Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard

by Tom Felton

Draco Malfoy was the boy who had no choice.

The reason, it seems to me, is that the boy who had no choice finally gets one. He can choose to identify Harry, or he can choose to do the right thing.

that it’s our choices, not our abilities, that show us what we truly are.

Harry is the product of a family who love him so much, they are prepared to die for him. Draco is the product of a family who bully and abuse him. But when they have the freedom to make their own choices, they reach a similar destination.

In the Voldemort-cuddle scene, when Draco is unsure whether to leave the Hogwarts students and join the Death Eaters, it’s the urgency of his father’s call that gets his attention. It’s the softness of his mother that makes his decision.

They are one of the few cultural landmarks that link thirteen-year-olds and thirty-year-olds.

“Are you a rich man?”

I’m not rich at all. Not like you.

Suddenly you are able to put clearly into perspective everything that was overwhelming you.

It’s easy to bask in the sun, not so easy to enjoy the rain. But one can’t exist without the other.

The only true currency we have in life is the effect we have on those around us.

A life where love, family and friendship are at the forefront. It’s not lost on me that the importance of these is one of the great lessons of the Harry Potter stories. The realisation of this is what makes me a very rich man indeed.

I was, and still am, the physical representation of a wonderful memory they have of reading or watching the Harry Potter stories.