QLFC Season 3 – Round 2 (1 for Little League)

Team: Hufflepuff (Little League)

Beater 1: Write a Hufflepuff x Hufflepuff Friendship

Prompt used: (9) Opening sentence: "It had been a very long day."

Word count: 1,046

It had been a very long day. First, it was double potions with Snape. Four agonizing hours of the greasy grouch hovering over you while you try to make a delicate potion will make any day long, especially when he starts up his usual berating rant when his hovering causes one of the students to muck up their potion.

But they didn't just have double potions that day. No, it was followed up by, well, lunch. But after that, it was followed up by Defense Against the Dark Arts with Umbitch—er, Umbridge. Two miserable, dreadful, worthless hours of reading from a textbook with the occasional interruption of an excessively sweet "Hem hem" or a detention being passed out courtesy of the pink toad. And, if that wasn't enough, they had Divination after that, so they got to listen to depressing predictions about their futures for a couple hours.

And to top it all off, they had Astronomy for an hour at 10:30. Another completely worthless and boring class. Seriously, who made that class mandatory through O.W.L. level?

Merlin, Mondays sucked.

"Suze! What's got you looking so glum?"

"I don't know, Han, everything? It's just that, well, part of it is Mondays in general. Snape, more Snape, even more Snape, Umbitch, Trelawney and her, er, um, Trelawney-ness? And then there's Astronomy. It's so tiring, you know?"

"Okay, I got all that," Hannah said, nodding her head, before taking on a quizzical facial expression. "You said that that is part of the problem, if I recall correctly. What is the other part?"

Susan sighed. "Would you believe me if I said that it was stress from the upcoming O.W.L.'s?

"No, I would not."

Susan sighed again; thus time being a long, sad sigh. "It's . . . It's just…"

"Come on Sue, out with it. What's got you down?" With a hard glare, she added, "And I want the whole truth. Not some made up thing to escape the upcoming confrontation."

"Ugh, alright Hannah! I'll spill, I'll spill. The other reason why I am feeling so miserable right now is because . . . b-be-because, uh…"

"On with it Suze. We still have classes tomorrow and it's already after Midnight."

"M-M-MIDNIGHT! Can't we just go to-"

"NO! We are talking about this right now. No exceptions."

"UGH! Fine! It's the boys, okay?"

"No, it's not okay. I need more than that, and you know it. You might as well just spill the beans right now so that we can get some more sleep. Anyways, what about the boys?"

"It's just . . . It's just that they aren't always that friendly – to me, at least. You know how I've recently developed in, you know, those areas? Well, it's attracted a lot of unwanted attention from almost all the boys who have noticed me. None of them want to be friends with me; they only want my body. Hell, the only two that didn't crave my body were Cedric and Harry, but Cedric is dead and Harry . . . Harry is probably going to die before he even realizes what a girl is.

"And the girls—they aren't that nice to me, either. Half of them are envious of how my boobs have developed to a nice size already, some are hostile towards me because they don't like my Aunt, and the others mostly ignore me.

"You're like the only one who is friendly towards me—" At that, Susan started crying softly.

Immediately, Hannah got up and sat next to her, grabbing her into a soothing embrace. "It's okay, Susan, I'm here for you," Hannah repeatedly cooed into her ear. "It's going to be alright. They don't matter to us, got that? It's just you and me. As long as we have each other, we're going to be just fine. Nothing can get in between us. Nothing will ever get in between us. I will always be here for you."

-ololo-

"Thank you, Hannah. Thank you for helping me all those months ago. I don't know if I could have made it through the O.W.L.'s without that talk, let alone getting 8!"

"Susan, there is no need to thank me for that. You know that I love you, and that I am your best friend, and best friends don't allow their best friends to be sad. I was just playing my role."

"I did know that, thank you very much, and I'm going to thank you anyways. Thank you."

-ololo-

"We did it! We did it, Hannah, we did it! We defeated a Dark Lord and his evil Dark Lord Minions! And we survived!

"We did, Susan! We did defeat a Dark Lord. We did defeat his minions. And we did survive. I couldn't have if you weren't here…"

"Oh, Hannah, come here!" Susan exclaimed, gathering Hannah into a hug. "There is no time to be sad. We just defeated a Dark Lord. If anything, we should be black out drunk from celebrating too hard; not worrying over depressing alternate realities. But, while we are on the subject . . . thank you for getting me to confess my feelings that one time two years ago. It truly was the worst I've felt in my life, and I don't know how much longer I could've continued going in that state—assuming I had decided to continue living my life, at least. Even though I thought you were evil and merciless, you were everything I needed from my best friend. Thank you for being my best friend, Hannah. Thank you."

"Susan! How many times do I have to remind you to not thank me for doing a basic best friend responsibility! But, if you are giving out thanks, I'll take it, and give you a 'You're welcome' in return.

"I am welcome, thank you very much. Have I told you that I love you today?"

"Only about, hmmm, let's see . . . only about 38 times today."

"Well, I still love you. You are the best best friend that anyone could possibly ask for. I'm glad you're mine."

"I don't know, Sue. You are a pretty decent best friend yourself, if you ask me."

"Aww, thank you! Oh, by the way, I love you."

"And we've reached 40!"