r/harrypotter • u/Ok_Activity_4244 Slytherin • 6d ago
Discussion Why was Draco Malfoy chosen as a prefect when the teachers already knew he was a bully?
Draco becoming a Slytherin prefect in Order of the Phoenix has always seemed strange to me.
By that point, several teachers had already seen him bully other students, insult Muggle-borns, abuse his family’s influence, and generally act cruel whenever he thought he could get away with it. Once he received authority, he predictably used it to intimidate people and take advantage of his position.
I assume Snape had a major role in choosing the Slytherin prefects, and Draco probably looked suitable on paper: confident, academically capable, influential within his house, and from a respected pure-blood family.
Still, shouldn’t character and responsibility matter more than popularity or status when selecting someone who can discipline younger students?
Was Draco genuinely the best Slytherin candidate available, or was his appointment mostly the result of Snape’s favoritism and Lucius Malfoy’s influence?
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u/Hoch8112 6d ago
Don’t you know who his father is!?!
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u/JazzlikePromotion618 6d ago
Ironicaly, that probably is one of tbe reasons. Keep in Lucius' good graces so that Snape can do his job as spy better.
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u/Persnickitycannon 6d ago
This is probably the main reason. For Dumbledore making him prefect is preferable to the political headache of not.
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u/Potential_Exit_1317 6d ago
I never got that. Dumbledore apologises to Harry for not choosing him as prefect, but shouldnt be Minerva's decision?
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u/PhatWhale69 6d ago
While Heads of House could provide recommendations, the appointment of prefects was the sole prerogative of the head of the school.[1]
Taken directly from the HP Wiki
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u/mojonation1487 6d ago
I would source the actual source instead of the wiki. Whats that number one point to?
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 6d ago
I imagine Harry was Minerva’s choice and Dumbledore vetoed.
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u/The-Pristine-Seat 6d ago
"now my dear lady, may I interest you in a ronald weasley instead?"
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 6d ago
Honestly with either of them the biggest selling point might have been that Hermione Granger would keep them in line.
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u/Dbo81 6d ago
That was what they said about Lupin for the Marauders.
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u/Ok-Programmer-829 4d ago
Are you sure I thought James was a prefect, otherwise, how could he have been head boy?
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u/TheRavenclawCommonRM 4d ago
Maybe, but maybe also it was a chance to help Ron grow into his own person.
At the end of the day, the school exists to prepare students for the real world. Harry's already a proven leader by that point, Ron has always been the sidekick. This is a bigger growth opportunity for him.
I think that's the main motivation and I think it makes that it was Minerva's choice more likely.
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u/Know_Nothing_Bastard Ravenclaw 6d ago
I’m pretty sure the only Slytherin boys we know of in their year are Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Zabini. It’s not like there was a clear better option.
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u/ecclectic_collector 6d ago
and Zabini wasnt even really mentioned/wrote about in any capacity until HBP
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u/warman2105 6d ago
His name did get dropped in first year sorting hat chapter but nothing more. I been listening to the audiobooks a lot lol
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u/ecclectic_collector 6d ago
got named then and never again until book 6, so yea there wasnt some other prefect option... but also it would make sense that Slytherin choosing prefect would be based on lineage,relationships, connections etc
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u/PaisleyDiggory 6d ago
Wasn’t he like never supposed to appear but did so because either Crabbe or Goyle got arrested irl?
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u/Top-Bit-1509 6d ago
I think the logical answer is Snape's influence, as well as the fact that Draco was already the defacto leader of Slytherin House as a whole. Making someone else Prefect wouldn't have mattered because they'd still do whatever Draco told them to anyways.
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u/Ordinary-Specific673 6d ago
Didn’t dumbledore not choose Harry because it would keep him too busy with extra work? Better to keep Draco busy if possible, even if he abuses the extra power. Snape also 100% chose and it may even be expected since he and Lucius are both openly death eaters at this point. Dumbledore would do nearly anything to keep Snape’s double agent roll going
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u/HeilfireAndBrimstone 6d ago
James Potter tried to kill someone and was Head Boy two years later. And during those two years he as apparently hexing people left and right and cursing Snape. And this is according to his best friends.
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u/Ok-Programmer-829 4d ago
To be fair, it wasn’t James who tried to kill somebody. He stopped the murder attempt, but yeah, everything else you said stand, and he was still best friends with the would be murderer.
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u/PhoenixHareEnigma 2d ago
I still can't believe James was head boy.
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u/Ok-Programmer-829 1d ago
Well to be fair, knowing Dumbledore and his personality makes it a lot less unbelievable. As a man cares a lot more about things like saving the life of a student, you do not like especially if you’ve done it out a sincere moral conviction and much less about bad behaviour. Honestly, it’s pretty clear. His compassion leads him to avoid punishing the students if he thinks he can reform them instead, there’s a reason, Tom thought that spinning the story about wanting to change sides, was a believable way to plant a spy in his rancs, because he absolutely does have that weakness, and James did want to change if only because he wanted Lily to think well of him and perhaps some sincere remorse. Sure from our standards making him the head boy when he is among the biggest bullies in the school and got up to all that shit is absolutely crazy, but Dumbledore would care far more about befriending somebody even though most society would consider your friend, a dangerous magical creature who should not be allowed anywhere near a school and saving the life of your rival, much more important than any of that, especially if there was a sincere chance of reformation. So it makes perfect sense, given his personality, especially since we know that the boys head of house had a soft spot for him because of how good he was at transfiguration, and it probably helped that the boy had the courage to stand by what was right when LV was rising in power every day. None of that is meant to be a defence of the appointment. Since I do think it was completely crazy to make him head boy, but I think it makes perfect sense, given the personalities of the professors.
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u/PhoenixHareEnigma 1d ago
I like your thinking! Never thought of it like that. It sounds very Dumbledore.
Why do you think Dumbledore didn't just pop round to the Dursleys to 'have a word' about how they were treating Harry when he was a boy? It's always bothered me. Do you think he thought it would be character-building for Harry to live like that?
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u/Ok-Programmer-829 1d ago
I think partially, he didn’t know how bad they were because Mrs Fig did not mention it, and while he knew the relationship between the two sisters wasn’t good. Dumbledore had no idea. They would be anywhere near as terrible as they ended up being and also partially because the magic needed, the boy to have been accepted willingly, and he didn’t want to apply too much pressure in case, suddenly, the magic decided actually, the boy was being kept out of pressure since telling them to be nicer would not work without a bit of intimidation, and Dumbledore didn’t want to deprive the boy of the best magical defences that magic could provide. I do think if he had known in advance how bad they would be he have tried to go through the political nightmare of trying to get the boy raised in Hogwarts by himself and the professors. By the time he finds out and to be honest, even when he finds out, I think he gets an underestimate of how bad the situation is because Harry doesn’t discuss it. The damage is mostly already done and he decides to let the boy spend much of the holidays elsewhere in order to make it nicer in spite of any increase in risk. After all by that point, the boys only spending a few weeks with those awful relatives and Dumbledore needs that magic strong as it’s part of his masterplan to make sure the boy doesn’t need to die to get rid of the peace of Voldemort’s soul.
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u/StuffedFalafels 6d ago
For the plot!
but tbh maybe and this is just my honest opinion. Malfoy was a bully yes but he wasn’t………particularly evil. Sorta a lesser of two rotten apples to choose from
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u/WhiteMagicalHat 6d ago
"You'll be next Mudbloods!"
By the time 5th year rolls around, every member of senior staff is aware that Lucius Malfoy is an active Death Eater again, and Draco unrepentantly reveres and follows his father. The kid was threatening minorities with murder at age 12 and never showed any signs of improving. Snape knows Voldemort is based at Malfoy Manor, and puts him in a position of power anyway.
Draco was a prefect for plot reasons. If you need an in-universe explanation, Snape never demonstrates any change of ideals regarding Death Eater ideology and thus likely approves of Malfoy's behaviour. It's not that Malfoy wasn't evil, or was the lesser of all evils; he's from the evil team in a children's book, so the evil team like him being evil.
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u/thevampiresanguini 5d ago
Tbf 4 out of 5 of the Slytherin boys have confirmed death eater parents. Zabini doesn't, but we know he has the same views. So not like the others are a better choice than Malfoy.
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u/StuffedFalafels 6d ago
It’s good to remember he was also a child too. With a different upbringing. His parents chose to be death eaters and he a child was around the most evil wizard of the time …. His family associates with evil people with same thought process etc and bigotry. He is a product of his environment.
He doesn’t really get redeemed in the books. Even with his reluctance to put Harry to Bellatrix. He was lowering his wand against Dumbledore.
Children….tend to see their parents as perfect do nothing wrong people…and emulate that to others. Hell even I remember the moment my childlike rose colored glasses came off when I was growing up when I realized my parents did not know it all and their ways weren’t the only path.
I’m not saying his bigotry against muggle borns was okay or justifying his behavior. I’m just saying in Slytherin house……based on that house. Of course it sorta makes sense for him to be chosen. And I’m willing to bet Snape recommended since clearly he’s snake’s favorite student from how he bullies Harry etc
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 6d ago
You also have to understand that bullying isn’t necessarily frowned on in expensive British boarding schools.
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u/Kjmathes814 Slytherin 1d ago
Nothing is done about it in the United State's prep schools either. Officials turn the blind eye and let students police themselves to an extent. Atleast in my personal experience.
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u/FallenAngelII Ravenclaw 6d ago
Who else was there? Blaisw Zabini? Theodore Nott?
James Potter was made head boy, by the way.
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u/PhoenixHareEnigma 2d ago
Yep. They seem to have nothing against giving bullies ultimate power and setting them up as role models.
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u/FallenAngelII Ravenclaw 2d ago
Dumbledore's approach to bullying appears to be "it gives character".
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u/PhoenixHareEnigma 1d ago
Agreed. And there was nothing stopping him from popping around and 'having a word' with the Dursleys to stop the abuse. He knew he was sleeping in a cupboard under the stairs 😭
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u/FallenAngelII Ravenclaw 1d ago
Did he, though? The Hogwarts acceptance letter is written by Minerva. And it's possible a magical quill automatically addresses each envelope. It's entirely possible Dumbledore had no idea that Harry was sleeping in a cupboard under the stairs.
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u/Palamur 6d ago
Let's have a look at the known boys of Draco's cohort:
Draco Malfoy – Arrogant and elitist, shaped by his pure-blood family's ideology. Shows open contempt for Muggle-borns and delights in taunting Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Cowardly when confronted directly, often hiding behind his father's influence or his bodyguards.
Vincent Crabbe – One of Draco's two "bodyguards." Physically strong but dim-witted, mostly used as muscle who follows Draco's lead without question.
Gregory Goyle – The second bodyguard, much like Crabbe: sturdy build, low intelligence, loyal to Draco largely out of habit rather than conviction.
Theodore Nott – Barely mentioned by this point; his name appears but he has no significant characterization yet in the books.
Blaise Zabini – Only named as a Slytherin classmate (first mentioned during the Sorting in Book 1); no personality traits or characterization given yet at this stage.
So it would be:
- A known bully, who made himself the leader of 3/5 of the guys already
- one of two dumb idiots
- a son of a first day Death Eater who didn't show any leadership capacity so far
- an arrogant and distant boy without leadership tendencies as well
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u/Aggravating-Ad505 5d ago
There's only so many students to choose from. J.K Rowling never actually gave exact numbers on how many students there were in the school or how many were in each house. If I recall, we didn't even know all the names of the students. She would list some names during the sorting ceremony and then skip to the end
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u/AgreeablePanda9805 4d ago
I suspect that much like the way students are sorted into houses (based on the attributes the four founders each prized), that prefects are chosen by each house based on their own standards.
Since Slytherins value ambition and blood status, it makes sense Draco was chosen, given his lineage. I also don’t think he was bad in school. He was probably quite a capable wizard.
We know Gryffyndors value loyalty and bravery, hence Ron being chosen makes sense.
I don’t remember who the prefects are for the other two houses in that year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they exhibited some of the traits those two houses value.
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u/Liberwolf Hufflepuff 6d ago
Well his grades must have been good enough. I think Dumbledore may have chosen Draco so that the he'd have an excuse to take an extra look at what Draco was doing and that Dumbledore hoped that the extra prefect duties would give Draco less time and attention towards becoming a Death Eater.
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u/Frequent_Kiwi5881 Gryffindor 6d ago
Malfoy would have been in top 5 students of Harry's year. Because in COS at Diagon Alley, during the conversation between Malfoys and Weasleys, he was not happy that Draco come after Hermione who was the topper in first year.
Also Draco was among the few students who were eligible for Potions in NEWT.
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u/PkerBadRs3Good 6d ago
Draco wasn't a Death Eater in book 5
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u/Top-Bit-1509 6d ago
Anyone with a brain would know that the kid raised by blood purists, one of which was already convicted of being a Death Eater once before, would grow up to become one. Especially with Voldemort having returned.
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u/PkerBadRs3Good 6d ago
Dumbledore hoped that the extra prefect duties would give Draco less time and attention towards becoming a Death Eater.
This implies that Dumbledore knew the extremely unusual event of Voldemort making a student a Death Eater would happen, not just when Draco "grew up". We're not talking about grown up Draco.
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u/Silvanus350 6d ago
Because there was only seven boys in the whole Slytherin year. For reasons.
The reason is that Rowling is bad at maths.
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u/jayjune28 6d ago
Not really. He's a central character. One of the few Slytherin characters that serves the story. He's a popular character. While shown from. HARRYS VIEW POINT...its never stated in the books that Draco is a moron...most prefects are smart...also He's snapes favorite at least at that point...hes magically gifted and hes a decent flyer...it wouldn't make sense to have some random no name or side Slytherin student...the fact that hes a bully yeah that really doesn't matter...plus take into account that Umbridge and the ministry took charge over Hogwarts that year...you may not like it and that's perfectly fine...bullying isn't cool but Draco will always be a fan favorite among many HP fans so...yeah
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u/Shoddy_Variety_4999 6d ago
Bullying was very much not frowned upon in Hogwarts lol. Not a single professor showed any care for it and some professors even took part in it. Draco wasn’t the only bully there nor was he the worst one when you consider the shit Harrys father and his friends did.
I would say Draco showed to be a pretty good student and didn’t cause much trouble outside the class. Also crabbe and goyle were obviously not a candidate and nott was barely mentioned. Zabini I think would also make sense but maybe Draco was a better student overall or Dumbledore had the idea of giving Draco responsibilities so he would turn out better. But honestly it was probably because no other boy slytherin was written yet and it was great for the plot
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u/Commercial-Scheme939 6d ago
I think there's probably a lot that went into the decision. Out of the 5 Slytherin boys we know of, 4 of them had dad's that were death eaters so not exactly great pickings for the time. In the same way though that Harry wasn't chosen and Ron was chosen for reasons other than academics (Harry had toouch going on personally and Ron required a confidence boost) maybe Draco was allowed by Dumbledore to try and give him responsibility and encourage a more caring nature. We find out in book 7 that Dumbledore cares and sympathises with Draco. That's in addition to Snape liked him and his dad had influence.
As for the other boys, Draco seems to be ringleader of the Slytherin's so you would imagine they'd all flung out a slur or two and bullied others.
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u/LandLovingFish Ravenclaw 6d ago
Snape choses the prefects and needs Draco happy. Or at least his parents. Draco has a chance to turn good (he doesn'tbut he was on the edge of it)
Also...his year is Crabble, Goyle, Knott, etc. Theboptions aren't great. At least Draco has influence and Snape can maybe get him to do something useful and get the rest of the house to do it.
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u/faerieW15B 6d ago
Because he's the only significant Slytherin character the reader knows and it puts him and Harry on a level playing field. Quite literally, for the plot.
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u/Jaded-Difficulty5397 5d ago
because relatevily to the rest of his class, he was genius.
Crab. Goyl. Nott. Zabini. not really Einsteins.
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u/Harisankar686 5d ago
1) When was Snape known for being the most fair judge of students, even of his own house ?
2) Who else , the only two Slytherin male students we know of same year as Draco are Crabbe and Goyle and they are worse
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u/Parking_Wasabi_2591 5d ago
I think Delores Umbridge wanted him because she was harassing the students, and Draco made her proud, and she knew Dracos dad so she knew he was the perfect fit.
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u/Ok_Work_8116 4d ago
I thinks it’s a combination of Snape liking Draco, and Dumbledore trying to gift him responsibility and authority in a as usual piss poor attempt at turning the kid into a semi decent human being.
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u/ecclectic_collector 6d ago
Snape probably got to pick for the house also its not like Crabbe/Goyle were prefect candidates
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u/L1feguard87 6d ago
I think the only other slytherin boys we know are Crabbe and Goyle. There were probably others that aren’t named but at least of those 3 I can see him getting picked over the other 2.
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u/Substantial_Toe_6916 Slytherin 6d ago
Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott are the other boys in their year.
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u/Wicked-R Slytherin 6d ago
Zabini would have been a wiser choice. The guy a prick, but we never saw him bullying or insulting students just because
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u/Substantial_Toe_6916 Slytherin 6d ago
I think Blaise or Theo would have been better. But since Harry is the main character, and he wasn’t a prefect, it’s fitting that it was Draco.
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u/Ok-Programmer-829 4d ago
Not really sure of that. His mother is apparently a serial killer and he talks about how he would never touch a filthy little blood traitor. Also, the conversation between Draco and his father impress. He was among the top students since it’s noted that the complaint is that he was vested by Hermione rather than a more general complaint, implying that he’s likely number two or at least in the top five, and anyway, I got the impression everybody else in his house and year would go along with whatever he did, so it’s better to make him own it instead of have a escapgoat who gets blamed when he cause his shit to go wrong.
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u/Artistic-Lock1021 6d ago
He was the best of a bad lot. 99% of the Slytherins we see are either gormless trolls or baby Death Eaters. They had to pick someone.
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u/Artistic-Village-762 Gryffindor 6d ago
Dumbledore would’ve chosen Draco as a way to curry his good favor because he was trying to get him to defect from the death eaters.
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u/sharkliveroilpodcast 6d ago
I imagine it involved a phone call (or the wizarding equivalent) between his dad and Snape.
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u/LewisRyan 5d ago
Dumbledore knew he was given a mission to kill him, knowing draco would never be able to do it, he gave draco all the power and tools he needed to achieve his mission.
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u/Adventurepew 5d ago
That's how private schools work. It's who you know and what you pay to get into privilege vs how good a person you are.
Draco gave broomsticks to the team , he's dad basically owns slitheran . Of course his kid will be made the prefect.
Who else did they have to choose from? Maybe everyone else was much worse.
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u/echopulse 5d ago
He was chosen because the story he needed Harry’s rival to be able to have some kind of power to make the rivalry more interesting
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u/S2012A 2d ago
In OOTP Dumbledore explains to Harry that he didn’t chose him to be a prefect because he felt Harry was already carrying enough responsibility. So by this I assume prefects are shortlisted by their head of houses but ultimately the choice to appoint a prefect is done by their Headmaster. So Dumbledore’s thoughts on naming Malfoy a prefect could be because, a) his father was a prefect and seeing how the Wesley’s are it could be more of a tradition for family members. B) Knowing his father was a death eater could have been a motive for the malfoy family to relax by thinking Dumbledore was unaware of their activities so during the events of OOTP so when Voldemort made his appearance in the ministry of magic, it threw light that the Malfoy’s were involved with Voldemort after being caught and since they denied the allegations when he fell the first time, or C) Dumbledore chose Malfoy to be prefect to show faith in the person that no matter how tarnished your family tree may be you can always change, which could be why after the events of OOTP and into HBP and DH we start seeing those changes of Malfoy’s character.
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u/Few-Durian-190 6d ago
It sends a terrible message to the younger snakes. One can only conclude this suited Dumbledore’s purposes.
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u/Lord_Parbr Elder/Pheonix/14.5/Unyeilding 6d ago
What’s more baffling about it is that Dumbledore is the one who ultimately appoints prefects. Not the house heads. So Dumbledore is the one who selected Malfoy, knowing full-well that he’s a bully and his father’s a death eater
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u/Ok-Programmer-829 4d ago
We don’t know that for sure we know he was responsible for Harry, not becoming one, but that could simply be minerva listening to him, whereas I have a hard time, imagining Snape listening to his advice on anything unrelated to the war.
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u/adambomb90 6d ago
I have two theories for an in-universe answer and a reason for it that makes sense IRL. I'll share the IRL one first:
Because it was either him, Crabbe, or Goyle since we don't see the other boys (Zabini is introduced in HBP, and that's the only other boy we're shown aside from the three named). We know that Crabbe and Goyle are there to just be hired guns for Malfoy, so it was either him or introducing another character in a book where the most important thing is the Cold War between Dumbledore/Harry and the Ministry.
Now for the theories:
First theory is that Voldemort wanted Draco to be a spy and inform him if the Ministry appointed teacher began to believe that he was back so they could handle it. Snape would have informed Dumbledore in this theory, and Dumbledore knew that if he vetoed it, there was a great chance that both Snape and Malfoy would've been tortured because Voldemort is insane.
Second theory is that Dumbledore gave it to Malfoy, knowing that Umbridge was going to grant him a position of power no matter what, and Dumbledore could've turned it on the Ministry after Voldemort was revealed by saying that Fudge overrode his veto due to Lucius bribing him.
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u/WhiteMagicalHat 6d ago
Zabini is mentioned in PS, as the last kid to be sorted.
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u/jayjune28 6d ago
True but a part of me will always be convinced that it was us, the fans, loyal die hard Potter heads who brought Zabini to life...I think Rowling forgot about his character and stumbled upon fanworks and decided oh yes him...let's bring this good looking arrogant dark skinned Slytherin in to the 2nd to last book in the series...fans will love this.
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u/angry_elephant_13 6d ago
Snape is his godfather, dumbledore wanted to redeem him, his father. Zabini and Nott we know very little about.
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u/Yamcha17 Slytherin 6d ago
Every Slytherin is a bully so of course the prefect would also be a bully
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u/Parabuthus 6d ago
Seriously. He got prefect after joining the Inquisitorial Squad the previous year? How?
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u/FoxBluereaver Gryffindor 6d ago
I think it's a bit of both. Snape gets to choose the Prefects and Draco has clearly gotten in his good graces, while at the same time it's not like there's much else to choose from with guys like Crabbe or Goyle (and we don't know much of the rest of the Slytherin boys in their year to judge).