Chapter 3
Nayeon feels her stomach churn uncomfortably as she waits in front of the doors to the great hall. It’s an odd place to meet, especially at this hour. Nayeon had asked Mina about it, but the Myoui only answered something about no one seeing them if they met there. Mina’s answer was too timid and vague that Nayeon still felt reluctant.
“What?”
“Can you not understand English?” Mina huffs impatiently. “The. Great. Hall. Entrance.” She repeats slowly, as if Nayeon hadn’t got it the first time.
Nayeon resists the urge to roll her perfectly round eyes. “I understood. I just don’t understand why there?”
“Don’t make this any harder and just listen.” Mina sighs so dramatically it makes Nayeon want to comment about Slytherins and their dramatic asses.
The two are currently hiding in the restricted area of the library. Yes, the restricted, dusty area. All because Mina couldn’t risk being seen with a muggleborn for less than five minutes.
“Why can’t you just tell me why we would have to meet in front of the great hall at quite literally seven in the evening?” Nayeon argues back.
“You’re so…” Mina grumbles. “You’re making me lose my patience here, Im.”
Nayeon only scoffs. “Just tell me, for Christ sakes.”
“What’s Christ?”
“Forget it!”
Mina huffs, muttering something about not caring anyways.
Silence takes over before Mina speaks up again. “We’re meeting there because there wouldn’t be anyone else to see us. Now would you stop being so stubborn and just do what I command you to?”
Five minutes had passed from their designated meeting time and Nayeon had finally accepted the fact that Mina isn’t going to arrive. Or she had been eaten by wolves. Or kidnapped. Nayeon’s happy either way.
Just as she’s about to leave, she catches sight of dark, jet-black colored hair.
Mina walks towards her, eyes darting from side to side. She seemed anxious. Tense, too. Nayeon frowns at the younger. Is she seriously so ashamed about being seen with her?
Nayeon’s thoughts go back to yesterday’s events.
"Why do you hate me so much?"
"I don't."
“Hey.” Nayeon greets. It’s almost a peace offering. If Mina greets back, they become civil, if Mina makes some snarky, rude little remark, Nayeon goes back to hating her more than pineapples on pizza. Nayeon hate nothing more than pineapples on pizza. So, she patiently waits for the younger girl’s answer.
Of course, Mina had just needed to go with the latter.
“We are not friends, Im. We’re practically forced to do this. So, for Merlin’s sake, don’t play nice with me.”
Nayeon almost bring yesterday back up. Mina doesn’t hate her; she knows that now. Mina doesn’t seem to bring it up, though. So, Nayeon thinks it’s better to keep her mouth shut as well.
“Right.” Her voice sounds more tensed now. Mina isn’t that hard to hate, anyway.
Nayeon follows the pureblood as she walks ahead of her. Mina only ignores the older girl’s protests.
“Are you leading me to my death? Because I’d quite like to see my friends before I die. If you’re okay with that request---”
“Shut up.” Mina finally speaks up, seemingly fed up. Nayeon only smiles smugly. “We’re going to The Secret Meeting Room,” Mina says nonchalantly. “Now, will you be quiet, or do I have to cast a silencing charm?”
Nayeon ignores the Slytherin’s last statement, frown set on her face. “First of all, I have never heard of The Secret Meeting Room, and second,” she also ignores Mina’s grunts, “it sounds sketchy.”
“I do not know what sketchy is, nor do I want to find out.” Nayeon can practically hear Mina scowl, “The Secret Meeting Room is where all the quidditch teams gather around to talk about their mindless strategies for their games or matches, or whatever those sweaty asshats call it.”
Nayeon runs to catch up with Mina when the younger suddenly takes a turn, climbing up a staircase Nayeon swears she’s never seen before. Or maybe she had. She doesn’t remember ever climbing it, though.
“Don’t call them that,” it’s Nayeon’s turn to scowl. “My friends play quidditch.”
Mina pauses to look at her, feigning guilt. “Oh, really?” She says so annoyingly sarcastic, “I…” Mina trails off, acting as if she’s looking for the right words. “I… almost gave a fuck.” Her face drains all emotions, turning around again.
Nayeon’s fist clench. She could really use something punch right now, and Myoui Mina is only standing two stairs in front of her. If she could just throw in a punch…
“It’s true, you know.” The younger witch’s voice snaps Nayeon out of her red-painted thoughts. “I dated a quidditch player once. He was a dick. Doesn’t help that he smells like sweat all the damn time.”
They--- more like Mina--- turn to the left when they’ve reached the end of the stairway. Nayeon pauses when Mina casually walks through a painting. Did she just witness Mina being swallowed by a painting?
She yelps when the pureblood’s head pokes through the so-called painting.
“What the fuck---”
“Are you just going to stand there or are you going to go in and discuss the damn project with me?”
And so, Nayeon walks through a fucking painting. She wonders how her life had come to this.
“Why do you look so scandalized?” She can’t see Mina, but she can imagine Mina’s amused smirk she’d be flashing right now. “Forgetting we literally study in a magical school? Or are you just shocked because the fact that you’re a mudblood overlaps the fact that you’re a witch? Awe, don't worry. I know it can be overwhelming knowing you're exposed to magic, though your blood has none in it.”
“Lumos.” Nayeon mutters through clenched teeth. She can finally see Mina’s irritating smirk.
She can hear Mina laugh venomously. The Slytherin really does have a snake side to her.
Nayeon sits down first. “So, what do you have in mind?” She asks, not in the nicest tone.
Mina shrugs elegantly, if that was even possible.
The words are right on the tip of Nayeon’s tongue, “What? The smart pureblood not having some brilliant idea? I’m disappointed in you, truly.”
Mina rolls her eyes, lips forming a scowl. Nayeon thinks Mina scowls more than she smirks.
“Sorry---” Mina doesn’t sound apologetic at all--- “I just didn’t think it’d be worth helping you on this.”
Nayeon pouts sickly at the Slytherin. “Awe, The Great Myoui thinks the mudblood has better ideas than her?”
Mina basically growls at her. "I will not tolerate such slander."
Nayeon only stares at her boredly.
"Don't be so dramatic. It was funny." She tries to lighten up the mood. They have to at least be civil.
"It is not," Mina huffs. "We purebloods should be treated with respect—"
"That's not true—"
"—And honor. I can honestly do this whole project without your help. I just don't want you to have the satisfaction of getting a high grade without having to do anything—"
"Well, too bad. You're already partnered up with me." Nayeon interrupts. She can basically hear Mina's blood boiling. "So please, my queen, sit the fuck down."
Nayeon wants to submit herself to a mental hospital when she imagines(though, it was there) a faint shade of red on Mina's cheeks.
"Don't... call me that." Mina mutters, voice only an inch below a whisper.
Nayeon shoots her a look of confusion. "I would have expected you to be delighted when called a queen."
"No. Not that."
"What?" Nayeon grows impatient.
"My."
Oh.
Had Nayeon call her my queen?
It was an accident, Nayeon wants to say. She wants to scream at herself. She wants to explain to Mina that she hadn't meant to say that. She wants to tell Mina how much she wants to hex herself for blurting that out.
She can't do any of that, though.
Instead, she dismisses the topic.
"It was a minor mistake. Anyway," She avoids eye contact, "what do you want to transform?"
"Transfigure."
"Same thing." Nayeon tries to say casually, as if she hadn't just had the worst slip up merely two seconds ago.
Their project was to transfigure something into “anything that has life to it.”
McGonagall’s words, not theirs.
She feels Mina sit down beside her, scraping the chair as she moves away from the muggle. Nayeon rolls her eyes. Whatever, it's not like Mina can see it.
"I was thinking a rock. Maybe we could transfigure it into the form of an animal." Nayeon suggests. She can hear Mina hum. When no one speaks up, Nayeon takes it as a hint to continue. "It would be common but it's all I can think of right now." She pauses for three seconds. Yes, she counted. "What animal, though?"
Nayeon finally looks at the younger witch, their eyes meeting. Black eyes so dark, Nayeon's instincts tell her to avoid them at all costs. Fuck. Nayeon averts her attention to the table.
She catches a glimpse of Mina nodding her head. "How about an owl?" Nayeon perks up at that suggestion, but quickly turns it down. An owl would be hard.
"No. Too hard. Beaks are especially hard to form."
Mina nods yet again, her next words make Nayeon gape at her.
"Does a cow sound okay?"
Nayeon thinks she's dreaming. Had Mina just suggested they transfigure their rock into muggle animal?
Mina's sneers at her. "I'm only joking, Im. I will not embarrass my being by associating myself with anything muggle."
And… they’re back to step one.
________________________
“It’s been thirty-minutes and we have nothing!” Nayeon throws her hands up in the air. Mina sighs.
“If you would actually start suggesting better ideas and nothing mediocre, we would be done by now.”
Nayeon lets out an exasperated sigh. “You haven’t even suggested anything!”
Mina visibly gulps. Nayeon almost questions it, but Mina is quicker to wave off the curious look on her face.
“Whatever. We can try again tomo---”
“No,” Nayeon barks out. Mina is clearly hiding something, and she needs to know if it concerns this project. “There’s obviously a reason for your lack of cooperation, Myoui. So, if you could tell me about it so that we’d be able to sort it your little issue out---”
“There is no we and there never will be.” Mina stands up, a little too quickly because her parchment papers fly out of her bag. Nayeon doesn’t move an inch. She’s not helping Mina pick her things up. Not again. She only stares at the papers, as if to mock Mina. Nayeon eyes one specific parchment, the one with evident red ink on it.
“Dreadful, we are sorry to inform you that you have… failed?” Nayeon reads out loud, her eyes snapping to the upper left of the parchment. “Transfiguration.”
Mina is quick to grab the now crumpled up parchment, shoving it into her bag. Nayeon thinks this is the first time she’s ever seen the Myoui move so frantically. The Slytherin is panicked. Nayeon captures this memory and locks it away to the very depths of her brain.
“You’re failing Transfiguration?” There’s no judgement in her tone. Nayeon has never judged someone for getting a low marking. She internally scolds her brain for not making an exception with Myoui Mina.
Mina doesn’t seem to take her words so kindly, though. “I’m not! Where did you hear such... foolish news?” Mina’s lying. Nayeon’s sure of it. If the panting isn’t any indication, the way her composure slips surely is.
“Myoui.” Nayeon starts slowly, watching as Mina stands up straighter. She looks like she’s preparing to defend herself from any sort of insult that may come out of Nayeon. “It’s okay.”
For a second, a fleeting second, Mina lets her shoulders deflate. She lets her eyes flicker with surprise, let’s her features relax. The moment is over before Nayeon can blink.
“It’s not.” Mina snaps. “And no one, absolutely no one will know about it. Do you understand?”
Nayeon almost pouts. Mina really thinks she’ll tell people?
“Do you expect me to run out and tell everyone? To run up to anyone I see and tell them that you’ve failed at something? That you’ve placed a dent into your oh-so-perfect reputation? You really think that low of me?”
Nayeon almost feels offended, until she remembers that this is Myoui Mina. Myoui Mina thinks lowly of everyone.
She can almost see Mina gulp. “Yes. Yes, I do.”
Nayeon loses her cool.
“Between us, you’re the villain.” Nayeon wants to yell when Mina only shoots a confused look at her. “You are the bad guy. You try to ruin my life. You insult me every time you have the chance to. And for what? What good does it bring you other than the satisfaction of hurting another muggleborn's feelings?” Nayeon’s eyes start to sting. No doubt that tears will threaten to spill soon enough. “You’ve ruined so much peoples’ lives! You tear people down. You ruined our friendship--- or whatever you want to call it.” Nayeon’s vision blurs, yet she can clearly see how taken aback Mina looks.
“Why are you bringing that up?”
Nayeon feels her anger worsen. Is Mina fucking kidding? Is that all she has to say?
“Forget it.” Nayeon stands up abruptly. She thinks she’ll puke if she stays in the same room as Mina for even just a second more.
“No,” Mina grabs her wrist. Nayeon takes note of how light Mina’s hold on her is. Mina quickly yelps her hand away, as if she’s just made a huge, terrible mistake. The younger clears her throat as if it would clear her memories, as well. “Why did you bring that up?”
Nayeon let’s a single tear drop. A single sign of vulnerability. A single indication of how much her heart aches right now. A single sign of how weak she’s become. Thankfully, it also serves as a reminder of why she can’t ever let herself be near the Slytherin for too long. A reminder of why she can’t bring up past events.
“Because you can’t keep pretending it never happened,” Nayeon’s voice is unsteady. Damn it. She needs to shut up. Now. “You may have a clear view of why you ended our friendship, of why you tried to ruin my life, but I don’t. So, I’m stuck here, wondering what I did that made you hate me so much.”
Nayeon waits for Mina to say something, anything.
When Mina only stares at her with nothing but guilt, Nayeon runs. She runs and runs and runs until she’s far, far away from the Slytherin. She reaches the girl’s bathroom, digging her fingernails into her palm. She’s so screwed. Now Mina has something to use against her, to mock her with.
Nayeon closes her eyes as she tries to steady her breathing. She looks pathetic, feels pathetic. She tries to focus on anything that isn’t Mina, forcing her brain to drift away from black eyes, jet-black hair, generously spread beauty marks, perfectly shaped jawline---
She forces her train of thoughts to pause. She thinks of something she loves. The beach, the snow, the rain---
Train and rain in the same sentence forces Nayeon’s thoughts to drift back to first year, reminiscing the memories she vowed to never look back at again.
Nayeon’s laughing at Jeongyeon’s chocolate covered face. “Your face!”
Jeongyeon smiles at her. “Shut up.”
They’ve only met minutes ago, but Nayeon already feels safe with the girl.
They continue to eat peacefully until the train halts, throwing them forward. Nayeon steadies herself just in time. Jeongyeon doesn’t seem to be having much luck, though. She quickly helps the girl up as the now harsh rain hits their window.
Nayeon frowns. She’s always loved the rain, but Nayeon thinks this is more than just drizzling water. It’s not refreshing in the way she likes. No. It’s not refreshing at all.
Soon enough, they hear a voice from the speaker warn them about a thunderstorm occurring. Both Nayeon and Jeongyeon share a similar look of panic.
“We advise everyone to stay in their seats. We will continue our journey to Hogwarts once we know it’s safe.” Nayeon calms down a bit. Jeongyeon still looks frightened, though. After Nayeon had finally managed to calm Jeongyeon down, which took forever, they tell stories about how pretty the owls they saw in Eeylops Owl Emporium were, and maybe argue about which owl looked best. The calm atmosphere is gone when a particularly loud roar of thunder reaches their ears. And an even louder scream come from the compartment beside them.
The scream was loud. Louder than the thunder. It sounded very anxious and resembled Nayeon’s scream when she sees a spider in her room. It was a scream of panic.
Nayeon’s on her feet in less than a second, concern written all over her features. Is something bad happening? Is someone getting kidnapped? Or worse, eaten by wolves?
Jeongyeon looks at her as if she’s gone psycho when she opens the door to their compartment, slowly approaching the compartment where the scream had come from. She feels uneasy, stomach twisting and churning. A habit of Nayeon’s when she’s reluctant or uncomfortable.
She gently knocks on the door, exactly three times. Nayeon waits two seconds before knocking again. Only once this time. She counts to thirty in her head.
One, two, three…
___
Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eig---
“Come in.” It’s faint, a mere whisper, but Nayeon hears it, anyway. She slowly opens the door, eyes widening at the sight of a short girl, probably her age, hugging her knees. Eyes red from… Nayeon doesn’t know, but she assumes it’s from crying.
She slowly sits on the chair opposite of the mystery-girl, observing her. She thinks it quite creepy but oh well.
The girl is only sniffling, wiping her tears with the back of her hand occasionally. Nayeon waits patiently for any sign that she’s allowed to talk.
“Why did you come here?”
There it is.
“I heard you scream. It’s okay, a lot of people are scared of thunder.” Nayeon smiles, a polite smile. “I just thought maybe you needed some company. These compartments are supposed to be private, but I snuck a friend in mine. Maybe what you need is a friend to sneak into yours.”
The girl scrunches her nose. Nayeon thinks it’s endearing. “Dad said I have to be careful with who I befriend.”
“I understand,” Nayeon nods. “We don’t have to be friends. I’m just here to keep you company.”
Mina seemed to like that.
They spend their time talking about chocolate, brooms, what house they want to be in, and their favorite things to do at home.
“I want to be sorted into Ravenclaw so people will find me smart.” Nayeon beams. Mina chuckles warmly.
“Dad said I’ll be sorted into Slytherin.”
Nayeon furrows her brows at that. “Your dad shouldn’t have to decide everything for you.”
Mina smiles sadly. “Oh, I know.” The girl looks down, “it’s just how we do things.”
____
“You can sing?” Mina gasps. Nayeon thinks her reaction is overly dramatic but nods, nonetheless. It’s cute anyways.
“Yep.”
“Can I hear it?”
Mina pouts when Nayeon sternly denies her request.
____
“What’s your favorite candy from Honeydukes?’
Mina makes a thinking noise, eyes shining the second she finds the answer to Nayeon’s question.
“Chocolate cauldrons!”
Nayeon giggles excitedly. “Me too!”
____
“So, what do you do at home?” Nayeon asks when Mina vaguely talked about her dad not letting her go out much.
“I like making things with rolled up parchment. Like building houses, or people.” Mina admits shyly, pink tinting her cheeks.
Nayeon smiles so wide she swears her face muscles are scolding her. “Ooh! You would love Legos!”
Mina pouts, eyebrows furrowing as her bottom lip juts out. “Go where?”
“No, silly! I said Lego, not let’s go. It’s a muggle thing.”
“I don’t know much about muggles. My dad doesn’t talk about them, sadly. But he said he’ll explain more about them this year.”
“So, you’re a pureblood?”
“Yes.” Mina says, way too proudly. Nayeon smiles anyway.
____
“We struggled so much trying to find the perfect name for him!” Nayeon rants about her dog. Mina seems interested, though.
“Speaking of names,” the pureblood starts slowly, cutting through Nayeon’s dog rant. “I still don’t know yours.”
Nayeon stares stupidly. Right. They don’t know each other’s names.
“Im Nayeon,” she extends her arm out, feeling a rush of electricity spread through her when her palm meets the pureblood’s soft ones.
“Myoui,” Mina blushes, “Myoui Mina.”
____
The fun is over when another rumble of thunder interrupts them.
Mina yelps, grabbing onto anything that’ll provide her the feeling of safety; she grabs onto Nayeon.
Nayeon’s too busy feeling concerned to be flushed right now. She quickly holds on to the other girl, keeping her close in attempt to calm her down. Nayeon’s holding Mina, so tight yet so gently.
“Mina?” No response. “Mina? Sh. It’s okay.” She’s now cradling Mina, comfortingly caressing her back. Nayeon panics when Mina starts to grow more and more restless. Crap.
An idea pops through her mind. “Sh. Mina, listen.”
She waits for Mina to quiet down before humming. Humming turns into singing in less than a minute.
“What's wrong? Nayeon starts shakily, swallowing the lump of insecurity she can feel on the back of her throat. “You've been asking but I don't have an answer. How come?”
She listens as Mina’s breathing starts to steady out. It makes her release a shaky breath. “I'm still thinking, let's pretend to fall asleep now.”
Nayeon sings the lyrics with such softness, such ease. It makes Mina snuggle even closer.
“When we get old, will we regret this?”
“No! No, no.” Nayeon tries to steady herself in front of the sink. She really shouldn’t think about this too much.
It happened years ago, and Mina had clearly chosen to forget about it, so why the hell is Nayeon still holding on.
Fuck. She shouldn’t have thought about holding.
Nayeon is actually singing to Myoui Mina. She can’t help but feel a bit insecure. She can sing, of course. She’s not terrible at it. But what if Mina thinks otherwise?
“'Cause we could stay at home and watch the sunset, but I can't help from asking, ‘Are you bored yet?’”
Nayeon tries to distract herself with the sound of Mina's sobs, tries to focus on trying to make the other girl stop crying again. She only then realizes that there are no more sobs resounding in the walls of their tiny compartment.
Mina has stopped crying?
“And if you're feeling lonely you should tell me, before this ends up as another memory.”
Mina has stopped crying. In fact, Mina is sighing in content, her head buried into Nayeon's neck. Nayeon's emotions flicker from proud to happy and eventually to warm.
Mina pulls away, way too soon for Nayeon's liking.
"Thank you."
Nayeon feels the train moving again. Before she can ask if Mina feels it too, a voice comes from the speaker once again.
"Hey everyone! We've found a clear and safe path that we can cross to get to Hogwarts. Please stay seated as the train will start moving again."
Nayeon vomits. It’s gross and smelly and it reeks of locked up memories.
__________
Before she can think straight, her feet drag her to the Hufflepuff common room.
One must tap the barrel. Two from the bottom, middle of the second row, in the rhythm of 'Helga Hufflepuff’.
The lid jolts open, scaring Nayeon a bit. She’s just happy Momo wasn’t fooling with her about the whole how to get into the common room thing. She walks through the passageway and into the basement.
Nayeon knows which room is Jihyo's. Second to last on the left. They've talked about meeting there secretly before, never quite happened, though.
Nayeon knocks gently. Her knocks grow firmer when no one answers.
Jihyo cannot possible already be asleep? It's only eight in the evening.
Jihyo opens the door, irritation written all over her face. Her gaze softens when it lands on Nayeon.
"'Yeon?"
"Fuck me."
"What—"
"Distract me."
_____________
Jihyo does just that. The two are completely unaware of the Slytherin that’s pacing through the school, in search of the muggleborn.