What's in a Name?

Draco was thinking so deeply that he walked right by the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room and didn't realize he had done so until he almost ran into a door further down the corridor. He looked around, a little embarrassed; to make sure no one had been around to see his stupidity. He then turned around and walked quickly back to the area of bare wall that concealed the entrance to the Slytherim Common Room.

"Parseltongue," Draco muttered, as the door hidden in the wall slid open and he walked through. No one else was in the common room, as it was Christmas Holidays and almost everyone had gone home the day before. He had no idea why he had wanted to stay at Hogwarts, but he had stayed and was fairly lonely as the result. Just then one of his good friends, Enid (that really no one else in his house knew that he was friends with), walked down from the girl's dormitory.

"Hey," she said, "what's wrong?" she added, sounding a little more concerned.

"Nothing," Draco muttered, trying to look less troubled.

"I know you well enough to know when something's wrong. I may have just transferred but we've been friends since we were little, even if no one else knows that. So what's wrong?"

"Fine," Draco answered, wondering if Enid was going to help of just make fun of him. "I . . . I. . .I think I've fallen in love with a Gryffindor, and she's Muggle-born." He finished quickly, then, realizing that she might not have heard him clearly and dreading having to repeat it.

Enid, knowing he'd rather not say who specifically asked a less probing question, "Are you going to tell her?" Though when she asked this question she knew full well that he wouldn't tell the Gryffindor girl.

"Of course not, everyone would laugh at me, including her, and I know father would find out at some point and he would . . . he would . . ."

"It's okay Draco," Enid sympathized, as she knew exactly what Lucius Malfoy would do to his son if he found out that Draco loved a Muggle-born. "But before you decide to tell her or not listen to this, it's a quote from the Muggle play-write William Shakespeare:

'O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse they name,
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet...
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy...
What's Montague? It is not hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.'

"You see, it's not your name, your family, or your heritage that defines who you are, it's the choices you make, your personality, and who you love that truly shows who you are. I know you don't want to follow in your father's footsteps, you're not really that type of person. You may put on a good act for the rest of the world, but I know you and I know you'll make the right decision. About whether or not to tell her, and other things that are on your mind." With that Enid got up and walked out of the common room to go get something to eat, as it was dinner time by now.

For about an hour Draco sat and thought on what his friend had said. Then, with much conviction he got up and strode out of the common room. He didn't head towards the Great Hall, dinner would be over by now, so he turned another way, knowing he would find her in the library.