Heads of House

By HarryDude85

I haven't stopped working on In the Cupboard, but I have so many other little ideas running through my head, that I can't wait till it's finished to work on them. So, while still trudging along with my big story, I will be sporadically posting these little, non-related stories.

Pomona Sprout was never prouder to be the Head of the Hufflepuff house than the day that Cedric Diggory's name had came from the Goblet of Fire

She knew Cedric, knew that he was a boy who was more of a figure head for the Hufflepuff's than even herself. He was handsome – her teacher responsibilities didn't make her blind to that fact -, athletic, fair minded, loyal and the kind of person who could never hold a grudge, even against those who had harmed him. Everyone in the house, even the older students, had admired and looked up to him, long before his name was called by Dumbledore.

And when he was chosen, her faith that he would make Hogwarts proud, as winner or loser, was indestructible. Even the surprise addition of Harry Potter in the competition was unable to shake her belief in Cedric's. (Although it did, she would shamefully admit years later, shake her belief in Harry)

So when Pomona watched as Cedric Diggory's coffin was lowered into the cold, hard earth, she couldn't help but feel as if the soul of the Hufflepuff house had been snuffed out with Cedric.

But it wasn't.

For while the spirit of her house had been incredibly damaged when Cedric died, the fury it had towards his murderer, and the determination to see his end, brought it back to full strength. They were all ready to prove that Cedric Diggory wasn't the only Hufflepuff that she could be proud of.

And they did.

Ernie MacMillian had always been the student in his year Pomona had to reprimand the most. He was quick to anger and judged people too harshly. When the Chamber of Secrets had been opened, and after Harry's name had been selected by the goblet, Ernie was often heard making rude comments or writing inappropriate messages in Harry's direction. She had been worried that he would be the first in the house to jump on the 'Harry Potter's crazy' bandwagon that the Ministry created.

But to her shock and delight, Pomona had heard that he was actually the first one to jump speak in his defense, and yelled at a seventh year who had expressed his doubts the very first night of his fifth year.

On the other hand, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones were the opposite of Ernie. While it was true that they, like the rest of the house, opposed Harry in their second and fourth years, they hadn't had a strong opinion as Ernie had. But they were very shy individuals, and tended to let Ernie speak up for them in heated discussion. In fact, Pomona could never remember every hearing Susan or Hannah raise their voice's in anger.

But, like everything else in the world, her students changed after Dumbledore was murdered.

Hannah, still coming to grips with the murder of her mother, had come back from vacation determined that if she was going to die, she would go out fighting like her mother.

Susan would always be reminded of how much she had lost every time she looked in photo albums. Once a large, talented family full of loving men and women, all that remained of her blood line was herself and her father. And she was extremely close to her aunt Amelia, who had treated Susan as her own daughter. Susan was determined to make sure that the Bones family would not end with her.

Justin, well, Pomona wished there was something to change with Justin. As he was Muggleborn, he was not allowed to come to Hogwarts this year and he was, the last Pomona knew, in hiding with his parents. But she knew that when the time came, Justin would be back in the world he belonged in, fighting to make sure muggleborns don't have to be afraid of there own power.

And Ernie, well, the easier thing to do would say how he hasn't changed. He was still as determined as ever. Still had blond hair, stood up straight, and did his homework. But now he had the hardened eyes of a warrior. He was quick to talk back to teachers. (Only two and they spat in the faces of those who actually deserved and honored the title, but still.) He was often heard praising Harry Potter and reaffirming the younger Hufflepuff's that he would save us all.

But the one thing her seventh years all had in common, besides their loyalty to Dumbledore and unrelenting faith in Harry Potter, were the scars.

They weren't permanent and were usually gone in a week, but almost every day, those three would walk into Herbology with the Gryffindor's, and all of them, Gryffindor's and Ravenclaw's included, would be sporting some new cut, bruise, gash, broken limb, or limp, and they all wore their injuries with immense pride. They were doing something that they could one day tell there children and grandchildren about and make them proud.

They were resisting. Whether it was as serious as insulting the Carrow's or refusing to hex and torture a child, or as mild as handing in a piece of homework praising Harry, they were doing something which told You-Know-Who that Harry Potter wasn't the only student in Hogwarts who was willing to fight.

Pomona had pulled Hannah aside at the end of one lesson, when she had come into class unable to open her left eye it was so swollen. She had to ask her a question that Pomona knew she would regret if she didn't.

"Why do you keep doing this, Hannah? I know that you are trying to defy You-Know-Who as much as you can, and I admire you greatly for it, but there has to be a limit."

"There is, Professor," said Hannah, looking at her teacher so fiercely out of one eye. "We know our limits, and when we reach them we stop to heal. Once we do, though, we just get back up and do it again. We do this, like Neville say's, to give hope to the rest of the school. And while there is nothing that we need right now more than Harry, the next best thing we can give is hope."

As Hannah turned to join her friends back up to the castle, she turned back and said, "There was a muggle expression that Justin told me once in our fifth year, when Fudge was too busy screwing Harry to get his head out from his own ass." Pomona couldn't keep in her laugh at Hannah's colorful yet accurate description. "He said, 'If there shooting at you, you know your doing something right.' As long as they keep shooting, we'll keep doing, Professor."