By all means, Draco!" Nott interrupted. "Tell your father how a Hufflepuff girl younger than you sent you limping to the Hospital Wing! Tell him how she had you flat on your back and wandless in less than a minute! I'm sure he'd love to hear all about it!"
Malfoy fumed but conceded the point, not willing to humiliate himself by letting his father know how badly he'd been beaten. Since then, he spent a significant amount of his time glaring at her from across the room while plotting his next petty attempt to trouble her.
In contrast to the hedging of the first-years, the older snakes seemed to have joined her fan-club. It obviously baffled those not in the know when an older Slytherin would shake her hand or clap her affably on the back, but they seemed to have chalked it up to Heri being on good terms with the three scariest boys on the Slytherin Quidditch team. Marcus, Lucian, and Graham had laughed themselves sick when they heard about how she had whaled on the other first-year.
"His face was always begging for a beating, in my opinion," Lucian chortled.
Marcus patted her head fondly, still guffawing.
"Didn't know you had it in you, twerp. They had to levitate that Goyle kid out; he was clocked out proper for two hours!"
Heri took advantage of her new popularity in the sketchiest House by finagling the password to their common room out of them. Heri found that she could get the bit of peaceful solitude she'd been craving since she arrived at school by telling her housemates that she was going to go visit Marcus in the Slytherin common room. Not even Megan, Wayne, or Hannah would trail after her then. She would then enjoy a leisurely stroll by herself until she got to see her favourite person at Hogwarts; the situation was made of win.
It turned out that punching a bludger with your bare hands was a feat that impressed even Gryffindors. After word had spread that Heri had saved Justin Finch-Fletchley from bodily harm during their Flying lesson, the Weasley twins came poking around to get a closer look at Heri. That was not to say the Beaters from the other House teams didn't come around to get a grasp on the challenge she might give them in the future as well, but the Weasley twins were the only ones that literally poked her.
"Look at these wee twigs, Georgie," said twin number one. He jabbed at a bicep. "Hard to believe this is the arm that knocked a bludger into space if the rumours are to be believed."
They were at the Quidditch pitch. The Hufflepuff House team had coerced Heri into sitting in for a practice to show her what fun could be had if she joined the team next year. They had entered the Pitch as the Gryffindors were finishing up, and the twins had introduced themselves to Heri and her entourage after they had changed back into their regular uniforms.
"Ah, but good things come in small packages, Freddie, my lad," said twin number two, nodding sagely. "Why, she could likely pick up Hagrid and cradle him like a baby if she used both arms!"
Heri couldn't help but laugh, smothering the sound behind her hands. She rolled her eyes as they winked cheekily at her.
"First of all, I'm left-handed," said Heri waving the hand of the arm Fred hadn't been prodding. "Second, I certainly did not send it into space, it flew off just the same as if I had hit it with a bat. Really, the exaggerations are incredible!"
George Weasley plopped down next to her indolently.
"Here now, the truth sounds incredible enough!"
"Here, here!" Fred chimed in, mimicking George's pose in her other side. "A little Miss like you batting up a bludger properly would be amazing enough—"
"—managing the same with a punch is one for the history books!" George finished.
They continued on in this vein, discussing the oddity of the occurrence. Every once in a while a member of the Hufflepuff team would shoot them a cautious look as if they were expecting the Weasley boys to somehow abduct Heri and turn her into a Gryffindor to join their team instead.
As they chatted, Heri would point out the Snitch whenever she saw it, sometimes locating it before the team Seeker did. She, of course, could have pinpointed it even more often if she had been paying active attention to it, what with her raptor vision, but she didn't want that Diggory boy to feel bad.
"The strength of an ogre and the eyes of a harpy!" Fred proclaimed, tugging on a curl of her hair teasingly. "If only you were a Gryffindor! We've been searching for a decent Seeker, you know."
"Now, now, we don't want to go tipping off the competition, do we?" George reprimanded with a finger waggle. "Now that Potter's in their pocket, we'll need all the advantage we can get!"
Heri snorted.
"Really, you two. I won't be on the team until next year if ever. There's no guarantee I'll get a spot, nor I am sure I even want to join anyway."
"Not join the Qudditch team!" cried everyone who had heard Heri's statement.
George leaned in.
"Why wouldn't you want to join? It's loads of fun!"
Heri shot them an unimpressed look.
"It's dangerous, isn't it? I don't know if I want to risk life and limb for a game."
"Rubbish!" interjected Ernie. He had been following the conversation avidly. "Quidditch is the best! Sure, there's the risk of getting a bit dinged up but that's nothing a few minutes in the Hospital Wing can't cure!"
They proceeded to pelt Heri with various reasons why she absolutely had to join the team.
"Alright, alright!" she eventually exclaimed. "If there's a spot open, I'll try out next year. Happy?"
There was an absurd amount of cheering in response.
Heri sat in a puddle of blood, flecks of gore splattered across her front. A primitive club almost the length of her and as thick at the handle as her waist was held loosely on her lap. It was dripping with blood and staining her skirt. Her heart was racing a mile a minute as she took in the sight of the towering monster she had just clobbered.
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