When people hear the name Draco Malfoy they automatically think of an annoying conniving Slytherin boy, which is sort of true; however, there is more to him than that. When the book series Harry Potter became a movie, it took the world by storm. Obviously, when books become movies they can't fit every detail from the book into the movie. People that don't read the books miss out on the character development of Draco Malfoy.
Yes, he is annoying and a bully most of the time, but by the end of the books you can tell he's different. He had a learned behavior throughout most of the books. He acted the way he did because that's how his father expected him to act. That's the way his head of house acts. It is how a stereotypical Slytherin should act (even if most of them aren't like that). As far as anyone sees, he's never actually told by anyone whose opinion would matter to him that he shouldn't be annoying or a bully. But once he starts to make his own decisions that also matter in the grand scheme of things, he starts making the right choices (or at least realizing that the choices he's being forced into are bad ones).
If you didn't read the books you wouldn't know...
1. Draco Malfoy personally made the "Potter stinks" buttons and nobody could fix them to say Harry was cool. If they tried it would only make the insults worse.
2. Draco Malfoy was right behind Hermione in grades.
3. Draco was the most animated person at school and acted out everything.
4. He got deeply offended when people didn't laugh at his jokes.
5. He created a song called "Weasley is our King" with a tune and all as a way to make fun of Ron.
6. Draco and Ron got in a fist fight their first year.
7. Draco and Harry and the rest of the Slytherin and Gryffindor quidditch team have a fight in their fifth year. (Harry and Draco just tackle each other and it is amazing).
8. You miss out on everything Draco says and does. He is a walking gold mine and it's upsetting that the movies didn't devote a few seconds for any of it. I will admit though that Azkaban did an okay job.
9. To go along with the Weasley is our king song, he also made buttons to go along with it in their fifth year.
10. Draco didn't actually try to fight a Hippogriff, he was just petting him and offhandedly said that he was ugly. He didn't sprint over to him, he actually did the bowing.
11. Harry was the only seeker who could beat him.
12. He suffered from quite severe depression in book five.
He quite Quidditch and stopped seeing his friends. He was depressed to the point that he looked physically sick.
13. When he confronted Dumbledore he said he had to kill him because Voldemort had his family, not because he was concerned for himself like it portrayed in the movie!
14. He was the only person to find a way into Hogwarts that passed Dumbledore's protection spells.
15. You miss out on the fact that Draco brilliantly sneaks Polyjuice potion from potions lesson so that he can transform Crabbe and Goyle into different girls all the time so the two of them could guard the area outside of the room of requirement for Draco. No one suspected they were up to anything.
17. You don't get to see how his "big bad Slytherin buddies" actually tried to call him down on the train when he was obviously anxious about the whole Voldemort thing. He even calmly laid in Pansy's lap while she played with his hair.
17. Draco visited moaning Myrtle in her bathroom. She admits that he opens up to her. She mentions how sensitive he is and that he cries pretty often.
18. The fact that he and moaning Myrtle are friends.
19. Draco and Harry meet before they introduce themselves in the handshake scene.
They're being fitted into their robes for school in a shop in Diagon Alley. Draco has a full conversation with Harry without even knowing who he is.
20. There are glimpses of Draco receiving letters and packages of sweets and things from home while he is away at school.
21. Draco’s wand also carries thematic significance.
His wand consists of hawthorn and unicorn hair. According to Rowling's own writings on Draco, the unicorn hair was meant to reflect the idea that even Draco has a good side to him.
22. Draco became very good at Occlumency, which is when you are able to block your mind against external influence or extraction of information. Harry attempted to learn this, but ultimately failed.
23. Draco is distantly related to Ron Weasley and maybe even Harry Potter.
This is due to blood lines. There are the Wizarding World's "Sacred Twenty-Eight," which is a list of names that identified 28 pure-blood families released in the 1930s. It was designed to help "such families maintain the purity of their bloodlines." All purebloods are distantly related.
24. A big reason Draco had hatred towards Harry, Hermione and Ron was because he was jealous of their friendship.
This is seen in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Draco was able to voice this fact after keeping it in for so long according to Rowling.
25. Draco could have gone to Durmstrang school rather than Hogwarts.
I think given a different upbringing or even being sorted in a different house would have made him a lot like Fred and George. Still an annoying kid, but a chaotic good annoying kid.
