draco & myrtle and the implications for canon
so first and foremost, we know that myrtle is a muggle born witch that died at the age of 14, making her forever stuck as an angsty fourteen year old girl.
draco & myrtle spend time together/he confides in her when draco is 15 (he’s a 1980 june baby making him 15 throughout HBP).
since myrtle is forever stuck as a 14 year old, the mental age gap between them is minimal. only being separated by a 1-year difference.
what I think about is, that myrtle being a muggle born and a person draco confides in means that she can be seen as the first indication of draco’s changing heart and more concealed nature.
since we only hear/see about draco & myrtle’s unlikely friendship from harry’s POV it’s safe to assume that we don’t have all the information regarding the true nature of their relationship.
meaning, we don’t know if draco hears of her blood status. but, we can infer that draco does not have the stomach for violence or murder (although he is technically capable of the former).
I think that since draco is the one who knows that there was a murder of a muggle born that occurred at Hogwarts during CoS, he has the possibility of being aware that it was myrtle that was murdered. or, he has the opportunity to learn about this when speaking to her.
either way, it’s his ability to grow close to someone regardless of blood status in his time of desperation and crushing fears of failure that probably begins to disprove his own internalized prejudices.
during his time at hogwarts, he says a slur with no repercussions (from adults in charge), which further enables him to continue to parrot beliefs taught to him by his parents.
so, draco growing close to someone and realizing how this muggle born student killed for their blood status is a reflection of a larger shift. we know he doesn’t want to kill his headmaster and we know he’s cracking under the pressure as he’s finally forced to confront what blood purity truly means and if it’s a cause he’s willing to give his life for.
and it isn’t something he is willing to put his life on the line for. he’s motivated by a desire to protect his family and is under direct threat from voldemort. and his friendship with myrtle represents that, because it’s a muggle born student who gives him empathy even if myrtle can’t fully grasp the gravity of the situation draco has found himself in.
correct me if I’m wrong but i’m not totally sure if harry ever tells myrtle who her murderer was? I like to think he did and I have a few headcanons about draco and myrtle’s friendship with this fact being known to her including:
- myrtle telling draco about her death, telling him that it was voldemort and that she found this out 50 years after he death thanks to harry letting her know.
- draco being wrecked and saying that voldemort is threatening him, and finally confessing to someone that he’s been given an impossible task (not giving complete details but enough that myrtle can infer that whatever it is it’s bad and he does not want to have to do it).
- them bonding over trauma and her explaining why she’s a ghost, that since her life as cut short she was never able to move on into the afterlife and that she’s resentful of the life she never got to live
- draco reckoning with this and then going on to explain his fear of dying and how that is a motivation for his willingness to commit the crime he is expected to commit.
- her saying death is painless but that she would give anything to live again, so she understands that he’s doing something bad but that his motivation isn’t to be evil but to live
- myrtle missing muggle music from her era and confessing this to draco who one day comes after another failed attempt to fix the vanishing cabinet from the room of hidden things with a few records and a muggle record player in hand that he found in there.
- myrtle being suuuper excited about it, him playing muggle music from the 40s and her singing along still remembering every word
- him starting to realize how muggles have their own culture and identities while enjoying genres like jazz & blues, and then realizing for the first time how little he truly knows about muggle culture. and while unsure of what to do about that tidbit of truth at the time, he later will recall that moment being the beginning of him coming to terms with his blind hatred of a group of people he truly has no idea about. and how can he hate something or someone when he doesn’t know them? and how can he hate myrtle for her blood status when she’s just a (dead) person with her own worries and anxieties? with an entire future that was unable to be realized all because of the man he’s know a subordinate to.
all harry sees is myrtle comforting a crying draco. all myrtle sees is harry attacking her friend, a friend who listened to her, shared his own worries with her, brought her muggle music she missed. and that’s why she screams at harry and call him a murderer. she knows draco fears death, and she wouldn’t wish someone’s life being cut short on anyone. and harry has just don’t something unthinkable but all she can think about when she’s screaming “Murder in the bathroom!” is that she doesn’t want him to end up like her (forever stuck at the age of fourteen with no hope of moving on).