Loyalty

She heard screaming. Or was it just the wind? No, it was definitely someone screaming. The screaming seemed to come from Hogwarts as the wind was blowing from that direction. She was sure that by now someone must have found out. There was no sign of surprise, fear or regret in her face. Nothing at all. It was just a stiff mask. The same mask that her face has had every time she had been thinking about her plan. That mask looked like the face of a porcelain doll. Only that her eyes were moving from time to time without focusing anything.

***

Hannah Abbott was sitting at the lake. The wind became colder and stronger every minute and the dark clouds were covering almost the whole sky. It would soon begin to rain but she did not care. The wind was playing with her wavy blonde hair and her brown eyes slowly filled with tears.

She had taken her mother's robes and taken off that Slytherin badge. It had not been difficult. She had put it on her robes instead of the Hufflepuff badge.

If anyone had seen her, they would think it had been a Slytherin. Who would even think about a Hufflepuff doing something like that?

Her mother had been disappointed when Hannah had sent her an owl in her first year, telling her that she had been sorted into Hufflepuff. She blamed her husband's blood for influencing her daughter, making Hannah what she was.

But Hannah had now shown her mother that there was more than just that.

***

The image of Cedric Diggory had never left her. He was there. In her dreams, even during daytime. He was close to her, telling her that his death had to be revenged. She was a Hufflepuff after all! And Hufflepuffs are loyal. Cedric had asked her for her loyalty at least a thousand times. And now, she had finally proven that she was a real Hufflepuff.

A tear rolled down her face. It was a tear of anger. Why did he have to go? He has been an innocent. He had never done anything wrong. And he should have won that Tournament and shown the rest of Hogwarts that Hufflepuff was worth being noticed.

She wiped away the tear and gave another look at the castle. All of its rooms were brightly enlightened. And the many shadows coming from inside of the castle indicated a lot of people walking up and down inside. She sighed.

She was probably the only person being outside right now. It was a cold and unfriendly day and there was no point in being here. But Hannah liked days like that. The lake looked so peaceful. It started to rain now... as if heaven was crying as well.

The Slytherin badge on her robes had already been removed and thrown into the lake. Nobody would ever see it.

She sighed one more time before she got up and went back.

***

Hannah entered the castle and saw several teachers walking into the direction of the Gryffindor Common Room. Yes, the Common Room. It had been really easy to find out the password. Neville had always had problems remembering them and she had acted interested in helping him to improve his memory. That way, she had been able to get a glance at the current password without him even noticing it.

Some Gryffindors were running through the hall, not knowing where to go. They had all been told to leave the Common Room. Some were crying. It reminded her of her own house. All those students that had been crying at the end of last term.

Although there were people in every single corner of the castle, Hannah thought that it was extremely quiet. Cedric had finally stopped talking to her. He had finally found his peace. He had left forever as soon as he had closed his eyes forever as well. He was free.

Hannah had to suppress a smile. That was not appropriate - now that everybody was panicking. She heard some students mentioning You-Know-Who. They compared her action with him. She did not feel flattered, though. You-Know-Who did cruel things without a reason. Her reason, in contrast, had only been to prove her loyalty, to help a friend find his peace, to act like a Hufflepuff has to act.

After Cedric's death, her whole house had been really sad. Everyone had been mourning him. Some people had even openly blamed Harry Potter for his death. A lot of them did not want to believe that You-Know-Who might have really returned. She had even heard the rumour that Harry had murdered Cedric just because he had wanted to win the Tournament.

Hannah did not know the truth. But she knew that someone had to avouch for his death. Someone had to pay for it.

Cedric had been one of the most popular students in her house. He had been loved by so many of the Hufflepuffs and Hannah was no exception. She had loved him like an older brother. And now he was gone. It still hurt to see his image, even if it was only in her own mind. It had hurt to hear his voice telling her to help him. She could still see his body laying on the ground when Harry had returned with him.

Hannah turned round to go to her Common Room. She was now crying. The tears kept falling down onto her wet robes. Nobody looked at her, nobody noticed her. But she noticed that she was trembling. The unfriendly weather outside had made her feel cold. Everything started to spin. All the faces of the passing students seemed to approach her. Her view became blurry.

Hannah collapsed.

And Harry Potter was dead.