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Power of Polyjuice Outtakes
Outtake 9

The Essay
By stealacandy


Disclaimer:

The one with the power to make money off Harry Potter stories will be born as the seventh month dies. Scorn to those who outperform her. And she will have the power of attorney, to sue anyone else, for neither can profit while the other writes on. The one with the power to make money of Harry Potter stories would be born when the seventh month dies...

I was born in January.

Hence, no profit made, no money earned, nothing ventured, nothing gained, la di da.

Summary:
Severus Snape gives Draco Malfoy a detention. Things all go downhill from there.

The Essay
By stealacandy







"Shut up, Mudblood!" Draco yelled.

"Detention, Mr. Malfoy!" said professor Snape, appearing from around a corner.

"Professor?" asked Draco, bewildered.

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy?"

"You gave me a detention?"

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy."

"For saying 'mudblood' to the mudblood'?"

"Do you perhaps wish to receive more detention, Mr. Malfoy?"

"No sir."

"Then you will cease using that word. Now, here is what you will be doing. You would be scrubbing floors for Filch everyday of the week-"

"What???"

"For the next four weeks."

"WHAT????"

"However," continued the professor, "I have an alternative for you."

"Oh?" Draco wondered aloud.

"You could, instead, write me an essay."

"An essay?" asked Draco. Snape was giving him homework?

"Indeed, Mr. Malfoy. You are to write me an essay explaining, truthfully, indisputably, in exactly why and in what ways Pure-blooded wizards and witches are better than mud- muggle-born ones."

"Really?" asked Draco, surprised, while it was now the mudblood Granger's turn to cry out a shocked "What???" 'That shouldn't be too hard,' thought Draco. 'Everybody knows Mudblood are worth nothing, I'll just wrap it around in some nice words, and the professor would be satisfied.'

"Furthermore, When you write the essay, I will publish it and have all the students read it. I'm sure your father, if nothing else, would be proud of you."

Draco smirked, his smirk only growing at the look of outrage on the mudblood''s face, as she practically shrieked a voluminous "WHAT". 'So that's the old fox's plan,' he thought. He would have a legitimate way to teach all the mudblood their proper place, and attribute it all to Draco's work. Indeed,' he thought. 'Father WOULD be pleased."

"I would take the essay, professor," said Draco, smirk turning into a full Cheshire-cat grin.

"Good. However, there is a catch. You can take your good time for writing the essay, and any time you wish to,m you can come to me and ask to replace one punishment with another, and go scrub floors like a squib. However, for each day you dally in writing the essay past the coming Friday, a week would be added to your punishment. Is that acceptable with you?"

Draco considered it. Snape was playing game, no doubt to appear like he was impartial and fair to the old muggle-loving fool, to whom the mudblood bitch was sure to complain. The old headmaster must have come hard on the Slytherin Head-of-House to reign in his students. Coming to a decision, he said: "Yes, professor, that is acceptable."

"Good." said the professor. "Now, to seal the bargain, you will take an unbreakable oath to uphold these terms. Mu- Granger, you would do the honours?"

"WHAT????" the mudblood shrieked again. "But professor, you can't make students take unbreakable vo-"

"SILENCE!" bellowed Snape with his trademark sneer, in comparison to which Draco's own paled. "That would be fifty points from Gryffindor for talking back to your betters! Now you will stay quiet and do as you are told or you would get the same punishment as Mr. Malfoy!"

Draco had some reservations against taking an Unbreakable Vow, himself, but he was not about to argue with his professor when he was in THIS mood. 'Boy, the old muggle-loving fool must REALLY have come down hard on him this time to make him so angry.' Draco thought. 'That or Longbottom blew up the entire potions laboratory for a change. Anyway' he surmised, 'How hard can it be to write exactly what makes anyone born into a pure-blood family better then someone born to muggles?' And so he agreed, and so the three of them held hands - Draco wasn't all to keen to take the mudbllod's hand in his own, but there was little he could do about it - and Draco made the vow to take the punishment as agreed upon before.

"Good," said professor Snape with a satisfied smile - which didn't look very comforting on his strict face - oh no, not at all!

"Off you go, run over to the library, get a head start."

And Draco was off.

"Well, what are YOU waiting for?" asked Snape, giving Hermione Granger a dangerous look. She, too, was off, muttering about bad professors under her breath.

As the corridor cleared, professor Snape collapsed to the floor, cackling madly, laughing his head off. Then he collected himself, and made his way to a broom closet, scaring the shit out of the Hufflepuff couple snogged inside with his evil laughter and sending them to report to Filch to clean the Astronomy Tower. When they were gone, he went inside the closet, closing the door behind him.

In his office, adjacent to the classroom/lab, professor Severus Snape sat, muttering to himself. Once again, someone was pilfering his boomslang-skin supplies!



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Author's Note:

Hi!

I got this idea for my Power of Polyjuice fic, only I didn't know who to use as the victim of the plot. I thought of using it backwards and making it Draco Malfoy, but it wouldn't have worked, he plays his part already. As do Blaize Zabini, the Gorilla Duo, and Theodore Nott, as soon as I get around to write his own gruesome death, too.

As for the girls, Daphna, Tracy and Pansy hook up with Harry, Millicent Bulstrode hooks up with Percy. So I'm out of villains in Hogwarts-student-age.

So I finally decided to make it a stand-alone one-shot story, and post it here, with this note to clarify it stands alone and does not corespond with the rest of the outtakes, let alone the original story.

The idea is, of course, that Draco can't write the essay, because there isn't any difference between pure-bloods and muggleborns. Only he would be to proud to admit it, at first, and so go on looking for something to write. Then he would go out of fear of what Snape would say if he came to him to take the cleaning instead, when it was obvious Snape wanted the essay and saw it not as a punishment but as a reward for his favourite. After all, everyone KNOWS pure-bloods are SO MUCH BETTER, how hard can it be?

Then he would grow more desperate, at the thought of what his father would say if he found out his son couldn't even come up with a single reason pure-bloods are better. Later on he might actually turn to his father for help, out of sheer desperation, as it's either that or taking what must be a full year of cleaning floors the muggle way, which he can't turn back on, having given an oath not to turn back on the 'punishment'. His father would get involved, first in trying - futilely - to justify his agenda and ideals in a way that would stand to an objective judge as the magic of the vow, and then perhaps in trying to get Snape into trouble for doing it to his son - Snape of course knew nothing of it - and then, desperate he might lose his magic/life/mojo/whatnot, Draco would be forced, in the end, to admit he can't find anything to write about, and take to scrubbing the floors for a couple of years, with Ron congratulating him on his caretaker-trainee position just to rub it in.

That is, of course, assuming he doesn't find anything to write about. Imagine he actually does come up with something?

To any who worry, by the way, whomever it is that impersonates Snape in this scene, he does not have the authority to punish students, hence the vow - and for that reason he could take a million-gazillion points from Gryffindor, but it would have no bearing on the school's point-system, as he doesn't have the authority or the power to grant or remove points.

And even if he did, it would still be worth it, just to see the little ferret squirm.

xxx

Well, if anyone can think of a way I can fit this into "Power of Polyjuice" or at least in the Outtakes, please write me to let me know.

Thanks,





mo



P.S. This is unbetaed, so I'm to blame for all the grammar and style defects that made their way into this story. Nevertheless, If anyone cares to beta-read this, I would be grateful.

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Review Replies:

Brian Arcis wrote:

Actually I have seen some very convincing arguments for the advantages

of being pureblooded; brought up in the WW so they know things others

have to learn as they go, political advantages, depending on the

author (magical power, hereditary abilities etc.) Of course that all

hinges on Draco having to brain cells to rub together.



Answer:

Being brought up in the wizarding world is not an inherited benefit - this is the old argument about nature vs. nurture. If you brought the muggle-borns in the wizarding world, or the pure bloods in the muggle world, then you would negate it. So it's not an inherent advantage pure-bloods have over muggle-borns. It is an artificial one.

Same goes for political advantage - it only derives from the fact the pure bloods more or less took over the government and, looking for themselves, practically barred anyone else from positions of power.

Magical power is obviously not inherited. Look at Voldemort. His father a muggle, his mother a witch so weak it wouldn't be amiss to call her a squib. And he himself, the most magically powerful Dark Lord in Lord knows how long.

Hereditary abilities? Well, the only one we know of from canon, is the ability to speak Parceltongue. Which, frankly, isn't all that great an advantage, and, furthermore, the only two wizards who are able to do so, are half-bloods, so it's not an advantage pure-bloods have, either.

The point was for Draco to come up with true, indisputable arguments, All of the arguments above are disputable - I just disputed them, proving them to be false.

So Draco is still in for it.



-mo

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"Brian Arcis wrote:

Actually I have seen some very convincing arguments for the advantages of being pureblooded; brought up in the WW so they know things others have to learn as they go, political advantages, depending on the author (magical power, hereditary abilities etc.) Of course that all hinges on Draco having to brain cells to rub together."

SlickRCBD wrote:

I don't know about hereditary abilities in canon, but you are correct that there are advantages that give purebloods and edge. First, the prejudice against muggleborns makes them have a harder time. Second, being raised with the concepts of magic, they should have an easier time learning. They also know things that the muggleborns have to play catch-up to learn. Also, you are correct about the political connections. Finally, there is evidence that the underage magic is not enforced in pureblood houses. Ginny was able to be taught how to cast the Bag Bogey hex, and Snape supposedly learned some dark magic before Hogwarts. They get to use and practice their spells, the mudbloods get warnings from the Ministry, and if they are particularly annoyed, brought before a full meeting of the Wizangamot and put in a rigged trial. The purebloods know the customs and laws better than the muggleborns, and can use them to their advantage.



Answer:

Indeed, but none of these are a born ability or advantage, all of them derive from being raised as a pure-blood and into a pure-blood family and pure-blood society and pure-blood-dominated community in general.

The 'detention' required Draco to find some way in which pure-bloods are actually better by nature. In fact, I had all those things you've written in mind, and more, and thought it made it even better: If Draco, is his search for the truth of the matter, realized that any advantage pure-bloods have is actually artificially manufactured by pure-bloods for pure-bloods, it would be even more an unsettling and humiliating experience for him, as he would be forced to admit that not only did his beliefs didn't hold to the test of reality, but were enforced by people like his father with a series of lies, which meant they must have known the falsity in their claims, and set to make them true anyway.

And if he actually wrote it down and served it to Snape... well, objectively, he wouldn't have fulfilled the terms of his vow, and Snape might wonder what exactly did Draco think when he wrote that pure-bloods maintained a false advantage over muggleborns by a series of unjust and bigoted laws and traditions...



-mo



SlickRCBD wrote:

While that is true, but he wouldn't phrase it that way. He'd simply point out that after leaving Hogwarts, it is the pureblood wizards who generally succeed. The purebloods who rise to the highest positions, get the promotions, and generally the highest paid jobs while the muggleborns either leave or wind up as dregs. Therefore, it proves that the purebloods must be better, since they are the ones who succeed in life. Never mind that it is because of discrimination, it would not be in the paper. Only results-oriented statistics. It doesn't matter if it was because of artificial reasons like discrimination, just as long as he proves they are better. Having such advantages does make them better in their current society as it stands, and would fulfill the oath as quoted.

Answer:

Draco is looking for proof, not that pure-bloods MUST be better than muggleborns, as you put it, but that they, in fact, ARE.

The quote you quoted said "in what ways pure-blood... ARE BETTER THAN..." - not ARE BETTER OFF THAN.

They actually have to be better in something.

So the most he could claim would be they are better in moving smoothly within the circles of their own society of other, like-minded pure-bloods, which is hardly an achievement to boast of, and that, too, only because they actively enforce a policy of barring everyone else. So we're back where we started.



-mo

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"... So Draco is still in for it."

SlickRCBD wrote:

He'll still come up with the artificial reasons, and use statistics of purebloods getting better jobs (due to discrimination) and being the ones that get the highest offices and the highest pay. The purebloods are the ones who usually succeed in life, so obviously they are superior to the mudbloods.



Answer:

Draco was asked to explain, so showing statistics doesn't help him. And anyway, the explanation is self-evident - the [pure-bloods look after their interest and bar everyone else from success.

Which is probably not an opinion Draco would like to give public to, let alone associate with his name.



-mo





SlickRCBD wrote::

True, hence the oath. He has to show that they are better because the purebloods look after their own and have artificial advantages. Take them away and put them on an even playing field, and they aren't any better than the muggleborns. It is the same as why the educated Nobles were better than the uneducated common peasants in medieval times



Reply:

My point exactly.



Draco has a choice between admitting defeat and taking the (much extended) punishment, while swallowing the bitter pill and admitting his whole ideals of pure-blood superiority are nothing bot tosh and hogwash, or come up with something that casts his own social milieu in a (distinctively) bad light, suggesting his whole world is based on a lie.



It's a lose-lose situation. He is bald on both sides of the head, He doesn't eat the cake and yet it is not whole. he goes from the trap to the trapper, out of the frying pan and into the fire, in short, he is screwed, and yet it sucks to be him...



-mo

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