Deathly Hallows Biggest Missed Opportunity? Not Having Malfoy as Master of Death

Neither us (Muggles) nor Harry and Hermione (raised by Muggles) even knew about the Hallows until then; however, The Tale of the Three Brothers was widely known by wizards since it was one of Beedle the Bard's most famous stories.

Most wizards knew about the Deathly Hallows since their childhood.

However, even by the wizarding community 's standards, everyone who believed that the Hallows were real was considered weird and out-of-this-world, with Mr. Lovegood being the best example.

For the vast majority, the Deathly Hallows forever remained nothing but a part of an old fairy tale.

But as Harry and his friends learned about these artifacts, not only did they discover that they were real but they also learned a person who'd manage to collect and wield all three Hallows — the Invisibility Cloak, the Resurrection Stone, and the Elder Wand — would become the Master of Death.

Admittedly, there were only two people who were close to collecting the entire set: Albus Dumbledore who already gave away the Cloak when he found the Stone, and Harry Potter who already had the Cloak and the Stone but decided against pursuing the Wand even after learning his location.

However, there was one more character who could've become the Master of Death: of all people, it was Draco Malfoy.

At different points in time, he briefly had each of the artifacts in his possession but missed every opportunity to collect them. Let's see.

At the beginning of The Half-Blood Prince, Draco stuns Harry and reveals him under the Invisibility Cloak.

Instead of keeping it, he uses the Cloak to cover his peer to ensure Harry isn't found until back in London as he probably assumes that it's one of the usual enchanted cloaks that can be bought.

At the end of The Half-Blood Prince, Draco disarms Dumbledore, the master of the Elder Wand, thus becoming its new master.

But Draco never picks it up for himself since he's already through a lot of stress with all the schemes and he thinks of it as just an old wand from the Ollivander's.

In The Deathly Hallows, when Harry and his friends are caught and detained in Malfoy Manor, Draco has Harry's moleskine pouch that held the Resurrection Stone.

However, he's not aware of it containing an artifact, and even then, only Harry could've opened both the pouch and the dead snitch.

As you can see, Draco had a chance to collect all of the Deathly Hallows and even possessed each one for a short period of time.

But in every case, he didn't realize what it was (and considered the Deathly Hallows a fairy tale, too), so he gave up the Cloak, the Wand, and the Stone without giving it a second thought.

Draco's ignorance worked out in his favor in the end, to be honest — at the very least, if he tried to leave the Elder Wand for himself, Voldemort would've killed him without remorse to get it.

But let's be real: if only Draco knew what he had in his hands, he would've likely tried to claim the title of the Master of Death for himself.