Title: A Few Days in the Life of Zacharias Smith

Challenge: The Emotion Challenge given out by Deadly Poppy. The next chapters will be centred around the following emotions: Lust, Shyness, Crabbiness, Fear, Happiness, Conceit, Betrayal, Love.

Characters: Zacharias-centric, though it does have other Hufflepuffs featured throughout the fic. :) Will end up having a pairing.

Authors Note: I've done at least five different versions of this one so I just went with this one, though I had a blast writing all three. :D

Zacharias' fist slammed into the cement wall just outside the Hufflepuff commons again and again, obscenities spewing from his mouth until he felt a soft fingers wrap around his wrist and pull it away as firmly as possible. Barely even having to glance sideways, he knew it was Hannah Abbott. You definitely couldn't mistake those honey-coloured pigtails which should belong to a first year, and not a sixth.

He scowled at her, though it seemed to go unnoticed as she tutted. Hannah fished through the pockets of her robes until she found a clean hankerchief and wrapped in around his knuckles with a small hiss on her part. She then pulled him inside the commons and up to his dormitories, beckoning him to follow, which he did.

Zacharias raised an eyebrow at her as he swung open the door. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm going to mend your hand with something more suitable than my hankerchief. It's bleeding, in case you didn't know."

Of course he knew it was bleeding. What was he - an idiot? "I did gather that."

"Why do you have to be so difficult?" Hannah pushed him down on to the nearest bed and went rummaging in the bathroom that led from their room. "I mean, you could have just ignored Seamus. He's always saying stuff like that. He just wants to get a rise from you. . . and he suceeded."

Zacharias stared at his hand. Not out of shame or anything like that, but because now it did hurt. Before it didn't thanks to all the adrenaline pumping through his body, but now it had vanished just like that. "Finnigan's an arse. He deserved what was coming to him."

"He's not an. . ." Zacharias almost smirked at her unwillingness to swear. "He just likes to have fun. . . I don't think he expected getting at Bat Bogie hex for it."

Zacharias snorted. "Well, all those times on the other side of the female Weasley's wand -"

"- Ginny. Ginny Weasley's."

"Whatever. I had to research how to reverse it since I was sick visiting the hospital like a little girl, and eventually found out how to use it. . . I almost feel bad that I used first years to help me practice."

"You what?!" Hannah exclaimed, walking into the room with a bandage and some other things in her hands. She sat down next to him.

"Relax. I gave them a galleon each," drawled Zacharias. He sounded completely casual, as though he was discussing the latest Quidditch match. "And I only cursed them five odd times." At Hannah's disbelieving look, Zacharias didn't add the last bit of his sentence. Five times each.

Hannah cleared her throat. "Right. I can see why all the girls are just dying to be with you."

"You don't suit sarcasm," Zacharias scoffed. "You're not sarcastic enough. It has to come from the heart." Hannah gave him an almost scandalised look. "Er, no offense?"

"Look, why were you punching the wall?" Hannah took his hand and winced at the blood before she poured something on a cotton ball. "You already hexed him."

"It felt better for -" Zacharias hissed in pain as she dabbed his knuckles with the cotton ball, "- Are you trying to kill me? What the fuck is that stuff?"

Hannah gave him a too innocent look, along with one of her sugary sweet smiles though this time it seemed forced. "Whoops. I forgot to tell you - it may sting a bit."

"Heinous bitch."

He got a swat in the arm for that.

"You know, you may want to try being nice to people for once. You're such a. . . I mean, he was only calling you 'Zach', and I've heard people do that plenty. What's so bad about him doing it?" Hannah paused, "Is it because he's friends with Harry Potter? That's it, isn't it?"

Zacharias pulled his hand out of Hannah's grip before she could object. "Yeah, and how many people do this to my face? One, and that's my sister. Only my bloody sister and no-one bloody else. So you can kindly fuck the hell off."

Hannah gave a kind of scoff as she stood up and marched herself to the door. She opened her mouth to say something before she just shook her head in disbelief, throwing a bandage over to him before turning away and slamming the door as she left.