Written for The Black Market at The Golden Snitch. Prompt: Write about a powerful family that is different than they appear to be to the outside world.
Technically, this is for November. Oops. Anyway, I hope this works!
Word Count: 1,261
No One Suspects The Hufflepuff
If you were to go to Diagon Alley and ask a random witch or wizard about the Bones family, they would tell you a few things.
They were a relatively wealthy family that had greatly suffered under Voldem- sorry, You Know Who's war.
Proud people who always kept their last name, no matter who they married.
Loyal Hufflepuffs who would not be able to hurt a fly unless they were defending another person or their sense of morales.
Capable fighters who lived to make other people suffer from their paperwork.
The last one was often said with a smile, but it was the only one that was even close to the truth.
They had money, they kept their name, they were Hufflepuffs and they were able to throw a punch while shooting spells.
Everything else, however, was part of an act. A carefully crafted lie that every new generation of the Bones family added more to.
For example, there was a rumor that the Bones family was cursed that their spouses would die young, often leaving small children behind.
In reality, that were simply the consequences when someone did not seem to be able to keep up a lie.
They never let anyone into the secret before there was a new generation on the way, because otherwise their role of the grieving partner was weaker.
The family Bones knew how to play their strengths.
Susan was no different, even if she was a Hufflepuff. Any true Slytherin would be, because that was where they would be ignored and control everything from the shadows. No one ever suspects the Hufflepuff.
Even when she was only eleven, Susan knew the advantage and importance of planning in advance.
So when she saw a suspiciously thin boy with an owl being laughed at by his family in King's Cross on the very day she was leaving for Hogwarts for the first time. Contrary to his relatives—who were a horse, a pig and a walrus respectively and simply disgusted Susan—the boy had a darker tint to his skin that indicated an Indian heritage.
She knew that this was her chance and put on her nicest and most genuine seeming smile as she moved towards the boy, making sure not to startle him.
"Hello. I'm sorry, but are you going to… a special school in Scotland too?" If he didn't get her meaning, he wasn't worth her time. Susan had implied it strongly enough that anyone worth their magic would notice.
"Indeed, I do," he answered barely half a second later. That brought him some points. "Unfortunately, no one has seemed to mention the precise location of the train I am supposed to enter to me. Would you perhaps be able to help?"
Susan gave the boy a rare smile. "That is most certainly possible. My name is Susan Bones, by the way."
"I am Harry. Harry Potter."
This was even better than expected! Harry Potter as her ally was more than she would have dared to hope for.
And she had already made great progress in earning his loyalty.
"I do not know who told you that, but that is about as far from the truth as possible." Susan held a sneer back and it was way harder than it should have been. She would need to train harder. "Hufflepuff are not 'a load of duffers' or whatever else you heard. We are the best House, simply because no one expects us to be anything but that."
"That sounds...convenient." A smile crept onto Harry's face as he said that.
Susan had really made a good choice with that boy. He was well on his way to establish himself as a great partner in crime.
"Exactly. I don't know why everyone expects the cunning to be in Slytherin. No one who is actually cunning would let themselves be placed in a House that openly admits it."
Harry nodded slowly. "That would just make you suspicious and anyone with the tiniest bit of intelligence would notice what you are planning."
"Good luck finding someone like that here. They still think my Dad died in the war."
They sat quietly for a few seconds, before Susan spoke up again. "Who told you that again?" she asked in the sweetest and most innocent voice she could manage, planning rapidly as she did.
Harry, however, didn't let himself be fooled, which was another point in his favor. "Someone I like. I'm sure there'll be plenty other people who you can use as target practise."
Susan grinned. "Promise?"
Predictably, they were both sorted into Hufflepuff. Because, why would they be anywhere else?
They acted like everyone expected the perfect badger to be, but in the privacy of their common room, in a secluded corner as far away from the others as possible, they planned and plotted.
Harry had learned quickly that wizards and witches were a bunch of sheeple and easy to manipulate.
Susan's grandmother had taught her all the best tricks and she was looking forward to finally using them.
Not to forget the more... extreme ways to convince someone. She was already looking forward to the day when she would finally use those skills.
She had waited long enough already.
In their first year, they managed to get the Philosopher's stone with their combined skills.
After some consideration, they sent it back to Nicolas Flamel.
Once they were done studying it to the best of their ability. Susan's family helped them, of course.
Harry spent the summer training with them, too, after the Dursleys had conveniently vanished.
And if Susan's father—the one most of them world still believed to be dead—happened to be in the area around that time, then it was just a coincidence, of course.
In their second year, there was a great mystery surrounding the petrification of the caretaker's cat and a few students.
The two of them had a lot of fun with their new defense teacher. Even months later he still flinched every time he dared to look at them.
Unlike the rest of the school, Susan and Harry were really fascinated by it and only intervened when there were rumors of closing the school.
They needed it as a base for their operations.
"Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban," Susan's aunt Amelia announced one afternoon in their third year. "The ongoing theory is that he's after Harry. Take care and make sure to ask him how he managed to do that!"
With that, Harry's training intensified.
"You need to be ready for anything he throws at you," Edgar—Susan's father—explained. Harry grinned, showing all of his teeth. There was a mad glint in his eyes that Susan adored. . "And be able to respond with something worse."
They confronted the convict in late February. Well, ex-convict.
After they had managed to overhear a conversation between a few of their teachers and the Minister of Magic—please, as if they wouldn't. Information was always useful—they had investigated.
There had been no trial. They either had a new toy or a new ally. Either was good, really.
Truthfully, they had only guesses that the dog that had been following Harry around might be Black. When they decided to test their theory, however, it turned out to be true.
Harry took out three of his favourite throwing knives. He threw one to Susan, the second only inches away from the grown man's head and began to sharpen one of them as he casually leaned against the door.
"Remind me why you betrayed my parents, would you?" he requested, grinning sadistically.
I don't know whether or not I will continue this.
Please tell me what you think!
~Marvelgeek42