The Neglected House and its Champions

by Cherry Blossom Angel 18

What if Cedric Diggory wasn't the only champion to come from Hufflepuff house? What if Harry had someone looking out for him since before his first day at Hogwarts? I bring you the story of two Hufflepuffs who stick to the shadows and try not to get themselves noticed. Some eventual exploration of Cursed Child. Now Complete.

111. Hogwarts Year 6 Chapter 35

I feel like the ending could use something but I don't know what. Anyway, this is the end of 6th year, I hope you've enjoyed it, sorry if you didn't.

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The Scary One

Summer after 6th year
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Leilani sat alone in her bedroom. It was well past when she should have been asleep but instead every candle she could find lit the darkness. She sat, replaying the moment in the graveyard over and over and over again in her mind. A thousand times she saw herself cast the spell that killed a person. Knowing she had done it to save Jo's life helped, a little. It made it self-defense (of a sort) and not outright murder.

But it still felt like murder.

Was she sorry she had done it? She wasn't sure. She didn't regret saving Jo's life or her own, of course she didn't, but it had still been a person she had killed.

She. Had. Killed.

The words rang like a gong in her head. She loved her friend, but she had never thought she'd have to kill for her. She'd never thought she'd have to kill for anyone. She'd never thought she'd have to kill, period.

Leili looked at her hands, shaking in the flickering candlelight. She hadn't touched her wand since the end of school. How could she, when she had used it to implode a man? It was tainted. She was tainted.

She had heard Jo make the joke that she was the one people needed to watch out for, that she, not Jo, was the scary one. Nobody had believed her. Leili hadn't even believed her.

"Me? Scary?" she thought. She was 5'2" and quiet, reserved with all but those she knew well. In contrast, Jo was 6 inches taller, glowered perfectly and had a reputation for punching people who disagreed with her.

But as Leili sat and thought, she realized that she, not Jo, was the one who doled out head slaps to people who behaved like imbeciles. If they pissed her off, she hit them right upside the noggin with whatever book she happened to be carrying that day.

Jo rarely, if ever, actually punched anyone. She just had the reputation for it because once or twice she'd thrown a punch that hadn't actually collided with the person's nose; the rumor mill just took liberties. Leili was the one who threatened to throttle people. She was the one who had imploded a man.

Did she regret what she did? She regretted that it had come to that but she did not regret that it had saved both her life and Jo's. She glanced at her wand on her night table. She would not be afraid to use her wand or her magic. She would never use that spell again, though.

"I am the scary one."