Fantastic Beasts: Betrayal

5 - Disturbed

The next couple of weeks went by fairly smoothly. Nothing more was said from Ellen, after a serious talk from the Gryffindor prefects, and Edwin and I kept studying ahead of lessons to get a good head's start of the curriculum. However, this peace and quiet only remained for about 2 and a half weeks, before us Hufflepuffs received something horrible.

"Get up. Get up, all of you! Get up!" I woke suddenly to the sound of Harriet's frantic and worried tone of voice. I obeyed at once and jumped up out of bed. Everyone else got up too. Fern checked the time, frowning.

"It's 1am, Harriet, what are we doing at 1am that's so important it can't w-"

"Follow me. We have to get down to the common room, now!"

We walked out of our door, the other four of us looking at each other with confusion. But when we got to the common room, our confusion was replaced with concern.

"Merlin's beard!" Clarice exclaimed, voicing us all. I just stared, speechless. Someone (presumably from Hufflepuff) had trashed the entire room during the few hours that we were all asleep. The sofas had been cut in too many places to count, the tables had been scratched, some of the plants around the common room had been ripped off (though, thankfully, not too many), even some of the books on the bookshelves had been ripped into pieces. Everything in the room had been destroyed without a second's thought.

"Why would someone do this?" Anna asked quietly.

"We have to tell someone." I said, headed for the exit to the common room to fetch a professor. Fern stopped me.

"Wait a minute, Lia." I stopped and turned. "What... What if they think we did this?"

I shook my head. "They trust us. They know, and we all know, we wouldn't do something like this."

"They trust all the Hufflepuffs. Someone broke that trust." Clarice said, debating in her mind. "If we tell someone we woke up to a disturbance, and wondered whether to go downstairs or not, they would probably believe us."

"Wait, Harriet..." I said, turning to her. "How did you know what had happened?" Harriet paused, looking at me.

"W-well, like Clarice said, I- I woke up to a disturbance, and debated whether or not to check- to check whether everything was, uh, all right downstairs. I thought, uh, someone could be hurt, or, um, sneaking out. I decided to make sure no one was hurt, and saw..." She looked around the room. "... this."

"Well, I think we should tell someone." Anna said, standing next to me. Everyone eventually agreed, Fern giving up and walking over to us.

"Should we all come?" Harriet asked. "I- I mean-"

"I think we should all come. No twisting or lying about anything. The pure truth." I said. Everyone nodded in agreement, before we all ran to tell a professor. I knocked on the door to Professor Dumbledore's study, and it took him around 20 seconds to come out, dressed in his work clothes. He looked at us, and I could tell that he'd been awake all night.

"Girls, are you ok?" He asked us. I tried to speak, but no sound came out. "What happened?"

"W-Well, we, uh, Harriet, she... It's probably best to show you, sir." I said eventually. He nodded, coming out of the room and shutting the door behind him.

"What's happened, Lia?" He asked me.

"Well, Harriet heard a disturbance from the common room, and so she went down, after a while, and she saw... well, it isn't good, to put it lightly... She woke the rest of the dorm up and we all went down and saw what happened." I finished.

"And what did happen?" Professor Dumbledore turned to the rest of the girls. Anna spoke up.

"Well, like Lia said, it's best to show you. It's... someone came down in the time we were all asleep and..." We got to the Hufflepuff common room. I tapped the barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row, in the rhythm of 'Helga Hufflepuff'. The barrel opened, and Anna entered in first. We all got in, Professor Dumbledore entering in last. When he got in, his face hardened.