Don't Act Like You Know Me

Year 2 - You'll Be Next

"You'll pay for that one, Malfoy!" Ron was furious. He whipped out his wand. "Eat slugs!" Ron waved his Spellotaped wand at Malfoy and a bolt of green light backfired into Ron's face. He plunged backwards and fell on his back. Hermione, coming out of her daze of negative emotion, ran over to Ron.

"Ron! Say something!" Hermione panicked. Ron turned himself over and began to belch up a slimy black slug. The drool coming out of his mouth dripped on the grass in a long trail. The Slytherin team howled with laughter. Hermione shot daggers back at Draco. His expression wavered a bit, but he shortly returned to laughing. Ron rose ofd the ground in anger only to have another slug emerge from his mouth. Suddenly, Colin Creevey ran in front of the crowd.

"Wow! Can you hold him still, Harry?" Colin asked, holding up his camera.

"Get out of the way, Colin!" Harry ordered. Harry spoke to Hermione, "Let's take him to Hagrid. He'll know what to do." Harry and Hermione tried their best to escort Ron to Hagrid's hut. When they were about to exit the courtyard, Hermione looked back at Draco, who was standing there staring at Hermione with his laughing goons surround him. 

"Hagrid!" Harry yelled as he knocked on the hut's door. Hagrid opened the door to see Ron's pale purple face. 

"Jeezum, Ron," Hagrid stared. "Well, come on in, sit 'im down." Harry and Hermione assisted Ron to sit down on a bench in Hagrid's hut. Hagrid looked around and opened up his drawers as if he was looking for something. "Got jus' the thing." Hagrid brought over a bucket and set it in front of Ron. Harry and Hermione looked up at Hagrid, confused. Hagrid shrugged. "What in the world happened?"

"Ron tried to cast the eat slugs curse, but his wand is broken so the spell backfired," Harry explained. Ron threw up another slug.

"Better out than in. Who was he tryin' ter curse anyway?"

"Malfoy. He called Hermione... well... I don't really know what it means." Hagrid looked to Hermione for an answer. Hermione took a deep breath. Her stomach was queasy at just the mention of that word.

"He called me a Mudblood," she muttered in a quiet voice. She didn't like the way that word sounded when she said it. She hated that word and she hated Malfoy.

"He didn't!" Hagrid gasped. Hermione looked out the window. She didn't really want to think about it. It pained her.

"It means dirty blood. Mudblood is a really foul name for someone who was Muggle-born. Someone with non-magic parents. Someone... like me. It's not a term one usually hears in civilized conversation." 

"Yeh see, Harry. There are some wizards, like Malfoy family, who think they're better than everyone else 'cause they're what people call pureblood." Hermione couldn't get Malfoy off of her mind, and not in a good way. She imagined him and his perfect family with their perfect mansion and their perfect blood. It made her sick.

"That's horrible," Harry said. Ron threw up another slug.

"It's disgusting," Ron said. 

"An' it's codswallop ter boot. Dirty blood. There's hardly a wizard today that's not half-blood or less. If we hadn't married Muggles we'd've died out long ago. Besides, they haven't invented a spell our Hermione can't do..." Hagrid called Hermione over to him. He put a hand on her shoulder. "Don' you think on it, Hermione. Don' you think on it fer one minute." Hermione smiled with tears in her eyes. Hagrid really did make her feel better. 

"I haven't thrown up a slug in a whole minute!" Ron said.

"Well, there ya go!" Hagrid said.

"Do you think I can go now?"