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Hufflepuff Pride
“Bobby!”
Bobby sighed and lifted his book higher in front of his face hoping that would hide him. He didn’t want to deal with this right now. He’d just wanted to sit down and get some reading done. Was that really so much to ask for?
“Don’t you try and hide from me Bobby Singer, you’ve already been caught.”
Bobby shoved his bookmark in the pages and let his book fall closed. “Wasn’t hiding. Just mindin my own business. You should try it some time.”
Rufus, Bobby’s best friend, for hell knew what reason, came to a stop in front of him and let out a laugh. “If you wanted to be alone you should have gone to your common room where I can’t chase you.”
Bobby scoffed. “As if that would help.”
Rufus held up his hands. “Hey man. That was one time.”
“Only because the armor ejected you.” Bobby laughed. It had actually been pretty amazing, not that he’d tell Rufus that. Bobby had been annoyed at his friend and sought sanctuary in his common room. Since Rufus was a Gryffindor he wouldn’t be allowed into the Hufflepuff dorms. But Bobby had barely sat down and gotten comfortable when 10 minutes later Rufus was strutting into the common room right behind him. He’d strut in and sat down on the couch next to Bobby continuing their earlier conversation as if he hadn’t just defied all the rules of the castle. Weirdly enough Bobby and a couple of first years who were staring at the painting on the wall were the only people in the common room to witness this miracle. Suddenly a suit of armor came to life and grabbed Rufus by the back of the robes and lifted him clean off his feet.
“Intruder! You do not belong here.” The armor carried Rufus to the entrance and thrown him clear across the hallway. And once outside he’d been doused in Vinegar. He’d stunk for 3 days. Bobby had been sure Rufus was going to be grilled by the professors, maybe even expelled, but somehow since no one had been in the common room, no one believed the first years when they told the story. It was, “Impossible, just a silly rumor.” And when the professors had questioned the suit of armor, it had somehow had ‘no knowledge of such a thing occurring’. You’re welcome Rufus. Bobby had spent months trying to figure out how Rufus had gotten in and also how an empty suit of armor had the strength to throw Rufus that far in the first place. Rufus’ answer was always ‘Magic’ but Bobby wasn’t happy with that. No one had snuck into the Hufflepuff common room in over a thousand years and Rufus did it with ‘Magic’. Bobby had finally figured it out, because, of course he did, but when he’d confronted Rufus with it he’d gotten a shrug in response. Rufus really was something. He’d tell anyone who asked how he’s broken into the common room by fighting a giant spider who guarded the entrance. He’d dug a tunnel in another story. Created a spell that was at Auror level. But when faced with an actual compliment of his REAL skill he’d been embarrassed and told Bobby to shut up.
“Bobby! Don’t ignore me. It’s rude.” Rufus said flopping into the chair across from him. Bobby sighed again.
“As if anyone could ignore that big mouth. Now what do yah want?”
Rufus smiled, “I have a proposition for you.”
“Not interested.” Bobby said cracking his book open again. Whatever Rufus was planning he didn’t want any part of it.
“You don’t even know what it is.”
“I know you. That’s enough.” Bobby said but was forced to look back at Rufus when he leaned over and snatched the book from his hand and threw it over his shoulder.
“Bobby, because we’re friends I’m going to let you in on a once in a lifetime opportunity. I’m going on a hunt tonight and I’m gracious enough to invite you along.” Rufus smiled his invitation and Bobby just rolled his eyes. Gracious, yeah, if there was one word to describe Rufus, gracious was the opposite one that he’d choose.
Bobby reached into his bag on the floor and grabbed another book. “I told you I’m not interested.”
“Come on!” Rufus grabbed the new book out of Bobby’s hand and reached over and stole his bag. “Show some House Spirit! You’ve been a stick in the mud all week.”
“It’s only Tuesday.” Bobby said reasonably.
“You know what I mean.”
He did. It was Spirit Week and truthfully Bobby had no interest in the asinine traditions that were running wild. Crazy hat day? He was content with his regular hat thanks. Backwards day? What, so he could slam into other people all day long, and be late for every single class because walking upstairs backwards is next to impossible? The only thing that seemed interesting was the scavenger hunt, but it was on the day that Bobby had 2 quizzes to focus on. Who gave quizzes during spirit week anyway? Didn’t the professors know that no one was going to be worried about school/ Well, hardly anyone. There were a few people in the library studying, but mostly everyone was in the halls running around like animals, getting ready for the field day activities later today.
“Come on man. We can share the points. Between the two of us, we’ll get this hunt done in no time.”
Bobby smirked and stood up, smacking Rufus’ hand so he’d drop his bag. He gathered his bag and picked up his books and slipped them in. “You just want me to come because you know you’ll never find anything without me.”
“Alright fine.” Rufus said and stood up to follow Bobby out of the Library. “Come with me so I can steal your points to make myself look good.”
“Since you asked so nicely.” Bobby said then flicked his head down the hall. “I have class, but after I’ll help yah.”
Rufus shook his head. “We don’t got time for that. Listen you took your quiz already yeah? Professor Flitwick isn’t going to take attendance. You know that. He’s helping people perfect their levitation charms for the egg challenge later. Come with me Bobby. We’re already behind. If we want to win, we need to start now.”
Bobby looked longingly toward his class, then back at Rufus. His best friend’s pathetic pleading face made the decision for him. He sighed again and nodded.
“Alright. Just let me drop my stuff at my dorm. Meet me at the Great Hall in 10.”
Rufus smiled and shot him a thumbs up. “You the best Bobby!”
“I know.”
Rufus ran off and Bobby shook his head. How did he always let himself get talked into these situations? He went to his common room and into his room. He threw his stuff on his bed, it’d be easier to move around without his bag weighing him down. But just his luck he’d need one of his books to help him on the hunt. He debated for a minute before he grabbed a smaller bag from under his bed and shoved two books in it, just in case. He slung it over his shoulder and headed out of the common room. The passage closed behind him as he pulled a sheet of parchment from his pocket.
“Alright, so grab Rufus and head to the potions room.”
“Potions? You’re supposed to be in Charms big boy.”
Bobby turned around and smiled when he saw Ellen leaning against the wall next to the entrance. “You too.”
“Yeah well, I saw you heading back here. Figured if our prefect can ditch, so can I.” Ellen rolled off the wall and plucked the paper from Bobby’s hands. After scanning it she grinned. “You’re doing the hunt aren’t you?”
“Rufus just cornered me in the Library and talked me into it.”
Ellen shook her head. “Nah uh. You had this already figured out. Which means you worked on it BEFORE Rufus got to you. You’re brilliant honey, but no way you worked out 2 clues in ten minutes.”
She was right of course. But then, she was right about most things. Bobby had grabbed the first clue this morning at Breakfast even though he’d been sure he wouldn’t have time to do it. But he’d grabbed it just in case. It hadn’t taken him long to crack the first clue. And the second, well, he’d figured that out just before Rufus walked in.
She held the paper up and waved it at him. “You weren’t planning on leaving me behind on this were you?”
“Not a chance. Come on.” Bobby held out his hand and Ellen smiled and took his arm. They met up with Rufus at the Great Hall and he was bouncing around like he just couldn’t sit still.
“Finally!” He said running up to them when he saw them. “Okay. So the clue is, “If it's information you seek, come and see me. If it's pairs of letters you need, I have consecutively three.”
Bobby held up his parchment and shook his head. “I already got that one. The answer was ‘Bookkeeper’.”
“You already started?”
“Why do you think I was in the Library?”
Rufus snatched the paper from his hands. “I assumed because you’re a giant nerd. Did you get the ribbon?”
“No. I didn’t get the ribbon because I’m a complete moron. Of course I got the stupid ribbon.” Bobby pulled the blue ribbon out of his pocket. It had a big symbol of a book on it and said ‘clue one completed’ on the back along with the next clue. If you played the game, in order to win you had to have all five ribbons at the end.
“Alright smart ass, so where do we go next? What the hell does, ‘I'm teary-eyed but never cry.
Silver-tongued, but never lie. Double-winged, but never fly. Air-cooled, but never dry.’ Mean?”
Bobby grabbed the paper out of his hands and shoved it back in his pocket. “Follow me and keep yer mouth shut. You want the whole school followin us to get the answers?”
Bobby led the way and Rufus eyes Ellen and frowned. “Excuse me. I don’t remember inviting you.”
“Funny, I don’t remember asking your permission.” Ellen said causing Rufus to roll his eyes.
“Well I’ll tell you now. I am NOT sharing the points with you.”
Ellen shoved his arm and glared at him. “Oh PLEASE. Without us you’d still be scratching your head about finding the bookkeeper.”
“Us? I think Bobby was the one to figure it out, not you.”
“Yeah, well he-”
“If you two don’t shut it, I’m ditchin yah both and goin it solo.” Bobby snapped glaring at them both in turn. He turned back around but not before he saw Rufus cross his arms and Ellen stick her tongue out at him. “You two always bickerin, just make out already.”
“Bobby that’s not even a little bit funny.” Rufus said and Ellen gagged.
“For once I agree.”
Bobby smiled and paused at the corner and glanced around. “Alright. Now, we’re gonna go into the Potions lab and find a bottle of ‘Mercury’. But we have to be quick, the next class is due in there in 10 minutes, and if Slughorn catches us he’s going to pull us into a 2 hour long conversation.
Ellen snickered, “You mean if he catches YOU. You know he’s wanted you in his Slug Club forever.” She flicked a glance over her shoulder. “HE could probably walk in and out and Old Sluggy wouldn’t even take notice.”
“You know I should be offended. But she’s probably right. You better stay here. I’ll go in, you watch the hall. Ellen can watch the door for me.”
“Alright but be careful. The bottle will probably be in the cabinet and won’t necessarily be marked. But lift it up and it should have the ribbon underneath. If someone hasn’t come by already and snatched it.”
Rufus waved his concern. “There’s more than one ribbon genius.”
“But they only replace the ribbon once an hour smartass. If someone already worked out the clue and took it then we’re screwed until after the lesson. Slughorns not going to replace it BEFORE his lesson.”
“Okay then stop chewin my ear off and let me go.” Rufus said and took off down the hallway. He touched Ellens arm gently.
“Go with him please.”
Ellen nodded and walked off down the hall so as not to bring attention to herself. Bobby watched the hallway, back and forth. There were tons of people running around, but nobody seemed particularly interested in the Potions room. After a few minutes Rufus came back out and waved for Bobby to come down. He sighed but hurried to his friend anyway.
“What?”
“I can’t find any of the bottles.”
Bobby scrubbed a hand down his face. “What do you mean you can’t find them?”
“Like there are NO Mercury bottles in the cabinet at all.”
Bobby pushed Rufus aside and headed for the cabinets himself. If he wanted something done right. But when he flung open the cabinet he saw Rufus wasn’t being dumb. He searched every single bottle and NONE of them were Mercury. What the hell? He KNEW he’d seen some in here before. He’d used it before.”
“You think someone got here before us and hid them all?” Ellen asked coming up behind him.
“Why bother? If they got the ribbon then we’d have to wait for the next one anyway. No this is probably a part of the test.”
Ellen frowned and reached into the cabinet to push around the bottles. “But where else could it be? You said the answer was Mercury, right?”
“Yes. I'm teary-eyed but never cry. It’s shiny, like how tears shine in yer eyes. Silver-tongued, but never lie. It’s a silver color. Double-winged, but never fly. The God Mercury had wings but only used them to run-That’s it!” Bobby ran to the other side of the room and pulled open a drawer filled with feathers and scales. He pushed them around until he found a small bottle with a ribbon attached to the bottom. “Got it!”
Rufus came up behind him and gestured at the drawer. “What the hell is it doing in there?”
“Feathers? Wings have feathers? The God Mercury?” When Rufus continued to star at him he shook his head and closed the drawer. “Nevermind. Let’s get gone.” He shoved the new ribbon into his pocket. They started toward the door when they heard voices.
“Aw balls! The class is starting.” Bobby hit the floor and crawled under one of the desks as Slughorn walked in.
“Ah Miss Harvelle, how nice to see you. Mr. Bernum. A pleasure.”
Rufus clicked his tongue. “It’s Turner sir.”
“Hmm? Oh right of course. You’re not in this class are you? No I think not. Better be off now. Off you go.”
Bobby crawled to the next table as Ellen and Rufus walked in front, covering him. But then he got to the last desk and knew he’d never be able to make it out of the room without Slughorn seeing him. Ellen seemed to realize this too because suddenly she kicked Rufus’ shin and she must have given him a look because he sighed and walked off toward Slughorn.
“Sir I was wondering, if, ah, well, I was interested in your Slug club Sir.”
“My…um…”
Bobby barely held in his laughter. Rufus in the Slug club? Even if he old Sluggy wanted him in the club, there’s no way Rufus would ever be a part of that. But it was as good a distraction as anything and Bobby stood up and darted out the door. He ran until he turned the corner and stopped to catch his breath. Ellen was right beside him the whole time grinning.
“That’s one way to get your blood pumping huh?”
“You guys were just gonna leave me? After I sacrificed myself for you? I just had to stand there and listen to him tell me how I’m not, ‘club material’. I got feelings you know.” Rufus said and Bobby slid his arm around his neck in a half hug.
“You’re too good for that club and you know it.”
Rufus nodded, “Damn right. Now what’s the next clue?”
Bobby pulled the ribbon out of his pocket and saw it was green and had a picture of the bottle of Mercury on the front. He flipped it over and Ellen read over his shoulder. “What starts with the letter ‘t’ is filled with ‘t’ and ends with ‘t’?”
“Starts with the letter t and ends with t?” Bobby asked.
“And has t’s in the middle too.” Rufus said pulling the ribbon closer to inspect it.
Bobby started walking, “Guess it’s back to the Library. Find us a dictionary. How many words can start and end with t? With t in the middle too?”
Ellen was quiet throughout the whole thing, just staring off. Rufus and Bobby threw words back and forth trying to figure out which might be close enough. They got halfway to the Library when Ellen grabbed Bobby’s arm and yelled excitedly. “Tea!”
“Yeah. T. That’s what we’re gonna figure out.”
“No! Not T. Tea! Like the drink! What starts with tea? Is filled with tea? And ends with tea? It’s a teapot!” Ellen said and Rufus smiled.
“Look at you not being completely useless.”
Ellen smiled back. “Bite me. Now we just have to figure out which teapot it’s going to be. They’re all over the castle. In the kitchen, in the great hall, in the teacher’s rooms…”
“We can always split up. Now that we know what we’re looking for we can check all of them.” Bobby said and Ellen held up her hand.
“Just wait. We don’t want to waste time. Let’s think about this logically. If it was in the great hall then someone would have found it, even by accident. They wouldn’t want people jumping straight to the 3rd clue. That’s not fair to everyone playing the game. So we can probably rule that out. The kitchens MIGHT be a good place, but really, only Hufflepuffs even know how to get into the kitchens so that would be an unfair advantage too.”
“Whoa wait. You can get into the kitchen?” Rufus asked and looked at Bobby as if he were a traitor. “And you’ve never shown me? Man, I thought we were friends!”
Bobby shrugged and Ellen waved for them to be quiet. “If it were in a teachers room it would have to be one that makes logical sense. Like yes, Professor McGonagall has a teapot in her office but why would that be the answer? No it has to make SENSE…”
Ellen started walking ahead of them and Bobby and Rufus just followed along, staying quiet so she could work through her thoughts without interruption. “Muggle studies, Potions, Herbology,Transfiguration, Charms…” She was mumbling under her breath when suddenly she whirled around and smiled. “I got it. I’ve SO got it. Follow me!”
She took off running and Bobby and Rufus had no choice but to follow. They chased her up a stair case and then another and when she finally stopped running Bobby and Rufus were panting. In shape they were not. She pulled the ladder down from the ceiling and started climbing through the trap door. Bobby followed next as dawning hit him.
“The Divination class. Tea reading.”
“Exactly!” Ellen smiled and looked around. There were a bunch of people, mostly girls, milling around chatting with Professor Trelawney. She was so engrossed with her conversation she wouldn’t even notice them. Ellen slipped past and went to the china cabinet in the corner and opened it and grabbed one of the teapots from the top and flipped it over. Bobby watched her do this 4 times before she finally put it back and closed the doors. She shoved her way through a group of girls who were walking over to crowd around Trelawney.
“Rude.” One of them said and Trelawney’s voice picked up and he looked him right in the eye.
“Someone in this room will find themselves in a grave by tonight’s end.”
A shiver ran down Bobby’s spine but Ellen was there and grabbing his arm. The girls around Trelawney were all oohing and gasping asking how she knew that. Ellen pushed him and made him crawl down first.
“Well?” Rufus demanded and Ellen held up the multicolored ribbon.
“Easy peasy.” She said jumping off the ladder. She tapped Bobby’s shoulder as Rufus took the ribbon from her hand. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Fine.” He said because what could he say? They all knew Trelawney was a quack. That’s why they’d all opted not to take the stupid class. Bobby himself had made fun of her so many times it was actually ridiculous. But just something about the way her voice had changed when she said that. How she’d singled him out. But it was ridiculous. Him dying? Today? During a Pride week at school? It’s not like they were doing anything particularly dangerous. He wasn’t playing Quidditch, or even squaring off against the Professors in a dueling match. He’d be fine. He was being stupid.
“What kind of door has no widows and no doors? Oh man. I know this one. Talk about easy.” Rufus said and Bobby nodded.
“Guess we were due for one huh? Lead the way.”
Ellen linked her arm through Bobby’s again as they walked behind Rufus. “Think we’ll get them all done in time? The sun is about to set.”
“That’s because Bobby waited until the damn day was nearly over to agree to help.”
“We have until curfew to finish and we already figured out 3 of the clues so shut yer mouth.”
Rufus held up the ribbon over his shoulder. “4 clues. We’re going to get it now.”
“4 clues then. Even more of a reason for you to thank me.”
“Hopefully this isn’t all for nothing. What if somebody else already found them all?”
Bobby shook his head. “They may be close like we are, but nobodies found them all yet. If they did there would have been explosions and an announcement for the winners.”
Ellen nodded in understanding. They followed Rufus down the stair cases and followed him around damn near all of the castle before they got to the Herbology room. He turned to them before they walked in the door and smiled. “Alright. Find me a mushroom my beautiful badgers.”
“Can I smack him now?”
“Later.” Bobby said and laughed when they walked in the room and a handful of people were digging in the flower pots and lifting everything up. “Guess we’re not the only ones who got the 3rd clue.”
Rufus dropped his voice. “Yeah but they’ve been looking for a while. We just got a ribbon which means they’ve been here for over an hour.”
“Which means the ribbons not here. They’d have found it by now.”
They backed out the door quietly and walked off down the hall. “So if not there…”Rufus said, “The kitchen?”
“Maybe, but remember, we said that’d be an unfair advantage to Hufflepuffs. I don’t think they’d do that.” Ellen said and they kept walking until they came out on the other side of the bridge. They’d just been walking not really taking notice of where but they were suddenly looking over the hills and Hagrid’s hut.
“You think Hagrid would know?” Rufus asked and Bobby shrugged.
“Probably. But you know what? I think I know where they are now. Remember when Hagrid had that lesson with Nifflers and he hid a bunch of the leprechaun gold all over the grounds?”
“Oh yeah…Mine beat everyone’s ass.” Rufus boasted, Ellen just snorted.
“And you tried to steal the gold after. Idiot. Everyone knows Leprechaun gold disappears.”
Rufus shrugged, “I was just kiddin around.”
“Sure you were.”
Bobby walked off and let them follow. “You remember were most of the gold was hidden?”
Rufus ran to catch up his eyes wide. Ellen yelled excitedly from behind them both.“In the fairy ring!”
“Exactly.”
They ran to the patch just down the hill where there were 5 separate fairy rings growing all around. Nobody knew why there were so many in one place. Of course there were legends and rumors, but no one had ever seen a fairy for real so they didn’t know for sure. Bobby pointed to one side. “Rufus you check over there. Ellen check here. I’ll go to the back.” They all got down on their hands and knees and started looking under the Mushrooms heads. It took them an hour. A whole hour because they’d over looked it twice. The ribbon wasn’t full size, it had been enchanted to be the size of the mushroom head so if you didn’t look HARD you weren’t going to find it. At all. You could look in the fairy rings all day, but if you didn’t check every, single mushroom, you weren’t going to find this one. They finally did find it, Bobby had found it under the smallest mushroom in the whole damn patch. When he’d plucked it off it had grown into a full sized ribbon. This one was yellow and had a picture of a mushroom on it on the back had the final clue.
“What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?”
“Bobby do we have enough time to figure this out? It’s dark out. Dinner is in an hour and a half.” Ellen asked and Bobby nodded.
“I already know the answer.”
Rufus stood up and wiped off the dirt from his hands and knees. “Really? Damn Bobby. That was fast. I knew I wanted you on my team for a reason.”
“Yeah well. It’s from Shakespeare. I’ll give you the answer but, uh, I think I’ll skip out on this one.”
“Bobby you’re the one who figured out most of the riddles. You deserve the points too. You can’t just bail now.” Ellen said and smacked his arm. “I won’t let you. Now out with it. Tell us the last clue.”
Bobby handed her the ribbon and sighed. “The answer is ‘The gravedigger, for his houses will last forever’. We have to go to the graveyard.”
Ellen gasped. “The graveyard?”
“So we have to go to the graveyard? Is there ever one at Hogwarts?” Rufus asked
Bobby nodded, “It’s on the other side of the lake. There’s a shrine to the most influential people of Hogwarts. It’s not really a graveyard, it’s more like a memorial, but there are a few graves too.
“Bobby.” Ellen grabbed his arm. “I don’t know about this. It’s already dark, and Trelawney said-”
Rufus pushed in between them, “We didn’t come this far to wuss out now. This is why I’m on your team. I’ll protect you guys from any ghost or ghouls around.”
“You mean like Nearly Headless Nick?” Bobby couldn’t help but tease.
“You know what I mean.” He started forward and Bobby reached over and squeezed Ellen’s hand.
“It’s gonna be fine.” He was reassuring her true, but he was also reassuring himself. He’d be fine. Even though Trelawney said he would be going to his grave, and he was headed to a graveyard. It was going to be fine. She probably just meant he was going to ‘the grave’ as in the graveyard. She was probably trying to psych him out. It was probably another trick to keep the game from being too easy. So he took Ellen’s hand and they followed Rufus. They had to pick up their pace and jogged most of the way. If they wanted to make it before the game was over they’d have to hurry up. They got to the entrance and Bobby paused, swallowing a lump in his throat. Was it suddenly colder? Rufus clasped his shoulder grinning.
“We’re gonna make it Bobby. All we have to do is hurry up and find the last clue! We have time before Dinner starts. All we have to do is touch the last ribbon and we’re golden. It’ll count even if we’re late to the feast.” Rufus rubbed his hands together and walked through the gates. “So where should we look?”
Bobby took a steadying breath and walked through the gates. “If I had to venture a guess I’d say the tool shed. The answer to the clue is the gravedigger, not a grave so it would be on the tool that digs the graves. So if we find the shed we should be able to get the hell outta here.”
“Good idea.” Ellen said scanning the area.
“Should we spli-”
Ellen walked up and held a fist in Rufus’ face. “Finish that sentence, I dare you.”
“Alright,” Rufus held up his hands in surrender. “I’ll take that as a no.”
They started walking through the center of it and Bobby had to admit it was pretty damn beautiful actually. Each of the graves had a sort of glow on them, the names all shining off the polished stone. He ran his palm over one of them and felt how warm it was. This place really was a memory to those who’d been here before them. It didn’t feel evil, it actually filled him with a sort of calm. He turned and saw a shed just above them and grinned.
“There it is!”
Just as suddenly as he pointed he felt someone shove past him. His arms flew out but there was nothing to grab onto, only the air. So he started falling, but he didn’t hit the ground. No of course because that would have been too easy. He fell, and kept falling down some kind of hole. He finally stopped falling and all the wind knocked out of his chest as he landed.
“Bobby!!”
He heard yelling above him but it took him a few minutes to get his bearings enough to realize what was happening. He sat up gingerly.
“Balls.” He cursed and he heard Rufus sigh.
“Oh thank god. You Bastard! You scared us half to death! You got Ellen up here crying.”
“I am NOT crying. Bobby. Tell me you’re okay.”
Bobby winced and rubbed his chest. “Fine.” He looked around and the panic started to set it. “Except I’m in a damn grave! Get me outta here!”
“Got to covered buddy.” Rufus said and stuck a shovel down into the hole.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
Rufus sighed, “Grab onto it and I’ll pull you up.”
Bobby grumbled but didn’t see the point in arguing. He grabbed onto the thing and felt Rufus start pulling him up, he started pushing against the edge of the grave and started climbing out on his own. When he was close enough to the top Ellen reached in and grabbed his arm yanking him up the rest of the way. When he was finally topside he collapsed on the ground as Ellen crushed him in a hug.
“What happened?” He asked and Rufus pointed his thumb over his shoulder.
“A group of bastards saw you point out the last clue and thought they could swipe it before us. So they ran past, but then they knocked you over in their rush to get there. When they saw what they did they took off. I went to the shed to look for rope to pull you up but all there was, was this.” Rufus held up the shovel and Bobby laughed.
“Look.” He said pointing and Rufus followed his finger to see the ribbon hanging off the handle.
“Well I’ll be a son of a bitch.”
Bobby laughed again and winced when it hurt his chest. “I’d say you already are but I’ve met your mother and she’s a nice lady. Too nice to have you for a son.”
Rufus sat down next to Bobby and held out the shovel to him. “Go ahead Bobby. I guess falling in a grave qualifies you to win.”
Bobby shoved Rufus’s head. “We ALL got here together. So we’re all gonna win together.”
Ellen sat up and nodded, “Together.”
“Fine.” Rufus said shaking his head. “Together.”
They all put their hands together and then touched the ribbon at the same time. Everything was fuzzy for a second and then they were in the middle of the great hall holding the shovel between the three of them. The ribbon must have been a portkey. The Great Hall noticed them and exploded into applause. Rufus practically glowed under the praise. Ellen smiled and squeezed Bobby’s arm again affectionately.
“Ah it seems congratulations are in order. This year’s winners of the Scavenger Hunt are Hufflepuff and Gryffindor! Equal points shall be awarded to both teams, and,” Dumbledore snapped his fingers and three trophies appeared on the table in front of him, “I believe these belong to you.”
The Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables erupted into thunderous applause. Rufus started toward the table, then paused and leaned back and grabbed Bobby’s arm and pulled him along. Bobby was surprised. This was the moment of glory. The moment for Rufus to boast about. To show all the other Gryffindor’s what he’d done. His moment to shine. Bobby didn’t need the attention and Rufus knew that. He opened his mouth to say so when Rufus shoved his trophy into his hands.
“Together right?”
Bobby held the trophy and grinned, “Right.”
“Don’t forget about me. I know he’d your boyfriend and you loooove him-” Ellen started but Bobby turned and cut her off with a kiss. She grinned against him and kissed him back. He broke the kiss, aware that waaay to many people were watching and slung an arm around Ellen and Rufus.
“Together.”