but the moment it was near Eleanor the box sputtered unnaturally until the infant rolled away. Almost as if someone with magic had tried to use an electronic device…
 

A short, plump woman with short black hair smiled cheerfully in the doorway (which after all this time was still unlocked). Eleanor gasped; this was the lady from her dreams! She never thought the lady actually existed, let alone would show up at her house.
 

But she never hit the hard ground. Eleanor paused a moment, trying to figure out what had gone wrong with her fall. She felt around for a firm place to push herself off again, and touched someone’s face.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” Eleanor jumped up and turned to face the person who had broken her fall. “I was wondering why it did not hurt as much as I expected.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome.”
 
 

Eleanor sputtered in the sudden vinegar and almost screamed in frustration. Instead of screaming, she settled on flopping on the stone floor until life seemed ready to ease up on her. “Anyone want to drop out of Hogwarts with me?” She exclaimed at the ceiling, rephrasing something Helen would say whenever she did badly on a test.

“So it’s that kind of day, is it?”
 
 
 
 

Then Filch was beaconed carrying a jeweled box older than the Dumbledore himself. Eleanor barely listened to the next thing Dumbledore said, just wanting him to open the box already. Finally he lifted his wand and tapped the lid of the casket three times.
 
 
 

“Sweet Merlin why did he have to be first?” Phoebe grabbed the person next to her – which happened to be Owen – and stared at Cedric.

“Here, you’ll hurt him.” Nicolle took a hairpin out of her hair and with a tap of her wand transfigured it into a small pillow. Phoebe grabbed it, her eyes never leaving the enclosure, and squeezed it instead of a grateful Owen.

~For ScorpiusRose17's One Moment Challenge~

 
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The last present had to be from Hestia. Her mother’s comment with her dress robes made her think it would be something fancy for her to wear to the ball; maybe some makeup or jewelry or something for her hair. But she also knew it wasn’t like Hestia to get her something to make her look pretty; Hestia was much too practical for glamorous jewelry. Then what could be inside such a tiny box?
 

As the date of Cedric and Cho’s one-month anniversary came nearer the Hufflepuffs were starting to treat it as a top-secret operation. With all the lists of what should be on the menu, the arguments of what Cedric should wear, and the schedule for what should happen when, Eleanor wouldn’t be surprised if there was a map of the kitchen stowed away in Phoebe’s bag somewhere.

Eleanor felt strange, as if merely showing Gabrielle the common room wasn’t sufficient to portray why Hufflepuff was her house. There was no way to show the hours Eleanor spent sprawled across the tables getting help from anyone and everyone, or the beauty that is falling asleep on the couch next to the fireplace and waking up in your bed, or the collective laughter that happened randomly yet released the perfect amount of stress at the right time.