I was hiding, which I'm not overly proud of but hey, I never claimed to be a Gryffindor did I? To be more specific I am standing behind a rather rusty suit of armour, hiding from April. Man, I am so pathetic it's not even funny anymore.
In fact, it stopped being funny the first time I hid from her.
Why am I hiding from her? Well aside from the fact that she's a complete and utter weirdo, she found out about me stealing the giant Hufflepuffs notes and is apparently looking for me. Not that I'm scared of her, she's too nice to do anything remotely mean, but she tends to ramble a lot so it'll be aver an hour before I get to escape.
Then she'd start feeling guilty about how she's given up on me and start apologising for not being there for me and ask me to study with her or something. I'd decline but she'd drag me there anyway where I manage to offend her enough for her not to talk to me for a several days in which she will tell everyone she isn't going to put up with me anymore, then the cycle would repeat again the next time she needs to talk to me.
I'm just a tad sick of it by now, it's a bit repetitive.
But I guess it makes sense since Hufflepuffs are loyal and all she feels like she's betraying her house by giving up on someone. She shouldn't though, dad's a Hufflepuff and he gave up on helping me, though he gave up on himself too so I don't know if that really counts.
I miss the old dad, though I highly doubt I'm ever going to see him again, he's changed too much. Then again I can't talk, I've changed too.
Anyway, if my calculations are correct, April will be passing this suit of armour any second now unless she changed courses since last time I saw her. I hope so, because this is the only hiding spot in this corridor and it's not a very good one.
This is where an invisibility cloak would come in handy; too bad we're not rich.
The sound of footsteps and someone humming tunelessly under their breath (I swear April is tone deaf) alerted me to the fact that unfortunately, for once in my life, my calculations were indeed correct. Makes sense, I'm only smart when it doesn't work to my advantage, where were my brains last year when I was taking OWLs?
Stupid brain, wish I could swap you with some Ravenclaws so you would work all the time.
I cautiously peeked out from behind the suit of armour, spotting April down the end of the corridor, skipping around and not giving a shit what people thought of her. It was painful to see her, since we used to be close, so I avoided seeing her at all costs.
She stopped at every classroom, poking her head in the door for a second before moving on. I swallowed hard and stepped back, trying to hide in the shadows as much as possible. She stopped to check in the classroom next to me and I tried to breath as quietly as possible, not wanting her to hear me.
She's probably find me though, she's not stupid.
She closed the classroom door and walked over to the suit of armour, still humming under her breath. It was an annoying tune, or more likely it was a good song that became unrecognisable once she started humming it. I tried my hardest to make myself invisible, but she spotted me straight away when she came up to the suit of armour. "Coward."
She always spoke her mind, she didn't care what people thought of her which is why she doesn't have any close friends. She's not a loner though, she has friends but they get sick of her speaking her mind so they don't spend too much time with her. I never understood why they hated that, it's better than being a sheep like them. She was the only Hufflepuff I could stand being around, she wasn't overly cheery.
She is a bit weird though, so I guess that makes sense.
I shrugged and stepped out from behind the suit of armour, knowing there was no point in hiding or running now she's found me. She's a lot faster than me, seeing as she actually exercises on a regular basis. "I'm no Gryffindor, I never claimed to be brave."
She raises an eyebrow at me, clearly showing she wasn't happy with me. "There's a difference between not being brave and being a downright coward. Bullying someone into giving you their notes because you know their scared of you, that's low."
I roll my eyes at her, she really needs to stop lecturing me, I almost know this speech my heart by now. "I should take my own notes so that I actually learn and will therefore pass my NEWTs easily and can get a good job instead of working at the leaky cauldron like people who throw away their futures, blah, blah, blah. Can we get dinner now? I'm hungry."
She crosses her arms and looks down at me, yeah even my twin managed to be taller than me, I am destined to be the shortest person in the history of Hogwarts. "If you start taking your own notes."
For all the classes? Is she crazy? My brain will shrivel up and die, it is impossible for anyone to think that much in one day! I will die from boredom and brain friedness! "I'll take notes for Transfiguration and Charms."
She shakes her head stubbornly, this is going to be a long argument. I mean, stubborn people should be banned from fighting with each other, it just takes too long. I have better things to do then argue about taking notes! "Fine, if you also take notes for astronomy and Defence."
That I can live with, I already take my own notes for astronomy and there's not many notes for defence, it's a more practical class. "Fine, but you have to buy me a pumpkin pasty next time you go to Hogsmeade."
She grinned at me and linked her arm through mine, which she should know my now not to do. She loves skipping and always forgets my hatred of it, it's quite frustrating sometimes. "We're not skipping."
"Oh...right." She unlinked our arms and started walking down towards the great hall, I sighed and followed grudgingly. I hated when she decided she shouldn't give up on me, not that I don't like spending time with her but it always hurts when she gives up again. "So I was in care of magical creatures yesterday yeah? And we were looking at hippogriffs and Goyle, started throwing twigs at it while we were waiting for Hagrid! People are so inconsiderate these days, the poor thing had to suffer just because some idiot thought it wasn't pretty enough!"
What I liked about April was that even though she was still kind and fiercely loyal, she wasn't annoyingly cheery. She still got annoyed at things and people and while her kindness could sometimes be annoying, it didn't make me want to drill a hole through my head.
"I hate some people sometimes, what have we come to? Judging animals or people by their looks, it makes me sick! I swear, one day I'm going to start a new settlement on Mars, start afresh, without the likes of Goyle!" She loves to rant, probably the most annoying thing about her, besides the fact she lives like a pig.
Dad tried to make us share a room once; it didn't turn out to well.
April strode into the great hall and headed towards the Slytherin table, knowing I wouldn't sit at her table with all the loud, happy, annoying people. Many of the Slytherins glared at her as she sat down, Alexandria Nott even went as far as to leave. No one else argued, they were used to it by now and knew she'll probably be gone in a couple of weeks.
Sad, but true.
I sat down next to her as she began to blabber on about her argument with Goyle and he'd called her a mudblood even though both out parents are-or were- wizards. I had to agree with her there, was stupid to judge people by their parents anyway, the war is over.
Most people didn't care anymore, including most of my dorm mates, but there are always going to be stupid people like Goyle, unfortunately.
I zoned out as she rambled, having heard this all before. The whole people-should-respect-everyone-and-treat-everyone-as-equals speech was her most favourite to ramble about, though it got quite repetitive. I was serisously tempted to shove some food in her mouth to shut her up but I really wasn't in the mood to fight with her.
Plus, I was hungry.
In response to Hufflepuffs pride's review I don't have anything against Hufflepuffs, I'd actually want to be in Hufflepuff if I went to Hogwarts (which is unfortunately very unlikely) because they are usually nice and loyal people. Kyra doesn't like Hufflepuffs because she hates happy people and most Hufflepuffs she knows are happy. She hates most of the houses for stupid reasons too in case you didn't notice, she just hates Hufflepuffs more because they are happy while she isn't. Also, Hufflepuffs aren't the only ones afraid of her, so are the people from other houses, as you saw in chapter 2.
April is my favourite character in this story because she just doesn't care about what people think and is just a carefree person in general. She is also one of the few people who stand up to Kyra. I am also writing another story from a Hufflepuffs point of view after I finish Art of Not Caring, which I am really excited about.
And if you think I'm a 'young, inexperienced little writer who wants to write something good, but fails miserably' then don't read my stories, simple.
I would also like to point out that Tonks is one of my favourite harry potter characters in the books. So basically, I mean no offence to Hufflepuffs in any way.
