Susan and Hannah ran down the hallway, tears streaming down both their faces. Both were desperate to do something; the injustice that was playing out in front of their eyes was completely abominable. They needed to find a sympathetic ear, a professor who would listen to them and make everything okay again.
Susan had been incredibly lucky to get out of the clutches of those awful boys. Andrew had finally let her go with a sneer of contempt, saying, "Fine. Tell the professors, but you're not going to get far. They'll see that Jeff's right, that removing Harry will be for our safety."
And as soon as Susan had been released, she and Hannah had made a run for it. They'd left the common room as fast as their legs could carry them, and they were now running down the corridor.
It was a firm rule in Hogwarts that no student was allowed to go to the staff room, but Susan figured that the circumstances called for an exception to that rule. They had already pounded on the door of Professor Sprout's office only to receive no reply. It was her who they trusted the most; surely, she would understand, and make this whole awful situation better. After they had no luck in finding her in her office, Hannah had said with conviction, "We'll just go to the staff room, then."
As they continued their walk there, a walk that never seemed to end, Susan's heart pounded loudly in her chest. She had always known that there were people in her house who had a huge problem with Harry, but it seemed like before now, the comments about him were just phrases muttered beneath breaths, but for those individuals, Cedric's death had made their vitriol rise to a dangerous level. Susan had had many discussions with her Aunt Amelia over the years about how, when people were afraid, that fear could transform people into monsters, and make them do things that were beyond comprehension.
Cedric's terrified face, his wide-open, lifeless eyes, and the awful, undeniable stillness of his body filtered through Susan's mind again, and she knew she was terrified, too. But how was the solution proposed the right thing to do? True, Harry had a madman after him, and Cedric died because he was standing beside him at a pivotal moment. But how in Merlin's name was this Harry's fault? How could her housemates think that denying Harry a further Hogwarts education could solve the situation at all?
If anyone was to blame other than You-Know-Who and his disgusting band of followers, it was the adults' fault as well. Why hadn't they done more when Harry's name came out of the Goblet of Fire? Had they really been convinced that he had put it in himself? Well, she knew most of them had realized he hadn't. But why in Merlin's name hadn't more been done to stop Harry from competing? She understood it was a magical contract, but she wondered what could have happened if the contract had been broken. Surely, surely, it didn't work like an Unbreakable Vow? Would something terrible have befallen Harry if he didn't compete? And, if it had, why would something of that nature be done to school children? There were puzzle pieces that didn't fit, and there were things extremely wrong with this whole picture.
And now, many in Hufflepuff House were putting the blame for Cedric's death in entirely the wrong place. She remembered his broken, stricken sobs from the night before, and his refusal to let go of the older champion. Both faces screamed despair: Harry's grief-filled one and Cedric's empty, blank one. This would be etched forever into Susan's memory, and she and Hannah were going to make things right. They would do what Cedric would have wanted, and seek justice for the unfair blame that was being thrust onto Harry's shoulders. Looking into Hannah's tear-streaked face, she also couldn't be prouder of her friend; she knew Hannah was doing this to further seek redemption for her wrongful accusations two years ago.
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