“Every time I try and talk to Luhan he pretends to be asleep,” Yixing sighs. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” Yifan shrugs, picking at a string on his robe. “Luhan is just…incredibly petty.”

“You’ve known him your whole life, right?”

“Unfortunately,” Yifan says. “We were next door neighbors for the longest time until my father decided to move.”

“Why did you move?” Yixing glances over at Yifan, noticing a faraway look in his eyes.

“My mom died,” he says simply, “after being ill for a long time, and my father couldn’t bear the thought of living in that house without her.”

“…I’m sorry, Yifan,” Yixing frowns, lifting a hand to gingerly pat him on the shoulder.

“It’s alright.”

“So…you haven’t seen Luhan for a long time, then?”

“The last time I saw him, we were around the same height,” Yifan grins suddenly. “When I left, we promised each other the next time we met, it would be at Hogwarts.”

“Wow..amazing,” Yixing whispers in awe. “That’s like a line straight out of a movie!”

“You’ve only known him for a couple of years, right?”

“Yeah, about three years now.”

“You have much to learn, then,” Yifan chuckles, leaning back on the bench. The left sleeve of his robe lies in a stringy mess in his lap as he looks over at Minseok and Luhan on the other end of the station.

“Luhan’s been sending help signals to you for the past ten minutes, I think,” Yixing blinks, looking in the same direction as Yifan.

“Oh, I know. He’s nervous about finally talking to Minseok again.”

In unison, the two second-years sigh.

“Poor Minseok.”

“Do you two ever stop reading?” Jongdae says in exasperation, wedged in the middle of Kyungsoo and Junmyeon. “The school year is over already! We’re waiting for the train back, and you can’t find anything better to do than read?”

“I’m just getting a head start on all my fourth-year readings,” Kyungsoo says the same time Junmyeon says, “I’m just looking over my third-year texts.”

They glare at each other momentarily, Junmyeon more so.

“Excuse me? You’re only a first year, you can’t be reading fourth year texts,” he practically spits out while mentally berating himself for not having done that his first year.

Jongdae hushes him with a wave of his hands.

“You two are the most boring, bland people I have ever met in my life. Have you ever just…relaxed? Calmed down? Had fun?”

“Mhmm…once,” Kyungsoo says absentmindedly, eyes already back on his book.

“And?” Jongdae prompts.

“It was alright.”

Jongdae lets out a muffled scream into his hands.

“I don’t know where Chanyeol and Baekhyun are, or else I wouldn’t even be sitting with you two right now. And since they’re not here, I have no entertainment. Can you two be more interesting?”

“Why don’t you entertain yourself?” Junmyeon asks, flipping a page rather loudly. Kyungsoo twitches at the noise.

“I’ve already made ten people trip over their own feet, switched six sets of luggage, and put a stink bomb in one of the compartments. I can only do so much, you know! And the bomb isn’t supposed to go off for another five minutes, so I’ll be bored until then.”

“Jongdae, I already told you that stink bombs are absolutely not an acceptable form of entertainment,” Junmyeon says sternly, closing his book.

“And tripping people is?” Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow.

“If you’re so concerned about it, go find it and deactivate it,” Jongdae shrugs.

“You know what? I will,” Junmyeon stands up, gathering his robes. “I simply cannot have you terrorizing other students like this!”

“Okay, bye,” Jongdae snickers, watching Junmyeon slip onto the train.

“…You didn’t actually put a stink bomb in there, right?” Kyungsoo asks.

“Of course not,” Jongdae scoffs. “Am I dumb?”

Kyungsoo sighs in relief.

“I have it right here,” Jongdae grins, producing the stink bomb from his robes and slipping it into Junmyeon’s suitcase with one fluid movement.

“…You’re diabolical,” Kyungsoo says, almost breaking out in a smile.

“Oh, I know,” Jongdae wiggles his eyebrows. “One of my many charms."

“Chanyeol!” Baekhyun yells, hair sticking up every which way. “Chanyeol, wake up!” He grabs one of Chanyeol’s shirts off the floor and gently slaps him with the sleeves. “We’re late! We are so, so, so late!”

Chanyeol awakes with a jolt, eyes wide but still lined with sleep.

“What year is it?!” He rasps, and Baekhyun rolls his eyes.

“Same as you remember. Now hurry up! I can’t believe we fell asleep packing,” He whines, scrambling around the room and throwing things in his suitcase.

“Technically, we fell asleep while you were packing,” Chanyeol rubs his eyes, getting out of bed and slipping his school robes over his pajamas. “I was already finished packing.”

“Okay, fine. You fell asleep first, and you looked so comfortable and I was so tired so I just sort of…went to sleep too. I thought I could finish it in the morning! But I slept through my alarms,” Baekhyun groans. “And now we are totally late for the train back!”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Yes!! Quickly, get your things! We gotta go now!”

Chanyeol throws on his two backpacks, a duffel bag, and tugs two large suitcases out of his closet in one swift movement. Baekhyun grabs his suitcases as well as they both head for the door, almost crashing into each other in their attempt to get through it first.

“Stop the train!” Baekhyun screams as they run down the halls.

Luhan doesn’t know how he manages to hold a conversation with Minseok for half an hour without spontaneously combusting. His stomach won’t stop turning, his palms are sweaty, his heart hasn’t stopped its frenzied beating, and he’s not sure how Minseok hasn’t noticed it all yet.

Miraculously, his brain and mouth seem to be functioning properly, and he’s even been able to make Minseok laugh a few times. All too soon, it seems, a bell signals the start of boarding, and Minseok grabs his bags as he heads towards the door.

“It was nice talking to you again, Luhan,” Minseok smiles. “See you next year!”

“Am I dreaming?” Luhan blurts suddenly and wishes he had just held it together for another minute.

“Did you say something?”

“I said, I had fun talking to you too!” Luhan quickly says, thanking the suddenly crowded platform for saving him.

Minseok waves, steps onto the train, and Luhan stands there with a dumb grin on his face until Yixing and Yifan come over, snapping him out of his reverie.

“Make us proud, Sehun.”

“I will,” Sehun promises his parents, clutching onto his bag tightly.

His mother pats him once on the head, and that’s all the goodbye he gets as he steps off the platform onto the train. Confusion, then panic dawns on him as he realizes he’s accidentally stepped into the third-year section.

“Hey, do you need help? Are you a first year?” An upperclassman asks him gently, green and silver tie looped loosely around his neck.

Mesmerized by the Slytherin’s tie, Sehun forgets to answer. Suddenly, another student bounds over to the two of them, grabbing Sehun’s arm and pulling him away from the upperclassmen.

“Hi again, Minseok,” he says, “Don’t worry, I’ll show him around. Oh, tell Yifan I said hi!”

“Alright,” Minseok chuckles. “Be careful, Tao.”

Once Sehun and Tao are out of sight, Yifan crawls out from underneath the table and looks around warily.

“Is he gone?”

“Yes,” Minseok rolls his eyes. “You really should be nicer to him.”

“I was his next door neighbor for one year, Minseok. How does he even remember me? I was, what, four when he was born? I would’ve been hanging out with a baby. I don’t know anything about infant care. My God, I could’ve killed him.”

“Be quiet, Yifan,” Junmyeon chastises him from a couple rows over. “You’re giving me a headache!”

“Let go,” Sehun jerks his arm away from the stranger that had appeared out of nowhere.

“I’m just being nice,” Tao says. “I’m a first year too, and I got on the wrong part of the train too! But I met a lot of nice upperclassmen. You don’t have to look so upset, okay? What’s your name?”

“Sehun.”

“I’m Tao. You can sit with me and Jongin! He’s a first year too, by the way,” Tao says, sliding open the door to a carriage.

Sehun peers in to see a boy sprawled across the seats, sound asleep.

“Jongin!” Tao complains, nudging his shoulder. “I leave for one minute and you fall asleep again?”

“I’m tired,” Jongin mumbles.

“Don’t be rude, Jongin. This is Sehun, so say hi!”

“Hi Sehun,” Jongin says, sitting up. “I’m Jongin.”

“Um, hello,” Sehun blinks as he takes a seat next to Tao.

Tao and Jongin talk for the entire train ride, but Sehun is too transfixed by the view outside to contribute much to the conversation. His wand sits in the pocket of his robe, heavy with the weight of his parent’s expectations as he slowly relaxes to the sound of Tao and Jongin’s whispers.

When he dozes off, he dreams of silver and green.