chapter 1

A loud screech suddenly broke the silence in the library.

A shower of shattered glass fell on the students sitting at the tables under the windows and they yelled in panic, quickly trying to find shelter.

One of the freshmen bravely peaked from his hiding spot and froze in fear. A young woman was drifting on air, entering the facility through one of the broken windows. She would have been very beautiful – her v-shaped face, her perfectly slim figure and her pale skin were just a few things that marked her beauty – if only her expression wasn’t as merciless, distorted in anger. She was wearing a traditional Korean dress, a hanbok, and her silky black hair flew around her as if she was floating in water, not levitating. She slowly turned her head, scanning her surroundings in search of someone or something. Her eyes met the brave boy’s.

Her feet touched the ground and she stood in front of the table. The whole library seemed to be frozen in time; no one moved, too frightened to do anything. She smirked and with a flick of her hand, the silence was broken once more as the table flipped and crashed on the wall. Three freshmen suddenly found themselves without a shelter; a girl tried to suppress her sobs.

“Where is it?” The woman suavely asked, but none of the three students had the courage or the strength to react. It seemed like someone had used a Petrificus Totalus spell against them.

“I know one of you has it!” She abruptly screamed, turning around and gesturing at all the students under the tables. “I know you’re hiding it! So tell me, where is it?”

On the other side of the room, the librarian watched the scene, petrified. She saw the witch – at least she assumed she was a witch – extending her hand, ready to flick it again. She didn’t know what this person wanted, but she needed to protect the students. Snapping back to reality, she reached for the wand concealed in the left sleeve of her robe and quickly pulled it out. She yelled a spell as she pointed the wooden stick towards the woman.

“Watch out, sister!” A voice called, but she didn’t need a warning. The librarian had seen many magical duels, but never she had witnessed someone react as fast as the woman did. Her shield deflected the spell and she quickly sent another one. The librarian barely had time to think before a red light hit her, sending her body crashing on the shelf behind her. The pain invaded her and she fell on the ground, but she didn’t lose her grip on the wand. She pointed it again to the woman, using another spell, which, unfortunately, was deflected once more.

“Run!” The librarian screamed to the students. “I will distract her.”

Some students did as told; they rushed toward the doors, using the shelves as shields. However, many other students weren’t as lucky: their hiding spots were either too far from the doors or too close to the woman. Lee Sungjong was one of them, hidden under a mahogany table with his friends.

He worriedly watched the scene taking place in front of his eyes. The librarian was clearly losing the duel. She hadn’t been able to leave a mark on the woman, which seemed too strong to be human. Suddenly, what he feared the most happened: the Dark Witch extended her hand and made a gesture as if she was trying to firmly grab something. The librarian started to gasp for air; she was choking. The woman was strangling her from a distance of three meters. Impossible, Sungjong thought.

“You must know where it is, right?” The woman asked, slowly approaching the librarian, whose face was becoming clearly blue. “Tell me and I'll let them all live. Maybe not you, but everyone else.”

Before Sungjong could stop him, Nam Woohyun dashed out from under the table drawing his golden wand.

“How is she supposed to answer if you cut off her air?” He asked, pointing his wand forward, his guard up.

But Woohyun froze on the spot. Not because the woman had suddenly turned to look at him with enraged eyes, but because someone suddenly appeared in front of his face. Lee Sungyeol, taking Woohyun’s place next to Sungjong under the table, screamed in terror at the sight and fainted. Sungjong moved back, hitting Kim Myungsoo by mistake in the process, both terrified at the view.

Woohyun inwardly took a step back in shock, taking in what displayed in front of him. A girl, probably in her late teens, stood before his eyes. Her long, silky hair was parted in the middle, revealing her white, expressionless face. She was wearing a white gown and when Sungjong took a better look at her he saw her bare feet weren’t touching the ground. A ghost, he assumed. A chonyo gwishin.

“You,” Woohyun whispered, sensing his friends suddenly drift their gaze on him. This can’t be real, he thought. This cannot be happening.

The ghost girl slowly lifted a hand to caress his cheek with ice-cold fingers. They stared at each other for a mere second before she turned her head – only her head – to talk to the woman she had previously called ‘sister’.

“It’s him.”

Woohyun’s reflexes weren’t fast enough and he barely saw the woman floating promptly in front of him just to grab him by his throat and slamming him on the nearest shelf.

***

Sungjong didn’t have a clue about what was happening and his brain was working fast trying to get a grip on the situation.

It was supposed to be a nice study session with three of his friends, but everything had turned out wrong. Myungsoo had been the first one to react to the screech. His head had shot up from the advanced Transfiguration book he was reading, and rapidly slid away from his chair to hide under the mahogany table. Sungyeol had been fast to follow him: he knew Myungsoo’s senses were a bit enhanced compared to everyone else’s, like a feline. Sungjong and Woohyun had copied them a moment before the glass shattered over their heads.

“What’s happening?” Sungyeol had asked quietly, but before he could get an answer the woman had started screaming again.

Now, Sungjong was watching Woohyun’s body pressed to the shelf. The pain had made him lose his grip on the golden wand, which laid halfway between the table Sungjong was hiding under and the spot where Woohyun was currently standing. He can’t defend himself, Sungjong noticed. He needed to think of a plan to save the day, and he needed to do it fast.

***

Woohyun’s head hurt and his vision blurred. The woman wasn’t holding him by the throat anymore, but Woohyun still had trouble breathing. Instead, she grabbed him by his collar using both hands, suddenly lifting him up from the ground. He gasped when he couldn’t feel the floor under his feet anymore.

“Where is it?” The woman kept asking. He managed to focus on her eyes: they were orange, with a vertical pupil. Weird, he thought. “Where’s the book?”

It was the first time she said what she was searching for since she had broken into the library of Seoul’s Mayehak Academy of Magical Arts.

“Seems like you’re in the right place. You’re in a damn library,” Woohyun sarcastically snapped. He didn’t realise how raspy his voice was. “There are thousands of books in here.”

Woohyun regretted what he said the moment he saw her fox-like eyes lit up in anger. She slammed him harder on the shelf and let him collapse on the ground. He shut his eyes and held his head in his hands, in pain. She lifted her hand again, but before she could do anything, a strong, bright light coming from under a table invaded her dilated pupils. She screamed, pressing her hands on her injured eyes.

Sungjong sprinted towards Woohyun, stopping one moment to pick his golden wand up from the floor. His distraction was working perfectly at the moment. Myungsoo had finally managed to wake Sungyeol up and together they helped the other students rush to the doors. In the light, the ghost temporarily dissolved but they had to be quick: Woohyun was still in danger, too close to the woman.

“Woohyun, come on, stand up!” Sungjong hastily said, crouching next to his friend and helping him up. Woohyun stumbled on his feet. “Let’s go!”

Blinded not only by light but also by anger, the woman lost her mind. Forgetting she was in a library, a violet flame sprouted from her right hand. She screamed.

Sungjong felt the heat on his back. He underestimated her. His plan didn’t work. He had failed.

He was going to die.

***

“Sungjong, Sungjong wake up!”

When his eyes darted open, Myungsoo stopped shaking Sungjong and took off his hand from the other’s shoulder. He looked relieved, as if he had trouble waking him up.

“Are you okay?” Sungyeol said. “You screamed in your sleep. We were worried.”

Sungjong focused on the five boys in front of him. Four of them were looking at him with a concerned expression on their faces, but one was frowning and holding his knee. “Ouch,” Kim Sunggyu was muttering under his breath. “Obviously I'm the one who gets kicked in the process.”

Sungjong didn't hear him, but Lee Howon did and turned his head to glare at his mentor. Obviously Sunggyu would be the unlucky one and obviously he would whine about his misfortune. Howon shook his head as he lightly slapped Sunggyu’s arm. “Stop complaining, old man,” he whispered.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Sungjong answered to Sungyeol's question while stretching, sore from the weird position he had fallen asleep in. His neck hurt a bit, but he assumed the reason was the uncomfortable seat on that old train.

After they had safely landed on 9 ¾ platform at King’s Cross station in London thanks to the help of a nice guy named Jang Dongwoo, they had seen the old-fashioned red locomotive. Dongwoo had expected them to be impressed – everyone was always impressed when they saw the Hogwarts Express for the first time – but not them. The only thing Sunggyu had said was “Does this thing even move?” and Dongwoo’s excitement had dropped at once. Sungjong had had to agree with Sunggyu; back in Seoul they were used to a modern subway to reach the school. It looked like wizarding world in the United Kingdom stopped progressing a couple centuries ago. In South Korea, instead, they studied muggle technology to improve wizards’ lives. Heck, even Samsung had a Magical Technology Development section!

One of the things Sungjong and his friends hadn’t liked about Hogwarts since they had first got some info about it was the little freedom it gave to students. He couldn't help but compare the two schools. Back at Mayehak, in Seoul, only the kids who lived in another city or those who requested for it would have a room on campus; the others could just take the subway every day. Being forced to leave his family at home and being unable to see them until Christmas holidays was going to be hard for most of them, but Sungjong thought the one to suffer the most from this would be Myungsoo.

“Sungjong? Lee Sungjong?” Sungyeol was calling him and waving a hand in front of his eyes. Sungjong blinked a few times; he hadn’t noticed his friend was talking to him: he was probably still half asleep.

“Sorry, what?”

“I asked what kind of nightmare were you having. I mean, it couldn’t have been a dream, because it clearly didn’t have a happy end," Sungyeol assumed, tapping his chin with his long fingers. The other five turned to look at him. "What? In those dreams you smile at the end even if they make you scream on the way."

“Well, he has a point,” Woohyun agreed. Howon nodded.

"What are you even dreaming about?" Sungjong asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, come on, don’t pretend to be so innocent,” Myungsoo added with a mischievous smile on his face. Sungjong backed away until his head bumped into the window.

"I am sorry to disappoint you but I take no pleasure in being tied up, whipped and tortured in any other way-"

Somehow they didn’t hear the door slide open. Sungjong stopped midsentence as he heard a cough. There stood a gorgeous girl, an eyebrow raised high. The gorgeous girl Woohyun had noticed at the station earlier that day. “She’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen,” he had told Sunggyu, who had just shrugged.

"Not to interrupt your wild fantasies, but you need to get ready. We are arriving soon,” she said. “Dongwoo and I will you all to the castle.”

“I wouldn’t mind being tied by her, though,” Woohyun, that , winked at her.

"I will pretend I didn't hear that," she said as her other eyebrow joined the raised one. She silently slid out of the compartment, wondering what was wrong with those guys.

"Wow, she really loves me!" Woohyun said, grinning from ear to ear as the door slid shut again. Sunggyu just rolled his eyes. "I can hear your eyes roll, old man."

"Hyun, you make me want to jump out of the window."

***

"I told you she can't get enough of me," Woohyun whispered with twinkling eyes as they got off the train and saw the pair waiting for them at the platform. Dongwoo was waving at them to catch their attention, and the Gorgeous Girl was waiting for him – only for him obviously.

It took Sungjong all his might not to burst Woohyun's little bubble. The girl from earlier rather seemed to be annoyed whenever Woohyun looked her way. Nothing to be surprised of, since what he had said back on the train.

As soon as they had stopped next to the prefects, Howon spoke to Dongwoo. "We didn’t get the chance earlier, but we wanted to thank you for helping us in Diagone Alli."

"Hoya, it's Diagon Alley, not Diagone Alli," Sungjong corrected him, lightly elbowing him in the ribs.

"Oh Jong, shut up he knows what I mean!" Howon scoffed.

"At least Jongie didn't kick the wall in desperation." Sungyeol muttered with a smirk.

The girl’s gaze kept shifting between them as she listened to their exchange, a grin on her face. They all seemed quite close to each other, using nicknames and constantly joking and playing around.

"Either way, thank you,” Howon shrugged. “We wouldn't have gotten our stuff otherwise."

“Yes,” Sungyeol kept smirking. “I guess he’s always there to help us get through walls.”

“Oh, no problem,” Dongwoo chuckled. He hadn’t forgotten the first time he had met the group in the rear of the Leaky Cauldron as they were trying to find the opening to Diagon Alley. The sight had been quite hilarious; Howon had really kicked the wall in frustration as none of them knew the exact brick to tap. He had witnessed the poor guy hiss in pain and jumping on one foot while holding the injured one. He feared it was broken, but the tallest of them had quickly taken care of it after scoffing. Apparently, they had misunderstood the poor, good old Tom, and instead of tapping “from the trash can, three up and two across”, they were trying to tap the brick “from the trash can, two up and three across” so it obviously hadn’t worked. Dongwoo had opened the door to the rear just in time to witness the scene and helped those young ‘tourists’. He still had no idea they would be transfer students at Hogwarts.

***

"Oh my, what is this sorcery! Is this magic?" Myungsoo wondered staring wide eyed at the two carriages without horses that were approaching them. Fortunately for him, he only had whispered this stupid exclamation and only Sungjong and Sungyeol heard him.

Sungjong was in utter disbelief, Sungyeol stared dumbfounded at Myungsoo with his mouth hanging open a little.

"Really, Myungsoo?" Both said in unison, their eyebrows raised high. Sometimes he looked more like a child in awe than the brilliant, fourth year student expert in Transfiguration he was.

"What?" Myungsoo asked. "There's no one pulling the- Oh," his face turned bright red. "I'm sorry."

"Alright guys!" Dongwoo clapped excitedly as the carriages came to a halt. "Our transportations are here! To the castle!"

Before anyone had a chance to move, the girl grabbed Myungsoo, as he was the closest to her. She wanted to avoid getting stuck with that y Pointy Nose, as she had nicknamed Woohyun not knowing his name yet. "You're coming with me. Let's go."

Suddenly, said y Pointy Nose latched onto his other arm, pulling Myungsoo towards himself. "He's already going with the other two youngests in the other carriage,” he said resolutely.

“He wants to come with me!” She insisted.

“Oh, no I don’t think he does, right Myungsoo?" Woohyun glared Myungsoo down, who was getting smaller and smaller under Woohyun’s strong gaze. He didn’t mean to be intimidating or rude, but he was torn between wanting to help him and granting himself a spot on the same carriage with the girl.

The bickering between the prefect and Woohyun went on. It seemed like Myungsoo had no say in this until a loud whistle made the two stop pulling the poor kid. Myungsoo looked like he was about to cry out of relief.

"Hey, Myungsoo, right? Why don't you choose with whom you want to go?" Dongwoo put an end to the quarrel. Myungsoo was trying his best not to start crying at the attention he got. Also, his arms started to hurt. Damn, the prefect had a really hard grip.

He didn't like to choose between his friends. Minutes passed in silence, Myungsoo sending pleading looks to Sungjong and Sungyeol, who looked at him equally worried.

"So?" Dongwoo urged him with a smile.

Another minute passed in silence. "I want to go with Sungyeol and Sungjong then," he whispered in the end, barely audible.

Woohyun's glare turned into a friendly smile. He patted Myungsoo's back twice and made his way to the female prefect.

"Why– what– Don't you like me?" She exclaimed, visibly hurt by Myungsoo's choice but finally letting his arm go.

Before anyone else could make him feel even worse, Sungyeol pulled Myungsoo between Sungjong and himself.

"It's not that he doesn't like you. It's more that he's pretty shy around people he doesn't know," Sungjong reasoned; the prefect seemed satisfied with the answer. At least a little.

Woohyun followed her like a lost puppy, as she made her way to the carriage. Sunggyu and Howon followed them, silently watching how the prefect kept putting a distance between herself and Woohyun.

***

Sunggyu was still salty about Myungsoo’s choice. On the small way to the carriage, he kept brooding about it. Even if Hoya didn’t say anything, he fully understood why Sunggyu was angry. Or actually hurt.

He was still grumbling to himself as he sat down. Before he touched the seat though, the prefect pulled him towards her.

“You sit here,” she said with a strict tone.

Sunggyu stopped his complaining for a second to stare at her with a calculating gaze. He looked at Woohyun for a small second, who seemed ready to explode. Sunggyu felt like it wasn't worth the effort.

“No, sorry, I rather sit next to Hoya.”

A triumphant smile fleeted across Woohyun’s face. Sunggyu sat down next to Howon, leaving the space next to the girl free for Woohyun, who, in fact, bolted for it.

The carriages started moving and Sunggyu stared out of the window, watching the passing scenery.

Woohyun had been trying his best to get the girl's attention, but miserably failed. “You know,” he had started. “I create spells.” He had draped his arm around the back rest.

“And you know,” she had said in return. “I break noses. And bones.” The unspoken threat had made Woohyun pull his arm back. After that Woohyun had kept his hands to himself but the flow of words didn’t stop coming from his mouth.

“Your three youngests seem to be very, very close. The kid named Myung... Myungsoo? He seems to rely a lot on the other two,” she suddenly said, ignoring completely Woohyun’s speech. Sunggyu wished she would have kept shut.

“Oh yeah, they're pretty close. Can't separate them at all costs,” Woohyun cheerfully exclaimed. Too bad he didn't bother shutting up the entire ride.

"No matter what we do, he won't like us as much as he likes Yeol and Jong," Sunggyu muttered, the bitter edge clear. The girl raised her eyebrows at him.

“Of course they're close. Sungjong and Sungyeol met him first. They bonded really fast. And he's pretty good with Woohyun too,” Howon interfered.

Before Sunggyu could retort something to make the mood even heavier than it already was, Woohyun changed the topic.

“So I heard Neville Longbottom is going to be the Herbology teacher?” Woohyun just had finished his sentence and he had drawn Howon's full attention.

“Really?” He scooted to the edge of his seat, eyes lightening up like a Christmas tree.

The prefect just stared at him questioningly. “Yes, so? What's the deal?”

“God, no! Why did you have to–!” Sunggyu exclaimed loudly but he got interrupted by a fuming Howon.

“What do you mean 'What’s the deal’?” he imitated her voice. “It's Neville Longbottom, the Neville Longbottom!” He started to ramble off facts over facts, Woohyun wearing a smug expression the entire time as Sunggyu buried his face in his hands.

The passion Howon had about Professor Longbottom left the prefect amazed.

After a full three minutes, Sunggyu managed to interrupt him. “Hoya, damn it! I liked the sound you made when you shut up!”

Hoya turned around to fire back a snarky comment but Sunggyu raised a finger.

“I swear to god, Lee Howon, one more sound and I will rip your damn Ruta Graveolens’ leaves! One by one! In front of your eyes!”

"I suggest you not to–" Howon tried to make him reason.

"You know I will do it, Lee Howon," Sunggyu was still saying.

"It's a venomous plant, you will just hurt yourself as soon as you try to lay a finger on it, let rip its leaves," Howon said with a provocative demeanor.

The older one stopped for a moment, lost in his thoughts before smirking and speaking up again. "Then, be careful not to leave your Zinnia Violacea unattended, who knows what could happen to it."

Hoya glared at Sunggyu for another second, before he let himself drop back again and crossed his arms. He was pouting.

The girl just sat there, impressed at how quickly the situation had escalated and calmed down again. She was for hundred percent sure that the guy named Kim Sunggyu would end up in Slytherin.

“How come he listened to you but not us?” She asked, irritated that Howon hadn't listened to her even though she was a prefect.

“Because I'm his damn mentor,” Sunggyu said. “You count yourself lucky that you aren't stuck with him around 17 hours a day. A pain in the when he gets out of his History lessons.”

Howon let out an audible gasp.

“Wait,” the girl said. “What do you mean you’re his mentor?”

Sunggyu chuckled for the first time that day, finding quite amusing how different their schools were and how much they would have to learn from each other.

"Basically," Sunggyu started.

"He gets to boss me around," Howon finished. Sunggyu gave him a silencing glare.

"Basically," Sunggyu started again. "Mentors lead the youngest through school. Usually freshmen can choose if they want a mentor or not. But for Muggleborn it's mandatory. I got assigned to Hoya because we have the same major but he specialised in Biology and I in Toxicology. If there's anything he needs help with he comes to me and not to the professors."

“So, basically,” she said. “You’re his babysitter?”

“No,” Howon answered at the same time as Sunggyu replied with a firm “Yes”.

Woohyun, who had burst into laughter at the Gorgeous Girl’s question, completely lost it as his friends’ words. He felt tears rolling down his cheeks and did his best to wipe them with his sleeves.

“Yes,” Sunggyu turned to glare at Howon. “Because this kid here is still a giant baby,” he said pointing at his student with his thumb. “And he is too,” he finished pointing at Woohyun.

”Do you have a babysitter too?” The prefect asked Woohyun.

“No, I am the babysitter,” he said, smirking after having finally stopped laughing and having wiped his tears. Either he didn’t realise how Sunggyu had just called him a ‘giant baby’ too, or he pretended not to care, just to act cool in front of her.

“Oh my, who trusted you with a student?” She asked, her voice full of terror. “Who’s the poor soul?”

"Myungsoo," Howon said in a matter-of-fact way.

She gasped. "So you abused your power over him? Poor kid."

Woohyun scoffed. As if he would hurt Myungsoo in any way. For the first time Woohyun stopped addressing the prefect. Not that she minded it.

***

The chariot of Dongwoo and the others already had arrived before them. Once the group stepped out, they could make out animated chatting, accompanied by Dongwoo’s lively laugh.

Sunggyu could tell that their ride had been much more comfortable and funnier. The frown on his face deepened. He could hear Woohyun and Hoya shoving each other along the way. The girl had given up on talking them out of it.

“Who bit your pants?” Was the first thing Sungyeol asked, which didn't help brighten his mood at all. So his frown turned into a scowl, cursing every higher might for making him stuck with these five idiots.

***

As soon as the group set foot inside the castle, they were greeted by a teacher. And not a random teacher, Neville freaking Longbottom, as Howon had thought in excitement. Growing up in a muggle family and being the only wizard, he had found out about what had happened just a bit more than a decade ago in Europe during a World History of Magic basic class in pre-school. Neville Longbottom had been one of the reasons why he had chosen Natural Studies as his major, specializing in Biology, as soon as he had been admitted to Mayehak Academy of Magical Arts. So, standing in front of such a legend made Howon’s legs shake and he weirdly got butterflies in his stomach. He pretended to be calm, trying his best to keep a straight face.

Like it happened in Diagon Alley when they were trying to buy everything they needed for school, Sungjong prompted Woohyun to conjure his translating fairies, hoping he improved the spell more since last time. It had taken him about three weeks to come up with that spell; conjuring a fairy was a quite simple task, after all, but teaching it the whole Korean-English dictionary had taken a while. Moreover, the translations weren’t perfect. Sungjong had defined them as Google Translate quality, so he and Sungyeol, who were the most fluent in English out of the group, had spent a few days helping Woohyun improving the fairy’s grammar but it still had had problems during their shopping day.

“This magic is truly impressive,”Professor Longbottom stated eyeing the four fairies that had appeared around the students. They quickly translated it into Korean for Sunggyu, Woohyun, Howon and Myungsoo to understand. A fairly good translation, in Sungjong’s opinion. At least for now. The sound of their high-pitched voices speaking in unison was a bit annoying, though.

“Thank you,” Woohyun replied, bowing. The girl noticed the quick glance he sent her. He was even smirking. Show off, she thought. As before, the fairies translated into English.

“Miss Mangjeol, Mr Jang,” the Professor said. “You two can join your housemates in the Great Hall. Thanks to this boy’s charm the two of you are temporarily relieved of your interpretation job. Thank you for helping the transfer students until now.”

Promptly, Dongwoo and the girl thanked the Professor, wished good luck to the boys and left for the Great Hall where the Sorting Ceremony was going to start soon.

Professor Longbottom quickly explained them what was going to happen and gave them some information about the school, the Houses and the point system. Since none of them was a first year student, they would take part to the Ceremony before the youngsters arrived.

“There is nothing to worry about,” Professor Longbottom said. “You will just sit on a stool, I will place the Sorting Hat on your head and finally the Hat will shout the name of your House.”

Woohyun raised his hand as he asked a question. “What if my friends get sorted into a House and I’m sorted into another one? Can I switch House to be with them?”

The teacher’s gaze softened. “I’m afraid this is not possible. But you all will have free time you can spend together, if you wish.”

Woohyun looked scared for a moment. He glanced at his friends and noticed they shared the same expression as him; none of them wanted to be separated from the others.

to be continued...