Luck of Nines

66

(An: so I updated early and left you guys on a cliffhanger, whoops, anyway so this is Mondays update, let's go with it's because I like to pretend that I have a schedule which I keep to -T.A.L.A.)

"Alright everyone, order, order." Marvin laughed, waving the Hufflepuffs into neat rows, all with brightly colored, warm, fuzzy pajamas. He himself was wearing a vibrant, soft blue pajama set with shiny little suns with rotating rays extending from it. "Everyone is here right? Upper and lower years, check for your big or little buddy."

Things had been a bit chaotic since whatever event had happened involving Granger and Potter, and quite a few were a little freaked out, but he and the other prefects had been quick to snap the other students out of the spiral of panic they were heading on, and with feigned, slightly stressed grins and a little help from the house elves, they had made sure everybody was accounted for before changing into pajamas and returning to the common room.

It was time for a good old fashioned badger slumber party.

A fire was set in the hearth, various s'mores materials ready at the waiting on low tables on either side, tables sat against parts of the walls with an assortment of labeled snacks and drinks, a hot cocoa table taking up one corner all on its own, and blankets, large, fluffy pillows, and sleeping bags coated virtually every space of the floor so people had to hopscotch about the room if they wished to avoid stepping onto any of it. Of course, it wouldn't matter if they did given they had all changed into matching sets of soft black and yellow socks that had been transfigured from the common room's old curtains for them.

Marvin smiled in satisfaction, even though they had already done role call twice, they did it again just to make sure everyone was accounted for and out of the dorms, and because for many of the students it was relaxing to be reassured that they were all here, together, and safe. Linda helped him take the names as Cedric helped the remaining prefects to get everything ready for the slumber party.

     "Ansel is missing!" The calm was interrupted by El, a fourth year and first year Ansel Rowle's buddy. Martin and Linda both exchanged well concealed looks of exhausted frustration. Ansel was their wallflower of the year. It was a simple fact of Hufflepuff that sometimes there were students that... didn't quite fit in as seamlessly into Hufflepuff as the rest.  It wasn't anything to be ashamed about, there was a spectrum to it, if anything, and many were slow to adapt to the openness of the house, more so if they didn't initially want to be part of it.

    For some people it was due to betrayals in their past, or how they were raised which made them uncomfortable with Hufflepuff's immediately friendly and trusting atmosphere where everyone helped out regardless of any promised reward.  

    Some were suspicious of the welcoming, often overbearingly friendly attitudes of the older students.

     Some didn't much appreciate the idea of... mixing with people regardless of blood status or didn't feel like they were cut out for Hufflepuff, especially if they hadn't expected to be placed into the badger house.

        Often parents or other relatives had spent considerable effort trying to ensure they wouldn't end up in the badger house and even threatened abandonment.

        Others simply weren't as social as the majority of the house.

         However, no matter what past or attitude one had it wasn't anything so wrong, at least not so much as to get one isolated here, so long as you managed to at least be cordial with your fellow Hufflepuffs. And for those who had rocky starts, counseling with the head of house or prefects was always a possibility so that by the end of the first year everybody tended to have created meaningful relationships with their fellow year mates and house mates that survived through the summer.