Draco Malfoy was an antagonist in the Harry Potter series, although you’ll be forgiven for having considered him an anti-hero or even a silent protagonist. This is due to the insane fan following the character has which rivals even the main characters of the series. After Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’s film came out in 2001, there were legions of fans for Malfoy.

Why does he have such a large following? For that you’ll have to peruse through the list below. What we can tell you right now is that most of what you’ve heard of Malfoy (assuming you’re not familiar with him) is probably an exaggerated lie. There weren’t many redeeming qualities for Draco in his school years and his role was solely to act as a foil to Harry Potter at Hogwarts. Near the end of the series, Harry even stopped considering Malfoy as a worthy adversary as these spots were taken by Snape and Voldemort.

For the first five novels, Malfoy was a nuisance more often than not. He represented the bully in school who hid behind stronger lackeys and was foremost a coward to the core. Malfoy also represented the entitled youth who grew up in privileged environments and ate up whatever their families taught them about the world and society.

Still, the character is very well-known in Harry Potter circles and his actor Tom Felton was second to none in portraying Draco Malfoy. To get a deeper understanding of Malfoy, here are 25 Things everyone gets wrong about him.

25 He’s Not A Sweetheart

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Fangirls have concocted this image of Malfoy in their head that the boy was a sweetheart in disguise. Subtle behaviors he demonstrated during his tenure at school have been misinterpreted as hidden signs of him being a lovely boy.

Malfoy never had a kind bone in his body.

At no point was he shown to hold any affectionate feelings for another person at Hogwarts, and he never acted in such a way when the time called for it either. In the Forbidden Forest in the first year, Malfoy abandoned Harry to be taken out by Voldemort without turning back to even make a glance.

24 He’s Not A Good Guy

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Likewise, Malfoy was never a good guy deep down either. Fangirls point to his reluctance in carrying out the deed of ending Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as him being an inwardly nice person, but the fact of the matter is Malfoy was always looking out for his own skin.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Malfoy once again aligned with Voldemort to prevent Harry and his friends from recovering the Diadem; not exactly something a good guy would do. In times when he wasn’t endangered directly, Malfoy still took the side of the Death Eaters.

23 He’s A Coward

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The reason why he’s not a sweetheart or a good guy? It’s because Malfoy is a coward through and through. He’s not outright evil but he’s of the same mold Wormtail was made out of.

He’ll sacrifice anyone to save himself.

While he didn’t turn Harry in at the Malfoy Manor, it was only because he was scared of what might happen should he identify Harry as the Chosen One. Malfoy also didn’t partake in the Battle of Hogwarts to avoid fighting anyone. Whenever he’s shown dominance, it’s only because he’s hid behind those more powerful than him. The series is littered with instances that show Malfoy as nothing more than a coward.

22 He Never Cared For Dumbledore

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Malfoy’s storyline in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince revolved entirely around devising a way to take Dumbledore’s life. Plans kept changing at regular intervals such as Malfoy cursing a necklace to be sent to Dumbledore-only for it to harm Katie Bell instead-and poisoning mead that was gulped down by Ron Weasley instead.

When he finally had Dumbledore cornered, he couldn’t take the old man’s life. This wasn’t due to him having any care for Dumbledore, though. The only reason why he didn’t take out Dumbledore was that he was scared; there was no affection toward his Headmaster in the slightest. After Dumbledore passed away, Malfoy was never shown to ponder over his actions.

21 He Was Not In Love With Hermione

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With Harry Potter and the Cursed Child fulfilling a whole lot of cruddy fanfiction desires, fanatics hope this theory also becomes part of the canon. As long as there have been “ships” in the Harry Potter series, the Hermione-Draco theory has been around.

Some are convinced Draco secretly harbored feelings for her.

It’s a classic hope for a love-hate relationship stemming from Malfoy’s racism toward Muggle-Borns. But there was never any subtly between their interactions; Malfoy had no romantic feelings toward Hermione whatsoever. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Malfoy professed his hope the Basilisk would take the life of Hermione. This should be enough for you to know how he really felt about her.

20 He Wasn’t Talented In Quidditch

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Malfoy may not have been downright terrible at the sport, but the boy was by no means athletically gifted. In what should be completely obvious, the only reason Malfoy got into the Slytherin Quidditch squad was due to his father purchasing Nimbus 2001s for the entire team.

In every matchup between Harry and Malfoy, the latter came out looking like a total dope. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ film version, the snitch was right by Malfoy’s ear and the moron never even knew about it. Slytherin never won the Quidditch cup when Malfoy was in the team.

19 He Didn’t Help Harry In The Battle Of Hogwarts

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Quite the contrary, Malfoy and his two bozo lackeys turned out to be a nuisance for Harry and his friends in the Room of Requirement. Other than that, Malfoy had no significance to the battle of Hogwarts. In a deleted scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Malfoy took off from the Death Eater camp to pass a wand over the Harry during the climactic showdown outside the Great Hall.

Fangirls have taken to consider this as part of canon and use it to argue that Malfoy always had good intentions. This was never the case.

18 He Never Secretly Wanted To Be In Gryffindor

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How do you convince yourself a bad boy wants to be good in the Harry Potter world? You argue he wants to be part of the Gryffindor house. Slytherin has an awesome record of producing solely terrible wizards with the exception of only Horace Slughorn (even Snape was a bullying jerk), Malfoy is said to be on the rotten side due to his affiliation with Slytherin.

But at no point in the book series is it hinted he wants to be part of Gryffindor. The boy was convinced Slytherin was the best house for him as it favored Purebloods. Even the mention of Gryffindor brought a grimace to Malfoy’s features.

17 He Never Cared For Pansy Parkinson

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The only “romance” Malfoy had during his time at Hogwarts was with Pansy Parkinson. The girl was the nastiest female Hogwarts student shown in the series, having absolutely no favorable qualities as well as being a total coward and turncoat.

He used Pansy to satisfy his ego.

In the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Malfoy was shown to be married to Astoria Greengrass, a woman with a much nicer disposition than Parkinson. The romance with Pansy never fizzled out; Malfoy simply had no use for her anymore and dumped her like the trash she was. No one’s holding him guilty for it, that’s for sure.

16 Crabbe And Goyle Weren’t His Actual Friends

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Near the ending of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Crabbe’s reasoning for being a lackey for Malfoy was revealed. Crabbe was only fulfilling this role due to Lucius Malfoy’s position as a head Death Eater. As Crabbe’s father was also a Death Eater, the authority had passed down to the children as well.

This is why Malfoy’s friendships with Crabbe and Goyle were never true to begin with. It had always been something of a business arrangement that the two buffoons had been playing along. Once Voldemort’s rule over the Wizarding World was eliminated the friendships dissolved themselves. Then again, Crabbe was too much of a crispy toast by that point to do anything about it.

15 He Didn’t Suddenly Love Muggle-Borns

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After the Wizarding war, Malfoy settled down with family and took on a much more sedate disposition than what he was known for in his school years. He would let go of his holier-than-thou personality and avoid any scenes with the whole Pureblood/Mudblood controversy.

This doesn’t mean he can be found in Mudblood rallies.

Malfoy still favored the Pureblood crowd as that was the environment he had grown in. He wasn’t a hater of Muggle-Borns anymore but he wasn’t a staunch supporter either. This means he won’t be found being besties with the likes of Hermione or any other Muggle-Born, it just means he keeps his silence now.

14 He And Harry Didn’t Become Friends At All

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This article will mostly ignore the god-awful Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for the most part. While that travesty is considered canon, most of the fanbase considers the true series to lie within the novels. To that end, as of the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry and Malfoy weren’t friends.

True, they had grown into avoiding any mean-spirited confrontations, but they weren’t friends in any way. Harry and Ron eyed Malfoy from a distance in the epilogue and commented on the change they were seeing. This points toward Harry having not laid eyes upon Malfoy for a while by that point.

13 He Didn’t Get A Job After Growing Up

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Now we’ll be drawing somewhat from The Cursed Child to assess how Draco was doing after his years at Hogwarts. We could even disregard the play as JK Rowling has detailed what happened to Malfoy on her own, but the finality is that Draco settled down with his family for a quiet living.

His father’s gold lasted ages.

Due to this, Draco had no need for an occupation as he could easily rely on his family’s fortune to live a life of comfort. As he’d forgone all black magic dealings his father was interested in, Draco must have a lot more saved for himself and his son.

12 He Didn’t Remain A Pureblood Fanatic

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Although he never became the best of friends with Muggle-Borns, Draco wasn’t best friends for life with Purebloods either once he’d grown up. Malfoy chose to make a nice middle line between his family’s love of all things Pureblood and the way society was run.

While his wife a pureblood like him, he had no objections toward anyone marrying into a Half-blood or Muggle-Born house, unlike his younger self who wouldn’t have wasted any time to spew his disgust towards these practices. It was said his parents remained fanatically devoted to being a pureblood but Draco chose to overlook this aspect of his upbringing.

11 He Never Even Genuinely Wanted To Be Harry’s Friend

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Here’s another dose of reality for all you fangirls: Malfoy never wanted to be Harry’s friend in the first place. Upon meeting him fully at Hogwarts in the first year, he attempted to befriend Harry but was shot down due to his rotten personality.

He held onto this grudge for a long time.

However, this wasn’t why he disliked Harry. At the time, the Malfoys thought Voldemort had perished and there were whispers that Harry could be the next Dark Lord. It was purely for this assumption that Draco had considered making Harry an ally in the first place.

10 He Didn’t Remain A Villain

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For those keeping track, Malfoy was responsible for the Death Eaters penetrating Hogwarts defences which ultimately led to Dumbeldore’s demise. Rowling could spin it anyway, but it’s clear Malfoy played a part in Dumbledore’s life ending, making him evil indirectly. The people who can see Draco for the terrible person he was in his school years sometimes mistake him for remaining this way throughout his life.

The reality is that Malfoy did feel some measure of guilt for all the evil deeds he had done in his youth. Even as a sixteen-year-old, Malfoy wasn’t completely evil, although he was pretty rotten (see below).

9 He Was Inherently A Rotten Person As A Child

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Excuses are made for the way Draco behaved in his school days, but nothing can change the fact that this boy was rotten to the core. He didn’t know the difference between evil and prejudice. A part of him thought that being a pureblood meant he could get away with anything he did. His actions towards sending Harry and friends (and inadvertently himself) to the Forbidden Forest were the makings of a truly terrible child.

During his tenure at Hogwarts he did just about anything he could to make Harry’s life miserable. He provided material to Rita Skeeter to further denounce Harry in the eyes of the public in Goblet of Fire as well as starting the anti-Harry Potter movement.

8 He Didn’t Have A Dark Mark

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Okay, he may have had it, we can’t say with absolute certainty. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Malfoy fidgeted around his arm at times as if attempting conceal the mark from others. Harry was convinced Malfoy was a Death Eater but wasn’t taken seriously as Draco was only a teenager at the time.

In the films, this was shown to be the case when Malfoy whipped his sleeve back to reveal the mark. But we can’t take the films at face value as many liberties were taken to dramatize things (and no, Death Eaters can’t fly despite how many times we saw it in the movies).

7 He Wasn’t That Good At Studies

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In a lot of ways Malfoy is just a rotten version of Harry. They both have a lot of things common; they were both an only child, their fathers were purebloods, they were both seekers, and both were only about a month apart in age.

Harry was also just an average student as best.

Likewise, Malfoy wasn’t that good at studies either. He was smart enough to have passed his OWLs the same way Harry and Ron had, but never showcased any talent in a specific course. Unlike Harry, Malfoy didn’t receive an Outstanding OWL in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

6 He’s Not Supposed To Be A Role Model

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J.K. Rowling herself has admitted her disappointment toward a number of female fans (basically the crazy fangirls) who pledge loyalty for Draco Malfoy. As Tom Felton was quite the striking young lad the female fanbase took a certain liking toward him.

Most of the fanbase likes Malfoy.

This is because of Felton’s superb acting and good looks that have charmed the ladies. In reality, there was nothing attractive about Draco Malfoy’s personality. Rowling has described the obsession with Malfoy as “unhealthy”, claiming it was never her intention to make Draco out to be a catch. It doesn’t seem to have worked as despite this explanation, crazy fangirls still are head over heels for Draco.