Hallway near the Clock Tower

Fry walked along here, completely mad. "What's his problem... stupid... Who does he think he is..." Fry mumbled and pressed his shoulder against the wall and bit his lip. "It's so unfair..."

Holly came around the corner, and walked up to him. "Hey... Fry... what's wrong?" she asked softly. "You look... upset. Angry."

"Nothing. Just... I hate Antonio."

"Why? What'd he do?"

"He- he called me a mudblood, and was going on about- God, what does it matter?! He's out of my life now."

"He did WHAT?" Holly's eyes widened, but she didn't raise her voice. "Awwh, Fry." She hugged his arm and rested her head on his shoulder. "Gosh, what's wrong with him and Karin? They're both acting like stuck-up assholes lately. Maybe it's some Italian Pure-blood thing."

"Hah," he said drily. "Yeah, must be that. But, I thought he was my FRIEND. We were friends since- since first year, and now he's gone off and... What happened?"

"We've grown up," she said simply. Then after a bit of thought, she added, "and during first year You-Know-Who was gone. He wasn't rising to power. Things were relatively happy, and innocent, and... carefree. But now You-Know-Who is taking over and there's a lot of prejudice against Muggle-borns, and a bit against half-bloods."

"And half-breeds, too. I hate it, though. My best friend? I just hope Eric doesn't go and do the same thing..."

"Eric wouldn't," Holly said, maybe a bit too fast. "I--you guys are friends, and I just know he wouldn't do something like that. He's not a pompous, pure-blood Slytherin like Antonio is. Antonio's a pure-blood, Fry. It's sad, but nowadays, the pure-bloods think they're superior."

"Well, it's not fair. If you were there, you'd understand... I guess I said some bad things too, though. I don't think Karin meant it."

"I wish I was there," she mumbled, squeezing his arm. "What did they say?"

"Well, Antonio said I was unclean, and I smelled bad, and other things. I just wanted to punch him off the clock tower."

"Oh my gosh. That's horrible!"

"Exactly." Fry pulled away and leaned against the wall harshly.

Holly looked down at her shoes, and folded her hands behind her back. "It's terrible. What people say against Muggle-borns. Just because their parents aren't witches and wizards doesn't mean they're worse than Pure-bloods or Half-bloods. It just makes them more... unique."

"Why does blood even matter? Why isn't this crap happening to Robin and Kelsi?! They're muggle-borns, why am I getting all the blame?! I'm going to go kill that freaking bastard."

"Fry, you can't kill him!" she raised her voice slightly, sternly. "If you do you're just stooping down to his level! Even though Antonio's a jackass, he doesn't deserve to be killed and I would never forgive you for that!"

"Whatever. I just hope this whole mess will cool down."

"As do I." Holly stared off, away from Fry, biting her lower lip.

"Can I just go and screw up his face?"

"No." Holly replied crossly, folding her arms over her chest.

Fry sighed heavily. "It really hurt, when he said that..."

"I know, it must have." Despite him having pushed her away just a few minutes ago, she went over and latched onto his arm again.

Fry, this time, hugged her. "I'm so happy to have someone supportive like you, Holly. I'm just really annoyed right now."