Topic 4 ~ Discrimination

Welcome to the fourth drabble thread in Remus's Reflections. This is the place you post drabbles about the topic posted. The topic is something both important and significant to the world around us and to the Harry Potter-verse.

Please keep drabbles under a PG-13 rating and remember that everyone doesn't have the same views, so be respectful.

Also, remember that DH spoilers must be preceded by a clear warning. If you have questions about what may be a spoiler and what may not then drop me a PM and I will help you.

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This thread's topic is: Discrimination.

Thank you, Laurskii, for the topic idea! (again!)

Happy drabbling!

Name: Josh, x2pttrclue32
House: Gryffindor
Title: Preceding an Encounter in a Courtyard
Warnings: None
Word count: 405
Notes: Characters names not mentioned for the sake of the story's abiguity, but I dropped hints.

Quote:

---

He stared at her from the opposite side of the courtyard during break. The long hair, those weird eyes, that maddeningly calm demeanor. Ravenclaws…who needed them. Brains, good marks, school. How pathetic they were. And especially this one. He took in her appearance once more, and looked away in disgust.

-----

She looked over her shoulder suddenly. She could have sworn that boy over on the opposite side of the courtyard had been looking at her. He was now looking at the statue that stood next to him. He was a Slytherin of course. She could tell by the way Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas gave the rather stringy boy a scornful look as they passed. But, she wondered as she continued to gaze at him, what had he done? She returned to her magazine.

-----

Gryffindors...they were all the same, all brave and courageous. As if, he thought bitterly. Just like the Ravenclaws: who needed them? Slytherin house was clearly superior to–

That girl was just looking at him. That girl was just looking at him. That Ravenclaw girl was just looking at him. How very creepy. Why should she look at him? Weirdos, the lot of them. But of course, he had been looking first.

-----

She felt as if she should talk to him, as if she should break the barrier. But would he talk back? He was, as she had already established, a Slytherin. She was a Ravenclaw. And Ravenclaw talking to a Gryffindor or Hufflepuff was fine, but a Ravenclaw to a Slytherin? That was not normal. Even she, who -- she knew -- people considered to be as “not normal” as possible, could not be entirely comfortable with talking with this stringy Slytherin boy. But perhaps…perhaps…

-----

That weird Ravenclaw girl with the long hair and the odd eyes was walking right toward him. Why? Why would he talk to her? She was a Ravenclaw. He was a Slytherin. A Slytherin. Members of these houses never speak. Never. But, he thought, why not? Because it’s not right, he answered himself. But she was getting closer. Maybe it wasn’t a bad thing. Fifteen feet away . But this was madness. Why was she going to talk to him? Ten feet. The logic in his head started to break down. Slytherin and Ravenclaw. Were they just names? Three feet. She was now right in front of him.

-----
-----

“Hello,” the girl said.

“…hello,” the boy replied.

---

5 points to Gryffindor. I was going to write a continuation/response to this, but I can't seem to make it work. Nice job.

Name: Cwiddy
House: Hufflepuff
Title: Fleeting Thoughts
Warnings: none
Word count: 178

Quote:

---

What did he think he was doing? He was a Slytherin! Why was he staring at her? She sat with her books spread out in front of her. He had also stated his position on Muggleborns on more then one occasion! Everyone knew that she was Muggleborn. What did he want from her?

The previous afternoon she had heard him in the courtyard talking down to a third year Muggleborn from Ravenclaw about how he was going to loose everything when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named took over. It made her skin crawl to think about such things. She had to flee the library because he was sitting across the room staring at her.

She sat in the Gryffindor common room and tried to forget the snake that wouldn’t take his eyes off of her in Potions class, either. He even received Snape’s wrath for not paying attention. It takes a lot for a Slytherin to receive a scolding from Snape!

She took a deep breath and turned back towards her Astronomy scroll. She needed to complete this before class that night.

---

Name: Kathyhermy123

House: Hufflepuff

Title: Towards Zero

Warnings: Erm... HBP spoilers?

Summary: A teenage girl's opinion of her brother's beautiful fiancee, who is everything that she is not. Interpreting 'discrimination' as 'hating someone for a physical quality' and having said 'physical quality' be beauty.

Word count: 279

Quote:

---

She looked up fearfully from her bed as the tall man stood above her. Then she sighed with relief. It had only been a nightmare, and the man was her brother. She reached out and hugged him. Then she looked behind him, and saw a beautiful woman enter. Her eyes narrowed. The woman was her brother's fiancee.

"Eez everything alright?" the woman asked.

The girl's eyes narrowed. No woman should be that beautiful.

"Fine."

And the counter starts ticking

***

He was back! The girl raced towards the room where her crush lay sleeping. But as she talked to him, her brother's fiancee slipped inside. The beatiful lady swept down upon the bed where the boy lay, kissing him on the cheek and bringing him his breakfast. The girl had to struggle to contain her dislike, even as the woman swooped down and kissed him again. After the woman left, she tried to laugh it off, tried to make it seem like she didn't mind so much.

Everything was fine. And that accent annoyed her.

tick, tick, tick

***

The battle had been fought, but her Headmaster had died. She had had the boy she loved, but he had left her. Her brothers had survived, but now she had...

A sister-in-law-to-be.

A beautiful sister-in-law-to-be, one that made all the boys she knew - including her now ex-boyfriend - blush. One that, instead of being a freckled, gangly, red-headed teenage girl, was an elegant, beautiful blond Frenchwoman.

Life was unfair sometimes, and it wouldn't take much now to make her explode.

"Ginny! Come to get fitted for your bridesmaid dress!"

The counter reaches zero.

---

Five points to Hufflepuff!

Name:hermybabay82
House: Gryffindor
Title: Seeds Of Hatred
Warnings: None
Word Count:356

As I followed him, I contemplated my actions that had brought me to this task. Had we not once been friends, Salazar and I? We had, the best of if I recall, but those days were by far gone. We now stood at odds over a matter I deamed of utmost importance. The matter of letting Muggleborns attend our esteemed school.

Rowena and Helga had both agreed that those who wish to learn our craft should be allowed to do so. Salazar would hear nothing of it.

I knew of his past and could sympathize with his circumstances. He had once told me the story of how a mob of Muggles had overtaken his father, snapped his wand, and hung him. Salazar had been merely eight years old and had been forced to watch. It had maimed him within his heart and soul.

"Show yourselves! If you do not, I will seek you out and you will pay for your cowardice!"

Damn, he had heard me. I had no other option than to confront him now. It was not the time of my choosing but it would work.

"Salazar, it is I, Godric Gryffindor. I mean you no harm. I merely wish a word."

"I have no time for Blood Traitors, Gryffindor. Be gone before I have need to punish you," he snarled with his wand at the ready, his green eyes glinting maliciously.

"As I said, I merely wish to speak with you. Rowena, Helga, and I wish for your return to Hogwarts. We were once friends, were we not? Let us lay aside our differences and our hate, and return to those happier days."

"Never! Not as long as your lot continues the education of the Mudbloods!"

The contempt in his voice and the hatred it inflected was proof enough for me that I would never be able to change this mans oppinion. Some people were ignorant to the strife of others and Salazar Slytherin was one of them. You can never teach them that the sins of the fathers should not bear punishment of the sons. Seeds of hatred, however shallow, run deep.

kehribar: This is very well written, however, the stress seems to be on Salazar himself rather than Discrimination. Three points to Gryffindor.

Name: Mistletoe
House: Slytherin
Title: Jobless Opportunities
Warnings: None
Word Count: 343

Quote:

---

Each morning, it was the same routine. Wake up, take a shower, make a cup of tea, search the paper for a job worthy of a werewolf.

“Desk job, doubtful. Ministry, they would never take me,” he muttered as he dragged his finger down the long list of wanted ads, occasionally circling the lowest end ones. “All right, off to be turned down once again. I can just hear it, ‘Now I see that you are a werewolf, Mr. Lupin. I don’t think we can have a staff member that must take off once a month like you would have to.’ Gone once a month my arse. Most people have vacation once a month…”

Shaking his head, he threw his cloak over his shoulders and stepped out his back door beyond his protective wards to Apparate to Diagon Alley.

Moments later, he appeared outside a small pub that was hidden down a side street, and noticed the ‘Help Wanted’ sign. Below it, it said, ‘maintenance work: clean tables, scrub floors and bathrooms.’

Letting out a sigh, he pushed the door open and walked inside the dimly lit, empty bar. The bar man looked up from cleaning glasses with a grungy rag and nodded a hello.

Remus walked up to him, taking in the dirty bar as he did so. “I’m here to apply for the job.”

The man looked him up and down. “A man like yourself shouldn’t be applying for a teenage boy’s job.”

Remus let out a low laugh. “Yes, I know. Here are my papers.”

He watched as the barman’s eyes skimmed over his information, and at the spot where all of the eyes stopped, his did as well. His eyes jerked back and forth a few times before they flicked up to Remus and back down to the paper to continue reading.

“I see. Well, I’ll keep your information and get back to you in the next few days. Thanks for coming in.”

Remus nodded his head politely and walked away from yet another job he did not receive.

---

kehribar: 5 points to Slytherin!
--Kat

Name: Weasleyboyfreak
House:Hufflepuff
Title: Homeless
Warnings: none
Word count: 398

Does Family discrimination count? Well here it is anyway! I hope you enjoy!

Quote:

---

It was dark. The heavy rain poured down on a sixteen-year old as he walked down a desolate street, a large trunk dragging behind him. He was homeless now, turned away by a family that he never fit into. Their ideals and traditions seemed to clash with his own beliefs.

The young man with dark eyes and black curls found himself soaked form head to toe, walking up the path to a large manor. The house was decorated with an array of reds and gold’s; Gryffindor’s colors. A timid hand reached for a large golden knocker on the door.

“Sirius?” asked a woman with jet black hair as she opened the door. Her grey eyes looked at him with surprise. “Come in dear, you must be froze!”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Potter,” Sirius started, pushing his wet locks out of his face.

“What on earth do you have to be sorry about?” she asked with a smile.

“I…”

“Sirius!” James interrupted with a large grin plastered on his face. “What are you doing here, mate? We weren’t expecting you for two more weeks!”

James could not hide his happiness despite his surprise.

“They kicked me out,” Sirius’ deep voice croaked. “I’ve been cut off from the family…”

He showed James the spot on his arm where the name ‘Black’ used to be etched into his skin. It was now replaced with a large scab.

James gapped at his friend for a minute, trying to take in Sirius’s horror story. He couldn’t fathom ever being kicked out of his family.

Suddenly, James turned to his mother. “Mum--”

“Of course,” she interrupted, a smile on her face, she had know the question was coming. “The boy practically lives here anyway!”

Sirius let out a sigh of relief. He finally felt like he fit in somewhere. It was a place where it didn't matter what his last name was.

“Thank you, Mrs. Potter,” Sirius beamed. He was answered with a nod and a smile.

“Help him get settled in, James.”

“Yes, Mum!” James answered, the joy radiating off the boy. He had always considered Sirius to be his long lost brother and now they could actually live like they were.

He quickly grabbed the handle of his best friends trunk. The pair disappeared up the stairs within a mater of seconds.

“Those two,” Mrs. Potter said, shaking her head with a smile.

---

Name: Gonz
House:Hufflepuff
Title: Slytherin Honor
Warnings: none
Word count: 313

Quote:

---

There used to be honor in Slytherin House.

That was his father had told him, but Scorpius wasn’t sure if he believed him. His father had claimed that when he was in school it had been a symbol of status and pride to be sorted into Slytherin.

But that had been before the Second War. That had been before a Slytherin had murdered a Headmaster, before a Slytherin had almost destroyed the Wizarding World, and before all Slytherins had refused to defend Hogwarts during the Final Battle.

Forget that Harry Potter himself had called Severus Snape a hero, it didn’t matter. In today’s world all Slytherins were evil and could never be trusted.

Outwardly, the teachers tried to stop such discrimination, but mere words couldn’t change what the teachers were thinking themselves. And the students…

The students were worse, and the Gryffindors were unbearable. Scorpius knew this all too well, because being the son and grandson of Death Eaters made him number one on their list of future mass murders.

Scorpius hated it. There were days when the insults and whispers just made him want to walk out of Hogwarts’ gate and forget about school, but his own pride stopped him. Yes, the very same pride that got him into trouble whenever Scorpius refused to put up with the Gryffindors any longer.

For Scorpius understood that his father was wrong. There didn’t used to honor in Slytherin House, there was still honor in Slytherin House. Scorpius Malfloy was living proof of that as he continued to walk through Hogwarts with his head held high regardless of the taunts that followed him. Scorpius couldn’t change what previous Slytherins had done, but he was in charge of his own actions and he had decided that he was going to live his life with honor.

Slytherin honor.

Let them try and take that away from him.

---

kehribar: Wow, that was really interesting. Five points to Hufflepuff!

Name: Noel Weasley
House: Gryffindor
Title: Not a Snake
Warnings: Very mild violence
Word count: 354

Quote:

---

I may be in Slytherin, but I'm no snake.

"Charlotte, come on. What are you doing?" Mandy asked, her eyes darting around. This was a Gryffindor corridor. Mostly Gryffindors roamed these halls.

"Mandy, do you think I belong in Slytherin?" I asked, embarrassed. Slytherins don't question their placement.

"Well, you're a pureblood, and most purebloods are sorted into Slytherin," Many said, rolling her eyes. "But your stupidity makes you a Gryffindor."

"Mandy, I don't know why I'm in Slytherin. I don't want world domination! I'm not evil! Muggleborns are nice! Some of them are my friends !I like friends, I'm socially active!"

"Charlotte, don't start."

"I don't want to work for You-Know-Who! I don't want that tattoo on me!" I said. I looked around the hall, making sure there were no Gryffindors listening. "I don't know why you even have it," I whispered.

Smack!

"Don't talk about that," Mandy growled.

I rubbed my face in shock. Mandy never got that defensive about her Mark. "Mandy..." I trailed off.

"I'll meet you back in the common room. And when you do get there, make sure you're a Slytherin!" She yelled as she walked away from me, her head held high.

"But," I whispered to myself. "What if I don't want to be a Slytherin." I slid down the stone wall.

I sat there for a few minutes, going over my thoughts.

"Are you okay?" A voice above me asked.

I looked up. A Gryffindor was standing in front of me. He probably heard me talking to myself, thinking I was crazy.

"Y-yes." I stuttered. The boy's eyes widened.

"What happened to your face?" He asked, staring at whatever mark Mandy left.

"Nothing, nothing happened." I muttered, looking down at my feet.

"Come on, lets go," the boy began to pull me up from the ground. "Lets take you- wait, you're a Slytherin," His voice changed dramatically. It went from warm to utterly cold.

"Yes, I am," I admitted.

"You're in Gryffindor's corridor." It wasn't a question.

"Yes, but-"

"Get out, Slytherin," the boy let go of my hands and left, leaving me standing in the corridor alone.

I turned around and walked the opposite direction, crying silently.

I may be in Slytherin, but I am no snake.

---

kehribar: Three points to Gryffindor.

Name: bluexroses
House: Slytherin!
Title: Snow and Yellow Scarves
Warnings: None
Word Count: 551 (after chopping it all down! :( )

Quote:

---

"10 points for Slytherin. Filthy cheaters, rotten--”

“Jordan!”

"Hufflepuff down by 140, only the snitch can save them now.”

The distant sounds of the Quidditch match echoed over the grounds, but she didn't notice. The match was just an opportunity for her to escape. She ambled through the snowy fields. She noticed smoke trailing from the chimney of Hagrid’s small hut. Though her housemates mocked him, she felt an understanding for the half-giant. Both stuck in a place they weren’t wanted.

She shivered as a crisp wind blew out over the lake, wishing she had dressed warmer. She turned and trudged back towards the castle. At least there’s a warm fire in the common room. She paused. Though most of her house was watching the match, some who didn’t care for Quidditch would still be there. A hard knot formed in her stomach imagining more contemptuous glances and scornful remarks. Instead she headed around nearer the Quidditch pitch.

Another draft of air came, nearly knocking her off her feet. She found a nook in the castle wall and sat down, curling her legs up.

***
He walked out of the pitch just as another cheer went up from the green half of the crowd. There was no point in staying; Hufflepuff was bound to lose.

Walking towards the castle, he was hit with a blast of wind. Tugging his collar higher and hat lower, he continued a little faster. It was the perfect day to curl up by the fire with a book.

As he neared the doors, he saw something small and black stuck in a crevice of the wall. Getting closer, he saw it was a girl, and she was curled up in a shivering ball.

“Er... hello?” he said cautiously.
She lifted her head. Her vacant eyes were bloodshot. He recognized her as a Slytherin girl from his Charms class.

Glancing down at his black and yellow scarf, she narrowed her eyes. A disgusting color, just like the house. “What do you want?” she asked icily.

“Oh, er... I was just wondering why you were out here, that's all,” he replied.

“What business is it of yours?” she said with the same bitter tone. Another biting wind made her shrink back into the crevice. “Just leave me alone.”

He took a step towards the castle doors, then stopped. Hesitating for a moment, he loosened the scarf from his neck and held it out. He winced as air attacked his face, “At least take this, it’s only going to get colder,” he offered.

Instantly her face contorted in anger as she sprang up. “I don’t need any pity or... charity! Especially from the likes of you!”

Startled and a bit hurt, he turned and walked away.
***
It only took one more severe blast from the wind to force her inside. Walking past a bare tree, head bowed against the snow, she felt something hit her face. Looking up she saw the black and yellow scarf stuck on a branch. She stared at it a moment, until a chill snuck up her spine and she grabbed it, wrapping it around herself. Warmth instantly spread back into her face and neck. She smiled into the soft fabric. Maybe yellow isn’t such a bad color after all.

---

kehribar: Three points to Slytherin.

~Ayesha