Jon feared he would never remember how he had gotten through those days after the first-year final exams.
He wore a mournful face the entire time, constantly sunk in a state of utter hopelessness.
His mind contained nothing but strange thoughts:
"Why did it turn out like this?"
"The Basilisk, the Horcrux, Occlumency—I was clearly the one who prepared for all of them first!"
"Why was there such a terrifying creature as a Boggart..."
Astoria even thought Jon had fallen ill at one point and forcibly dragged him to the Hospital Wing.
"Mr. Hart was just a little frightened!" After carefully examining him, Madam Pomfrey said truthfully, "Just like you were back then, Miss Greengrass... Fortunately, there's still some of the potion we prepared last time..."
After drinking half a bottle of that strange-tasting pale blue potion, Jon was forced by Madam Pomfrey to stay in the Hospital Wing for another night before she finally allowed him to leave.
When he returned to the Hufflepuff common room, Jon learned some news: in the first match of the final round of the Quidditch match, Gryffindor narrowly defeated Ravenclaw 270–240.
Of the four House teams, only Gryffindor and Hufflepuff had won two matches, while Hufflepuff's point differential was more than nine hundred points higher than Gryffindor's.
That meant that as long as Hufflepuff did not lose to the indifferent Slytherin by nine hundred points in the final round, they would win the Quidditch Cup.
Sure enough, in Hufflepuff's match against Slytherin, the seven Hufflepuff players calmly sat by and watched Slytherin score sixteen consecutive goals... Only then did Cedric Diggory snatch the Golden Snitch from beneath Draco Malfoy's backside.
In the end, Hufflepuff narrowly lost to Slytherin 150–160.
This allowed Slytherin to avoid the embarrassment of losing all three matches, while Hufflepuff