Four massive hourglasses stood side by side. On most days, students from the other three Houses would glance enviously at Gryffindor's hourg
Four massive hourglasses stood side by side.
On most days, students from the other three Houses would glance enviously at Gryffindor's hourglass as they passed—its column of brilliant red rubies towering well above the rest.
But this morning, as Olega, a fifth-year Hufflepuff, walked by wearing lighter clothes due to the warming weather, he happened to glance up, sighed softly, and kept walking.
Then he stopped mid-step, a flicker of confusion crossing his face.
Wait… did I see that right?
He turned around.
And stood there, stunned.
...
He took off running to tell his classmates the unbelievable, thrilling news.
Word spread quickly—passed from one mouth to another—and confirmed by other students who had also seen it for themselves.
Soon, nearly everyone in the school knew: something had changed with Gryffindor's hourglass.
Bai Fu, the sixth-year Gryffindor prefect, only found out after overhearing hushed whispers. After asking around, he rushed to see it for himself.
A crowd still lingered at the hourglasses, murmuring and exchanging glances.
The looks on their faces made Bai Fu deeply uneasy.
"Make way, let me through," he said loudly.
Everyone knew who he was—one of the top Gryffindors—so they opened a narrow path, and Bai Fu squeezed his way in.
Many of the students wore poorly concealed looks of schadenfreude.
There were so many of those smug expressions that even a blind man could feel the cold chill they gave off.
Bai Fu had a rough guess already—but even he hadn't expected the rubies to have dropped that much.
As of yesterday:
Hufflepuff: 332 points (4th)
Ravenclaw: 406 points (3rd)
Slytherin: 432 points (2nd)
Gryffindor: 583 points (1st)
Gryffindor had been leading by an almost untouchable margin.
Even though Slytherin had won the House Cup six years in a row, they'd never done so in such a dominant fashion.
Slytherin had only been ahead of Ravenclaw by about twenty points.
But Gryffindor? They were more than 150 points ahead of Slytherin.
And now? Bai Fu stared at the Gryffindor hourglass—it looked like it barely beat Hufflepuff's. No—maybe it was even lower.
His long-time rival, the Slytherin prefect Xin Ruiao, stood proudly by Slytherin's hourglass, raising an eyebrow with a smug, false smile. "Wow, why's Gryffindor's total so low? Surely the hourglass isn't broken?"
Normally, Bai Fu would've snapped back immediately.
But not now. He had more urgent things to do—like reporting this to Professor McGonagall.
Even if he thought a malfunction was unlikely, it had to be checked.
He pushed through the crowd and took off running.
The rest of the students slowly dispersed—but everyone remained curious about what had happened.
...
By lunchtime, the truth started leaking from within Gryffindor House.
"Did you hear?"
"Hear what?"
"Gryffindor lost all those points because someone broke the rules."
"Seriously?! What could anyone possibly do to lose that many?" the other student gasped.
"It's true! Professor McGonagall told Bai Fu herself."
"So who was it?"
The speaker glanced around, then whispered, "Harry Potter."
That was a conversation between two Ravenclaws.
Similar conversations were taking place all over Hogwarts.
Now, whenever students mentioned "Harry Potter," there was a subtle change in their tone.
...
Bai Fu sat at the lunch table, frowning at his food, completely without appetite. And he wasn't the only one—his fellow Gryffindors looked just as grim.
"Two hundred and fifty points… gone in one go. At least we're still one point ahead of Hufflepuff. Dropping from first to last would've been too humiliating," Bai Fu muttered.
One of his friends gave a bitter laugh. "You didn't hear? A teacher gave Hufflepuff three points this morning. They've passed us. We really are in last place."
Bai Fu dropped his fork.
...
Gryffindor dropping to last place brought joy to the entire school—except for Gryffindor itself, of course.
Slytherin was ecstatic. They were back on top. The House Cup is as good as ours again this year, they thought smugly.
Ravenclaw was energized—now that Gryffindor was out of the way, they had a real shot. Slytherin was only ahead by twenty-something points. The Cup's still up for grabs!
Hufflepuff was the happiest of all. In their eyes, they hadn't just overtaken third-place Gryffindor—they'd toppled the former champions.
They'd surpassed the House that had seemed unbeatable.
...
All day long, people greeted Harry with a variety of cold and mocking tones.
Especially the older students, who spoke to him with the smug superiority of veterans scolding a clueless first-year.
Their disapproval was written all over their faces.
Hermione stayed by Harry's side all day, so she heard every nasty word. She knew better than anyone just how cruel some of them were.
At first, she tried to explain that she shared some of the blame for the point loss—but the tall older students would just glance at her and say, "Oh," before turning back to scolding Harry.
Eventually, she stopped trying.
She began to sense that this wasn't just about House points.
These students were targeting Harry—not just out of concern for the House Cup, but because of jealousy or something deeper. The moment he made a mistake, they had pounced, eager to take the moral high ground and punish him.
Of course, they might not even realize their own motivations. To them, they truly believed they were just defending Gryffindor's honor.
So the day dragged on.
...
As the bell rang, a stream of students flowed out of the Charms classroom, robes fluttering, books in hand.
A few of them glanced sideways at a certain figure ahead.
Now that they believed Harry had cost them the House Cup, their expressions were full of conflicted emotions.
They were his classmates. They knew how exceptional he was. But after hearing so much criticism, even they couldn't help wondering: was it really Harry's fault?
"Harry, those upper-years have no right to scold you," Ron grumbled. "They've lost plenty of points in Snape's class themselves."
He glanced at Harry, expecting him to be furious. But Harry didn't look the least bit angry.
So Ron added, "Still… they weren't totally wrong. I mean, losing two hundred and fifty points in one go…"
Hermione's eyes widened. "Ron!"
Ron shrank back, muttering to himself as he drifted away.
"Harry, don't listen to him," Hermione said urgently.
She thought Harry could brush off criticism from older students, but being judged by his own classmates must have hurt.
She was deeply thankful they'd reconciled the night before. Otherwise, today, she'd have had to watch Harry face all of this alone.
Harry gave her a helpless smile. "Didn't I tell you? I don't care what they say—no matter who it is."
Hermione stared at him, trying to tell if he was being honest—because she truly cared about him.
She leaned in slightly, and before she realized it, Harry's face was suddenly very close—nearly touching hers.
She jumped back and blushed. "What are you doing?!"
Harry grinned. "You were staring for so long—I thought you wanted a kiss. Just trying to be helpful."
Hermione gave him a playful glare and stormed off, ignoring the "pervert" behind her.
But deep down, she felt reassured.
Because Harry really did treat all those harsh words like nothing more than the buzzing of flies.
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⚡ The Rebirth of Harry Potter
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