Introduction
Like many Slytherins, Draco had some trauma. He had some scars. Not physical scars, but mental ones. There was no one big traumatizing event per se. (well actually getting the dark mark, nearly going to Azkaban etc. etc. was pretty traumatizing, but that's not the point.) The point is there was not a huge event that caused all the damage, but rather years and years of not being given some of the basic necessities growing up, love, affection, warmth. While a very spoiled boy, who was showered with all the toys and luxuries a kid could want, Draco never got the one thing he truly wanted, his parent’s love ( yep our boy got some daddy issues) As a young boy he tried to make his father proud. He was sorted into Slytherin, he got decent grades, he parroted his father’s beliefs, but it wasn't enough. Anything he did good in his father’s eyes was shadowed by his failures, getting worse grades than the mudblood, failing to make friends with Harry Potter, you name it. He tried so hard to win his father’s approval even getting the dark mark, his biggest regret. Still to this day, everyone thinks Draco is a carbon copy of his father, a loyal follower of the now-dead dark lord, but no one truly knows how joyful he was when the war was over and he was FREE. Free from his father and the constant disappointment, free to have his own beliefs, free to be his own person, but most importantly free to heal. And as an eight-year at Hogwarts, that's exactly what he did.