𝟗 𝐬𝐞𝐩 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟑
yunhee sat at the hufflepuff table, her hands running through her light brown hair as she tried to plait it. since it had gotten longer it had become frustrating to deal with and harder to style, but she loved her hair and hadn't considered cutting it. usually, she'd ask chenle to help her, but he had disappeared and she wasn't sure where to, so she sat waiting for him, bored, for several minutes.
"you look like you're having trouble doing that." a voice said from behind her.
she looked over her shoulder at the boy with an eye smile and welcoming look on his face. throughout the two years, she had grown used to him randomly appearing to talk to her and she enjoyed it very much.
"jeno." she acknowledged, moving her hand away from her hair to wave at him. "yeah, my arms hurt."
"let me help." he said and she nodded, letting go of her hair. he took over, running his hands through her hair, taking out any knots as he plaited it perfectly.
"how come you know how to plait hair?" she asked, feeling his fingers move around strands.
"i have a younger sister. she taught me just so she could force me to do her hair when she didn't want to." he laughed, thinking back to the times that would happen.
"i wish i had a younger sister. it must be nice having one."
"it is nice when she's not throwing a fit." he hummed then let go of her hair, letting the two plaits drop onto her back. "all done."
"lifesaver. thank you." she thanked.
"he's been sighted! he's been sighted!" seamus, an irish boy from gryffindor, called out, placing a newspaper on the table. jeno glanced at her, then the two got up to go look at what he was talking about.
"who?"
"sirius black."
"dufftown? that's not far from here."
"you don't think he'd come to hogwarts, do you?"
at that moment, while everyone was busy talking about sirius black, chenle entered the great hall and walked straight over to yunhee who was peering over renjun's shoulder.
"yun, what's going on?"
"chenle, finally. you're here." she said, linking her arm with his and pulling him next to her so he could see the newspaper on the table. "sirius black was sighted."
"in hogwarts?!"
"no, not in hogwarts," mark told him. "but there's no telling how long it will take before he manages to get in. he's slipped past demonters before, maybe he could do it again."
"you're quite the optimist." yunhee joked, not expecting anyone to hear.
"it's true though." renjun said, looking behind him, where she was. it made her tense up. he was the ravenclaw she found so attractive and smart that she was intimidated. he tilted his head to the side at her silence. "you look like you want to say something."
"no, no. i'm just tired and jumpy so you turning around shocked me." she managed to brush it off and convince him so he turned back around. she felt chenle nudge her side and she nudged him back, trying to focus on the people talking about sirius black.
⚯͛
"riddikulus!" the class yelled after professor lupin.
"very good. so much for the easy part. see, the incantation alone isn't enough. what really finishes off a boggart is laughter. you need to force it to assume the shape you find truly amusing. let me explain, neville, join me please. come on, don't be shy. neville, what frightens you most of all?"
the boy spoke inaudibly.
"sorry?"
"professor snape."
chenle let out a small giggle at this just like the other students.
"don't laugh at the poor boy." yunhee said, as the teacher continued talking.
she felt sorry for neville. he was frequently the target for bullying because he wouldn't fight back. she felt like the least they could do was not laugh at him and not encourage others to whisper behind his back and giggle.
"but... professor snape..."
"i know for sure if snape walked into this room right now you'd tense all up and attempt to run."
that was true. chenle hated snape not just because he was scary looking, but because he'd tend to pick on him. there were always students he'd pick on in each class. mark and chenle happened to be the two in her class. yunhee, luckily, but also unluckily, would get ignored, like she wasn't in the class at all. when she'd put her hand up to speak, snape would ignore her. while it had its perks of not being picked on, it also had its disadvantages: not being able to earn extra credit — not that snape was really the teacher to do that — and not being able to show off her skills or participate in class.
"oh, be quiet." chenle frowned.
"one. two. three."
they looked to the front of the class again as the door to the wardrobe slowly swung open and professor snape walked out with his long dark cloak and silky black hair that looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks. she heard chenle gasp next to her.
"riddikulus!" neville yelled and snape stumbled back as his clothes changed to an awful green coloured coat, a red handbag on his arm and a strange hat with a bird on his head. the class burst out laughing.
lupin congratulated the boy then told everyone to line up. the two best friends, unhappily, stood relatively close to the front of the line. they didn't want to be facing their fears so soon, even if it wasn't real. yunhee wasn't sure what she was going to see, she had a lot of fears: spiders, snakes, the death of her loved ones, her death. maybe the boggart would switch between each fear.
"i want everyone to picture the thing they fear the very most... and turn it into something funny."
"how are you supposed to think of something funny if you're really badly scared?" yunhee asked chenle who just shrugged his shoulders and focused on the other students who had their turns with facing their fears.
there had been spiders, snakes and even a severed hand that walked. seeing the students manage to turn them into something ridiculous like the spell itself, yunhee's confidence was beginning to build up.
"i can go first if you're not ready." chenle whispered. it was then that she realised she was now at the front of the line. she shook her head.
"no. i'll go." she walked closer to the wardrobe and it slowly opened.
her breath hitched as two figures walked out, her parents with their everyday strict faces and crossed arms. they began walking forwards and she flinched, taking a step back.
"okay, yunhee, concentrate." lupin said, seeing her obvious discomfort.
"you got this." chenle called out.
she lifted her wand in her hand, but it shook as she tried to keep it straight. she placed her hand on her arm to keep it still, yelling, "riddikulus!"
her parents transformed into large matryoshka dolls with funny faces and top hats. she let a small satisfied laugh leave her lips despite still being shaken up. the boggart had made them look so real it was frightening. it wasn't just that she was scared of them, but also that they could have the power to pull her away from hogwarts, so seeing them in that classroom, in hogwarts, confused her brain to think they were real and would scold her for using magic or take her away. she loved hogwarts, it was practically her life now, and leaving it would be the worst thing to happen.
"good job. good job." lupin said. "and next! step-up! step-up!"
she hurried to the back of the line, holding her right hand that was still shaking. on her way, she passed by jisung who glanced at her as if he wanted to say something. she brushed past him, ignoring him and focusing on mark who had swapped places with chenle because he didn't want to go next.
however, mark didn't even get a chance to yell 'riddikulus' as professor lupin took over and ended the class early. chenle was by his best friends side again in seconds.
"yunhee... that was your parents?" he asked, walking down the corridors to the hufflepuff common room.
"it was."
"why are you... why have you not told me anything?"
"it's nothing, chenle. don't worry about it." she replied, hoping to get to the common room quicker so she could disappear into her room. although, when she remembered her roommates could be noisy and nosey — both — that no longer sounded like a pleasant idea.
"that can't be true. what's happening?"
"i'm telling you, it's really nothing." she continued to lie, but he wasn't buying it.
"it's obviously something!" he pulled on her arm, spinning her to face him. her eyes widened at the fact that he was yelling at her. his face was quick to change from frustrated to guilty. "shit. i'm sorry."
"no, it's fine. i'm just being stubborn and i don't want to talk about it right now." she said as he let go of her.
"alright, but please trust me enough to talk about things that are upsetting you. we're best friends, right?"
"of course we are!" she flicked his forehead. "come on now, i feel like getting into pyjamas and sitting by the fire on the sofas."
"sounds great. maybe we could sneak into the kitchens and get some food."
⚯͛
they made it to the kitchens and the stack of large barrels in a nook on the right-hand side of it. yunhee tapped the barrels in the correct rhythm and the lid swung open, revealing a passageway that they then crawled through to get to the common room. the way to get into the common room may have been quite annoying, but it was interesting and very unique compared to what yunhee heard about other common rooms. also, their common room was the comfiest one.
after agreeing to meet by the sofas in ten minutes, they ran up to their rooms to change. yunhee changed into some grey plaid pyjamas and opened her hair, allowing it to breathe. she crawled through the tunnels then ran down the stairs, her wavey brown hair bouncing on her back. she passed by other students who were on their way up. a lot of the hufflepuffs would sleep early so it was normal for the sofas to be empty, there was no real need for her to rush, but she did it anyway. she made it to the sofas before chenle had and threw herself onto one.
as she hung her legs off the armrest and stared at the fire, she couldn't help but reminisce about the time jisung tried to join them in their common room without telling them. since he wasn't familiar with the rhythm needed when tapping, he messed it up and was doused in vinegar, which was the repelling device for intruders. chenle and yunhee laughed about it for weeks but decided against teaching him the rhythm because they weren't sure fellow hufflepuffs would appreciate a slytherin entering their quiet, cosy common room. plus, apparently, non-hufflepuffs hadn't seen the common room in thousands of years.
"yun!" a voice screamed into her ears, scaring her so bad she fell off the sofa. chenle let out a loud dolphin laugh and a few students turned to look at the two who were disrupting them.
"chenle, what the bloody hell was that for?"
"i've been calling you for five minutes now." he told her, plopping down onto the sofa where she had been. she joined him.
"you sure it wasn't five seconds, over-exaggerator?" her eyes then averted to the other sofa being occupied by three boys. "hey, i didn't know mark and renjun were hufflepuffs."
she could now cross off the apparent rumour that non-hufflepuffs hadn't entered the common room in years.
"they're not."
"i know that, chenle. i was joking."
"oh."
then it hit her that they had witnessed her embarrassingly doze off and fall off the sofa. suddenly, she wanted to fight jeno for letting them into the common room.
"sorry to disturb you. jeno didn't feel like going to the gryffindor common room so he forced us to come here." renjun said, glaring at jeno.
"i did not force you. i only suggested we come here instead because it's nicer."
"did you just call the gryffindor common room ugly and boring?"
"i didn't say that."
"aw, stop teasing jeno." yunhee said, taking notice of the way he pouted and put on a sulky face.
"it's fun teasing him."
a silence filled in as no one knew what to talk about. that was until yunhee clicked her fingers and pointed at them.
"you guys hungry?"
"i am," mark said. "but dinner time would be ending now."
chenle and yunhee turned to look at each other with smirks on their faces. they both knew what the other was thinking about.
"one of the perks of being in the hufflepuff common room is that the kitchen is next door."
"are you suggesting we sneak into the kitchen?" renjun asked. "cool. i'm down for it."
"but we could get into trouble." jeno said, not sure if this would be a good idea.
"don't worry. the teachers don't come here often and the house-elves are really nice so they're more than happy to give you food if you're nice too." she reassured them then stood up, slipping her feet into some soft slippers.
she crawled through the tunnel leading out the common room, not even bothering to check if the others were following. she was too hungry to be bothered. she pushed open the lid and crawled out, checking that no one was hanging around.
"doesn't it get annoying having to crawl through this every day?" renjun asked once the lid was closed again and they entered the kitchen by tickling the pear that would turn into a doorknob.
"not really." yunhee said then turned to one of the house-elves. "could we have some cookies, please?"
"of course, miss kim."
"i think it's fun. makes you feel like a badger that's underground." chenle said.
"i think that's the point." she told him. "what's the ravenclaw common room like?"
"it's absolutely beautiful!" renjun exclaimed then went off on a rant about what it was like. it seemed like whenever he talked about his house, his eyes would light up and he'd get really excited. yunhee found that cute.
she liked the boys and wanted to get closer to the trio. maybe it was because without jisung it felt empty or maybe it was that she was finally moving on and finding new people. or it was both.
either way, she felt much happier.