A/N: This chapter takes place on the same day as the last one; this is what the girls did after that eventful lunch hour. Many thanks to Bridget and Lexy, who helped me to create the Hufflepuff common room as we now know it.
After lunch there was a somewhat tense atmosphere between the girls. Kim kept giving Natalie very harsh looks; her brow was furrowed and her lips pursed slightly in annoyance. When the day’s classes were expended and the girls returned to their common room, they sat around a large circular table scratching away at various bits of homework that they had acquired. It wasn’t long before the silence became too much for Natalie.
“Okay, Kim, tell me what the problem is,” Nat said exasperatedly. She dropped her quill onto the table and let go of the parchment that she had been writing on. As soon as she did it curled up into a cylinder and rolled on to the floor. Instead of retrieving it, she merely glared at it.
“I don’t have a problem,” Kim replied shortly. She flicked the page of The Standard Book of Spells rather harshly.
“That’s not true and you know it,” Natalie insisted.
“You have been a little…grumpy today,” Elysa confirmed quietly. When Kim shot her an angry look she suddenly found a portrait of Helga Hufflepuff, which was hanging on the opposite wall, incredibly interesting.
“Kim, whatever it is, just tell me. I can’t take this silence anymore,” Nat pleaded.
“I think that what you did today was horrible,” Kim stated simply as she put her textbook down on the table.
“What did I do?” the plump girl asked in confusion. She looked at the three other faces around the table, and found that none of them were able to look her in the eye.
“You were really mean to that boy today. You could have left him alone, why did you have to pull that stunt at lunch?” Kim asked.
“He deserved what he got,” Nat declared.
“I have a question,” Marie suddenly interrupted the exchange between her two friends.
“Yes?” The two waited impatiently for Marie to make her inquisition.
“You keep going on about how bad James and his friends are. How was what you did any different?”
“Exactly,” Kim agreed.
“The difference is that I didn’t do it just for the fun of it!”
“No, you did it to be vindictive, which is worse,” Kim remonstrated.
“I did not! I’ve never been vindictive in my life!” Nat pushed herself out of her chair in objection. “He had it coming. Nobody is going to walk around and treat my friends like dirt. I won’t have it!”
“Who was he treating like dirt?” Kim enquired with a little confusion.
“You and Elysa,” Nat informed her briskly.
“Nat, all he did was boast that he was a good flyer. He wasn’t saying anything to us really,” Elysa reasoned.
“I saw how terrified you two looked; he’s got no right to make you feel bad. The idea is that we try and make things easy for you, not scare the life out of you.”
“It really wasn’t that bad,” Kim assured her; her tone had softened considerably now.
“He didn’t learn anything from it, though. A few hours later he was just acting like he was so untouchable. It just made me so angry.” Nat banged a hand on the table for emphasis.
“So, really, all you were trying to do was stand up for your friends. I think that’s very admirable,” Lex chimed as she smiled proudly at Nat.
“It is,” Elysa nodded enthusiastically.
“Just make sure that, next time, we need standing up for,” Kim smiled. She could see now that Nat’s heart had been in the right place, she just hadn’t expressed herself very well.
“I’m sorry if you thought I was over reacting.” Nat deflated and sank back into her seat. “It just annoys me when people like that think they’re better than me, or us, when they’ve no right to. A lot of my family are like that. My uncle Joseph married into the Malfoys, and now he thinks he’s ten times better than us,” Nat murmured with annoyance.
“The Malfoys?” Elysa asked. All homework was now abandoned and the girls sat staring at each other keenly.
“They’re a really old wizarding family, loaded with Galleons,” Marie informed them. Her eyes were wide in astonishment.
“Yeah, and my uncle has them for pupils,” Nat snorted.
“Is he really that bad?” Lex wore an expression that suggested that someone couldn’t possibly be that greedy.
“No, he’s worse.”
“Ahh,” Lex shook her head sadly. It was at that moment Robin walked past; she took one look at the solemn faces in front of her and concern raced across her features.
“Are you lot all right? Is something wrong?” She stopped so abruptly that the tall boy who had been following closely behind her almost bulldozed right through her.
“We’re okay, it’s been a long day,” Elysa assured her.
“They all are at first, before long they’ll zoom by and you’ll wonder where they went. Isn’t that right, Steven?” Robin glanced around at her male companion. This was the first the girls had paid any attention to him, and now that they had; they felt a blush creeping up into their cheeks. Steven was a very good looking seventh year prefect with green eyes and windswept blonde hair. Up until now he had been staring into space patiently, and not paying any attention to what the girls were saying. Panic set into his eyes as he realised he was expected to give an answer when he didn’t know the question.
“Um…yes?” he ventured tentatively.
“Would you like me to ask the question again?” Robin stared at him rather irritably.
“Yes, please,” he nodded vigorously.
“The days fly by, don’t they?” Robin repeated.
“Ohhhh, yeah, it’ll be over before you know it. Rob, don’t mean to rush you or that but it’s time we…made our rounds,” he said hurriedly and giving the other students in close proximity a worried glance.
“I know,” she snapped. “Will you girls be okay?” she added in a much softer tone.
“We’ll be fine,” Natalie promised. Robin smiled comfortingly at them all before Steven led her away through the crowded common room.
In the short time that the girls had been living in the castle they had already come to love their common room; it was, without doubt, their favourite place in the castle. It was a tall, narrow room with an impossibly high ceiling. There were two fireplaces down either side of the room, each with a large portrait hanging above it. They had a particular soft spot for the middle-aged woman from the portrait who over looked their usual spot; Gladys the Merry. She had large goblet of wine that she frequently topped up using a Refilling Charm. The copious amounts of alcohol that she consumed lead to a permanently pink complexion and a very jolly mood; she constantly told jokes that were so bad they were actually funny.
In the mornings the room positively gleamed in the daylight that was flooding in through the near floor-to-ceiling windows that ran down either side of the room. They were nicely complimented by long, flowing black drapes with gold embroidery on them. In the evenings the room had a cosy glow that was attributed to by the moon and stars outside, and the gentle candles that were burning inside.
Most evenings found the girls lounging around their favourite fireplace with Elysa stretched out on a couch, Kim and Lex curled in chairs on either side of the fire, and Marie and Natalie leaning on oversized cushions on the floor playing Exploding Snap.
If they were having themselves a homework night, then the girls parked themselves at one of the larger desks towards the back end of the room, near to the archway that lead to the dormitory corridors. The circumference of this particular table allowed all five of them to sit at it comfortably with their multitude of books.
Another silence had settled over the group, but this time it was much more amiable. In the time between finishing their homework and going to bed the girls chatted about their families, and about the different things that they were looking forward to doing at school.
Their giggling continued long into the night and were especially loud during a conversation that touched on some of the older boys in their house. Steven was discussed at length, and not one of them managed to stop the redness in their cheeks. It was the early hours of the next morning before sleepiness permeated through air. They all snuggled down under their covers and waited for the drowsiness to overtake them.
“Kim?” Natalie’s lethargic voice called through the darkness.
“Mmhmm,” Kim mumbled in reply.
“Am I forgiven?”
“Forgiven?” Kim propped herself up on her elbows and turned in Natalie’s direction. Even though the room was pitch black and she couldn’t actually see anything.
“For being a spiteful little witch.” A snort exploded from Marie’s corner of the room.
“You weren’t that bad, Nat,” Kim reassured her.
“But we’re okay now, aren’t we?”
“We’re just fine,” Kim smiled. For someone who had been confident enough to squeal and throw her arms about in front of the entire school, Natalie suddenly sounded so delicate.
“And so we sprinkle water on the little plant that is our friendship,” Elysa’s merry voice rang through the darkness. The other four girls exploded with laughter.
“And they call me the crazy one,” Nat chuckled.