A/N: Hey guys, so this is super late, and it's our bad! We thought each other posted this back in December, and then we were brainstorming ideas, and were like, "Hey, lets make a bunch of cool one shots from the True To You world," and we went to reread and think up cool stories, and it wasn't there... so now it's posted! :D yay! We also have a twitter account now! Yeah! Go Social Media! The twitter account is padftandprongs. We are adding hashtags that you can tweet about our stories with! :D I promise we will try to tweet more often! and now, here's Prongs...don't comment on the horribility of my English right now!
"Horibility?" *twitch, twitch* Anyway, hey guys. Thanks for reading, this story is based on the song and music video for the song Sorted This Way by Not Literally. WARNING: the ending is such extreme fluff. Seriously. You could jump off a building and land on our ending and you'd be fine.
Enjoy!
(Don't own anything you recognize. Duh.)
"I'm Lucy Weasley and I'm proud to be Hufflepuff." I wrapped my arms around the crying first year's shoulders. "Nothing wrong with having badger pride. I know it's hard to feel it now, but Hufflepuff is definitely worth it."
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"HUFFLEPUFF!"
That's what I was scared of. The Great Hall was silent, a feat even McGonagall could barely manage. I handed the Sorting Hat back to McGonagall and followed the cheering of the Hufflepuff table. The only table clapping. I was too scared to look at the rest of my family. All sitting at the Gryffindor table, where I should have been.
I sat at the table and refused to look up. Maybe if I didn't acknowledge the people I sat around it wouldn't be real.
"Welcome to Hufflepuff!" said a cheerful voice beside me. I looked over and saw a blonde prefect with a huge smile, the stereotypical Hufflepuff.
"Hi," My answer was short and implied that I didn't want to talk. So obviously she ignored it.
"I'm Julie, what's your name? Why do you look so sad?"
"Lucy Weasley, the only Weasley not in Gryffindor." Yeah I wasn't bitter at all.
"That's fine, the Sorting Hat's never wrong," she responded. I just shrugged.
We talked for the rest of dinner, just light stuff. Julie told me how her whole family was in Hufflepuff before her. At least she knows she fits in with her family.
I was surprised when dinner ended and it was time to go. It hadn't seemed like any time at all talking to Julie. My new friend stood up to lead us to the Hufflepuff common room. I grinned a little at the thought that I would be the first Weasley ever to see the Hufflepuff common room. Not even Uncle George had been in.
Julie turned to us with a grin. "I hope no one's scared of loud noises." Then she opened the door and my jaw dropped open.
The first thing I noticed, as Julie guessed, was the sound. A loud, pounding beat boomed out to meet us in the hall. All the Hufflepuffs were inside, dancing, laughing, and talking. They were all decked out in costumes of yellow and black that showed so much skin I thought at first that Julie had taken us to the wrong room. I hadn't had any idea Hufflepuffs could be like this.
Julie ushered us in and we turned into a side room labeled 'costumes'. It was the size of a bedroom with floor to ceiling racks of clothes. Then the floor was a maze of even more racks.
"Pick whatever you want; I can change the size if you need. This is your chance to be you. Make your statement." We all excitedly flooded the racks. I reached for the black tutu just as another first year, a boy grabbed for it. We looked at each other for a second, me with my best puppy dog eyes.
"Fine," he said in an overly exasperated tone, "I'll just take the yellow one." He said yellow like it was a bad thing, which I thought was amusing given that his hair was a very light blonde.
I giggled, then grabbed the yellow capri leggings and turned to him.
"Can you cover me while I change?" I asked. He looked me up and down, grabbed a black and yellow striped bikini top and stole my all yellow one.
"Sweetie that's way too much yellow, try this!" He then turned around and kept watch while I changed. The two of us are going to get along. I can tell.
"So what's your name? I feel like I should know the name of the person watching me change."
"First of all, I'm not watching you, second, EW!" He gave an exaggerated shudder.
I looked down at my underwear clad body.
"What's wrong with my body?"
"Nothing wrong with you, I just like guys more." Oh, that explains it.
I looked in the mirror at my outfit, and grabbed a yellow head band to stick in my auburn hair.
"You're right, that would've been too much yellow." He nodded and then stepped behind me while taking his shirt off. I look at him for a minute and he stared back at me.
"Well, aren't you going to cover for me?"
"Oh," I laughed, "Sure. So what's your name? I'm Lucy."
"Kyle," he said, his voice muffled by the vest he was sliding over his head. "I'm good, whatcha think?"
He was in yellow jeans and an open black vest. He finished the look with a black fedora that had yellow pinstripes. He grinned and offered me his arm. I took it and we went out the party.
We quickly got separated, but I didn't mind. There was a ton to do, from looking at the costumes to eating to dancing. I eventually found Julie. Her outfit had definitely changed from last time. Instead of robes, she had on a short black dress with no straps, and a wide yellow sash around her waist.
She grinned and yelled, "How do you like Hufflepuff now?"
I smiled. "This is amazing!" I noticed a girl dancing on yellow ribbons that were hanging from the ceiling.
"I want to learn that!" I yelled, she followed my eyes and smiled.
"Go ask! Ariel can teach you." I danced my way over to where Ariel was twirling.
"Hey! Can you show me how to do that?" I called up at her. She paused and saw me standing below her, sliding down the ribbons in a carefully controlled descent.
"What?" she yelled over the music.
"I said can you teach me? That looks amazing! What's it called?"
She grinned. "Aerial silk. I think my mother was part Seer when she named me Ariel. It is spelled differently though. And sure, I'd love to teach you! You know, you're the first one who's wanted to learn."
She started my first lesson right there in the middle of the party. At first I was self conscious, lifting myself clumsily on the ribbons, but I soon realized that no one was pointing and laughing and in fact they seemed to be yelling encouragement. I found out that aerial silk definitely took a lot of strength, both upper and lower body, and I'd have to work hard before I was a master, but I definitely got better over the course of the party.
Towards 12:30, a boy with dark, spiked hair stood up on a table in the middle of the room and yelled, "We are Hufflepuff!"
"BADGER PRIDE!" screamed the rest of the room, except the confused first years.
"Hufflepuff!" yelled the spiky haired boy.
"AND PROOOUUUD!" responded the older students.
"Hufflepuff!"
"AND PROOOUUUD!" yelled everyone, and this time the first years joined in.
We repeated the chant a few more times, then, as if from some invisible signal, everyone streamed into the doors set in the round walls of the common room. There were a lot of them and they were all different shapes and sizes, yet somehow the mix worked.
The first years stood around looking confused until Julie pointed out our dorm doors, on either side of the entrance. We headed into our new rooms gratefully and I collapsed on my bed with a happy smile.
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I awoke to the sound of something spraying. I sat up, rubbing my eyes, and saw a girl with a can of spray paint busily drawing a scene around her bed. She must have had a ton of leg strength, because the only things keeping her up to reach above her bed were her legs wrapped around her bed post and one hand holding her steady on top. A black messenger bag with more spray paint cans peeping out was slung across her body. The girl herself was small, almost pixie-like, and Asian, with a sleek black bob cut framing her face. She was grinning at the sunrise-over-the-ocean scene she was spraying.
"Ummm..." was my oh-so-intelligent greeting.
"I have permission," she said, not even pausing in her spraying. I felt my face clear. I hadn't wanted to get in trouble my second day. "My name is Marci, and I can do your name above your bed if you want. Any color."
In the end, my name was spray painted above my headboard in yellow, red, and black before breakfast and Marci and I were quickly becoming friends.
We met Kyle coming out of the boys' dorm and I introduced my new friends to each other. We sat together at breakfast and laughing over party antics last night, I finally felt that I could actually fit into my House. I found out that it was Marci's older brother who had been leading the cheers last night and that Kyle's dream job was owning his own robes shop. I told them about my entirely Gryffindor family and they comforted me, telling me that Hufflepuff wasn't a bad house, only different.
The parties were a weekly occurrence. A way for everyone to shed their 'school faces' and be who they really were. It was always a relief to come back to the common room and be able to be who I truly was. Everyone was accepting, and there was no judgement; something completely unheard of outside our humble abode.
I continued to be Ariel's student, learning to silk dance. The others were incredibly supportive, cheering whenever I mastered a hard move, or just felt I could use encouragement. That's kind of how everything was; whether or not you did something impressive, if someone thought you could use a good word, a smile, or an ice cream, it was readily available.
Marci's paint covered more of our dorm than seemed possible, and even found its way in many of the other dorms. The whole house seemed to endlessly support each other's passions.
I fell into the rhythm of Friday night parties, Saturday's choice of movie marathons, Quidditch games, or almost anything you could imagine (there was always at least one person willing to join you in a Saturday activity), and Sunday 'lounge and pancake' mornings. It was a shock when Christmas rolled around- the time seemed to have flown away.
I hadn't felt at all homesick and, as far as I knew, no one else had either. Our house was family. I knew everyone in Hufflepuff. Most first years in other houses didn't even know all the kids in their own year, but not Hufflepuff. We were united.
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Time flew by like nothing until finally it was Christmas and I was hugging Julie, Kyle, and Marci goodbye at the train station. I'd sat with a compartment full of Hufflepuffs, laughing and talking the whole way and it was much better than the awkward interactions I'd had with my family in the halls and classes and such. Of course they still loved me and didn't purposely exclude me, but we were just different now. They were more brave and daring and all that and I was more... Hufflepuff-y.
I guess I was being unfair- I liked being a Hufflepuff, truly I did. But it's just not something they would understand.
I parted from my friends on the platform, joining the rest of my family and leaving the station to head towards the Burrow. No one went to their own houses during the holidays. We just slept anywhere we could in the Burrow, which usually ended up with the adults on the beds and the kids in a tangle of mattresses on the floor of the living room. Still, it was always a happy time, no matter how crowded.
"What do you mean you like Malfoy?!"
Well, it was mostly a happy time.
"I mean I like him Albus, what's so hard to understand about that?"
I walked over to the raised voices coming from the living room and poked my head in to see my cousin Rose facing down all my other Hogwarts age cousins with arms folded defiantly. Her tone was icy and I barely recognized her through her cold fury.
"He's a Slytherin, that's what!" yelled James.
"Yeah, everyone knows they're pure evil," chimed Roxy.
"Not to be trusted."
"Stab you in the back as soon as you turn away."
"Being a Slytherin doesn't make you a bad person." I almost shrank back as every person in the room turned to stare at me, but persisted. "Plenty of Slytherins are perfectly nice."
"The new ones probably," said Louis scornfully. "Haven't had time to be properly trained."
I felt my face heat up in the famous Weasley temper. "It's not ok for you to hate someone just because of the house they're in," I told him. "You should be ashamed of yourself. All of you!" I was about to go on (what had our parents fought that war for anyway?) but James cut me off.
"Wow. You've really changed, haven't you Lucy? And not for the better." He brushed past me, shoving my shoulder into the wall. The rest filed out too, not meeting my eyes as they passed me.
When everyone except Rose had left, I turned to look at her. She was staring, stunned, at the place our cousins had disappeared. "I hope this guy is worth it," I told her, before I, too, turned to leave.
No one saw the tears finally spilling onto my cheeks as I walked away.
I cried in my room, angry at my family, and then angry at Hufflepuff for taking them from me.
If I hadn't been sorted into Hufflepuff my family would still like me.
Is it right to hate someone because of their house? No.
I determinedly went to my desk and write a letter to Julia explaining my plan. I would change people's perceptions of the four houses if it killed me.
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"Come on Rose, you'll like it. Trust me."
"I don't know Lucy..."
I looked at her with pleading eyes. We were standing outside the Gryffindor common room and I was trying to persuade Rose to come to the weekly Hufflepuff party. I had asked Julie for permission, to let the only person in my family on my side see why I loved my new house. Of course Julie said yes.
"You could bring Scorpius too," I wheedled. "There's dancing and stuff and you wouldn't be under the eyes of anyone in our family but me."
Her eyes lit up. "Now that's tempting..."
"If you don't like it, you can always leave."
"Alright baby cousin, I'll come to the party." She ruffled my hair affectionately.
I grinned triumphantly. "Good. Because Scorpius already said yes. I brought something for you to wear, you'd get hot in your school robes."
She took the bag with a raised eyebrow, but went to change in a nearby girls' loo. She came out looking even more surprised, dressed in a gold mini skirt and a red tube top. "Will they even let me in dressed like this?"
I laughed. "Trust me, for a lot of people, that's actually pretty conservative. Go pick up your boyfriend, I'll see you there! Password's 'unity.'" I skipped off down the hallway, going to get changed myself.
The party was in full swing by the time Rose and Scorpius entered the room. I'd given Scor black jeans, a green vest and a silver tie along with green and silver converse and I had to admit he looked good in them. I slid down the ribbons I'd been practicing on and danced my way over to where they were gaping at the tame little Hufflepuffs. I grinned at their shock.
"Not what you expected?" They jumped at being addressed.
"No, not exactly," Rose responded, looking around with wonder. "You do this every week?"
"Yup," I replied cheerfully. I could tell Rose was trying not to stare at me, in my yellow and black crop top, black jean shorts, yellow fishnets, and the black and yellow ankle boots I'd slipped into once I was off the ribbons. I wasn't exactly what she was expecting either.
"This is so not the Hufflepuff I know," She said while taking everything in.
"That's kind of the point," I said laughing, "I want to change the perspective. That just because Hufflepuff has to hide that this is actually who we are doesn't mean we can't one day change that. No more super conservative, meek, Hufflepuff, huh?" I said with a hip pop.
"You have never been conservative or meek," Rose said giving me a look. "This is very fitting for you."
"Are you sure they'll all be ok with me coming in here? I don't know if I should be proclaiming that I'm Slytherin," Scorpius said nervously. I pointed to the huge, newly sprayed mural on the opposite wall.
"Gloriatione Qui Sis. It means to be proud of who you are. No one will be upset if you're showing pride in yourself. They would be sad if you changed." They took that in for a minute, then before the solemn mood would ruin the party I dragged them around to meet people and start dancing. After they felt more comfortable and had Kyle keeping an eye out for them, I climbed back up on the ribbon.
High up above the sea of black and yellow, I spotted the one tiny patch of red and gold and, a little ways away, the tiny patch of green and silver. Rose was dancing with a group of Hufflepuff girls her age while Scorpius had somehow managed to get himself into a dance off with Kevin, Marci's brother. Despite the fact that Kevin was probably the best hip hop dancer in Hufflepuff, Scorpius seemed to be holding his own and I grinned at the obvious enjoyment both of them were showing. Proud of myself, I twisted the ribbons around my body in a complicated dance as the party surged on beneath me.
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The next Friday, I was in the Great Hall chatting with Kyle when a note tapped me on the shoulder. I caught it, confused, and unfolded it.
Hey. Heard there was a party last week. Why wasn't I invited? I'm hurt, dear cousin, positively wounded.
I glanced up at the Gryffindor table, and saw Dom playfully waggling her fingers at me with a grin stretched across her face.
I smiled in response and snatched a self-inking quill from Marci's hair, ignoring her playful protest.
Somehow, I think you'll get over it. Consider this your formal invitation to the weekly Puffle Party, 8 o' clock tonight. Someone will let you in the door. Don't be afraid to dress like you normally do for a party.
I floated the note over to her, concentrating hard to get it to the right spot. She raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow at the last line, but grinned nonetheless and gave me a thumbs up.
Turning back to my breakfast, I felt proud that my plan was working well so far.
"Soon they'll all be over to the dark side," Kyle observed cheerfully and I laughed.
"Of course they will. We have cookies."
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I had expected Dom to show up alone, but of course, that wasn't Dom's style. Instead, when I opened the portrait door, Dom sashayed past me in her five inch heels followed by the rest of our female relatives, Al, Hugo, Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, about half of Gryffindor house and about a dozen Ravenclaws I didn't recognize.
Gaping at all the extra people, I turned to Dom. "I spread the word," she told me nonchalantly. "I hope it was okay to bring a few plus ones."
I laughed and threw my arms around her. "Dom, you're fantastic."
"I know." She hugged me briefly, then playfully pushed me off. "No more public affection, little cousin. I have an image to maintain, you know."
Coming from others, it might have been obnoxious, but Dom was just always like this and I knew she didn't mean any of it. So instead of feeling insulted, I just pointed out the snack table. "And glance up every once in a while," I said with a mischievous glint in my eyes. "You might just be surprised where you see me."
Dom indeed took my advice and when I came down from my aerial dance, ready to interact with other people, she gave me a one armed hug around my head. "That was fabulous, baby cousin."
I ducked out from under her arm and laughed. "What about your image, Dom? Can't be seen with your embarrassing little cousin, can you?"
In reply, she just laughed, seeming to brush off the rest of the room with a wave of her hand. "Screw my image. Come dance with me, baby cousin. Maybe set me up with a hot Hufflepuff guy."
"Or Lysander Scamander," I couldn't resist adding, seeing the way they'd been glancing at each other all night.
Her grin was that of a hunting female stalking her prey. "Oh he would do nicely." Poor boy.
As I went to go help Dom stalk her man-prey (which involved more strategic planning than I'd thought), I felt like a part of the family for the first time since September.
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I was running to my last class of the week, already late for Charms due to getting caught up in the library, when the sound of someone crying distracted me. I paused, looking down the hallway desperately where I knew Professor Finnegan would be waiting impatiently, but turned to the room where the sound had come from.
Sitting at a desk was a pretty, blonde haired girl about my age who was sobbing and occasionally wiping her face on her sleeve. For some reason, she was hiding most of her face in her jumper. Crouched in front of her was a dark haired boy I guessed to be about a sixth year, whispering to her and looking worried. Both were Slytherins.
I was unsure whether or not to intrude, but why not? I was already here after all.
I cleared my throat and they both whirled. "Um, hi. Is something wrong that I can help with?"
The older boy narrowed his eyes. "I doubt it," he said coldly. "Seeing as it was your cousin who caused this." My eyes widened and my hand flew to my mouth as I collapsed into the chair behind me. The girl had looked up and painful looking spots spelled out 'snake' on her face in a handwriting I knew. I felt sick.
"James," I said, not sure which was stronger- my pity for the girl, or my rage at James.
He nodded sharply and I growled a little bit in the back of my throat. "That's it, this time I'm drowning him in the lake," I said, getting up.
"Wait." I turned back to see the little blonde girl looking at me with pleading eyes. "Don't. You're his cousin, so he won't hurt you. But he'll just come after me, and worse. It's- it's how it works."
I studied her, trying to see past the spots and tell if she was serious. "He's done something like this before?" I asked, deadly quiet. Even if I wasn't a Gryffindor, I could definitely get furiously angry, especially if someone was getting mistreated.
She nodded silently. "And I can't drown him? Not even a little?" She gave me a small smile, but shook her head. "What if I made it look like the giant squid did it?" That got a laugh out of her and the older boy looked at me gratefully.
"Cameron Zabini, sixth year," he said gruffly, probably a little embarrassed to have snapped at me earlier, though I couldn't blame him. "This is my cousin Lydia." I shook both their hands.
"Come on Lydia, let's get you down to the hospital wing. And by the way, did you know there's a party in the Hufflepuff common room tonight?"
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"JAMES SIRIUS POTTER, I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO FURIOUS IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!"
It hadn't been hard to persuade a Gryffindor first year to let me in the portrait hole; after all, the rest of my family was all in there and that was a perfectly legitimate reason for me to be in there. It just wasn't the true one.
James whipped around, looking not like a boy caught putting his hand in a cookie jar so much as someone robbing the whole cookie factory, but his face first relaxed, then twisted into slight disgust when he saw it was me.
"You nearly gave me a heart attack," he complained, settling more comfortably into the armchair he was snuggled in and flipping his wand in the air and catching it in a steady rhythm. "Do you have any idea how much you sound like my mum?"
I stalked over to his chair, snatching the wand midair, cutting off his protest. "Good! I'm glad I scared you! I would have done much worse, but I promised I wouldn't. I knew you were arrogant, malicious, rude, and frankly a bit of an idiot, but I never thought you were a bully and you'd better thank Merlin on your knees that it's me and not your mother because I have a feeling that if I was Aunt Ginny, you'd be writhing on the floor in pain by now. I still haven't made up my mind not to tell her!"
James just looked confused. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about Lydia." The confusion didn't lift.
"Who?"
I was flabbergasted. "The girl I found crying in an abandoned classroom because her face had been covered in truly awful pustules by you, James!"
And, like the idiot he was, James actually smiled. "Oh yeah, her! That was a great prank." He gazed into the distance with a smile on his face, reminiscing.
My jaw literally dropped. "How can you possibly say that? I just told you that you reduced an 11 year old girl to tears and your only response is 'That was a great prank?!' If I didn't know it was morally wrong, I'd kill you right now with my bare hands, I'm that mad!"
James glared at me. "Lighten up. Merlin, you are such a Puffle!"
"Excuse you? What did you just say?!"
"You heard me. A goody two shoes, prudish, naïve, weak little Puffle!"
"Damn. Low blow James." We both whirled. Unnoticed by us, the rest of our family had come downstairs, ready for the party. It was Rose who had spoken, and she looked pissed. Her arms were folded, her hip cocked, and her foot tapping the floor. Even I was scared, and she was on my side.
"And also not true," added Dom. "Which you would've noticed it you didn't have your head up your ass."
"She's a Puffle, I'm a Gryffindor! You're siding against your own kind!"
"We're all the same James." Suddenly, I wasn't mad at him anymore. I just felt pity that anyone could be so close-minded. With sadness, I added, "We're all family. What happened to that?"
James looked at Freddy and Louis, the only two who had so far remained on his side. "Come on guys, back me up on this!"
They glanced at each other. "Sorry man, we're with them," Louis said apologetically. "Family is more important than house. Isn't that what our parents fought for?"
"All those stories they told us? Kindness is more important that house," added Rose.
"If you don't get that, I can't help you," I said, backing away towards the rest of the family, shaking my head.
Faced with our united front, James couldn't do much. He huffed. "Whatever," he said. "Take her side then."
"It shouldn't be sides James. We should all be together. It's what Uncle Harry would have wanted," I told him.
He got up. "You don't know my father!" he snarled. "I'm his son! He named me after his own father!" He started to storm towards the dormitory stairs.
"You're acting like Grandpa James," Lily said quietly, the first time she'd spoken. James froze. "And I don't mean that in a good way. You know what he was like when he was younger."
"I think you don't know Dad, James," Al added.
I looked at him softly. "Remember what they fought for, James." We all turned as one and filed out of the common room.
"Well," announced Dom, when we were well away from Gryffindor house. "That was depressing." We all laughed, and the tension broke, though I still felt a bit down. The stuff James said was really getting to me. I didn't let the rest of my family see, but I just knew something had to change. James wasn't the only one who thought that way.
When we entered the common room, my family dispersed, but I went straight to the ribbons. The only time I paused was to point out Lydia, who was kind of hiding in the corner, to Marci. As I ascended the ribbons, I saw Marci introduce herself and pull Lydia a little farther into the room. The Slytherin girl even started to dance a little and I smiled.
Even though the music was fast and pounding, I was slow and expressive on the ribbons. I needed to be able to think about what I could do, but despite the fact that aerial silk usually calmed me down and helped me plan things out, I couldn't think of a single thing I could do. I felt a gentle tugging on the ribbon and looked down. Kyle stood below me, looking concerned. I slid down, landing right in front of him.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Are you ok? You seem a little… I don't know. Out of it. Not in the partying mood today?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. James was being… James again and it's still bothering me I guess."
"Ok, well if you feel like talking about it, or going to your dorm or anything, just come find me."
I smiled, touching his shoulder. "Thanks, I will." He pulled me in for a hug before letting me pull myself back up above the seething crowd of people. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him winding through the crowd, stopping every few feet to talk to people, but I disregarded it. Kyle was popular; lots of people would want to talk to him.
I twisted and turned slowly, wrapping and unwrapping myself in the yellow silk. I closed my eyes, dancing by feel, gradually getting faster.
What could I do? I was just a first year. I wasn't super popular outside of Hufflepuff and I didn't have a lot of influence in the school. Who was going to listen to an 11 year old yelling about unity?
Another tug on my ribbons caught my attention and I opened my eyes to a sea of people all looking up at me. Kyle was directly below me, looking proud of himself, and he gestured for me to continue. "We're here for you!" he yelled.
I smiled. How could I have thought that I'd be alone with this, that I had no influence? I had forgotten the most important rule of Hufflepuff: everyone matters.
I danced that night with everyone screaming, cheering, and dancing below me. The other houses looked shocked at first with the support everyone showed for one person for seemingly no reason, but they joined in happily. The support cheered me up, but when everyone finally left the common room to go to bed, I still had no idea what to do.
I tossed and turned, so I was still awake when Marci came in about an hour after we'd gone to bed. I sat up as she tried to slide silently to her bed.
"Where were you?" I whispered, confused.
She froze, then turned to grin at me sheepishly and held up her bag of spray paints. "I, um, kind of snuck into the Slytherin common room with Lydia and did her and her cousin's names on their walls."
I laughed. "That's great. Wonder what their dorm-mates will think when they wake up and see the new decorations?"
She grinned. "I don't know, but I wish someone could video tape it."
Long after Marci had gone to bed and started snoring delicately, I was still awake. Something she had said, something about spray painting and words and people's reactions was putting an idea at the tip of my brain, but I couldn't quite get it. Finally, exhausted, I fell asleep.
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"Gooooooood morning sleepy heads!"
I groaned and stuffed a pillow over my head. "How are you even awake this early?" I grumbled. In answer, Kyle snatched the pillow off my face.
"Genetics," he said, beaming at me. "Up and at 'em! We're going to have fun today and I'm going to teach you two to make the most delicious chocolate-cherry cookies you will ever taste." He threw my pillow at Marci, ignoring both our protests.
"How'd you even get back here, anyway? Aren't the doors charmed not to let boys in?"
He looked at me as though I was missing something obvious. "What trouble can I get into in a girls' dorm?" he pointed out logically.
"Didn't know the doors could differentiate," I muttered, dragging myself out of bed. "You owe me for waking me up at the ungodly hour of-" I checked the clock, "-seven in the morning to make cookies," I told him.
"Seconded!" called Marci from where she was still completely under her covers.
"Duly noted, now get up."
In the end, Kyle did get us out of bed and we trooped down to the kitchen. First, we had breakfast that we persuaded the house elves to let us make ourselves, mostly because I can make the most BAMF scrambled eggs known to man, woman, or child. There's something to be said for learning cooking from Nana Weasley. We had fun making the cookies and teaching each other and even the house elves all the recipes we knew.
We came out after lunch was over and did our homework in the Hufflepuff common room until it was time for dinner. I hadn't seen anyone in my family all day, and I was kind of dreading seeing James, even across the Great Hall. I avoided looking at the Gryffindor table for all of 10 seconds before I lost all self control and glanced over.
James was sitting by himself at the end of the table, looking at me with a grimace. "Puffle," he mouthed across the room.
Someone in me snapped at that moment. Or maybe everything clicked into place. To this day, I'm still not sure which. Ignoring the confused looks and questions of my friends, I stood up, climbing from the bench to the table, carefully positioning my feet between the half full dishes. The whole hall was looking at me curiously as I pulled out my wand.
Concentrating hard, I started writing on the air. My wand left a sparkling black-edged yellow trail that spelled out 'Puffle.' I let the stream break, flicking the word to hover above the Hufflepuff table. I followed it up with 'weak,' 'naïve,' 'goody two shoes,' and 'prudish.' Everyone was staring at me silently, wondering.
I grinned and started shaping new words. Above the table floated 'loyalty,' 'unity,' 'acceptance,' and 'hard work.' Across the hall, I saw Rose and Dom climb up onto the Gryffindor table simultaneously. Their words were red and gold as they started to move their wands. Rose wrote 'stupid,' 'traitor,' 'brave,' and 'open,' while Dom sent up 'slut,' 'fulfilled,' and 'confident.'
With proud smiles, Marci and Kyle climbed up next to me. 'Fag,' 'worthless,' 'ditzy,' 'proud,' 'artistic,' and 'love' joined the throng. One by one, then in twos, threes, fives, tens, starting with the people who'd come to the Hufflepuff parties, but moving on quickly to the rest of the students, everyone stood up, proclaiming proudly both the insults they'd been dealt and the qualities they loved about themselves and their houses. Words started flying across the room as Rose sent 'cunning' over to the Slytherin table and Scorpius sent 'courageous' back. The ceiling grew more and more crowded and all at once, I threw my arms up into the air. The words sped up and up, shattering against the ceiling in a spray of colors like fireworks. Everyone, from all the houses, cheered as the words that had come to separate us now destroyed themselves, obliterating barriers. People rushed across the hall. I saw Scorpius kissing Rose between the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tables, Marci and Lydia cheering on top of the Hufflepuff table, Freddy doing a handstand on the Slytherin table and James, the only one still seated, staring in amazement at something in his hands.
"EVERYBODY TO THE HUFFLEPUFF COMMON ROOM!" yelled Kyle and there was a responding cheer and a surge towards the doors. I however hung back, seeing McGonagall looking at me. I walked up slowly to the teachers' table, wondering if I was in trouble.
"Honestly Headmistress, I don't know what that was. I don't even know how I did it, I'm just a first year-"
She raised her hand and I fell silently, surprised when she looked at me with kind eyes. "I have never, in all my years here, seen anything like this. The strength of your magic is nothing compared to the strength of your heart. Your want for it /pulled/ the magic out of you, like accidental magic, but with more purpose."
QXQXQXQXQXQXQX
That night I danced the most expressive and intricate dance I've ever danced. I was oblivious to what happened below me, just riding the euphoria around me. Later, Kyle and James told me what happened when he first came in.
James said that when all the words were being sent across the Hall, Julie sent him 'forgiveness,' and that he was holding it when all the others exploded. Apparently, he debated with himself whether to come or not, and deciding it would be ok, he came late.
He had stood at the door, nervous about what to do, when Kyle came and invited him in.
"What're you doing standing at the door? Come party!" Kyle cheered.
"I don't know if Lucy and everyone is ok with me," he said hesitantly.
"You are literally holding the answer" Kyle said laughing, he grabbed the word and threw it like a frisbee at the wall.
I saw it flying, not knowing exactly what it was, but i jumped from one ribbon to the other, spinning in the air just over it. I caught the other ribbon, spinning around to a stop as the word hit the wall and exploded in a mass of color, painting 'forgiveness' just under our black and yellow 'Gloriatione Qui Sis'. Forgiveness was all the colors, Blue, Red, Green, Silver, White, Black, and Yellow. The room exploded into raving cheers, I didn't think it could get any louder.
After that, James was taken to the changing room, which now accommodated all the houses colors, and he came to every party and stood up for kids of all houses.
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"Your story will be even more spectacular," I say, hugging the first year even though her crying has stopped. "And you will shape the house and the school just by being here. Now, how about Kyle and I go make you some cookies?"
END (?)
A/N: Hope you loved it! Tweet about it to all your friends with the hashtag #HT2U.