Well this is it, the chapter where we find out who our fabulous Gryffindor prefects are and who the Head Boy and Girl are, exciting, isn't it? Oh plus who the Quidditch captain is (but if you've read 'In a Bit of a Pickle' then you can probably already guess as there are only two remaining people on the team).
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
Ok, I'll be honest (it's not like anyone important is listening on this commentary of my live), I didn't practice my 'I'm-sorry-I-didn't-get-made-a-prefect' speech. I know I said I was going to but I suppose that's just the slacker I am. So far I've planned to look ashamed, it won't be an amazing performance but hopefully it will be ok.
Truthfully I thought I had more time to practice, but one morning in early August, about a week before my birthday, I was up and eating some scrambled eggs when a barn owl flew into the kitchen and landed between Rose and I at the table.
"Hogwarts letters," Rose said excitedly, you could tell that there were nerves mixed in with the excitement, I knew that she wanted to be Head Girl more than anything.
"Yay!" I said tiredly and reached out to grab them from the owl. It hooted as I took the letters from its beak and flew back out the window.
I handed Rose her letter and she took it with trembling hands.
"Merlin Rose, it's just a Hogwarts letter, either you're Head Girl or you aren't." I shrugged. I was finding it hard to be sympathetic when she was obviously going to be made Head Girl. Model prefect and top of her year to boot, yeah and you thought she wouldn't be Head Girl because...?
"Yeah well you know how much this means to me." She said seriously.
"Yeah I do Rose, and you're going to get it for sure." I told her.
"I don't know," she was still staring at her letter, I resisted the temptation to either roll my eyes or tear the letter open myself (both was sounding pretty good), "there are a couple of girls in my year who could really get it."
"Fine, I'll give you 5 galleons if you don't get it. But the condition is that you have to open it right now." I told her.
"Fine but you have to open yours at the same time, you could get prefect." She said.
"Na, we've got Ben Kettle in my year." I reminded her.
"This works both ways; if you're not prefect I'll give you five galleons." She said stubbornly (she got that from our parents).
"Fine, I hope you like becoming poorer." I shrugged and we opened our letters.
"See Rose," I started, "I'm not-"
As a gold badge fell into my hand I became speechless. What in the name of Merlin was that badge doing in my hand?
"But....what...huh...?" I stammered as I looked down at the prefect badge in my hand.
"Told you." Rose nudged me, grinning. No surprises, she had the gold Head Girl badge in her hands.
"Yeah well I told you." I smiled weakly, still looking at the badge in my hand.
"Stop being so down on yourself Hugo, you'll be a great Prefect, you're loyal, kind and you do have some responsibility hidden somewhere in that thick skull of yours." Rose grinned.
I didn't really know what to say to that, I was still shocked that there was that badge in my hand. Luckily, I didn't have to form a response because two people appeared in our fireplace and Rose and I turned around.
"Did you guys get your letters?" Lily said quickly as she got out of the fireplace so Al could move.
"Yeah, did you?" Rose asked. I was still in a sort of shock because of what had happened.
"Yes." Lily beamed, "Prefect and Quidditch captain! Isn't that great? And you're Head Girl, right?" Lily pointed at the badge in Rose's hand.
"Yes! It's going to be great; I really need to owl Scorpius to see if he got Head Boy..." Rose and Lily talked on.
"What's up Hugo?" Al said, obviously noting that I hadn't spoken yet. He walked over and looked at the badge in my hand. "Prefect? Well done mate!"
"What?" Lily whipped around. "You're prefect?"
I held up the badge to show her.
"Congratulations!" She yelled and ran over to give me a hug.
"Yeah, you too." I said, still not quite believing that I was a prefect, it just seemed too weird.
Rose and Al started talking about something and Lily started organising stuff with me. And when I say with me, I just sat and listened to what Lily was organising.
"Well we'll have to Diagon Alley to get all our school books soon," Lily started rambling; she was just like Rose when she was on a roll. "We should owl Beth and Alex and see when they're free to come and we could all go together..."
I just sat and nodded, feeling it was the best thing to do, just thinking things through really.
Why did McGonagall make me a prefect? I'm not that smart or that responsible or a leader, I'm just there. Just the person in the background, nothing special at all. Why in the name of Merlin am I chosen to help represent Gryffindor house, I'm not even that brave, I'm just not smart, sly or hard working so I don't fit into any other house.
And no, this is not just the inferiority complex (which I don't have!) talking.
Why choose plain old me?
As you can imagine, when Mum got home she was ecstatic.
Neither Rose or I had owled her as we decided it would be best to tell her in person (well best for the people in her office, they'd probably have a heart attack from Mum screaming with excitement) so she came into the lounge like normal, where Rose and I were playing Wizard Chess, it wasn't much of a contest as Rose got Mum's genes and I got Dad's.
"I'm home." She called from the kitchen where she had apparated. "Did you guys do anything interesting today?"
"Not much." Rose called back.
Mum came into the lounge to see us. Bushy brown hair tied up for work and wearing black robes, Mum looked just like she always did when she returned from work.
"So what have you-"she started but then saw the letters that Rose and I had left on the coffee table earlier that day. "Are they your Hogwarts letters?" she asked.
"Yes." I said to Mum and then turned back to the chess board. "Knight to D4." I took one of Rose's bishops; see what I mean about her being not so good.
"And?" she said excitedly, looking from me to Rose.
"Well Hugo's a Gryffindor prefect." Rose told Mum.
"And Rose is Head Girl." I added.
Mum just beamed at us and then pulled us into a massive hug where it felt like she was strangling my neck.
"I'm just so proud of you both." She said, her voice sounded like it was about to cry.
"Mum, it's just a prefect badge." I tried to tell her but it sort of didn't come out clearly because I was having trouble breathing, she got what I was trying to say anyway.
"Hugo Weasley, it's not 'just' a prefect badge, it's something to show you that you are responsible and a leader." Mum let go of Rose and I. "Well anyway, I just couldn't be prouder. My little Hugo and prefect and Rosie Head Girl." She continued to beam. "I'll go and make dinner. Oh prefect and Head Girl, I'm just so proud." And with that she walked back off into the kitchen.
Rose and I just shrugged at each other, it was expected.
Dad of course, was different when he came home.
"Hello my little kids." He smiled as he came into the dining room just before dinner was about to start.
"Yeah, little." I rolled my eyes, both Rose and I were taller than Mum and I wasn't too far off Dad's height.
"I heard from Harry that you got your Hogwarts letters today, so?" he looked from me to Rose in an expectant manner.
"Head girl." Rose smiled and Dad gave her a big hug.
"I'm so proud Rosie; I knew you had it in you, just like your mother." He grinned.
Maybe it's because Rose is always the smart one, but I couldn't help but feel a little jealous of her. The way everyone just expects her to get Head Girl and top of the year and she never disappoints, she's even on the Quidditch team. I know I'm a prefect now (I honestly don't know what McGonagall is thinking) but I still feel overshadowed by Rose. Plus loads of people in our family have been Prefects (Victoire, Molly, Louis, Lucy, Rose, Lily and I, I reckon Al would have got it if Scorpius hadn't been in his year and I reckon Dom would have got it if Molly wasn't in her year. In fact the only people who would never have got it were James and Fred, but that's not a surprise). It's nothing new or that special.
"Hugo?" Rose waved her hand in front of my face.
"Huh? What?" I recovered from my train of thought. That's a pretty funny expression when you think about it, why is it train? Why not car or broomstick?
Rose gave me a look which clearly said tell-Dad-you're-a-prefect. Well at least I think that's what she meant. That or she just thinks I'm really stupid. Hey, it's probably both.
"Oh yeah and I'm prefect." I told Dad.
"You are?" Dad sounded surprised.
"Yeah." I said and was a bit annoyed at the tone. Is it that hard to believe? I know I didn't believe it myself but still!
"Congrats, Hugo!" he gave me a hug. "I'm proud of you too."
"Thanks." I smiled. "I think McGonagall's mental but there you are."
"Don't worry; I thought the same when I was made a prefect." Dad grinned at me.
That made me feel a bit better, the fact that Dad was in the same boat. Well I suppose he always was, with 5 older brothers how could you not feel a bit down about yourself? He had one really cool, oldest brother, an amazing Quidditch playing one too, a really smart brother and then two really funny pranksters as brothers. That would have to be hard. And then he had the brightest witch of his age and Harry Potter as his best mates. Dad was probably worse off than me.
Ah well, I'm prefect now, I suppose Professor McGonagall can't change her mind now and I didn't even have to improvise an 'I'm-sorry-I-didn't-get-made-a-prefect' speech.
Author's note: Proud of my faster update? Well I thought it was good, I've got more inspiration for the story now so I'll be writing faster, which is good thing.
Thanks to everyone who voted on the poll. The results were Hugo 48%, Alex 44% (only one vote between him and Hugo), Ben 4% and the other Gryffindors 4%. Thanks heaps to everyone, I sort of thought it should be Hugo but I wasn't completely sure and the votes reassured me. He needs a little self esteem boost (plus I have a really cool chapter coming up, well sometime in the story, with Hugo as prefect so I'm glad I can put that in now). Sorry, I'm rambling, thanks to all the voters.
Thanks for all your lovely reviews too, they make me smile and give me much more encouragement so thank you so much!
TTFN
Dork-with-glasses
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
