It was lunchtime Tuesday. That meant it was the time of the week where Draco Malfoy would play his personal wildlife game: "taunt a lion without getting mauled". Harry had to admit he liked this game better than Harry Hunting, but that's not saying a lot.
Harry had discovered that the library was a good place to get out of Harry Hunting and, strangely, it was going to win him this weeks installment of Malfoy's little game. Malfoy had moved away from rumor and the events of the week and was working his way on to the insulting epithets that usually ended the match.
Harry waited for the right moment and interjected.
"You know Malfoy. You are using the phrase Blood Traitor wrong, I looked it up in a book over the weekend" Harry said in a conversational tone.
Everyone stopped and looked at Harry as he had broken the rules of the game. Ron and Draco had right of way in this round of the match.
"Yeah, Ron is perfectly in line with his father's politics and desires so he can't be a Blood Traitor. He openly espouses his family principles and puts them into practice. He serves the politics and well being of his family, therefore he is not a Blood Traitor" Harry continued.
"I do know a couple of Blood Traitors that you can go discuss this with if you like though, Draco" said Harry. He intentionally used Malfoy's first name to keep him wrong footed.
"For instance Lucius Malfoy is a Blood Traitor."
Complete silence.
Well with no return volley Harry retained right of way.
"Everyone who's anyone knows that your father was behind the Chamber of Secrets affair in our second year. It's a testament to his cunning that he was never caught or even questioned by law enforcement" Harry stated as if he was complimenting the elder Malfoy.
Draco's cheeks reddened, whether this was shame that his father was being called a criminal or if he didn't want to admit that he didn't know something that everyone else took as established fact.
"Let me ask you then. Is Penelope Clearwater a muggle-born?" Harry asked Malfoy.
"She is a pure-blood" Draco answered hesitantly, not knowing where this was headed and clearly suspicious of where Potter was going with this line of thought.
Crabbe and Goyle were exchanging looks and seemed confused. Usually by this point the match had gone into end-game with a fight or the pre-arranged Snape Swoop. The maneuver by which they bring an extra player onto the field and win with extra penalty points and detentions being assessed to the Gryffindor side.
Ron seemed confused at the civil seeming aspect to this conversation. It was like they stopped a quidditch match in the middle and had a history of magic class in the middle.
Hermione suspected that Harry was trying to make some kind of point and wanted to see when he was going to close the trap.
"So the chamber plot, wait that sounds wrong" Harry stopped and cleared his throat.
"So the Heir of Slytherin plot managed to injure a pure-blood witch, and it's only through luck and Hermione's cleverness that they were not killed. It would seem that the giant snake was not as precise as one would like" at this Harry shook his head as though he was critiquing the skill used.
"Draco were you in the school that year? I rather think so, in fact you stayed over the hols too didn't you? Whose idea was that? No, don't answer that. It doesn't matter.
"What does matter is that your father endangered your life and the lives of every other person in the school, muggle-born or pure-blood. Not very nice. In fact since he was on the Board of Governors at the time that makes him an oath breaker."
"Further do you think that Abraxas Malfoy, your paternal grandfather, a hale and hearty pure-blooded wizard of fifty seven years of age coming from one of the best pure-blood lines of Europe could be brought low by dragon pox?" Harry asked with a sneer.
"Maybe it was the Imperius. I mean Lucius was under the Imperius curse a lot during the seventies, right? That's what he said during his hearing in eighty one.
"So we have Lucius Malfoy, who only through accident of fate is not a fillicide, oath breaker, weak willed imperius victim, possible patricide."
"Blood Traitor q.e.d. " Harry concluded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"What do you mean weak willed?" Malfoy screeched.
"It's obvious isn't it? I myself have resisted Voldemort's imperius curse, and we both know that I am no great shakes as a wizard, Lucius would have to be very weak indeed to fall for the curse for most of a decade. Between you and me" Harry lowered his voice and leaned in as if confiding in someone, "I once saw your father defeated by a house elf".
Draco was either speechless in shock or apoplectic in rage.
"You know who else is a blood traitor?" harry asked rhetorically.
"Voldemort" he answered his own question.
A wince and sucked breath came from all around at the name of the dark lord. Today's game was well attended by many students of all years and all houses.
"Don't get me wrong, Voldemort was a skilled wizard of great power. I, naturally, don't agree with his politics or his life choices, but I will concede he is a capable wizard" Harry stated as if he was discussing an academic matter rather than the murder of his parents.
"But he was a blood traitor. Did you know that he killed his own father? And his paternal grandparents too. Then he framed his mother's elder brother, the true Heir of Slytherin, for the crime. The uncle died in Azkhaban. Voldemort took that opportunity to steal heirlooms of Slytherin that he had no right to."
"So Voldemort: murderer, thief, patricide. Blood Traitor. In fact I would have to say that Voldemort is the biggest blood traitor I know.
"In fact right now, since his rebirth, the ritual he used would make me his father in a roundabout way, and he has used all three unforgivables on me, so he seems set in his... patricide pattern, if you will.
"I haven't disowned him yet though, as I still hope he'll come around. It's always a shame when blood turns on itself like that." Harry said as though he was giving sage advice.
Right now it was taking everything that he had for Harry not to laugh at the bewildered and horrified expressions on everyone's faces. Though some present seemed to get the joke.
Draco gaped like a fish, mouth opening and closing for a couple of seconds and then the turned around and left without another word.
"Ten point to Gryffindor for a most excellent debate" called out the voice of the diminutive Professor Flitwick. The man always like a clever argument that turned preconceptions back upon themselves, and this was a good one.
Harry blushed and replied "thank you professor"