The Curious Tale of Harriet Potter

1 - Hospital Wing

Harriet's friends had just left the hospital wing, allowing the Girl Who Lived to get some rest. She had just closed her eyes when she heard the door open again, and someone walking to her bed.

Keeping her eyes closed, Harriet listened the soft thuds of the mysterious person's footsteps. When it became clear they weren't going to say anything, Harriet opened her eyes and sat up.

"Diggory?" Harriet was confused why the Hufflepuff seeker who had beaten her was standing next to her hospital bed, a bouquet of flowers in hand.

"Uh, hi. I, uh, felt really bad about you getting hurt, so I brought you some flowers. People usually give other people flowers when they're in hospital, or hurt so, yeah."

"Yeah, they do. But we don't even know each other."

Nervously, he handed her the flowers and she smiled down at them. "Lilies. My favourite."

She smiled up at him and the brunet boy smiled sheepishly back at her.

"Do you know how to do a stasis charm?"

"Uh, yeah."

Expectantly, she held the flowers out to him and he cast the spell.

"Thanks." She put the flowers down on her bedside table and reached out to put her glasses on. Once she could see properly, she noticed that Fred and George really weren't wrong - Cedric Diggory was a very pretty boy.

"We've never really been introduced, I'm Cedric Diggory." He held out his hand to her, which she regarded for a brief moment, but took it and shook it.

"Harriet Potter." She smiled at him and they broke the handshake.

"Look, Harriet, I just wanted to apologise for the match. It's not fair that we won because you were attacked by dementors," she waved him off and shrugged.

"It's alright Cedric. I'm fine, and you won. You should be celebrating with your house."

"I just feel like we didn't win fairly. I tried to ask Madam Hooch for a rematch but-"

"You won fair and square. It's alright, I don't really care about the match all that much. Oliver does though, maybe I should send someone to check on him and make sure he's okay."

"It, uh, really sucks that you fell off your broom. Does it hurt?"

Harriet shook her head. "Madam Pomfrey gave me some pain relief potion, and Professor Dumbledore did something to make sure the fall didn't kill me. The worst thing about it is my broom." She gestured to the pile of twigs at the bottom of her bed.

"Woah, what happened?"

"Apparently when I fell it flew into the whomping willow somehow and got completely wrecked. So now I'm gonna have to buy a new one for our match against Ravenclaw."

"That sucks."

"Yeah. I'll look through some quidditch catalogues and see what they've got. My parents might have left me a bit of money, but I can't go wasting it all on a firebolt unfortunately."

"It would be pretty cool though."

"It would. I saw it in Quality Quidditch Supplies in the summer and it looked so awesome. What kind of broom have you got?"

"Uh, a Cleansweep 7."

"That's good, right?"

"Yeah. Cleansweeps are meant to be more reliable than Nimbuses, and while they don't move as fast they are easier to change direction."

Harriet hummed and looked at the Hufflepuff. "I'll look into it. Are they expensive?"

"Uh, a bit. It's not something I could outright ask my dad for, you know? It was a gift when I was made a prefect."

There was silence for a few moments until Cedric said his goodbyes. "Well, uh, I should I should probably go to that celebration party."

"Yeah, you probably should. Thanks for the flowers." The two smiled at each other, and Cedric turned to leave. He was almost at the door when he heard his name being called.

"Oi, Diggory!"

He swiftly turned around to see Harriet smirking. "You might have won this match, but next year Gryffindor is going to destroy you."

He laughed. "Wouldn't be so sure of that Potter."

He turned again and Harriet smiled at his retreating back. Maybe Hufflepuffs weren't so bad.

A/N THIS IS NOT HUFFLEPUFF SLANDER
i love hufflepuffs and used to identify as one myself
harry has just had some bad experiences with the hufflepuffs in her year
wait Fuck i thought this was published shit