Chapter 81: Hufflepuff’s Unconventional Group Activity
After dinner, everyone headed back to their common rooms. On the way, Cedric was still puzzling over the evening's events. "Why was Professor Snape so angry, I wonder," he muttered, rubbing his chin. "Could someone have broken into his storage room over the holidays?"
It was widely known at Hogwarts that Snape kept a private storage room stocked with extremely rare potion ingredients. Rumor had it that even the carpet was made of dragon skin and that just blindly grabbing anything from the shelves could earn a small fortune in Galleons at Diagon Alley. Judging by Snape's mood earlier, if his storage room really had been raided, he must have lost something significant.
"Don't overthink it," Kyle said, pulling out his wand and tapping a barrel near the common room door. "Maybe he just got a Christmas gift he didn't like."
Cedric gave him a sideways glance, eyebrows slightly raised. "That miser—never satisfied with anything he gets."
The passage opened, and they stepped into the Hufflepuff common room, which, despite being only a little past dinner, was already packed with people huddled over wooden tables, furiously working through their holiday assignments. Not only were the tables crowded, but the floor was practically covered with students, more arriving every few minutes. The entire room was overflowing, leaving barely any space to stand.
Kyle blinked in surprise. Was this some kind of Hufflepuff group tradition? Wouldn't it be odd if he didn't join in? But he'd already finished his homework ages ago, and he couldn't very well redo it.
"Don't look so surprised; it was like this last year, too," Cedric said, patting Kyle's arm. "Our prefect always tells us that holiday time is too precious to waste on homework."
Cedric's prefect, ironically, was himself among the "homework army," hunched over a desk in the corner, scribbling madly. He'd had a desk to himself earlier but had just relinquished it to a couple of desperate first-years.
Serves him right for being prefect, Kyle thought.