All American Hufflepuff

Chapter 1

Olivia Rodgers knew she had done it the moment the words left her lips. She grimaced as sweat began to form on her brow. She hadn't meant to say it, let alone belt it out at an ear shattering volume.
The dungeon had gone eerily quiet, as if her classmates were all holding a collective breath, waiting for what was sure to be the lashing out of a century. This was not how she wanted everyone to know she had Tourette's.
The imposing form of Severus Snape, the potions master, came to a halt in front of her table, glaring at her with such disdain the tiny hairs on the back of her neck even quivered in fear. She sucked in a deep breath of air, as if it was about to be her last, and slowly inched her eyes up to meet his.

"What did you say?" he asked, drawing out each and every syllable. His glare made Olivia wish she was back in Catholic school. This greasy haired man made even the dreaded and loathsome Sister Thompson seem like the kind of woman you could grab a coffee with and confide your deepest secrets.

"I-I'm sorry." Olivia stuttered, trying to find her voice. Her neck was jerking hard to the right, and her wand arm curled up and down as if lifting invisible weights. "I can't control it, I've got, you know, that thing."

"And what thing would that be, exactly? An utter lack of respect? Or the uncontrollable urge to land yourself in detention on your first day?" Olivia's eyes nearly bulged at the word 'detention". She had the distinct impression detention at Hogwarts wouldn't be writing lines or cleaning the black board every day after class.

"No, Sir, I'm sorry, sir, It was a tic. You were talking about goats and-"

"Twenty-five points from Hufflepuff." He sneered, "for being a no good, attention seeking, little ankle biter."

Olivia felt a knot begin to form in her stomach. Somehow, this felt worse than detention. At least with detention, she wouldn't be dragging everyone else in her house down with her.

"Sir, I'm the one with Tourette's! Dumbledore said he already spoke with all my teachers!"

"Another ten points from Hufflepuff for being argumentative." She ground her teeth together. "You may have been able to get away with your little outburst in the states, but here in my classroom you will be expected to pull yourself together and keep that tongue of yours in check. NOW LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!" He picked up Olivia's textbook and slammed it down on their table, making the four Hufflepuff's jump.

It took all of Olivia's willpower to keep her head straight ahead, despite it wanting-no needing- to turn to the side. She bit her lip. She could feel the pressure begin to build inside her. Strange and terrible things always seemed to happen when she tried to suppress her tics, at least the ones she had any sort of grasp over.
Most of the time they came and went of their own volition, usually at the worst timing humanly possible. Her flight from the United States to London had not been a pleasant one. She had been an over-excited, unaccompanied 11-year-old who couldn't sit still to save her life. To make matters even worse, her subconscious had a tendency to scan her surroundings, find the most inappropriate thing to say, and make her belt it at the top of her lungs without much warning. It was something the No-maj doctors called, "coprolalia."

Olivia had spent her two-hour layover in New York yelling at every passing person she made eye contact with she had a bomb in her luggage after sitting across from a sign that read, "no explosives". So why had it been such a surprise to discover her trunk, with all her school supplies and clothes, had not shown up at her final destination with all the other luggage circling the airport baggage claim carousel? What had surprised her even more was to find it safe and sound, parked in front of a large four-poster bed in the Hufflepuff dormitory. If she had known it would all work out in the end, she wouldn't have spent the entire train ride and welcoming feast worrying about having to send an owl home with word that United Airlines had lost everything she owned.