House: Gryffindor
Position: Year 5
Category: Drabble
Prompt: Pomona Sprout
Word Count: 391
A Sprout of Wisdom
The days after the final task of the Triwizard Tournament were filled with sorrow, confusion, and fear.
Pomona did everything she could to help her students. She held meetings in her office for anyone who wanted to talk, regardless of their house. She assigned students to watch their housemates who were hit the hardest.
Cedric Diggory's death hit Hufflepuff like a roaring storm.
The haze of emotion followed everyone. Some students told her they felt stuck in a sticky fog. And while Pomona agreed, she didn't have anyone to talk to. The "happiness" that radiated from her was the basis of her personality. That's what her students always told her—they were happy she was their Head of House because she was nicer than the others.
"Professor Snape told his house to get over their emotions," one student told her.
"Professor McGonagall gave her house a lecture on grief. Or at least that's what Lavender told me," another said.
"Professor Flitwick is trying his best but he doesn't know how to handle situations like this," Cho Chang told her while in tears.
Pomona had meetings with Cho every Thursday to talk about Cedric. And while she had to agree her co-workers didn't know how to handle children in pain, she recognized their efforts.
Nobody asked her how she was or how she was handling everything. Pomona was the one who convinced Cedric to join the Tournament in the first place. The shame of that clung to her for the next few years.
She stood face to face with a Death Eater—something Pomona didn't think would happen while she was at Hogwarts. She assumed the wouldn't be able to make it onto the school's grounds. How naive of her.
Dumbledore had told her that Voldemort said to, "kill the spare."
Cedric was nothing but an inconvenience for the "Dark Lord". And here was her chance to get revenge for Cedric. All the guilt she had acquired over the years boiled up inside her. The wand in her hand could end this spare's life.
Her heart told her no. Knocking the man unconscious and sending him to Azkaban would be enough.
For the first time in her life, Pomona didn't listen to her heart. Green shot from her wand and finally did something she was certain she'd never be able to accomplish.