It should be known that Heri Potter was the centre-piece of an eclectic assortment of children, the sort that might not have come together if it wasn't for her acting as the drawing force. It was often believed that Hufflepuffs were all the open-armed, exceedingly friendly sort, but those within knew that just because Helga Hufflepuff made it so anyone that didn't fit in the other three Houses were welcomed didn't mean they were all snuggle-buddies singing Kumbaya around the fire. Sure, they weren't exclusive and cruel in their groupings and pecking order like the Slytherins were, but they still had social structuring. It went without saying that an internationally famous person like Heri would be at the top of the subtle hierarchy and that her friends would be up there as well. There was no denying that they originally gravitated to her because she was a living legend, a heroine straight out of their bedtime stories; they were children and they were shallow. They came to stay when they discovered that Heri was genuinely someone they admired and cared for by her own merits, but the hero-worship never completely faded. The first was Megan Jones, the first one that approached Heri when she had been Sorted. Megan was a scatter-brained chatterbox, the sort that delighted in gossip and scandals but wasn't mean enough to spread rumours herself. She was from a middle-class family and her parents ran a successful apothecary. She had an older sister that played Quidditch professionally, but Megan herself was not sporty. If she hadn't made friends with Heri, she likely would have ended up a Quidditch groupie, squealing over the players with the other fan-girls. After Megan came Zacharias Smith. He was a prickly sort, almost as haughty and stuck-up as Malfoy but not as aggressive. He made himself quite plain when he started to hangout with Heri's crowd, letting everyone know right off the bat that he didn't like most of them at all and that he was only sticking around because he was friends with Ernie and that he wasn't about to associate with a group of lesser prestige. He often poked fun at Wayne and sneered at Megan but redeemed himself through the fact that he didn't discriminate when being a jerk; he was an equal-opportunity arsehole. He was an only child and the heir to the House of Smith, a minor family but one that dated back thousands of years. Acting as Zacharias' buffer was Ernie Macmillan. He and Zarcharias acted like Yin and Yang, and Ernie being the cheery one out of the pair. He was a pleasant sort, a laid-back smooth-talking bloke that one would expect from a Noble Family. He had been earnest in his pursuit of Heri's friendship though he wasn't blind to the fact that such an association would make him 'cooler.' He had learned over the summer from his father that the House of Macmillan and the House of Potter had a formal alliance and it had made him even more glad that he had sought Heri out. He was an only child and the heir to the House of Macmillan, a family that since the 1400s had been lords of one of the Unplottable counties that the wizards had taken with them when they separated from them Muggles. Hannah Abbot was from another Noble family, though nowhere near as old as Ernie's, Zacharias', or even Heri's since her family got their title only half a decade before the Statute of Secrecy was set into place. She had made friends with Heri when she saw how ruffled Heri was when the first wave of fans set upon her and decided to help her out. Hannah was another girl that could have gone to Gryffindor but ultimately ended up in Hufflepuff because of her loyalty. She was a snarling wildcat in the face of those she deemed under her protection — those currently being everyone in their circle of friends — and wasn't afraid to smack a bitch if it came down to it. (It came down to it only once so far when a nosy Ravenclaw a year older than them tried poking at Heri's scar with her wand; the girl had been sent crying to the Hospital wing with hideous acne that resembled tentacles.) Ernie had once joked that if Heri was a mafia boss, Hannah would have been her right hand. Sally-Anne Perks would have been the shallowest one of the bunch if it wasn't for the fact that she honestly thought she was just being a good friend. Sally-Anne was a muggleborn that opted for a magical education instead of going to a school for performing arts like her family had originally planned. She was always caught up in her appearance and doling out fashion advice to the rest of them; she was the stereotypical blonde and wasn't ashamed of it in the least bit. In some ways, she was the most popularity-driven one of the lot, she was always aware of how she looked and scolded the others when they did lame things. In other ways, she was the most unbothered: she genuinely didn't care that Heri was the Girl Who Lived; to Sally-Anne, Heri was cool because Heri was talented and charismatic. She was the definition of a ditz but she was well-intentioned. Last came Wayne Hopkins, one that had definitely got into Hufflepuff for not being the type that any of the other Houses valued. He was a half-blood that had been raised by his widowed muggleborn mother in the non-magical world. He was a smart boy but nowhere near driven enough for Ravenclaw, what with his lack of regard for learning for the sake of learning. Truthfully, he didn't have much going on for him expect for the fact that he got on well with pretty much anyone. He would have been the poster-boy for the sort that the other Houses thought Hufflepuffs were like if it wasn't for the fact that he was quick enough to know how to make friends in high places, with Heri, Hannah, Ernie, and Zacharias buffing up their real-world social standing. Zacharias and Sally-Anne might have been put off by him for their reasons, but Heri honestly enjoyed his company, he being the sort that she had protected from bullies back during primary school.
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