A/N: I know that Rowling has said that there're about a thousand students at Hogwarts, but I'm going off the assumption that there are 8-10 students in each house per year. This model is based upon the fact that there are 5 Gryffindor boys in Harry's year, and as far as we know, 5 Slytherin boys in that year as well. Even though we've only heard about 3 Gryffindor girls in Harry's year (Hermione, Lavender, and Parvati), this works out to be 8 Gryffindors for that year. I don't see the Houses being very uneven, so that works out to be between 30-40 students per year, which only comes out to be about 250 students in Hogwarts total. This works out to be about 55 to 60 students per House.

While the Gryffindors rushed off half-cocked to talk to their head, the Ravenclaws planned out in detail their plan to talk to their head, and the Slytherin waited to talk to her head, Justin Finch-Fletchley, the Hufflepuff of the group, took a different approach altogether. Justin went to the Hufflepuff Common Room to talk to his housemates.

Unlike in Gryffindor House, where a student calling a House meeting was unheard of, Hufflepuff House encourages House solidarity and students can call House meetings to discuss things with their Housemates, which is what Justin did when he got back to his common room.

"Excuse me; can I have your attention please? I'm calling a Meeting of the Sett."

He waited a few minutes until most of his housemates had gather around him.

"What's this about, Justin? We've past the beginning of the term, we're not nearing end of term, and Quidditch tryouts are already done." Zach Smith asked, lounging on one of the sofas.

"Hold on, Zach. I want everyone to hear this. Who's not here? Can someone go find whoever's not here and bring them? We'll wait."

Susan Bones asked, "Do you want me to get Professor Sprout as well? If you're calling a Meeting, she should be here too."

"Yeah, Sue, that'd be great if she could hear this too," Justin replied.

Those gathered were questioning Justin while he was waiting for the rest of the house to appear, but he refused to answer any questions until everybody showed up.

Professor Sprout walked into the common room, dusting off her hands on her robes. "All right, Justin, everyone is here. What is this about?"

Justin stood in the middle of the room, and looked around the room at his house. The upperclassmen were lounging on the couches and chairs, and the younger years were sitting on the floor. Professor Sprout was standing behind one of the couches, waiting to see what her student had gathered them all for.

"Thank you, everyone for gathering here so quickly. I want to talk to you all about the new Educational Decree that says that organized groups of students are against the rules." He turned to look at his Head. "Someone pointed out that classes, as groups of more than three students, are against the rules. There is a plan to boycott lessons, and students from the other houses are talking to their Heads. I wanted to bring this up in front of the House before I talked to you." He turned back to the rest of his housemates. "We're Hufflepuffs. We're either in this together, or not at all. The proposal is that we skip classes and meals and all organized student events in a show of defiance of the High Inquisitor's rules."

Zach shouted out, "Does that mean no classes?"

Justin laughed. He should have known that was the part they'd latch onto. "Yes and no. No classes, but we'd still be doing the work. For classes like Potions, Herbology, and Care of Magical Creatures, we'd have to work something out with the professors for the practical portion. For the rest, the older students can help tutor the lower years, and we can learn out of the books. Does anyone have any other questions?"

Silas, a seventh year asked, "So we'd be tutoring the littlies and studying for the NEWTs? Don't you think that's a bit of a heavy load for the seventh years? And the fifth years with their OWLs, too."

Tamsin Applebee, a Chaser on the Quidditch team spoke up. "And we're gonna go spare cooped up in the common room all day. What are we supposed to do, just study all day long? We're not Ravenclaws."

"It's not like Justin's saying we have to stay inside all day. We just can't go to classes. You can still fly, and you can probably do mock games in the Pitch, as long as they're not regular," second year Owen Cauldwell replied.

"What was that Owen?" Sprout asked. She was enjoying seeing her badgers discuss things openly, and didn't want to interrupt their discussion, but she thought Owen had hit on something.

"The decree says, and I quote 'An organization, society, yadda yadda is hereby defined as a regular meeting of three or more students.' This means that as long as they are irregular, teams and study groups and such are fine, ma'am," Owen told her. "Those Ministry folk need to proofread their documents for loopholes like that."

"Thank you, Owen," Sprout said. She thought the boy should have been a Ravenclaw with that reasoning. "Are there any other questions or comments for Justin's proposal?" She paused for comments to be thrown out. There were none. "Then shall we vote?" Heads nodded all around the room.

Silas took the lead at that. "All in favor of skipping classes and following Educational Decree 24 to the letter please raise your hands." He counted the hands raised, and though there was a clear majority, he then said "All those opposed?" and counted those hands. "The votes are as follows: 42 for, 15 against. Would those opposed like to say something in defense of their position?"

Zach raised his hand and spoke, "I think it will be too hard to help the littlies as well as maintaining our own studies. I'm not saying I want Umbridge here, even if I don't believe Potter about You-Know-Who coming back, the Ministry interfering with our education is never a good thing. They have their own agenda and if we let them start pushing their agenda into Hogwarts, then the unbiased education we should be getting is tainted. I took the OWLs last year, and it was hard enough to keep up without trying to do tutoring as well."

"Thank you," Silas said. "Anyone else wish to speak? Either in support or opposition? No? Then shall we have another vote?"

Susan spoke up then. "Hold on Silas. Justin, you said that the other Houses were talking about this as well? Okay, then, the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors would be more than willing to help us out. I can't see Slytherins agreeing to anything that would jeopardize their status, and Gryffindors, while their hearts are in the right place, have a tendency to fall through when things get monotonous, but we should be able to count on the Ravenclaws. I propose we work out a schedule with all the others that are going along with this, House loyalties aside, so that no one is overwhelmed. We can work this out depending on everyone's strengths and weaknesses, and the tutors can get help directly from the professors and we'll work out a trickle-down thing. Would that be fine with you, Zach?"

Zach thought about that. It wasn't that he was worried about himself, but the fifth and seventh years. The seventh years would still have a heavy load, but since Susan was proposing to play to their strengths, they would only have to deal with what they are good at. He nodded.

"Is it time for another vote?" Silas asked. "Those in favor? Those opposed?" He counted hands, and said, "The tally now stands at 53 for, 4 against. Are those who voted against willing to abide by the majority vote?" He waited until the four who had voted against had acknowledged that they would accept the majority vote. "Professor Sprout, is this decision alright with you?" He waited for confirmation from Sprout. Although they had a majority vote, the Head could overrule all of them. She nodded. "Then we are decided. What else needs to be done with this decision?" He turned to Justin, asking the younger boy whether he had anything else to address at this meeting.

"Well, I'll need to talk to the others who are in this, and we'll need a neutral meeting space. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm willing to hear them."

From there, the discussion dissolved into discussing potential meeting places that would be satisfactory for members of three houses and the entire Hufflepuff house. Sprout excused herself during the conversation with the intention of talking to her fellow Heads of the Houses. "I'm glad that they are doing something about that old stinky dragon dung heap of a woman." she thought to herself as she walked towards the Great Hall.