"Do you understand?" Jamie asked.
His voice was not loud, but it cut through the corridor with a cold sharpness that made Draco's breath catch. The boy lay on the floor, staring up at Jamie's polite smile as if he were looking at something far worse than an angry classmate.
"I… I understand," Draco whispered.
His voice was so small it was almost swallowed by the rattle of the train. His pride had nearly collapsed, and if time could have turned back, he would never have come looking for Harry Potter in this compartment.
"I didn't hear you," Jamie said, casually digging at one ear with his little finger. He did not raise his voice, but the pressure in his gaze grew heavier. "Say it louder."
"I understand," Draco said, forcing his voice up.
"Still too quiet."
Draco's face crumpled. The fear and humiliation had mixed together until he could barely hold himself steady, and for the first time in his life, his family name did nothing for him.
"I understand!" he cried.
"That's better," Jamie said, lowering his foot from Draco's chest. "A child who knows when he's wrong can still be corrected."
With a smooth wave of his wand, he lifted Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle from the floor. The three boys landed unsteadily on their feet, but none of them looked ready to continue the argument.
Crabbe and Goyle huddled behind Draco with their broad shoulders pressed together. They might not have been clever, but even they understood fear when it was standing right in front of them with a wand.
"What is going on here?"
A teenage boy appeared in the corridor, walking toward them with a serious expression. He had red hair like Ron, and from the polished badge pinned to his chest, it was clear he was a prefect.
"I'm a Gryffindor prefect," Percy Weasley announced, straightening his back and lifting his chin. "If there is a problem, you may explain it to me."
He tried hard to sound dignified. Unfortunately, his face was still too young, and his stiff, self-important manner made him look more like a boy pretending to be a professor than someone with real authority.
"We're fine," Jamie said with an easy smile. "We were only joking around. Isn't that right?"
His gaze slid toward Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle.
"Yes," Draco said quickly. "Yes, just joking."
He did not dare look at Jamie directly. The fear had sunk deep, and the earlier arrogance had vanished from his face as if it had never existed.
Crabbe and Goyle nodded in silence. They were used to following Draco's lead, and since Draco did not dare speak out, neither of them had the courage to say anything different.
"If there is nothing wrong, then return to your compartments," Percy said, making his face stern. "Students should not be wandering the train causing trouble."
"Yes, Prefect," Draco muttered.
"You may go," Jamie said. His smile remained pleasant, but his eyes reminded Draco of everything that had just happened. "And do not forget what I told you."
"Yes… yes…"
The three boys left at once, almost stumbling over one another as they hurried down the corridor. They did not look back, moving as if something dangerous might chase after them if they slowed even for a second.
Jamie watched them go, then returned to the compartment as calmly as if nothing unusual had happened. The door slid shut behind him, and almost immediately, Harry and Ron leaned toward him with wide eyes.
"Jamie, that was brilliant," Ron said, unable to hide his excitement. "You should've seen Malfoy's face. He looked like he was about to cry for his mum."
Ron felt deeply satisfied. If Jamie had not acted first, he would have wanted to punch Malfoy himself, especially after what Malfoy had said about his family and Hermione.
"Jamie, that wasn't right," Hermione said seriously.
Her face was still a little pale, but her voice carried the firm tone of someone trying to hold on to what she believed was proper. "Malfoy said horrible things, but we still shouldn't hurt classmates or frighten them like that."
"Hey, have a little sense," Ron said at once. "Jamie did that because Malfoy insulted you. Do you even know what that word means?"
"I know it was meant to be insulting," Hermione said, frowning. "But that still doesn't mean we can just attack people. What exactly does it mean?"
"It is a very ugly slur," Tyler said before Ron could answer too heatedly.
His voice was calm, but the friendliness in his eyes had faded. "Some pure-blood families think they are above everyone else. They use that word for Muggle-born witches and wizards to suggest their blood is somehow dirty."
Hermione's expression changed. She had grown up in the Muggle world and knew enough about cruel language to understand the kind of word Tyler meant, even if wizarding prejudice had its own history and shape.
"In Muggle terms," Tyler continued, "it is the kind of insult decent people do not use unless they want to show everyone exactly what they are."
Hermione's face tightened. She looked down at her hands, and her earlier certainty wavered as she realised the insult had been worse than she first understood.
"Now you know why Malfoy went too far," Ron said. "If Jamie hadn't stepped in, I would have wanted to give Malfoy a proper lesson myself."
"But even so," Hermione said quietly, "hitting people still isn't right."
She sounded less forceful now, but she still clung to the idea. It was not hard to understand why. Hermione had grown up in a normal, safe household, where problems were solved by adults, school rules, and proper behaviour, not with wands and threats in train corridors.
Her thinking could not change in a single afternoon. Like anyone suddenly pulled into a different world, she still carried the instincts and morals of the world that had raised her.
"The wizarding world is not always peaceful," Tyler said. "You should have read the Daily Prophet. You know what happened in Diagon Alley during the summer."
"Yes, I know about that," Ron said quickly. "Diagon Alley was badly damaged by a dangerous dark wizard. Gringotts was attacked too, and I heard several goblins died."
Ron spoke with more knowledge than most first-years would have. His father worked at the Ministry of Magic, in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, and the Weasley family often heard bits and pieces of news that had not yet reached ordinary students.
"I know about it too," Harry said. "I was there."
Everyone turned toward him.
"Hagrid had taken me to the Leaky Cauldron," Harry continued, remembering the confusion and fear of that day. "Then Professor Quirrell and Hagrid were attacked by a dark wizard. I didn't understand everything that was happening, but it was terrifying."
Hermione's eyes widened, and Neville clutched Trevor a little tighter. Neither of them had expected Harry's first encounter with the wizarding world to involve anything like that.
The conversation quickly opened from there. Ron added what little he had heard from his family, while Hermione began asking careful questions about the Prophet reports and the Ministry's response. Neville spoke less than the others, but even he occasionally added a hesitant comment when he remembered something his grandmother had said.
Harry listened closely whenever the others mentioned Diagon Alley or dark wizards. He still knew so little about this world, but it was becoming clearer by the minute that magic was not only wonder, flying owls, and enchanted trains.
"Hey!" a cheerful voice suddenly called.
The compartment door slid open again before anyone could answer. A pair of red-haired twins squeezed in.
.....
Join my p@treon and read ahead by more than 60+ chapters.
Link : [email protected]/InfinityWeaver
Free members can read the next two chapters for free on my p@treon