Perspective In Fiction - Harry Potter

Part of what makes a compelling story is finding the right point of view to tell it from. It's always a balance between suspense and resolution, and very restrictive to stick to one character. Most stories jump between scenes and show the events in a story building from multiple viewpoints. In the Harry Potter books the story mostly follows Harry from day to day, both internal and external. Now imagine how different the Harry Potter series would be if told from the viewpoint of Draco Malfoy.

The Harry Potter books are close to first person perspective as the events are mostly what Harry experiences directly, or in tales told by others to him. Of course first person is inside the head of the character and is always "I" instead of "he", "she" or in the Harry Potter books case "Harry". It does shift away from that at some points when detailing past events, or recalling memories. Often events external to Harry are told in the form of second hand news like Hermione's subscription to the Daily Prophet. This means that there is no scenes with Draco and his Slytherin mates discussing stuff, or planning stuff. There is no scenes at the Daily Prophet offices being told to demonise Harry and Dumbledore. You see only the effects as they impact on Harry and his friends, and have to interpret the reasoning for yourself as the characters do.

So bring those same events over to focus on Draco instead of Harry. Harry is still the chosen one, he is still the key to several events. The difference is that now Draco only knows part of why some events have happened and has to guess at a lot of it. Many of the keys to understanding the events in the books is the fact that we see Harry's thought train, or actions that happen to him or around him.

Draco is raised in a very heavily Slytherin based household, with extended family and acquaintances all followers to some degree of the dark arts. They are all pure blood racists, who feel that half blood or muggle borns are beneath contempt. They are used to buying influence and having their names and blood status mean that people in the magical world will fawn over them. It's no surprise that Draco is who he is.

Next he arrives at Hogwarts for his magical education with a belief that his status and family name will make him breeze through while being the most popular kid in his year etc only to find the kid he fell out with right at the start was none other than Harry Potter, a name he'd been brought up to think as a curse word. Everyone in his life when he grew up was a follower to some degree of Voldomort, who Harry defeated. When he tried his natural mode of name dropping to impress Harry, Harry rebuffs him. Not only that, but he and Harry are sorted into two houses with a long and bitter rivalry which only adds to the separation.

As school continues, Draco's family name and pure blood status only gains him kudos in Professor Snape's eyes. The rest of the teachers, non-Slytherin students and the headmaster are all immune to it. He arrives expecting to special treatment and gets none. This is made worse by the fact that pranks backfire like something intended to get Harry expelled turns out to get him picked to be the Gryffindor seeker instead. Any spot on the Quidditch team is a valued prize for most students of all the houses.

Every time Voldomort makes an attempted comeback and Harry thwarts it, it must raise the temperature at home, as every announcement of a Deatheater captured etc is likely a friend of Draco's family. Likewise when someone disappears, there's every chance Draco knows a lot more than Harry will ever find out about it as Draco gets regular letters from his dad. That's not to say his dad would know everything, nor tell Draco if he did.

Most of his attempts to sabotage Harry fail in the long run, although he does get the occasional upper hand when in Professor Snape's presence, or when he was made part of the Inquisitorial Squad. At the end of most years he watches as Gryffindor get a last minute avalanche of house points, usually earned by Harry, Ron and Hermione for thwarting Voldomort somehow, which just rubs salt in the wounds in time for him to go home for the summer to a scheming household bitter at having being thwarted again. For most of this time they have to ensure a public mask of redemption from their evil past, while plotting in secret. All of this is amplified later on after Voldomort is actually back and the pressure to do his bidding is intense, it's literally do or die. By the end of book 6 and onto book 7 we get a glimpse of the pressure Draco is under, which adds a more sympathetic side to him.

Any story is about choosing which parts to tell and which parts to leave out. Focusing on Draco would mean the same story with a lot of changes in what you see. Would it work as a "what if" alternate history? Probably not. The novels focusing on Harry were needed to understand the stories. Kids stories are always about the lead characters being in an empowering position, saving the day where the adults can't or won't. Would it work as a counter series? Yes. I'd love to read a separate series of novels filling in those parts of the stories. It'd only add more depth to an already absorbing fictional world.