"So how have you liked England? I suppose it's quite the change from South Africa." Claudia cracked a smile. "England is certainly something else. You're all so proper here, I felt fancier after spending a week here." Joshua, Willow and Rowan laughed at Claudia's joke. When the laughter had died down, Melissa caught Joshua's attention with a poke, "Tiff and I are going to go look for the rest of the Ravenclaw team and talk strategies for the upcoming year. Think you'll be okay?" Joshua smiled, "Yeah we'll be okay. Go find your team, I bet they're dying to learn the move you came up with on the pitch back home." Melissa smiled and she, with a quizzical Tiff disappeared.
"You have a Quidditch Pitch back home?" Rowan shouted his question in surprise, making everyone jump. "Yeah", Joshua rubbed his ears, "My great times four grandmother built it after she became the first Hedley to join the England team. A lot of practices occurred there apparently." "Why do you say times four?" Claudia asked her question as she was confused. "Some wizarding family names have been around for a long time, Hedley's are one of them, the first Hedley was actually one of the first students at Hogwarts. Hedley children are also forced to study the family history, I could tell you more about my great-great Aunt Waltherese than I could tell you about myself."
Claudia and the twins laughed. Willow turned to Claudia and asked, "So how do you feel about being the first witch in the family? You scared about anything maybe?" "It's quite scary to be honest, I had a bit of a panic attack when I received my letter and this old man showed up afterwards to explain everything." "I'm so sorry to hear that." "It's okay, after I calmed down I became very excited. I mean, not having to do things manually anymore sounds amazing!" "Of course it would seem amazing to a mudblood."
The four friends jumped at the newcomer, a boy no taller than Joshua stood in the doorway of their compartment, the boy's skin was pale which made his black eyes more piercing. His black hair swept to one side of his head, covering the right side of his face. Joshua stood up slowly with a look of pure anger on his face, "What did you just say?" Joshua's fists were clenched, the newcomer didn't take notice, "You heard what I said, her kind is always fascinated with magic because it's a power they don't deserve." "What gives you the right to be all high and mighty?" Rowan had stood up as well now, backing Joshua." "I'm Caius Ferear, descendant of the noble pure-blooded house of Ferear and probably the most powerful wizard in our year." A voice in the hall interrupted Caius from continuing, "We haven't even gotten to the school yet and you're making a claim that bold?" Melissa stepped into view. "It's not a claim," Caius responded, "It's a fact." "Ooh, Mr Bigshot here." Claudia exaggerated. "I may not have wizarding parents like you do, but I was told by Professor Slughorn that I should be happy about my abilities, but he also told me to be careful as people like myself, what's the word? Mudbloods? Tend to be stronger than normal wizarding lines, and I still don't know how to control my power", Claudia had raised her index finger and was pointing it directly at Caius, "It'd be a shame if I suddenly lost control… Wouldn't it?"
Caius went cross-eyed looking at the digit pointing at his nose. He looked at them all again before saying, "You've all made a big mistake." With that Caius stomped off down the train. Everyone released a breath of relief and sat down. "I can't believe we found a supremacist in our year already." Rowan threw his hands in the air while Willow clenched her fists. Claudia who hadn't breathed that much during the encounter was taking deep breaths, "Sorry but what's a Mudblood?" Everyone froze at the sound of the word. Melissa took a deep breath and began to explain. "Claudia, since you're new to our world you won't know some of political and heretic activists in our world. You see, some wizarding families are quite big on keeping magic in strong family bloodlines. They have this ridiculous idea that you're only a true wizard or witch if you come from two magic parents. These are pure bloods, or so they claim. The next group are those who come from a muggle and a witch or wizard, these individuals are known as half-bloods. Finally, we have those who are ridiculed and shunned because they have no wizarding blood in their family lines at all, pure blood heretics enjoy calling these people Mu-…" Melissa struggled to bring herself to say it. "Mudbloods?" Claudia finished for her. "Yes, but the better and correct term is 'muggleborn', they're called the other name because they supposedly obtained their magic from another wizard, that they stole the magic, dirtying their human blood with magic blood. It's still a silent issue that's attempting to be alleviated, but it's slow going." There was silence in the car for a bit after Melissa's speech.
"Claudia." Claudia looked at Melissa, "Promise me you won't let them get you down if they tease you and call you that horrid word." "I won't let them." Everybody smiled at the optimism of the bespectacled girl, Joshua however, was glaring out the window silently, fuming at not doing more against Caius. "He'll pay for calling my friend that name… He'll pay."