antleredpsychopomp:

It seems to me that people tend to portray Hufflepuff as the house of sweetness-and-light. Hufflepuffs are eternally kind and caring and bake cookies for everyone. They bend over backwards to make everyone happy. They abhor violence and strife and value hard work for the sake of working hard. They are precious cinnamon rolls, too pure for this world.

That’s all well and good, but I want more nuance. Hufflepuff is the house that has canonically turned out the fewest dark wizards, but I don’t think it’s accurate to depict Hufflepuff as nothing but the cinnamon roll house.

Give me Hufflepuffs who despise hard work but do it anyway because somebody has to get everything done.

Give me Hufflepuffs who don’t trust easily and make you earn their loyalty, but will bring the world to its knees to avenge their loved ones.

Give me Hufflepuffs who are polite to strangers but will destroy somebody when they are wronged. 

Give me Hufflepuffs who are the most caring people on the planet, but only to those who have proven themselves trustworthy beyond a doubt.

Give me Hufflepuffs who come off as coldhearted and mean because they show their soft side only to those who make them feel safe and loved in turn.

Give me stale cinnamon rolls whose loyalty is near impossible to earn, but who give absolutely everything to their chosen family.

And you know what? I want to see Hufflepuff villains, too.

Give me Hufflepuff villains who guard their loyalty so closely that they are horrifically cruel to everyone they don’t feel has earned it.

Give me Hufflepuff villains who are loyal to the bone and work themselves half to death, but for all the wrong causes. 

Give me Hufflepuff villains who treat their inner circle like royalty, but who don’t care who else lives or dies.

Give me Hufflepuff villains who are vindictive and awful to those they see as lazy underlings.

Give me Hufflepuff villains.