"Out of my way, mudblood." His words hit you like a whip, shocking you at the way they flowed so easily out of his mouth. You weren't even bothered by the fact that he had pushed you aside and all your books fell to the floor in front of you. You weren't bothered by the fact that he and all his friends laughed at you as they made their way out of the potions classroom.
No.
It was that word. Just that word alone that completely shattered you, your brain unable to process anything else at the moment. Your friend beside you gave you a worried look, placing their hand on your shoulder.
You had always ended up on the wrong side of Malfoy's radar. Him coming after you every chance he could to embarrass you or make you feel less than a human being. But today, this moment, was the last straw for you.
Right then and there something snapped inside of you and you vowed to take revenge on the pasty little rat once and for all.
For weeks on end the wheels in your mind kept turning, trying to figure out the best way to shut Malfoy up.
You researched spells and hexes, none of which you had the courage to pull off, not to mention at the end of the day, you were a lover, not a fighter. But God, if there was ever a person you wanted to punch square in the jaw it was Malfoy.
All summer it was all you could think about. Your revenge. You were fueled by it, by the anger that you felt that just would not go away. Your parents were worried about you, with your head constantly in the books, you waved them off with a slight hand gesture, they figured it was due to exams and left you for the most part.
By the end of the summer you knew more spells and more information than you probably should have and still nothing came to mind when it came to your plan to extract revenge on the blonde.
It just wasn't you. You didn't want to stoop down to his level, didn't want to even be associated with the likes of him.
Looking in the mirror on the night before the first day of school you noticed your hair had gotten longer and you'd lost some of that baby weight you had tried so desperately to get rid of.
Revenge, while it was definitely a terrible thing to hold onto, had certainly helped you in other areas. But even on your death bed would you ever admit to anything happening to you in a positive way if it was connected to Malfoy.
You'd wasted all summer harboring this anger that you hadn't even gone out with your friends, hadn't even enjoyed being away from school for those two months.
Thinking about how much time you'd wasted being upset over Malfoy's words angered you all over again and you spent the rest of the evening trying to catch up on all the letters your friends had sent you in the past week.
Coming back to Hogwarts was like coming back home, you smiled at your friends warmly as they greeted you on the train.
You tried your best to steer clear from any areas you knew Malfoy and his goons were in, not ready to face them just yet. He probably even forgot what he'd called you.
You were doing a pretty good job of staying off the radar, kept your head in your books once again, did your homework in your common room and kept your eyes trained on your table during breakfast and dinner.
Your friend had nudged you a couple times, telling you of all the boys they'd caught staring at you during class, in the halls. But none of them caught your attention.
You found yourself at ease for the first time in a while, your classes seemed easy, probably due to the fact that you had researched like a mad woman trying to find new hexes and spells to use on Malfoy. You hadn't even seen or even heard him yet, wondering if you even had any classes with him.
Then came Friday and potions class and you knew, you knew you were going to see Malfoy and just as his name popped up in your head as you walked in. You heard the words slip from his mouth once again.
"Where's that mudblood? Probably finally quit school because she couldn't handle it." He sneered at once of friends, laughing as he leaned back in his chair.
"Right here." You answered him immediately, standing right behind him and his friends.
Malfoy turned to face you, probably to throw more insults at you but when his eyes met yours his smile faltered and he frowned, looking at you incredulously.
Before he could have a chance to say anything, Professor Snape walked into the room and you moved away from them, taking a seat at the other end of the room.
You swore you could feel someone's eyes on you the entire lesson and your friend leaning in to whisper something to you confirmed your suspicions. What caught you off guard was who was doing the staring.
Malfoy.
Your eyebrows furrowed, not expecting that at all.
Snape asking a question pulled you out of your thoughts. You knew the answer, but as you looked up you realized he wasn't asking the entire class he was asking one specific person.
Malfoy.
"It seems you have other things on your mind other than potions, Mr. Malfoy. Pay attention." You frowned even more at that, knowing potions was one of Malfoy's best classes, he always knew the answers to every question. But now all of a sudden, he came up blank.
Your hand shot into the air, trying to meet Professor Snape's gaze and with a lazy hand gesture he called upon you to answer.
"Clearly only one of you studied this year's curriculum." Snape's voice droned on, before awarding you 5 points.
While you didn't think it was that big of a deal that you knew something Malfoy didn't everyone else seemed to blow it out of proportion, congratulating you on the points earned and finally knocking Malfoy off his high horse.
It was at that moment that something clicked inside of you again, this time, it was more of a moment of clarity. You didn't need to hex him at all. Just the simple fact that you had known something he didn't was clearly eating him up inside.
And as you gathered up all your books and looked over to the blonde, the look of defeat scattered on his features, it made up for every single day you lost of your summer and you had never felt more proud of yourself, not caring where you came from or whether your parents were wizards or not.
The look on Malfoy's face when everyone was patting you on the back gave you a new emotion that fueled you.
Confidence. Something you didn't have before.
And finally for the first time in a long time revenge didn't your cross your mind.
