Chapter 10:

Everybody was sent to their common room right after the Third Task. The Hufflepuffs were very confused. How had Cedric Diggory die? Did Harry do it, for the money? But then again, Harry had brought him back.

And how had Harry apparate them back? He wasn't old enough to apparate yet. Everybody was confused, and they would, perhaps, never know the truth.

All the Hufflepuffs were in their common room, chatting and mourning over Cedric Diggory's death.

"What happened?" Hannah asked as she fell into the couch behind her. She was very tired, but she knew she would never be able to get to sleep with all these thoughts on her mind.

"We'll never find out," Ernie started irritatedly. "Nobody trust Hufflepuffs."

"You're probably right," Susan agreed. She blew out a loose strand off her face as she sat down next to Hannah. For a while they were completely silent. Tonight was a disaster, Hannah thought as she stared into the fire across her. Worst of all, Cedric's gone.

It was true. Completely true. They lost Cedric who was loyal to the house, Hufflepuff. He always thought of the good of Hufflepuff unlike so many. Hannah once overheard a conversation between two Ravenclaw girls on one of her first days.

"Which house do you think would be the worst to be sorted in?" A dark black-haired girl asked her friend as they sat down at their appropriate house table.

"Hufflepuff, by far," she answered as she poured some pumpkin juice in her goblet.

"Me too!" The two girls giggled very hard.

This conversation haunted her through her years at Hogwarts. How could they be this rude to other fellow students? They were all the same, but divided by their personalities. She curled up against the armchair's armrest, letting her hair be as messy as possible. She didn't care. All she knew was the she was looked down upon.

Everybody looked up the great and famous Gryffindors. Especially Harry Potter and his two friends. Why didn't people respect Hufflepuff like every other house? Why did everybody think being brave, intelligent and cunning makes you the best. Hannah thought being loyal and determined should make you unique - but no, never, that didn't make you special or different.

After a couple of minutes of weeping and staring at the warm fire blankly, Susan interrupted the silence.

"Come on, it's almost midnight and we all know we need some rest," Susan said.

Hannah looked up and nodded slowly. "Yeah." Was all she could think to say. She stood up. She hadn't noticed how achy she felt until now. Her neck must have been in an uncomfortable position because it hurt.

She followed Susan up the spiral staircase and allowed herself to fall asleep on her bed, away from her terrible, low self-esteem thoughts.

"Hannah," Susan said shaking her lightly. "You need to get up."

Hannah rolled over and asked, "Why?"

"Because we need to go to the end of the year feast, they cancelled it because... you know why," Susan frowned and the sadness in her eyes were easily seen. "I'll be down in the common room waiting for you."

Susan left the girls' dormitory leaving Hannah in her thoughts.

"The end of another year," Dumbledore said as he looked at his students.

He looked over at the Hufflepuff table and paused. They looked pale and miserable. "Before we start, lets all raise are glasses to a very fine person who should be sitting here with us, enjoying our feast." Dumbledore continued. "To Cedric Diggory."

Everybody stood up as the benches scraped the floor beneath them. It was the only sound in the Great Hall at the moment. Then, everybody rose their glasses and mumbled, "Cedric Diggory."

Hannah looked around at the others and saw Cho Chang pouring her heart out, letting all the tears she could stream down her face. Hannah looked back down at the table and sat down again.

"Cedric was a good friend, and valued fair play and friendship. This has all surely, affected you if you knew him or not. I think that everyone has the right as how it came to be," Dumbledore said. "Cedric Diggory was murdered by Lord Voldemort."

Shocked, everybody began whispering to one another in horror and disbelief.

"You-Know-Who?" Ernie began. "Murdered Cedric...?"

After all the students calmed down, they looked back over to their headmaster who began to talk again.

"The Ministry of Magic does not wish me to tell you this. Many of your parents will be horrified, either that they do not believe that Lord Voldemort is back or doesn't want you to know. Either way, saying that his death was an accident is an insult to Cedric Diggory's memory." Dumbledore told the Hogwart students.

"Of course," Dumbledore continued. "There is another student that is a connection to Cedric Diggory's death. I'm talking about Harry Potter."

Everybody in the Great Hall turned towards Harry and looked at him. Harry looked uncomfortable with all the stares, from which Hannah could see.

"Harry escaped from the hands of Voldemort and brought back Cedric's body. He showed a great amount of bravery that many wizards and witches could have ever shown." Dumbledore raised his goblet and the students followed his example.

"Harry Potter," the students said. Barely any of the Slytherins did this, but everybody else did.

"We are all facing difficult and dark times. Families have been torn apart and yesterday we lost a student. Remember what happened to the boy who was good, friendly, brave and kind. Who strayed into the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric."

Hannah packed her robes, books and other stuff. For the whole day, she barely ate more than a nibble and had been pale ever since last night. She couldn't believe what happened. Why not Fleur Declour or Viktor Krum? Hannah thought bitterly. Why not one of them? Or even Harry Potter! I don't care, just not Cedric!

She wiped off a couple of tears on her cheeks. She wished she knew more about Cedric, and became his friend. Of course, they were always friendly with each other, she helped him with the Second Task, but didn't really know how she helped him. But that didn't really matter.

She threw her book into her trunk and closed it with a snap. She hated how people looked down on Hufflepuffs like they were nobodies and losers.

Hannah hated it. Despised the concept and idea. Helga Hufflepuff was very talented, kind, and friendly. Better than all of the other houses joined in her opinion. She kicked her trunk hard.

"Ouch," Hannah grabbed her foot and sat down on her bed.

"You alright?" Susan asked from her bed. She was doing the same. Shoving her clothes and books into her trunk.

"Yeah," Hannah replied. She picked up her trunk and settled it on her bed with a sigh. "I can't believe this happened."

"Me either," Susan said. She came over and sat down next to Susan.

Hannah wanted to cry right there, but held the tears in, the ones that streamed down her just minutes ago. She couldn't cry in front of her best friend!

"We need to go," Susan told Hannah. Susan went back to her bed and grabbed her trunk, while Hannah did the same. They walked out of the common room and met Ernie who was sitting on the couch waiting patiently. He stood up and joined them.

Together, the Hufflepuff trio walked out of Hogwarts, not talking to each other and went to the carriages that were waiting for them.

Next is the summer. Then fifth year where O.W.L.s are coming up, and Hannah is going to freak out, literally. My sister pratically begged me not to end this story yet...