The next morning was Tuesday. This meant the Slytherin morning classes would be History of Magic and Transfiguration, which took place around the same area their Charms class did. Harry thought ahead and told Malfoy they should gather their materials before breakfast, so they wouldn't have to go five flights of stairs to the dungeon and then go up eight flights to get to their first hour class.

"Good thinking."

On their way to breakfast Harry was questioning the logic of having the school be so large and the classes so far from each other, but then he realized how many students there must be and that of course something as dangerous as Potions wouldn't take place right next to another classroom. The more dangerous ones would take place in the dungeon, just because the dungeon has thicker and had sturdier walls.

When they get to breakfast the first thing that happens is the post. Must be to prevent feathers from falling into the food. An owl swoops down to land a small letter in front of him. He sees Malfoy frowning at his package as he reads his letter, but Harry focuses on his first and opens it. Inside are some very messy scribbles. I was wondering if you would like to come down to my hut Friday for a chat and some tea. I was going to ask for Wednesday, but it turns out both Slytherin and Gryffindor have flying lessons that afternoon. Ah, yes. I did invite Ron and Hermione too. Hermione says she will come, but I'm still waiting for a response from Ron. Please send your response with Hedwig. It was from Hagrid. Harry hears the owl again and notices it's Hedwig. He tries to pet her, but she bites him. "Owe. What's wrong? They not giving you any treats?" The owl's feathers ruffle and Harry finds a quill to respond with, before he folds the paper back up and sends Hedwig away.

Malfoy had already opened his package. It includes several pastries Harry finds to be very similar-looking to pop tarts, but Harry knows that in the wizarding world it will most likely go by another name. Draco turns to Goyle, "You want them?" When Goyle's head shakes a no he looks over at Crabbe, "What about you?" He too shakes his head. "You sure?"

"We've been ordered not to," responds Crabbe.

Draco nearly rolls his eyes, before he looks over at Harry and smiles, "What about you?"

The seating arrangement had been changed so that Crabbe sat next to Harry, while Goyle sat across from him. This made it so that there was more room and so that Draco was more protected, if any unexpected danger were to come, but right now it just allows Harry to see Goyle shake his head a no. "Would I get into trouble?"

Draco smirks, "What my father doesn't know won't kill him."

"No," Goyle looks at Malfoy. "But it may kill you."

Draco sees Harry's serious expression, "He's joking."

Harry looks at the pastries in question. They are unbroken, pieces of red poke through, and a dark brown is smeared over the entire top as a glaze would. "I think I'll just take one." Draco gladly hands it to him, and when Harry takes a bite his mouth explodes with the pure taste of strawberries and chocolate. "Wow. This tastes like real strawberries."

Malfoy chuckles, "Yes. They're real strawberries. What? Did you expect it to be fake strawberries? Maybe the stuff covering it is fake chocolate."

Harry gives a slightly annoyed look, "You can laugh all you want, but muggle food tends to be artificially flavored. Nothing can be preserved long enough for it to be real."

Draco continues to smile but stops laughing, "Welcome to the wizard world, where everything is fresh and everything is real." Harry nods before finishing the treat, although somehow he imagined this 'treat' must be the healthiest thing he's ever ate. "You can have the rest if you want."

Harry sees Goyal shake his head again, so he shakes his head at the offer, "You like strawberries, don't you? You eat them every day. You should have the rest of these." He notices Draco hadn't placed any food on his plate since the meal had appeared, "Or you could just have a couple for breakfast."

"No," comments Draco as he lowers his eyes. He looks back up, "I'm never really hungry in the morning. I guess I'm just not awake enough." He puts the lid back on the container, "I'll just save them for later."

It takes a moment for Harry to break the quiet, "This gift seems very thoughtful of your father. Are you disappointed because of the letter?"

Malfoy responds after a second, "He just wants to make sure I'm doing well." He pauses, "He mentioned some things I'd rather forget." He pours himself a glass of ice water, "Sometimes I feel like these gifts are more of some sort of trick or sabotage. I don't know. It's hard to explain why."

Harry nods and by the time he finishes his breakfast it's time for first hour. The rest of their morning is uneventful, they finish lunch early to gather their materials and get to Charms on time, and everyone manages to do the levitation spell. In Defense against the Dark Arts Professor Quirrell just kept stuttering the different groups of creatures and which creatures fell into which category, but Harry can only think that it would be easier to learn and that they would have learned more by now if Quirrell wasn't always so nervous.

Looking around the room Harry can tell the Professor is paranoid as well, since the entire room is littered with garlic. Apparently Quirrell had a run in with vampires once, and now he's determined to make all the students sweat garlic juice. He shakes his head. No. It would take more than just the smell to sweat garlic, but the smell will certainly be sticking to our clothes.

Harry and Draco manage to get all their homework finished within an hour, so they spend the rest of the time they have before dinner roaming the halls. Draco wants to see if he can find where the other houses are, "You see. It will be easiest to find Gryffindor's, because they're so reckless they not only say where it is but sometimes also reveal the password whenever they're telling their heroic tales." Malfoy had air quotes around "heroic", insinuating that whatever they did was anything but that.

They walk up the enchanted stairs, which randomly switch direction, until they find themselves in non-magical halls below the west tower. They walk towards where Malfoy says the portrait of the fat lady should be, but as they do so they run into Hermione. "Oh. Hey. What are you two doing up here?"

Harry tells the truth, "Draco wants to find where all the houses are located."

Draco hits Harry on the shoulder, "We'll never be allowed to find it now."

Harry rubs his shoulder, "What was I supposed to say."

"I don't know," complains Malfoy. "How about we're just roaming around to explore the castle, which we are."

Hermione smiles, "Curiosity killed the cat."

"Wait. What cat," asks Malfoy, only a little panicked. "Surely not Filch's cat."

Hermione gives Draco a 'seriously' look, while Harry comments, "It's just an expression. It means that being curious can get you into a lot of trouble."

Draco huffs off his previous reaction, "Huh. And I suppose it's those muggles who came up with it?" Hermione nods, so Malfoy shakes his head and jeers, "Sounds about right. Those people can't make anything make any sense."

Hermione gives a half surprise, half irritated look, "My parents are muggles."

"I know they are. You—you—"
"If you call her a mudblood," inserts Harry. "Then it will be you who gets hit next."

Malfoy just shakes his head but keeps his mouth shut; however, Hermione asks, "What's a mudblood?"

Harry takes a moment to respond, "It means someone who's muggle-born. I hear the word tossed around a lot in the Slytherin house, so it's hard to tell if they're only saying it because it's what they're used to or if they're purposely using it, but it seems to be a rather mean word when it's used.

Hermione looks at Draco with hurt, "And you were going to call me that?"

"Does it matter," questions Draco. "It just means dirty or tainted blood, which yours is. No pureblood could ever marry you, had they even wanted to."

A tear falls from Hermione's eyes, "You're mean and just plain cruel. You know that?" Draco doesn't do anything and keeps an even expression upon his face, so she continues to Harry, "And you. You support this?"

Harry firmly shakes his head, "No. I don't support any of it."

She just shakes her head as she tries to calm her breathing, "Whatever." She wipes the tears from her face, "I have somewhere I need to be anyway."

Harry turns around to watch her march down the hall and calls out, "Good luck with the study group." She freezes in her tracks but then hurries on, only a little less angry than before.

"You're still not going to apologize," recounts Harry angrily.

"For what," Draco nearly yells. "For stating the truth? I didn't even really call her one. You stopped me before I could, and even if I had done it there would be nothing to apologize for." Harry's about to speak, but Malfoy continues in fury, "The blood of a muggle-born is the most impure blood there is. If my father knew I even had a semi-decent conversation with one—" He shakes his head and places a hand over his mouth, before he takes a large breath, "Blood purity is only important to those of the pureblood status. Calling her a mudblood isn't insulting her intelligence or hygiene. It's just used to encourage purebloods not to connect with them."

Harry shakes his head, "To Hermione this mudblood thing goes deeper. She will consider it an insult to her intelligence and conclude it to the assumption that she would have a lower magical ability." Draco doesn't speak. "You need to admit what you did was wrong and go apologize to her. Now."

Draco shakes his head, "I don't have to take any of this from you." and stands from the table.

He starts to walk off, but Harry demands, "Where are you going?"

Draco turns around only for a moment, giving a smug look, "It's Wednesday. We have Transfiguration all afternoon. I need to do better than last time."

Harry's mouth slightly gapes open, not really believing what he's seeing, "What about lunch?"

Malfoy glares at the food-filled table, "I don't need any of that rubbish." before he turns and storms out of the hall.

Harry takes a breath and looks around, wondering if any of that had made a scene. He sees only a few people from each table bothering to pay attention, but one of those people are Hermione. They share a look and although it seems he himself has been forgiven, he can't be sure if he is completely, and he knows Malfoy still hasn't earned it yet. If he even wants it.

- After reading chapter 9 of The Sorcerer's Stone, I realized that the way it's described it seems that the Charms classroom would actually be on the third floor. Because of this, I changed the beginning from "back up ten flights, to back up eight flights." Sorry for the mistake.