10 Things Zacharias Smith is Ashamed of
1. He wasn't popular. In fact one of the few things most of his peers had in common was their mutual dislike of him.
2. At the end of seven years of school he'd managed to probably be one of the first Hufflepuffs in history to destroy any loyalty his house-mates had for him.
3. He'd never had any feeling of belonging to anyone, anyplace, or anything. Not at home, not at school. Every year he grew more and more frustrated.
4. No one at school knew when his birthday was. No one had ever asked and he felt he had no one to tell. So every year on this birthday no one says anything to him and the only thing he gets is a parcel from his mum.
5. When he was little he'd been excited about going to Hogwarts. His parents had told him that for generations both sides of this family had been in the great House of Hufflepuff, and his great-aunt Hephzibah could even trace her linage back to the Houses' founder. Zacharias had been very proud, until one day he'd heard someone say, "Imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"
6. He was a top student and he was a fairly good Quidditch player. He was from a wealthy pureblood family and he wasn't ugly. But people only noticed him when he was mean. So Zacharias didn't see the point in being nice.
7. In the weeks following the final battle, when the Daily Prophet was more like a giant obituary section than an actual newspaper, Zacharias had had the sudden realization that had he been one of the people that had died, no one probably would've come to his funeral. This was one of the reasons why he didn't go to a single funeral.
8. He hadn't been able to produce a lasting full body patronus until he was 38, when his daughter was born. And it was a good thing he finally could too, because he wouldn't see her much in person after that.
9. For some reason he'd always felt triumphant when he was able to make the only woman that had ever told him she loved him cry. Though when she'd finally stopped saying those words, leaving soon after, he'd felt he'd finally completely defeated himself, and he'd be alone forever.
10. He'd tried to be cool, but no one admired him. He'd tried to be bad, but he was afraid of the dark. He'd tried to be good, but he didn't have enough faith. Ernie and Cedric were the people the other Hufflepuffs gravitated to. Draco was the one who called people 'Mudbloods' and could sneer at others' suffering. And everyone who'd been in the D.A. had stayed and fought with Harry, except for him.
He wasn't the coolest, or the most bad, or the most good. He was a little of everything, but not enough of any one thing to be anything other than ordinary. He was the most ordinary of them all.
He was a Hufflepuff.