Poison Pen

Chapter 31: Life Can Be Funny (FINAL)

Harry walked into the Great Hall for dinner. It had been a week since the goblin ritual and the removal of Snape's Dark Mark. Today was the first time he'd been allowed to step foot outside the infirmary, and it was his studied opinion that Madam Pomfrey should be declared a Dark Witch for the obvious pleasure she took in 'locking down' her helpless patients.

She'd steadfastly refused to allow either Harry, or Professor Snape, out of her infirmary. No matter how determinedly both had sulked, threatened, and whined, she refused to comply. Poppy had a streak of pure evil; Harry was sure of it.

Harry's mental grumbling halted as soon as he walked into the Great Hall. There his eyes, not to mention his ears, met with the strangest sight he had ever seen.

Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger were faced off in the centre aisle, toe to toe in a shouting match and the professors were sitting back seemingly enjoying the show! Strange, shouldn't someone be putting a stop to this?

"...furthermore, just because the purebloods have always had a monopoly on all high ranking, prestigious positions doesn't mean..." screeched Granger, her face red.

"It's tradition, Granger!" Malfoy snarled, interrupting. "But then, what would YOU know about OUR traditions and culture? You are, after all, an outsider, it is OUR world!"

"Your world? I think Her Majesty might disagree! And as for tradition! Shall we talk about tradition?" Hermione arched an eyebrow smugly. "You value traditions so highly, yet almost all pureblood families take any squib born to them and cast it out. They deny their own children a family and a name, all in the name of tradition and purity of blood."

"Leave it to you to focus on something so ridiculous. Squib children have no place in our world..." Malfoy was stopped abruptly when Hermione broke in once more.

"I was told that purebloods value family above all and yet when a newborn fails to prove magical, it is cast out and forgotten. A practice, I might mention, which is still in effect among only the most primitive muggle tribes when the child is female, or not perfect...it is not, however, a custom practiced by civilized societies!"

Draco Malfoy shrugged. "This is tradition, it's worked for more than a thousand years. Who are you, an outsider, to question it?"

"I am the daughter of a squib. As such, I feel it is my right to question!" She huffed, then continued. "Has it never occurred to you that the blood a squib carries is the same as that in the veins of its parents and their other, magical children? Why blame a child for lack of magic when it was obviously the parents' own imperfect blood that created it? That they are at fault for producing a child with no magic, not the child. Perhaps it is they who should be condemned and barred from reproducing again, to keep their obviously flawed blood line from spreading!" Hermione's words fell into silence as the students and teachers sat stunned by her logic.

Malfoy stood before her, his mouth open in shock.

"It looks to me that the pureblood 'tradition' of getting rid of squib children is simply a way for them to hide their flawed and weakening blood lines!" She waited a moment for any rebuttal, then continued. "And, just so you know, a squib in a magical family is no different than a magical child popping up in a muggle family...two sides of the same coin!

"And what if Oliver Twist is right? We need the infusions of new blood from muggleborns and half-bloods to keep magic strong and alive."

With a stubborn tilt of his jaw, Malfoy finally spoke. "Well, he can't be right. We would've seen the effect before now."

Hermione snarled. "Perhaps we already have! Of the three most powerful wizards in the world, two of them are half-bloods and only one a pureblood!" Had anyone looked at the head table, they would have seen Filius Flitwick and Severus Snape struggling to contain their mirth. Unaware of her professors' reactions, Hermione blithely ranted on.