Hufflepuff In The Family

Starting a New Year

At the end of his speech, Dumbledore asked the prefects to escort everyone back to their dormitories. The first-years all scrambled ahead, desperate to stick to the prefects leading them to avoid getting lost. Before following the crowd I quickly hugged Jacob and Becki and we made plans to meet up in the library after our lessons had finished tomorrow.

Kelly, Danielle and I followed the bustling crowd. At first, it was hard to even hear each other of the sound but as the other houses split off in different directions, the noise calmed down. As we stepped into the common room it was certainly busier than normal. It was always like this in the Hufflepuff common room on the first day; people in the other years liked to welcome new Hufflepuffs and give them advice for the next year.

I smiled at the odd terrified child but the three of us always preferred to hide up in our dormitory as the other Hufflepuffs we shared with tended to join the others downstairs so most of the time we had the place to ourselves.

When we reached our beds, we all collapsed onto them, exhausted. We lay there, staring at the ceiling until Danielle broke the silence.

"So what do you guys think of the Triwizard Tournament being back on?" She shifted to pull the cover over her and I smiled at the sight of her buried in her bed.

"I don't know. I think it's awfully irresponsible of Dumbledore to think that this is a good idea but still, it'll be a nice change to the normal boring school year. Don't you think?" Kelly responded and I sat up, considering her point.

"I guess you're right. Still, I'm disappointed we don't get Quidditch, I mean the one year I decide I want to give it a go, they cancel it."

The others mumbled sounds of agreement. None of us had any energy for conversation after that and eventually I changed into my pyjamas and climbed into the bed.

I struggled to get to sleep that night. For one, Danielle was snoring like a monster truck next to me but I also couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible was about to happen. Despite the worries on my mind, I eventually drifted into a dreamless sleep.

***

The next morning, my best friends and I made our way down to the Great Hall. Danielle was chipper as always having had a wonderful sleep but unfortunately, her great sleep came at the expense of mine and Kelly's lack thereof.

Sitting down at the table, I noticed Professor Sprout making her way down the incredibly long table, handing out timetables. I looked over at the Gryffindor table where my brother and his friends were already tucking into their food and looking over their timetables. When he noticed me staring, Ron made a salute with his fingers which was our way of saying 'see you next period.'

When I got handed mine, I glanced over and saw that we had Herbology with the Gryffindors. "Yes!" I exclaimed and my two friends looked at me with matching looks. "What?" I asked.

"It's just you seem mighty excited to go to one of your least favourite lessons," Kelly said with her eyebrow raised.

"Well we're with the Gryffindors so I get to talk to my brother," I replied, confused as to what she was getting at.

"Obviously," said Danielle, turning to Kelly and nodding sarcastically. "That's who she's excited to see. 'Her brother' that's it." The two laughed and I squinted at the two confused.

Kelly sighed exaggeratedly, frustrated that I still wasn't getting it. "So your excitement has nothing to do with a certain dark-haired, green-eyed boy with circular glasses?" Danielle was failing to hide her giggles behind her hand and Kelly was glaring at me, directly in the eyes. I flushed at the implication.

"Please, he's my brother's best friend."

"That was a statement. I didn't hear a denial," Danielle responded.

I hate my friends.