Author's Note: Written for…
Ultimate Hermione Competition II. Prompt: Hufflepuff!Hermione
Stories of Colour Challenge. Prompts: citrine, copper
Home of the Loyal
"First-years, please line up."
Hermione pushed toward the front of the crowd of students who had accompanied her from the start of term feast. Freeing herself from the crowd, she was able to get her first good look at the circular common room with its hanging ivies and ferns, copper-potted cacti, and porthole windows.
The furniture – overstuffed chairs around heavy oaken tables, and sofas strewn haphazardly around – sported different patterns in black and citrine, the same colors worn proudly by the people around her.
Four girls and six boys stepped forward with her, and they formed a line in front of a tall boy with a pin attached to the front of his robes.
"Welcome to Hufflepuff!" The crowd behind her echoed the greeting, followed by loud cheers, and Hermione ducked her head, hating the attention.
When the noise died down, the boy continued. "My name is Gabriel Truman, sixth-year, Prefect, Virgo." He winked at an older girl. "But please, just call me Gabe. I know the nine of you probably want to get settled in, but first I'd like to go over how things work here."
Gabe pointed to two round wooden doors at the far end of the room. They reminded Hermione of The Hobbit, a book her parents had read to her as a child. "First off, your dormitories can be found behind those doors. Girls on the right and boys on the left. Don't worry if you forget, I'm sure the portraits will be happy to remind you.
"Next, we have our notice board just beside the front door there, and looking strangely bare this evening. The notice board is the lifeline of our common room. It's where we post important information about upcoming events or changes in scheduling. Speaking of schedules!"
He motioned for an olive-skinned girl to step forward. She handed him a sheet of paper from a stack and he held it up for the first-years to see as the girl began passing them out to all the students.
"This is our calendar of events for this month. Thank you, Drea, for taking time out of your summer to print these out. As you can see, we have a full itinerary as usual. Quidditch try-outs are starting on the fourteenth for second-years and up. We'll need a new Captain next year, so now is the time to prove yourself!
"Study Group begins this Saturday. Lola's heading that up again this year, and you can speak with her if you need individual tutoring, but this is week one for you firsties, so I don't think we need to worry about that just yet."
Hermione stared down at the sheet she'd been handed, trying to memorize the times and dates, but it was all too much. The entire paper was filled from top to bottom with club names and descriptions, and over half of the words were gibberish to her. Hogwarts: A History hadn't prepared her for extracurricular activities.
"Lastly," said Gabe as he folded his itinerary. "I'm curious, how many of our first-years are muggle-born, or have little knowledge of the magical world?"
Hermione was relieved to see the girl on her right and two boys raise their hands when she did. She been afraid she'd be in the minority.
Gabe grinned at them. "That's great! I'm muggle-born as well. Something we like to do here in Hufflepuff, to better help you acclimate to your surroundings, is to give you a mentor: someone you can go to at all times, who can show you around and answer any questions you might have about magic. Ladies first. Who would like to mentor Leanne?"
Hermione looked back at the crowd of older students and saw several hands shoot up. Her stomach tightened. Why couldn't Gabe just assign someone to her? Having them volunteer felt too much like being picked for teams in gym, and that always gave her anxiety.
"Clarissa, you haven't mentored yet. Let's see how we do, hmm? Next is Hermione, I believe. Do we have someone to mentor Miss Granger?"
Hermione's anxiety was momentarily forgotten in amazement that someone had remembered her name. Usually it took someone a few days to get it right, and Gabe had managed to remember it in addition to ten other first-years' names.
She chose not to look at the crowd, to not look desperate for someone to help her fit in, and instead looked down at her itinerary again. She smiled as she noticed little clipart images of cauldrons and black cats that Drea had added in the corners.
"I'll mentor her."
Hermione's head shot up in surprise and she was greeted with a smile from a black girl wearing a Prefect pin.
"That's awesome, Aubrey!"
Hermione kept her head down while the two muggle-born boys – Justin and Daniel – received their mentors, and then Gabe made his closing speech.
"You'll quickly learn that not everything is perfect here at Hogwarts. It never is, no matter where you go. There will always be ups and downs. But you have been sorted into Hufflepuff. You stand among the dedicated, the patient, the hard-working, and the loyal. In this house you will find a family that will stand with you through every celebration and every trial. I wish you luck, my friends."
A/N:
Someone stop me from turning this into a multi-chap because I do not have time for that but I absolutely love Gabe and the idea of Hufflepuff being the diverse, crowded, activity-laden party house! :D
…
I'm totally going to make a series off of this. Probably with Teddy. Idk.
Probably.