Title: Bleeding Black and Yellow
Prompt: one of my entries for the 'Your Favorite Hogwarts House Boot Camp challenge' - Solace
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is a trademarked brand owned by J.K Rowling and Warner Brothers. Any material used belongs to the aforementioned parties. This material is only used in recreational purposes and I receive no monetary or material rewards from using it. Please don't sue me.
On September 1st, 1998, it's not for the first time that Wayne Hopkins finds himself deeply irritated with the method used to enter the Hufflepuff Common Room.
It's slow going as the first years crawl through the barrel in single file, half looking apprehensive, half looking reassured as the seventh-years stand guard.
By some weird fluke, Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott end up heading the large group of badgers trudging slowly towards the kitchens. Upon reaching the familiar barreled entrance, Ernie steps forward, raps out the required rhythm authoritively, and moves back to flank the opening like a bodyguard.
Hannah copies his stance on the other side of the door automatically, her instincts long since honed to remember the guarding pose from last year, and it takes the duo a tense few seconds of awkward silence before they realize their mistake. However, before they can rectify their faux pas, Susan Bones and Zacharias Smith separate themselves from the crowd and take similar secondary positions.
The younger years crowd into the hallway: the closest unsure if they have permission to go inside and the stragglers confused by the hold up. Wayne waits calmly for Megan Jones to push her way one-armed to the front, and together, they take the third position.
Stephen, Justin, and Sally-Anne aren't familiar with the defensive stance that comes so easily to their experienced year mates, but that by no means stops them from joining in, though ununiform and imperfect their poses may be. Soon, the ten person seventh year class has created a tunnel of safety for their younger housemates to move through, each one with their wands drawn, all prepaired for even the slightest possibility of attack.
And the advanced security is completely unnecessary, but the returning students are familiar with the sight, and the few scattered students who aren't are wise enough not to comment.
Because the war is over… but old habits die hard.
(No one's managed to escape unscathed.)
(It's the little things that offer some solace.)
These are just fun little Hufflepuff diddy's. Don't expect them to get longer than drabble length, but I might occasionally surprise you. :)