Just Another Year (Completed)

Truths

She had several plans to deal with the dragon, although it all depended on which one she got. But with her luck she would get the largest and most dangerous. Plan one (raw meat soaked in calming draught)
Plan two (flame freezing charm then multiple stunners to vulnerable parts of the body)
Plan three (out fly the 10 ton flying mass)
Plan four (get in and forfeit)
She was proud of herself, she had multiple plans and if none of them worked she could just wing it.
She had sent Hedwig out with several letters. One to the goblins, one to a law firm and lastly one to the DMLE. (Department of Magical Law Enforcement) If anything she would be getting answers to long overdue questions.
She sighed silently, people were looking at her and whispering again. This time however she just blocked it out. That was until someone sat across from her. She looked up and groaned. It was non other then her fellow champion Cedric Diggory.
"Can I help you Mr. Diggory?" She asked and then continued to eat. She needed to gain as much weight as she could before going back to hell this summer.
"How did you know?" He asked her quietly. She cocked her head to the side.
He chuckled a bit, she had done that before and he found it so innocent and cute. "About Cho bullying the younger years?" His voice was still a whisper.
"Was it suppose to be a secret? I thought everyone knew." She shrugged her shoulders. "Same thing is happening in Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Gryffindor."
He looked shocked. "Explain please." He seemed to almost beg.
"Smith...he claims to be a descendant of Helga Hufflepuff, he lords it over any younger then him saying if they don't listen he can have them kicked from the house." Diggory grit his teeth as he listened to her talk. "The Slytherins are a bit difficult do to their social structure. But the seventh years treat everyone else practically like house elves. The first years bear the most. They are pressured to conform to the image that the house itself possesses." He looked confused. So she tried to explain. "Children who have been raised by bigots become bigots. When they come to hogwarts they don't know any better and instead of enlightening them the older student make sure they stay bigots." He nodded in understanding.
"What about Gryffindor? The house isn't full of saints." He joked.
Her eyes narrowed. "Take a look Diggory. The great hall is full and yet you are the only one sitting by me. I'm an outcast in my own house. A house my family has brought pride to for generations. And yet here we are, while they are glad I'm in the tournament but they can't even believe for one minute that I didn't do it myself." She scoffed. "For eternal fame and glory. Tell me Cedric off the top of your head name one just one triwizard champion." He open his mouth to answer but he couldn't remember. "Exactly. But my name, everyone in the wizarding world knows my name, I'm in history books. My name will forever go down in history as the girl who survived the unsurvivable."
He suddenly seemed to look at her in a new light. "You really do hate it don't you?"
"You already know the answer." She gathered her things and stood up. "As much fun as this conversation is Mr. Diggory I must be getting to class." She left the hall, whispers following her as her robes flowed behind her.
He stilled his own features and stood up, making his way back to his own table.
There was an inner prefect system inside Hufflepuff, and while he was not the head boy of hogwarts, he was the head boy inside the house.
"House meeting, now." His cold demeanor was something they had never seen before but they listened and made their way back to the common room as he went to inform Professor Sprout.
As he made his way to the common room with Sprout following close behind. Everyone inside was separated by year group. He glanced over everyone his eyes lingering on the forth years just a bit longer and he noticed Smith sitting front and center to the group.
"I am only going to ask this once. I want you to be truthful. I also want you to remember that the only ones who can punish you are the Prefects, Professors and the Headmaster. No one in this school has the power to remove a person from their house, not even the headmaster." His eyes zeroed in on a paling Zacharias Smith.
A first year stepped forward.
"You mean we don't have to follow the Heir of Hufflepuff rules?" The question was so innocent, yet it infuriated the older students. Cedric knelt down to the first years height.
"The only rules you follow are the school rules." He reassured her.
"Smith said we had to follow his rules. When we first come to the common room he corners the first years." A second year student said.
"He makes us pay a tax every month. He says if we don't he will have us removed from Hufflepuff and kicked out of school."
Sprout was angry now. "Mr. Smith my Office now!" She turned a softer face to the rest of the house. "I want you all to write up what exactly he has made you do and how much money he's taken from each of you. The older year get back to classes. I don't know how this happened. But in this house we do not treat our housemates like this."