Draco doesnāt have the same insecurities Ron does. He hasnāt got five older brothers overshadowing him. His parents are completely devoted to his every whim (not that the Weasleys donāt love Ron ā they love all their kids, but they love all their kids and donāt obsessively dote on/spoil any one of them) and they have a tendency to swan-about bragging and showing-off how awesome (they think) they are, and he does the same thing, wanting to be just like them (especially daddy). Draco likes attentionā¦and, like Ron, he has a lot of ambitious hopes for his future: he wants to be, more than anything else, the perfect son and heir. He wants to be the best, and more than that, he thinks he deserves to be the best. His parents tell him heās perfect; he believes them (which yes, lots of parents think their kids are āperfectā but few of them are quite so serious about that as the Malfoys). That means that when anything happens that compromises that artifice of perfection ā Hermione outscores him, for instance, or Harry outflies him in Quidditch try-outs ā he feels personally offended. How dare they be better than him? Donāt they know who he is? Heās a Malfoy, nobody gets to be better than him. So when Harryās name comes out of the Goblet of Fire and Dracoās doesnātā¦will he be furious? Will he be hurt? Will he delight in sidling his way into Harryās limelight? Will he enjoy bragging about how heās best friends with one of the Hogwarts champions?Will he believe that Harry is telling the truth about not putting his own name in? Will he blame Harry for cheating him out of a chance for glory that could have (should have) been his instead? Will he make some badges about how āPotter Stinksā and hand them out to everyone at Hogwarts? Will he embrace the fact that Slytherin House has a champion of their very own? Will this be the final straw that turns him away from Harryās side and back toward his prejudiced roots?
Iāve actually been planning how Draco is going to react to Harryās name coming out of the Goblet of Fire since I started writing the first book in this series, and nothing thatās happened since has caused me to deviate from that plan. So Iām very excited to finally get to this point, so you all can see for yourselves whether I made the right choice or not. Iām not going to tell you what that is in advance ā but I hope youāll all be pleased when those chapters post! Thank you!
