Why is Draco an only child?

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 127141


Another thought that just came to me on this subject  - a though that,
had I been quicker, I would've included in my previous post in the
subject (sorry for cluttering the board with unnecesary messages), I
have to point out that we seem to be giving up on Malfoy and Narcissa
a little too early in the game.

What I'm refering to, of course, is the fact that Wizards seem to be able
to live past their 150th birthday with ease. Not counting the freak case
of Flammel, Dumbledore is 150 and the person who took his OWL levels
is still around! No matter how you look at it, the fertile period of WW
must be quite a bit longer than that of us regular muggles, and given
that I'd say the Malfoy Sr. has, tops, 50 years (more likely in his 40s,
since he is still young enough to participate in the "drunken" games of
muggle baiting in the World Cup*), he has still got a long time to father
any other offspring, if Draco turns out to be a major dissapointment.

The way it might be happening, the pure blooded families might have
children quite spaced out, so they can bring up each in the complete
luxury they're due because of their high station. In fact, I just realised
that the Malfoy don't criticise the Weasleys so much for having too
many children, as for the fact that they have more than they can afford.

In a slight tangential, it is interesting that the extended lifetime doesn't
affect the WW more than it does - promotion congestion, extended
education, late childbirth, etc that we see going on in our world. Of
course, it might be happening and Harry just didn't notice (although I
rather hate that explanaition - which unfortunately does kind of fit
Harry, who seems to after 5 years still get surprised by the WW).

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf

*By this I don't mean that, at 50, he'd be physically incapable of
participating - after all, they do age slowly too. Just that I would
expect that at 50 he'd start thinking beneath him that kind of mob
torture, when the time would be much better used by torturing
muggles in his own mansion's torture chamber while savouring a
nice cognac.