Chapter 53: The Age of Hufflepuff

Things were going smoothly on Knight Boat No. 6. Passengers were happy, the cargo posed no problems, and their potions trade was growing. The only thing that Severus could find to complain about was the birds. When the boat had stopped in Tampa Bay, an owl brought Fawkes a very late Christmas present from his friends Darkness and Mysteria. It turned out to be a tape cassette filled with songs about birds. Many lovely songs have been written about birds over the centuries, and some of them were included. Some were loud rock songs, however. Seabiscuit played the tapes for the birds whenever they chirped at him and pecked at the tape player.

Fawkes and Mavis loved all of the songs, but their favorite was The Surfin' Bird. Mavis squawked along with the tape:

"Everybody's heard

about the bird.

Bird, bird, bird,

the bird is the word!"

Parrots are famous for their ability to imitate human speech, but Severus still marveled that a creature with no lips could pronounce those words. Perhaps it was magic. As the two birds hopped, bopped, and squawked, he picked up the latest copy of The Daily Prophet and went in search of a quiet place to read.

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Minerva McGonagall made her announcement to the assembled students in the Great Hall after breakfast on Monday morning.

"I wish to inform you all that I have submitted my resignation as Headmistress," she said. "I have completed my task of defending the school during the war and guiding the rebuilding afterward, and now I will return to my former position as a teacher and Head of House. I am proud of my accomplishments, but one task still remains for me: the healing of our internal divisions. I made those much worse when I expelled all the Slytherins before the battle, instead of giving them the same chance to prove themselves that I gave the rest of you. It was a mistake that, unfortunately, I cannot take back. I have apologized for it several times, as you all know, but actions are required to back up my words, and now I wish to prove my sincerity by stepping down. Professor Sprout will be taking over as Headmistress, and I ask all of you to give her your full support. Thank you."

Silence reigned as Pomona Sprout rose to the lectern. She and Minerva shook hands and hugged each other, after which Minerva took a seat with the rest of the faculty.

Pomona smiled happily at everyone. "I have great news for you all!" she announced. "As you may know, the Sorting Hat was seriously damaged at the end of the war and cannot continue the sorting. Thanks to Minerva's efforts, however, the Helmet of Hufflepuff has agreed to take on that task. As a result, our original Houses can now be restored and the sorting of all new students will take place next week! I will have a schedule for you soon. Meeting adjourned!"

Wild applause broke out among the students. "Wow," Clayton whispered to Melody as they rose to leave. "I can't believe McGonagall just resigned. Do you she's been Imperiused?"

"I'm sure she's sincere," Melody whispered back. "I'm sure she wants to show that she's really sorry for what she did to you Slytherins."

"Well, I'm glad she resigned, whatever her motivation is. Good riddance!"

"Don't be so negative," Melody scolded. "I just hope the Helmet is up to the job. It's lain dormant for centuries."

"It looks like it's going to be the Era of Hufflepuff now," Clayton observed. "The Head of Gryffindor House and Gryffindor's Hat are out, and the Head of Hufflepuff and Hufflepuff's Helmet are in. It's gotta be an improvement. Do you think it would be rude to throw a party?"

Melody laughed. "Don't push your luck, Clayton," she said, and then she wandered off down the hall singing:

"It is the dawning of

the Age of the Hufflepuffs,

Age of the Hufflepuffs,

tra-la!"

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Minerva caught up with Poppy Pomfrey as they left the Great Hall. "Poppy, would you stop by my quarters for a moment?" she asked. "I want to apologize for the things I said to you."

"There's no need for that, Headmistress," Poppy said cautiously. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"It's former Headmistress now. And I should not have let myself become upset like that. Your advice was perfectly correct. It was difficult to come to terms with the idea, however, and I was not rational."

At first Minerva had shunned Poppy's advice, along with the words of the Sorting Hat, and the Fat Friar's nagging. Even the sight of Nearly Headless Nick, floating through the halls in tears late at night, had left her unmoved.

The new House system hadn't been her idea, but Minerva had agreed with it and made it happen. After all, there was not much else that they could do with the Sorting Hat out of action, or so she told herself. She wanted to believer that they were only trying to put the war and the hatred behind them, but she knew that she was also happy to see the end of Slytherin House. It hadn't worked, though, and everyone had been miserable. Some gentle words from Helga's Helmet had finally helped her make her decision.

"I'm terribly sorry about the things I said to you," Minerva continued. "I know you're my friend and you just wanted what's best for me, as well as what's best for the school. And as I said, you were perfectly right. Would some nice chocolate cake make up for it?"

Poppy let out an audible sigh of relief. "Oh yes, Minerva, I'm sure it would," she said.

"And perhaps a wee dram of Glen Mystic afterward, too," Minerva added with a wink.

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Kat was on duty at the helm when Severus joined him. "Did you see the latest issue of The Prophet?" Severus asked.

"Yeah!" Kat said. "Skeeter wrote a great review of the band! With photos and everything! She said Parselmouth is fantastic and Tracey Davis has a brilliant future ahead of her."

Severus cocked an eyebrow and gave the First Mate a curious look. "Would I be correct in assuming that someone here has a crush on Ms Davis?"

"So what if I do?" Kat said. "She's a beautiful and talented young witch."

"'The important word there is 'young'. She's too young for you."

"Nonsense! I'm not that old," Kat replied haughtily. "Not ancient, like some people around here."

Severus ignored that remark and took another look at his friend. The lad was older than Tracey, but not by all that much, really. Well, it didn't matter anyway. The two of them would never meet. Let Kat dream if he wanted to.

Severus decided to move the conversation along to other topics. He spread The Prophet out on the chart table and eyed the two-page photo spread.

"I'm surprised the photos of the Masquerade came out as well as they did. That photographer spent most of his time standing beside the refreshments table, if I recall correctly. He spent more time slurping champagne than taking photographs, which made him easy to avoid. I'm glad to see that none of us appear in the photos."

There were shots of the Great Hall with all its sparkling decorations, and of the Malfoys smiling in their costumes. Celestina was signing autographs in one and Rita was waving at the camera in another, looking rather scary in her praying mantis costume. There was one of the students performing the Dragon Dance, and two of Parselmouth performing Werewolf of Hogwarts, one of which was a close-up of Tracey Davis.

"I want to keep that one of Tracey," Kat said happily.

Severus sighed.

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Rita Skeeter waved her wand at the kettle and brought it to a boil. She had received many letters of sympathy for having nearly been killed at the Masquerade Ball and much praise for her exclusive coverage of the event. There was talk of a Golden Inkblot Prize.

She smiled as she waved her wand again to warm the teapot and she poured in the boiling water. It was time to get back to work on her book about Snape. What I need, Rita thought, is more information about Snape's love life. I don't believe that Lily Evans was the only one. My readers love romance, and more is always better.

She added sugar, milk and lemon to her tea and took a sip. If I could just find that Hufflepuff girl that Snape was tutoring after Evans dumped him, that would be quite a scoop! She was probably in his year, or maybe a year or two behind him, but that's still a lot of possibilities.

How can I find her? she wondered. I really don't have the time or inclination to chase down all those girls. I know who could do it, though. It will cost me, but it's worked before, and if he could find her, it would be more than worth it.

She would see to it tomorrow, but right now she had to get started writing an opinion piece about Minerva McGonagall's resignation.

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Clayton Urquhart was washing up in the boys' loo when Bentley Ballard and two of his Gryffindor friends came in.

"Hello, Clayton," Bentley said in a snarky voice. "We saw that article in The Prophet. You certainly were brave. For a Slytherin, that is.'

"What do you want, Ballard?" Clayton asked, drying his hands. He hoped there wasn't going to be trouble. An inter-House fight in the washroom was the last thing that they needed right now. Especially a fight in which he was outnumbered.

"It was a great story, very exciting, but we were just wondering exactly which side you were planning to join when you came back here. Lots of Slytherins supported You Know Who, after all, and I've heard that your parents were sympathetic to him."

"You mean after years of taking guff off Gryffindors and Dumbledore, and after McGonagall kicked us all out, why would I come back fight for the school? Do you really want to know?"

Bentley folded his arms and frowned. "Yeah, we do." His friends nodded in agreement.

"The truth is, I wasn't really sure myself. I just wanted to see what was going on. But when I got to the gate and saw that mob screaming and cursing in front of the castle, suddenly I knew which side I was on, and it wasn't theirs."

Bentley thought about that for a moment.

"I mean, as bad as you guys are, you're just a pack of pink Pygmy Puffs compared to them," Clayton added.

The three Gryffindors looked at each other, trying to decide if that was an insult.

"I've gotta go now. It's time for Charms," Clayton said as he slipped past them into the hall. Thank Merlin they don't know about the Dieffenbachia! he thought.

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Severus was dreaming about Hogwarts again. He was walking along a corridor. A suit of armor saluted him and the portraits did, too. He nodded to Phineas. All was well. Then he turned a corner and found himself in new wing. It was very modern and bright. Pink tiles covered the floor, and the walls were made of bright red, yellow, and blue plastic panels. How utterly tasteless, he thought, like a Muggle shopping mall. What is this place? Who built it? he wondered.

Soon he came to a Muggle-style food court offering hamburgers, chips, pizza, and soft drinks. He didn't want any. He turned to go and saw Rita Skeeter walking toward him, holding a tray with two slices of pizza. She was wearing a sparkling green dress and her usual high heels. Her lipstick was crimson. She put the tray on a small table and beckoned to him. He felt himself drawn to her.

Then he woke with a start. Where did that come from? The first part was no doubt sent by the castle, but the plastic food court certainly wasn't. And what about Rita? She must have come from his own subconscious. A Muggle psychiatrist would no doubt come up with a bizarre interpretation of that bit, and who knew what that fraud Trelawney would conclude from it? That stupid witch had only been right once in her life, and she had triggered a chain of events that led to death and disaster. Divination was worse than useless.

He sighed and turned over. As he slipped back into sleep, he found himself hoping that Rita would turn up again. Perhaps bearing pizza. That would be nice.

Note: The Surfin' Bird was written by the Rivingtons and became a hit for The Trashmen in 1963. And Age of the Hufflepuffs is based on Aquarius from the 1967 musical Hair, of course.