The Kind Hufflepuff

Chapter 14: Whomping Willow

---
The Kind Hufflepuff - First Year
Chapter Fourteen: Whomping Willow
---
Cali was lounging against a tree, with a desk placed directly in front of her, trying to focus as her wand was gripped tightly in her hand while she ignored the cheery conversations around her and Sirius' group of friends running around while they laughed like idiots. 

"Sus transformatus," She whispered, repeating the hand movement that she had memorized over the past week, imagining the desk turning into a pig as she said the incantation.

She waited in anticipation, expecting it to slowly turn into a pinkish colored pig when the laughter grew louder and her attention was brought to Sirius' band of friends as they were now surrounded by students. "Come on, it's just a fun game," One of the older Gryffindor students attempted to convince the boys as James nodded unconvincingly.

"Yeah, my father told me about it," James boasted, puffing out his chest. "A way to prove that we're the perfect Gryffindors, come on guys. We have to do it!" This was primarily directed towards his friends. Sirius seemed to shrug, not particularly caring while the other two boys looked far more suspicious.

Another student, a second year trying to hide a smile, started to nod excitedly. "I was too nervous to do it last year but I plan to do it now."

The shortest friend of Sirius' spoke up at this, "Well then show us how the game is played." The second year shrugged at this, eyeing the frozen tree that had already gained the reputation for hitting anybody that came too close to it after a Ravenclaw tried to sit at the base to read.

"Alright, I'll do it." The boy moved, trying to find a place that gave him a clear view of the trunk before he started running as fast as possible, weaving through the branches as he quickly tapped the tree before turning around and getting out the tree's reach. Cali stood up as she watched, rushing over to the group and completely forgetting her desk by the tree.

"What in Merlin's name is going on here?" She shouted, watching as another bloke proceeded to do a similar thing as the boy before him, a line slowly forming of idiots wanting to prove themselves as Sirius rolled his eyes at her.

"It's just a game, they've been playing it for years."

"It's literally called the Whomping Willow. This is dangerous," Cali snapped.

Dumbledore would not place a dangerous tree here," Some Gryffindor replied, rolling his eyes though he had kept his eyes trained on the thrashing branches despite the fact that no one was near the tree as the younger boys attempted to prove their place in Gryffindor.

"So, you're telling me those are just warning shots?" Cali snapped, her eyes cutting to the boy that let out a hiss of pain when one of the branches slashed against his arm just before he completed the game.

"Besides, there's no possible way that you guys have been playing this game for years," Remus spoke up and Cali looked at him, his face paler than usual and a particular scar behind his ear that she had never noticed before.

"What do you mean?"

"Dumbledore planted the tree this summer," Remus mumbled, refusing to make eye contact with anybody as a Hufflepuff that Cali knew to be Davey Gudgeon threw himself into the tree as hard as possible, becoming momentarily disoriented and unable to run. The tree took it's chance to grab him, throwing him away from it just as he let out a cry of pain when a branch scraped dreadfully close to his eye as the tree let go of him.

"DAVEY!" Cali screamed, running up to the boy as tears prickled her eyes.

"SOMEBODY GO GET HELP!" Cali shouted as she reached the boy who had yet to move as she grabbed his shoulder and slowly moved the boy, "Davey, oh my god. Are you okay?"

He did not immediately reply, his hands over his eyes as he groaned in pain until Madam Pomfrey came towards the group, mumbling obscenities about how she did not understand what Dumbledore was thinking when he planted the awful tree. She kneeled, checking over the boy, grabbing his hands and ripping them from his face as she examined the damages.

"You could have lost an eye, Mr. Gudgeon. Now come, can you stand?"

"My chest hurts."

Madam Pomfrey continued to examine the boy, mumbling a quick healing spell as Cali stood up, laughing when she noticed the frozen group of boys. McGonagall was yelling at them, talking about how they had been inappropriate assholes and that they were lucky that nobody had died. She simply shook her head, walking back towards her tree and prepared to perform the spell again.

"Sus transformatus!" She used the anger that she felt for the boys to perform the spell, imagining the desk turning into a pig and smiled brightly as she watched the desk slowly transform. Once the transformation was finished, there was a potbelly pig, pinkish colored with brown spots all over him, squealing in complete and utter fear. Cali shrieked out of happiness, falling to the ground to pick up the small creature as she began to pet him.

"Cali!" Greta shouted, causing the girl to watch as Greta's auburn hair flowed in the sunlight, her robes flowing behind her and flapping at her calves. "What are you holding?" She asked, coming to a stop just before reaching her as Cali smiled down at the pig in her arms that had snuggled in her lap and gone to bed.

"It's a pig," Cali shrugged.

"Oh, did you succeed in the spell?" Greta asked, her eyes lighting up as she came to sit in front of the pig, reaching out to pet the small creature. "He's so cute."

"Do desks have genders?" Cali asked as Greta shrugged.

"This one sure seems to," Greta replied, darting her eyes don as the girl scrunched up her nose.

"That's absolutely disgusting," Cali shrieked.

"Greta, can we keep him?" Her bottom lip jutted out, her eyes widening as Greta sighed.

"We're not allowed to have pigs."

"Miss. Catchlove is correct about this, the only pets available are cats, owls, and toads," McGonagall interrupted the pair as Cali's hopeful face dropped instantaneously. "However," The professor began causing the girl's eyes to snap up.

"I see no rules regarding having a desk, 5 points to Hufflepuff for a display of advanced transfiguration."

---
A/N: An example of me desperately attempting to include any possible reference that the boys made about their time in Hogwarts. It's true that Davey Gudgeon is known for almost losing an eye to the Whomping Willow due to a dangerous game they played. However, it's unclear when the game was held or how close Davey was to actually losing his eye so this was my interpretation of the situation.