Hufflepuff Table

Hufflepuff Table

---

The Hufflepuff table is situated between Gryffindor on the right and Ravenclaw on the left, though there is a wide space between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw due to the aisle to the Staff Table.

Alice entered the Great Hall and brushed her fingers through her wet hair. Why did it have to be storming exactly? It had been a bit ridiculous, with leaves blowing around and she could have sworn she’d seen a couple of books fly by too. Books were especially dangerous, just imagine getting hit in the head with a hundred year old tome!

She made her way to her house’s table, knowing a lot of kids were probably going to mix and mingle with the other tables. She, however, was a proud Badger and would never wander off like that. She was the definition of loyal, afterall, and she always followed the rules. Boring? Maybe. Her friends thought so sometimes.

Scanning the line of firsties, Alice shook her head as she took a seat somewhere near the front of the table, close to the staff. (What? She wanted to be sure she was seen.) “Everyone is new,” she whispered to the person next to her. “And there’s not many kids here either…” she frowned a bit. The Great Hall wasn’t buzzing as much as it usually did at the Opening Feast. It was strange.

“Who do you suppose is our new Head?” she asked, her eyes skimming over those at the staff table. She shrugged and turned her attention back to the others. “Does anyone here have any goals for this term?” And there it was – her need to stay on topic and get to know everyone. Annoying? Probably. But Alice really didn’t care.

There was less, and then there was less.

And no, it was not just a useless repetition in her head; it was noticeable, gaps were there should be more students, and it wasn't just because a large majority were up and mixing between tables in the usual first-night chaos.

No, this was different. Structural. The reason was very clear. Families had simply... not sent their children back to Hogwarts for the new school year. Ellen could not fault them. The contract between a family and a school was built on a foundation of trust, a trust that had so recently, and so deliberately, been shattered. For the Headmaster himself to have been the source of the instability... it was a profound perversion of order. To withdraw from such a system wasn't an act of panic; it was a logical response to a fundamental breach. It was, in its own way, an attempt to restore balance on a smaller, familial scale.

Yet, of course, here she was. Here William was, over at the Gryffindor table, already deep in conversation about the upcoming Quidditch season as if nothing had changed. Well, something to that effect.

The decision for them to return had not been a debate so much as a statement of fact, delivered by their mother over the summer holiday. To transfer William in his final year would be an unnecessary disruption. To pull Ellen out would be an overreaction. It was a matter of maintaining their course.

Father had agreed, in his quiet way. Hogwarts, he'd remarked, was like an old oak. A few branches might be rotten and need cutting away, but the roots were still deep and the trunk was still sound. One did not abandon the whole forest for one blighted tree.

He had a lot of tree metaphors.

So they had returned. Not out of defiance, nor out of blind loyalty. They were here because it was the most orderly, logical thing to do. It was their duty to continue, to see their education through. And for a Graymere, that was reason enough.

It had not been her, whom Alice whispered to, but Ellen looked up, nevertheless, from where her wand was systematically drying her hair, via the Hot Air Charm. "Goals?" She pondered. "Maintain my grades, and do well on the end-of-year examinations, I suppose. And yourself?"

Benji didn't really care about the logistics and how and why there weren't as many people this term as there had been previously. To his mind, all the people that annoyed him were gone, and as long as his friends were still here - they were, thankfully - he didn't give thought to much else.

It of course meant he was that much more visible, and if he wasn't going to spend his entire term in detention, he needed to try and fly under the radar as much as possible.

“Everyone is new. And there’s not many kids here either…”

"That's not a bad thing," Benji whispered back, a smirk rising in the corners of his mouth as his eyes met Alice's. The two had been good friends for awhile now, and she was one of the few he was happy to see had returned. Despite their very different personalities, the two got on well and tolerated each other's...idiosyncrasies. "We didn't like half the people that were here last term anyway."

Genuinely, it was no skin off Benji's back, and all the weirdos ran off with that crazy ass Headmaster they'd been subjected to. Seriously, it was like a damn cult. Good riddance.

Benji's gaze moved to the staff table, looking over the group of professors that were all talking amongst one another. "Well it's not Julia. She would have told me." And given him the lecture of his life about not embarrassing her while she was trying to run the damn school. His mother wasn't exactly enthused about being back, from everything he'd gathered, but James had been adamant that his family have a strong presence as the school rebuilt.

"Maintain my grades, and do well on the end-of-year examinations, I suppose. And yourself?"

Ah, Ellen was back. "C'mon Ellen. You mean to tell me you have zero plans to join me in blowing the squid straight out of the lake this term?" His cheeky grin spread to his eyes. "All we gotta do is lure it with some old chicken and then Bombarda the lake. If we have at least six of us, I'm sure it'd be a piece of cake."

Barlowe would have a fit, but he'd have to catch Benji to punish him. And that would truly be a sight to behold.

Almost running, Maevie made it to the Hufflepuff table, grin still wide, hair stiff puffy from the drying charm and eyes gleaming bright.

"Hello!", she panted as she scooted onto the bench, right next to Benji and beaming into the round of rather grave looking faces. "I'm Maevie," she very unnecessarily introduced herself again before following everyone's gaze towards what she assumed where the professors.

"Who is who?", she asked eagerly, the absolute onslaught of impressions still not enough to satiate her curiosity, wanting to know everything she could. Preferably all at once. Having missed the first part of the others' conversation, she had no idea that they were as clueless as her.

Coming from a muggle family, Maevie had no idea of what had happened to Hogwarts or the wizarding world at large. The fact that the lines of students seated at their tables seemed a bit spotty didn't occur to her. With everything being so new and exciting, something as seemingly trivial as that couldn't manage to bother her.

She hadn't even noticed that the others had gone over to another topic, eyes still scanning the professors before drifting off to the ceiling again. But the mention of a squid in the lake made her whip her head around to look at Benji.

"There is a squid in the lake?!", she asked in astonishment. "I just crossed the lake in a tiny boat! I didn't see a squid though."

“Hello, everyone, and welcome to the 1920 school year at Hogwarts. I’m sure you notice all of the new faces up here,” Ruby said, motioning at the staff table. “I am your new Headmistress, Ruby Haswell. Gideon Blackwood is the new Deputy Head Master. He is also the new Head of Hufflepuff. For the other houses, we have Charms Professor Roufas Bourne who is also the Head of Gryffindor. Potions Professor Emil Roan is also the new Slytherin Head of House. And your Transfiguration Professor and Ravenclaw Head of House is Etain Battersea. Dark Arts is now being taught by Librarian Julia Laurence. And the Care of Magical Creatures Professor and the Groundskeeper is Maddox Barlowe.”

She motioned towards each person when she mentioned them, encouraging them to wave at the students. Turning back to the students, Ruby cleared her throat. “Due to the events of last term, I am sad to inform you all that Quidditch and Duelling have been cancelled this year.” Groans of disappointment erupted from the tables before her and Ruby nodded in agreement. “Yes, I know, it is quite disappointing indeed. However, I have been told that we are introducing a Spellcaster’s Society, led by Professor Barlowe, and The Wandering Wands – a survival club – led by Professor Bourne. There is also an opportunity to help in the library as Library Assistants, led by Professor Laurence. Please see them for more information. Also, do not be discouraged by the smaller number of house mates… I am sure as the term goes on, more and more will return to us.”

Ruby grinned, almost completely done with the announcements. However, there was just one more thing she needed to say: “Before we can fill our tummies with delicious food, I do have a word of caution. We have noticed that some things around Hogwarts are not quite… as they should be. Some of the things we have seen include the Grand Staircase – we have seen them stuck in the same position for days on end, and one day they were gone altogether. For a couple of days, some of the doors in the castle transported those who went through them to random rooms. There was also some time when the Gryffindor Common Room was unlocked. But all of these things have – we believe – been fixed. So my caution is to please be aware of where you are and what you are doing, be careful, and always have your wand ready. And please report any strangeness to an adult as soon as possible. Oh, and… the Forbidden Forest has that name for a reason. It is forbidden, and you will receive detention if you are caught wandering around there.”

The Headmistress cleared her throat. “And now, for your Prefects and Head Boy and Head Girl! For Gryffindor, we have Matilda Nordstrom and Rosalie Laurence. Hufflepuff is Benji Laurence and Alice Ravenstone. Ravenclaw is Cassian McCormick and Kaitlyn Dwyer. And Slytherin is Ruth Elliot and Ren Al-Sayeed. Our Head Boy and Head Girl this year is Dylan McMurtry and Angela Howard! Congratulations, everyone.”

The last thing Ruby had to do was introduce the food. Her stomach growled. She was quite famished herself. “And now, let us dine on some amazing food!” she said and lifted her hands out to her sides, her palms up, as if welcoming the food into the room.

But nothing happened.

Ruby glanced over at Gideon, and then jumped when a house elf appeared at her side. She bent down to allow Fluppy, the Head Elf from the kitchen, whisper in her ear. “Oh dear…” she commented after a moment, as she stood up and looked out at the students before her. They were all excited for an amazing meal, and yet – they (as well as the adults) were to be sorely disappointed.

“Unfortunately, I have just received word that there is an issue with the kitchens. Because of that, we will be dining on sandwiches and fruit for dinner. I promise that once the issue is resolved, we will ensure everyone gets the meal they were hoping for.”

At that moment, the doors to the Great Hall opened and in came an unnumbered quantity of platters and bowls, charmed to float, along with the rest of the house elves from all over the castle who immediately began depositing the platters on the tables. Pitchers of various types of juice, an assortment of sandwiches, bowls of apples and bananas took place on each table. A moment later, in came another round of platters, these with heaping mounds of cauldron cakes among other sweets.

Benji smirked and Alice shrugged slightly. Perhaps it wasn’t a bad thing, there’d been a few she couldn’t stand last term. And yet she couldn’t help but to feel a bit sad. Thankfully, her core group was still here and that’s really all that mattered. But the fact that the previous headmaster had done so much damage, causing a total roll-over in the staff and lower attendance numbers with the students – well, she couldn’t help but to be concerned.

He was right, it wasn’t Julia who was their new Head of House. He would have told her as soon as he found out if it were. Honestly, Julia would have been a stellar choice for the role. Alice liked her a lot. The rest of everyone up there…

Ellen responded to Alice’s question and the girl smiled. Thankfully someone had their priorities in order. But of course, Benji was being cheeky. Like always. The boy always looked for the next thing he could get in trouble doing. Alice was sometimes considered a wet blanket among their group of friends, but she couldn’t help it. She had an image to uphold.

An adorable little firstie joined them and Alice beamed. “Hi! I’m Alice, this is Benji, and this is Ellen,” she said, pointing at everyone as she said their names.

“Who is who?”

Alice shrugged. “I dunno, they’re all new. Well, except for Benji’s mum… she’s the pretty one with brown hair,” she said, motioning at Julia.

“Yes, there’s a squid in the lake, and I recommend you don’t go with him anywhere,” Alice added, narrowing her eyes at Benji. Sure, he was one of her closest friends, however she still needed to warn the young girl.

“He frequents detention,” she added, to drive her point home, and then she heard the new headmistress speak.

“Here we go…” she said softly to herself as she turned her attention to the adults.

Gideon Blackwood was her new head of house. She knew that last name from the shop that her father bought his suits at. She watched as the various other professors waved.

“Due to the events of last term, I am sad to inform you all that Quidditch and Duelling have been cancelled this year.”

Not a loss in her mind, if she were honest. As someone who wanted to be a healer, things would definitely be safer this term. The voice she recognized, being dramatic, was none other than Ruth Elliot. She couldn’t help but to laugh at the loudness.

Headmistress Haswell continued, speaking about some strange magical happenings that occurred over the summer. Oh gosh. She really hoped nothing insane happened to her as she made her way to class.

Alice perked up when she heard that her cousin Tilly was a Prefect for Gryffindor, along with Rosie. And then her mouth dropped open when Benji was announced, shocked that anyone would give him that amount of responsibility. And then her stomach did a flip when she heard her own name. Her mother and father were going to be so proud. But even more, this term, she had to stay focused on what was important and not get distracted. She wondered if Benji would be able to calm down a bit too with this new responsibility, but she decided he probably wouldn’t.

And then Rae was mentioned as a Slytherin prefect. All of them were prefects. That was wild. Alice knew they would all try to get her to break the rules, though, and that made her nervous. She hated breaking the rules, especially when it could cause her to go to detention.

“And now, let us dine on some amazing food!”

But nothing happened. Alice frowned and looked over at Benji. “What… magic, maybe?” she asked, looking back at Ruby as she explained what was happening. Sandwiches. Fruit. Juice. Cauldron cakes. Ew.

Alice reluctantly took a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. “Maevie, the food is usually a lot better but the last Headmaster did some… things that broke a lot of the magic around here,” she said, taking a bite.

Ah Alice.

She could always be counted on for riveting conversation. He liked his friend, despite the fact that she often tried to put a damper on his wilder antics. That look of exasperation that crossed her features whenever he got her totally bent out of shape was one of his more favorite of hers.

Maevie - the little one he'd tried to sacrifice over the summer - plopped herself down next to him, cute little raccoon that she was. "She knows me," he said easily, nudging the younger girl with his elbow and passed her a clean plate. "Welcome to the rodent house. We'll show you around the common room later and cue you into where we keep the good snacks."

Not where Kyle could find them, that was for sure. Benji still had beef with him from last term for going through all the cinnamon muffins in one...fucking...night.

“Yes, there’s a squid in the lake, and I recommend you don’t go with him anywhere.”

Benji tilted his head at Alice, furrowing his brow and holding his hands out to either side of him. What did he do?!

“He frequents detention.”

He dropped his eyes to Maevie, a devilish gleam in his eye. "For good reason. Fun reasons. Don't listen to her, she's a killjoy." He grinned at Alice, giving her a little wink, letting her know it was all in good fun. If she'd just come with him on one of his little adventures, he knew he could get his friend to loosen up and live a little.

The new Headmistress stood, and with her speech, the whole room quieted - except for Rae. His girlfriend decided to be the loudest voice in the room and very loudly declare her offense at the lack of quidditch and dueling this term. He snorted at her boos, ready to back her up when he was suddenly hit with something cold right in his throat. He coughed, looking up to see his mum stashing away her wand, looking thoroughly smug.

What did he do?! He wasn't the one yelling and -

Ooooh, sandwiches! Not one to turn down a delicious sandwich, Benji reached immediately for three, feeling the warmth returning to his throat. "RAE, COME OVER HERE! THEY'VE GOT TURKEY AND TUNA MAYO AND CUCUMB - "

Silenced again.

Blowing the giant squid out of the lake was a joke in poor taste, but Ellen was not so sensitive as to be offended, nor so much of a toady to believe Benji would actually attempt such an endeavor.

Nor so cruel, she reminded herself.

But no, even with six individuals, it would decidedly not be a piece of cake. Before she could dryly attempt to point this out, a puffy-haired first year sat down next to Benji and began introducing herself. Maevie. An onslaught of words followed, though that might simply have been her ears processing the little girl's speech as overly rapid. Muggleborn children rather bemused her and this one seemed to fit the pattern - all enthusiasm and questions with an astonishment usually reserved for things that were not, in fact, everyday realities.

The squid in the lake, for instance.

The thought frayed when.. the new Headmistress begun speaking. Immediately, Ellen did not like what she was hearing.

It was not a simple changing of the guard; it was a wholesale replacement. A purge. It felt less like a careful pruning, as her father had suggested, and more like the felling of an entire grove. Then came the cancellation of Quidditch and Duelling. There were groans, and she could not fault them. It was a clumsy and punitive measure, punishing the student body for the failings of the former administration. It was unfair.

But it was the Headmistress's caution that found her wrongly. The castle itself was failing. The stairs, the doors... these were not mere inconveniences; they were symptoms of a deeper sickness. Her father had spoken of sound roots, but this sounded as though the very foundations were riddled with rot. An institution that could not maintain its own foundational integrity was not a stable one.

And then, the final indignity. Sandwiches. At the Opening Feast.

Because..

the.

kitchens.

had.

an.

issue.

The tables were bare. Nothing came.

It was more than just a failed meal; it was a public admission of chaos. A symbol that the most basic functions and rituals of the school were broken. It was improper. It was disorderly. And it was, she thought, far worse than her parents had imagined.

She could not even find the words to congratulate Benji or Alice, utterly affronted by the meager sight of the plated assortment of sandwiches, bowls of apples, and bananas. The fruit was fine; it was the sandwiches that were the real culprits here.

Two pieces of bread with something pressed between them, meant to be eaten with one's hands. It was food for a rushed journey, not a celebratory feast. It was undignified.

She stared at a pale triangle of bread containing what looked like sliced turkey. She had seen them in Muggle periodicals, of course, but had never been confronted with one. She realized, with a sudden, internal wave of horror, that she had never actually eaten a sandwich in her entire life. She wasn't even certain of the proper way to approach one.

"RAE, COME OVER HERE! THEY'VE GOT TURKEY AND TUNA MAYO AND CUCUMB—"

Benji, the new prefect, had started screaming.

And just as quickly ceased.. ?

Ellen blinked.

"Benji, what on earth?"