Shredded potatoes, a top student's declaration, and new trouble

The Great Hall at night finally looked a little like somewhere in a normal school.

As soon as dinner began, the tension seemed to drain out of the entire hall.

The owls were gone, there were no essays, and the cauldrons were safely distant for now. All that remained on the tables was food, steaming hot and smelling perfectly respectable. At least most of it wouldn't suddenly start making suspicious sizzling noises when you lowered your head.

That alone was reassuring enough.

Gavin sat at the Hufflepuff table with a plate of roast chicken legs, a bowl of white rice, and a plate of shredded potatoes before him.

The sight of that bowl of rice visibly improved his mood.

The British wizarding world might have made questionable progress on the theoretical front, but at least its kitchens got things done.

That deserved respect.

He picked up his fork and examined it, considering whether he ought to find time to make himself a pair of chopsticks.

Just then, Ernie Macmillan, sitting beside him, cleared his throat as though the historic moment he had been waiting for had finally arrived. His expression grew too solemn to ignore.

"Everyone," Ernie began.

Gavin paused, chicken leg in hand.

Several nearby Hufflepuff first-years turned to look as well.

Justin, who had been helping himself to mashed potatoes, looked up with an unmistakable expression of Here we go.

"I believe," Ernie continued, his voice quiet but loud enough for everyone nearby to hear, "there is something I need to bring to everyone's attention."

The statement alone was pure Ernie.

He sounded less like someone about to share gossip than someone issuing an official bulletin on behalf of his house.

"Gu earned Hufflepuff a point in potions class this afternoon."

For a moment, everyone nearby went quiet.

Then someone immediately let out a heartfelt "Wow."

"In potions?"

"Professor Snape's potions class?"

"He awarded a point?"

"To Hufflepuff?"

"Without anyone asking?"

The string of exclamations spread like ripples from pebbles tossed into water. Even several older Hufflepuffs across the table looked up, their gazes swinging toward them in unison, their expressions full of a particular suspicion: You'd better not be making this up.

Having achieved the desired effect, Ernie looked even more solemn.

"Yes. Professor Snape said it himself."

"What were his exact words?" a Hufflepuff boy beside them immediately asked.

Ernie had clearly come prepared.

He thought back for a moment, then repeated the words in an extremely serious tone that sounded nothing like Snape:

"An acceptable color. One point to Hufflepuff."

This time, even someone in the next seat drew a sharp breath.

One point wasn't much to Hufflepuff.

But if that point came from Snape, it felt entirely different.

It was like getting biscuits from home every day, only to suddenly receive a letter of commendation from Gringotts—the amount might be small, but the significance was extraordinary.

"Merlin," an older student murmured. "Snape gave Hufflepuff a point."

"Did he get the houses mixed up?"

"Or did Gu brew him some Felix Felicis?"

"Has anyone considered," Justin interjected as he cut his steak, "that Gu might just look more like a Slytherin?"

"I don't think so," another student beside him said. "He looks more like a Ravenclaw who never leaves the library."

"Thank you," Gavin replied politely, lowering his head to shovel in a mouthful of rice.

He hadn't looked up once throughout the discussion, concentrating on his dinner as calmly as if they were talking about someone else.

A point from Snape was certainly rare.

But rare or not, his dinner wouldn't taste as good cold.

Besides, every grain of rice in today's bowl was perfectly distinct. Paired with the roast chicken and this admirably stir-fried plate of hot-and-sour shredded potatoes, it deserved his full attention.

"Gu," Justin said, glancing at him, "has it occurred to you that a normal person would at least say something modest at a time like this?"

"I'm eating," Gavin replied.

"You can eat and be modest."

"I find they clash a little."

Meanwhile, Ernie was still diligently carrying out his duties as the house's press spokesman.

"This proves that, with sufficient care and proper procedure, Hufflepuffs can earn recognition in any classroom."

"You make it sound like we don't normally try," Justin objected.

"That isn't what I meant."

"But every time you start like that, the rest sounds an awful lot like it is."

Ernie fell briefly silent, seemingly giving serious thought to whether there was some structural flaw in the way he phrased things.

Just then, a familiar voice came from beside them.

"That's impossible."

Gavin looked up to find Cedric standing beside them with his plate, having arrived at some point without him noticing. Cedric was staring at the shredded potatoes in front of Gavin, his expression bordering on shock.

To be precise, it was a purer sort of shock than even the sight of Snape awarding Hufflepuff points could have inspired.

"What's impossible?" Justin asked.

"That." Cedric pointed at the shredded potatoes. "What is that? I've never seen anything like it!"

"Potatoes," Gavin explained.

"How can those possibly be potatoes?"

Cedric sounded utterly sincere, as though he were defending the basic dignity of potatoes as a crop.

"Potatoes should come in chunks, or mashed, or sliced at most. You can go a step further and cut them into chips," he said. "But these—"

He looked down at the plate of thin, glossy, crisp potato shreds with a complicated expression.

"They look like someone used a wildly excessive Severing Charm on them."

"That's just knife work."

"You're lying." Cedric was adamant. "You must be lying."

"I'm not."

"You managed to call sneaking around at night 'dropping in for a visit,'" Cedric said, looking at him. "Why should I believe your testimony about potatoes?"

Justin nearly burst out laughing.

Even Ernie made a valiant effort to press his lips together.

Still unwilling to give up, Cedric continued studying the shredded potatoes. He looked like a young scholar who had always firmly believed the earth was round, only to witness someone kneading it into noodles.

"I've never seen potatoes look like this."

"That's because you haven't seen enough of the world."

"That hurts."

"But it's true."

Cedric stared at him for two seconds, then decided to conduct a practical experiment. He picked up a small forkful of shredded potatoes and cautiously put it in his mouth. His expression shifted from suspicion to hesitation, and then he went noticeably quiet.

Two seconds passed before he slowly spoke:

"That texture... there's absolutely no way these are potatoes!"

"Welcome to a wider world."

"Impossible." Cedric took another forkful, his voice tinged with incredulous admiration. "What have you done to potatoes? How did they turn into this?"

"Simply put," Gavin said after a pause, "we rescued them from tragedy."

This time, several nearby Hufflepuffs laughed too.

Someone murmured, "British potatoes are taking a hit to their reputation."

Someone else added, "They didn't have much of one left anyway."

After his second bite, Cedric finally accepted reality.

"All right," he said, smacking his lips. "I take back what I said."

"Which part?"

"The part about you lying."

"And?"

"You really weren't lying." Cedric paused, then added honestly, "You just concealed the fact that potatoes could taste this good."

"That's not concealment." Gavin lowered his head and continued eating. "That's a knowledge barrier."

"You're starting to sound more and more like a cross between Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall," Justin observed.

"Just needs a touch of Professor Snape's warmth," someone nearby added.

"That would be lethal," another person promptly replied.

The mood at the whole table brightened at once.

Hufflepuffs had always excelled at this kind of lively but pleasant atmosphere. There was none of Slytherin's cutthroat edge, nor Ravenclaw's constant pressure of an academic debate waiting to happen. Everyone simply gathered around something new to marvel at it, joke about it, and eat a little more along the way.

Gavin was very pleased with this.

And when people were pleased, it was easy to eat an extra half bowl of rice.

Halfway through dinner, things suddenly grew a little quieter around the table.

The people near Gavin seemed to notice something at the same time, their eyes shifting slightly ahead.

Gavin looked up and saw a little girl with curly brown hair standing beside the table.

She wasn't tall, but her expression was resolute, as though she had already rehearsed this conversation three times in her head and had now arrived to carry it out.

Hermione Granger.

She looked at Gavin as seriously as if she were attending an interview.

"You're Gavin Gu, aren't you?" she asked.

"Yes."

"I know about you."

That opening was very much her style.

Not "I've heard of you," but a clear declaration of "I've already finished investigating you."

Gavin set down his fork and waited for her to continue.

Hermione straightened her back.

"You've earned points in every class so far," she said.

"Only seven so far," Gavin replied after a moment's thought.

"Which is every class, excluding astronomy," Hermione immediately corrected him, her logic watertight.

There was no arguing with that.

"So?" Gavin asked.

"So I've come to introduce myself." Hermione stared at him. "And to tell you that I didn't earn any points in potions."

There was even a trace of disgruntled regret in her tone.

It was as though failing to earn points wasn't what bothered her. Rather, the fact that someone else had beaten her to earning them consistently had clearly struck a very sensitive nerve.

"I understand." Gavin nodded.

"What do you understand?"

"You didn't come to introduce yourself. You came to declare war."

Hermione paused.

Then she nodded with complete frankness.

"You could put it that way."

Beside them, Justin was already struggling to keep a straight face.

Cedric simply stood there holding his plate, wearing an expression that said, I knew coming to dinner in the Great Hall would be worth it.

Hermione continued:

"I just wanted to tell you that I'll soon overtake you in points earned."

She spoke with absolute conviction, as though stating a fact that had yet to come true rather than making some emotional declaration.

"I won't stay behind forever."

"Good. I like your spirit," Gavin said. "Competition keeps the education system thriving."

Hermione clearly hadn't expected that answer. She froze for a moment.

Whatever responses she had prepared for modesty, indifference, contempt, or provocation were suddenly all useless.

"...Anyway, just you wait."

"I look forward to it."

Hermione pressed her lips together, seemingly feeling that this encounter hadn't quite achieved the intimidating effect she had intended. But unable to find anything wrong with it, she decisively turned and left.

She left briskly, even her fluttering robes radiating an air of "I'm going straight to the library to prove myself."

Behind her, Harry and Ron finally came into view.

They had evidently been standing a little farther back the whole time, wearing matching expressions of acute embarrassment, like people who had just accompanied a friend through an impromptu speech they couldn't interrupt.

The moment Hermione left, Ron drew a breath and hurried to explain:

"She didn't mean it like that."

"She did mean it like that," Harry corrected him honestly.

"I mean, she wasn't... er... trying to seem so..." Ron faltered, clearly unable to settle on a safe word.

"Like she'd come to challenge me to a duel?" Gavin supplied.

"Right." Ron nodded at once. "That's it."

Harry stood beside him, looking a little helpless, but he spoke earnestly anyway:

"She's just... very concerned about grades."

"Very concerned," Ron added.

"Extremely concerned," Harry added.

"And since term started, she's basically memorized all the first-year textbooks," Ron went on.

"Plus parts of the upper-year course lists," Harry added.

"So don't take it personally," Ron concluded.

The two of them took turns explaining Hermione's behavior like a pair of hapless defense lawyers trying to save a client who had already pleaded guilty.

Gavin looked at them for two seconds, then nodded.

"I don't mind."

Harry visibly relaxed.

Ron relaxed too, and finally noticed the plate of shredded potatoes on the table.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Potatoes," Cedric answered first, his voice still carrying the complicated aftereffects of having his entire worldview shaken, shattered, and rebuilt.

Ron stared at the dish. His expression immediately became identical to Cedric's earlier one.

"Who are you trying to fool?"

"See?" Cedric said, relieved. "I told you it wasn't just me."

Now it was Harry's turn to freeze.

He looked at the shredded potatoes, then at Gavin, then at the faces around them, all wearing expressions that said they had already been through this once. Suddenly, he felt as though he were standing beside a small but genuine moment in history.

"...Those really are potatoes?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Gavin said with a nod.

Harry fell silent for a moment before arriving at a very cautious conclusion:

"Then you're actually pretty cool."

The compliment came out of nowhere.

Gavin looked up at him.

Harry seemed to realize how abrupt that had sounded. His ears reddened slightly, but he added:

"I mean, it's not just the potatoes. Getting points in every class is pretty cool too."

"And Snape awarding points to Hufflepuff," Ron said with something close to awe. "That's unbelievable."

"Thanks," Gavin said.

"Also," Harry said after a moment's thought, "we'd been wanting to meet you anyway."

"Why?"

"Because you seem to know a little about everything."

"And because he calls sneaking out at night 'dropping by,'" Cedric put in.

"When did that happen?" Harry's eyes lit up.

"Don't ask," Ron said. "I have a feeling the answer will just make us want to know him more."

"Wouldn't that be a good thing?"

"Not necessarily for everyone else."

That exchange set off another round of laughter near the Hufflepuff table.

Gavin looked at the people in front of him—Harry, still a little reserved; Ron, trying and clearly failing not to look awkward; Hermione, who had delivered her top-student challenge and marched off without looking back; and Cedric, still earnestly studying the shredded potatoes. Hogwarts, he suddenly felt, was far livelier than he had expected.

"I'm fine with getting to know each other," Gavin said.

Harry's eyes brightened.

"Really?"

"Mm." Gavin nodded. "As long as nobody comes to challenge me again in the middle of dinner."

The mood came alive again.

Harry laughed, and Ron joined him. At last, some of the awkwardness from trying to smooth things over for Hermione faded.

Not far away, Hermione had returned to the Gryffindor table and opened a book. Her posture made her intentions perfectly clear: she had only stopped by to deliver a notice. Now that it was delivered, it was time to put her plan into action.

"She really will work hard to beat you," Harry said quietly.

"I can tell," Gavin said.

"Aren't you nervous?" Ron asked.

"No." Gavin picked up his fork. "Competition is a good thing."

"When people like you say that, it never makes the rest of us feel good," Ron said sincerely.

"You'll get used to it."

After Harry and Ron left, Cedric finally took his half-cold dinner back to his own table. Before he went, though, he glanced back at the shredded potatoes, plainly reluctant to leave them behind.

"If there's more of that next time," he said, his eyes still on the plate, "let me know."

"Didn't you say potatoes couldn't possibly look like that?"

"I'm willing to bow to reality," Cedric said earnestly.

"A fine Hufflepuff quality," Justin observed from the side.

Ernie nodded as though that made perfect sense.

Gavin lowered his head, finished his last mouthful of rice, and polished off the remaining shredded potatoes.

The Great Hall was still lively. The clatter of cutlery, laughter and conversation, the occasional stray owl feather, and the overlapping voices from the High Table all blended into an evening bustle that was Hogwarts through and through.