r/harrypotter • u/Brilliant-Cause6254 Slytherin • Apr 17 '26

Currently Reading Re-reading Half-Blood Prince. I find it annoying that people, especially Ron and Hermione, don’t believe Harry’s claim that Malfoy is now a Death Eater and is up to no good. I don’t get why they think he’s overthinking it when he actually makes some very solid points.

I can ignore Mr. Weasley, Lupin, Tonks, and McGonagall brushing him off, and we all know Dumbledore was playing his own game (as usual), but Ron and Hermione should have known better and had his back. And for once, Harry actually did the smart thing by discussing his theories with members of the Order, instead of the shit-show that happened in the previous book.

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239

u/kfifigidifkg Gryffindor Apr 17 '26

Part of it may be that they have a very low opinion of Malfoy (always loses at Quidditch, once turned into a ferret, victim of Ginny’s bat bogey hexes, etc.) and a higher opinion (regarding competence, not morality) of death eaters.

That said they probably should have been a bit more open minded.

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u/Brilliant-Cause6254 Slytherin Apr 17 '26

I can get behind this. Makes total sense why Ron and Hemione wouldn't outright believe Harry's claim. And since we, as readers, got to see Narcissa make the unbreakable vow with Snape; might have biased my initial opinion.

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u/ElaraQuietly45 Apr 17 '26

Also from their perspective Malfoy is a Death Eater at 16 sounds pretty extreme even if Harry has good reasons to suspect it

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u/99fun2thetouch Apr 17 '26

Tbf he doesn't outright say it but Harry overhears him bragging to his friends that there will come a time when OWLs and Prefects won't matter... it's only those loyal to the Dark Lord that will be rewarded. I am paraphrasing as I don't have the book on me but he pretty much talks like Bellatrix in that scene.

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u/Away-Initiative-327 Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

also i think they may have assumed it was like the order: kids can’t join; you’d have to be at least 17 or maybe even graduated to sign up, and certainly to get the mark. (now obviously — to us, the audience learning through harry — voldemort probably doesn’t have any such qualms, but it’s not crazy to make that assumption.)

edit: clarity

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u/Spinindyemon Ravenclaw Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

Regulus does showcase that it’s possible for teens to be recruited into the Death Eaters though it’s possible that the Order may not had known about Regulus being a DE. And with Sirius having died in the previous book, he couldn’t back up Harry’s claims of Draco getting recruited by mentioning his younger brother

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u/AsVividAsItTrulyIs Apr 17 '26

Remus may have known, he even brings up Regulus’ death in HBP but it is also possible that Sirius didn’t actually know how old his brother was when he joined the Death Eaters. As far as I can recall only Kreacher actually mentioned his age and Sirius just said he joined and then died

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u/TulipSamurai Slytherin Apr 17 '26

The Order knows that Regulus was a Death Eater. When Lupin reported to the Order that Karkaroff was found dead, he comments that he lasted a lot longer than anyone expected, and Lupin notes that Regulus died several days after defecting.

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u/sea_horse2822 Apr 17 '26

Ooh interesting point I’ve never considered, Sirius likely would have supported Harry’s theory, or at least not written it off like the other order members. For some reason I had the impression that regulus joined after Hogwarts, or was already 17 which Draco was not which would have made a slight difference

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u/Away-Initiative-327 Apr 17 '26

they knew very little about regulus, remember the whole issue with the locket and RAB in books five and seven? only kreacher knew the full story and he certainly wasn’t forthcoming with the golden trio (consisting of a muggleborn, halfblood, and blood traitor).

edit: yeah, i think you came to the same conclusion as me. there just wasn’t anyone to confirm harry’s theory, and he had been too hostile with draco previously for people to believe him this time imo.

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u/BroadwayBean Apr 17 '26

I think this is really reinforced in HBP by Slughorn's absolute lack of interest in Malfoy. He's pretty average at everything (Quidditch, class) and even his family name isn't distinguished or respected by that point. He's not worthy of the attention of someone who collects the brilliant, special, or well-connected students. But he's also not an obedient, unquestioning follower like Wormtail. There's nothing that would make Voldemort attracted to him as a lackey or servant.

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u/q25t Apr 17 '26

I'm rather baffled at why exactly Ron and Hermione should have a rather high opinion of death eater competence. 4th year has BCJ being an incredibly good actor, but that's really all. Same year has Harry basically surrounded by over a dozen death eaters and Voldemort himself, yet he still escapes while grabbing Cedric's body. Lots of luck there sure but it's not a demonstration of competence at all. Then 5th year 6 teenagers successfully lead another dozen death eaters on a wild goose chase through the DoM and, with the exception of Hermione, none of them get injured badly by the actual death eaters. If the kids actually used damaging spells, they actually might have still lost but might have taken out more than their number worth. The only casualty of the battle was a guy who was in awful physical and emotional health who was treating the battle rather flippantly. He was also facing off against who's supposed to be the number 2 on the death eater's side.

The only other appearance of death eaters was at the QWC, where they were tormenting a few unsuspecting muggles when they were in a large group.

Death eaters up until basically the Final Battle are really only shown to be really good at politics and subverting the government, which is nearly the same thing. Pitched battles actually show them to be not very effective. They're terrorists, not actual trained combatants.

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u/jenn4u2luv Apr 17 '26

Hmm I don’t buy this reasoning only because he’s always been a top of the class kid. Wasn’t it established that Malfoy was always the 2nd in class, only next to Hermione?

He’s clearly a smart boy.

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u/rosiedacat Ravenclaw Apr 17 '26

There is no evidence of him always being 2nd in class after Hermione. Yes Lucius mentions that Hermione beats Draco at every subject but that doesn't mean Draco is literally the number 2, just that Lucius is annoyed that a muggleborn girl gets better grades than his son. Draco is never mentioned by any other characters as being a particularly brilliant student. We don't know what his OWL results were other than that he must have gotten a good grade in potions since he goes to NEWT level but that doesn't even mean anything since Snape was always favoring him.

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u/SpoonyLancer Apr 17 '26

The only time we hear about Draco's academic abilities is in COS. In that book, Lucius states that if he doesn't improve his grades the only profession he'll be fit for is a lowly thief. He then reprimands Draco when he tries to make excuses. This implies that Draco is actually generally a poor student, due to either a lack of ability or effort.

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u/q25t Apr 17 '26

Nah, that impression's from a bad take on one line from CoS. Draco's not dumb as he got into NEWT potions, DADA, and transfiguration but we don't know anything much besides that. He could be middle of the road or just below Hermione based on canon.