This week, the Harry Potter memes are all about everyone's favorite (or least favorite, depending on who you ask) blonde, nefarious Slytherin who has always been shipped one way or another.
Ever since I've been aware of the Harry Potter fandom, there have been teenage girls who have wanted to date Draco. Growing up, I never understood this phenomenon, but it's clear now it isn't just a fluke. It's not like The Onceler fandom, where one generation of teenage girls has an odd affinity for a villainous character because he's cute. There have been 3 generations of Draco fangirls, and it doesn't look like it's slowing down anytime soon.
When I was a teenager, Drarry was by far the most popular Harry Potter ship. While that might be because of the popularity of slash fiction at the time, it also makes sense to ship a hero and their villain, especially when the villain is the same age as them and goes to the same school. Who doesn't want to see a villain be redeemed by love just a little bit? When I was in my early twenties, I watched Harry Potter fangirls from afar on TikTok shipping Draco and Hermione, which made some sense to me. A lot of teen girls who read Harry Potter identify with Hermione and want to date a bad boy, and Draco is by far the baddest boy in the Harry Potter universe. Recently, there has been a meme of Malfoy as a girl, deemed "Malfoid," that male Harry Potter fans are shipping with Harry. They've brought back Drarry, but for straight teenage boys who want to date a mean blonde girl. There are truly so many ways to ship characters, and I'm glad that I don't feel any need to do any of it.
I think a big part of the reason for the persistence of Draco as a beloved character is because a lot of teenagers think that young Tom Felton is cute in the movies, and they want to date him. I think that reasoning is innocent enough, and who am I to criticize the tastes of teenage girls who are figuring out their feelings? I know that JK Rowling really doesn't like it when fans find Draco attractive or want to read into his character arc in a sympathetic way. She sees him as a schoolyard villain with no redeeming qualities, whereas a lot of Draco fans think of him as someone who was manipulated and pressured by his family into supporting a cause he wouldn't otherwise support. I think of him more as a coward who wasn't so corrupted by Voldemort's influence as to prevent him from ever changing. I wish I felt strongly about Draco as a character, but as far as Wizarding World characters go, he doesn't even crack my top 10 of most interesting characters. If you disagree and you're a Draco stan for life, these Harry Potter memes are not Harry Potter memes, but rather Draco Malfoy memes!