"Tsk, tsk. Just listen to that. Such righteous-sounding reasons."
Sorimus lifted a hand and pointed at Draco.
"Come on then, Draco. Tell me, how exactly are the Weasleys traitors and scum?"
Then he turned and pointed at Ron.
"And you, Weasley, you answer me too. Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, their fathers served that dark lord just like Lucius Malfoy did. And in Gryffindor, families like the Macmillans, the McLaggens, even the Longbottoms have had Dark wizards among them. Why don't you hate them too?"
"The Weasleys are close to Muggles, and they also..."
Draco did not get to finish.
"The Weasleys are not the only pure-blood family close to Muggles. Do you want me to give you a few examples? Diggory and Bones from Hufflepuff are close to Muggles too. Why don't you call them traitors and scum?"
Looking around at the circle of speechless faces, Sorimus let out a cold laugh.
"I imagine your families have been telling you since childhood, 'The Malfoys are all Dark wizards, so be careful of them,' or else, 'The Weasleys are all trash, don't associate with them.' Right? I'm not wrong, am I? You heard those things plenty when you were children, didn't you?"
He changed his tone.
"Now think about it properly, the two of you. You never had any personal grudge to begin with. It was simply drilled into you since childhood that the other side could not be trusted. Over time, even without a grudge, a grudge was born."
"The matter between your two families, I understand it better than either of you do. Honestly, the hatred between your families comes from a very long time ago. It ought to be put down already."
Sorimus paused, choosing his words carefully before continuing.
"The price that needed to be paid has already been paid. The losses that had to be borne have already been borne. What now? Do you intend for your children and grandchildren to go on exactly the same way? Meeting each other only to argue, annoyance turning into disgust, disgust fermenting into hatred. And after that? Hm? Are your two families preparing to kill each other all over again?"
"Sorimus, are you saying you know the reason the Malfoys and Weasleys hate each other?"
Hermione had been listening with her ears practically standing up the whole time. She could see that Sorimus was trying to resolve the bitterness between the Malfoys and the Weasleys, or at the very least, to ease the hostility between Draco and Ron.
"I do know. Their fathers know too."
Sorimus rubbed his chin.
"But I doubt either of them ever explained the whole story properly to their sons."
"Why?"
To Hermione, hatred ought to be handled one of two ways. Either you explained everything clearly: how the other side had wronged you, and why you hated them. Or you said nothing at all, so the next generation would not have to inherit the hatred. The way the Malfoys and Weasleys did things, constantly attacking each other while never explaining the full reason, simply felt absurd to her.
"It's a long story, Hermione. But I think you've gained a rough understanding of the wizarding world by now. So let me ask you this: how much do you know about the true history of wizards, I mean the era when ancient wizards fought for survival for the whole magical race?"
Sorimus threw Hermione a question that seemed to have nothing to do with what they had just been discussing.
"You mean that period when wizards fought all sorts of magical creatures and magical races, defeated them, and established the wizarding world?"
Ever since Hermione had learned she was a witch, she had taken a great interest in wizarding history. She read serious magic books too, of course, but even more than that she loved history, culture, strange anecdotes, and biographies.
Ancient wizards had lived miserably.
Well, for a certain stretch of time, at least.
Before the wand was invented, almost any race that possessed even a little magic could bully humans. Human wizards simply could not compare, in terms of magical talent, with creatures born already brimming with magic. And on top of that, there had once been many magical creatures, now long extinct, that fed on humans.
Fortunately, the wand was invented.
And after that came the development of offensive magic.
That meant wizards finally possessed the power to strike back.
Large numbers of spells were researched and applied in the wars between wizards and other magical races, and wizards began to seize a tremendous advantage.
Until they met theHigh elves.
The High Elves were a humanoid race, and they could be called the favored children of magic itself. Their theoretical lifespan was eight hundred years, and they were born already possessing magic. That meant their magical power far surpassed that of wizards.
For any magical being, the accumulation of magic depended on time.
Imagine it. A several-hundred-year-old elf fighting a human wizard only a few decades old. Given an elf's terrifying affinity for magic and the vast magical reserves accumulated over such a long life, how was a human wizard supposed to fight that? A wizard could not possibly match an elf in magical affinity. Even the weakest elf had been accumulating magic from the womb onward. By the time most elves were still toddlers running around in split trousers, their magic already exceeded that of most adult wizards. The modern house elves are only a watered down fallen offshoot of this race.
Fortunately, elves were far fewer in number than human wizards.
As the war went on, wizarding society gradually became more organized. The most important developments were the establishment of the Council of Elders and the founding of Scholomance.
In even earlier times, wizarding families taught the next generation in a simple way: one family excelled at Potions, another at curses, another possessed special insight into the use of magical power, another had mastered many spells. Several families would gather their children together, and each family would send someone to teach them.
That was the predecessor of Scholomance.
If the establishment of the Council of Elders united the wizards into a clenched fist, then Scholomance was the force that hurled that fist outward.
Yes, human magical talent was poor. Their affinity for magic was lacking. Their bodies were fragile. Their lifespans were short. All of that was objective fact.
But humans had strengths too.
Endless desire.
And overwhelming reproductive ability.
In the unending wars, most magical races were defeated. Some were even exterminated by wizards. But the elves endured, and through the war, both elves and wizards learned a great deal from one another.
The elves' unique magic was later studied by wizards and eventually gave rise to the Imperius Curse. Meanwhile, the elves learned from captured wands how to unleash destructive magic.
The war escalated.
Because the elves, too, had mastered offensive magic.
Given the elves' immense magical strength, the spells they cast were terrifyingly powerful, and at first the wizards suffered devastating losses. But elves were simply too few in number. Their long growth cycle meant they could not afford a war of attrition against human wizards.
Gradually, the elves disappeared from wizarding sight.
They hid themselves away, recovering, licking their wounds.
But they did not forget their hatred.
The High Elves were intelligent beings, after all. Using their own peculiar magic, they manipulated a wizard. And when that wizard led a group of fellow wizards into a trap the elves had carefully prepared for them...
Did the outcome really need explaining?