Stories are always told from the point of view of the hero who is brave and fearless and triumphs over evil, or else the villain who commits acts of evil but manages to redeem their self in the end. No story is ever told from the point of view of the nobody, the onlooker. Nobody ever tells the story of the Hufflepuff.

You are Hannah Abbott, and this is your story.

You open the letter with shaking hands, even though you already know what it will say. You've read your mother's letter enough times by now to know the words by heart. She was always sentimental about that sort of thing, keeping her old books and school letters in an enchanted box. You wonder what books you will have, and what your teachers will be like. You wonder if your mother will take you to Diagon Ally for school supplies today.

"Mum?" you call. She enters the room, and you ask if she'll take you. She agrees, and you send off a quick owl to Ernie, asking if he can meet you there. You wonder if he and Neville will be in same house as you. You wonder who else you'll meet there.

You wonder if Hogwarts is as wonderful as everyone tells you it is.

"Please wait quietly," Professor McGonagall tells the assembled first years, exiting the chamber. You stand a little closer to Ernie, unsure of whether you're ready to have a hat look in your brain and pass judgment on you.

Ron Weasley tells the boy standing next to him that they get sorted by "Some sort of test, I think." You shake your head, unable to believe that the Weasleys would choose not to tell their children how the Sorting works.

You spot Pansy, who looks rather green, and smile at her. You've known each other since you were three years old and at the same daycare. She is a member of one of the old families who have all been a part of the same House for generations. Her family expects her to be in Slytherin, or, at the very least, Ravenclaw. You're glad that your family doesn't have that kind of lineage. You don't have to deal with any of the House rivalries getting in the way of you being put in the right house.

You flinch slightly as several ghosts float through the wall and into the room. They talk amongst themselves about someone named Peeves, until they notice you and the other first years. You recognize the Grey Lady from your mother's description, but none of the others. One, a jolly looking witch, says that she hopes to see some of you in Hufflepuff. Before anyone can respond, Professor McGonagall reenters the room and escorts you into the Great Hall.

You listen intently during the Sorting Hat's song, hoping that it will suddenly become clear to you which House you want to be a part of. Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad. It was your mother's House, and one of the two Pansy could be Sorted into without enraging her parents. But you know that these aren't really valid reasons for wanting to be in a House.

"Abbott, Hannah!" Professor McGonagall calls. You realize with a fresh wave of dread that you will be the first to be Sorted. It's the curse of alphabetical fate. You walk to the front of the room, stumbling a little in you eagerness to get this over with, quickly pull the hat over your head, and wait.

"Well, you're an easy enough one," the Hat says. "Even now, part of you is thinking about your friends. That level of friendship belongs to a HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat yells that last part out loud, and you run to the cheering table and sit. A few minutes later, a girl name Susan sits down.

When it's Neville's turn, the Sorting takes so long that you begin to worry. When the hat finally yells "GRYFFINDOR!" you're surprised. You know that he wanted to follow in his parents footsteps, but he seems more like a Hufflepuff. Ernie, to your delight, is sorted into your house. You are a little disappointed when Pansy is put into Slytherin, but you know that you'll still have classes together, and you can't honestly say you're surprised.

Then "Potter, Harry," is called, and you realize that the rumors on the train weren't just rumors. Harry Potter walks up to the stool and sits down. The hat takes almost as long with him as it had with Neville, and when it shouts, "GRYFFINDOR!" he looks considerably relieved.

You are suddenly worried that Hufflepuff isn't a good enough house. It might be silly, but you wonder if Gryffindor is really the right one to be in. Is it too late to switch?

You go over in your mind what the hat said about Hufflepuffs. Just and loyal.

You decide that those are both things that you want to be, so you'll carry the title proudly.

You've just sat down to the Halloween feast when Professor Quirrell runs into the room, screaming about a troll. You calmly follow Ginger MacDonald, the prefect, back to the common room. You're scared, but you know that if you just do what Professor Dumbledore said to do, everything will be okay. You see Harry and Ron leaving their group, and wonder if you should tell someone. You don't know whether they're doing something they've been told to do, and it'd be a shame to get them into trouble over nothing.

Still, it's better safe than sorry, so you tell Professor Sprout the minute you get back to Hufflepuff. She leaves at once in search of McGonagall.

The second your broom leaves the ground, you're terrified. You tried to learn to fly as a little kid, and were quite good at it, until falling off one day when you were eight. You haven't flown since, and even the act of being on a broom again makes you feel the same way you did the moment you realized you were falling. You've explained this to Madame Hooch, but she is determined that you try again. So here you are, leaning forward to land and hoping that the ground isn't as far away as it seems. You know that Neville was pretty badly hurt in his first lesson, and you aren't entirely confident that the same thing won't happen to you.

What you're really afraid of, although you won't admit it to yourself, is being mocked.

You walk to the Quidditch Pitch with Susan, carrying yellow and black flags and chatting animatedly. There's a knot in the pit of your stomach. Nobody ever figured out what had happened with Harry's broom in the first match, and you find that just thinking about it still makes you queasy.

When you get to the Pitch, you settle yourself down to wait for the game to begin. As it turns out, waiting for the game takes longer than the game itself. Professor Snape is clearly favoring your team, but it doesn't matter. Harry catches the Snitch within five minutes, ending the game abruptly. He's an excellent player, but it doesn't seem fair to you that the rule about first years owning brooms doesn't apply to him. You're a Hufflepuff, and Hufflepuffs play by the rules.

You see Neville get the letter. You see the blood rush out of his face, and his swift exit from the Great Hall. You follow him, wondering what on earth could be going on to make him look that way. "Neville!"

He spins around, tears running down his face. "Look. As if the fifty points weren't bad enough," he says, holding out the letter. You take it and read.

"Oh, Neville."

"My detentions is with Filch. Filch! The only person in this school who hates me more than he does is Snape! I can't believe Harry would do this to me!"

"Neville, it's going to be okay."

"I tried to help them," he sobs. "I heard Malfoy talking, and I thought… I tried, you know? I was trying to be brave, for once. Trying to be a Gryffindor. But Harry didn't want my help. He wanted to go running around after hours, breaking the rules again. Why does he always have to do that? It's not fair. I tried."

You have a vague idea of what happened, but you don't know most of the details. This is not a good time to ask, so you hold your tongue, leaving the questions unasked.

Before you feel you've had time to learn much of anything, final exams are upon you. You don't mind the written exams, but you have bad enough performance anxiety that the practical exams are pure torture. Charms isn't too bad; Professor Flitwick has always been nice, and he let each of you do the exams separately so as to induce as little stress as possible. Besides, it isn't particularly hard to make a pineapple tap dance. Herbology isn't too bad either, even though it's in front of everyone, because the whole class is so intent on their own work. And besides, you like Herbology.

It's Transfiguration that really gets you. Not only is the exam in front of everyone, you have to Transfigure animals, and there is nothing you hate more. It just seems so inhumane to turn an animal into something else. You're always plagued by questions about where its brain goes, and if it's still conscious, even though Professor McGonagall has told you repeated times that it doesn't hurt the animal. Still, you can't see how it wouldn't hurt a mouse to be turned into a snuffbox, which is nothing like a mouse at all.

Astronomy and Potions seem to go okay, although you never can be sure, and the last exam, to your extreme relief, is History of Magic. You've always enjoyed the concepts behind history, studying the patterns that make things happen, and even with Professor Binns being as boring as he is, you feel like you've managed to learn quite a bit in his class. After exams, you go back to the Common Room and sleep through dinner, which might matter if it weren't for the sheer amount of food the House Elves had given you when you went to the kitchen for a snack to alleviate your stress at the beginning of finals.

"Congratulations on winning the House Cup," you tell Pansy. She smiles and thanks you, the walks away. You wish that you had been able to spend more time with her this year, but as it turned out, both of you made friends in your own House, and it was far more convenient to stay in your own Common Room than to go outside and find your other friends. You promise yourself that next year you will make more time. Susan calls your name, and you wait until she and Ernie catch up to you before proceeding to the end-of-year feast.

Professor Dumbledore announces that House points, and you're only a little disappointed to hear that Hufflepuff only got third place. He says that there are a few last minute points to dish out, which doesn't surprise you. You're a bit fuzzy on the details, but you've heard that Harry saved the world again, although everyone has a different theory as to how.

When the points are awarded, and Gryffindor wins, you clap with everyone else, but you're secretly a little disappointed with Professor Dumbledore. It doesn't seem quite fair, to pull a swap like that at the last minute, and not just because it leaves Hufflepuff in last place.

After the feast, you find Pansy crying in a bathroom, and you comfort her.

End Of Book One