"I may be a jerk, Potter... but I'm not a monster."
— Draco Malfoy
"All his life Draco has had his parents' voices in his head leading him down a path of pureblood ideals and traditions, but there is another voice, one that comes out of a radio, that urges him to question his family's ideals piece by piece until he can speak with his own words and stand on his own feet."
Radiowave
is a Harry Potter fanfic written by Lunar The Dragon, starring a Draco Malfoy who, thanks to a unique chance-encounter at the age of six, grows up more questioning of the pureblood ideals he's been raised into. And so the experience and its long-lasting effects end up dragging him kicking and screaming through Character Development in such a way that affects the whole Harry Potter series as we know it.
This series provides examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: Radiowave likes to show some wonderful dimensionality in the HP world with its worldbuilding, expanding on the inner workings of the magical world along with weaving popular culture of the era into the main characters' interests.
- Anachronic Order: Although there is a continuity for the main plot and in general Radiowave is easy to follow, many of the flashback scenes (particularly from Draco's childhood before Hogwarts) are presented out of order.
- Anger Born of Worry: Harry can get pretty frustrated whenever Draco runs off to break the law in the name of investigation, although a great part of it can be attributed to being left behind.
- Animal Motif: Certain personality traits and characteristics become more relevant when Draco turns into a snow leopard animagus.
- Arc Words: Certain phrases certainly stand out throughout the series, including that of what truly defines a monster, and change.
- Because I Said So: How Lucius and Narcissa often justify their bigoted views, although to a questioning little Draco Malfoy, it doesn't seem like enough.
- Birds of a Feather: Both Luna Lovegood and Tracy Davis have weird thought processes, so Draco decides to introduce the girls to each other. He regrets it a bit when he gets to see how quickly they become inseparable.
- Bookworm: Although not a Ravenclaw, one of Draco's many hobbies include sitting with his nose in a book, muggle books especially. He ends up forming a book club later on with Eve and Hermione, even.
- Break the Haughty: After all his conversations with Max and expanded point of view, Young Draco's slow realizations that his family and beliefs have hurt people certainly struck a chord with him several times over.
- Caught on Tape: Sirius' innocence is proved just in time to the Minister of Magic himself when Draco is called upon by a time-travelling Harry and Hermione to photograph evidence of Peter Pettigrew during the climax of the third year.
- Character Development: Not only Draco, but Harry and many other characters get this throughout the series as they grow and mature.
- Chekhov's Gun: Many objects, most notably the items Draco receives from his muggle penpals, tend to turn into this.
- Cool People Rebel Against Authority: Draco, Eve, Max and Eric Olsson certainly evoke this trope upon themselves, although in a story about fighting prejudice and tradition, many of the main characters apply.Eric eyes him before snorting. “You may have fooled my family, kid, but a punk will always recognize a punk.”“A punk…?” Draco repeats quietly, not sure if Eric is being serious or picking on him. Usually, when Draco heard someone was being a punk, it wasn’t considered a good thing.“Yeah, a punk. A group of like-minded youth who refuse to be made into mindless, consumer sheep by the desperate bourgeoisie who struggle to remain relevant by belittling those who cannot fight for themselves. We are aware of the hypocrisy within our society that sustains the upper class on a foundation of colonialism and death. We, then, strive to tear it down.”Draco stares at Eric. Eric stares back.“What?”Eric sighs dramatically. “We’re rebels, but cool.”“Oh…”
- Deadpan Snarker: Everyone is this trope to some degree, but special mention goes to Eve Hushborn, local Slytherin snarker extraordinaire.
- Delinquent Hair: In the middle of fourth year, Eve gifts Draco with one of these before the Yule Ball.
- Dismissing a Compliment: Draco's issues with all the bigotry and prejudice that he had to unlearn from his upbringing makes it so that he can't comfortably accept any compliments or thanks for his actions.
- Establishing Series Moment: Draco Malfoy meeting his American muggle soon-to-be best friend at a WW2 museum sets the tones of the themes explored throughout the rest of the series.
- Fake Defector: Draco turns to this after the aftermath of the Triwizard Tournament, in order to gain the trust of Harry's enemies and manipulate them to their advantage.
- Follow in My Footsteps: Lucius Malfoy is especially pleased when Draco decides to work a summer job at the Ministry of Magic before fifth year, assuming it to be this trope. It's actually a ploy to keep an eye on the Ministry after the revival of Voldemort, and spy on their moves from the inside.
- Fuzz Therapy: After Draco's successful transformation into an animagus, Harry often takes advantage of hugging his furry form in moments of high stress.
- Heel–Face Turn: American Muggle best friend Max and their big brother Eric set Draco on this path over the years.
- I Am Not My Father: After realizing the erroneous ways of blood purity, Draco grows to resent being compared to his Death Eater father.
- I Hate Past Me: Draco's own personal boggart turns out to be himself, and with good reason, when what he fears the most is reverting to his old, ignorant ways.
- Innocence Lost: It's not easy being a kid who's realized that his family's legacy is one of prejudice and pain. Draco would not trade his expanded worldview for anything, but often feels overwhelmed when faced with the poignant confrontations of what his family is really like. See also, Break The Haughty.
- Jerkass Realization: Max delivers these to Draco pretty often when they sense, despite the lack of context due to their Muggle background, that Draco's spouting narrow-minded nonsense.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Snarky goth Eve and sweet, angelic Leandra are very much a study in contrasts and yet very much into each other as well. Luna Lovegood and Tracey Davis also apply as a more platonic version of the trope.
- Momma's Boy: Draco feels closer from Narcissa, mainly because she's trying to accept his interest for Muggle culture in spite of her ingrained prejudices. He's rather proud when Sirius tells him he inherited her smile.
- Oblivious to Love: Draco and Harry are both utterly oblivious to their mutual attraction, much to everyone's frustration.
- Original Character: Lunar employs the use of original characters to expand on the Radiowave universe, and their charming and well-written personalities make them as appealing as the canon characters themselves. We have, to name a few:
- Cheerful, hyperactive Cloudcuckoolander Max Olsson, a nonbinarynote American Muggle whom has remained Draco's best friend since the age of six and kept in contact with him over the years via radio, helping Draco recognize and come to terms with the privilege he has grown up with while also exposing him to a different line of thinking than his family's.
- Sullen yet overly-caring older brother Eric Olsson, who sees a kindred spirit in Draco and is more than happy to introduce him to the world of Punk.
- The Olsson siblings' parents: their bumbling tech-wiz father, and lovely and understanding neuroscientist mother.
- Evangeline 'Eve' Hushborn, a quiet yet sharp-tongued older-year Slytherin who takes no shit from anyone and also happens to be muggleborn.
- Tracey Davis, a creepy, often morbid younger-year Slytherin who is as bizarre as Luna Lovegood, and often tends to freak her housemates out a lot with her random commentary.
- Leandra Cass, a soft and cherubic Hufflepuff who's as sweet as her house's reputation implies.
- Post-Historical Trauma: The major point of divergence came from a six-year-old Draco getting lost in a WW2 museum and learning that no, this isn't an awful joke but something that actually happened.
