Malfoy family

"There are some wizards – like Malfoy’s family – who think they’re better than everyone else because they’re what people call pure-blood…"

- Ron Weasley explaining blood purity to Harry Potter and Hermione Granger

Malfoy is the surname of a wealthy pure-blood wizarding family. They live in Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire, England, and are related to many other pure-blood families, including the Blacks, Lestranges, Greengrasses, and Rosiers as well as the Tonks and Lupin families, of mixed wizarding and Muggle heritage, much to the Malfoys' disdain.

Recent History
The Malfoy family was one of the first wizarding families to come back to the side of good after Lord Voldemort's first defeat, claiming they had been bewitched, in 1981. They allied themselves with him again during the Second Wizarding War, believing strongly in the notion of blood purity. However, Voldemort became displeased with Death Eater Lucius Malfoy for his failure to obtain the prophecy involving him and Harry Potter in 1996. While Lucius was in Azkaban, Voldemort ordered his son Draco to kill Albus Dumbledore, a seemingly impossible task, as a way to punish Lucius. After Dumbledore's death at the hands of Severus Snape and the Death Eaters' escape from Azkaban in 1997, the Malfoys had fallen out of favour with the Dark Lord, and were extremely uncomfortable with having their home used as his base of operations.

Before Voldemort's ultimate defeat, the Malfoys switched sides; Narcissa Malfoy lied to the Dark Lord in assistance of Harry Potter, and neither she nor Lucius participated in any of the fighting during the Battle of Hogwarts. None of the Malfoys were subsequently imprisoned in Azkaban because of this defection.

Etymology
Malfoy is derived from the French "mal foi," meaning "bad faith" or "unfaithful". In law, "bad faith" refers to a case in which a malicious motive on the part of a party in a lawsuit undermines their case. In existentialism, "bad faith" is a philosophical concept in which people blame their own failures on external factors, thus denying responsibility for themselves.