Author's Note: Oh my goodness, sorry for the huge delay! I've been super busy with schoolwork and rehearsals. I just recently finished up performing, "Into the Woods," and I'm in another musical that has rehearsals evey day until at least 5:00. Now that one of the musicals is over, hopefully I can have more time to write this. I'll try to hurry up the next chapter, but I can't make any promises. Sorry again, and sorry that this chapter is kind of short
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"Come on, Hermione!" the youngest Weasley cried impatiently. Hermione sighed before picking up the pace to reach Ginny. That morning, Ginny had dragged Hermione out of bed, forced her to put some clothes on, then flooed her to Diagon Alley to get their school shopping done without comprehending Hermione's obvious disapproval. However, they were headed towards Flourish and Blotts for Ginny's textbooks she would need, and Hermione was actually excited. She hadn't been able to get any new reading material for quite some time, and she'd exhausted the few books she owned, reading each at least four time. Seeing the sign notifying their arrival, Hermione smiled slightly and practically ran towards the inviting doorway to the bookstore. She bounded inside the store and stopped in front of the rows upon rows of books. Closing her eyes, she inhaled the scent of the old pages, then let out a content sigh. Finally allowing herself a full smile, she walked towards the first shelf of books. "'Mione," Ginny spoke from Hermione's left. "I'm going to go look for the 7th year textbooks, alright?"
"Yeah, alright," Hermione said, only vaguely paying attention to her. She was too engulfed in the plethora of books waiting to be opened, read, even smelled in Hermione's case. She'd often wondered if smelling books was considered weird, but gosh, they smelled amazing. Picking a thick book from the shelf, Hermione slowly held it to her nose and sniffed its' pages, when she heard a snort from behind her. Quickly turning around to see who had laughed, Hermione somehow managed to slip and knock the feet out from under the culprit, who in turn, fell on top of her with a grunt.
"Watch it, Granger," snarled the voice. No, Hermione internally groaned. Why him? Hermione knew exactly who it was. Only one person called her Granger. One person whom she hated. And that one person was starting to get heavy.
"Malfoy, you may not look it, but you weigh a ton. Now get off," Hermione puffed out annoyedly. She shoved at his chest and rolled out from under him.
"Salazar, what is wrong with you? You sniff books and attack innocent bystanders. I'm starting to question how this whole, 'brightest-witch-of-her-age' title got started in the first place," Malfoy spat, dusting his shirt off. "And great, my favorite shirt, now I'll have to burn it. Can't have a diseased mudblood shirt now can I?"
Hermione was hurt. Malfoy had called her mudblood plenty of times before, but she was hoping the war would have changed some of the purebloods' outlooks on blood status. Just then, Ginny had come around the corner holding some textbooks. She was glaring at Malfoy who returned it with a glare of his own.
"Oh, joy. The Weaslette is joining in on the fun as well," he said, his lip curling in disgust. "Why don't you run along, and meet up with the rest of your blood-traitor family?"
"Shut up, Malfoy," Ginny hissed, stepping toward the blonde. Hermione quickly put her hand on Ginny's shoulder. She knew how violent the redhead could get, after all, the girl had 6 older brothers; and she took after Fred and George the most, which could get a little scary to think about.
"Let it go, Ginny. Who needs his opinion? He's just searching for an argument," she quietly said to the Weasley. "Don't give him what he wants."
"Give me what I want?" Draco asked incredulously. "If I got what I want, you along with every other filthy mudblood wouldn't be able to set foot in Hogwarts, or be allowed to even learn about magic for that matter. You don't deserve to own a wand."
That one really hurt. Hermione could feel the sting of tears start to fill up her eyes. One tear slowly rolled down her cheek, before she took a shaky breath. Ginny was about to start yelling at Malfoy, when Hermione's hand made contact with a certain Slytherin's cheek, resulting in a loud smack and an unflattering "oof" from Draco. "You have no right, absolutely no right, to say those things about me Malfoy," her words were dripping venom now. "You're just jealous because I've always been ahead of you in classes. How does it feel to be continually beaten by a muggleborn?" That being said, Hermione quickly turned away and walked out the door, leaving an astonished Malfoy, who was rubbing his face, and a proud Ginny to buy her books.
