Ch. 32: The Hufflepuff

     Christmas break flew by like a Fwooper in the wind, taking the Winter Break right along with it. Before I knew it, the semester had started once again. Fred and I weren't left off the hook for our 'personal displays of affection', or P.D.A. as everyone else joked. 

      McGonagall cornered us the first breakfast of the start of term with a stern and sour look on her tired face.

     "Miss Granger, Mr Weasley. May I have a word?" Fred smirked at this and gave me a small look over to which I rolled my eyes. We both separated from the group and followed her outside of the Great Hall doors so we could be in 'private'.

       McGonagall offered us both an eyebrow raised in simmering disdain, paired with a slow look over. It was obvious that she was attempting to find some way to phrase her disappointment. "Your conduct at the Yule Ball was... less than respectable, I hope you both understand this?"

       I sighed and nodded, wanting to tell her to get on with the punishment, not drag it out. Fred grinned sarcastically and threw a steady arm over my shoulder, not caring that McGonagall glared at it like it was a python from Hell. 

     "Yes, ma'am." I chewed my lip, trying to hide the smile that Fred was egging on.

She uncrossed her arms and breathed out a heavy sigh, sagging a little as she did. "I cannot say that I'm the least bit shocked that it is the two of you getting paired up." She rolled her eyes. "But I would much rather, Mr. Weasley, that you'd have chosen the more respectful and responsible Granger." She smirked a little, knowing that would never happen in a million years.

Fred gave me a side look, taking his hand off of my shoulder and resting his chin on it in a thoughtful manner. "Hmpp... You know what Professor? That may be a better idea..." He slowly backed towards the Great Hall Doors and pointed over his shoulder. "I'll just go kiss Hermione and everything will be great. Thanks!" He turned away, but I scoffed and smacked his retreating back with a chuckle.

       "Don't be an idiot, Fred." I rolled my eyes and McGonagall shrugged with a small smile playing on her lips. 

     It was hidden behind wry, dry humour but there was a glint of a joke in her bespectacled gaze. I could tell that she was only joking, and didn't mean any true ill-will towards Fred or myself.

   "Back to the main topic. I expect one roll of parchment on the topic of Godric Gryffindor's house motto, and how it pertains today, on my desk by next Saturday." She rattled off our punishment with the flip of her wrist, mouth tight and stern. Fred groaned, shaking his head. "And, as a reminder, Hogwarts is a place of learning. I hope you learn from this." She mentioned, turning on her heel and making for the doors.

      "...Oh I will.." I mumbled to myself, but she was too far out of earshot to even hear it. Pulling out my pocket watch, I checked the time: 7:45a. Class started at 8.

      "One bloody roll," Fred complained, walking with me back into the Great Hall, "well, that's not quite the way I'd pictured the year to start. Must admit." He shook his head and turned to me. "So, what's on your 'to-do' list today?"

       "Cedric." I winked, I'd made up my mind to get him to tell me about his night with Cho and how everything went, we had hung out a little but every time I'd forgotten to ask. "What about you?"

     "Oh, should I be jealous?" Fred smirked and pulled out a small box from his pocket. It was the gift I'd bought him for Christmas. "I was gonna give Filch a heart attack, but maybe Diggory would a good kick out of these Catastrophic Catapulting Chocolates."

      I rolled my eyes and shouldered my book bag, making my way to Defense Against the Dark Arts class. I turned on my heel and faced him as I walked away. "Don't even think about feeding him one of those, Fred. It was funny when Ron swallowed one, but he was being Ron."

I had given Fred a bag of a new candy prototype from Zonkos and he was having a devilishly good time with them. The chocolates were labeled 'catastrophic catapulting chocolates' for a reason. Ron had been tricked by Fred and I into eating one, and let's just say that his stomach didn't agree with them. "I'll see you at lunch." I waved him off and he waved back with a small smile.

      Shouldering my books, I walked to the DADA classroom. While I didn't want to be late, I didn't actually want to be there either.

     I turned through the wide halls, adorned with stitched tapestries depicting Barnaby the Bramble and witches conquering over small folk of the 1600s. I tongued my bottom lip and furrowed my brow at the thoughts. Something was ... off about Moody. 

     The gargoyles that sat in wait at the corridor to the Defense Against the Dark Arts tower howled and barked jokes to each other about Snape as I passed, but I couldn't be bothered to listen, mind wrapped up in the feeling I got in my gut about the Professor. 

      Moody wasn't all there in the head. I knew this because of the lessons he'd been teaching us. Each of his lessons had been growing progressively... dark. From the very first lesson, Professor Moody had procured his lessons based on the Unforgivable Curses. 

       At first, I'd been able to brush the feeling off. He was an Ex-Auror, and perhaps this had been his way of training us against Dark Arts, against true evil. After all, how can you fight what you don't know? 

     But, now he was using them on students. Well... he was using the Imperious Curse. But, regardless, it still scared me shitless and I always refused to be part of it.

     All too soon, the large, wooden doors to the classroom were right in front of me. I inhaled deeply, swallowing the butterflies in my throat, and pushed the doors open. The mixed class was Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, each clad in their distinct house robes. 

     I shuffled to my usual seat in the corner of the room, trying to be as invisible as I could be, which wasn't much. As class started, everything went as normal -- normal for Moody anyway. He told everyone to stand up and get in a line and yelled at me that if I didn't participate, I would get marked down again. I ignored this, as usual, and watched as my fellow students began doing the most random things under the Imperious Curse.

     The fact that Dumbledore approved of this kind of teaching made me wonder what kind of Headmaster he was... if he did approve of it. What if he didn't even know this was going on? Someone needed to tell him if that was the case...

        Shrugging my shoulders, I crossed my ankles and proceeded to stare aimlessly at the wall; maybe I'd ask Harry to bring it to Dumbledore's attention later.

✧

       Once the class was dismissed, I made a run for it. Lana and Jenna hollered at me as I completely abandoned them to hunt down Cedric. I'd tromped down two flights of stairs and ran into him and Cho. No... literally ran into both of them, Cedric mainly.

       Cho squealed in surprise and tugged on my sleeves, catching me as I overcorrected and tried to back away from them. She giggled and tucked her glossy black hair behind her ear with a smile. "You okay?"

     Cedric held my shoulders with a grin and chuckled, backing up a little since I'd knocked him down a step. "In a hurry to be tortured by Snape, Elle?" He guessed sarcastically. I rolled my eyes and squared my shoulders with a huff.

       "Godric only knows," I mumbled, quickly shaking off the question. "Hello Cho, hello Ced!" I crossed my fingers together and smiled politely, eyeing the tall Hufflepuff with a wandering eye. "No, actually I had a question to ask you! About the homework..." I tried stressing an urgency, so Cho would get the hint.

      "We had homework?" Surprised, Cedric pulled his hair a little and shuffled through his bag nervously. "Should've known. Snape's never one to let us relax, aye?"

       I face-palmed myself and shook my head. Cedric was too easy some days, almost naive for a seventeen-year-old."N-No! Look, I just need to talk to you..."

       Cho straightened up a little, getting the hint and nodded. "Ohhh, okay I'll just go to Herbology class... See ya, Ced, Eliza." She waved solemnly and made her way towards the greenhouse. 

      'Great.. she probably thought me and Ced had something going on...'

"What do you wanna talk about?" Cedric chuckled and descended the stairs with me.

     Tying my hair up into a sloppy ponytail, I smirked at him and leaned against the cool, stone wall. "So!" He noticed my tone change immediately. "Tell me: how did your date go with Cho?"

      The brassy-haired Hufflepuff flushed pink and ducked his head. Pausing for only a moment, he contemplated what to say. After a couple of seconds, Cedric unfurrowed his brow and said, "Kinda well, actually. We danced to a lot of songs..." He looked around nervously.

       "Ahahah! Welllll, what ellssee?" I urged him, giving him a sly smile and poking him in the chest.

       "What do you mean?" He blushed, totally knowing what I was asking, but not wanting to say it. I chuckled and rolled my eyes. "You know, did you kiss her?"

     "...Define kiss?"

I squealed obnoxiously, a random thing for me since I never squeal, and through my arms around him happily. "You did!!! Mazal tov!" I congratulated him with a hug.

"I didn't know you were Jewish...." Cedric chuckled, slightly hugging me back - a little uncomfortable. I began to pull away from him when a cold cough sounded from the right of us. Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall were behind us, also descending the stairs.

        "Must you exhibit personal displays of affection throughout our entire school, Miss Granger?" Snape sneered, offering Cedric and me a look over. He then turned to whisper in McGonagall's ear. 

       She gave us a look as well and nodded, saying in a small voice to him: "We shall see..."

     Crossing my arms over my chest defensively, I fought a sneer in return and urged that it wasn't true. "It's not like that!" I blurted, blushing hard. "We're just friends."

      "I'm aware, Miss Granger." McGonagall nodded and continued past Cedric and me, Snape following her towards the corridor then making a B-line to the Dungeons' stairwells. "See you after class."

     "That was weird..." I rose a brow, watching them turn a corner and then disappear. "And," I turned back to Cedric, who was watching the scene with a stone gaze. "I'm not Jewish."

✧

     The rest of the day went by fairly quickly, but the constant feeling of being watched really was starting to bug me.

I hadn't noticed it at breakfast, but by dinner I had found many of the teachers had been carefully keeping their eyes plastered on my short frame. It was really unnerving, as if I was a criminal or something, I felt as if they were vultures and I was a rabbit.

I'd spent most of the day hanging with Cedric, Lana, and Jenna and the most consistent times that I'd been watched was when I was with Ced, I was starting to freak out a little.

      I packed up my book bag and finally broke my silence on the matter. "Hey, Cedric," I glanced around, lowering my voice. "Do you feel as if you are being watched?" I whispered. He leaned closer to me and arched a brow. 

      With a quick glance around the room, he frowned and shrugged it off. "No..." He didn't see anything as he turned back to face me, gathering his own study materials. "No, why? Do you?"

      "Yeah," I admitted, "kind of." I doubled down on the statement as I tossed my bag over my shoulder, almost frustrated. "It's really freaking me out, actually." I forced a laugh, to mask my uncertainty as I rubbed the back of my neck. 

     Cedric didn't reply right away, and I could tell by his incredulous glance that he didn't quite understand what I meant. I forced the feeling down and shook my head, trying to distract myself. Maybe I was just being paranoid.

       "I guess I'll go to the Great Hall and get some dinner," I said. "See you tomorrow?"

      "Yeah, that's cool," he replied as we began to part ways. Harry and Hermione approached before we did. "Good afternoon, you two," Cedric chimed, always the friendly personality.

Hermione sighed out her nose and stalked over to me, leaning close to my ear she hissed. "Harry hasn't figured out the egg yet!"

      "Harry, the next challenge is in a few days," I urged, giving him a scolding glare.

          "I know, I know Elle!" He growled looking between my sister and me with a scowl. "You two'd think that it is so easy! It's not like I haven't been trying."

        I threw up my hands in surrender and apologized. "I'm sorry Harry, but it's in days." Harry sighed and Cedric frowned, scratching the back of his head while slowly making his way around us.

      "Hey, Harry." Cedric paused and put a hand on Potter's shoulder, mumbling under his breath as if to avoid sounding too loud. "When I was with my egg -- well...," he floundered for the right words for a brief moment of time. Hermione and I glanced at each other in surprise. 

      "Have you been to the Prefect's Bathroom? It's a good place to relax with the egg." Cedric hinted then quickly stalked away before we could ask what the hell that meant.

      "Did you understand any of that?" Hermione sighed, asking me while rubbing her temples.

        "No, you Harry?"

         Harry balanced his golden egg in his hands and shook his head. "No, but I guess it is the best hint I've got... I'm going to take a bath."

        "Tell us once you've figured it out, yeah?" I called at his retreating back and he just waved me off, I took it as a yes.

         Hermione huffed and slouched against a wood railing, she looked a little sick, to be honest. 

     "What's the matter, Hermione? Boy troubles?" I asked jokingly, but she just rolled her eyes. "Really?" I stood up straighter and smirked. "It is boy troubles! That's a new one."

       "Not really, it's just... Ronald's still being a prick and Viktor... well... He's really sweet, but it's just... Well.."

        "I get it." I chuckled and leaned against the railing with a tired sigh. "I'm glad my life isn't as complex as yours, sis."

      "You've got a guy who you are perfectly comfortable with, while I'm with one who I... enjoy and hate the one who makes me happily frustrated!" She huffed once more and made a groaning sound, rubbing at her temples. "Why is it so complicated, Elle? How come you have it so easy?"

"It's not easy..." I muttered. "Nothing is ever easy for long, Mione." I sighed, and at the time, I had no idea how right I was.

✧