Chapter 420: Permanent Transfiguration and Turning In Homework
First Wednesday of March, afternoon, second floor of the castle, the Transfiguration classroom.
Slytherin shared the period with Hufflepuff.
The two groups sat cleanly divided, Slytherin on the left, Hufflepuff on the right, an empty row of desks between them.
None of the bristling tension of a lesson shared with Gryffindor. The Hufflepuffs kept to themselves and spared the other side hardly a glance.
A few Hufflepuff girls in the back had their heads together, one of them prodding her slate with her wand while she murmured something, and the two beside her clapped hands over their mouths and laughed.
No Slytherin glared back. Their eyes passed over the Hufflepuffs' heads as though that half of the room stood empty.
Hufflepuff was glad of the peace. Nobody wanted a nest of snakes staring at them for an hour.
Each side minded its own business, quiet laughter and chatter on the right, something more subdued on the left, though hardly solemn.
The solemnity hadn't arrived yet.