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It’s not that Harry sets out to make friends. What use are friends to a freak, after all? But well, everyone in his house is so damn nice- he doesn’t know how to react to all that casual kindness. It builds up into a debt that Harry is never sure he’ll ever repay. But that’s the thing about Hufflepuff, though. As much as they love betting, love intrigue, there is no such thing as debt among housemates. Among other houses? Sure. Favors are currency, stacked and gained and paid and owed.
But Helga Hufflepuff really meant it when she said she’d take the lot: the misfits and outcasts and those looking to fit in, in an unfit world.
“There is no debt among those who have nothing to lose from helping”. She’d say, once upon a time.
Harry doesn’t trust the words of a dead witch. But maybe he can trust the words of a living one, as wary as he is to do so. And Ron? Ron seems trustworthy. Everyone seems trustworthy, in their house, for the most part. Well it’s not like Harry likes everyone in Hufflepuff, but. There’s another saying among Hufflepuffs, that “there is no need to run from kindness.” There’s probably another part of the saying, but it’s been lost to time and even the school ghosts don’t know it- or won’t share.
Harry thinks the whole saying is probably something along the lines of trusting hands that reach out, unless there’s a knife in said hand. Or a wand. He’s still getting used to all the oddities of wizards, replacing well known idioms with weird and wonky ones that to him, make no sense. Ron tries to explain them to Harry sometimes, absolutely full to the brim of weird quotes and old wives and witches tales, but Harry is left bewildered every time.
**
Harry still has yet to introduce Ron, his first friend, to Hagrid, the first person that he actually considered his.
Maybe it’s the fear that Hagrid will bring up the dangerous and wild magic that swirled around them in the cafe that day. That Harry caused. There are some secrets that he’d prefer remain secret, and Hagrid, as kind and understanding as he is, would probably keep them. But Harry doesn’t trust easily.
Maybe it’s the worry that Hagrid and Ron will get along and leave Harry alone and outcast by the two people who he had claimed.
There’s a lot of worries in Harry, a lot of things unsettled that remain tumultuous and unsolved.
There’s a lot of things that Harry doesn’t trust.
It’ll pass, he tells himself: it’ll pass.
(It doesn’t).
**