Emotions Run High

"Mudblood," he said loudly, "Means dirty blood. It's a vile, unkind term for muggleborn witches and wizards; a word that's tossed around far too much in my House. Malfoy was wrong to call you that, especially to your face. It was uncouth, cruel, and in poor taste, and I apologize on his behalf."

With that, he abruptly turned on his heel. "Flint, I don't need to be here for Malfoy's training, so I'm going to head back to the dungeons...and wait for you there."

Flint quirked an eyebrow, looking very amused. "Whatever you say, Potter."

Harry nodded curtly and walked off, face pulled into a dark scowl.

Stupid, cruel Malfoy, running his stupid, cruel mouth off. He-

"Harry! Harry!" he heard Hermione calling from behind him.

He slowed his pace so she could catch up with him.

"Thanks," she said breathlessly. "Thanks for stopping Ron, from doing something stupid."

Since their argument on the first day of classes, they'd made up, and agreed to disagree on the subject of Gilderoy Lockhart.

In the beginning, Harry had been worried that their unpleasant exchange outside the Defence against the Dark Arts classroom would put a damper on their plans. After all, Hermione really hadn't seemed too pleased with him, and he had been rather disappointed in her. However, after several days of curt, distant greetings and glares mingled with pleading looks, Theo had dragged them both into the Room of Requirement.

"I'm going to the kitchens to fetch some hot chocolate. By the time I get back, this -" he made a disgusted gesture toward them "- had better be fixed."

They'd wasted a good minute and a half glowering at each other, before Harry had spoken up.

"I don't say sorry for things I'm not sorry for."

"He's our professor," Hermione had hissed out in response.

"Like Quirrell? Remember him?"

Hermione had faltered at that. "This is different, Harry! You've read the books, you know all the amazing things he'd done -"

"I don't believe the books," Harry had interrupted. "Books can lie."

Hermione had looked aghast at the prospect.

"Look...we're clearly not going to agree on this. You like Professor Lockhart, I don't. Can that just be the end of it?"

She had hesitated, but had eventually offered him a small smile. "Maybe that's for the best."

And that was the end of it; when all was said and done, the two best friends weren't able to stay upset at each other, and the third official meeting of You-Know-What went exactly as planned. They'd successfully compiled a list of spells to learn and established a schedule for weekly meetings – one for occlumency, and one for dueling. There was even some talk of putting together some potions recipes to experiment with. All in all, things were going well.

"Harry?"

Drawn out of his musings by the concerned tone of Hermione's voice, he looked at her sharply. "I would have let him do it, if I thought it wouldn't have started a full-on fight."

Hermione frowned at him. "Was it really so bad? What Malfoy said?"

Harry nodded jerkily. "It's one of the most unkind things a witch or wizard can say to another witch or wizard."

"...oh."

"Blood matters in our world, Hermione, especially to people like the Malfoys. Him saying your blood is tainted is one of the greatest disrespects he could pay you," Harry said harshly.

Hermione sighed shakily. "I think I understand...I think."

Harry doubted it, but nodded absently nonetheless, his eyes far away.

"But Harry," Hermione began, "You can't hurt him."

He started. "Who?"

"Malfoy."

Harry could feel his entire face twitch.

"I know you're angry, I can tell. I..." She paused. "Well, I've never seen you like this, Harry," she said, "And I figure this must be you, angry...but I can't let you hurt him, because of me."

"He's not allowed to say things like that, Hermione. He's not allowed to insult you to your face, especially not in front of me. It was incredibly stupid of him, incredibly..." He drew a shuddering breath. "If you understood what he said, Hermione, you'd be hurt by it. You're my friend. I can't just let you be hurt, right in front of me."

"Harry, I'm not hurt," she said unconvincingly, "I know that people like Malfoy look down on me, because I'm muggleborn. I already knew that..."

"That doesn't make it ok!" he hissed. "You're one of the most brilliant witches he'll ever meet, and he owes you his respect."

Hermione didn't really know what to say to that. "Just promise me you won't hurt him. Please Harry, please."

"...fine."

Hurt was such a vague term, after all. He could do a lot of things to Draco Malfoy without hurting him.

"Maybe you should go for a walk, or read a book – cool off a bit before you see him again."

Harry sighed, knowing that, about that, she was right.

"I know...I'll go do that. I'll talk to you later."

Petrificus Totalus

Harry pointed his wand at Malfoy and wordlessly cast the body-bind curse on him as soon as the blonde boy entered their dorm room, listening with no small sense of satisfaction to the thud of Malfoy's stiff body hitting the stone floor.