The Hufflepuff

One

It was the evening of September 1st and another school year at Hogwarts was just beginning. Eleanor Wicks made her way off of the Hogwarts Express guiding the second years over to where the carriages were waiting with the other prefects whom she had just met earlier on the train.

She didn't know much about the two Ravenclaw prefects and Ernie Macmillan, the other Hufflepuff prefect, was far from what she'd call a friend, though she had no animosity with him. Then there were the two Gryffindors; Hermione Granger - the know-it-all that Eleanor often found herself competing with in class and Ronald Weasley, both of whom she knew to be the best friends of Harry Potter.

But despite not knowing more than any of their names they were definitely preferable to the two Slytherin prefects Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson. Pansy, unlike the others, was a well known acquaintance of Eleanor's; after all, Pansy had made it her obligation to be positively foul to Eleanor ever since they had met.

When all the second years had found their way into a carriage Eleanor turned back towards the train, searching the remaining crowd for Cynthia, her friend of five years now and a constant source of bubbly energy and scathing sarcasm.

It doesn't take long to find Cynthia since over the holidays she had dyed her hair a vivid bubblegum blue and even in the darkness of the evening it stood out amongst the other students. On seeing Eleanor approaching Cynthia hurries forward, grabbing hold of her friend and jumping into the next available carriage talking at a mile a minute.

"I love what you've done with your hair!" Eleanor says as Cynthia ruffles up the short pixie haircut she now had.

Eleanor's own hair was currently making its way out of the sloppy bun she'd made earlier, blonde wisps blowing in her face every few seconds much to her annoyance.

The carriage sets off, winding along the road that will bring them to the front door of Hogwarts, Cynthia begins to rummage in the pockets of her robes while Eleanor hangs her head out of the carriage, craning her neck for a glimpse of the castle.

"Chocolate?" Cynthia asks.

"Ooh gimme," says Eleanor reaching for the block.

"The start of year feast is less than an hour away and you're going to stuff your face with chocolate?" Says Cynthia's older brother Reggie incredulously, straightening his Ravenclaw blue tie and frowning at the two of us.

"Exactly. The feast is like an hour away, I'm gonna need some sustenance so I can sit through the sorting." Cynthia retorts, breaking off another piece of chocolate.

"I wonder who they've got as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher?" Eleanor says aloud as they climb out of the carriage, distracting Reggie from the fact that Cynthia had now finished the whole block of chocolate.

"Dunno, I just hope it's not another Lockhart incident. I don't think I can handle having an inadequate teacher again," sighs Reggie, spotting some of his friends and leaving Cynthia and Eleanor to enter the castle alone.

Ahead of them Eleanor spies Harry Potter and his group of friends heading into the hall.

"Have you seen what the Prophet's been saying about him?" Cynthia asks, dropping her voice as they follow them in.

"Not really, dad doesn't bother with the Prophet very much. Is it something to do with Cedric?"

Eleanor watches as her friend shrinks a little upon hearing his name and regrets saying it, he had been a friend of hers before the unthinkable tragedy had occurred last year.

"They're saying that it was an accident. That Harry and Professor Dumbledore are lying about you-know-who being back to stir up trouble for the Minister."