The Kind Hufflepuff

Chapter 8: Mandrakes

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The Kind Hufflepuff - First Year

Chapter Eight: Mandrakes
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Cali had been incredibly excited for Herbology, which was something that many of the Hufflepuffs shared as many tended to excel in Herbology. Cali suspected that it was related to the sheer amount of plants that littered the common room. Because of her excitement, she was bouncing in her steps with Greta and John following close behind.

She practically raced through the grass, following everyone to the classroom as she kept an eye out for the familiar raven-haired Gryffindor. She had entered the class and frowned when she caught sight of two of his friends. They were saving seats for Sirius and James and realized that Sirius likely wouldn't want to sit with her and with that, her shoulders slumped as she sat down with Greta. "I thought you were sitting with your Gryffindor friend?"

Cali didn't reply, looking towards the small pots of plants before her, her pot appeared to share purple flowers and large yellow berries that she recognized to be a mandrake. She had heard of the plants from her mother as her boggart was a screaming mandrake root. Her mother explained that grown-up mandrakes caused an instantaneous death. She didn't notice when Sirius entered the room, laughing loudly with James just as class began nor did she notice how he froze in the doorway when he caught sight of the brunette.

Greta noticed however as James tried to drag his friend when Greta quickly jumped from her seat and moved to the next available chair, ignoring the protests of the two Gryffindor boys as she smiled apologetically towards James. He watched her do this as his eyebrows knitted together as he glanced towards where Greta had originally been sitting and recognized the girl from the Hogwarts Express and nodded as he turned to Sirius.

"You should sit with her." Sirius frowned, shaking his head as he gestured towards the friend group when he saw a red haired Hufflepuff in one of the seats that they had saved and sighed, mouthing a 'thank you' as he moved towards the girl.

"You're acting like somebody killed Bas," He joked after examining the girl, waiting for her to realize that he had sat beside her and ignoring the glares of the many Hufflepuffs. His words caused the girl's head to snap towards the boy, her sad eyes brightening almost instantaneously.

"Sirius," She breathed. "I thought you were going to sit with your friends?"

"And miss my chance of sitting beside an amazing Hufflepuff? I think not."

Cali laughed, a blush spreading across her cheeks as she shook her head. "Hello class!" The professor greeted. "This is the Herbology classroom where you will learn about various plants, fungi, and spells that are required to care for these herbs. You'll likely be seeing many of these plants again in your potions class as these herbs are very common ingredients." Sprout continued as she smiled brightly. "Now can anyone tell me what these plants in front of you are?"

Cali raised her hand as well as a few others, "Yes Miss. Higgs?"

"Professor, it's a mandrake. I believe it's a baby one at that. My mother tells me that the grownups have the ability to kill you with their screams." Cali explained as the woman nodded.

"Right you are, Miss. Higgs. 10 points to Hufflepuff." She noticed that several of the Hufflepuffs smiled at her, grateful for the points, before following the instruction that Sprout announced shortly after.

With that, she put on her earmuffs and placed her small hand around the mandrake and lifted the baby as she smiled softly, noticing the human-like features of the child that immediately screamed. "Hello little mandrake," She greeted the small creature as she used her spare hand to tickle the stomach.

"Be careful not to put your finger to close to their mouths. They will bite!" Cali ignored this suggestion, continuing to use a single finger as she tickled their stomachs.

"I don't understand how you're my mum's boggart, no I don't," Her voice was high-pitched, like she was trying to talk to a child. She heard the scream of pain from beside her, looking over to see the mandrake that Sirius had been holding was biting his finger. Cali gently placed her mandrake down, allowing for the creature to fall back asleep before moving to help Sirius, gently grabbing the mandrake from him before whispering soft nothings into the mandrakes ear as she coaxed it into letting go of Sirius.

"I know, he's such a bad man." Cali whispered as she cradled the small creature, ignoring Sirius' mumblings about the evil mandrake as she gently placed the plant into their pot to sleep. "Sirius, why were you so mean to him?"

"Me?" Sirius asked as he gestured towards the pot. "It's a monster, not a freaking baby." Cali frowned, hitting his shoulder as professor finally ended the class and Cali took off her earmuffs.

"Do you wanna hang out for a bit?" Cali asked the boy curiously as he shrugged in response.

"Sure." She smiled at this, linking her elbow with the boy as they left the class and walked towards the lake and down the pier where they sat down.

"How are you doing?"

"I'm okay," There was a pause as he watched the water below. "Have you owled Regulus yet?"

"I haven't," Cali replied. "I floo'd him though."

"Wait, you went to go see him?" Sirius asked, his eyebrows furrowing together.

"No, no. If you put your head in the green fire after throwing floo powder and announce you want to talk to then you can talk to them essentially face to face. Theoretically, you can even send letters as well as inanimate objects however actually talking seemed like more fun," Cali explained as she swung her feet.

"I'll have to remember that."
"So, you became a Gryffindor."

"Yeah, did you hear the howler?" Cali nodded in response as he sighed.

"But Sirius, how are you feeling? I know some part of you wanted this to happen. But they threatened you and said that you ruined their family name," Cali whispered softly.

"Hey, I'm the family disgrace. But we all knew that I was the black sheep of my family."

"You're not a black sheep."

"Please, unless by some miracle Regulus follows in my footsteps, I'm the black sheep."

"Black sheep are really cute," Cali muttered.

"Are you hitting on me?" Cali's eyes widened as she pushed the boy away from her in surprise.

"Ew! No!" Cali shouted, laughing loudly. "That's like having a crush on Slughorn." With that, she stood up and ran away from the boy while he chased her. The girl was laughing hysterically as she ran and only laughed harder when she heard him laughing too.

"You compared me to Slughorn!" He shouted at her as he finally caught up with her, grabbing her wrist as he pulled her towards him. "I can't believe you think I'm as bad as that slug."

"Well believe it!" Cali shouted, laughing hysterically as the boy smiled at the girl and let go.

"We should keep hanging out like this," Sirius hummed as the girl nodded.

"Wanna make a deal?"
"What sort of deal?" He asked curiously.

"Every class we share together, we have to sit together."

"That's only Herbology and Astronomy, right?"
"Shouldn't make it too hard then, huh?"

He watched her blue eyes lit up in mischief, "Yeah alright. I think I can do that."

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A/N: So this chapter is mostly a filler chapter (sorry for the two chapters in a row that are filler) but I realized while I was creating the outline that if I didn't build the friendship between Cali and Sirius now then they would be broken later.

Also I kind love the idea that Ethel's biggest fear is a mandrake screaming. The idea behind this is that technically her biggest fear is that she will accidentally cause her own death. This is such a small thing but it will become incredibly important later on.

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