Hi, guys! I'm back already! Here's the latest installment of A Puff in Snake's Clothing! Enjoy, and remember that Hilde, Drexel, and a couple others belong to me, but everyone else to J.K. Rowling. Cheers! Also, feel free to question, comment, and express any feelings that might occur to you in the reviews!
"Which one is she?" I asked, stuffing eggs into my eager mouth. From my peripheral vision, I saw Drexel give me a very judgement look. Rolling his eyes, he pointed discreetly towards the Gryffindor table across the Great Hall, gesturing toward a small girl with wavy black hair. She was sitting amongst a few other girls, all of them adorned with the characteristic gold and red ties.
"And your target is there." Drexel adjusted his finger a couple inches to the left, motioning towards a certain James Potter that sat only about five seats down from his little cousin. Like Amelia, James shared the same black hair, granted it was a bit messier. He was currently snorting milk out of his nose with my fellow Prefect Remus Lupin pounding on the back with a worried smile on his face. Peter Pettigrew sat opposite from them, chuckling and shielding his mouth with knobby fingers. As for the final member of the Marauders, well, Sirius Black was merely sitting back and enjoying the show, full-out belly laughing at his struggling-to-breathe friend.
"And you just had to choose this girl?" I gave him a look. "James Potter's little cousin? Possibly the most overprotected girl in all of Hogwarts?"
"That's debatable, actually," Drexel retorted. "Potter keeps an eye on Lily Evans just as much or more so than Amelia."
"Well, she sounds like a good distraction to me," I said. "Maybe you should have asked her to be your accomplice."
Again with the Drexel eye roll. "Please. Evans cut all ties with the Slytherin house the day she rejected Snape. She would never agree to ally herself with me, especially if it meant having more of Potter's attention on her."
"She was nice to me in Potions last year when we were partners," I said. "We even went to Hogsmeade together once. It was fun."
"Is this story even relevant?" Sneering, Drexel delicately spooned some oatmeal into his mouth.
"Not particularly," I replied. "But it does mean that I could possibly employ Lily as a distraction if I ask her very nicely."
The spoon to Drexel's mouth froze in midair, and he turned to me with slightly widened eyes. "That might have possibly been the most Slytherin thing I've ever heard you say."
I frowned at him, forking some more eggs onto my plate. "I was trying to be helpful. Just because I don't act like a typical Slytherin doesn't mean that I'm completely dumb, you know."
He squinted his eyes at me. "Right. Well, the blonde hair is very deceptive. Thank Merlin, you don't have blue eyes, or I'd never be able to take you seriously."
"Thank you, miniature Dracula. That was very kind." My gaze swept back to the group of Marauders pensively. They'd all recovered from the near-choking incident and were now huddled together as if discussing some secret prank. That was their thing, of course. Pranks.
Not my cup of tea, obviously. Just considering to pull one over others made me feel guilty inside.
"So what exactly is the plan for today?" I queried, finally finishing up my eggs. Drexel had insisted as soon as I had woken up and stumbled down into the common room that we needed to talk strategy over breakfast this morning. So into the Great Hall we had went, and breakfast we had eaten.
"We start simple," he began, looking over to the Gryffindor table as I was, focusing in on his own target. "As soon as Amelia's finished with breakfast, she and her friends leave together and Potter typically follows, accompanied by his own lot. We each need to separate them. As soon as Potter stands, you need to go over and distract him from leaving for at least five minutes. When I see that you've captured his attention, I'll go catch up to Amelia and separate her from her friends."
"Just like that?" I questioned, giving him a weird smile. "What are you, a sheep dog? How are you going to separate a lot of giggling adolescent girls from one another?"
"I have my ways," he sniffed. "All you have to do is give me time. Five minutes minimum, but I'm expecting quality results."
"I'll try." I narrowed my eyes in on the Marauders, thinking of my game plan. I think I had my in. Possibly. Probably. Maybe. We'd see.
"Trying is for squibs," he sneered. "Do."
Turning, I faced the little snake with an unhappy look on my face. "That was rude. Don't say things like that. Squibs are people too, even if they weren't blessed with magic."
"It's what my father always says," Drexel droned boredly, as if he'd foreseen this conversation as soon as he'd said the words. "And my mother. And my brothers. And the whole rest of my family. It's a commonly known fact, Puff."
"I wouldn't believe everything you hear," I muttered. "Especially from your own family."
Sensing a change in tone, Drexel quirked an eyebrow at me, stopping to stare at me instead of Amelia for a second. "Ah, yes. And speaking of families, what did yours think of your Sorting? However does the great illustrious family of badgers handle with a snake in their midst?"
"They're fine with it." I smiled tightly. "It doesn't matter to them. I'm the same person; it's just a House."
"That's a lie if I ever heard one." He eyed me closer, his irises almost as black as his pupils. Drexel Lestrange truly resembled a vampire with his pale skin and dark features, and I was sure that I wasn't the only one to think this, especially with his bloodsucking personality. "Is that what they tell you?"
"It is what they tell me, because it's true," I said. "A House doesn't determine your whole life. It's a classification for school, nothing more, nothing less. It's meaningless; it doesn't say anything about the person you actually are."
"Doesn't it though?" He asked, putting his spoon down lightly into the correct 'finished' position. "The Sorting Hat puts us into the four Houses based on our strongest personality traits. It literally looks into our heads and sees the people we truly are behind all facades that we might put up for others to see. You don't think it bothers your family, your legendary family descended from Helga Hufflepuff herself, that instead of goodness and loyalty, all the Hat saw in you was ambition and a little bit of cunning? Because if you don't, you're a bigger fool than I thought you were."
"My family loves me." As much as I detested it, my voice rose in volume and pitch. "They don't care that I was Sorted into Slytherin."
"Perhaps they do love you," he said coolly, "but you'll always be a snake to them. Prejudice runs deep, especially in pureblood families, Puff. You shouldn't forget that, despite all your progressive Muggle and Squib thinking, your family is still one of them."
He was right. As much as I didn't want to admit it, he was absolutely and positively right. I was fighting a losing a battle; in fact, I had been for the past six years that I'd been Sorted into Slytherin. Sure, my family said those things, but…I could always sense the tone underneath. And the questions.
Where did we go wrong? How could she be Slytherin of all things? Of all the Houses? What does it mean? How is she different?
Of course, my parents and siblings never outright asked these questions, but I could always tell that they wondered. And how they still wondered. Even now.
Who was Hilde Hufflepuff? Sometimes I wondered the same thing myself.
But that didn't stop me from baking and smiling and saying nice and friendly things to people. In fact, it only seemed to increase my niceness. Well, somewhat. When I'd be home, I'd offer to do the dishes, help out around the house, even assist my parents with doing chores, and when I'd be at school, I'd do the same: baking cupcakes every week to put out in the Slytherin common room, help first years find their classes, make friendly remarks to fellow Slytherins that I knew hated me. So who was I really?
Who was Hilde Hufflepuff? I had no idea.
I avoided a response by spotting a certain Amelia Potter rise out of her seat in tandem with her friends. "There goes your target, Lestrange."
Immediately, his eyes flew over and fastened on the object of his affection, then darted quickly left to track her elder cousin's progress.
"Now," he hissed at me, tilting his head towards the nearly standing Marauders. "Now, Puff!"
Giving a bright smile, I skipped away from the table, trying to get into the right mindset. The walk from the Slytherin to Gryffindor tables was long enough to compose myself for about ten seconds.
Distract James Potter. Distract James Potter. Distract James Potter. Distract. James. Potter.
I reached the red and gold table, taking care to make sure my smile was extra bright and friendly and approachable-looking. Then I took a deep breath and…
"Remus Lupin!" I practically shouted, bounding up to the Gryffindor table like it was my own House. I managed to stop right beside the boy in question, causing all four Marauders to stop and stare at me at once, freezing in their attempts of leaving the Great Hall. Also, Remus was conveniently sitting on the end, so my particular position drew their attention away from the entrance of the hall, where I could see a particular blasé Drexel quickly making his way through to follow his own Potter.
Five minutes. I could do this.
I regarded the four boys in front of me, still staring in shock. As if I was some unexpected twist of fate turned up at their doorstep. Well, I suppose I was in a way.
My smile seemed frozen into place; my mind internally calculating my next step. Heh.
"Hilde," Remus said hesitantly in greeting. His brown eyes appeared large looking up at me, and I could see that they were a bit bloodshot. "Hi. Uh, what brings you here?"
Five minutes, five minutes, five minutes, five minutes, five minutes, five minutes, five minutes…
"Prefect schedules," I chirped, trying to keep my energy high. "I seem to have lost mine actually, and I was wondering if I could look at yours. Somehow I misplaced mine a few days ago, and I can't find it for the life of me. I suspect some first year or someone took it while I was in the common room, because you never know, but really, though, how rude. I mean, I remembered that I didn't have any shifts for yesterday or the day before, but there's only so long I can go without knowing, you know?"
"Oh, yeah, yeah," Remus said hurriedly, shuffling through his bag already. I think my ranting slightly scared him from the look on his face. "Sure, things happen. Let me find it."
Meanwhile, the other three continued to peer at me curiously like I was some puzzle to solve. I smiled back at them without thought, feeling like a spotlight was on my green and silver robes.
"You should have just asked Snivellus," Sirius remarked, looking at me coolly. "He's one of your kind, isn't he?"
"Padfoot!" James exclaimed, giving his friend a reproachful look. Across the table, Peter snickered in the background, enjoying the show.
I frowned absently, not recognizing the name. "Sorry, who?"
"Snivellus," Sirius repeated, in a manner that reminded me of how Drexel talked to me sometimes. Condescending. Arrogant. Snide. "I'm sure you know him. Severus Snape ring any bells?"
"Oh," I said, dumbfounded. "Well, yeah, I know him. But that's not a very nice name to call him, you know."
From behind me, Remus's shuffling noises grew quieter, and James abruptly cleared his throat. Peter gazed on in silent, forsaking his tittering.
"Does it matter?" Sirius's face broke into a sneer, his aristocratic features turning menacing in a second. "He's just another slimy Slytherin git like the rest of you. You're hardly one to judge."
My mouth fell the slightest bit open. It had been years since anyone had openly judged me this way, even with all the Slytherin pranks and mischief that I'd put up with through all the years. Because, ultimately, at the end of the day, my House knew that I was a good person, a fact which they either exploited or benefited from by the end of the day. This stung. This was pure ignorance. This was prejudice. This wasn't fair.
"You don't even know me," I said, the smile completely dropped off of my face. I'd lost track of time; I couldn't even remember how long I'd been standing here.
"And I don't need to," he drawled, his dark gray eyes locked on mine. "Your House tells me everything about you. I could read you like a book, blondie. So why don't you slither away like a good snake now, huh?"
A rush of emotion welled up in me, and my eyes prickled. I clenched my fists as my breathing grew shorter. This wasn't fair. How dare he judge me by my House? How dare he say that I was the same as the others? How dare he label me so blatantly? So ignorantly? So stupidly?
My jaw was locked, but somehow I managed to take a deep breath. I turned sharply to Remus who was holding the Prefect schedule with a stricken look on his face, his eyes remorseful. "Hilde—"
"Thank you, Remus," I said curtly, taking the sheet from his hand to turn back to the foe at hand. Observing him from his smug face to his shaggy black hair to his mincing gray eyes made me realize that I had never truly disliked anyone this strongly before. Not even Drexel's brothers when they shoved my weekly cupcakes back into my face. Not even my older sister after she had given me a look of utter distaste after my Sorting. Not even Snape when he told me to mind my own bloody business and stop trying to be so friendly with him.
Was this hate?
Our gazes met. His arrogant, mine defiant. I stepped towards him, aiming my words at him and him alone.
"I may be Slytherin," I said, pasting a smile on my face, "but, thank Merlin, I'll never be as big of a bigot as you are now."
I walked away, feeling war torn yet accomplished. It was time to claim my favorite green chair.