𝐟𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫
𝐚𝐮𝐠 𝟔 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟓
yunhee tried her best to stay quiet while she danced around her room, holding the letter of confirmation that her and jeno would be the prefects of hufflepuff, but she ended up tripping over a piece of clothing and her letter fell out her hand.
the door swung open in a second and yunhee's mother stormed in with bed hair and a pack of cigarettes.
"what the fuck are you doing?"
"uh... nothing." yunhee scrambled to pick up the letter, but her mother reached it first. she read the contents then let out a mocking laugh.
"that shit school." she pulled out a lighter from her pocket and set the corner of the letter on fire.
"no! don't!" yunhee cried out, trying to take it away from her. it was too late.
the letter was ruined. it wasn't that the letter would be needed to prove to the school that she was a prefect now — no, they already have it on records — it was more that the letter was comforting to her. she was missing her friends and hogwarts a lot and this was the first letter regarding them both that she had gotten in weeks. the last time she wrote to anyone was towards the beginning of the holidays when she managed to hide a letter she received from renjun and send him one back with a picture of her house that he wanted.
"you're not going back to hogswamp." her mother said, tossing the burnt letter aside as she started making her way downstairs.
"it's called hogwarts and i am!" yunhee followed after her, raising her voice which was something she wouldn't usually dare do.
"don't you dare yell at me!"
yunhee fell to floor, holding her cheek as she glared up at her mother. she bit her tongue at the pain that came with the slap. she had endured the physical abuse during the holidays and treated the wounds herself. the cut lip, the bruised eyes, bruised arms and cigarette burns, but the slap seemed to awake something in her. a sudden rage.
"oh, i will yell at you!" yunhee got up on her feet. "i will do what i damn well want! you cannot control me just because you gave birth to me. i don't care if you tell me i can't go back to hogwarts because i will go back no matter what — even looking like i was used as a punching bag. hogwarts has been more of a home than this house has and my friends have been more of a family than you and dad have ever been!"
before anything else could escalate, the front door behind yunhee burst open and an older girl ran in. she grabbed yunhee's arm and next thing the hufflepuff knew, everything went black. she felt like she was being pressed from all sides, her chest tightened, her eyeballs burned and her stomach felt like it was being flipped all around the place.
when she finally felt whole again, her eyes were set on a conveniently placed bin in the middle of an overcrowded kitchen and dining room. she crashed to the floor, leaning over the bin as she emptied out her stomach.
a hand rested on her back, rubbing it. "it's alright, dear."
she recognised the voice to be chenle's mums, but she couldn't look up to greet her and instead waited for herself to calm down. once she was done, mrs zhong helped her clean up by the sink then she turned to hug her.
"it's so great to see you, yunhee dear."
"you too, mrs zhong. it's been too long." she let go of the woman she saw as a mother, smiling at her so brightly. it had been a while since she smiled like that.
yunhee's eyes averted to the large group of people sat around the long table. some were familiar faces, others were not. she recognised her old professors, lupin, moody; mark's godfather sirius, her friends parents and siblings, and best of all: her friends.
an even bigger smile broke out onto her face as she rushed over to them, bringing them into a group hug. she felt like she could cry in that moment.
"you don't know how much i've missed you all."
"we missed you even more, prefect buddy. we sent letters everyday, but we never got responses." jeno said, hugging her on his own this time.
"sorry, i told you guys not to bother. my parents probably threw everything out. i only got renjun's letter about sending a picture of my house." she explained.
"wait. yun, what happened to your face?" chenle asked, his fingers hovering over the red mark on her cheek, a bruise on her forehead and a small cut on her nose.
"nothing. i'm alright." she replied, keeping her smile on, but he looked unconvinced.
"mum." chenle called and in a second, she was pushing yunhee to sit on one of the seats.
"let's get your face fixed up." mrs zhong hummed as the others took their seats to wait for dinner to be served.
"yunhee, right?" a girl took the seat next to her. she realised it was the girl who had saved her from her her mum by apparating. that was why renjun asked for a picture of her house, so she knew where to apparate to. "sorry about the apparating. it takes a while to get used to. i'm renjun's older sister, jia."
"it's nice to meet you, jia." yunhee shook the girls hand after mrs zhong was done. she was hoping to become close friends with renjun's sister.
"yun!" someone screamed as they stomped down the stairs and crashed into her chair.
"aerin!" yunhee helped the girl up and was crushed in another hug as the younger girl fake sobbed.
"my baby yunnie." aerin cried, finally letting go to get a good look at her face. "who did this to you?!"
"i'll explain later." yunhee said, taking her seat again and aerin sat on top of her, squishing her. "mark, when did you get here by the way?"
"only a few hours ago." he replied, turning to face the adults again. "we were just talking about the ministry, but i still don't get what they have against me."
"show him." moody said as everyone else went quiet. "he'll find out soon enough."
kingsley shacklebolt, a man that was an auror and worked at the ministry of magic — chenle had told yunhee about him — handed mark a newspaper with the headline: 'the boy who lies'.
"he's been attacking dumbledore as well." sirius said. "fudge is using all his power, including his influence at the daily prophet, smear anyone who claims the dark lord has returned."
"why?"
"the minister thinks dumbledore is after his job." remus replied.
"but that's insane! no one in their right mind could believe that dumbledore..."
"exactly the point! fudge isn't in his right mind. he's been twisted and warped by fear." remus cut him off. "now, fear makes people do terrible things, mark. the last time voldermort gained power, it almost destroyed everything we hold most dear. now he's returned and i'm afraid the minister will do almost anything to avoid facing that... terrifying truth."
"we think voldermort wants to build out his army again." sirius continued. "fourteen years ago he had huge numbers at his command and not just witches and wizards, but all manner of dark creatures. he's been recruiting heavily and we've been attempting to do the same, but gathering followers isn't the only thing he's interested in. we believe voldermort may be after something."
"sirius." moody interrupted, clearly trying to get him to stop speaking as the tension and interest grew.
"something he didn't have last time." sirius said and yunhee could've sworn his eyes flickered to hers for a brief second.
"you mean like a weapon?"
"no. that's enough." jeno's mother spoke up, moving so fast that yunhee flinched from the sudden movement when she wasn't expecting it. "he's just a boy! you say much more and you may as well induct him to the order straight away."
"good! i want to join. if voldermort's raising an army, then i want to fight." mark exclaimed and sirius clapped his hands, proud.
"we'll discuss this all tomorrow. it's late now. you kids get yourselves off to bed." chenle's mother clapped her hands to break up the intensity of the situation. "boys and girls in separate rooms."
"mum." chenle groaned at her words, but stood up nevertheless and gestured to all the other teenagers in the room to follow.
they listened to his mother's words and split up. yunhee, aerin and jia took one of the larger rooms with three beds. once aerin entered the room, she flopped onto the middle bed.
"i claim this bed." she rolled around while hugging one of the pillows. yunhee jumped on top of the girl, laying on her back so she couldn't get up.
"jia, join us." yunhee held her hands out to the girl who shook her head.
"i don't want to hurt myself."
"what are you? sixty?" aerin laughed and jia smirked before picking up a pillow and hitting the two younger girls with it. they screamed as yunhee fell off the bed and crawled under to hide and aerin picked up two pillows to attack.
the rest of the night was full of fun and jokes despite the eerie events waiting to take place.
⚯͛
𝐬𝐞𝐩 𝟏 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟓
"mark, you're dozing off." chenle poked the boys side. he had been resting his head on the window, not staring out it and not looking at anyone else. he was in his own world.
"sorry. i just can't stop thinking about that hearing." he sighed, moving to rest his head on renjun's shoulder.
"i'll be back." yunhee stood up.
"where are you going?" jeno asked.
"to find jia."
"are you seriously stealing my sister from me?" renjun joked.
"no. i'm just getting closer to her since we're going to be sister-in-laws soon." she joked back, winking at him before leaving so she didn't get to see his reaction. he was definitely flustered though.
"how nice of you to join us." jia said when yunhee shoved herself into the compartment and laid her head on the older girls lap.
"who's this?" yunhee asked, gesturing to the slytherin girl across from them and next to aerin.
"this is my best friend, hyejin. she's jaemin's sister."
hyejin waved at yunhee with a sweet smile and she responded back, glad she wasn't like the other slytherin's.
"hyejin is super cool. when jeno, renjun and jaemin were friends, i'd hang out with her a lot she's like a big sister." aerin explained, side hugging her.
"jaemin and donghyuck stopped hanging out with the boys because of our parents, but i stayed friends with jia and aerin in secret. i couldn't stand staying away." hyejin looked at jia directly while saying the last sentence and yunhee couldn't help but think there was much more going on.
"that's really sweet. i wish jaemin and donghyuck could be friends with renjun and jeno again. i don't know the exact situation but it's similar to me, chenle and jisung. jisung grew apart because of his parents, but i'm sure we could still be friends in secret, like you. maybe i just dream about this too much though."
"it's not bad to hope and dream for impossible things, but rather than dwell on those dreams, you should try live them." jia said, massaging yunhee's head.
"didn't dumbledore say something like that?" hyejin laughed. "i hate that man, but sometimes he says good things."
"why do you hate him?" aerin asked.
"he favourites houses. it's clear he loves gryffindor and would rather cheat the point system than award slytherin the house cup."
"i don't think that's entirely true. slytherin used to win a lot. he might have had a change of heart since mark joined though." jia said.
"anyway, let's not go about blaming mark now. poor kid can't even hold one conversation without zoning out." yunhee said. "let's all hang out more during breaks, alright? i need more girl friends."
"that's because you seem to have all the boys wrapped around your finger." aerin teased.
"i do not." yunhee gasped, tossing a hoodie at her.
"you so do."
a sudden knock on the door made everyone in the compartment jump. jeno entered, smiling sheepishly. "sorry. yunhee, we have our prefect meeting now."
"oh, well, i'll see you girls later." she sang and followed jeno outside.
"i honestly keep forgetting we're prefects now. it's come with so many responsibilities." jeno admitted as they headed to the compartment where the head boy and girl would be to instruct them to monitor the students on the train.
"you'll be fine, jeno. i'm the clumsy and forgetful one. i'm surprised they even gave me the position."
"we'll both be fine, yun. plus, we get to boss chenle around now." he said, winking.
"he'll definitely not be happy with that."