The Hufflepuff

Twenty Two

The sun had begun to set when Eleanor, Cynthia and Susan burst from the castle doors the next day, their OWL exams behind them and no need to worry about the results until the holidays.

Making their way down to the edge of the lake they find a comfy place to settle and sprawl out on the grass, basking in the warm air and freedom.

"Can you believe we have to go through this all over again when we do our NEWTs?" Susan sighs, staring up at the pink clouds drifting lazily across the sky.

"Yeah except it won't just be the classes we take next year that they determine, but the jobs we can have." Cynthia says, picking at a strand of grass.

"Let's not think about that right now okay? Just be happy we got through these ones." Eleanor says, joining Susan in examining the sky.

"Have you heard from-"

"No. And I still don't know if that's good or bad." Eleanor says, interrupting Cynthia from finishing her question. She hadn't been avoiding Reggie, but the last time she went looking for him to talk he had been walking with another Ravenclaw girl, the one Eleanor had assumed he was dating at the beginning of the year. Their heads had been bent close together as they laughed and smiled looking more of a couple than she and Reggie ever had. Since then she hadn't made an attempt to speak to him.

"What are you all doing over summer?" Susan asks, steering the conversation in a new direction. "I'm visiting my aunt at the start of the holidays and then mum and dad are taking me overseas somewhere."

"Sounds fun, I'm just spending the summer at home probably, shouldn't be too bad though. Harper is coming home from school for the summer, she wasn't there at Christmas and out of all my sisters she's the one I get along with the best." Eleanor says.

"She's only a few years younger than you isn't she?"

Eleanor nods silently, Harper had been born only two years after Eleanor, and this summer she would be turning 15. Even though their birthdays were a month apart they celebrated them together since Eleanor was always back at Hogwarts when hers came around.

"Well, I'm not going home this Summer," Cynthia says, sitting up against a nearby tree. "I told you how Reggie had been telling my parents all these stupid things about George? Well, after he and Fred left Hogwarts I was told that there was no way such a foolish boy was suitable for me and that if I refused to listen to them they would have nothing to do with me."

"What?" Exclaims Eleanor, sitting up to comfort her friend, "Where are you gonna go instead?"

Cynthia shrugs slightly and her face turns red, "George said I can go and stay with him. He and Fred have a place above their shop in Diagon Alley, and his mother also wrote to me and told me that I was always welcome at their house."

"Aww, Cyn I'm sorry your parents aren't more supportive," Susan says, sitting on the opposite side of Cynthia.

They had just been about to get up from the ground and head inside to the common room when Eleanor spies Hermione hurtling along the path out of the castle, Harry and Umbridge following close behind.

"What on earth is that about?" She asks, pointing towards the unlikely group.

"Whatever it is, I don't like it," Susan murmurs.

Eleanor and Cynthia decide to follow them to the edge of the forest where they agree to wait and see if they come out while Susan hurries into the castle to alert another teacher and try to find out what she can.

"Maybe she's finally snapped and is taking them into the forest to get rid of them?" Cynthia says, staring apprehensively into the dark trees.

"I doubt that, she's horrid enough but even she'd be hard pressed explaining away the deaths of two students to the minister and the public," but Eleanor wasn't quite so sure she was right.