We bleed the same (My blood's as red as yours is)

Draco watched as the ginger blood traitor stumbled out of the room, pursued by a flock of small but savage birds. He hoped they pecked his vapid eyes out. Hearing sobs from the room the Weasel had left he wandered over and opened the door. Draco wasn't one to pass by the opportunity to 'comfort' a pretty girl. He stepped into the room and grinned viciously when he saw what was slumped against the wall.

"Well well, if it isn't my least favourite mudblood. What happened did the Weasel finally inform you that he just uses you for homework? Its must be hard to be rejected by a Weasley, but even blood traitors have standards when it counts." He was expecting her to break down completely at his cruel words, he had obviously caught her at a vulnerable time. But she surprised him by straightening her back and glaring at him furiously. However he continued belittling her without a second thought. It wasn't like she could do anything to him, he was a Malfoy after all.

"It's so nice to see you finally sitting at my feet where you belong, it's about time you learned your place Mudblood. It's a shame it took you six years to come to terms with how far beneath me you are, it was such a hassle to have to keep reminding you of your worth, or lack of in this case" he drawled, sneering down at her, grinning inside at how pathetic she was.

But suddenly her temper snapped with a nearly audible crack and quick as lightning she was on her feet with her wand pushed underneath his chin painfully, shouting at him furiously, her magic energizing the air around them as she spat angry words at him.

"I am a muggleborn. Hath not a muggleborn eyes? Hath not a muggleborn hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a pureblood is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us to we not die?" Her wand dropped slightly as she finished and she looked up at him, dark eyes pleading for something he couldn't name. Suddenly panicking and not quite understanding why he snarled at her, not letting himself understand her impassioned speech as his hand cracked out reflexively. She gasped in pain as his heir's ring sliced her cheek open and time seemed to stop for him at the sight. He barely registered her returning the blow, the warm wetness dripping from his cheek the only sign that she'd returned the favour, slicing his face with her nails."An eye for an eye" he thought distantly as he stared in shock at the blood running down her face.

"My bloods as red as yours is Malfoy" she murmured tiredly, her face only now expressing her exhaustion, her weariness at his prejudice. . The silence dragged on as Draco watched Hermione's blood drip down to mix with his own on the floor, feeling his world shift abruptly on its axis.

I've been forgetting to post disclaimers so just a quick reminder that I don't own Harry Potter. Hope everyone likes my Draco is brainwashed since childhood spin & the Shylock quote. I've been itching to write something around it for a while now. And please remember that reviews warm my cold disturbed heart.

Greyish-silver skies.