Lucius Malfoy & Drarry Fans

I've read a lot of Drarry fic over the past few years and a I have an axe to grind about how the fandom treats Lucius Malfoy.

He is either killed off or imprisoned off-screen in most Drarry fic. It's such a universal trope among fic that I find it rare to find fic where Lucius is alive more often than not.

Why is this?

In the books it's extremely obvious Lucius loves Draco more than himself. He'll endure torture (see DH post Chapter 23) for his family and during the battle he's begging Voldemort to let him find his son. His only priority is Draco. Even before DH Lucius is shown as a father that spoils Draco rotten, similar to his narrative mirror Vernon Dursley.

Draco is shown to admire his father greatly, he quotes his father's opinion as fact to his friends. When he feels he is being mistreated (see Hagrid in, well, every book, and Moody in GoF) by a teacher or is scared his first thought is to tell his father. This is a kid where his dad is his hero. He models his behavior on what he observes from Lucius, values what his father values, etc. If I had to pick which parent Draco has the closest relationship with, it would be Lucius.

My point is, Lucius is a hugely important part of Draco's life. There are moments in HBP and DH where Draco is shown to make choices that conflict with his parent's, choices that result in Harry getting the wand that lets him defeat Voldemort, yet at the end of the series, the last scene we see of the Malfoys is all of them, including Lucius, huddled together on a bench.

I'm so curious (and irritated) why writers and the fandom are so eager to write Lucius off in post-DH fic. The canon has established that Draco's relationship with Lucius is one of the most important bonds of his life. When Lucius is being sentenced to execution or Azkaban post-DH, this should be devastating to Draco. We even have canon basis for this in OotP and the first half of HBP where Draco is reacting to his father being imprisoned in Azkaban to base this on!

I'm not arguing that Lucius must be alive in every Drarry fic, I respect that not everyone wants to explore Draco's relationships with his family vs. more established characters. To be fair, generally Draco is not happy his father is dead/imprisoned in a lot of Drarry fic, or he has complicated feelings. But I'm not here to criticize how Draco feels about his father being written off-screen.

I am criticizing that writing Lucius out (and to a lesser extant, Narcissa) you're really doing a disservice to the narrative and character. It neuters the character of Draco, similar to having Ron or Hermione written out as no longer Harry's best friends and primary relationship. Why is this trope so prevalent and what does it say about the ship? Can Drarry only happen if Draco's parents, his most influential and primary relationships, are cut from him? Can Harry, one of the most forgiving characters in the text, not have a relationship with Draco if his father is in the picture? Is the ship so weak that Lucius being a git to Harry (or not!) is enough to sink it?

I disagree. It's sad to me this trope is so popular. Draco and the Drarry fandom can do better.

Anyway, if there are any Drarry fic recs where Lucius is Alive (no Abusive Lucius please) I would appreciate a link.

I completely agree with this. I rarely see a Drarry fic where both Lucius and Narcissa are alive and well, because they're almost always either dead, Lucius is in Azkaban, or they're out of the country. That’s really strange to me because Draco’s relationship with his parents is one of the most important things to him and plays a huge role in shaping who he is.

It would be really interesting to see how Draco’s changing ideology affects his relationship with his parents, but unfortunately, many writers choose to take the easy way out and don’t want to bother exploring how that relationship might change after the war.

One of my favorite Drarry parallels is that both of their mothers were named after flowers. This makes sense for Lily since her sister, Petunia, was also named after a flower. However, Narcissa came from the Black family, which traditionally named their children after constellations—yet she is the only exception. Was this because JKR intended to make her a counterpart to Lily, or was it just a coincidence? We don’t know. It may seem insignificant, but I still find it a fascinating Drarry parallel.

WAITTTTTT I love this so much! Also in the end of book 7, Harry is once again saved by a mother‘s love - this time from Narcissa when she lies to protect him due to her love for Draco.

Also ngl James and Lucius were probably pretty similar.

YES!! It's so interesting that both of their mothers played such a crucial role in defeating Voldemort—and even better is that both did it not for some grand cause, but purely out of love for their sons.

and yeah I definitely think that James and Lucius are also similar but i just haven’t talked about it yet (it’s still in my draft).

Omg. Now I get why I sometimes had difficulty imagining what Harry's stance would be when there’s a problem that needs discussing. I just realize that Harry is surprisingly passive when it comes to decision making in emotional or interpersonal situations, and he often just goes along with what Hermione or Ron says. He’s decisive in action, especially in danger, but when it comes to everyday conflicts or complex social stuff, he tends to withdraw or simply follow the people he trusts.

It’s like, he’s very reactive not proactive, unless it’s life or death. He has strong morals and instincts but he's not always confident in voicing or analyzing them, especially if it might upset someone he cares about.

I think people really downplay Draco's ability to survive in harsh environments. He went from being a pampered rich kid with all the protection in the world to being thrown into a warzone with no safety net. The fact that he didn't completely break under the pressure says a lot about his resilience.

Yes, his plan in HBP wasn’t foolproof, and Dumbledore mostly gave him a pass, but he still managed to get the job done without anyone’s help. Even after that sectusempra accident, instead of stopping out of fear, he kept going.

It truly annoys me when people act like he’s weak just because he’s not as bold as Harry. But in reality, his ability to adapt to changing environments and survive in a completely hostile situation is really impressive.

The only time Draco ended up in a harsh environment was the grand finale, and on that day he needed the heroes to bail him out twice. Draco isn't weak because he lacks Harry's bravery. Draco is weak because he keeps doing the stupid. In the second book Draco boasted about Lucius' secret stash to his pals at school and that could go sideways in a hurry in so many ways, none of them pleasant for Draco. But Draco got lucky. In the third book Draco aggravated the creature the size of a horse with half-foot long talons. Again, that could go very badly for Draco since the nearest nurse was in the castle and apparation wasn't available, but Draco got lucky. In the fourth book Draco went full Voldenjugend mode in a public place, got his ass kicked, but that could have gone so much worse, so that was pure luck. In the fifth book Draco assaulted newly re-minted national celebrity in a public place to avenge his terrorist father. That was monumentally stupid idea, but luckily for Draco nobody called the cops. In the sixth book he volunteered to become a Death Eater. Draco doesn't adapt to changing environments. He just keeps doing the most stupid, the most dangerous shit for the sake of his ego. And that's not a mark of a survivor.

We're not talking about book 1-5 Draco here. And yes he volunteered to be a death eater, but it wasn’t only for his ego, he did it for his family as well. And on that grand finale day, what do you expect from him when he was wandless.

If your definition of weak means stupid, then I don’t think we have much to discuss because we clearly see things differently. I could list many reasons why weakness and stupidity are not the same, but I don’t want to argue with someone who already has their mind set in stone.

You’re entitled to your opinion, but don’t forget that different people have different perspectives.

rereading the hp books and i forgot how CUTE they are

this is them in first year but the others are coming soon! (hopefully)

It's kinda funny every time I see the double standard in the drarry fandom. When Draco stans talk about drarry shippers undermining Draco, it's usually about something serious like them not acknowledging his character growth or failing to understand his nuance. But of course if it's Harry stans their main concern is mostly just a fandom joke about Harry being in love with Draco because of how much he notices him.

Like, if the fandom jokes about Draco being down bad for Harry no one bats an eye but the second someone flips it and jokes about Harry being the one obsessed, suddenly it's seen as disrespecting his character and dumbing him down. Make it make sense lol.

Fresh from the oven. I had already blocked the person who started this discourse long ago, but somehow it was a drarry fan who made me see this anti drarry shitpost.

I’m so annoyed by the way they call themselves drarry fans but only bring up Draco to make it seem like his only purpose in the books was being obsessed with Harry while acting like Harry didn’t care about Draco at all.

Like, girl, if you think Draco doesn’t deserve Harry, why go out of your way to ship them? Why not just pick someone from Harry’s friend circle instead? It really shows that they don’t care about Draco as a character and are only using him to make Harry seem like this ultimate catch that even his supposed archnemesis would be obsessed with him.

And yeah, they once came into my post too because I said that Draco and Harry fixate on each other, and of course, they disagreed and insisted it was only Draco who was obsessed while using the same old argument that Harry was abused so he was just hyperaware of him blah blah blah.

Like, if he was so hyperaware, why didn’t he give the same energy to any other character who gave him a hard time? In canon, he usually just ignored it so why couldn't he just ignore Draco. But sure, let’s pretend Harry didn’t care about Draco at all.

speaking of cho it's a bit disheartening that the overall interpretation of her and harry's date is that she just wanted to talk about cedric and had a crazy outburst about it

I Loathe A Traitor (aka: Marietta's Meta)

So, I’ve mentioned before that Marietta Edgecombe’s treatment in HP bothers me, and gotten several inbox messages basically asking “Why does it bug you so much?” This answer is probably long-overdue, and like everything I write, will likely be just plain long.

What happened to Marietta again?

Marietta Edgecombe was Cho Chang’s best friend, who Cho cajoled into joining the DA. Marietta’s mother, Madam Edgecombe, worked for the Fudge Ministry, and the knowledge that they were disobeying the Ministry to follow Harry (who Marietta distrusted) eventually got to Marietta, who informed Umbridge about the DA. That allowed the Inquisitorial Squad to break up a DA meeting, capture Harry, and almost force Harry’s expulsion - and it did lead to Dumbledore’s departure from the school.

However, Hermione had jinxed the parchment that DA members had signed when they joined up, and when Marietta broke their code of silence, a jinx came into effect: large purple pustules spelling out “SNEAK” covered Marietta’s face. Those pustules faded a little with time, but permanently disfigured her face: after getting out of the hospital wing, she wears a balaclava for the rest of OotP, and the marks are still vislble even under a thick layer of makeup in HBP. 

Marietta is not seen in DH, but in 2007 when JKR was asked about what happened to Marietta and if the scars ever went away, she answered that it faded a little eventually, but still left scars, and punctuated that with “I loathe a traitor!” That implies that Marietta was left permanently scarred by the experience - and not only that, but demonstrates JKR’s explicit approval of the scarring: the perma-scarring is an authorial decision that reflects JKR’s dislike for Marietta and basically holds up the punishment as right and just, something that the author applauds - and that, by extension, we should applaud as well.

JKR and Traitors

I do think that betrayal - particularly betrayal of our heroes - is something that JKR loathes; this may be a part of why Gryffs often try to aggregate Hufflepuff loyalty onto their House traits, because JKR the consummate Gryff values it so highly and deals so harshly with the traitor characters. Characters who are traitors - specifically who betray the heroes of the series - aren’t afforded the sort of moral complexity given to other characters; they’re indelibly marked as bad, not afforded the sympathy given to other complex characters (including those who have betrayed evil characters: Snape is vastly better-developed than Pettigrew, and fandom at large far more sympathetic to the former than the latter.) Pettigrew betrays the Marauders, and is afforded little character development, less real role in the plot, and shunted aside quickly with an unsatisfactory death in DH; Marietta betrays the DA, is permanently scarred, and is generally never afford the sympathy or complexity that she deserves.

Keep reading

It's kinda funny every time I see the double standard in the drarry fandom. When Draco stans talk about drarry shippers undermining Draco, it's usually about something serious like them not acknowledging his character growth or failing to understand his nuance. But of course if it's Harry stans their main concern is mostly just a fandom joke about Harry being in love with Draco because of how much he notices him.

Like, if the fandom jokes about Draco being down bad for Harry no one bats an eye but the second someone flips it and jokes about Harry being the one obsessed, suddenly it's seen as disrespecting his character and dumbing him down. Make it make sense lol.

Fresh from the oven. I had already blocked the person who started this discourse long ago, but somehow it was a drarry fan who made me see this anti drarry shitpost.

I’m so annoyed by the way they call themselves drarry fans but only bring up Draco to make it seem like his only purpose in the books was being obsessed with Harry while acting like Harry didn’t care about Draco at all.

Like, girl, if you think Draco doesn’t deserve Harry, why go out of your way to ship them? Why not just pick someone from Harry’s friend circle instead? It really shows that they don’t care about Draco as a character and are only using him to make Harry seem like this ultimate catch that even his supposed archnemesis would be obsessed with him.

And yeah, they once came into my post too because I said that Draco and Harry fixate on each other, and of course, they disagreed and insisted it was only Draco who was obsessed while using the same old argument that Harry was abused so he was just hyperaware of him blah blah blah.

Like, if he was so hyperaware, why didn’t he give the same energy to any other character who gave him a hard time? In canon, he usually just ignored it so why couldn't he just ignore Draco. But sure, let’s pretend Harry didn’t care about Draco at all.

i can't take people who say draco bullied harry and co so bad seriously when 1. i'd wager dudley is far worse because he actually had some sort of power in school to make harry friendless for years 2. most of draco's bullying is verbal and honestly? that's just british talk megmfdmgd

I think people really downplay Draco's ability to survive in harsh environments. He went from being a pampered rich kid with all the protection in the world to being thrown into a warzone with no safety net. The fact that he didn't completely break under the pressure says a lot about his resilience.

Yes, his plan in HBP wasn’t foolproof, and Dumbledore mostly gave him a pass, but he still managed to get the job done without anyone’s help. Even after that sectusempra accident, instead of stopping out of fear, he kept going.

It truly annoys me when people act like he’s weak just because he’s not as bold as Harry. But in reality, his ability to adapt to changing environments and survive in a completely hostile situation is really impressive.

Not to mention, Draco still managed to surprise Dumbledore. Dumbledore literally groaned when he realized Draco had not only repaired the Vanishing Cabinet but realized it had a pair.

I have been saying!!!! When comparing Harry and Draco’s personalities, their resilience stands out as a key similarity. Despite their vastly different upbringings and moral compasses, both displayed remarkable perseverance in the face of immense pressure .While Harry’s boldness was more outward and confrontational, Draco’s was quieter—rooted in self-reliance rather than open defiance. He wasn’t lacking in courage; rather, his strength manifested in his ability to endure and navigate challenges on his own.

This is especially evident in HBP, where he is thrust into an impossible situation, tasked with a mission far beyond his capabilities. With no real guidance or support, he struggled but refused to give up, showcased his ability to survive even in the most isolating and dangerous circumstances.

🔺🔺🔺PSA 🔺🔺🔺

Nusrat Naomi / toorumlk / rnbseokjin / rnbafthours is a bully and a TERF

If you're going to be so blatantly nasty in public, then have a taste of that same energy.

I blocked this person on twitter previously because of an ao3 memo pad controversy where she made fun of another artist's merchandise and elicited a hate mob towards their small business. She only took the post down after pushback from her audience calling her out. She issued a long non-apology where she took no responsibility and doubled down that she had the right to make fun of and critique this artist.

I recently came across her on my tiktok FYP soliciting commissions and felt compelled to give unsuspecting folks the option to be well-informed before deciding to support this artist.

🔺Her TERF Friends

Nusrat proudly proclaims to be an LGBT ally since she was a literal child. She even had Transphobes DNI in her bio. So why is it that her best friends are self-proclaimed RadFem TERFS? Nusrat's best friends come up a lot in her online activity, they are: Ro and Isa.

Despite claiming to be liberals they use alt-right tactics to engage and make fun of LGBT users. Many of these attacks are unprompted and unsolicited, they spend their days looking for accounts to belittle. Nusrat never berates them and goes along with it. She likes their posts ridiculing people with pronouns in their bio, denying trans people are real on the basis of chromosomes, calling other women stupid for not thinking exactly as they do.

🔺Dramione Hate

Nusrat likes Romione and as a result uses most of her free time to make fun of Dramione shippers. She even goes as far as to wish them physical harm and death. Mind you, this is all over fictional characters!

Nusrat believes she's above it all when it comes to her rights to freedom of speech. Despite Nusrat hating when people repost her art, she feels entitled to make fun of Dramione fanart on her public account(art blurred for the artist's privacy).

Nusrat claims she gets a pass to say whatever she wants though. These fanworks and fanfic are popular, which means they don't have the same rights or feelings she has. When more Dramione fans pushed back against this she and her friends accuse them of being jealous, rape apologists, and nonces.

🔺16yo Drarry Fan Artist Incident

Nusrat doesn't hate just Dramione shippers, she hates Drarry shippers too! Imagine being a teenager drawing silly fanart of your favorite character but 3 RadFem adults roll up to belittle and call you r*tarded. Nusrat joins in on the fun with her best friends and entertains the idea of drawing pregnant Ron to get back at the Stupid Shippers.

Nusrat is a champion for women and hates people stereotyping them. That's why she likes Harry and Ginny. She admits herself they aren't a good fit, but Ginny can a provide a family for Harry. Reducing a female character down to a vehicle for a male character's happiness - because that's so much better.

🔺LGBT Allyship

She really dislikes it when you call her out on her hypocrisies. She can't be a TERF or a transphobe! She goes to ART SCHOOL and has TRANS FRIENDS! It's lichrally impossible you guys! She’s more upset about someone stating TERFs aren’t women than when her friends belittle and make fun of trans people.

Many people have pointed out to Nusrat that she can't claim to be an LGBT ally while befriending TERFS. She has since removed the "transphobes dni" from her bio and publiclly unfollowed those friends.

But that's all performative, she still interacts with them daily: publicly and in private accounts. They even swap their reading progress on goodreads!

It's one thing to have friends with different beliefs, it's an entirely different thing for you to laugh along with your friends when they're harassing people. By remaining silent and allowing her friends to continue as they are, she is complicit.

Am I calling for people to cancel her? Absolutely not.

TL;DR

Naomi Nusrat is a TERF. Nusrat exhibits a pattern of deceitful behavior that reveals she’s more willing to hide her TERF affiliations to the public in order to remain in LGBT spaces. She wants to have her cake and eat it too. She can continue having her beliefs, just as I believe people have the right to be informed before they decide to support her work.