as small as a world and as large as alone, featherwriter: I’m probably the last person you...

9:54pm June 12, 2014

I’m probably the last person you might expect to come up with Harry Potter headcanons, but I thought one up recently that I’m really quite proud of. Because what if there’s these students who get up there under the Sorting Hat and all they can think is “I have to be in the same house as my friend. My friend needs me with them, we have to stay together. I don’t care where I go so long as I’m there to help them.”

So, the Hat just thinks back at them. “Well, that’s a very loyal mindset that you have there. I think you’re a Hufflepuff.”

And the student just feels so desperate at this—which is of course the test after all—and says “No please you can’t put me in Hufflepuff! You have to put me their house! I can adapt, I swear! I’ll make it work!”

Which means of course that the Hat knows they’re ready for this and tells them: “Okay, here is the deal. You’re a Hufflepuff, but I’m placing you undercover in your friend’s house to stay with them and protect them.” The Hat calls out their “house” but the student knows deep down what house they’re really in, and the Hufflepuff Prefects know what just happened and they feel proud that there’s another stealth Hufflepuff out there, because the undercover members of their house are thought of as some of the strongest.

The student goes over to sit with their new table, ready to protect and help their friend and they’ll go move into the dorm, but after everyone goes to bed the Hufflepuff Prefects come and introduce them to their real house late at night. They get a special scarf that will change to their real Hufflepuff colors in special situations and are shown the secret passages into the Hufflepuff common room. And they meet the few other stealth Hufflepuffs in other houses, and the ones that are hiding in the same house as them give them tips for how to blend in among their fake house and the older undercover members look out for the younger ones.

All of Hufflepuff house knows about the stealth members, but they never let the other houses in on it, of course. It’s the great secret of the Hufflepuff house. They’re also all really respectful to anyone who managed to get a stealth member to bond with them and those students often don’t realize why the Hufflepuffs are always so nice to them, though they maybe figure it’s “just a Hufflepuff thing.”

And there’s a standing rule that there is one exception to the secret keeping rule: the stealth member can tell the person that they’ve gone undercover for what’s going on, but only if they figure it out. Because slowly, over time, their friend might realize that this loyal, protective friend doesn’t really fit in with the house they’re both in and might figure it out.

Okay, this was really a lot longer and more rambly than I was expecting, but yeah, stealth Hufflepuffs are a thing that should exist.