Kibum quietly sat on the chair set up at the central gazebo dominating the center of the Meister Garden. The Sorting Hat sat on his head, taking all of five seconds before the hat called out "Serpentine!"

As expected, Kibum thought, even as his hyung crowed somewhere in the Serpentine crowd. It wasn't that being born to a family of witches automatically guaranteed that he would be housed at the Manse Serpentine. It was just that this particular Kim branch of the witch family tree was the epitome of the house motto "gyohwal beochyu, keoning aegsyeon, keoning jase" - Cunning Virtue, Cunning Action, Cunning Attitude. While he has heard of their more notorious cousin house Slytherin in Hogwarts, being associated with the snake house didn't mean all things mean and dangerous. For him who is studying Alchemy, which is the equivalent of Potions in this school of higher magical learning, he would need to fall back on this specific motto, if his older brother Heechul could be believed.

The crowd out for tonight's sorting was arranged in the Meister's Garden in six groups around the open-air gazebo. The neophytes and the unsorted were all grouped at the front, while the rest of the manses were arranged clockwise in the following order: Dragonica, Serpentine, Airehawke, Beaverian and Phoenixian. By the time Kibum made it to the Serpentine crowd, all of his Meister's stuff would have changed to display the green and silver colors of his manse.

Because they were homeschooled, the Kim brothers had to go through the Sorting on their first neophyte day at the Meister's. Only the Koreans coming in from the cousin schools like Hogwarts, or foreigners, get to bypass the Sorting by getting assigned to their previous house's cousin manse, or be automatically assigned to Phoenixian if foreign. Not that there is a discrimination against foreigners by assigning them to that particular house never mind if their cousin house was different. It just made the institute's job easier putting a tag on the students with the added diplomatic requirements, the least of which composed having a foreign passport with a Korean student visa. Obtaining the Korean visa was already complicated enough and not one of the students can put down "Attend magic school" as a legitimate purpose of visit or stay in the country.

Ryeowook stood slightly nervous, being the only one left with other neophytes and unsorted once Kibum was sorted into Serpentine. Henry was already seated with the Phoenixians, the red jackets, while Kyuhyun was already sorted into the Airehawkes, the blue jackets. Like Kibum, he was also home-schooled, but he was familiar enough with the magic school systems all over the world to be predominantly revolved around four houses representing distinct character traits of student residents. So he had his heart set out from the start to be sorted into Manse Airehawke, feeling that being with like-minded students embodying the house motto "nop-eun mogpyo, hai lichi, hai pyeon" - High Aim, High Reach, High Flight - would be something that will help him get through Meister's.

"Are you sure?" the teasing voice from The Sorting Hat asked inside Ryeowook's head, startling him out of his mental wishing to be sorted into Manse Airehawke. It is said that the Meister's Sorting Hat is a twin to the one in Hogwarts though students from Hogwarts were quick to doubt it as the Meister's Sorting Hat always looked so brand new compared to the one in Hogwarts. So Ryeowook was wondering if he should tell it a couple of praises to help his sorting along.

The Sorting Hat just chuckled at him. "No need to fluff my feathers, so to speak, young wizard. I'm merely musing the best house to put you into... Dragonica is strong within you: 'yong-gi ma-eum, yong-gi jeongsin, yong-gi heos' - Courage Mind, Courage Spirit, Courage Heart, as they say, and you have no shortage of courage. You also have the Beaverian heart: 'sollideu jag-eob, gyeongohan gangdo, sollideu indibeo' - Solid Work, Solid Strength, Solid Endeavor. So why Airehawke?"

Ryeowook sat still for a few moments before he realized The Sorting Hat was waiting for an answer from him. "Leave no wizard behind." He doesn't remember if he just thought it, or he had said it aloud.

"Ah," was all The Sorting Hat said to Ryeowook before announcing, "Airehawke!"

Ryeowook didn't hear the cheers from the blue jackets, as The Sorting Hat still had a few words for him. "I'm sure if they could, they wouldn't have made the choice to leave you. That being said, you are right about being a perfect fit for Airehawke."

Then The Sorting Hat was off his head, and Ryeowook made his way to the Airehawke crowd, beaming widely as he met his new housemates along with Kyuhyun's enthusiastic welcome.

=====

The Neophyte Welcome and Apprenticeship SendOff Dinner was long done, and Meister's students have trickled back in groups to assigned Manses. For Airehawkes, that meant quarters at the Airehawke Aerie, a network of tree-style aeries that clumped and looked like one big tree-house building set over the forest canopy on the highland east of the Meister's campus. A clearing in front of the Aerie served as the Airehawkes' training area or assembly area. That night, it served as a launch pad for the new Airehawkes' traditional broomride up to the Aerie Deck, the official entrance onto the Airehawke Aerie. Then it was a flurry of confusion and busy activity as resident assistants guided the new residents to assigned quarters while the rest of the residents milled about catching up with fellow Airehawkes.

For Kyuhyun, it meant settling in his assigned quarters and continuing with his gaming.

Kyuhyun didn't even blink as he expertly executed a series of button presses on his gaming console that finally made his gaming avatar GaemerQ win over user Heerella, effectively decapitating the enemy avatar. A bobble head with his hyung Heechul's face on it floated out from his screen, a chat bubble appearing over the bobble head with the words " I'M GOING TO GET YOU KYUHYUN!"

Kyuhyun just laughed, typing out "Try to be a little bit quicker on the trigger finger, Heenim. You're getting old." He imagined how his own bobble head would be teasing Heechul right now.

Another chat bubble with more curses and a threatening "I'm going to sectumsempra your when we meet, LARVA." complete with worm and devil emojis.

Kyuhyun just laughed, knowing how Heechul knows Kyuhyun thinks that particular curse gave Kyuhyun visions about bleeding out the ("I do not care to see what happens when you curse out rectumsempra instead," Heechul remarked one time when Kyuhyun wouldn't stop laughing at the recounting of the Potter-Malfoy duel back in Hogwarts when the curse first came to light.) That and knowing his hyung is no sore loser when he gets killed in a game of Magicraft. 4D personality aside, Heechul-hyung's bark is always worse than his bite, though Kyuhyun also wouldn't put it past him to have the ability to whip asses since the older guy is taking up Occult Studies.

"Hurry up and finish your apprenticeship then." He wrote instead, knowing his is safe in Meister's while Heechul is still starting his apprenticeship. While an Apprentice, especially when assigned to Meister's, Heechul has to act professional as they also sort of serve as teaching assistants.

Kim Heechul was originally supposed to go to Tibet with the Chinese boyfriend Hangeng until somebody pointed out how that would work out for the couple considering Hangeng, as Apprentice for Martial Magic, is assigned to a Tibetan monastery. Which means no snogging nor congress (ewww, Kyuhyun mentally thinks everytime). The Meister's also needed someone of Heechul's level when it comes to Occult Studies - he wasn't being called Heenim just because. The deceptively delicate hyung wasn't taking up the course because he was already good at it but because the coursework taught methods that could help the Apprentice further his craft. Occult Studies by definition is not stable as magical specialties go - its chaotic and obscure nature brings about more forms of magic than they already know in the wizarding world. So Heechul stayed to beef up the teaching staff for his course.

Cho Kyuhyun is starting as a neophyte in the Meister's, working towards an apprenticeship in Magic, Magical and Magician's Law. Barely nineteen and fresh out of Hogwarts, he settled in quickly at the Manse Airehawke, bypassing the Sorting since he was a Ravenclaw back at Hogwarts. He saw old faces at the Manse, mostly hyungs and noonas who also studied in Hogwarts and like him, moved back to South Korea for higher studies rather than stay in the United Kingdom. They were foreigners there after all - South Korea just didn't have an equivalent of Hogwarts (yet) as dealing with Oriental magic in general needed higher magical skills - which meant passing at least the NEWT levels. But there are independent institutions around the country which started young wizards and witches under the tutelage of an already known practitioner. Which included Heechul hyung, who is the heir-apparent in their family's long line of witches (yes, only women are born each generation, at least until Heechul, which didn't even turn out a fluke as he was followed by his brother Kibum three years after) though they despair at the fact that since Heechul considers himself a witch through and through has also gotten himself a boyfriend. So he is the heir-apparent as far as magical abilities go but they are already looking at the branch families for another heir by blood.

But Kyuhyun is digressing, knowing less of Heechul's family history, never mind if they are neighbors in Seoul. Heechul's family were too eccentric that polite company never invited them, though Kyuhyun's own family felt right at home with the Kims, coming from magical families though not being practitioners themselves. Turns out Kyuhyun inherited all the magic from both sides of his heritage. His noona Ahra is completely normal, though they don't discount the possibility that her future children can inherit some of the magic. But for their generation, only he and their cousin Siwon had the kind of magic that needed higher learning, him for law and Choi Siwon for business.

It wasn't that Kyuhyun is interested in law per se, as they would call it in the non-wizarding world. No, law in the wizarding world meant dealing with bonds and binds - the uttered and intended magical contracts ranging from pinky swears to selling one's soul to the devil and navigating the tricky paths associated with it between fulfillment, negation and voiding. It also governed, in general, the practice of magic within the wizarding world. If Kyuhyun had his way, he'd stick to his gaming and occasional singing but as his mother had pointed out, he was a powerful enough wizard to be a lawyer, the Chos practically immune to the effects of magical contracts, partly due to a curse handed down from the first magical lawyer in their line that protected their blood from making magical contracts, and partly due to their family being a stickler for the law and keeping their word. Kyuhyun is careful about his speech because it is how he was taught since young, and because his introspective nature rarely allows for ambiguity. Heechul calls him snarky maknae because of his tendency to be frank, calling out even just a fib, and telling it like it is, no more no less.

The one fib Kyuhyun never attempted to correct was that his gaming friends, and all their family's friends for that matter, thought he studied at the MIT - of course, the snarky maknae thought, there is a world of difference between outright lying versus propagating a misconception because he is technically studying at MIT.

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