Finding The Light

Trick or Troll (edited)

It was hard to believe we'd been at school two months, but the pumpkins and Halloween spirit proved it. The Slytherins seemed rather excited about the holiday every time i passed through the common room but i kept myself away from their schemes. 

In charms we learned we'd be making things fly - well float really - so of course, everyone was excited. Flitwick separated us into teams and I had a bad feeling as the professor got closer to my name.

"Parkinson and Patil, Finnigan and Potter, Granger and Weasley, Malfoy and Sparrow-"

I didn't hear any more than the bang of my head hitting the table and Ron and Harry's loud 'what!'s.

"Quick quick, into your pairs so we can get started," Flitwick encouraged.

Groaning, I moved and sat next to the blonde but received a glare.

"Ooh I'm shaking in my little booties," I taunted.

"Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic word properly is very important, too - never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest," Flitwick warned.

I knew I could levitate stuff, so I abandoned my little feather and sat watching Malfoy try and fail, then suddenly Flitwick began clapping.

"Oh, well done! Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"

I glanced over to Hermione who was grinning up at her floating feather, while Ron lay on the table in a huff beside her. Clearly she'd just outdone him.

"Stupid mudblood," Malfoy muttered, and tried again.

"Mudblood?" I asked. "What's that?" 

Malfoy rolled his eyes, not explaining and I shrugged it off - or tried to anyway. It stayed at the front of my mind, poking and prodding at me to find out what it meant. It sounded familiar, but i couldn't rememberer where i had heard it.

Trying to move past it, i did the spell and up up up went my feather. Flitwick gave Hermione and I both five points as Malfoy started swearing at his own feather, which wouldn't budge.

There was an explosion somewhere to our left and I let out a yelp, jumping far away from a soot-covered Seamus. I knew he had a knack for blowing things up but a feather? How do you even blow up a feather?

My eyes moved back to Malfoy as he tossed his wand down in anger, and the word 'Mudblood' popped back to the front of my mind. Normally I wouldn't bother with him, but I was curious.

"So what does that word mean?"

"Dirty blood," he spat, glaring at me, "It's what we Purebloods call those with muggle parents, they're practically muggles themselves," he smirked over at me, "Like you."

"Whoa there b*tch," I said, "Just because I'm an orphan does not mean my parents were muggles. We went over this at flying lessons. Not that I really care how you insult me, i just prefer you to be accurate about it. Otherwise you just look stupid."

"Yeah i know," he rolled his eyes, huffing slightly, "You're a Sparrow, i know what that means."

"Are you calling me a bird?"

"How stupid are you?" Malfoy asked, raising an eyebrow at me, "The Sparrow family is one of the most prestigious pure blood lines. Then again I heard they all died out, so maybe you're not one of them after all."

I joined Hermione on the way out of class, still confused by what Malfoy had said. We were a few feet from Harry, Ron, Seamus and Dean, babbling about the lesson when Ron's words reached us.