Educating You on Behalf of Your Ancestors

"Nicely done, Harry."

Ron praised loudly.

Startled back to his senses by Ron's shout, Draco angrily yelled, "Put me down, Potter!"

Seeing that Harry did not react, Draco turned to his two lackeys behind him. "Crabbe! Goyle! What are you waiting for? Are you just going to stand there and watch?"

The two lackeys recovered as well and immediately cracked their knuckles, preparing to come up and rescue their boss.

Without a word, Ron lunged forward in a flying leap, trying to stop the two boys advancing on Harry, without the slightest consideration for the difference in size between himself and them.

Goyle gave him a shove, and he staggered back onto his chair, landing on it with a thud.

"What an idiot." Hermione helplessly glanced at Ron, who had hunched himself up and was about to pounce again. She drew her wand and pointed it at Crabbe and Goyle. "Petrificus Totalus! (Full Body-Bind)"

Caught completely off guard, the two were struck by Hermione's spell. Their bodies jerked straight, and they crashed to the floor with two thumps.

"Brilliant!" Ron exclaimed from the bottom of his heart. He had not expected this young witch from a Muggle Family to cast a spell that saved his life.

"What spell was that?" he asked.

"The Petrifying Spell. Standard Spells, Chapter Six."

Hermione's voice was mechanical, and she remained in her casting stance. She knew she had offended a school board member's son before even starting school, and had cast a nasty spell on classmates on the train...

She had read the entire Hogwarts rulebook. She knew what the consequences were.

Perhaps she would be expelled as soon as she arrived at school, she thought sadly.

But Hermione did not regret it. She did not know what Mudblood meant, but she had heard the words "stinking" loud and clear.

Ron had stood up for her, so she ought to lend him a hand as well.

"You stinking little Mudblood, how dare you!" Draco floated in the air, his face filled with terror. "I'll tell my Father! I'll get all three of you expelled!"

"So other than your Father, what else do you have to rely on?" Harry shrugged. "As a wizard—especially one from a pure-blood family—you were defeated by magic from Hermione and me, two people from Muggle Families..."

He waved his wand and lowered Draco to the ground, then stepped forward and looked down into those frightened gray eyes.

Through those identical gray eyes, Harry was inexplicably reminded of the proud, haughty gray eyes of Cassandra, when she had defeated him in a single round during his first visit to the Dueling Club.

"Is this what you call effort?" The maiden's lips curved downward, and a trace of mockery flashed through her gray eyes. "I feel like throwing up..."

For some reason, Harry instinctively mocked him in a soft voice.

"Is this what you meant by 'some families are much better than others'? I feel like throwing up..."

He had to admit, saying it made Harry suddenly feel refreshed.

He could not bring himself to hold a grudge against a girl, but returning that old mockery word for word to another Malfoy really was a wonderful thing.

Hearing Harry's taunt, Draco's anger surged. He pulled his wand from inside his robes.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry fired off a spell.

Draco's wand was blasted away, drawing a graceful arc through the air before landing in Harry's hand.

"Relax, Malfoy. I'm only giving you a proper lesson on someone else's behalf."

"On whose behalf?" Ron asked, scratching his head.

"His ancestors." Harry spread his hands.

"Cool." Ron grinned, amused by his good friend's joke.

Ron was grinning, but Draco definitely was not.

He felt angry, terrified, and then wronged.

He had only wanted to come make friends with the legendary Savior. How had things ended up like this?

The more he thought about it, the more his nose stung, until he began to sniffle uncontrollably.

"I... I'll tell my Father!" he said through sobs.

Harry suddenly found it all rather boring. Looking into Draco's tear-filled eyes, he stepped forward and stuffed Draco's wand back into his arms, then lifted the Petrifying Spells on Crabbe and Goyle.

"All right, Drama-K, stop your one-man show." Harry sneered. "Your Father isn't on this train. Take your lackeys and get out of my compartment."

Draco hiccuped through his tears, then ran out of the compartment with his two lackeys without looking back.

Only after he had run out the door did he turn back to threaten them. "Just wait! You three will definitely be expelled! I said so!"

At those words, Hermione's little face instantly fell.

"What do we do?" She raked at her already bushy hair. "Now we're done for. All three of us are definitely going to be expelled..."

"Then why did you attack him?" Ron shot back.

"If someone had learned two more spells, perhaps I wouldn't have had to step in and save him." Hermione retorted.

Now Ron's face fell too. He wanted to argue, but realized Hermione was completely right.

"Don't worry. The school won't expel us over something so minor." Harry said indifferently. "Besides, Malfoy was in the wrong first. What he said was... an extremely serious insult."

"But I don't know what it means." Hermione frowned. "Of course, I could tell the word was crude—just as disgusting as the person who said it."

"That was probably the most insulting thing he could think of." Ron explained from the side. "Mudblood is a slur for Muggle-born people—meaning people whose parents can't do magic. It's an awful term. It means dirty, inferior blood, as lowly as mud. It's absolutely insane!"

Hermione bit her lip and nodded lightly, then said to Ron, "Thank you... for speaking up for me just now."

"It's, it's nothing." Ron suddenly began to stammer, hurriedly waving his hands.

"All right, I should get going," Hermione said as she stood up. She looked at Harry, then at Ron, and pointed at her own nose. "Also, you've got a dirty spot right here."

"Oh." Only then did Ron realize it, wiping his nose with his sleeve. "No wonder Fred said I had something on my nose earlier. I thought he was tricking me."

Hermione exchanged a helpless glance with Harry. She could see just how deep a shadow the Weasley twins had cast over their youngest younger brother.

Not long after Hermione left, the whistle sounded.

A voice suddenly rang out through the train.

"We will arrive at Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train. We will deliver it to the school for you."

Harry and Ron changed into their robes. Harry noticed that his new friend's clothes were a little too short, even exposing his sneakers.

Wearing old clothes didn't feel good. Harry understood that very well.

"Come on, let's get off, mate," Ron said to Harry. After getting into a fight together, his friendship with Harry had grown rapidly.

Of course, that also included Hermione, who had stepped forward with them at the crucial moment.