man, but that doesn't mean that many of his characteristics aren't capable of being seen as positive strengths in a different light. First and foremost, we know that Draco sorted Slytherin, a decision that the Sorting Hat made before really even touching Draco's head. Without going into a whole Slytherin analysis, that tells us that Draco is ambitious, shrewd, and cunning. Slytherins tend to be achievement-oriented and can make strong leaders. They also have a high sense of self-preservation, and we know that Salazar himself desired students who displayed cleverness, resourcefulness, and determination.

Because being ambitious tends to lead towards being power hungry, and that sense of self-preservation can come off as cowardice, Slytherins in general have a bad reputation. It's said that there wasn't a wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin, but of course that's not true. What people like to forget is that nobody is really as black and white as all that, and in fact there are many qualities that are shared between the houses.

Draco, for example, is also fiercely loyal, a quality that is usually reserved for Hufflepuffs. Obviously he is only loyal to a very select few, namely his family, but that doesn't mean the trait isn't there. Draco adores his father, in particular, and many of the decisions he makes are born out of a desire to prove himself to Lucius and make him proud. Said decisions can't ever be fully excused, but Draco is just a child in the early part of the series and a lot of the reason he is the way he is comes from his upbringing.

Being clever, cunning, resourceful, determined -- these are all traits Draco exhibits throughout his years at Hogwarts. Again, rarely used for good reasons, but they're there all the same. Basically, Draco likes to plot and come up with ways to be a little snot to Harry and his friends, whether it's through magic badges or witty song lyrics. When things get more serious, he has to come up with various plans to kill Dumbledore. And when those plans don't work, he remembers the Vanishing Cabinets and is able to fix them and use them to bring the Death Eaters into Hogwarts. This also shows that Draco is evidently able to tinker with things and determine how to magically fix them so that they work again.

As stated before, Draco is smart and does well in school. He's probably best at Potions, due in no little part to the fact that he's a huge teacher's pet and a suck up in that class. However, he's also very skilled at Transfigurations and Charms. In general, Draco is a little more advanced than some of his classmates at learning and using magic, because he was raised in an environment where he was surrounded by it constantly and also because various members of his family taught him outside of school. He is also shown to be a fairly skilled duelist as early as his second year of school, and this hasn't changed by the time he's a sixth year, as he's able to fight Harry using multiple jinxes non-verbally.

And then there's the flying thing again. As a first year, he fully expected to be the only one who could properly use a broom, so Harry's natural talent there was a rather huge blow to the ego. Especially since it's then essentially entirely Draco's fault that Harry made the Quidditch team as a mere first year.

So, regardless of his terrible attitude, Draco is actually a very talented young wizard!

But he does have weaknesses. Oh so many weaknesses, most of which have been covered throughout all this rambling so far.

Draco has a short temper and is very easily riled up. He's a little too arrogant and proud of the fact that he's a pure-blood supremacist. He's got a nasty mouth on him and has no qualms about insulting people to their faces. He also has no issues sucking up to those in higher positions, like teachers, and in general uses brown-nosing to curry favor from others. He acts before he thinks in many cases, which goes back to his temper and the fact that he's basically obsessed with Harry. The two clash horribly and Draco, bully that he is, is quick to pull stunts and say things that only end up getting himself in trouble.

He shows a lot of cowardice throughout the years, and his younger self especially is a huge wimp. This doesn't really change even once he's working under Voldemort's thumb, though. Unhappy as he is being forced to do Voldemort's evil bidding, he still can't bring himself to truly turn against him, and instead he just kind of stays on the fence between both sides and tries to use each to his advantage when it best suits him and to help him stay alive. (But hey, resourcefulness!)

Draco is also...spiteful, mean, a bully, a snob. A right git. A foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach. He's a brat, and though he's kind of inexplicably popular among many fans who will try their absolute best to turn him into a sympathetic, redeemable character (myself included, can't lie), in the end he really is just, in the words of JKR herself, a "really imperfect character" and "not a nice man"...though also not "wholly bad".

[Limited Powers]:
Not really going to limit much. The kid is only 15 when he lands in the game and is still very much a schoolboy learning various spells and whatnot, and none of them are exactly crazy powerful right now... Obviously there are jinxes and such, but if necessary I'll throw up a permissions post or at the very least discuss it without other players first before Draco turns their character's hair blue. 8Db

And he hasn't learned to Apparate yet, so no worries there.

[Other Important Facts]:
I got nothing. Except that Draco will obviously have his wand on him when he arrives!

[Samples]:
♦ Thread: Test Sail threads!

♦ Post:

Dear obviously magically possessed evil journal thing,

Father always told me not to write in diaries like this. Actually, it was a pretty specific rule of his which suggests this can only end badly. Especially considering I've seen that this one writes back.

But I suppose it's not as though this entire bloody situation could get any worse anyway.

Evidently I'm to get on a ship. I understand there was some kind of ghost ordering people about not long ago? The whole thing seems rather dodgy. Not entirely sure what these people have against other means of travel. A broomstick would be faster, surely? I guess they wouldn't know that, though.

Muggles, right? The whole lot of them are clueless.

- Draco Malfoy

Draco Malfoy app @ high_seas