Hufflepuff House Table
 

For James/Saki
 

It wasn't even half way through the day and Katerina was already exhausted she had charms, Potions and Divination all in one morning, the walking alone is what made her so tried. Now she was heading to the great hall, for lunch. She had at least worked up a appetite with all the studying and walking she had already done today.

She was glad that the Hufflepuff table was right by the door. Although she had to go back up to the owlery to send a letter off. And she had a Astronomy lesson tonight. More walking. Yay, just what she wanted. Not. She slumped down into the a seat. She put her head down on the table with a loud thud.

Ouch!

Of course, his stomach was grumbling and making whiny noises right after class. James rubbed his face, tired and hungry. He needed food to regain back his lost energy from this morning. And what better way to spend his lunch break in the great hall where all the delicious food at. As soon as he walked through the entrance doors, he noticed Kat already seated at her house table...alone? And yes he saw that. Ouch. That gotta hurt.

Grinning, he walked over to her table. "Hey, are you trying to test out how sturdy your house table is with your pretty forehead?" James joked, gently swept her hair back to check her forehead for any slight bruising.

The only voice that she would have raised her head at. She laughed lightly and sat up straight, Giving her boyfriend a smile. "Something like that. Why can't all the classrooms be on one floor?" She asked laughing again. Hopefully whatever they were having for lunch today was packed with protein, and would give her plenty of energy to get her through the rest of the day.

"Hungry?" Asking him with a grin. She moved over a bit to let him sit down with her at her table. She rubbed her forehead, "Sit down?" She was just sitting here alone and wouldn't mind his company, while she waited for her food.

Char did hold on tight, cackling with glee as they headed into the Great Hall. This was a TALLY HO moment, so of course she went there. Henry Whittebrook, her noble steeeeeed.

"Over there!" She pointed to the area where Henry usually tended to sit, the box containing his gift was underneath the table. Said gift had required Char to actually ask his parents if it was okay, and Char was SURE that he'd be excited about it. It MIGHT EVEN BE the best present she'd ever picked out for anyone ever.

Henry couldn't help but to laugh some, always finding Char's laughter to be deliciously contagious, but also having fun carrying her into the Great Hall and glad she was having a good time as well. He noticed there weren't too many people in there for breakfast yet, but even if he did spot a few of his friends he kept a hold of Char's legs rather than wave to anyone. He could say hi later. Besides, he was far too excited for his present!

He looked to where Char was pointing, but he was headed that way already. And good thing no one else was sitting where he normally sat. Eeee, he could see part of the box as they approached. "Is that my present?" he grinned, super excited, as he stopped near the table. He let go of her legs so she could hop down from his back. It might be hard to open a present with a clingy!Char still attached... though he could probably try!

"Yup!" Char was BEYOND excited to see his reaction. Honestly she wasn't even a bit nervous that he wouldn't like it. She hopped off his back and sat down, bouncing eagerly in her seat and making tiny squeaking noises.

Or actually, maybe the tiny squeaking noises weren't her. Maybe they were coming from the box....

Once Char took a seat at the table, Henry slid into the spot next to her and reached down underneath the table for the box. His excitement was pretty hard to contain at this point, though right now he wasn't sure who was more excited.

The box seemed oddly weighted as if something moved or shifted as he pulled it up and set it on the bench between them. And were there noises coming from the box too? He had to see what was inside and he made quick work of opening the box.

!!!!!

"Ohmygosh.." Henry's mouth dropped open a little in surprise, but he grinned as he reached into the box. "This is for me?"

So soft! So sweet! So cuddly and cute!

Heeeee. Charlotte watched avidly for Henry's reaction. Kitten for you, Henry Whittebrook! Little chocolate-brown-and-white kitten!

"He's all yours!" She leaned forward, smiling like crazy. "I already asked permission from your mum about if it would be okay, so you don't need to worry about that!"

It seemed as though Hogwarts itself had a little gift for the Hufflepuff...

Not soon after he'd opened his present, there was a blinding flash of light near the Hufflepuff table. A hole appeared out of nowhere and grew in size... growing bigger and bigger...

When it was big enough, the portal sucked up the Hufflepuff and transported him to another world. The box and whatever was inside dropped to the floor by the Gryffindor's feet.

Happy birthday, indeed.

Henry could not stop grinning as he gave the mewing kitten a gentle squish. This was an amazing surprise and one he would have never expected. "She said it was okay?" He couldn't believe the little bundle of fur was all his.

"This is the best present!" He was still so grinny as he set the kitten back in the box and reached for Char for a hug. "You're the best. Thank you." Really, as happy as he was, he could probably kiss her right now, but he knew that was not appropriate so he settled for an extended squishy hug.

Henry had just let go of Char and sat back a bit, the biggest smile still on his face as he looked down into the box at the kitty. He gave his soft fur a few little pets as the thought that he'd need a name crossed his mind. Or did he already come with a name?

He had just looked up at the girl next to him to voice those thoughts when the blinding flash of light caught his eye and made him turn his head. His eyes grew wide as a hole (?) opened up near them. "What is that?" He had heard some weird rumors about similar things, but before he could say anything else or make another move, he felt himself get pulled in, making a startled noise as it was too fast and sudden for him to do anything about it.

And Henry was gone.

trying to do this from my phone on a bumpy bus lol
 

This was exactly the kind of thing Declan thought his gift should warn him about. Except, it was a gift and not a power for a reason. He had no control over it. It played by its own rules. The blinding flash of light had paralyzed him momentarily but before he could form words he had gotten up in a sprint and ran towards the Hufflepuff table.

Despite whatever arguments, yelling, sassiness, and utter brattiness his sister could dish out, she was still his baby sister. There was no way he could allow her to get hurt by whatever that flash of light was.

As he arrived at the table a little breathless, there was screaming in the air. Declan watched her with furrowed brows.

"You alright?" he asked thinking that she didn't seem alright but at least she wasn't missing any body parts. "Althea?" He called out quickly after, craning his neck to find his sister. "Hey! Speak up, will you?"

The blinding light had done more than frighten Althea, she was enraged. The fourth year rubbed her eyes several times before looking around. Someone was screaming and acting frantic and Althea did not care. She picked up on a familiar voice: Declan.

Raising an arm and waving her brother over, she continued her meal, unbothered by the commotion around her. Clearly Harold had some lingering spirits that had unfinished business with him; how else could they explain his sudden the disappearance? "Stop shouting, it's unseemly and embarassing," she said sternly to Chartreuse. Or...was her name Charmaine? Charlotte?? She couldn't be bothered to remember. "Declan walk faster," she called out to him. Her brothers were so useless when she didn't give them explicit and direct instructions.

Char and the portal craziness
 

Gaston just happened to be passing by the Great Hall when he heard somebody screaming for help. A million terrible scenarios, each one worse than the last ran through his mind, but he tried to block out the frightening thoughts as he rushed to see what the fuss was about. He followed the noise to the Hufflepuff table and saw Miss Kettleburn... and was that a kitten she was holding? Never mind...

"Goodness! Whatever's the matter, Miss Kettleburn?" he asked, looking at the girl with concern. He suddenly remembered hearing her scream for Henry, but as his eyes searched the table, he saw no sign of the Hufflepuff boy anywhere. This had him even more worried. "D-did something happen to Mr. Whittebrook?"

Please say no, he thought, hoping against hope that he was mistaken.

Char had the kitten in her arms and she was still OBVIOUSLY distraught. Henry had DISAPPEARED in front of her! Just.... poof! Or.. schleerrrrrp! Or whatever the equivalent to a sucking noise might be!

"He's gone! Henry's gone! There was a hole and then light and then he disappeared!"

If it was a prank it wasn't a funny one, but then Char knew that Henry wasn't the sort who would play nasty tricks like that, not ever. No chance. It was definitely something bad.

Definitely.

"He's gone, professor!" And Charlotte was in a panic. "I don't know what it was! He's just gone! There was a hole all of a sudden and it sucked him in!" But not her, or the kitten. She cuddled it and stared at the space Henry had been, shaking and crying.

Gaston's blue eyes blinked in shock and confusion. Gone? How had that happened? He listened carefully to Miss Kettleburn's explantion. A hole? Sucked in? His heart dropped. That couldn't be another portal... could it?

The color had drained from his face, and he had to bow his head to hide the panic-stricken look in his eyes. His students need him to stay calm! First things first: comfort the distraught Gryffindor. "Calm down, Mi- Charlotte," he said softly. Normally he wouldn't call a student by her first name, but this wasn't the time to stand on formality. "It'll be alright; I promise we'll find him."

The dark-haired Frenchman reached into his pocket and handed the girl some tissues. He waited patiently for her to collect herself, and only when he thought she seemed calm did he ask her, "Did anyone else get sucked into the hole?"

The tears were definitely falling, and she was thankful for the tissues but they weren't going to stop her from being upset, not after what she had just seen. The little mews that punctuated the silence while she collected herself were just a reminder of how terrible it was that something like this could happen on Henry's birthday. Where WAS he? Was he okay? She was sure he had to be okay. She felt like she would know if... if....

... Char let out a sob.

"N-no. I grabbed the table. Nobody else. Henry couldn't grab anything because he had.... the k-kitten." Mew.

"When? When will we find him? Lets go now! Can we go now? Please? I'm g-good with my wand." Top dueler and everything! She just... didn't know... where she was supposed to look.

finally I make a post oop
 

Well, someone was unharmed. Declan breathed a sigh of relief and quickened his pace slightly to appease his sister. "I saw a flash of light. Thought maybe..." Something bad had happened and apparently something did happen if all the screaming and crying had anything to do with it.


"Oh," Declan said trying to find the right words to comfort or mutter. He wished he had predicted this--or had some kind of feeling but really he hadn't been able to add two and two together. So many had been disappearing he couldn't keep track. "I'm sorry. I'm sure the Professor will be able to figure something out."

Hopefully. Declan wasn't holding his breath but that wasn't something you could say out loud to someone who was crying their eyes out.

He nodded and mouthed a sorry to--he forget her name--and finished breaching the distance between himself and his sister.

"Althea. What did you see?"

"Chanise, calm down, here," Althea said in between bites; she extended a plate of chicken to help the girl through her crisis. "Try the chicken, it's exquisite." She figured that this was the best sort of help she could give her; it's not like Althea had some way of getting Hugo back. "Oh, you've finally arrived," she said, motioning Declan to sit next to her. "Chicken?" she offered her brother the same plate she offered Chanel, because clearly the older girl did not appreciate poultry when it was cooked well.

Declan asking her what she saw would only end in disaster, but Althea humored him anyway. "I saw light, which, it was so rude, Declan, I didn't ask to be disrupted like that." It wasn't much of an answer, so Althea added on. "And then Hunter just bloop, vanished. Just like that. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so obviously tragic," she said solemnly. Though, he probably wasn't dead; Hector seemed like the sort who could take care of himself during a crisis. "Oh, and I think that Charlie and Harper were in the middle of a date when it all happened. So so tragic," she muttered, then as an act of kindness she addressed Charlotte. "My condolences, you guys look--looked--lovely together."

Char and the Kennings
 

Seeing Miss Kettleburn cry like this was making Gaston sad. He cared for all his students as if they were his own children, and it broke his heart to see them upset! He wanted to give the poor girl a hug, but he thought that would be inappropriate and refrained. He racked his brains for something to say to make her feel better. "i'm so sorry, Charlotte," he said, not even trying to disguise the sadness in his own eyes. "I can't even begin to imagine how horrible it must've been for you to see that!" He couldn't blame her for being upset. He didn't want to know what he'd be like if Rose disappeared!

He sighed. "The best thing you can do for Henry now is try to stay calm," he said with a forced but encouraging smile. "you'll be better able to look for him with a clear head. You think you can do that?" He knew she could; there was a reason she'd been placed in Gryffindor!

Gaston listened carefully to Charlotte's answer to his question, trying to riddle out what that hole was, and he couldn't help but overhear the Kennings' conversation. He thought Miss Kenning was being a little callous, but he decided to let it slide... for now, but if she upset Charlotte worse it would be a different story. Mr. Kenning's words earned a polite nod, however. "Thank you for the vote of confidence, Mr. Kenning," he said.

Now he was really worried! He was relieved that nobody else had been sucked into... whatever that thing was, but the more he heard, the more it sounded like another portal. He turned his attention back to Miss Kettleburn as she was practically begging to go and look for Henry now. "Of course," he replied. "Where do you think we should look first?" He already had an idea what she was going to say, but he just wanted to make sure they were on the same page.

short post XD I wish she was inclined to interact more right now lol
 

Char also hoped that the professor could sort things out, but why was she being offered chicken? And who was the chicken girl even talking to? It didn't occur to Charlotte in the slightest that someone wouldn't know her name, and besides, she wasn't exactly thinking straight enough to query that bit or to register this 'on a date' thing either.

Stay calm? She was trying though! Really! But she nodded. She could do whatever she had to do. Anything.

But when the professor asked her where she thought they should look, she gave him a blank stare. "I don't know where." This was the first she'd seen or heard about anything so strange! "Everywhere!"

Did the professor know something?

sorry I have gotten bad at quoting multiple people these days
 

Declan did not want to be that annoying person who overheard a conversation. Except he was that person. He was nodding and humming along to what Althea was telling her but his eyes kept drifting back to the familiar girl and the professor. He really should do something about not remembering names. He took the plate of chicken Althea offered. Declan made some kind of approving noise about chicken and paired it up with a wide eye look of starvation before he put the plate down on the table almost instantly.

"Yes, light does have a tendency to shine bright at the most inoportune times," He said quickly to Althea between her speaking and went back to humming and nodding. Hunter? Declan was almost certain that was not his name. "Just vanished? No kicking or screaming? No being dragged by another entity? Just a bright light and poof he was gone?" There had to be a hint in there somewhere. How did people vanish in light? Did he evaporate? Declan switched his gaze to where the familiar girl had indicated her friend had been. He didn't see a pile of dust, shoes left behind or anything. How strange! Declan barely heard the 'date' comment and just nodded along to Althea. He heard condolences somewhere in there so surely his sister was being some brand of sympathetic here.

"May I...say something?" Declan inquired shyly raising up his hand instinctively. He glanced sideways at his raised hand and brought it back down awkwardly. He wasn't inside a classroom. Why did he do that for? "I've read that mirrors can be used to take glances of other realms, which, I mean, aren't this one where we are standing right now. Of course it's usually a one way communication only..." It was a pointless idea and he cleared his throat as he felt his face heat up. "It was just a thought."

He wished he had access to a large mirror--one that wasn't the dirty ones in the boys' lavatory.

"Sorry that I'm not more helpful," he tacked on and averted his gaze. "If you need help looking, I can help." Declan pretty much spent his nights sneaking around anyway. He was familiar with dirty corners of the castle.

The drama was just too dramatic and Althea had no idea why everyone was frantic. She zeroed in on the panicking girl and narrowed her eyes at her. "Don't ignore me, you rude rat, I'm being helpful in your time of distress," she took a gulp of her pumpkin juice and faced her brother again. "Yeah, he just vanished. It was the strangest thing. No kind of struggle at all either." Which Althea found extremely suspicious. At the very least they had a professor to help sort all of this madness out--which is why Althea could not understand how Charlize could continue to panic and complain. At some point someone would have to tell her to be quiet (again.)

She was grateful that Declan found her or else she might have made to matters worse with her unsolicited advice. As he prattled on Althea nodded in tandem with each of his points; she was very surprised that they hadn't considered this method in the first place. Weren't professors supposed to be smart? "He's right y'know, you can trust him on these sorts of things." She supposed if Declan offered his services, Althea would help as well. Hayden was nice (from the brief interactions Althea had with him.) He didn't deserve this kind of treatment at all.

Miss Kettleburn was beginning to clam down now, which Gaston was very glad to see. When she nodded in reply to him, he gave her a small smile. "I knew you could," he said, and he couldn't help but beam when she said they should look everywhere. Miss Kettleburn was exemplifying the best qualities of Gryffindor house right now, and he couldn't be prouder! He looked into the girl's eyes, and his voice dropped as he added, "I'm sure this is the last thing on your mind right now, but I'm giving you five points for your courage and devotion to your friend. Now let's find Henry!"

He turned toward the door, expecting Miss Kettleburn to follow, but he wheeled around at the sound of Mr. Kenning's voice. The professor was slightly taken aback when he raised his hand but chose not to comment on it. "Of course, Mr. Kenning. Go ahead," he said, nodding slightly. It was an interesting point he made... if only they had a mirror they could use to contact Henry. Still something the boy said stuck in his mind. Gaston shook his head when Mr. Kenning apologized for not being more helpful. "Not at all, Mr. Kenning," he said. "I think you may be onto something. Do you think Henry was taken to another realm?" He smiled when the Slytherin volunteered to help look. "Thank you, Mr. Kenning; five points to Slytherin for helping."

Gaston heard what Miss Kenning said to Miss Kettleburn, and he was not having that! Could she not see that the other girl was distraught?! She wasn't ignoring her on purpose. His eyes burned like bluebell flames as he shot her a reprimanding look. His instinct was to angrily tell her off, demand an apology, and dock house points, but he thought better of it. The last time he went into overprotective professor!dad mode, it didn't end well! He took a deep breath and calmly said, "That was a very unkind thing to call her, Miss Kenning. The next time I hear name-calling, it will be points loss." Somehow he doubted the girl would want to join them in the search for Henry, but he still invited her. "Would you like to join us, Miss Kenning?" There would be house points in it for her if she did!