"Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic?" said Malfoy. "And he's supposed to be our teacher!"
Harry and Ron both made furious moves toward Malfoy, but Hermione got there first - SMACK!
She had slapped Malfoy across the face with all the strength she could muster. Malfoy staggered. Harry, Ron, Crabbe, and Goyle stood flabbergasted as Hermione raised her hand again.
"Don't you dare call Hagrid pathetic you foul—you evil—"
"Hermione!" said Ron weakly and he tried to grab her hand as she swung it back.
"Get off Ron!"
Hermione pulled out her wand. Malfoy stepped backward. Crabbe and Goyle looked at him for instructions, thoroughly bewildered.
"C'mon," Malfoy muttered, and in a moment, all three of them had disappeared into the passageway to the dungeons.
"Hermione!" Ron said again, sounding both stunned and impressed.
Mudblood, mudblood, mudblood...
Draco Malfoy had never felt so insulted in his entire life. To be slapped by a girl, that too Hermione Granger! But maybe he had taken it too far. Maybe he shouldn't have said the things he had said.
Mudblood, filthy little mudbood, mudblood...
He shook his head firmly. That wasn't true. He had been perfectly in his limits. He turned to the right. Crabbe and Goyle followed him sluggishly.
Mudblood, mudblood, mudblood...
"I want to be alone." Draco said firmly.
Crabbe and Goyle shrugged and went the other way.
Mudblood, filthy little mudbood, mudblood...
Draco rushed out again. He didn't know why but he did. He was suddenly feeling nauseous. A wave of guilt had come over him. He should go and maybe apologise to, to her.
Mudblood, mudblood, mudblood...
Though the news of Sirius Black's recapture should have calmed him, he wasn't able to sleep that night. He kept tossing and turning in his bed. The restlessness seemed to grow like a weed in the pit of his stomach, feeding upon him, gnawing at him. Crabbe and Goyle's loud snores filled the dormitory.
Mudblood, filthy little mudbood, mudblood...
Those words seemed to echo inside his mind.
Mudblood, mudblood, mudblood...
A face kept flashing in front of his mind. He kept trying to push it away. She wasn't pure like him. She was filthy. But somewhere down in his heart, he knew that he didn't care about that.
Mudblood, filthy little mudbood, mudblood...
For somewhere down in his heart, he knew that he didn't deserve her.
Mudblood, mudblood, mudblood...
