Written for The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Season Four (Round 6)
Team: Puddlemere United
Position: Seeker
Prompt: Write about a light character committing the sin of your choice or a dark character demonstrating the countering virtue of your choice. I chose Pride.
Word Count without A/N: 1,471 (Google Docs)
Zacharias Smith would be a Hufflepuff.
He knew that. It was only natural—the logical choice; he was the descendant of the founder, after all. He would be in Hufflepuff and he had always known.
And yet, here he was—standing in a line of first year students, waiting for his name to be called—desperately trying not to think 'what if'.
It was not actually that hard.
The time was passing dreadfully slow—they had only just started the letter 'G' and there were still a lot of students standing around him.
Zacharias knew that he would still have to wait for his turn. Travers, Tripe, Urquhart, Weasley, and Yaxley were the only pureblood families that would follow his turn and most of them did not have a child in his age group. A few halfblood families like the Zabinis or the Wilkeses might also be after him, or a few muggleborns, but he would, without a doubt, be one of the last few who would be sorted.
Hooray.
Zacharias rolled his eyes when an overexcited, presumably muggleborn girl almost ran up to the three legged chair; when that fool Longbottom (wasn't that boy a squib? Zacharias was sure he had heard someone mentioning it) forgot to take the hat off; and when the hall was filled of whispers the second Professor McGonagall had finished reading the name 'Harry Potter'. A few weeks ago—Merlin, a hour ago—he would have joined the excited whispers, but the boy who stepped forward was small and looked disgustingly weak.
Then, finally, it was his turn.
Only, almost no one noticed because Harry Potter had just been sorted seconds before.
They would all regret it, sooner or later, when Zacharias proved everyone how great he was.
But first he had to get sorted.
After granting himself a second to correct his posture, he gracefully moved forward and sat down on the wobbly chair.
For a second or two, his eyes scanned the hall. Only a handful students were looking in his direction—everyone else was trying to get a look at Harry Potter, or cheering in the case of the Gryffindors.
They were all fools. They would learn to appreciate him. Zacharias would prove his worth. Helga Hufflepuff was his ancestor after all—it was in his blood.
Then, the hat was placed on his head, and, due to its size, it covered most of his eyes.
Zacharias noticed that he could not hear the hall anymore; there had to be some kind of silencing charm on the hat.
A second of silence passed before the hat spoke to him.
The question is, where shall I put you?
'Hufflepuff. Isn't that obvious?'
It isn't, young soul. While you do share some of the qualities for the house, the same is true for another house.
Zacharias tried not to pale or otherwise show his distress. It was bad enough that it was taking so long—he could not seem nervous. It would ruin everything.
'And which house would that be?'
Why, Slytherin of course. You are ambitious and value self-perservation more than you do loyalty or fair play.
He closed his eyes and took a few deep breath to calm down—in, and out, and in, and out.
'But I am also dedicated and patient. I value hard work and I'm not afraid of toil.'
That may be the case, but you are neither particularly kind nor tolerant—unless it suits you, of course.
Zacharias tried—and failed—to stop himself from gulping. Hopefully, no one had seen it, but he needed to focus on a more immediate problem.
He would not be sorted into Slytherin—the House of Dark wizards—if he had any influence whatsoever!
'Are you saying I would be better off in Slytherin? I have to be a Hufflepuff! Everyone in my family has been! Well, except for Aunt Beatrice, but look what happened to her! She joined You-Know-Who. This is why I should not be in Slytherin. Only Dark wizards go there, after all! My family and I—we are Helga Hufflepuff's descendants! It is our right to be sorted into her house!'
If Zacharias has any luck, then this would work and no one would have noticed any distress.
Several seconds passed before the hat replied—seconds that Zacharias spent moving as little as he could, doing his best to maintain his posture.
You do share some of the values of Hufflepuff and you are certainly no Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, so the true question is whether you are more of a Hufflepuff or a Slytherin…
'And what is your answer to that question?'
He was not nervous. If it came to the worst and he was sorted into Slytherin he would surely find a way to deal with it, wouldn't he? Or was he simply lying to himself?
Taking all facets of your personality into account I would say you are more of a "HUFFLEPUFF!"
Zacharias was flooded by relief as the Sorting Hat loudly proclaimed the last word. He had done it. He had been sorted into Hufflepuff.
Perhaps it had been a good thing that his name was called after Potter's, as—since the Hall was still in an uproar—only a small number of people noticed the length of his sorting, and even fewer his emotional distress.
Zacharias Smith stood up and moved towards the Hufflepuff table, and the few who paid attention were able to see a proud smile on his face.
Hufflepuff truly was the best house.
The students of Gryffindor didn't think about risks, the Ravenclaws never left their books and the Slytherins were, of course, evil. And even if they weren't, they would be, it was simply a matter of —time.
Zacharias knew this and treated the students accordingly.
He deliberately kept books from Ravenclaws (and that one bushy-haired Gryffindor). It didn't matter whether or not the other students needed them for school—they needed to learn to live without them, like everyone else did.
He never voluntarily interacted with either Slytherins or Gryffindors; The former were manipulative Dark Lords in Training, and the latter always jumped head-first into danger without thinking beforehand.
His views didn't change over the years.
After all, why should they?
Hufflepuff was the only house worth being sorted into—everyone else wasn't worth his attention or his time.
Zacharias did not fight in the Final Battle, but—contrary to popular opinion—it wasn't because he was disloyal and a coward—it was because his loyalty was divided.
The so-called Light side were too dismissive of important traditions and values—like the proper celebration of Samhain or the Solstices, replacing them with foolish muggle festivities—and, while the Dark side was better in those aspects, they did have a giant fault: they dismissed Hufflepuffs.
After the war, people made changes.
Most of them were disgusting, like giving werewolves or house elves more rights—rights they didn't deserve.
That bushy haired mudblood friend of Potter was behind the majority of these, and many people supported her.
Too many.
Zacharias didn't understand why. In giving those things more rights, the rights of other people were reduced. And those people—the purebloods—actually deserved those rights.
But Zacharias put up with it.
It was only a matter of time until everything returned to the proper way—the way it had been since the time of his ancestor, Helga Hufflepuff, if not longer.
Zacharias hit his breaking point in 2005, when Victor Urquhart, a pureblood—one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, even—not only voted in favour of a law to further reduce the Pureblood Privileges, but proposed it.
Of course he did. He was a Gryffindor.
A Gryffindor, where no one valued the old ways—the traditions that helped their society survive in secret for several hundred years.
If Urquhart did not figure it out himself within the next couple of days and stop the new law, then Zacharias would make him.
VICTOR URQUHART DISCOVERED DEAD
Yesterday evening, Victor Urquhart (32) was discovered dead in his kitchen by his wife Anastasia (30) and their children Alyssa (5) and Vladimir (2).
Victor Urquhart had been missing for a week and his body showed clear signs of repeated use of the Cruciatus Curse.
It is assumed that this is a crime motivated by Urquhart's advocating against Pureblood Privileges.
"This is not a sign to give up," his wife stated. "Victor would not have wanted the movement to stop. I beg you all to finish what he started, so that perhaps our children can live in a better world."
The Department of Magical Law Enforcement did not give any detail concerning their work on the case.
"We do not want to give our suspect any help in finding out what we are planning and how to avoid being caught. However, we want to ensure the public that we will do our best to find the murderer and put them on trial immediately," Harry Potter answered upon request.
Please tell me what you think!
~Marvelgeek42