THE HUFFLEPUFFS

Momo was exhausted from the weekend. She didn’t have any Quidditch matches to play but she did have practice almost 24/7 from early morning into late afternoon. After practice she then had mountains of homework to complete which she tried but failed to finish-- as usual. She was disappointed though because her busy schedule prevented her from taking her first ever Hogsmeade trip. She was pouting all night when her roommate Jisoo came back with a plastic bag full of acid-pops and jelly slugs and marveled on and on about how amazing Honeydukes was. Momo could only imagine.

Despite how spun-out and tired her body was, Momo didn’t go to bed until the sun began to rise, she had felt like she had to catch up on Jisoo’s life, after constantly missing out on drama due to her constant activities. Unfortunately, when she her roommate aggressively woke her up the next morning she had only gotten two hours of sleep. And no one knew better then Momo what would happen if she was sleepy during the school day. Punishment was almost inevitable.

It was the third year girl’s first class after breakfast, (Potions again), and just like her first year it was shared with the Slytherins. Oddly enough, she didn’t mind, if not preferred to have this specific class with Slytherin house opposed to the Ravenclaws as she did in her second year. The Ravenclaws, however as generally nice as they were, had a talent for making others feel stupid. The Slytherins were critical sure, but they were usually in the same boat as Momo in terms of understanding the material. Ravenclaws were always ahead in their studies and loved to make everyone know it too.

Professor Kim was a very understanding and accommodating woman and almost everyone that took her class admired her easy going teaching style. It was obvious that she cared for her students, but that was what made disciplining them so awkward because everyone knew she would rather not spend her late afternoons monitoring detention. Unfortunately it just came with her job. Her expression was almost painful when she put her hand on Momo’s shoulder and woke up her up in the middle of the lecture, giving her detention for tonight. Momo nodded tiredly, not about to argue with her Professor because she actually had gotten two warnings beforehand and she understood it was completely fair. Momo just couldn’t help but pass out on her textbook, but no matter, detention was a great place to start and finish homework assignments without being bothered by her friends. A few students snickered but Momo didn’t mind. Unfortunately she was getting the reputation as a girl that could never, absolutely never stay awake in class, no matter what the subject was. But it was true and M actually found it kind of amusing herself.

    “This classroom eight to twelve.” Professor Kim told her before continuing on with the lecture. Momo sighed and pinched herself to help her stay awake for the rest of the hour.

Beside her Jisoo secretly passed her a jelly slug under the desk in hopes that a sugar high would keep Momo’s eyes open. Momo accepted happily.

      “This week we will be learning about poisons.” Professor Kim pulled out a glass vial filled with a dark and musty colored liquid. “This is the Drought of the Living Death. It is very dangerous if not brewed properly so paying attention is key here.”

The room became unordinarily quiet and tense as their Professor continued through her description of the potion. It was a subject that provided anxiety to many of the students and Momo didn’t exactly understand the purpose of teaching fourteen year olds how to subtly kill someone. The Hufflepuffs were especially silent-- being in the same room as Slytherins as they learned how to brew poisons in detail wasn’t the most comforting thing in the world to experience.

A worktable across from Momo and Jisoo’s sat three Slytherin girls. One of them was giggling and trying her best to whisper although her voice was actually at a completely normal volume. Her high pitched and almost whiny sounding voice easily interfered with Professor Kim’s lecture. The girl was either oblivious to the fact that everyone could hear their conversation or she didn’t care at all.

“I swear,” she laughed, the two girls around her leaning on their elbows on the table to huddle closer together. “Mark ate the whole thing, even the tail!”

Now M wasn’t the only one today who had gotten a few warnings by their Professor. However their class was used to this Slytherin girl forgetting to use her inside voice and getting hopelessly distracted. Sometimes it was annoying, while other times her carelessness was amusing during a particularly boring lesson. Today her personality was something that lightened the mood from the dark subject matter of their class. A few students had quietly even taken bets on how long it would be until she had earned yet another detention.

“Minatozaki. You have to be joking right?” Professor Kim asked tiredly as she halted her explanation of proper measurements and ingredients. “It’s like you’re begging me for detention.”

Sana blushed, shutting quickly in response. Momo had always found it interesting how often the girl would get in trouble for talking and from what Momo noticed, Sana never stopped regardless. This year, the girl was also in her Divination class and Momo swore she heard Sana talk more than their professor. She also found it funny how Sana managed to look shocked every time someone called her out on her loudness like it was a total surprise and an insane accusation.

“Sorry Professor,” Sana said sheepishly, straightening up on her stool. She brushed her hair out of her face with a delicate hand.

“No need to apologise,” Professor Kim sighed, flipping through her lesson plan. “Just meet Miss Hirai and I here for detention. Eight until Midnight.”

The majority of the class “ooed” and laughed, the two other Slytherin girls next to Sana shook their heads disapprovingly as they did every time one of their own got in trouble. For a moment Momo locked eyes with Sana as she turned her head in Momo’s direction. Momo was never one to pick up on social cues so Sana was the first one to look away after about an uncomfortable seven seconds of eye contact. Momo couldn’t help but wonder what tonight would be like, she hadn’t had any meaningful contact with the girl since their first year when Sana had stood up for her and given her that Remembrall which now to think of it, she couldn’t recall where she had placed it. Momo had a feeling that maybe it would be awkward because as she had noticed, Sana was pretty popular now and Momo sort of just stayed in her own group. She knew of the Slytherins to be the kind of students that cared about status and things of that nature so maybe Sana wouldn’t be as nice as she used to be. Momo was a little nervous, after all she hadn’t ever done anything to properly thank Sana for that day so maybe Sana potentially had harbored bad feelings towards her. Momo shook her anxieties off. It was detention, it wasn’t like they were going to talk to each other anyway. And who knows, maybe Sana was still nice. Momo would just have to give her a fair chance if it came to it.