Harry had a question and a hypothesis on the wizarding world. In order to prove it however, he needed to gather evidence. And gather evidence he did.
The week after Harry had first thought of his question and made his hypothesis, this was what laid in the folder he presented to Hermione’s desk at the Ministry of Magic:
QUESTION: Why do so many purebloods dislike muggle-borns wixen?
HYPOTHESIS: Purebloods are scared of muggle-born wixen.
EVIDENCE:
Date: 04/09/2012
Pureblood: Neville Longbottom
The Incident: We had been walking down the hallway near the Hufflepuff common rooms on the way to the kitchen when we saw Ms. Moreau, a Muggle-born Hufflepuff second year, surrounded by a group of a few other Muggle-borns. She had been showing them a card trick.
I asked her if we could see as well, and she asked Neville to pick a card from the deck, went through all the steps of trick, and then held up the card on the top of the deck and asked “Is this your card?” When told that it was not the card Neville had picked, she laughed and said “If I may, there seems to be something stuck behind your ear Professor Potter.” She then pulled out Neville’s card from behind my ear, and her friends and I applauded her as Neville stared in shock, before the two of us continued our way through the halls.
As we left the group’s earshot, Neville, who was visibly shaken, expressed the following sentiment to me, “She just did a relocation spell. At the start of her second year! And did it wandless!” He looked a mix of confused and scared, and even after I had explained to him that it was simply a matter of being good at sleight of hands, he still looked off edge and I took pity on him and continued the rest of the patrol on my own.
Date: 14/08/2011
Pureblood: Draco Malfoy
The Incident: Malfoy and I had gone to meet with one of our new Muggleborns, to introduce and explain to them, as well as their parents, the concept of magic. While normally, I tend to go alone for this when you are too busy to go yourself, Draco had asked to tag along (I think he still feels guilty about everything, but he’s making an effort for what he had do as a kid, so it’s kind of sweet to see a 20 year-old have no clue what to do with an preteen.)
The meeting had gone better than most, the parents were understanding despite their concerns, and the young Mr. Ajwani was clearly enthusiastic about going to Hogwarts.
Like most kids, the boy had attempted a spell, and that’s when it went to hell. The seconds the words left Mr. Ajwani’s mouth Draco yelled and attempted to tackle me (Note: Draco would be horrible at rugby). At first I had thought that he had gone crazy, but then I realized that the “spell” Mr. Ajwani had attempted was “Abracadabra”, something which sounds a lot like a certain Unforgivable curse. It’s sweet that Draco tried to protect me, but it’s also concerning that he thought that an 11 year old could harbor the emotion to actually pull off an Unforgivable curse, especially the killing one. To be fair to him, it would be fairly concerning if someone who was just introduced to magic knew an unforgivable curse in the first place.
Once Draco realized that there was no green light and nothing had actually happened he had clambered off me with a red face. Like a bright red face. It was like if you gave a tomato a blond wig.
By the time I had explained the situation to Mr. Ajwani, who was on the verge of freaking out as well, Draco’s face went from being dipped in fire truck red paint to just a normal blush. I finished the rest of the visit and left them the school’s address if they wanted to mail any question (We should really invest in finding a magical equivalent to phones, it would make things so much easier).
Date: 08/04/2009
Pureblood: Ronald Weasley
The Incident: You were here for this one Hermonie.
You had been complaining about the lack of sense in the Wizarding government as Ron and I were helping you study for your law exam or something (why did you ask us for help again? You’re the one who helped us study for like nearly every test in school), and you brought up the lack of healthcare. I believe your exact words were something about “There is an entire section of St. Mungos that is dedicated to mishaps with Transfiguration, but nothing against the flu!”
I respond to this with “You would think that Ms. Pomfrey would schedule a few vaccine shots after looking at the lack of them in my medical file. I’m starting to think that they don’t have…” I had trailed off because Ron had been staring at me in confusion, and it suddenly dawned on me that the Wizarding World really did not have vaccines.
You, coming to the same conclusion, dropped the textbook you were holding (Merlin that thing was heavy, you scared Crookshanks with the sound). The following response you gave might have been due to the fact that you hadn’t slept in like 3 days (You really need to fix your sleep schedule Mione), but there are times where I am terrified of you. You had said, and I quote, “Are you telling me that we could have beat Voldemort with bloody Whooping cough !”
As your best friend I had taken it upon myself to support your endeavors, meaning that conversation that we had may or may have not fallen into a vague area of whether or not the ideas we had would violate the Geneva Convention (turns out biological warfare is against the Geneva Convention, who would have known?). Throughout this whole discussion Ron looked absolutely terrified and had excused himself midway through.
Date: 25/12/2012
Pureblood: Severus Snape & James Potter
The Incident: Headmistress McGonagall had given me a set of old textbooks belonging to my parents that she had recently found, as a Christmas gift. Notes in different handwritings (My mother’s handwriting referred to the other scripts as Dorcas, Marlene, and Mary) in Mum’s Year 6 Charms textbooks seemed to recount a series of events. Mum had her wand tampered with by some Death Eaters (I assume that’s what ‘That group of oily-arsed cowards who want to shag the Dark Lord’ refers to at least), but they had a dueling lesson that day, and instead of opting out, like I’m sure Professor Flitwick would have allowed, she walked straight up to Snape, punched him in the nose, then grabbed his wand and pointed it at his head, announcing ‘I’m a Mudblood. I’m also a bloody witch. Mess with my wand again, and next time I’ll kick you in the balls”. Dad’s notes, which had just been plans for pranks up until page 83, turned into gushing and doodles of “Lily Potter” and “James Evans” surrounded by hearts. It’s a little gross, since they are my parents, but it’s kinda sweet to know that Dad and I had the same taste (Though Ginny did go straight for the nards the first time someone insulted Luna) and that Mum and I have the same handwriting.
Final Deduction:
Due to muggle borns having to grow up without magic, they instead develop something referred to as ‘common sense’ and a basic understanding of science that most purebloods lack. This along with the representation of magic in the Muggle media means that while they may not have as much experience in a magical perspective, they make up for it with ingenuity and as mentioned prior, common sense. Because muggle minds are superior, purebloods use disregard to mask their fear. In conclusion, the reason many purebloods claim to hate muggle-born wixen is because they fear them and they lack the knowledge these wixen learn in muggle elementary school.