Chapter 10- Mudbloods! Mudbloods Everywhere!
"Baldy, wake up and open your door this minute!" Malcolm Baddock woke up Saturday morning in a bad mood. Friday night, he had seen Dawn Parkinson, the girl he was supposed to protect from any Mudbloods, gazing at the Muddy Hogwarts' Champion. Pansy Parkinson had ordered him, weeks ago, to keep Dawn from any Mudbloods, but he was currently failing his job miserably.
Now, it was Saturday morning, and he couldn't track down Dawn in any of her usual places. She wasn't in the bathroom, her room; he'd even checked the rooms of two Mudbloods, and still he couldn't find her. The last place he could think of was the room of her good friend Leo Pasts, the Slytherin who only got in because he was afraid to face his family if he was placed in Gryffindor.
The door slowly inched open and the tired face of Leo Pasts appeared. It had been a few days since he had last shaved his head, and brown fuzz was beginning to appear. "Wha' d'ja wan'?" Pasts asked still not fully awake. "Is Sat'day."
"Where is Dawn?" Malcolm asked thrusting the door open the rest of the way, causing it to hit Pasts's face.
"Not in here Baddock," Pasts replied holding a hand to his head where the door hit him.
Malcolm surveyed the room and believed Pasts. This presented a new problem. He didn't know where else to look for Dawn. Moment's later her heard a beautiful voice floating in the hall. He turned around to see Dawn walk out of the room of the weird Asian girl from Ravenclaw, Stella Kuo.
"Dawn, m'dear," Malcolm placed an arm around Dawn's delicate shoulders.
"May I help you with something?" Dawn asked. She was headed toward the Dining Car.
"I was just looking for you," Malcolm said. "I need to keep track of you for your family. They would not be happy with me if you got into trouble."
"And by trouble you mean spending time with Muggle-Borns," Dawn knew him too well.
"Yes, exactly," Malcolm said. "I wouldn't want them to taint you. You have a name to keep up."
"As you can see, I was with Kuo," Dawn said. "She was helping me interpret a dream."
"And, what was this dream about?" Malcolm asked. "And the meaning?"
"If you must know," Dawn said rolling her eyes. Her evil smirk appeared; a smirk that meant she wasn't about to tell Malcolm the truth. A smirk that drove Slytherins mad with desire. "I dreamt about your naked body. Can I see if you really have a six-pack?" Dawn asked laughing.
"Nope," Malcolm said. "It's flat, but not any type of pack."
"Why isn't there any food?" Dawn asked.
"It's not even seven-thirty in the morning yet," Malcolm said.
"We have to eat in the palace from now on," Kuo said entering the Dining Car. Her black hair brushed her shoulders and she was wearing blue robes. She gazed at Malcolm's hair in disgust and walked onto the grounds.
"Maybe they'll serve pumpkin crepes," Dawn said. "I've heard they were really good. Want to go eat?"
"I'll go with you," Malcolm said, "but I don't think I'll eat." Malcolm opened the door for Dawn. He looked into her indigo eyes as she passed. He had never seen a Slytherin aside from her with eyes that smiled out of simple joys, like the thought of a steaming breakfast."
"Dipwads, wait for me," the high-pitched voice of Vidya Tummala rang over the grounds as the tiny Indian witch ran to catch up to her fellow Slytherins. Malcolm found Tummala funny at times, but was not the most exciting person to spend time with unless there was a Mudblood to make fun of.
"So what was your dream really about?" Malcolm asked to cover the silence that had appeared when Tummala finally had caught up with them.
"I was a fox," Dawn said. "And had to choose between rushing into a forest fire to warn my family to get them to safety, a journey that would have killed me probably, and following this other beautiful fox that promised to keep me safe and love me. I knew that if I went for my family, the other fox would recall his offer, and I didn't want that."
"And what did you end up choosing?" Malcolm asked.
"I didn't," Dawn said, "I didn't get that far." Dawn took a deep breath and Malcolm wondered if she was telling everything about the dream.
"What did Kuo say it meant?" Malcolm asked after a few seconds of silence.
"She said that I have a choice, either in my subconscious or in the near future that I will have to make on my own," Dawn said. "Probably between the old and the new. I think it might be between accepting my mom and sister as family, or my dad. I've decided to write him before next Saturday."
"That's an idea," Malcolm said hesitantly. Pansy had warmed him that she might try that and that he should stop her if she tried. "Are you sure it's the best idea? What if he turns out to be a disappointment? Wouldn't you rather have an image of him being a great man than learn he's not?"
"Pumpkin crepes," Dawn smiled ignoring his last comment. She took a seat next to a Beauxbaton's girl near the opening in the table. Malcolm took the seat next to her, leaving Tummala no where to sit. He looked at Dawn and knew she had only told him a partial truth. She was hiding part of her dream from him, and he was determined to find out what it was.
A few minutes later, he saw Kuo, sitting on the inside of the table near the opening, look up at the door. Her eyes stared at the door, and then turned to look at Dawn quickly, before she went back to her food. Malcolm turned his head to see the Mudblood, Dennis Creevey, walk in talking with their Headmaster. The two Beauxbatons students sitting across from Dawn and Malcolm had moved only a minute ago, so Dumbledore lead the Mudblood to those seats.
"Good morning Mr. Baddock, Miss Parkinson," Dumbledore smiled. "Good sleep, I trust?"
"Fine," Malcolm said through gritted teeth. Dawn nodded; her cheeks flushing like he had never seen before. Was it possible that she fancied the Mudblood?
"I had the craziest dream," Dumbledore laughed. "I was a much younger man, back before I was Headmaster. And I was climbing a mountain with my friend Nicholas Flamel. Well, we got to the top, and there was this house that was giving off the most delicious aroma. So we entered to find a party of Goblins and Werewolves, even though it was the middle of the day. Instead attacking us, the pulled us in and gave us a warm welcoming…"
Malcolm stopped listening and stole a glance at Dawn. She had stopped eating and was staring across the table at Creevey. The Mudblood was staring back.
"And in the end, it turned out to be Fang, Hagrid's dog."
"Wow," Dawn said, snapping back to reality. "That really is a crazy dream."
"Have any dreams lately?" Dumbledore asked Malcolm and Dawn. Apparently he had already heard whether or not Creevey had.
"I did, in fact," Dawn said. "You see, I was this fox, and I had to choose between running into a forest fire to save my family and following this other beautiful fox to safety. For some reason, I knew that if I tried to save my family, I would die, and if I followed the other fox, I would be loved."
Dumbledore's smiled curiously while Creevey looked at her unable to believe her. "That is an interesting dream." Dumbledore said. "And what did you choose?"
"I didn't," Dawn said. "I woke up."
"What would you choose if you were put back into your dream?" Dumbledore persisted.
"I don't know," Dawn blushed. "Probably the other fox. There was something about it that made me trust and believe it."
Malcolm flushed with anger. He coughed quietly and stood up. Dawn looked up at him and he stared back.
"I'm rather full," Dawn looked at Dumbledore and Creevey. "And I promised to spend the day with Malcolm for quality time that we haven't had since weeks before this trip. It was nice to speak with you Professor. Good day."
Malcolm led Dawn out of the hall, ready to interrogate her about her answer.