Who is Draco Malfoy?

Over the years, the Harry Potter fandom has conjured up many different theories, like Professor Snape being a vampire or Sirius Black and Remus Lupin being secret lovers. However, with little evidence supporting these theories many of them have been contradicted by not only the Harry Potter book series but by the author J.K. Rowling herself. Be that as it may, one theory that has yet to be disproved, is the idea that Draco Malfoy is, in fact, a werewolf.

Draco, as all Potter fans will already know, is no less than an irritating bully throughout the first five books but when he is given the task to murder Albus Dumbledore by Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, all his childish pranks come to a halt, much to the surprise of Harry, and his friends Ron and Hermione.

Many believe that there is another, more powerful and dark, reason for Malfoy's change in behaviour during this book. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father, was unsuccessful in retrieving the all important prophecy from the Department of Mysteries within the Ministry of Magic for Voldemort. As punishment for this failure the Dark Lord, presumably, allows Fenrir Greyback (a well-known werewolf and Death Eater) to bite Draco.

As a Harry Potter fan myself, I was intrigued by this theory and decided to do a little research of my own. I have recently gone back to read through the sixth and seventh book in the series and put together an ensemble of evidence.

It has come to my attention that Draco Malfoy, despite being at the command of Voldemort, is not a Death Eater. In chapter six of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, named Draco's Detour, Harry and Hermione are with the Weasley family in Diagon Ally shopping for their school supplies.

Harry spots Draco walking down Knockturn Alley alone and, under his invisibility cloak, himself, Ron and Hermione follow Draco to the dark magic shop known as Borgin & Burkes. The three overhear Draco inside the store asking the shop-owner, Borgin, to repair something.

Draco then threatens Borgin, showing him something on his arm, but a large black cabinet partially blocks Harry's view. Draco then warns that Fenrir Greyback, a “family friend,” will be, “dropping in from time-to-time” to ensure that Borgin is giving the matter his full attention.

In this chapter, Harry assumes that the thing Draco has shown Borgin on his arm is a Dark Mark, even though he never saw it. Fenrir Greyback is introduced to the Harry Potter audience as the most vicious, cruel werewolf in existence.

Why would Draco Malfoy mention Fenrir's name as a threat whilst showing the shop-keeper his arm? If Draco was not showing him a Dark Mark, which I don't believe he was, what else could he have possibly intimidated Borgin with to make him so scared? A werewolf bite, perhaps?

Another reason I am pretty sure Draco Malfoy doesn't have a Dark Mark is that, between chapters 26 and 28 of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the Death Eaters that have entered Hogwarts have put up a barrier around the entrances and exits of the Astronomy Tower.

This barrier prevents anyone without a Dark Mark from passing through. Coincidently, or not, this barrier is only put up once Draco has gone up the tower and is taken down before he leaves. During chapter 27, The Lightning-Struck Tower, Draco seems to be afraid of Fenrir Greyback and is described as “He was not looking at Fenrir; he did not want to seem to even glance at him.”

Why is this? Could it be because Fenrir had bitten him and Draco was now a werewolf, fearful of his sire?

In addition to this, what reason does Voldemort have to give Draco a Dark Mark? Draco has not yet done anything to prove his loyalty to the Dark Lord and his father, Lucius, has seemed to do nothing but disappoint Voldemort throughout the book series.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Lucius Malfoy tried, and failed, to unleash the Basilisk upon the muggle-borns at Hogwarts. When Voldemort is resurrected in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in the film adaptations, the Dark Lord mentions that Lucius didn't try to find him, didn't try to help him rise again, didn't do anything.

Thus, Lucius, even though he is a known Death Eater, isn't treated like one by Voldemort and nor is Draco – which makes me to be even more inclined to think that Draco does not brandish a Dark Mark.

Also, the all-knowing and incredibly clever witch, Hermione doesn't think Draco is a Death Eater, which means he probably isn't as Hermione is correct the majority of the time.

So, if Draco isn't a Death Eater, then what is he?

Throughout Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Draco Malfoy appears to be getting very sick, missing out on a Quidditch match against Slytherin's rivals Gryffindor and Hermione mentions Draco didn't hand in his Transfiguration homework for two days in a row.

This could be because of his almost impossible quest to assassinate the headmaster but I think otherwise. Professor Snape has been bound to help Draco kill Dumbledore by the Unbreakable Vow, but with the suggestion that Draco is a werewolf makes their relationship a whole lot more interesting, as wouldn't Draco Malfoy be relying on the Potions Master to make him a Wolfsbane potion?

On page 321 of the sixth installment, Harry describes Draco Malfoy as looking “a little ill” with “dark shadows under his eyes,” let's compare this to Harry's description of Professor Remus Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where he is described “as though he had been ill” with “dark shadows beneath his eyes” on page 185.

J.K. Rowling has used the exact same description for the portrayal of a well-known werewolf in the third book as Remus Lupin and Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Is this merely a coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

Over the Christmas break at Hogwarts in chapter sixteen, A Very Frosty Christmas, Fenrir Greyback is described by Remus Lupin as “savage”. Lupin goes on to explain “He regards it as his mission in life to bite and to contaminate as many people as possible; he wants to create enough werewolves to overcome the wizards. Voldemort has promised him prey in return for his services. Greyback specialises in children... Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards.”

One example of this is how Lupin became a werewolf himself. Lupin's father once insulted Fenrir Greyback and the werewolf bit Lupin as a result of this action. This is mentioned by J.K. Rowling a few times so why would she set this up if not to use it later?

As punishments go, letting Fenrir bite Draco seems a bit excessive but as I mentioned before, Lucius Malfoy has made many mistakes — which does not please Voldemort. To compensate for this the Dark Lord must provide a more serious punishment for Lucius, especially after he could not obtain the prophecy for Voldemort.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, not only did Lucius try to release the Basilisk from the chamber beneath Hogwarts, the mishandling of Tom Riddle's diary resulted in the destruction on one seventh of Voldemort's soul. As Voldemort had not returned to full power back then it is unlikely Lucius received a great enough punishment for his actions. Maybe in return for a seventh of his soul, Voldemort claimed Draco's in the form of turning him into a werewolf?

Finally, my last reason for backing up the theory that Draco Malfoy is a werewolf. Rowling herself has said in an interview that whilst watching the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, there was a moment that foreshadowed something she had yet to write in the later books. She said it “gave her chills”. The moment I believe her to be talking about is the scene where Draco mocks a werewolf and actually howls like a wolf.

Why did she not write this into her finale? I hear you ask. Well, J.K. Rowling has planned an entire world, complete with elaborate back-story, that hasn't been published or revealed in any way to the public. As an author, she has been known to only show a snippet of her written characterizations, for instance, Rowling was originally planning to write about Dean Thomas's family and their past, but instead, she focussed on Neville Longbottom's.

Plus, Professor Albus Dumbledore's love of Grindelwald was never mentioned in any of the Harry Potter books, it was only confessed after all the series had been published by J.K. Rowling during another interview. The world she has created is so vast that there are bound to be other elements of the story that have been left out, for example, was Rowling planning to reveal Draco's change in behaviour due to his werewolf tendencies in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but it got cut from the finished article by her publishers?

The implications that this theory is correct are overpowering. For this, and all of the evidence I've discovered whilst back-tracking through J.K Rowling's incredible works, I can assure you that my mind has been made up. Draco Malfoy, in my opinion, is a werewolf. I leave you to make up your own minds.