Draco Malfoy Character Analysis

ROSE: The rumor is that he’s Voldemort’s son, Albus.

A horrible, uncomfortable silence.

It’s probably rubbish. I mean… look, you’ve got a nose.

The tension is slightly broken. SCORPIUS laughs, pathetically grateful.

SCORPIUS: And it’s just like my father’s! I got his nose, his hair, and his name. Not that that’s a great thing either. I mean—father-son issues, I have them. But, on the whole, I’d rather be a Malfoy than, you know, the son of the Dark Lord.

SCORPIUS and ALBUS look at each other and something passes between them.

ALBUS: At Harry Potter and his disappointing son.
HARRY: What does that mean?
ALBUS: At Harry Potter and his Slytherin son.

[…] HARRY look at ALBUS, concerned.

HARRY: Al—
ALBUS: My name is Albus, not Al.
HARRY Are the other kids being unkind? Is that it? Maybe. if you tried making a few more friends… without Hermione and Ron I wouldn’t have survived Hogwarts, I wouldn’t have survived at all.
ALBUS: But I don’t need a Ron and Hermione. I’ve—I’ve got a friend, Scorpius, and I know you don’t like him but he’s all I need.
HARRY Look, as long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters to me.

SCORPIUS: From the moment I first heard of it, I was desperate to go. I mean, Dad didn’t much like it there but even the way he described it… From the age of ten I’d check the Daily Prophet first thing every morning—certain some sort of tragedy would have befallen it—certain I wouldn’t get to go.

ALBUS: And then you got there and it turned out to be terrible after all.

SCORPIUS: Not for me.

ALBUS looks at his friend, shocked.

All I ever wanted to do was go to Hogwarts and have a mate to get up to mayhem with. Just like Harry Potter. And I got his son. How crazily fortunate is that.

ALBUS: But I'm nothing like my dad.

SCORPIUS: You're better. You're my best friend, Albus. And this is mayhem to the nth degree.

DRACO: My father thought he was protecting me. Most of the time. People say parenting is the hardest job in the world—they’re wrong—growing up is. We all just forget how hard it was.

As hard as he tries to resist them, these words resonate with HARRY.

I think you have to make a choice—at a certain point—of the man you want to be. And I tell you that at that time you need a parent or a friend. And if you’ve learnt to hate your parent by then and you have no friends… then you’re all alone. And being alone—that’s so hard. I was alone. And it sent me to a truly dark place. For a long time. Tom Riddle was also a lonely child. You may not understand that, Harry, but I do—and I think Ginny does too.

SCORPIUS: Sometimes—sometimes I find myself thinking—maybe they're true too.

ALBUS: No. They’re not true. And I’ll tell you why. Because I don’t think Voldemort is capable of having a kind son—and you’re kind, Scorpius. To the depths of your belly, to the tips of your fingers. I truly believe Voldemort—Voldemort couldn’t have a child like you.

Beat. Scorpius is moved by this.

SCORPIUS: That’s nice—that’s a nice thing to say.

ALBUS: And it’s something I should have said a long time ago. And you don’t—you couldn’t—hold me back. You make me stronger—and when Dad forced us apart—without you—

SCORPIUS: I didn’t much like my life without you in it either.

SCORPIUS: You—Polly Chapman—want me to take you to a—ball?

There is the sound of screaming behind him.

What is that screaming?

POLLY CHAPMAN: Mudbloods, of course. In the dungeons. Your idea, wasn’t it? What’s going on with you? Oh Potter—I’ve got blood on my shoes again…

She bends and carefully cleans the blood of her shoes.

Like the Augurey insists—the future is ours to make—so here I am, making a future—with you. For Voldemort and Valor.

SCORPIUS: For Voldemort it is.

POLLY walks on, SCORPIUS look agonized. What is this world—and what is he within it?

DRACO: Astoria always knew that she was not destined for old age. She wanted me to have somebody when she left, because… it is exceptionally lonely, being Draco Malfoy. I will always be suspected. There is no escaping the past. I never realized, though, that by hiding him away from this gossiping, judgmental world, I ensured that my son would emerge shrouded in worse suspicion than I ever endured.

HARRY: Love blinds. We have both tried to give our sons not what they needed, but what we needed. We’ve been so busy trying to rewrite our own pasts, we’ve blighted their present.

DELPHI: Two of you? Choices, choices. I think I’ll kill the boy first. Avada Kedavra!

She fires the Killing Curse at ALBUS—but HARRY throws him out of the way. The bolt smashes into the ground.

He fires a bolt back.

You think you’re stronger than me?

HARRY: No. I’m not.

They fire bolts mercilessly at each other as Albus rolls quickly away and slams a spell into one door and then another, opening them.

ALBUS: Alohomora!

HARRY: But we are.

ALBUS: Alohomora!

HARRY: I’ve never fought alone, you see. And I never will.

And HERMIONE, RON, GINNY, and DRACO emerge from the doors, and fire up their spells at DELPHI, who screams out in exasperation. This is titanic. But she can’t fight them all.

HARRY: Voldemort is going to kill my mum and dad—and there’s nothing I can do to stop him.

DRACO: That’s not true.

SCORPIUS: Dad, now is not the time…

ALBUS: There is something you could do—to stop him. But you won’t.

DRACO: That’s heroic.

GINNY takes HARRY’s hand.

GINNY: You don’t have to watch, Harry. We can go home.

HARRY: I’m letting it happen… Of course I have to watch.

HERMIONE: Then we’ll all witness it.

RON: We’ll all watch.

ROSE: The rumor is that he’s Voldemort’s son, Albus.

A horrible, uncomfortable silence.

It’s probably rubbish. I mean… look, you’ve got a nose.

The tension is slightly broken. SCORPIUS laughs, pathetically grateful.

SCORPIUS: And it’s just like my father’s! I got his nose, his hair, and his name. Not that that’s a great thing either. I mean—father-son issues, I have them. But, on the whole, I’d rather be a Malfoy than, you know, the son of the Dark Lord.

SCORPIUS and ALBUS look at each other and something passes between them.

ALBUS: At Harry Potter and his disappointing son.
HARRY: What does that mean?
ALBUS: At Harry Potter and his Slytherin son.

[…] HARRY look at ALBUS, concerned.

HARRY: Al—
ALBUS: My name is Albus, not Al.
HARRY Are the other kids being unkind? Is that it? Maybe. if you tried making a few more friends… without Hermione and Ron I wouldn’t have survived Hogwarts, I wouldn’t have survived at all.
ALBUS: But I don’t need a Ron and Hermione. I’ve—I’ve got a friend, Scorpius, and I know you don’t like him but he’s all I need.
HARRY Look, as long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters to me.

SCORPIUS: From the moment I first heard of it, I was desperate to go. I mean, Dad didn’t much like it there but even the way he described it… From the age of ten I’d check the Daily Prophet first thing every morning—certain some sort of tragedy would have befallen it—certain I wouldn’t get to go.

ALBUS: And then you got there and it turned out to be terrible after all.

SCORPIUS: Not for me.

ALBUS looks at his friend, shocked.

All I ever wanted to do was go to Hogwarts and have a mate to get up to mayhem with. Just like Harry Potter. And I got his son. How crazily fortunate is that.

ALBUS: But I'm nothing like my dad.

SCORPIUS: You're better. You're my best friend, Albus. And this is mayhem to the nth degree.

DRACO: My father thought he was protecting me. Most of the time. People say parenting is the hardest job in the world—they’re wrong—growing up is. We all just forget how hard it was.

As hard as he tries to resist them, these words resonate with HARRY.

I think you have to make a choice—at a certain point—of the man you want to be. And I tell you that at that time you need a parent or a friend. And if you’ve learnt to hate your parent by then and you have no friends… then you’re all alone. And being alone—that’s so hard. I was alone. And it sent me to a truly dark place. For a long time. Tom Riddle was also a lonely child. You may not understand that, Harry, but I do—and I think Ginny does too.

SCORPIUS: Sometimes—sometimes I find myself thinking—maybe they're true too.

ALBUS: No. They’re not true. And I’ll tell you why. Because I don’t think Voldemort is capable of having a kind son—and you’re kind, Scorpius. To the depths of your belly, to the tips of your fingers. I truly believe Voldemort—Voldemort couldn’t have a child like you.

Beat. Scorpius is moved by this.

SCORPIUS: That’s nice—that’s a nice thing to say.

ALBUS: And it’s something I should have said a long time ago. And you don’t—you couldn’t—hold me back. You make me stronger—and when Dad forced us apart—without you—

SCORPIUS: I didn’t much like my life without you in it either.

SCORPIUS: You—Polly Chapman—want me to take you to a—ball?

There is the sound of screaming behind him.

What is that screaming?

POLLY CHAPMAN: Mudbloods, of course. In the dungeons. Your idea, wasn’t it? What’s going on with you? Oh Potter—I’ve got blood on my shoes again…

She bends and carefully cleans the blood of her shoes.

Like the Augurey insists—the future is ours to make—so here I am, making a future—with you. For Voldemort and Valor.

SCORPIUS: For Voldemort it is.

POLLY walks on, SCORPIUS look agonized. What is this world—and what is he within it?

DRACO: Astoria always knew that she was not destined for old age. She wanted me to have somebody when she left, because… it is exceptionally lonely, being Draco Malfoy. I will always be suspected. There is no escaping the past. I never realized, though, that by hiding him away from this gossiping, judgmental world, I ensured that my son would emerge shrouded in worse suspicion than I ever endured.

HARRY: Love blinds. We have both tried to give our sons not what they needed, but what we needed. We’ve been so busy trying to rewrite our own pasts, we’ve blighted their present.

DELPHI: Two of you? Choices, choices. I think I’ll kill the boy first. Avada Kedavra!

She fires the Killing Curse at ALBUS—but HARRY throws him out of the way. The bolt smashes into the ground.

He fires a bolt back.

You think you’re stronger than me?

HARRY: No. I’m not.

They fire bolts mercilessly at each other as Albus rolls quickly away and slams a spell into one door and then another, opening them.

ALBUS: Alohomora!

HARRY: But we are.

ALBUS: Alohomora!

HARRY: I’ve never fought alone, you see. And I never will.

And HERMIONE, RON, GINNY, and DRACO emerge from the doors, and fire up their spells at DELPHI, who screams out in exasperation. This is titanic. But she can’t fight them all.

HARRY: Voldemort is going to kill my mum and dad—and there’s nothing I can do to stop him.

DRACO: That’s not true.

SCORPIUS: Dad, now is not the time…

ALBUS: There is something you could do—to stop him. But you won’t.

DRACO: That’s heroic.

GINNY takes HARRY’s hand.

GINNY: You don’t have to watch, Harry. We can go home.

HARRY: I’m letting it happen… Of course I have to watch.

HERMIONE: Then we’ll all witness it.

RON: We’ll all watch.