chapter - 65 : Unveiling Prejudice part - 2

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"I don't need you to defend me, Pansy," Draco said crossly.

"Tracy is not low-born!" Daphne retorted, ignoring the blond in favour of glaring at Pansy. "At least she knows who her dad is. Your mother slept around so much your father could be almost anyone!"

Pansy gasped. "I can't believe you said… no one mentions…" Her eyes teared up and she pushed past them and disappeared off down the corridor. The remaining Slytherins shifted uncomfortably, wondering if they should go after her, but none of them felt they were good enough friends with the girl to try.

Draco turned to frown at Daphne. "Don't you think you went a bit too far there, cousin? You know no one talks about that. Pansy's a Pureblood and Mr Parkinson claimed her as his daughter, that's all that matters."

"I'm only saying what everyone knows is true, and anyway you haven't had to share a dorm room with her," Daphne said defensively, though she sent a guilty glance in the direction Pansy had run off in. "She's been sniping at Tracy and Granger non-stop since yesterday."

"So?" Draco said. "I for one think it's rather unfair to expect us Purebloods to share with muggleborns and half-bloods."

"Draco, that's ridiculous," Harry spoke up, no longer willing to simply watch the argument unfold. "Hermione and Tracy have magic and are first year Slytherins just like the rest of us. Never mind who their parents are, they still deserve to be here. I'll warn you again – they could grow up to be brilliant witches and then you'd end up regretting your current attitude."

Draco huffed and crossed his arms, but didn't continue making derogatory comments about muggles. Instead he turned to look speculatively at Tracy and Hermione.

"Is that something you've, you know, Seen?" Nott asked, glancing between Harry and the girls.

Harry nodded. "Yep. Though it should be obvious really. They are Slytherins after all."

The first years all smiled at this and Hermione and Tracy shot Harry grateful looks. The argument died down and they all tacitly agreed to drop the subject of Blood-Purity, at least for the moment. They had an hour-long break before their next class and so split into smaller groups as they headed off in different directions. Hermione, of course, was intent on visiting the library before Transfiguration and Harry decided to accompany her. He wanted to be a proper friend to the girl and didn't want her to feel left out, what with him chatting to all the pureblood students he knew. Hermione's expression visibly brightened when he asked if he could join her, and Harry knew he'd made the right choice despite having no desire to spend any more time than necessary under Madam Pince's gimlet eye.

There was an awkward moment where Hermione realised that she didn't know how to get to the Library and questioned Harry when he automatically headed in the right direction. For a second he considered trying to blame it on his nebulous 'Seer' powers, but luckily hit on the excuse that he was just following the dozens of Ravenclaw students hurrying past them down the corridor. Hermione seemed to accept this, making Harry sigh in relief. The whole 'Seer' thing would have been a pretty flimsy excuse. Pretending to know things about his fellow students was one thing – it could be considered as just a bizarre magical talent - but being known as a true Seer would be quite another. With his knowledge from his old world he could put on a convincing show of somehow reading people's characters. Claiming to have a divination-enhanced sense of direction would be much riskier since it was more specific and so easier to disprove.

Harry watched Hermione carefully out of the corner of his eye as they headed down one of the moving staircases, worried about how she was dealing with all the hurtful remarks from the rest of the school. Her Housemates were bad enough, but to have a teacher lecture them on the inferiority of muggles must have been really difficult for her. She'd been raging earlier, but now she seemed quite subdued.

"Are you okay?" Harry checked.

"I'm fine," Hermione replied. "Really," she added when Harry shot her a sceptical look. "I wouldn't say things've been easy, but I know they would've been a whole lot worse if you hadn't stuck up for me from the very beginning. I feel Daphne and the others are more willing to give me a chance because of you. So thanks, Orion. I'm really glad that we're friends."

"So am I." Harry smiled at her. "And I should be thanking you for sticking by me. I know you would've been a Ravenclaw if you hadn't wanted to be in the same House as me. The Hat only put you in Slytherin because you asked it to, didn't it?"

Hermione blinked at him in astonishment. "How do you know that?" she demanded. "I haven't told anyone what the Sorting Hat said."

"I told you, I just know things about people." Harry shrugged. "Really, Hermione, how is the magic I do any more unbelievable than being able to turn a teacup into a gerbil or something with only a wave of a wand?"

"I suppose," Hermione allowed. "It's just that there are spells for Transfiguration - wand movements and incantations and proper ways of doing things, not just… looking at someone and knowing all about them."

"Magic is a mysterious force, Hermione," Harry said. "Wizards have been trying to understand it for millennia, but although we've invented spells to shape it and have worked out ways to predict its effects, we remain, essentially, baffled by it. There's so much about magic that hasn't been discovered yet. Or at least not by wizards – and the other magical races tend to guard their knowledge jealously."

Hermione obviously disliked the idea of having knowledge hidden from her. "It's so frustrating to think that there are actually other sentient beings out there, but that they don't want to share what they know!"

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