"Pure-blood", a title of pride. It is not meant to signify that somebody is kinder, or smarter, or more likable; simply that they are better, and that's how it always will be.
"Mudblood", a slur, an insult; meant to hiss, meant to mock. It is not meant to signify that somebody is less kind, or unintelligent, or unlikable, simply that their lack of wizarding parentage makes them inferior, and that's how it always will be.
Why parentage? Harry thinks. Why bloodlines?
Out of all things to divide the wizarding world, it had to be what sort of prestige your ancestors held. It had to be whether or not they were "pure", it had to be based on the addled mindset that if your wizard parent fell in love with someone to whom the magical arts were a strange, faraway thing; it made you less, somehow less.
Because they are Muggles, because they are different; with their filthy ignorance and terrible frailty. They are bugs under their world's magical feet, and to marry one of them must certainly be quite the appalling thing.
Is this simply because he's only entered the realm of spells and charms, only a few years ago? Is this just because he doesn't understand how this enchanted society works? Malfoy was born and indoctrinated with full knowledge of who he was, while Harry spent his first eleven years in a fucking cupboard, is Malfoy more right in his beliefs because he's seen more than him? Is he delusional, does the blood and soul of a mudblood really resemble the ground beneath his feet?
Is this is so, then he's indeed created quite a fantastic illusion for himself.
Because, that day, that duel with Malfoy you had in the girl's bathroom; you notice something, as the high and mighty Slytherin prince gasps and convulses in lukewarm puddles of water on the floor, the blood leaking and pouring out of the gashes in his paling skin (the gashes you made).
His blood, that's supposed to be pure and prestigious, giving him a pedestal to be held on just for being born. The blood that gives him license to treat people like Hermione as dirt. It looks exactly like the blood of the Muggles he so detests. And pure or not, he's choking on it and what does it matter how pure your blood is, when it's flooding your throat and staining your tongue?
There is a war being fought over this, he thinks. This supposed superiority, and the tyrant that endorses it all. It seemed such a stupid thing to base an entire system of prejudice on. This entire system of prejudice that the boy writhing at his feet was raised to embrace.
As Harry reels over in panic and frantically kneels in a pool of red, (Gryffindor red, Muggle-blood red), he thinks, the message Voldemort's trying to give is ridiculous; the message Lucius Malfoy and so many others put wholehearted conviction into is ridiculous.
Because, whether mud or pure or that of a Muggle, blood is blood and it's spilt much too easily, all the same.
A/N: We could also call this Dolorose Lalonde and the Oneshot Never Meant To Be Published.
Or Dolorose Lalonde and The Time Draco Wasn't Even Supposed To Be In This.