Patrick Stump and the Flying Car Brigade

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Holy smokes, Peeves!" I shouted. "Did you really have to do that?"

Peeves simply laughed while I picked the crystal ball up off the floor. I couldn't see anything in it, but I figured that was just because I had never taken Divination. "This crystal ball is always cloudy except for when you look into the past," Miss Jackson informed me.

I was about to respond to her when our house ghost, The Fat Friar, floated by. "Hello, my lovely Hufflepuffs!" he said.

"Friar, Peeves dropped this crystal ball on my head!" I complained. "Can you tell the Bloody Baron to get some sweet revenge?"

"Forgive and forget, Patrick," the Fat Friar said. "Peeves deserves a second chance."

"You said that last year!" I said. "He still hasn't stopped bothering our house!" I rolled my eyes and continued to head towards the Common Room. We approached a large stack of barrels. One of our prefects tapped on the barrel in the middle of the second row in the rhythm of "Helga Hufflepuff," and it opened. Each of us climbed into the passageway, one by one, and eventually, all of us made it into the Common Room.

I always loved the Hufflepuff Common Room. I hadn't been in any of the other common rooms, but there was no way that any of them could be cosier than Hufflepuff's. The room was decorated in yellow and black, and I could see the portrait of our House founder over the mantelpiece as I laid down on one of the couches. I took a quick look out the window, and saw grass and dandelions waving in the wind.

Miss Jackson sat down next to me. "What did you think of the feast?" she asked me.

"It was nice," I said.

"Yeah, I'm so glad to be back at Hogwarts," Miss Jackson said. "Spain was great, but I'll always prefer the Scottish Highlands. You didn't tell me a whole lot about your summer. How was it?"

"Not terribly exciting," I said.

"Come on, Patrick," Miss Jackson said. "I'm sure you did something interesting."

"I really didn't," I said.

"You seem really tense," Miss Jackson said. "Is something going on?"

I sighed. "My family is moving to Chicago after this year," I told her. "Mum and Dad seem so excited, and I hate to ruin this for them, but this is going to be my last year at Hogwarts."

"Patrick..." Miss Jackson said. "I'm really going to miss you, but let's make this the best year you've ever had, okay?"

"I just want to have a normal year with nothing too crazy happening," I said.

"We can make that happen too," Miss Jackson said. "Have you told Pete yet?"

"Not yet," I said. "I don't know how to tell him."

"You'll figure something out," Miss Jackson said.

"PATRICK! MISS JACKSON! ANYONE!" Teddy screamed. I noticed that his hair colour had changed from blond to chocolate brown, but I decided not to ask about it.

Professor Lester entered the room. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Who are you?" Teddy asked, looking up at the professor's blue eyes and jet black hair.

"I'm Professor Lester," the professor answered. "I'm your Transfiguration Professor, the Hufflepuff Head of House, and certainly not Professor Howell's boyfriend. How may I help you?"

"There's a Gryffindor in our Common Room!" Teddy exclaimed. "I don't know how he got in, but he's in the passageway!"

"I'll check it out," Professor Lester said. "Lumos!" The tip of his wand lit up, and he walked towards the Common Room entrance. All of the rest of us followed him, curious to see what was going on.

We entered the passageway, and we found what we were looking for. Pete was there, complete with his eyeliner. He pulled me close and kissed me. "Am I more than you bargained for yet?" he asked, a smirk covering his face.

"You know him?" Teddy asked.

"Teddy, this is my boyfriend, Pete," I said. "Pete, this is Teddy. He's a first year, and he was just sorted into Hufflepuff."

"Pete's like an honorary Hufflepuff," Professor Lester explained.

"Why are you wearing eyeliner?" Teddy asked Pete.

"Makeup is great for a guy, because it makes a guy look beautiful," Pete said. "And a lot of times, a guy is not beautiful. And I want to change that. I want to make sure that everyone thinks..."

"Pete, we've heard this a million times," I said. "We don't need to hear it again."

"I was simply explaining it to Teddy," Pete said as he crashed down onto the couch. "Where did the party go, Rickster?"

"We weren't having a party, Pete," I said.

"Really?" Pete said. "If this were the Gryffindor Common Room, there would definitely be a party going on by now."

"We're Hufflepuffs," I explained. "We don't have parties."

"Oh, we've got to turn up the crazy," Pete said. He pointed his wand at the wireless in the Common Room. "Sonorus!" The Weird Sisters song that was playing got louder, and Pete shouted, "Come on! Let's dance!"

"I think I'm okay," I said.

"No, let's dance," Pete said. He took my hand and pulled me off of the couch. We began to dance, and I had to admit, it was actually very nice. It reminded me of when we went to the Yule Ball together two years earlier.

"This is why I love you, Pete," I whispered to him.

"I love you too, Trick," Pete said. By this point, some of the other Hufflepuffs had gotten up to dance as well. I was just glad to see that everyone was having a good time.

After a few hours, Pete left to go back to his own common room, and all of us went off to bed. As I drifted off to sleep, I thought about Pete and the enjoyable evening that I had. I hoped to cherish this memory forever.