Edited as of 11/08/14

Has anyone else read Soul Eater NOT yet? They have two pages where all Tsugumi thinks is 'eyes of gold' while staring into Kid's eyes. They have it covering half a page in giant bold text. Now look back at the title. I know, I'm awesome.

Now let's see how awesome I can make Hufflepuff.

Eyes of Gold

Hufflepuff

Soul wasn't exactly sure when, but it wasn't long after he sat down that he and the other two weapons relaxed at the gold and black table. Everyone chattered with warmth, fully immersing the three in their conversations in no time at all.

"I could get used to this," Soul commented after a while. Liz added her agreement. "It really isn't that bad getting used to things here. Everyone's so nice."

The few of their new classmates that overheard chuckled, but waved them off when they inquired. They shrugged it off and indulged in the food. It all had familiar ingredients they had in America, but they often asked the Hufflepuffs for explanations of the various English foods. Blood pudding, Yorkshire pudding, shepherd's pie, and a number of delicacies they refused to touch for the unappetizing names.

"So what do you think of Europe?" a Hufflepuff, Clarence, asked Soul.

"I haven't been out to see the sights, but this magic stuff is amazing."

"You lived as a muggle before this? In some ways, I envy you. After six years, the wonder has worn off-"

"I'll send you off to bed with these words: esq, hemagogue, and relitigating!"

"-except for that," the Hufflepuff said thoughtfully, fully ignoring Liz asking if the Headmaster was crazy.

They shuffled out of the Great Hall, following the fifth-year prefects, who introduced themselves as Ernie and Hannah. Once the Hufflepuffs had steered clear of the rest of the Houses, however, they all went in different directions. The first-years panicked, but stayed close to the prefects. Soul, Liz, and Tsubaki did the same, sticking out among the midgets. Soul, hunched over, was much shorter than Liz or Tsubaki, but still stuck out with his bright hair and lack of robes.

They walked. Then they passed a familiar painting. Soul noticed a burn mark on a wall that was identical to one they had seen earlier. They walked winding stairs that went on for maybe miles, but when Soul glanced out the window, they had neither gone up nor down, but a door appeared despite.

After a long period of confused silence, Ernie leaned over to whisper something to the other prefect. She giggled, and her words stretched over the group, chilling the first years. "They think we're nice? How cute."

The path took a sudden turn then. The first years were expectantly nervous by the previous statement, but the weapons watched them look around at classmates and decide to tough it out for everyone else. They continued with the group for curiosity's sake.

They stopped at a dead end. This increased confusion, as it was only a designing mishap that would result in a dead end. Students started speculating as soon as they remembered they were in a magic school.

The portrait on the wall is a door, one said.

They whispered, the door has to be magicked into existence.

This is a test to see if we're worthy, piped up another.

None of them expected the prefects to rotate the hand of the knight statue. The action activated a mechanism to open a gaping hole in the floor. Several people jumped back from the strangely human-shaped hole.

"This is the only kind of entrance we have to the Hufflepuff dorms. You'll land right-side-up if you fall at the correct angle. Turn to look behind you, and you'll bang your head on the floor."

To demonstrate, the prefects let themselves fall backwards into the hole. There was no scream, nor that horrible noise that meant they had suffered serious injury or death. Soul pushed to the front and peered down. After a long while, he stood and turned to everyone. He shrugged, opening his mouth to speak his thoughts, but stopped. His foot slipped; the student body lurched forward to help. A grin flashed across his face. Soul yelled in surprise.

Soul felt carpet under the soles of his shoes. An instant later, gold and black blurred in his vision as his shoes lost traction, and he gracefully landed on his rear. He displayed the height of his elegance by letting out a string of curses refined by living years in a city known for being quite morbid.

A low whistle. "Here in the wizarding world you can get pretty unique and unsavory, but that's got to be more creative than a bored pirate."

The much taller student who must have been in his seventh year of school helped Soul to his feet. They shook hands and the older introduced himself as Dirk Woodrow. "Don't think much of falling over. Half the students fall on every entrance, the other half somehow land on their feet and stay upright; I don't know how they do it." Dirk shrugged and gestured to a half circle of chairs surrounding the two prefects, who looked to have enjoyed his entrance. "Firsties and your group get a welcoming explanation to Hufflepuff. Sunday is the day we have no loyalty, so get up bright and early so I can see how good your school is."

Dirk playfully punched Soul on the shoulder and headed up the stairs. "Wait, what do you mean by that?" He laughed.

Soul took a seat by the prefects, confused. The two looked on at him with amusement. Before he could question them, more people started appearing in the common room.

Tsubaki and Liz were first in, and both fell with small yelps. Liz muttered a curse under her breath. As the first years appeared in, Soul noticed that who fell and who did not seemed entirely random. The location of where they appeared also struck him as random, but no two people landed in the same place, like raindrops.

The first years and weapons joined Soul around the prefects, and as the last student sat down, Hannah started to speak.

"Welcome to Hufflepuff, the House of loyalty, hard work, and patience. We come to each others' aid, no matter how trivial or self-sacrificing. While you are a member of this House, everyone will trust everyone else and, hopefully, never lie to each other. We have to uphold the standard of Hufflepuff for when we need to deceive."

Something about that last statement seemed out of place to Soul.

"That's why we have those entrances. If you didn't trust us, you would have landed on your face. We want you to be prepared; too many people think we're a load of duffers who are just here to be the school's punching bag. If you aren't a true Hufflepuff, you'll spend your years here in paranoia. We're building an army here, and even though it's slow going, we want to keep it swept under the rug."

Soul felt like he was being told a military secret just so they could erase it from his mind for whatever secret reason later. It had that kind of mind-numbing effect.

"Hufflepuff House just asks that you keep our training regimes and the occasional plan secret. Every Hufflepuff has the entire House behind them if ever need be. It's a lot of hard work, and you'll need patience if you expect to see any results, and loyalty to keep this whole thing together." Hannah clapped her hands. "Okay! Ernie will now tell you about the normal stuff."

What.

Slytherin

"That's all. Are there any questions or anything someone else wants to say-"

"YAHOO! I'M THE GREAT BLACKSTAR! I WILL SURPASS GOD!"

This proclamation had many students falling out of the chairs they had cozied into, and one or two whipped their heads around, forgetting where they were. Several of the higher years raised from their seats, gritting their teeth and clenching their wands in warning. One student, however, stood stiff as a board. He walked with purpose straight to the upstart and grabbed his arm midstride. The blue-haired foreigner allowed himself to be pulled away, even throwing in taunts for a fight. The other students relaxed again, letting that problem be anyone else's problem.

"Bye bye!" The other new Slytherin from the DWMA leaned over the back of a chair to wave at her friend, free from any worrying about whether Blackstar was going to be pummeled or not. A prefect, the one who had explained Slytherin House to the first years, turned to her with a scowl marring his face.

"Are you going to claim anything equally outrageous?" he asked. The aristocratic faces scattered around the room remained elegant porcelain; their eyes drifted from books and letters crumpled with anxiety, gleaming with a chance for twisting any words further spoken for future advantage.

The girl shook her head, her hat sliding to a lopsided position. "Nope. What's your name?"

"I am Draco, the heir to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Malfoy. Pureblood. I can track my family tree back for 500 years." Many in the room felt a spark of pride as they mentally repeated their own title and how old they knew their family to be. Among nobles, it denoted rank above all else, how much grandiose to give someone, and, many snidely added in their minds, how much you could get away with.

"Wow, really?" The girl made an awed sound, and that made many eyes narrow and smirks to tug at practiced lips. She then spoke fast and excited, raising red flags to everyone listening. "I only know who my mom is. I'm not sure who my dad is or was, and mom and Liz never told me anything about any grandparents or great-grandparents, but we've been practically adopted into Kid's family. Well, that's what we call him, anyway. He was introduced as Death, but since that's his father's name, he usually goes by Death the Kid. Since my sis and me were adopted into his family, does that mean his ancestry is now mine?"

Draco paused to absorb this information and make sense of enough of it to form a reply. His classmates waited for him to open his mouth, already forming ideas of how to approach this girl.

"Yes," he finally said. The girl tapped her chin. The spectators waited for Draco to say more, but for once, he had the sense not to brag or insult. The name of Death was enough to silence even him.

"That means my family goes back for three thousand years!"

That excited proclamation widened eyes and slackened jaws. Heads whirled around, but the little enigma only smiled and giggled. Perhaps it was fortunate that Blackstar and Clarence came back at that time.

Clarence grumbled to himself and plopped into a cushy chair in the corner. One of his classmates smirked and asked, "What happened? You gave him the rundown you always do with those muggleborns, so how did he react?"

Clarence looked away, watching the puzzling girl and Draco, who seemed to be having a whispered conversation. "I told him, as with all the rest, that the Bible says that magic is all evil, but since he can do magic and he's been shown good points of magic, then the Bible must be wrong and God doesn't exist."

"And his reaction? You're looking disappointed, so I'm guessing he got over his spiritual crisis fast?"

With a sigh, Clarence gestured to the entrance, which at that moment opened. Blackstar walked in, yelled that he will surpass God, and went up the boys' dorms. A sixth year turned around to look at the two, a grin that showed her delight in having the upper hand on her face.

"The DWMA students have a different religion, nitwits. They don't have a Bible."

Griffindor

Maka snuggled under her covers, relishing the feel of tension leaving her body as she relaxed in the soft cocoon. Her mind buzzed to a murmur. Nothing mattered besides the soothing thrum of her heartbeat and soul. Her soul wrapped up in itself, like a blanket, a blanket that warmed her and left an empty void.

Maka sat upright. Soul.

She usually slept with Soul sleeping in the room opposite, and, the thought bringing a blush to her cheeks, their souls sleeping together. She missed Soul already, on their first night, and they were in the same castle! Gingerly, she spread out her Soul Perception. The Hufflepuff dorms were kept secret from Griffindors, but they could very well be nearby.

Sleepy souls untouched by taint and alien to any soul exercises surrounded her, each one young and innocent. They had the purity of never seeing bloodshed, never fighting for your life, never feeling that rush of adrenaline, never holding a lethal weapon; a purity similar to, and yet different, to her angel soul. Searching up, Maka found older souls, lightly touched with grief and experiences of life. Off to the side, she sensed the boys' souls, rougher in personality, along with Harry's soul. Down, she found younger souls, and eventually she hit an unknown. A soul hummed, clearly still awake. It stretched as though the person did yoga with their soul. It was unfamiliar, a soul she was sure she had never met before. It had a pale, minty green color, a cute color in Maka's opinion.

Maka rolled out of the warmth of bed, and slipped on slippers that magically appeared. She tip-toed down the spiral stairs and peeked into the common room in the direction of the alien soul. Two gold eyes filled with confusion stared at her.

"Ah, I'm sorry for disturbing you, Kid!" Maka jumped back in surprise as she said this, knocking her head on the stone wall. She clamped her hand to the back of her head, but finding no blood and still able to see, her flustered apology continued, "I was just feeling lonely because I couldn't feel Soul's wavelength so I tried looking for him with my Soul Perception and then I sensed an unfamiliar soul-"

Maka cut off as Kid's hand landed on her shoulder. "I should be the one apologizing. I didn't mean to raise you from your bed. I thought you had noticed before that my soul had changed."

Kid's soul changing was nothing new to Maka. Unlike with humans, whose souls stayed the same from birth to death, Kid's soul steadily grew larger and would habitually change color. When they had first met, Kid's soul was red; fighting the kishin it burst into blue when he connected one of his Sanzu lines; now it had changed again, to a mint green.

Maka frowned. "Everyone was together all day; why would I use Soul Perception? You should have told me. We could have gotten separated at any time, regardless of any safety precautions, and then how would I find you again? And don't say you'd be with Liz and Patty. A little paranoia is healthy."

Kid frowned. "Maka." His tone was firm. "My soul changing is a very personal thing for me; a sign of growing up. Instead of my body changing through chemicals and hormones like a human, my soul changes."

"Oh," Maka mumbled, coloring. The aalogy hit home for her, and she decided she definitely wouldn't like to inform anyone else of her monthly visitor. Eager for a chance to change the subject away from her embarrassment, she asked, "What were you doing down here so late?"

Maka snatched something from the air as it came flying toward her. A rag. "Cleaning."

Typical Kid. Maka smiled. She started wiping the edge of a portrait, one of a wizard in red robes sleeping, barely clinging to his broom as it whizzed without direction through the sky background. "Is there no one here to do that for the students? This place seems like a school that would do something like that."

"There are magical creatures here called House Elves. They were born of human and magic, and now live off of a magic generated when they do work at the command of another being. They're too far detached from their original human selves to be detected with even your Soul Perception. You said you couldn't feel Soul?"

Maka sighed at the abrupt shift in topic. "Yes. Usually I can sense him, since his room is near mine and we go everywhere together. But the castle is so big."

"If it's any consolation, I can sense Soul from here. He's perfectly alright."

Maka whipped her head to stare at Kid, halting in her cleaning. Kid continued dusting a carved wooden leg of a table. "Professor Stein said my Soul Perception was the best out of all of the students-"

"He would be right. I can sense over a wider distance than you, but it's more difficult for me to pinpoint souls and identify them."

Maka shrugged, regardless of whether Kid could see the action or not. The simple motion of cleaning was lulling her to relaxation. "That takes a burden off my shoulders. I'm glad you were sorted here too, Kid. I miss Soul, but I would go mad if I was all alone here."

Snoring portraits covered the sounds of household chores, until Maka failed to smother a long yawn. Kid took the rag from her hand, replacing it with his own hand. He waited until she decided her eyes could focus enough to guide her to bed, and they said goodnight.

Author's Notes

All of the scenes go in immediate chronological order.

We don't see much of Hufflepuff in the books, and one little quote I saw associated with Hufflepuff online inspired me with this crazy idea to make them somewhat unhinged. "You think we're cute? That's nice." Now Hufflepuff is creating an army and is more prepared for a war than the rest of the wizarding world.

Dirk's name was found on a random name generator. I almost named him Aubrey. His name has no significance...or does it?

Clarence's 'talk' with Blackstar is not intended to offend anyone, and in no way reflects my own beliefs. It's only someone thinking that whenever someone mentions a 'god' it automatically means the Christian god. It's the close-minded atheistic view on things (not all atheists are like this). There are glaring holes in Clarence's 'talk'. Go ahead and think whatever you want about religion and Soul Eater.

Last part, I intended for it to have a little SoulxMaka fluff with Maka missing Soul, but then I didn't intend for it to turn into KidxMaka fluff by the end. Which pairing will prevail? I might decide at some point. There will be no really intimate moments, no erotica, no sappy lovey-dovey feelings that will really annoy you.