Day 10 of Pottermore’s slew of Christmas treats offers some entertaining thoughts from the Harry Potter author on Draco Malfoy.

Pottermore is using the Christmas holiday to unveil new sections of their Half-Blood Prince area, and today’s treat is a good amount of new writing on Harry’s Hogwarts rival.

The most interesting part of her remarks come when she says she feels bad for Draco because of his upbringing. His parents, Lucius and Narcissa, are the reason for his no-good nature, Rowling says.

“I pity Draco, just as I feel sorry for Dudley,” the author says. “Being raised by either the Malfoys or the Dursleys would be a very damaging experience, and Draco undergoes dreadful trials as a direct result of his family’s misguided principles.”

The one good part of the Malfoy family? “They love each other. Draco is motivated quite as much by fear of something happening to his parents as to himself, while Narcissa risks everything when she lies to Voldemort at the end of Deathly Hallows and tells him that Harry is dead, merely so that she can get to her son.”

Rowling humorously adds that she was shocked by the number of readers who developed a crush on a baddie like Draco. “I have often had cause to remark on how unnerved I have been by the number of girls who fell for this particular fictional character (although I do not discount the appeal of Tom Felton, who plays Draco brilliantly in the films and, ironically, is about the nicest person you could meet). Draco has all the dark glamour of the anti-hero; girls are very apt to romanticise such people. All of this left me in the unenviable position of pouring cold common sense on ardent readers’ daydreams as I told them, rather severely, that Draco was not concealing a heart of gold under all that sneering and prejudice and that no, he and Harry were not destined to end up best friends.”

As for what Draco was up to after Deathly Hallows, Rowling says that he probably followed in the footsteps of his father. Like Lucius, she thinks Draco was “independently wealthy, without any need to work.” He’s also living at Malfoy Manor with his wife and child.

Related: J.K. Rowling reveals her favorite Harry Potter quote