#first house rules

[timetwistedtale]

"Does everyone have a seat yet? Now, everyone on the cream sofa, please shuffle to the right—I'm sure we can fit one more person there. Ah, thank you. There you go."

"Ethel will hand the hot chocolates, do pass them around so everyone can get one."

"First-years, from this day onwards, you are all part of House Hufflepuff! Congratulations!”

“Everyone here will help you to be the best that you can be and we will always be fair to you. Do you have a problem in your classes? Speak to one of the prefects! I’m sure there’s a study club you can join for the subject. In this house we are all family, and family takes care of each other.”

— Agatha Abbott, Seventh-year Hufflepuff Prefect and Head Girl.

“We are all family in Hufflepuff, yes. I remember a saying about it. All for one and one for all. Please keep that in mind.”

“This means that if anyone harms one of our own, we will all strike back. So please don’t backstab your House mates.”

“Harm one of your Housemates unprompted, sabotage them in some way and there will be consequences. Everyone will decide it in one of our Gatherings.”

“No one is going to curse or hex you—we’re not Slytherins. The worst punishment we do is to have the entire House ignore you for a period of time.”

“During that time, you do not exist.”

— Camellia Lee, Sixth-year Hufflepuff

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Strange Attractors, a Harry Potter fanfiction

[timetwistedtale]

"First years, welcome to Slytherin!”

"There are a few things establish here. I'm sure most of you have heard before, but we can all use the refresher."

"The first rule in Slytherin House is, there is no such thing as a free lunch."

"Did someone gift you something for no special reason? Because you're 'a good friend', or 'I heard you need this/love this'? Great! Thank them, be gracious about it and move on.*"

"*Don't forget to find something to gift them in return within the next month."

— Oswin Orpington, Seventh-year Slytherin Prefect.

“Hullo, Jonah. What brings you ‘ere?”

“You’re askin’ me to give your friend the talk about the favour system, that right? Why me? I’m sure Tom would be more eloquent on it and—ah, you don’t want to bother him. Good point. Let’s not bother milord for the trivial things.”

“Well, you see lad, nobody gives gifts out of the goodness of their hearts. Even friends give gifts ‘cause it also makes them feel good about themselves, if y’know what I mean?”

“So, if someone keeps gifting you a lot of gifts and doing favours and insisting it’s fine, I call bullshit on that. Stinks like a setup to me. Someone wants you to feel very indebted to them and then BAM! One day, they’ll have an emergency only you can help with and need you to do it quickly. Maybe it’s just delivering stuff. Maybe it’s just buying some cake. Doesn’t seem so complicated.”

“Yet emergency’s highly relative, innit? Attacking a rival when the chance happens to present itself is also an emergency. Guess where the evidence would point to when all is said and done?”

“Simply accepting gifts and favours without repaying them is also idiotic. You’d just come up as a thankless boor. Rejecting them outright is also insulting the giver. There’s a dance ‘ere, see? Gotta know how to play ‘em. Sometimes, accepting is the best thing to do and the other alternatives suck. Ain’t the end of the world, really, as long as you pay it back. Doesn’t even have to be something grand or big—everyone know first years can’t really do much, don’t worry.”

“So what ‘m saying is, watch the favours you get and tally them. Pay ‘em back. You don’t want to be indebted to the wrong person at the end of the day.”

— Vespasian Starkey, Fifth-year Slytherin and Walpurgis Knight,

talking to a younger follower of Tom Riddle.

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Strange Attractors, a Harry Potter fanfiction