Dittany and Hufflepuff

If you wanted to deal with a stranger who didn't think much of you, the best approach was to work on something together.

For example, Professor Sinistra's Astronomy class.

As the only class at Hogwarts held exclusively at night, it gave students a headache just thinking about it.

Aside from astronomy enthusiasts, no one liked a class that took up their free time in the evening.

Glenn was the exception.

Of course, he wasn't an astronomy enthusiast.

He looked forward to the class because Slytherin and Hufflepuff had it together.

It was a rare opportunity.

From what Glenn had observed, unlike the other two Houses, Slytherin's first-years only had this one class a week with Hufflepuff.

And some professors had said that even this one class had only happened after several Heads of House had struggled to work it out.

If Professor Sinistra's class hadn't been so difficult to schedule, the school probably wouldn't have put Hufflepuff and Slytherin together.

The reason was simple: the two Houses' philosophies clashed more fundamentally than any others at Hogwarts.

One valued bloodline and honor; the other pursued equality and practicality.

If Gryffindor hadn't been more courageous, and Hufflepuff students less inclined to be easygoing and accepting, Hufflepuff and Slytherin would undoubtedly have been the two Houses with the fiercest rivalry at Hogwarts.

That made this Astronomy class with Hufflepuff all the more rare.

"Next, the three of you will form a group and record the names and positions of the planets we've just discussed..." After the theoretical lesson, Professor Sinistra instructed them.

Afterward, Glenn turned down nearly every invitation from the Slytherins to team up.

In the end, he teamed up with two Hufflepuff boys named Justin Finch-Fletchley and Ernie Macmillan.

It was worth mentioning that Glenn had originally been teamed up with Justin and Blaise, but Ernie had seen Justin, a Muggle-born wizard, paired with two Slytherins and couldn't help worrying about him.

So he'd offered to switch places with Blaise, sending him to join Pansy and Theodore's group.

After discussing it with Glenn, Blaise had happily agreed.

In fact, if he hadn't been doing it for Glenn's sake, he would have switched long ago.

After all, to him, joining an all-Slytherin group was far better than hanging around with people who were content to amount to nothing.

"Justin." "Ernie."

"Glenn."

"You're Glenn?!" Justin said, surprised.

Although he'd never actually met Glenn, professors in various classes had mentioned him lately.

Even their Head of House, Professor Sprout, had been lavish with her praise.

For the previous Herbology assignment, the example she'd shown them had been Glenn Howard's.

As a result, among Hogwarts' new students, the only one more famous than Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, was this Slytherin, Glenn.

"I imagine that if there isn't another Glenn at school, then I must be him," Glenn said with a touch of humor.

Hearing this, Justin realized his words had been a little inappropriate and blushed slightly.

The other Hufflepuff, however, didn't seem convinced.

"I heard Slytherin and Ravenclaw had Herbology together," Ernie said dismissively.

"And Ravenclaw's Anthony got full marks too, and completed Professor Sprout's extra question in exactly the same way. That seems a little too convenient..."

The atmosphere immediately turned a little awkward, and Justin looked worriedly at his friend.

He knew that, as a Muggle-born wizard, he might not be held to very high expectations.

But Ernie had grown up in a wizarding family. His family had been pure-blood for nine generations, and he'd been surrounded by wizarding culture all his life. Becoming a leading figure in Hufflepuff had been his greatest ambition when he came to Hogwarts.

Ever since he'd learned that both Slytherin and Ravenclaw had submitted answers in Herbology that scored above full marks, while he hadn't, he'd been bothered by it.

Of course, because of his preconceptions, he didn't hold it against Ravenclaw.

Those people spent most of their lives buried in books; they'd even turned their common room into a library. There was no shame in losing to them.

But Slytherin was different.

Again, because of his preconceptions, Ernie thought Slytherin students weren't the sort to study hard.

In his view, if they were handed an exam they absolutely had to complete, Slytherins would be more likely to track down the person who wrote it and use Dark Magic to force them to reveal the answers than to look them up in books...

To be honest, that idea might not have been all that far-fetched.

That didn't stop Justin's palms from growing damp with sweat.

As the atmosphere grew so tense it was almost suffocating, he prepared to break up a fight and call for a teacher.

Ernie, who had said all that, was actually starting to regret it too.

Not because he thought he'd been wrong, but because he'd only meant to help Justin out of an awkward situation.

He hadn't expected to hear Glenn's name and blurt out what he'd been thinking.

Thinking of that, he glanced apologetically at Justin and bit his lip, wondering if he ought to apologize first.

A few seconds later, Glenn suddenly laughed, and the frozen air melted away like snow.

"Seems you've got the wrong idea about me, but that's all right. Thanks to Volde—" Seeing the sudden alarm on Justin and Ernie's faces, he paused. "Thanks to You-Know-Who, people always have some prejudices about Slytherin."

With that, he stepped aside, revealing the telescope behind him.

"If you don't mind, you can take a look over there," Glenn said, pointing to a tower in the distance, slightly shorter than the Astronomy Tower.

Ernie and Justin exchanged glances, each seeing a hint of confusion in the other's eyes.

This Slytherin... seemed unexpectedly friendly?

Even so, they remained wary.

"If anything happens to me, remember to call Professor Sinistra," Ernie whispered to Justin.

Then he walked suspiciously over to the telescope. Before leaning down to look through it, he glanced at Glenn, as if trying to figure out what the Slytherin was up to.

"Focus..." Ernie quietly repeated Professor Sinistra's instructions as he put his eye to the lens.

After some effort, he finally spotted the tower's window.

"That's..." he said in surprise. "A Dittany plant, growing beautifully, with specks of white light around it... No, that's moonlight. It's absorbing it... just like Anthony wrote in his answer..."

At that moment, Ernie wanted to stand up and denounce the Slytherin beside him for shamelessly copying someone else's work.

As far as he was concerned, Glenn must have found a way to see this beforehand.

Otherwise, how could he know there was a Dittany plant on Ravenclaw Tower to use as a reference, when he hadn't even touched the telescope?

"Try focusing again, and zoom in until you can see the flowerpot." Glenn's voice came again. Ernie frowned, but still turned the telescope's focus knob as instructed.

"Glenn Howard!" he cried out without thinking, drawing the attention of the other groups nearby.

On the flowerpot, the words "Slytherin—Glenn Howard" were plainly written.

After checking several times to make sure he'd read it correctly, Ernie put down the telescope, his feelings in turmoil.

"Maybe I got it wrong," he said, taking a deep breath and looking ready to make a proper apology.

But before he could say anything else, Professor Sinistra walked over to them.

"How's the task coming along, children?"

At her words, Ernie and Justin immediately fell silent.

Their classmates, who had just turned to look, also discreetly looked away and pretended to focus on the stars, afraid Professor Sinistra might notice them.

After a brief silence, Glenn cleared his throat and handed her a sheet of parchment covered in writing.

"Professor, we're nearly finished."

Sinistra took the parchment, looking surprised.

After carefully reading what was on it, she nodded in satisfaction. "Good. One point each for Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Keep it up."

Ernie and Justin stared at Glenn in stunned silence, mouths slightly agape, until Professor Sinistra left.

"I had nothing to do during class, so I wrote it down," Glenn said with a smile.

The data was a hundred years old, but fortunately, the stars they'd discussed in class hadn't changed much in all that time.