An angry Ginny

"What's going on? What's he doing here?" Ron asked at once.

"I'm the Slytherin Quidditch Team's new Seeker, Weasley," Malfoy said smugly. "Everyone was just admiring the broomsticks my father bought for our team."

Ron stared openmouthed at the seven top-of-the-range broomsticks before him-Nimbus 2001s, even better than Harry's Nimbus 2000!

"Very nice, aren't they?" Malfoy said pleasantly. "Still, perhaps the Gryffindor Quidditch Team could scrape together some gold to buy a few new brooms, too. You could sell those Cleansweep Fives to raise the money. I imagine a museum would make you an offer."

The Slytherin players roared with laughter.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team had to buy their way in," Hermione said sharply. "They got in on talent alone."

Malfoy's smug expression darkened. Clearly, her words had struck a nerve.

"No one asked you, you filthy little Mudblood," he said viciously.

His words provoked an explosive reaction.

Flint had to rush in front of Draco to stop Fred and George from lunging at him. Alicia screamed, "How dare you!" Ron reached into his robes and pulled out his wand, shouting, "You'll pay for that, Malfoy!" In a fury, he aimed at Malfoy's face beneath Flint's arm.

"Eat slugs!"

A tremendous bang rang through the stadium. A jet of green light shot out of the back of the wand and struck Ron in the stomach, sending him stumbling two steps before he collapsed onto the grass.

"Ron! Ron! Are you all right?" Hermione shrieked.

Ron opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out. Instead, he gave a great belch, and several slugs fell from his mouth onto his lap.

The Gryffindor players gathered around Ron as he kept bringing up large, glistening slugs, but no one seemed willing to touch him. The Slytherin players were helpless with laughter. Flint was laughing so hard he could not stand straight and had to lean on his new broom. Malfoy was on all fours, pounding the ground with both fists.

Only then did Ginny seem to come to her senses. The filthy insult sank in, and Ron's miserable condition made her furious as well!

She had already been feeling irritable. Seeing Malfoy and the others behaving so horribly, she angrily seized on them as an outlet for her frustration!

"Furnunculus!"

A jinx immediately shot from her wand, but it missed Malfoy and hit Marcus Flint, who was standing in front of him, instead.

The burly boy immediately screamed in agony. His skin burned under the spell, breaking out in hideous pimples, as though someone had poured chili oil over festering wounds!

Flint glared viciously at Ginny and raised his wand, his face full of hatred. "You little brat-you dare attack me-"

Fred and George immediately lunged at him, grabbing for his wand.

Wood and the others reacted as well, quickly grappling with the Slytherin players.

"Harry! Get Ginny and Ron out of here!"

Someone shouted, snapping Harry out of his daze. He hurriedly helped the filthy Ron to his feet. "Let's go to Hagrid's. It's closest!"

The four of them pushed through the crowd and hurried away. Colin, who had no idea what had happened, ran over with no sense of the situation whatsoever, hoping to photograph Ron vomiting slugs.

"Out of the way, Creevey!" Ginny snapped, shoving him aside.

Colin stared blankly after them, utterly bewildered. Hadn't Ginny Weasley been quite polite yesterday?

They soon reached Hagrid's Hut, but Lockhart was coming out toward them. To avoid trouble, Harry had no choice but to hide first. It was a very wise decision. If they let Lockhart treat Ron,

he would probably lose his life. Only after Lockhart had gone far away did they knock on Hagrid's door.

"It's you lot. I thought Lockhart had come back again-what's happened to Ron?" Hagrid asked at once.

"Ron's spell backfired on him."

Hagrid did not seem particularly worried. He found a large copper basin and set it in front of Ron. "Better out than in. Bring them all up, Ron."

"I don't think there's anything we can do except wait for it to stop on its own," Hermione said anxiously, watching Ron bend over the basin. "It's a difficult spell even under the best conditions, and you used a broken wand..."

"Wait, I might know how to stop it." Something suddenly occurred to Ginny. "The counter-jinx... he taught me..."

As she spoke, she raised her wand and pointed it at Ron.

This made the others rather nervous. Being on the wrong end of a wand was hardly a pleasant feeling.

"Will-it-urgh-work?" Ron asked between bouts of vomiting.

"Trying is better than doing nothing." Ginny felt quite confident. The Pimple Jinx she had just used was something "Mr. Riddle" had taught her, too, and it had proved very effective!

Her wand flashed again. When the spell hit Ron, his whole body shuddered. He was still vomiting, but no more slugs were coming out of his mouth.

"It worked! How did you do that?" Hermione's eyes widened. She had never imagined that Ginny, who had only started school this year, could break a jinx that had left even her helpless.

"Um-I read it in a book." Ginny was delighted to see her spell work. It proved that "Mr. Riddle" had not deceived her.

"What book?" Hermione's eyes lit up as she pressed for details. "I'll have to read it! I can't believe I missed such an important book!"

"Maybe I remembered wrong. I didn't read it in a book. It might have been Bill-yes, Bill taught me!" Ginny said hastily.

Hermione looked a little doubtful. "Really?"

Fortunately, Hagrid interrupted her to ask what had happened. She had to join Harry in recounting the whole incident.

"Malfoy called Hermione something. It must have been really nasty, because everyone was furious," Harry said.

"It was really nasty," Ron said hoarsely. He had almost recovered, though he was pale and drenched in sweat. "Malfoy called her a 'Mudblood,' Hagrid-"

Hagrid looked outraged and bellowed, "Did he really?"

"Yes," she said. "But I don't know what it means. Of course, I could tell it was terribly rude..."

"Mudblood is an insulting name for Muggle-borns-people whose parents can't do magic. Some wizards, like the Malfoys, think they're better than everyone else because they're what they call pure-blood," Ron explained. "But the rest of us know it doesn't matter at all. Look at Neville Longbottom-he's pure-blood, but he can't even position his cauldron properly."

"That's right. They haven't invented a spell our Hermione can't do!" Hagrid said proudly, making Hermione blush scarlet.

"But I never expected you to be so brave, Ginny!"

"It's a shame I didn't hit that nasty Malfoy," Ginny said unhappily, looking at Ron.

"It's not such a bad thing. If you'd hit him, it might have caused some trouble. That Malfoy boy's dad is a school governor at Hogwarts," Hagrid said.

They stayed at Hagrid's for a while after that. Having discovered that everything "Mr. Riddle" had taught her was useful, Ginny grew cheerful again. Even the detention McGonagall gave her after they returned to the castle did nothing to spoil her mood.