Cursed Brothers

S I X

"Finally!" Alison cried, delighted.  "I'm starving!" "Oh calm down. This is only the start of the year! The Great Feast is the first meal you have at the castle, so they make sure to make it great!" Stella told her friend, amused. "Well, if the food is this good, I can't imagine what the rest of the school is like!" "Didn't you ask your siblings what it was like?" Stella asked, grinning as she took a bite of her roast chicken.  "Yeah, but they kept on telling me that it included pain and suffering. Or at least, that's what my brother said. My sisters... weren't home very much." Alison replied as she stuffed her face with boiled potatoes.

"What do you think Dumbledore was on about when he said not to go in the Third Floor corridor?" Stella asked before taking a swig of pumpkin juice. "No idea. Could be that they are setting up some sort of thing they don't want anyone to see," Alison told her as she scooped some sausages and gravy onto her plate. Her friend nodded and looked over at where Harry was sitting at the Gryffindor table.

"Do you know that redhead boy that's sitting next to Harry?" Stella asked. "Yeah. His name's Ron. Another one of the Weasley kids. I've met him from time to time at Ministry events, since my mom and his dad work there." Alison responded as she took a bite of sausage. Stella glanced over to the Slytherin table and rolled her eyes as she noticed Draco sitting with his friends Crabbe and Goyle. "Malfoy's dad works in the Ministry. Stupid rich pureblood family," she stated before muttering softly, "Weasley's just like me. A blood traitor." "Yeah! My mom talks about his dad a lot. Lucius, isn't it?" Alison said brightly. It was pretty obvious she hadn't heard her friend's muttering. "Yeah. Lucius Malfoy." Stella responded, brushing off the comment she had made. "That's not the only job he has," she whispers in Alison's ear. "I heard he's a Death Eater," Alison muttered. Her friend nodded. "He is," she whispered. "Wow... so the rumors were true..." She murmured under her breath.

As quietly as she could, Stella began to mutter to herself. "Huh? What did you say?" Alison asked, having heard her mutters. "It's Draco." Stella said as she looked back at the Slytherin table. "He... likes to taunt blood traitors. I really want to make him pay for doing that." Alison looked at Stella, confused. "A blood traitor is a pureblood who doesn't care about their blood status," Stella stated, trying to clear up the confusion. "Oh wow. I feel stupid," her friend responded she lightly hit herself in the face. "But, I do guess being a half-blood does mean I'm not exposed to stuff like that." "I understand. It... it just annoys me that everybody hates blood traitors." Stella told her friend.

"Stella... why would it matter to you?" She asked, curious. "I mean, I'm right beside you on the whole blood traitor thing. I think not caring about your blood status is the best thing that can happen to a wizard sometimes. Not having to worry about the standards you have to live up to must be kind of freeing. It's just... why would you be affected by it? You aren't a blood traitor... are you?" "Alison, why do you think Draco called me a 'filthy blood traitor' earlier?" She responded. "Oh... right." Alison muttered. Out of the blue, she randomly hugged Stella.

"This isn't right. We need to stop this. Once and for all."