Blood and Prejudice

Can A Dragon Change Its Scales?

Hermione woke up the next morning, dark thoughts still ringing in her head. She shouldn't have allowed what Pansy said to get to her, but how could she not? This was the reality of the world they lived in.

It was only 6 in the morning, and the other girls were all still asleep. Lavender was snoring loudly in her mess of a bed on the opposite end of the room. Luckily Hermione had decided to take one of the two beds closest to the door this year. Last year she and the other girls had almost woken up Ava Jamieson (who slept next to the door) several times when they had tried to sneak out for DA meetings.

Crookshanks followed her to the toilet as she got ready for the day. Big yellow eyes stared at her as she brushed her teeth, thinking about her studies. In particular, she considered Professor Slughorn's potions class, and how she was only receiving Exceeds Expectations on most of her assignments while Harry was all of a sudden a star pupil and getting all Outstandings. Of all her classes, Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts had been proving to be the toughest this year. Although the main reason DADA was a problem was due to Professor Snape having it out for Harry and all the rest of the Gryffindors. Professor Slughorn, on the other hand, loved Harry, and as far as she knew, had no reason to hate her. Why did it seem like Harry just knew the answer to everything? Was her textbook giving her incorrect information as Harry had suggested?

Maybe Slughorn was one of the many pureblood wizards who disliked muggle-borns. She pushed the thought away. Dumbledore had called him in as a replacement teacher for the year once Snape had moved on to DADA. And if Dumbledore liked him he couldn't be all bad, right?

Hermione returned to the bedroom and began to dress for the day. Fae Dunbar was now awake and propped up on her bed reading something. It wasn't long before Pavarti, Lavender and Ava were also up and getting ready for class.

Pavarti looked up from slipping on her shoes and sleepily asked, "Hermione, have you begun the Charms essay yet?"

"Yeah sure, I finished mine on Sunday. I wrote about Avis the bird-conjuring charm"

"Oh good! Can I have a look? I'm writing about Aparecium, but I can't decide on how to form everything"

"Of course! Here you are" Hermione replied, handing her the parchment, which had already been loosely tied.

"I thought that was due this Thursday?" Lavender questioned uneasily.

"Yeah I just wanted to be done with it" Hermione replied, pilling some books into her bag. Lavender sighed with relief before strolling out the loo herself.

After finishing up some work for Arithmancy and Transfiguration, Hermione noticed it was nearing 8 o'clock, so she headed to the common room. There, she saw Harry and Neville standing next to the hearth and chatting about something while Ron slumped on a couch looking still half-asleep. There was a large group by the bulletin board sitting around Dean and Seamus as they played some enchanted version of wizard's chess. The crowd included Ginny, The Creevy brothers, Romilda Vane, Cormac McLaggen, and a few younger students she didn't know the names of.

"What's going on over here?" Hermione asked casually as she joined Harry and Neville.

"Neville was helping me with terms for the Herbology test today. I assume you're more than prepared Hermione?" Harry responded confidently.

"Quite. If you're all done, why don't we all go to the Great Hall for some breakfast before class?"

Neville and Harry agreed and began towards the door. Hermione turned to Ron, and kicked his leg lightly with her foot, "Ron, we're going to eat-"

Before she finished Ron stood - wobbling somewhat - and garbled, "Come on, then"

She followed the boys out the door, and they all made their way to the Great Hall.