Harry Potter: How Crabbe became too evil even for Draco Malfoy

By Joseph Hayes | Jul 17, 2018

Who knew that the once bumbling henchman of Draco Malfoy would become of the most evil characters within the Harry Potter series.

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle are famous in the Harry Potter series for their role as Draco Malfoy’s henchmen. However, although they seem identical, it is subtly highlighted that Crabbe is the henchman who is more intelligent. Going so far that in the Final Book he tries and usurps his leader.

The Malfoy’s, although snobs, were always cautious of being consumed by the madness that went along with completely pure blood families. While families such as the Gaunt’s may have interbred to keep their bloodline together, this was shunned by the Malfoy’s who as Pottermore notes were willing to marry some half-bloods to stave off this inbreeding.

More from Harry Potter

By contrast, Vincent Crabbe’s family were related to the pure blood supremacist Black lineage. This family was renowned for its unstable and cruel approach. With such predecessors it is not surprising that Crabbe enjoyed his role as school bully.

What differed Crabbe from Goyle is a slighter greater skill. As Harry Potter wiki notes, it is Crabbe that is the better duellist and Crabbe who acts as Draco Malfoy’s second during his duel with Harry Potter. Indeed, Crabbe is almost on a par with Malfoy. And unlike Malfoy who would eventually find redemption, Crabbe was a straightforward violent dark wizard who had no desire to change.

Image courtesy of Warner Brothers

Malfoy thus inadvertly allowed Crabbe to get powerful enough to challenge him. Whereas, Goyle might acquit to Malfoy’s demands, Crabbe had other desires. Crabbe’s desire for power bubbles away until its eruption in the Final Book.

This dramatic conclusion comes after a year of Snape controlling Hogwarts. A year that saw the sadistic Carrow twins as the Dark Arts and Muggle Studies professors respectively. It was further, under their tutelage, which Crabbe came into his own by inflicting pain on others in his classes and enjoying it.

By contrast, Draco Malfoy’s seventh year would see him and his family dealing with their fall from power as well as Malfoy seemingly regretting dark acts he had carried out and his role in the death of Albus Dumbledore, not knowing of course that he was helping to seal Voldemort’s fate.

During the Battle of Hogwarts, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle have the illustrious trio of Harry, Hermione and Ron cornered in the Room of Requirement. Malfoy knows that Voldemort wants Harry alive but Crabbe has other intentions and just wants to kill them, telling Malfoy that he no longer follows Draco’s orders and that “you and your Dad are finished”. Whereas Malfoy is slowly rejecting his inner darkness, Crabbe is full on embracing it.

Crabbe also tries to use Fiendfyre to kill Harry in the process, accidentally destroying one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes the Diadem. Both Crabbe and Goyle attack Harry, Ron and Hermione. However, while Goyle is quickly subdued, Crabbe starts using the killing curse Avada Kedavra, showing his complete lack of compunction and humanity by this time.

In the end, Crabbe is consumed by his own malice, being devoured by the Fiendfyre he has summoned. Whereas, Draco and Goyle are rescued before they befall the same fate. Although the whole interaction may only take a few pages, it reflects the dysfunctional relationship between Malfoy and his henchman, that just as Malfoy is moving towards becoming a better person he was almost overshadowed by the unreflexive evil of Crabbe.

Next: The one time Harry Potter admired Voldemort

When you read Harry Potter for the very first time, did you ever imagine Crabbe would turn out the way he did? Share your thoughts on the subject below.

Home/Harry Potter