14) Tit For Tat

Keith watched as the prefect guiding them stopped in front of a few barrels. The prefect pointed at the second barrel from the left in the second row from the bottom and spoke to the first years.

“You must knock on this barrel in a specific rhythm that sounds like our house founder’s name, Helga Hufflepuff. You gotta go with two short taps, pause, then two quick taps that are quicker than the first two, a pause, then a single tap but a harder one.”

He then smiled, “Just follow that I do and you should be able to get the hang of it in a few tries.”

“Just like this, pay attention to the taps and what I say.” he said and began to tap as he chanted, “Hel-Ga. Huf-fle. PUFF.”

The barrel opened but all the first years look at the prefect, wondering if there were more steps to this.

“Now, you must be wondering if there’s more to it but there isn’t. I know, we can’t just crawl into the barrel, that’s just asking too much.” he said and grinned, before stretching his arm over to the barrel above the one that was open.

Everyone looked at him in awe as his arm went through the solid barrel. Keith too, was slightly surprised but accepted it as things like this were possible due to magic.

‘Maybe one day, I’ll be able to set up secret entrances like these when building my own house.’ he thought as he followed the others through the barrels.

Once they passed through, he saw a spacious area. There were black legged chairs with yellow cushions, mimicking the Hufflepuff colors and there were also a lot of tables placed at random places.

A huge fireplace was at the center of the common room and Keith saw multiple seniors of his house walk towards one direction alone. The boys climbed up the stairs that were in the right and the girls went left.

Right at this time, the Prefect pointed towards the stairs and began to explain, “The stairs on the right lead to the boys dormitory and the left one leads to the girls dormitory. You must all feel sleepy so I’ll let you guys go but before that, you might want to take this and practice whenever you have some free time.”

As he said this, a tall girl walked over with small wooden boards that were the size of one’s palm and distributed them amongst the first years.

“Firstly, no one is allowed to take the practice boards out of this common room. We’re giving this to you so you can practice the rhythm of tapping the barrels accurately. Because, if you mess up, you’ll be sprayed with vinegar and no one would want that now, would they?”

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The other prefect nodded, “Yes, you’ll be fine as long as you don’t take it out of this common room. We don’t want the other houses getting in here and causing havoc. Now, off you go to bed!”

The first years scattered towards the stairs and Keith waved at Hannah and Susan before following behind the boy named Ernie.

“Black huh? I heard you were adopted and your sister was in Hufflepuff wasn’t she? I heard that fatty was really clumsy and got a lot of points taken from our house during her time in hogwarts. I saw you asking that Bones girl about our names, looks like incompetency runs in the blood.” one of the boys beside him said and Keith immediately turned to look.

The girls, prefects and some of the seniors watched as Keith glared a the boy, “You’re that Zucchini Shit aren’t you? I’ll warn you just once Zucchini, keep my family out of this or I’ll make you regret living.”

Justin and Wayne Hopkins paused and looked at the two of them nervously while Ernie tried to mediate. But unfortunately for him, Zacharias didn’t seem to have any plans of backing down.

“And what are you going to do, Black? Jinx m-”

“Petrificus Totalus!!” Keith yelled, and a pale blue light flashed before Zacharias fell to the floor, unmoving.

Keith heard the prefect near him sigh but he went with what he wanted to do and spoke to Zacharias, “Consider this a warning. I won’t do a thing as long as you don’t provoke me but if you do… the next time will be worse.”

The prefect placed his hand on Keith’s shoulder and looked at the other three, “You four go to the dormitory. I’ll have a word with this boy here and send him once I’m done.”

Keith was surprised that he wasn’t getting punished and frowned, “You’re not telling the professors about what happened?”

“And what’s that going to do? He clearly provoked you and you simply retaliated. Small things like these should be resolved by the prefects of the house. Now, I’ll say it for the last time; head over to your dormitory.”

Keith nodded and walked towards the stairs, overtaking the other three as he didn’t feel like talking to anyone at the moment. He saw a door that had the sign, “First Years” and walked in to see five decent sized beds on which even adults could sleep peacefully without space constraints.

Smiling, he looked around and saw his two large trunks placed on top of a bed that was right beside the window.

“Fresh air is always welcome.” he said out loud and he walked over to his bed and opened up his trunks. As he did this, he saw the other three walk in.

Wayne Hopkins found his stuff and silently went to his bed while the other two walked towards Keith.

“That was cool!” Justin said as he sat at the empty space beside the trunks on Keith’s bed.

Ernie nodded in response, “Yeah it was, but I think it’ll be nice if we stay friendly with each other. Being Hufflepuffs and all.”

Keith shrugged as he pulled open the lids of his trunks and glanced at the bulky amounts of potion ingredients before replying to Ernie.

“I’ll treat you guys the way you treat me. Simple stuff. He was mean for no reason and I hate it when idiots make fun of my friends and family. Also, I don’t think we should tolerate people like him just because we’re Hufflepuffs. We might be known to be nice but we’re not pushovers now, are we?”