Foolproof

Mr. Muldoon had been there for a good couple of days by this time, and a lot of the students at Hogwarts knew by now to get out of his way. Whenever he needed to get somewhere, he barreled through all the students, giving them as much attention as he gave his unruly brown hair, which was next to nothing. However, one or two students had yet to learn Muldoon’s ways of getting from place to place in the castle, and at that very moment, he was shoving himself through a crowd of excitedly speaking Hufflepuff students. One of said students was Adelayde Dodd, a sixteen-year-old sixth year at Hogwarts, and since being knocked over by Muldoon, she had wobbled, stumbled, tripped over her own robes, and face planted into another student’s shoes.

Groaning, Adelayde sat up and held her head in both her hands as she felt the blood pounding through the veins in her temples, making her vision swim as she tried to stand. She, of course, ended up falling again, straight into the arms of a mysterious boy who seemed almost reluctant to catch her, as if he had caught her by accident.

This mysterious boy was none other than Allen Flume, a seventh-year Slytherin who usually cared for no one but himself. This scene was a rare sight indeed, and it embarrassed him to even be touching a student from a different house, let alone a Hufflepuff. It was his firm belief that Hufflepuff students might as well be muggles, because more than half were muggle-born anyways.

Adelyade, on the contrary, was one to prove him otherwise. She is one of the top students of her class; number four, she boasts to her minimal amount of friends. Adelayde had always been the least-favored child in her opinion, seeing as her twin sister Brooke was always so much better than her at everything. Except Quidditch, a sport which Brooke could never master, seeing as she almost failed out of Flying in first year. Adelayde, on the other hand, had been Hufflepuff’s star player as the Seeker for her house’s team. She took pride in her best friend and broom – a Firebolt, the world’s fastest broom – that she had named Franklin after her father.

“Oh goodness, I’m so sorry,” Adelayde said in a voice smooth like red velvet cake, yet slightly high pitched; almost squeaky, like a mouse. She tucked a strand of her white blonde hair behind her ear as she looked up at the seventh year Slytherin, who completely towered over her small frame.

Allen Flume is notorious for snide comments, and was just about to make a new famous one, when he actually got a good look at her face. She was beautiful, he had concluded in less than a second, and when he heard her speak, he couldn’t help but smile. She sounded so small, like a young child. She looked up at him meekly, afraid of what he would do to her. Although, upon seeing him smile, she gained a little more courage and stood up straight rather than cowering before him.

“No, no, don’t be sorry, sweetheart,” Allen said suavely as he pulled her into a one-armed hug around her waist. She struggled a bit, but he was much too strong for her. “It’s completely fine.”

Adelayde struggled no more; she just gave up and scowled at the floor. She wasn’t usually one to give up, but this was the first time a boy had talked to her since last year, when she spoke to a Ravenclaw boy named Rayus, who was, as fast as he had come up to her, shot down for speaking to a Hufflepuff – a muggle-born Hufflepuff. So he stopped speaking to her and she hadn’t spoken to a boy since.

“A-are you sure?” Adelayde asked the boy, stopping her scowling and looking up at the boy.

He smiled a wolfish grin at his friends, who were snickering at his other side and behind him. He gave one of them a one-eyed smile and a thumbs up, which was returned immediately. “I promise, it’s fine.” Now, when Allen Flume made a promise, he never kept it, but this time he meant it. He always meant it when he was talking to a pretty girl. The Hufflepuff smiled at him.
He returned the gesture as he finally looked down to look her in the eye. “My name is Allen Flume. I’m sure you’ve heard of me,” he said to her almost royally, shrugging as he said his last sentence.

“Actually, no, I haven’t,” Adelayde answered, and her response was returned with many “Ooooh’s” from his friends, along with a “Burn!” and a “You just got schooled, Flume!” She giggled at their responses, nervous, and said quickly, “My name is Adelayde.”

“Aw, shut up, you bunch of arses,” Allen said, waving a dismissive hand and letting go of Adelayde. “What a pretty name, Adelayde,” he told her, leaning down so his head hovered next to hers.

Adelayde furrowed her brow at the boy. Never before had she gotten a compliment on anything from the opposing gender, so hearing that from someone she’d met maybe a minute ago was shocking, yet a thrill at the same time. Her heart began to thump inside her chest as his face became extremely close to hers. “Uh…” She looked around for something to get his face away. “I gotta get to Herbology. Uh – bye!” And with that, Adelayde sped out of sight.

Allen, disappointed his charm hadn’t worked on her, simply laughed it off with his friends, who were at the current time laughing so hard they were shaking.

Adelayde was speed-walking as far away from the strange boy as possible and ended up walking straight into a conversation between Mr. Muldoon and a student at Hogwarts. She immediately went back around the corner and hid there, listening carefully as she snuck a peek at what they were doing. The student was facing the opposite way, so she couldn’t identify who it was, or even their house. However, she could see that Mr. Muldoon was handing the student a purple substance in a flask. A flask which was quickly stuffed into a pocket. In return, all the student had to do was sign a paper that looked much like a contract.

“Are you sure this will work?” the student asked. “Are you sure it will make my friend magical?”

Mr. Muldoon smiled and pulled his hood up as he slid the signed contract from the student’s hands. “Promise.”