Four Houses, All Alike in Dignity

“Why can't we switch now?” asked Colleen McCormack.

The Gryffindors had just been given their new schedules. Teddy scanned the list. Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts with Hufflepuff, Transfiguration, Astronomy, and History of Magic with Ravenclaw, and – he winced – Herbology and Potions with Slytherin. He supposed that was a fair trade-off, as Gryffindor and Slytherin would each be spending time together in the classroom of the other's House Head, but Uncle Ron was full of horror stories about their potions classes with Slytherin students.

Colleen's question, however, distracted everyone from their schedules, as they all turned to stare at her.

“Just like that, you think Gryffindor isn't good enough for you?” Albus asked contemptuously.

Colleen bit her lip, and then said, “It's nothing against any of you, honest! Gryffindor is a perfectly fine house to be in, but I'd rather be in the same house with my brother! I mean, if he could switch to Gryffindor, that would be fine too...”

“Well, too bad!” snapped Megan Lewis, the other fifth-year Prefect. “You're in Gryffindor, and you'd better start acting like it!”

Colleen's lower lip trembled, but she nodded and proceeded towards their first class, with her head down.

“Hey,” Teddy said, catching up to her. “We've got three classes with Ravenclaw. You'll see your brother practically every day, and you can always visit with him in the evenings.”

Colleen nodded, but didn't say anything. Teddy fell back uncomfortably.

“Maybe she really doesn't belong in Gryffindor,” said Chloe. Teddy glanced at her, frowning a little.

Their Charms class was with the elderly head of Ravenclaw, Professor Flitwick. Teddy nodded to Dewey as the Hufflepuffs filed in through one door, and the Gryffindors through another, but the Gryffindors mostly sat up front while the Hufflepuffs sat in the rear.

Teddy was about to sit down next to Colleen, who still looked distraught. He really didn't understand why she was so upset about being separated from her brother, but she hadn't made many friends by announcing her eagerness to transfer out of Gryffindor, so he thought she could use some company. But Chloe took a seat at the other end of the row of desks, and called out to him: “Teddy!” She smiled and beckoned to him, and after another glance at Colleen, he went to join Chloe.

“Got that boy on a string, she does,” said Edgar, a little too loudly. Next to him, Dewey couldn't help but nod in agreement.

The next class for the Gryffindor first-years was Transfiguration. Colleen and Connor beamed when they entered the classroom. Most of the Gryffindors sat on one side of the room, and the Ravenclaws on the other, but the twins sat down next to each other. Teddy waved Kai over, and after hesitating a moment, Kai took a seat next to him, opposite Chloe. Gilbert immediately sat down on Kai's other side, followed by Rodney.

“How was your class with Slytherin?” Teddy asked Kai.

“About like you'd expect,” Kai replied. “We mostly sneered at each other. But Professor Rai is really good. Bloke doesn't look like it, but he actually has a sense of humor!”

Teddy nodded, then leaned towards him, and whispered, pointing at the McCormacks. “She seems really upset about being in a different house than her brother,” he said. “She practically asked if she could switch to Ravenclaw!”

Kai nodded, but Professor Peasegood entered the room at that moment, and Kai couldn't reply immediately. After the teacher had finished the class introduction, she began going over the basic types of transfigurations, which involved frequently turning to the board behind her to make notes on it with her wand, and during these periods when the teacher's back was turned, Kai whispered to Teddy, filling him in on the McCormacks' tragic story.

“Blimey!” Teddy exclaimed in a hushed whisper, when Kai was done. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite hushed enough; Professor Peasegood turned around and looked directly at him.

“I've rarely heard such enthusiasm over Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration,” she said mildly. “Or is there something else you'd like to share with us, Mr. Lupin?”

Teddy blushed. “No, Ma'am. Sorry, Ma'am.”

Peasegood nodded. “I certainly encourage inter-house dialog, but not while I am teaching, please. Five points each from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.”

Teddy and Kai both winced and slumped slightly in their seats, as the classmates of their respective houses glared at them.

Throughout the day, classes were disorganized and slightly chaotic. Teachers had been forced to move to larger rooms, many were not used to instructing larger class sizes, and of course, the forced blending of houses in every class was causing friction. Predictably, one house in particular caused the most friction.

“It's not as if we're causing the problems!” sneered Geoffrey Montague, as the Slytherin first-years sat down to dinner. “All I was doing was sitting at my desk in History of Magic, and those Hufflepuff losers kept beaning me in the back of the head with rubbers and spitballs.”

Violet thought that Geoffrey's artistic tastes might have had something to do with that. On all of his bookcovers, he'd drawn pictures of Hufflepuff badgers being spitted over a fire, beneath bright red letters dripping with blood saying, “Die Hufflepuff!” She didn't point this out, however.

Stephen White nodded eagerly. “Yeah!” he said. “And in Defense Against the Dark Arts, one of the Ravenclaws stuck my wand to my desk when I wasn't looking!”

“No, that was me,” Geoffrey smirked. The other Slytherin boys laughed, while Stephen's face fell.

“So, Violet. Who is that Gryffindor boy you were talking to in Herbology?” Nagaeena asked. “He is rather cute, I suppose, but he seems to already have a little Gryffindor friend of his own.”

Violet regarded Nagaeena coolly, and didn't answer immediately, but continued slurping noodles from her bowl of soup. She felt all the other Slytherins watching her.

“He's my cousin,” she said at last, after wiping her mouth.

She hadn't really talked to Teddy much at all during class, other than to say hello. But of course, that wasn't the point.

“You've got a cousin in Gryffindor? That will be lovely at Christmastime!” Nero Velenos snorted, and the others laughed.

“I just met him on the train here,” Violet said.

“Is that where you also met the boy from Ravenclaw, and the other boy from Hufflepuff?” Nagaeena asked. From the looks Decima and Bernice exchanged, Violet knew that her interactions with Kai and Dewey, minimal though they had been thus far, had come up in conversation. Conversation no doubt initiated by Nagaeena.

“Yes,” Violet replied.

“Oh, Violet,” Nagaeena sighed. “They were probably friendly on the train to Hogwarts because they thought they'd have a little fun with the lonely Slytherin girl. But don't worry...” She put an arm around Violet's shoulders and leaned against her, squeezing her in a sisterly hug. “You have plenty of Slytherin friends now!”

Violet continued eating her dinner, and said nothing.

If the teachers were hoping that mixing houses in every class would foster friendships, it seemed instead only to intensify their rivalries. Some teachers, like Professor Peasegood and Professor Longbottom, went out of their way to encourage students from different houses to work together, but such partnerships rarely lasted once the students stepped outside the classroom.

Teddy, Dewey, Kai, and Violet remained friendly, but though there was obvious pressure on Violet to stick to her own house, the other three also noticed that inter-house friendships seemed relatively rare.

Teddy found increasing amounts of his time being taken up helping Chloe. Beginning in the second week of classes, the Muggle-born girl seemed to develop a crisis of confidence. This coincided with the teachers piling more homework on everyone, apparently feeling that if they couldn't enforce cooperation, they could at least make everyone too busy to get into mischief. As the workload increased, Chloe began to fret, stress, and finally break down and cry.

“School in London was never this hard!” she sniffed. “Everything seems to come naturally to you, Teddy, but sometimes I still feel as if I received that owl by mistake!”

Teddy didn't think anything was coming to him naturally. He tried to point out to her that even kids who'd grown up in wizarding households had not generally practiced magic themselves, except of a very spontaneous and haphazard kind. However, he felt obligated to help Chloe, and soon he was helping her quite a lot with her homework.

“You ought to tell her that we have Muggle-borns in our houses too, and they're doing fine,” Dewey said to Teddy one afternoon, while they were all lounging about after class. Edgar, while remaining a bit thick socially, was doing quite well in class, and Simon also didn't seem to be having any trouble keeping up.

“Speak for yourself,” Kai said glumly. “My Muggle-born roommate is driving me spare! He asks the same questions over and over again, and nothing sinks in! I mean, don't get me wrong, he's nice enough, but...” Kai tapped his temple and shook his head. “Not the brightest candle. Pretty clear the Sorting Hat didn't sort him correctly!”

Teddy frowned. “So, what, if he's thick then he must belong in one of our houses instead of yours?”

“That's not what I meant!” Kai protested.

“Well, what did you mean?” Teddy demanded.

“Blimey, what's your problem?”

“Hey, let's not fight,” Dewey said. “Kai didn't mean to come off arrogant.”

“What do you mean, come off arrogant?” Kai sat up, scowling.

The three boys looked at each other. Kai was indignant, Teddy was annoyed, and Dewey was uncomfortable. Then they all looked away.

“Right, then,” Dewey said. “Let's just drop it, all right?”

“Sure,” Teddy said.

“Fine,” said Kai.

The three boys were somewhat less cordial to each other in class for a few days, but Kai and Dewey warmed up during flying lessons that week. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw first-years were being given their first lessons together. When Coach Mannock discovered that Dewey and Kai were both among the minority that had already ridden a broom before coming to Hogwarts, he told them to assist their classmates who were having the most difficulty.

Among the Hufflepuffs, it was Alduin and Sung-Hee who were having problems. Kai grimaced when he saw that Gilbert was the only Ravenclaw who hadn't even managed to get his broom to rise off the ground yet.

No surprise there, he thought.

Naturally, Dewey started to go help his fellow Hufflepuffs, but Kai caught his arm.

“No, wait!” he whispered, “You help my lot, and I'll help yours! Inter-house cooperation, remember? Coach Mannock'll be sure to give us more points that way!”

Dewey blinked. “Oh,” he said. “Well, that makes sense.”

He was a little put off by Kai's eagerness to score points, but he also felt a little guilty that he had immediately thought about the Hufflepuffs and not the Ravenclaws. So he went over to Gilbert, and tried to help the tall, somewhat clumsy boy command his broom properly, while Kai floated over to instruct Sung-Hee and Alduin.

Sure enough, Coach Mannock clapped his hands at the end of their first lesson, and said, “Well done, everyone! And for Mr. Chang and Mr. Diggory's willingness to assist their fellow students, twenty points each to Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff!”

“Told you!” Kai said gleefully to Dewey as they left the practice field. “Two more days of flying lessons means another forty points each, at least! Maybe more for you, if you can actually get Gilbert off the ground,” he added.

“He just needs a little more confidence,” Dewey said. And you need a little more patience, he thought.

Kai's patience was worn thin by the end of the second day. Dewey had succeeded in coaxing Gilbert to begin flying in slow circles a few feet off the ground, while Alduin, although not lacking in confidence, was completely lacking in control, and Sung-Hee didn't seem to be listening to him at all.

The spirit of inter-house cooperation on the broom practice field was not felt in the Hufflepuff common room.

“Your friend is a prat!” Alduin said. “He's not that great a flyer! And he's a lousy teacher!”

“Look, if you like, I'll help you after class,” Dewey said.

“Thanks, but a couple of the Quidditch players already offered. You may have been on a broom before, but you're not your brother, you know.” Alduin stalked off to their room. Dewey stared after him, and his eyes went involuntarily to Cedric's photograph hanging overhead.

“That wasn't very nice of him,” Mercy said quietly, sitting down in a chair next to Dewey. “He must be pretty frustrated.”

“I guess,” Dewey muttered.

“Chang is kind of a prat, you know. He practically had Sung-Hee in tears.”

Dewey sighed. “I know Kai can be a bit impatient. He said Sung-Hee doesn't listen to him.”

“Sung-Hee doesn't understand him. She barely speaks English.”

Dewey stared at her in shock.

Mercy shook her head. “She's been trying to hide it because she was afraid she'd be kicked out of Hogwarts if they found out. Me and some of the older girls have been tutoring her every night.” She rubbed her eyes. “That's another reason why she's been doing so poorly at flying lessons. We've been up late.”

Dewey felt awful. He'd hardly exchanged any words at all with Sung-Hee, because he had been assuming she didn't want to be in Hufflepuff. “I'll try to get Kai to be more patient with her,” he mumbled.

“That would be nice,” Mercy said.

The next day, however, when Dewey approached Kai during flying practice, he saw that Kai and Alduin were already arguing.

“I learned it right last night from someone who actually knows how to fly a broom!” Alduin snapped.

“I know how to fly a broom, mate!” Kai snapped back.

“About like your sister, I reckon. I hear she stank at Quidditch.”

Kai flushed. “She did not!”

“Both of you, shut it!” Dewey said, gritting his teeth and looking anxiously over at Coach Mannock, who was leading the other students through higher-altitude exercises. “You're going to get us docked if you get in a row!”

“I'll shut it if he leaves my sister out of this!” Kai snapped.

“Leave his sister out of this,” Dewey said to Alduin.

“You're taking his side?” exclaimed the other Hufflepuff.

“You're both being idiots!” Dewey was getting truly annoyed now.

“No, actually he's being an idiot,” Kai said.

Dewey let out an exasperated sigh. Sung-Hee, a few feet away, was watching wide-eyed as the boys quarreled. He tried to step between the other two.

“Just because his sister dated your brother!” Alduin snapped.

“What? Leave my brother out of this!” Now Dewey was becoming angry. Simultaneously, Kai snarled, “I said leave my sister out of this!”

Kai and Alduin were both glowering and making threatening advances at one another, with Dewey standing between them, and then Alduin said, “Know what else I heard? Your sister dated practically every other boy in school too!”

Dewey was unable to hold Kai back after that. All three of them went tumbling to the ground. Sung-Hee cried out in alarm, while Alduin and Kai flailed at each other, and Dewey tried to push them apart while not getting walloped himself. He failed on both counts.

“What is this? WHAT IS THIS?” bellowed Coach Mannock, descending out of the sky, blowing his whistle. “STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!” Kai and Alduin finally rolled apart. Dewey sat up, grimacing and rubbing his cheek, where a fist from one of the other boys (he didn't know which) had connected beneath his eye.

“Shameful! Absolutely shameful! Fifty points each from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, and detention for all three of you!” said the flight instructor.

Relations between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw deteriorated sharply after that, as word of the incident spread to the upperclass students. Unfortunately, details became distorted. Ravenclaws heard that a Hufflepuff had slandered Cho Chang. Hufflepuffs heard that a Ravenclaw had slandered Cedric Diggory. Dewey tried to correct the rumors in his own house, but he didn't have many sympathetic listeners, other than Edgar and Mercy. And he was more than a little annoyed at both Kai and Alduin, whom he held equally to blame. Kai and Alduin, in turn, were each indignant that Dewey didn't take their side completely.

“Well, it does sound like your Hufflepuff mate had the biggest share in it,” Teddy said to Dewey, as they exited Professor Rai's Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. The conversation had begun before class. They had not continued it during class, both because Professor Rai had extremely keen hearing, and because they enjoyed his class, but they picked up where they had left off as soon as the bell rang.

“Yes,” Dewey admitted. “He shouldn't have said that rot about Kai's sister – or my brother.” He scowled. “We've had words.”

Indeed, detention with Alduin and Kai had been awful, but returning to the Hufflepuff dorms afterwards with Alduin was not much less tense. Edgar kept trying to broker peace between Dewey and Alduin, with all the efficacy of a brick.

“Still,” Dewey went on, “you know Kai can be...”

“A bit of a snot?”

Dewey snorted. “Yeah.”

Teddy nodded. “Just remember,” he said seriously. “The pact was your idea. We all have to stay friends, all right? Especially since our houses seem determined to pit everyone against each other.”

Dewey nodded. “Right. See you later, then.” He hurried off to his Transfiguration class, and Teddy made his way upstairs to Professor Binns's classroom, knowing that Kai would be telling him pretty much the same thing in reverse.

He took a shortcut he'd discovered, a staircase you could only see if you approached it from the right angle, and emerged into a small corridor that intersected the main one through the first floor. He heard voices he recognized as older Gryffindors.

“Here it is! It's right in front of you.”

“Go on, take it!”

Teddy frowned, and rounded the corner. He saw three boys surrounding Violet, who was clutching her bookbag to her chest. The top flap was hanging open loosely, and there were rolls of parchment spilled across the floor, and one of the older Gryffindor boys was holding out a textbook at arm's length, directly in front of her.

Violet was motionless and expressionless, staring straight ahead, as the Gryffindor tauntingly wiggled the book in front of her nose. After she failed to react, he finally stopped wiggling it, and held it still.

“All right, that's enough. We were just playing,” he said in a friendly voice. “You can have it back.”

Violet remained still, and then slowly reached for the book. The first boy tossed it over her head to the boy behind her. All of them laughed.

“Oopsssssss,” he said, with an exaggerated hissing sound.

“Why don't you hiss for us, little snake?” the boy now holding the book said.

“Stop it!” yelled Teddy. The Gryffindors all spun around. Violet started, and turned her head towards him.

Teddy ran over to Violet, and turned to face the boy who had her book, a fourth-year named Roger Drocker.

“Give it back to her!” he said angrily. And he reached out and snatched it from Roger's hand. The older boy was too surprised to resist. He handed it to Violet, while still glowering at the older Gryffindors.

“You friends with this little snake, Lupin?” demanded one of the other boys.

“Yes, and she's not a snake, she's my cousin!” Teddy was furious. His fists were balled up and he felt as if he were ready to launch himself at any one of the boys, even though they were all much bigger than him. “If you have a problem with her, you have a problem with me!”

They laughed. “That's brave, kid,” said Drocker.

“Well you're not!” Teddy replied heatedly. “You three don't belong in Gryffindor! You obviously don't care about Gryffindor at all!”

All of them gave Teddy ugly scowls, then looked at each other. “We'd better get to class,” said the ringleader.

“See you around, snakey snakey!” the second one said to Violet.

“You too, Lupin,” said Drocker.

Teddy waited until they were all walking away, then turned to Violet. She had still barely moved, other than to take her book back, and she was not looking at him.

“Thank you,” she said quietly. She was breathing very slowly, and Teddy realized that she was probably completely focused on not crying.

He cleared his throat, and to give her some time to compose herself, he knelt to begin picking up her scrolls. “So, what class do you have next?” he asked, as if they were just making conversation in the hallway.

“Transfiguration,” she replied. And then a bell rang, and she said, “We're both late.”

“Yeah, well, I've got History of Magic next, and Binns won't notice. And you know Peasegood usually only docks you a few points.” He stood up and she held her bag open, and he tucked all her scrolls into them. “I'm sorry,” he said finally. “I'm going to go directly to Professor Longbottom. He won't stand for Gryffindors behaving like that –”

“You shouldn't get yourself in trouble with your house over me. Usually I'm better at avoiding them.”

“Usually? You mean that happens a lot?”

“It's not just Gryffindors.” Violet shrugged. Teddy looked at her, appalled.

“Me and Dewey and Kai, we'll start walking you to class!” he said.

She shook her head. “If I wanted that, I'd walk with the other Slytherin girls.”

“Umm, why don't you, then?”

She looked up at him. “You're very nice, Teddy. I'll see you later.”

Teddy was extremely disturbed as he watched her go, and then with a sigh, he hurried on to his own class. Some of the Ravenclaws snickered as he slipped in, probably hoping that Binns would notice and penalize Gryffindor, but the ghostly professor was already talking about the Goblin Rebellion of 1612, and didn't notice.