Written for Round 2 of the QLFC. May the Tuts win! (Prompts detailed at the bottom.)
Justin blinked, and found himself in the Hospital Wing.
"Wha – " he shot up in the bed, scrambling to pull the sheets off. He'd just seen – he'd looked into the eyes of –
"Calm down, Mr. Finch-Fletchley." Madam Pomfrey said, bustling off to some other students. Justin stared. The students in the beds around him were petrified, just as he was sure he'd been.
"Madam Pomfrey! There – there was – I saw – "
"I am well aware," she said over her shoulder. "The beast has been taken care of and those that were petrified are being revived by this Mandrake Restorative Draught." She revealed a vial of a liquid with a greenish tinge.
Despite the reassuring words, Justin still felt on edge. To him, the monster had been living and breathing mere seconds ago.
He looked to his side and nearly jumped out of the bed. "Hannah! What're you – "
"Madam Pomfrey told me they were reviving the petrified students," Hannah told him shyly. "I thought maybe you wanted to see a familiar face."
"Oh – well – that's nice of you," Justin said, disconcerted.
"I know we don't really know each other," Hannah rushed to say, flushing with embarrassment. "But all the others – they wanted to eat at the End-of-Term feast, said they'd see you later…"
"End-of-Term Feast?" Justin blinked. "I've missed the entire rest of the year?!"
She nodded solemnly. "The Mandrakes weren't mature enough for the Restorative Draught until now."
"Right." He tried to get out of the bed, but Hannah stopped him.
"Madam Pomfrey has to check you over before you go join the Feast," she said, frowning.
"Come on, Hannah, I'm fine," he tried. She was a pushover; she'd never try to stop him.
"Justin, you could be hurt! And it could get worse if you leave it alone!" she whispered anxiously.
He ignored her.
"Justin, stop!" Hannah ordered, with a force he didn't know she was capable of. He froze in shock.
"Mr. Finch-Fletchley!" Madam Pomfrey hurried over to his bed, glaring. "You will not leave until I say you can!" she turned to Hannah, giving her a rare smile. "Ms. Abbott, you may leave."
Hannah scurried out of the Hospital Wing, and Justin glared after her.
They were in the Hufflepuff Common Room, a welcoming place with soft yellows giving off a warm glow. The golden-yellow flames in the fireplace were comforting, but white-hot if any student got too close.
"Alright, 'Puffs," a Prefect called to them. "Gather 'round. It's about time we had some kind of bonding session."
Most of the older students groaned, but the younger students looked on in fascination. Justin was a third year, but he'd never heard of any kind of bonding session in Hufflepuff.
"I don't know if you've heard of this game," the Prefect said, evidently excited, "but it's called Two Truths and a Lie."
"I know this game," Justin called out. "You tell two truths and one lie about yourself, and the others have to guess which one's the lie."
"Right," the Prefect beamed at him. "Now, let's try it out. There's what, fourteen of us here? That's good enough."
They started with the Prefects, going around the circle until finally it was Hannah Abbott's turn.
"I, er," Hannah began, fumbling with her words. "I…have an owl named Ellie, I'm a half-blood…and my favorite member of the staff is Madam Pomfrey."
"The Pomfrey one for sure," Ernie Macmillan said. "I know you like Sprout better."
"I've never seen you anywhere near Pomfrey," Susan Bones scoffed, grinning at Hannah.
Justin eyed her. He remembered the smile Madam Pomfrey had given her at the end of last year.
"I think it's the owl one," he volunteered. The others gave him raised eyebrows, but said nothing.
"Well?" Susan prompted. Hannah allowed herself a small smile.
"Justin was right," she said, looking pleased that she had fooled most of the others. "My owl's name is Ella, not Ellie."
Ernie rolled his eyes. "That hardly counts, Hannah. You just changed the ending of the name!"
"Does too," Hannah said stubbornly. She didn't look as if she were about to back down, so they continued on with the game.
After the game had ended, Hannah approached Justin.
"How did you know the owl one was a lie?" she asked. "You hardly know me."
"You're right, I hardly know you," Justin answered, not looking up from his Potions essay. Hannah waited.
"Er, well, did you guess then?" she said finally, sounding awkward and slightly embarrassed. Justin guessed she wasn't used to confronting others, or speaking in front of large crowds.
"Process of elimination, I suppose," he shrugged. "Lying about blood status is a bit of a douche-y thing to do, and I saw that smile Pomfrey gave you last year."
"I…didn't think you remembered that," Hannah said, evidently surprised.
"Yeah, well, I think I'd remember what happened when I woke up after being petrified by a basilisk with freaky yellow eyes," Justin dismissed.
Out of the corners of his eyes, he saw her fight a frown before stomping away.
"Scoot over," Justin whispered to Hannah, shoving some of her things to the side of the table before sitting down at one of the seats.
"Why can't you sit somewhere else?" she whispered back, glaring at him. Clearly she'd gotten over her aversion to confrontations, at least when it involved him.
"Look around. All the other seats are taken."
She did look around, scowling all the while. All the other seats were indeed taken. It was their fifth year, and their classmates were all scrambling to study before OWLs, which were scheduled to begin in a week.
"I'll have you know that I saved these seats for Ernie and Susan," she said hotly.
"Relax, there's two more seats for them," Justin waved one hand around, using the other to dig out a Charms textbook.
Hannah stared at him for so long he began to feel uncomfortable. "What?" he demanded, only to get shushed by the occupants of a nearby table.
"Why do you hate me so much?" she asked finally, closing her Care of Magical Creatures textbook.
"I don't hate you," Justin blinked. What made her think that?
"Then why are you so – so mean to me?"
"Well, you didn't exactly give me a brilliant first impression, at the end of second year," he pointed out.
"You did need to stay, you could have been seriously hurt."
"Yeah, well, either way, the impression stuck with me," he paused. "I guess I assumed that I'd always feel that way."
Hannah's mouth formed an 'O', but no sound came out.
"So, yeah," Justin said, turning back to his textbook. He pulled out some notes he'd shoved inside the pages. "I guess that's why."
It was obvious that she wanted to say something, but she couldn't seem to find the words. Her mouth opened, and then she changed her mind and closed it.
After about five minutes, Justin glanced up again. Hannah had attempted to go back to her textbook, but it was clear she wasn't registering anything the book said.
"Spit it out," he said, without preamble.
"I – can we just start over?" she blurted, seeming to have needed the prompting. Then she registered her words and flushed. "I mean – I hate how we dislike each other for absolutely no reason. If there's anything the DA taught me, it's that us Hufflepuffs should really stick together, and that's not going to work if we don't try to make it happen."
Justin stared at her for a long moment.
"That's the most I've ever heard you say," he marveled. "Congratulations."
"Oh, don't start with m – "
"I think it's a good idea, the starting over."
"You've bee – really?" she asked, caught off-guard.
"Really," he nodded. "I don't really see a reason why not."
"I hope that wasn't reluctance," she said, holding her hand out. "Start over?"
He shook the offered hand. "Start over."
Team: Tutshill Tornadoes
Position: Beater 1
Round Prompt: Hufflepuff x Hufflepuff friendship
Word Count: 1,387 words (excluding Author's Notes)
Prompts Used:
Prompt 2: (word) force
Prompt 6: (emotion) shock