Chapter Twenty-Nine

Hufflepuff

Harry sat with his five closest friends and tried to forget about the past two days. He kept picturing the knife set he'd bought for Paradise; there was no way he'd gift those to her now.

"It's just plain sense!" Hermione said. "You may have more fourth years, but those in our team are much smarter. Sure, Morag and Mandy might struggle a bit against you guys, but Su, Lance and I don't need them!"

Able scowled. "Nora's a match for Lance any day. Besides, Su is primarily a charms specialist, just like you've become."

"So what? Bradley and Sampson are the ones running our age group and Sampson's certainly a charms specialist. We'll get more charms questions!"

"All six of the seventh years write the questions," Able retorted. "And some of the professors! There's not going to be more on one subject than another. And our team is much more well-rounded than you could hope to be. Right Harry?"

Hermione bristled. Harry just started saying "yes" and "no" in many alternate languages. Neville, whom had learned many of the simple affirmatives and negatives, snickered. Sarah smacked Harry on the back of his head and returned to her pencil sketch of Vivant, the phoenix patroni. Harry returned to his language book. Neville returned to his transfiguration homework. Able and Hermione argued on.

The seventh years had set the first Ravenclaw Intelligence Bowl for the weekend before everyone left for the holidays. Paul Nelson had announced that festivities would start Friday afternoon, with the first year and second year division. Saturday would be the third and fourth year divisions. And Sunday would be for the fifth/sixth year divisions. It would all culminate in formal Yule Ball Sunday night, where the winners and the holidays would be celebrated. When Paul had announced that at dinner on Monday, Dumbledore had gotten especially twinkly in the eye. Harry hated that twinkle. And Paul had only given people a week to pair up for the dance. It was frustrating.

Aria Sinistra poked Harry on the shoulder. "Hey, Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"Paradise isn't here," said his adoptive cousin. "She left dinner early, saying she was going back to the dorms. Ogden went with her, but Ogden's here and Paradise isn't and we don't know where she went!"

Harry sighed. "It's all right, Aria. I'll go find her."

Aria worried her lip between her teeth. "Is she going to be okay?"

"Not emotionally," Harry grumbled darkly. He left his stuff with Neville and headed for the portrait hole. Aria followed him. Inwardly, he debated whether or not to tell her to stay behind. Paradise was more than likely in the armory, but Aria had fairly decent common sense, right? She wouldn't go and ruin everything. Well, not more than it had already been ruined.

Harry let the girl follow him out the portrait hole, down a few flights of stairs, through a numerous amount of corridors, and into the dead end hallway that led to the armory. Sure enough, Paradise was there. She wasn't practicing and the golems weren't awake. She just sat in the center of the white circle, her arms wrapped around her knees and her head buried against her legs. Harry instantly knew that she'd been crying.

"What is this place?" Aria whispered.

Harry shushed her. He crossed the room and sat down next to Paradise.

"I didn't mean to," Paradise whispered with a hiccup. "I just wanted to hurt Flint. I just wanted to make him leave us alone. I was so scared. It was so awful… last time."

"Last time was a dream," Harry said, gently. "He can't hurt you anymore."

"But he can!" Paradise sniffled. "He can. And he can hurt others. And I hurt Harrietta. I'm just as bad—"

"Paradise!" Harry interrupted her. "What you did was an accident, you're not to blame!"

"If I hadn't thrown the knife, if I hadn't thought that I was good enough—"

"Stop blaming yourself," Harry ordered. "Those boys are the ones who hurt your friends, not you."

Paradise sniffled and didn't respond.

Aria moved deeper into the room; she came to stand beside the other two. "You did the right think, Para. You did the brave thing. And you can't obsess over it! Let us help you."

Paradise looked up at her yearmate. "But I hur—"

"You didn't," Aria insisted. "And Harrietta recognizes that, Diana says so!"

Paradise didn't looked convinced.

"C'mon," Aria wheedled, "Diana's the only one who's been allowed to see Etta, and when have you even known Diana to lie?"

"Never," Paradise admitted.

"Harrietta is not going to hold this against you," Harry said. "She's okay. She's going to be completely okay."

"Okay," Paradise said, softly. "But I'm not going to train anymore! I'm not going to touch another knife!"

Neither Harry nor Aria argued with that. "Why don't you girls head back to the common room?" Harry suggested. "It's not long until your curfew."

Aria nodded and helped Paradise to her feet. The latter looked really scared to go out into the hallways unprotected, but – as much as he wanted to – Harry wasn't going to escort them. Of all things, Paradise needed to not let her fear rule her. With much prompting by Aria, the two girls left.

Harry stood in the white circle for just a few moments, until he was sure that they were gone. He woke the golems. He trained for two hours, barely stopping, barely taking a drink or a rest. He worked out his anger on the animate machines. It was late when Sal literally dragged Harry from his workout and back to the common room. The little elf was fit to be tied given Harry's state of mind and how hard he was working himself. It was rather adorable, how much the elf ranted and raved against him.

o.o.o.o.o.o

The nightmares came back that night. Not only for Harry and Paradise, but for Vicky. For Harrietta and Diana. For many of the first and second year girls. For some of the boys too. For Emma MacDonald. For Lisa and Ruth Turpin. For Sally Wood. For Zach Wood. Harry woke, just after one, from a nightmare and from Hedwig's gentle push. She'd gotten back!

Harry let his familiar in and tugged open the letter. He really didn't want to read this—

Mr. King,

My name is Alexander Hallabrand and I am Siân's step-father. My wife, Elena Hallabrand, is with me. We were most disturbed to read your letter regarding our daughter's safety. First and foremost, is Siân okay? You have mentioned she is, but please forgive our worry. Secondly, what punishment faces these boys? Why would the school choose not to notify us? Where any others hurt? And, Mr. King, why would you take it upon yourself to notify us? What is your involvement with the school in general and our daughter?

Sincerely,

Alexander and Elena Hallabrand

Harry wasn't close to falling back asleep. He picked up a piece of parchment and a quill and spread it out on his bedside desk.

Mr. and Mrs. Hallabrand,

As I have already mentioned, I am a student. I am in my third year of study and am in the House of Gryffindor. Should you be unclear, Hogwarts students reside in four different and equal houses, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Gryffindor. Your daughter is a part of the noble House of Hufflepuff. My younger sister, also a first year, is friends with your daughter. The two of them were together, along with five other girls when they were attacked. Your daughter means a lot to my sister and because of that, she means a lot to me. Only one of the girls was hurt, cut by a knife, and she has already made a full recovery.

While I am unclear of the legal repercussions that these boys will face, they were immediately expelled from Hogwarts and shall have no further contact with your daughter. And the question of safety… Siân is as safe at Hogwarts as she would be anywhere else. I cannot guarantee her safety, but I can tell you that should she continue to study magic, she will definitely become more fit to take care of herself and provide for her own measure of safety.

Your other questions are more difficult for me to answer. Last year, a number of muggleborn students were injured by a magical monster. While ultimately these children were physically fine, their non-magical parents remained unknowing about such injury. To compound the problem, when a magical child was injured, her parents were notified immediately. The reason behind such actions taken by the Hogwarts staff is unclear to me and I can only speculate that they worry about repercussions. As far as visiting the injured students, Hogwarts remains inaccessible to non-magical parents, and I can imagine that knowing your son or daughter is injured and not being able to visit must simply make matters worse.

I am still of the opinion that parents should be notified. And so I wrote to you, hoping that the school might have notified you of Siân's misfortunate, but not optimistic that such action had happened. Do note that Madam Poppy Pomfrey, our school nurse, is a fully qualified and very gifted magical equivalent of a doctor. She has helped me with many a health problem.

Should you have any further questions about the magical world in general, I would be more than willing to attempt to answer them.

Regards,

Harry King

He gave the letter to Hedwig and told her to rest before flying off. Not that she listened to him, of course. Harry lay back on his bed, his eyes and mind open. He could feel, through the empathy links that Katie was helping him establish, the restless uncertainty of sleep that faced many of the Gryffindor students. It was a little overwhelming, how full of bad dreams the dormitories was. Harry desperately hoped that Katie, who was more sensitive than he was, would be able to block out the nightmares of others.

Sometimes, the empathetic powers sucked.

But other powers didn't. Harry took a deep breath. He'd owled Vince Kensington and gotten a book on the Mind Arts. He and Katie, who needed Occlumency the most, had been semi-successfully working on shielding their minds to the empath ability. More complete shielding would have to follow. Self-learning Occlumency had also helped him channel what little talent at eidetic memorization he'd picked up from Hermione. He could now morph, if only for a few seconds, even when Ruth or Tonks weren't nearby. He was still meeting with the auror twice a week during the mornings. She was confident he'd be a full metamorph in at least two years. And wandless magic wasn't a problem anymore. He still used the rock sticks to dampen some of his power, but casting through the sticks was almost easy now. And it had only been a week! Each day in Herbology, he got better and better at actually reading the plants and what those plants needed and wanted. Neville, Hannah, Sally-Anne and now Greg, were slowly giving him the ability of a natural healer. And Sal, as promised, had started helping him learn elf magic. He was comfortable in reading and writing Latin and Sanskrit, Mermish and Gobbledygook. The other languages, and especially the verbal recognition were slower going.

But he'd come unbelievable far since he went and talked to Professor McGonagall, not two months ago. Two months were he could barely remember stopping to breathe! He was learning and he loved it and maybe he had a bit more Ravenclaw in him than everyone thought.

Harry lay awake, just thinking. There was a week until the Intelligence Bowl and then Christmas vacation started. And Christmas vacation would be rather full. There really wasn't a day throughout the whole two week vacation that he didn't have something planned. It would be a lot of fun. Especially because only Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were assigning any real homework. And Flitwick's assignment wasn't even real homework as much as a puzzle hunt. It was the kind of homework that drove Hermione insane because there wouldn't be any real right answer. At least, that's what Flitwick had told his students. He hadn't announced what the assignment actually was yet.

The Christmas bug had completely bitten the school, Harry reflected. There were decorations sprouting up all over the place and people were singing Christmas songs in the hallway… Sure, it had been subdued the past few days, but even Sirius Black couldn't dampen the holiday spirit.

Harry sighed and rolled over. He really did need some sleep.

o.o.o.o.o.o

The first time Harry saw the Hufflepuff common room, he was astonished.

The room had a low ceiling, but it was sprawling room, filled with chairs and couches and gaming tables and a large pool tucked in one corner. The Hufflepuffs had a pool?! It was awesome. It wasn't overwhelmingly yellow and black, but several nice shades of tan, accented by almost every color of the rainbow. One of the walls had a grand mural on it, depicting a piece of the history of Hogwarts. Another wall had the names of every single graduate of the Hufflepuff house scrawled on in many different colors of ink. A third wall was covered with notes written to current members of the house – written by other members. From what Harry could see, that wall was self-cleansing. And then the first wall was painted a light tan with many multi-colored, small handprints pressed against it. It was labeled "the first years wall."

The Hufflepuff common room was truly spectacular.

And Harry was in it because Susan had asked him to come and speak with Siân.

Which made him more than a little nervous.

Susan, Hannah, Megan and Sally-Anne (the Hufflepuff pack) pointed Harry towards a corner where Siân was folded into a small arm chair. She was staring at a textbook, but even from a distance, Harry could tell that she wasn't really reading the book. He meandered over to the small girl and sat down beside her. "Hey Siân."

"It's pronounced sharrn," she corrected. "'lo Harry."

"Sorry," Harry muttered. "You wanted to talk with me?"

"You wrote my parents?"

"Yeah."

"Because the school didn't notify them about, about, you know."

"Yeah."

She shivered. "But why'd you write them?"

"Because they deserved to know."

"But I'm fine."

Harry was vaguely away of the four Hufflepuff third year girls watching them from a distance. "I know you are. But Hermione and Justin and Colin weren't fine and their parents weren't notified."

Siân looked at him, confused. "Colin Creevey?"

"Yeah."

"Was he hurt? Is that why he's in some of our classes?"

Harry nodded. "He was petrified last year. For a really long while."

"Oh. Well, I guess… Thanks for notifying my parents. Just," Siân paused, "why'd you lie to them? About your name?"

Harry looked down. "I didn't lie. I just didn't use my first last name."

She giggled. "That makes NO sense."

Harry grinned at her. "King is just one of my last names. Officially, I'm Harry Potter-Moorland-Aragon-Fallus-Arthure-Enon-Spinnet -Nanth-Bartholomew-Carine, but those are just the noble last names. I've got a lot more. Like thirty something."

"That's excessive."

"Tell me about it."

"Is… is the wizarding world really as anti-muggleborn as it seems?" Her voice was small, pleading.

"Yes."

"Oh."

Harry didn't know what to tell her or what would make her feel better.

"You told my parents I should stay," Siân whispered. "But they think I should leave. Sally-Anne's even contemplating leaving."

Harry looked up at Sally-Anne in shock.

"Do you really think I should stay in the wizarding world?"

"Yes," Harry said, instantly. "I think that magic is wonderful and amazing and I think that this generation, our generation, is the key to making some of the old prejudices go away. You've seen what happened with Slytherin this year; you probably weren't really around to really, really see how they changed."

"Astoria's one of my closest friends," Siân said, shrugging. "But it was Slytherins who attacked us."

"It was the Slytherins who hadn't turned," Harry corrected her. "And they were a small minority within the school."

Siân nodded. "I really do love magic."

"Awesome," Harry said.

"Thanks for coming," Siân said, quietly. "I needed… I needed to hear this."

"My pleasure."

Siân grinned. "Wanna go swimming?"

Harry blinked. "I don't know how."

She gaped, astonished. "Hannah!" The Hufflepuff pack came running. Siân pointed at Harry, still astonished. "He doesn't know how to swim!"

"We can rectify that!" Hannah said, laughing.

Harry felt like bashing his head against a table. The four Hufflepuff girls looked suspiciously like Katie and the fourth year Gryffindor girls had looked like when he first started this ridiculous campaign to get to know everyone. Still, the Hufflepuff third, second, and first years all had an impromptu swimming party that Wednesday night in the Hufflepuff indoor pool. It was awesome. It wasn't everyone from the three years, but it was still twenty-two people. They taught Harry how to handle himself in the pool, and just started playing pool games. The magical pool had expanded so that all twenty-two kids fit comfortably. It was awesome. Harry exhausted himself, just by swimming around and playing ridiculous games like Marco Polo. It was so much fun!

He left in time to make it back to the Gryffindor common room before curfew, but nearly all the Hufflepuffs had impressed on him that he had a standing invitation to come back any time he wanted to.

He honestly believed that wasn't nearly enough hours in the day to accomplish all that he wanted to accomplish.

Back at the Gryffindor common room, Kenneth Towler and Emma MacDonald were engaged in a battle of This-Person-Is-That – a Kenneth-invented game that tested two people's knowledge about various people in the wizarding world. Angelina Johnson was officiating, and nearly the entire Gryffindor house was watching. Most were cheering on Emma, as she was a bit of an underdog. Kenneth's impeccable knowledge of people was unanimously considered rather stalkerish. Harry joined Sarah and Ritchie Coote as they watched the battle blare on.

Hermione was nowhere to be seen. Harry figured she was probably with her Bowl Team. Paradise was with her first year friends, watching the battle and eating Weasley-twin provided popcorn. She was laughing, or at least appearing to laugh. That was good.

Oh Harry loved this school!

He loved magic.

He loved learning.

And he now loved his life.