Summary

• A deleted scene from Deathly Hallows Part 2 would have given Draco Malfoy a redemption arc and showcased his potential to be a hero.
• Including the scene would have presented a problem regarding the ownership of the Elder Wand and could have affected the outcome of Harry's battle against Voldemort.
• Although the deleted scene could have been explained, it was ultimately better to leave it out to avoid complicating the already complex concept of wand loyalty.

A deleted scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 would have redeemed Draco Malfoy, but it might have ruined Harry's twist ending in the process. The Slytherin student was Harry's Hogwarts rival for most of the Harry Potter series, but after ing Lord Voldemort, Draco discovered that he didn't enjoy Darkness as much as he had thought. Still, the character never truly got a redemption, instead choosing to be ive in the Second Wizarding War. The Harry Potter movies attempted to remedy this by adding a heroic scene for Draco Malfoy, but it was ultimately removed from Deathly Hallows Part 2's final cut.

At the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, what everyone presumed was Harry Potter's body was carried by Hagrid to the Hogwarts courtyard. Voldemort hoped that the Boy Who Lived's death would squash the resistance at the Castle, but he was wrong. Of course, Harry was actually still alive. In a deleted scene from this sequence, Draco Malfoy sees Harry get to his feet and rushes across the courtyard to toss him his wand. This scene never made it into the film, a fact that Draco fans have lamented for years.

Draco Malfoy's Deleted Deathly Hallows Part 2 Scene Could Have Fixed His Redemption Arc

Draco Malfoy was far from a true villain in Harry Potter, but he certainly had some rough moments. Deeply prejudiced against Muggle-borns, he established himself as a not-so-pleasant person the moment that Harry Potter met him. However, things changed for the character in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Voldemort had made him a Death Eater to punish his father, Lucius Malfoy, and gave him the seemingly impossible task of murdering Albus Dumbledore. The pressure of this began to tear Draco apart.

Though he wasn't nearly as nasty after this in Harry Potter, and Harry even mentioned in the books that he felt a good deal of pity for his old rival, Draco never had a moment in which he took any sort of stand against Voldemort. Instead, he ively shrunk into the corner and waited for the horror to end. The deleted scene in Deathly Hallows Part 2 would have definitively answered whose side Draco was on and would have proven that he had it in him to be a hero. Of course, such a thing never happened in the books either, and it was for an excellent reason.

Draco Giving Harry Potter His Wand Would Have Ruined The Elder Wand Plot

When he entered the Forbidden Forest in Deathly Hallows, Harry already had Draco's wand. In fact, this was a key detail of this impactful moment. Though Draco hadn't known it, he had been the master of the Elder Wand since the Battle of the Astronomy Tower, when he disarmed Albus Dumbledore before Snape killed him. Though it wasn't the Elder Wand itself, Draco's wand became a sort of symbol of the wand's ownership. Therefore, when Harry wrenched it from Draco's hand at Malfoy Manor, the Elder Wand shifted its loyalty to Harry.

This moment at Malfoy Manor was included in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, so it's unclear how the deleted scene in Deathly Hallows Part 2 would have explained why Draco suddenly had the wand again at the Battle of Hogwarts. Even with some justification, though, this would have presented a significant problem. Wand loyalty doesn't transfer when a witch or wizard willingly gives their wand to another individual—there are countless times in Harry Potter that a borrowed wand was noted to not work properly for the borrower. Therefore, if Draco had given Harry his wand, Harry wouldn't have become master of the Elder Wand and would have lost his battle against Voldemort.

Draco's Wand Scene Could Have Been Explained (But It's Still Better Off Left Out)

As previously mentioned, the deleted scene in Deathly Hallows may have come with some justification for how Draco got his wand back. Of course, he couldn't have forcefully acquired it from Harry because then the Elder Wand's loyalty would have shifted back to Draco. However, if Harry had somehow dropped the wand at the Battle of Hogwarts, and Draco picked it up, returning it to Harry in a big moment of bravery and redemption might not have messed with the Elder Wand's loyalty. Still, this would have been pretty muddy ground for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 to wade through.

Wand loyalty may have been the key to Harry Potter's ending, but many questions remain unanswered about how it works. For example, even dropping a wand could be grounds for lost loyalty. Still, if Harry had dropped Draco's wand, would that have affected the Elder Wand - or would he have had to drop the Death Stick itself? It's all a little too complicated, which is likely why Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 deleted this scene to begin with. Ultimately, Draco was better off with an ambiguous redemption, no matter how great it would have been to see him Harry's side.