Is Draco's Character Arc complete?

[Hannah]

No: HPFGUIDX 114683


Dzeytoun:> I was thinking this morning about Draco.  Lot's of people 
have expressed dismay a the lack of development of his character.  
JKR has expressed dismay at his popularity among fans.  Some have 
even speculated that JKR will kill him off in the next book just to 
squash what she sees as a perverse and unhealthy movement.
> 
> I don't think she would kill him off just for that reason, but I 
do wonder if Draco's usefulness to the story has rather run its 
course.  
> He was, well, pathetic in OOTP.  After setting him up as a great 
> rival with the prefect thing, he essentially disappears through 
most of the book and when he does appear again it's not easy to take 
him very seriously.  He still remains the same vicious child he was 
in Book I.  Although that served well for a villain in the first 
couple or three books, it's hard to see how he can figure large in a 
world of war and death and prophecies.
> 
> Simply put, it seems that either his character needs to develop, 
and fast, or he will lose what little relevance he has left to the 
story.

Hannah: I did have a thought as to a function for Draco in book 6 or 
7.  We know he's pretty bad at keeping his mouth shut about things.  
I wonder if Snape could exploit this?  I suspect that Snape isn't as 
close the 'inner circle' of LV as he once was; for instance he 
didn't know about the DoM plan (we have to assume he didn't, I'm not 
getting into that now...)

I can just see Draco letting things slip to Snape that maybe the 
other DE's weren't intending on sharing with him.  Draco would 
think 'I know full well Professor Snape is my Dad's old mate and is 
a DE...' and be keen to show off that he knew things about LV's 
plans.  

Just a thought.  I agree he doesn't really appear to be much of a 
match for Harry.  Maybe for Ron, but I don't know how much we'd see 
of any battle between them, since we usually follow Harry.

On a side note, while Draco isn't particularly scary in the canon so 
far, I have to say that for me, LV hasn't matched up to the figure 
of awe and dread he's supposed to be either.  We know he's more evil 
than we've seen so far.  The most chilling character IMO is diary!
Tom (technically LV, I know).  I find him far more frightening than 
monster-snake-man!Voldemort.  Maybe there's hope for Draco's evil 
nature yet.

Hannah