Written for: The Hogwarts Life Challenge, Stage Three
Hufflepuff-The House of the hardworking, patient, and loyal. Famous Hufflepuffs include Newt Scamander and Artemisia Lufkin (first female Minister of Magic) Write about any Hufflepuff you want.
true and unafraid of toil
There are sounds of explosions coming from every direction, the sound loud and deafening and it's all she can hear. There are people screaming too, she thinks, friends and family yelling at each other, yelling for each other amidst the commotion as they weave in and out of oncoming spells.
There are other words, too, ringing in her ears. Sheep, they whisper behind sneers, not cunning or brave or smart enough. Unwanted by the other Houses. Spares.
There's an image of a third-year boy playing in her head, handsome and kind as he smiles at her, says, "Only the best are Sorted into Hufflepuff. The rest of the Houses, they don't understand."
Kill the spare, Voldemort had said about one of them, one of their own, and a boy had been killed and a war had been started. And they had been thrust into the middle of it all, the children of Hogwarts had, forced to fight, rose to meet their destiny when no one else would.
Spare, they had called him once, a boy who had been naive enough to want to do the right thing, then in silent reverie as they remembered him, brave.
And that word alone had made Hannah Abbot bristle.
Kind, loyal, strong, fair, she had wanted to shout back, scream at them until she ran out of breath, remind them that there were other words for hero that weren't exclusively Gryffindor's.
"The mistake some of these Houses make is underestimating us. But there's a reason the badger represents us," Cedric Diggory had said once and those are the words Hannah lets fuel her as she steadies herself, wand held tightly in her hand as she charges into battle.
"For Cedric," she says, voice loud and clear and there are people who stop, look at her as if she's lost her mind but she doesn't care, brushes them off, because there are other people beside her, strong and proud as they join her in the fight.
"For Hufflepuff!"
"They think we were Sorted into Hufflepuff because we didn't fit into any of the other Houses, because nobody else would take us. But the truth is, we're here because we chose to be here. Hufflepuffs, we are so much more than they think."
A/N: I should totally be sleeping right now but instead I wrote this. I don't even know man.