A/N
The House
House: Hufflepuff
Student: Year 6
Category: Drabble (200-900 Words)
Prompt(s): [Character] Gregory Goyle
Word count: 713 (Per Google Docs)
Beta(s): Aya, Bailey

Notes: OOC!Gregory Goyle is smarter than he lets on

Knowing Yourself

Greg sat in the library of his family home as the snow fell in flurries outside the window. He had opted to come home for Christmas this year. He had been putting off doing his holiday homework, but his mother found him and started in on him about his grades again.

"I don't understand, Gregory. Why are you having so much trouble now? You were perfectly fine in your studies before you started at Hogwarts!" A disappointed sigh followed his mother's rant.

Greg clenched his hands into tight fists as he kept his head lowered. He hadn't moved from the chair he had been reading in when his mother came.

"Well? Say something."

Greg inhaled sharply, then finally lifted his head. "I can't have better grades than Malfoy."

Nora took a step back and sat abruptly in the chair opposite him. "You can't what?"

"I can't get better scores in class than Malfoy," he repeated. "In potions, it's a hassle just to deal with the professor and scrape in an Acceptable, but in our other classes… I can't be better than him."

"But… but why?" Nora stared at her son in disbelief. "You are smarter than this– better than this!"

Greg shrugged. "Father said I shouldn't insult him, and when I understand things faster in class, Malfoy goes off. It's just easier."

"No." Nora stood. "You are not jeopardizing your future because of a snot-nosed brat who thinks he deserves everything just because his daddy is someone special."

Greg flinched, "But Father—"

"Your father is not the boss in this house, I am." Nora stood and walked the few feet to stand before her thirteen-year-old son. "Come with me. We're going to have a word with the Deputy Headmistress about your elective courses. None of the Goyle or Yaxley bloodlines have Seer capabilities so you don't need Divination. You don't need Care of Magical Creatures either since none of the Goyle holdings have anything to do with it. Instead, you should be in Arithmancy and Runes."

Greg stood in a daze, keeping his gaze locked on the floor. "Do you… Mother, do you think I could ask for a resorting?"

Nora appraised her son and nodded once. "I didn't really understand why you went to Slytherin when you are more like me– a Hufflepuff."

Greg finally looked up at his mother and smiled brightly. The hope shining in his eyes nearly took her breath away. Here was the boy she raised, not the hollow shell that he had become.

"I think we should talk with Professor McGonagall and see what we can do to get you where you need to be. Go grab that stack of completed assignments you think I don't know about in your trunk so we can prove that you deserve what we are requesting."

Greg kissed his mother's cheek and ran to do as she asked. Things were going to get better. He would send a letter to Vincent and let him know what he had done so that he wouldn't be blindsided.

He made his way back to his mother. "Um, Mother?"

"Yes, dear? Are you ready?"

"Can we bring Vin? He's in the same position as me…" Greg trailed off.

Nora just nodded and called for their elf to send a note to Jezabel, Vincent's mother.

When it came back with an approval for them to go to the Crabbe home, they left immediately.

After just thirty minutes of conversation between the parents, during which the two teens played a game of chess, the four were on their way to Hogwarts.

The day everyone returned to the castle after the break, there was an uproar. Malfoy threw a fit that his 'lackeys' were no longer Slytherins, and Vincent and Gregory argued that they had every right to be Hufflepuffs. It took the professors nearly twenty minutes to get everyone to settle down.

Afterward, the two were approached by multiple students asking how they'd gotten a transfer into Hufflepuff. The biggest surprise was when Granger and Potter both approached them and asked if they'd like to study together sometime. Greg stared in amazement while Vincent agreed to a tentative study plan with two-thirds of the Golden Trio. Their Hogwarts days were about to get a lot more interesting.