I'm rereading now and I noticed that during Slughorn's Christmas party, this is a vampire and he is described as bring thin with dark circles under his eyes (and I noticed he could eat regular food too). Then Draco crashes the party and Harry notices that Draco is looking really haggard with dark circles under his eyes. Now...I don't think Draco is a vampire, but I am wondering if he isn't a werewolf now. His appearance is very similar to Lupins. It was just the vampire description that was so similar to Dracos that got me thinking. And there is that Greyback fellow out there who likes kids...and Draco is obviously afraid of him. What if whatever is on Draco's arm wasn't the dark mark, but a werewolf bite? That would account for some of Draco's disappearances and his appearance. Yeah, it could just be stress, but with so many people saying that there was no way Voldething would make a 16 year old a death eater, it really has me thinking about what was going on with Draco's arm. Well...I'm reading on. It sure would be a slap in Draco's face to suddenly become a "half-breed" like Hagrid and Lupin...

Wow, good point! You may be onto something there. Yes, there were a lot of throw-away details, like the vampire, Draco's illness, comments on Lila's potionmaking skills, the phoenix singing, that HOPEFULLY will be fleshed out as the story continues.

I think I saw somewhere that JKR has dubunked this theory - along with the one about Sanpe being a vampire that has floated around for the longest time. I believe that Draco just wasn't handling the stress very well.

Where is Draco now and why did it not occur to Harry to ask that question until he was at the funeral??? Harry was so determined to bring Draco down throughout the whole series, yet it does occur to him that Draco is missing!

Sue

I think that Draco is a rotten child but not that he's evil at heart. I think the stress of knowing that he's been selected to murder Dumbledore was too much for him. He seems to be falling apart under it and I think that's the reason for his pallor and ill look.

As for Draco not being at the funeral, neither was Snape and I think that Harry would accept that as normal since he now thinks both of them are Death Eaters.

I had been guessing all through this book that Draco was a werewolf, but by the end I figured I was wrong. :shrug: Now I don't know what to think about that!