Hufflepuff Concerto
DISCLAIMER: That Harry Potter Universe and Characters are not, alas, my own.
A/N: Foster the Passingly Mentioned belongs to Amican.
Chapter Fourteen: Tales
The Hufflepuff common room soon cleared. Professor Sprout had been one of the first to go, leaving Hannah with the promise of seeing her in Herbology first thing in the morning. The other students trickled out one by one, retreating to the quiet of their dorms to get some last minute homework done before turning in for the night. For one reason or another, most of first years stuck around until they could get Hannah to themselves. Noteably absent was Kevin Whitby, who ran off earlier-but not without making a point to tell her he'd stick around if he hadn't caught two extra essays in Potions: one for being late, and one for using too much toe of frog.
"How was I supposed to know the difference between a pinch and a dash? Honestly! It's not like he explained it, anyway," he grumbled a little more, threw his hands in the air and ran up the boys' staircase.
"He hasn't been having a good day," Owen Caudwell explained as his footsteps faded, "He got a howler from his mum because he mentioned his Transfiguations quiz grade."
"But," Eleanor Branstone cut in, rolling her eyes, "if hadn't told her about it, she never would have known. It's not like it's a big part of the grade."
"I sure didn't tell my parents," Owen agreed, wincing at the memory of it. Laura Madley chose that moment to take a seat on the big yellow couch. Suddenly there was a stampede, headed by Eleanore, to see who else would get the comfy seats. Jaci reigned victorious for one side, and Owen got the last spot on the other by launching himself over the back of the couch. Hannah belatedly joined them, choosing a nice spot of floor next to the two boys who's names she wasn't sure she'd known to begin with. Jaci, as a couch winner, threw her a black and yellow striped pillow to sit on, which somehow earned her a stuck out tounge from the closer of the boys on the floor. Owen Caudwell threw the further boy the other pillow.
"Hey!" complained the tongue boy.
"Aw, poor Nicky," Eleanor teased, but pulled a blanket out from under Laura and tossed it at his head. Hannah had to duck out of the way to keep it from landing on her, too, and creating a two headed blanket-ghost. When Nick burrowed out from under it, his hair was standing on end.
While Nick bunched up the blanket into a cushion, and slid it under him, Hannah slid herself a little bit away. It seemed like everyone was pretty well aquainted now, after just a week. "Okay," she asked, "so, what did I miss?"
"Jaci tried to dye her hair!" Laura nudged the blonde girl, who glared back. Now that Hannah was looking closely, Jaci's ponytail did have a slightly greenish tinge to it.
"I did not try," Jaci shot back, "I obviously suceeded. At least something of mine did something."
"In Transfigurations on Thursday," Nick explained while the others argued about whether or not turning your own hair green could be considered an accomplishment, "we got to do our first basic transfiguration lab. The assignment was to turn a piece of blue fabric into a piece of green fabric. Jaci's fabric didn't do anything, but her hair turned bright green," he held his hands out as though the amount of green could be measured that way, "It didn't even start fading until today."
Hannah grinned, but tried very hard-for Jaci's sake-not to laugh outright at the mental image. Poor Jaci! She seemed to be coping surprisingly well.
"You should have seen McGonagall's face-"
"-and Snape!" Owen added, delighted to take a shot at Professor Evilman. He drew himself up and looked down at everyone not on the couch, then turned to Jaci but despite his valiant effort, he couldn't keep a straight face.
"Ms Grassick," the boy on the floor next to Nick took over in an unamused tone, "I sincerely hope you don't plan to dye your robes as well."
"Alright, that's enough," Jaci quelled that topic before it could go any further. She looked pointedly at Owen, "And then there was DADA."
"Oh yeah," Owen scratched the back of his head, mussing up his already messy brown hair, 'I'd forgotten about that."
Laura explained, "In our first DADA lesson, Owen was so scared of Professor Moody-" Owen made a protesting noise, "-that he screamed and fell out of his chair-"
Hannah caught a movement to her right, and suddenly Nick was right in front of her face, crazed eyes wide bellowing, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" with a finger pointed in the air.
Hannah yelped and was halfway across the floor before she had time to process what had happened.
"You see! It's not just me!" Owen exclaimed over the laughter. To Hannah, who was cautiously coming back to the circle, he said, leaning further forward with each word, "Now imagine Professor Moody leaping halfway across the room-"
"He didn't leap."
Owen shot the still giggling Nick a dirty look, "He did. He leaped. Leaping halway across the room," his attention was back on Hannah now, "with his regular yellow bloodshot eye aimed right at YOU, and pounding on your desk" he demonstrated by pounding one hand in the other with each syllable, "screaming CONSTANT VIGILANCE right in your face, just like that!" He straighted himself up and observed clinically, "There was nothing else to be done. You would have fallen on the floor screaming and passed out too."
"Well," Jaci commented, mocking his tone-which ironically, had been similar to her own when she was defending herself-"I suppose we all know why Owen isn't in Gryffindor."
"I'm really okay with that."
"Oh yeah?" Nick challenged, though it had been himself who had been the one who'd really wanted Gryffindor.
"Yeah," Owen shuddered, "they'd never let me live it down. Especially that Michael Foster kid."
"Who says we're going to?"
"Well, Nick, I don't know about anyone else, but you are going to because if you don't I won't let you live down," he paused dramatically, "The Flying Lesson." Nick's eyes widened.
"I'm scared of heights!" Eleanor and Laura whined simultaneously, clinging to pretend broomsticks, and then burst out laughing when they realized they'd jinxed. It was Nick's turn to turn red, but he didn't deny the incident.
"Alright, alright," he conceded, "You're off the hook this time."
It was a brilliant evening right up until they marched up to their respective dorms. Hannah stopped short a couple feet from her bed. Everything seemed to be in order, just as she'd left it. Even the wand was still laying on the floor.
Giving it a wide berth, Hannah took the wand case off her dresser and managed to use it like tweezers to get it inside without touching it. Much to the odd looks of her roommates.
"You know, Hannah," Jaci observed cautiously, "You're going to have to use it again, sooner or later." Hannah nodded doubtfully.
"Bring it to Herbology tomorrow," Eleanor suggested, "You could have Professor Sprout check it out before Transfigurations."
"Yeah, okay," It was a plan. It didn't take into account the fact that no one aside from Hannah honestly believed there was a problem with the wand, but it was something. Professor Sprout was a teacher and she would know if it was safe or not...right? And, anyway, with Transfigurations-a wand intensive class-looming over tomorrow afternoon, there weren't many other options.
