THE GRYFFINDORS

Watching all of the faculty swarm over to the Slytherin table to separate Nayeon and one of her minions would have been interesting to Jeongyeon if she hadn’t expected it. Personally Jeongyeon was surprised their blow up wasn’t any sooner. Though at this particular moment and time she didn’t care for anything that had to do with that nest of snakes-- she had tried for a while to come up with some brilliant prank to get the group back for what they did to her but she could never think of something absolutely perfect enough to take them down, plus Jihyo had convinced her out of at least half of her ideas because they could get her kicked out of school (even though would have been completely worth it).

“I totally should put my name in the Goblet of Fire,” Jeongyeon said as she refocused on her breakfast, slowly stirring her spoon through a thick bowl of apple-cinnamon oatmeal. Jihyo snorted.

“You would die.”

Jeongyeon frowned, feeling defensive and didn’t hesitate to talk back with full.

“No I wouldn’t! I’ve watched enough rebroadcastings of the tournament to know not what to do!”

Jihyo smiled but shrugged, shaking her head and of course giving her best friend a piece of her mind. “I don’t know, I just really think you shouldn’t.”

Jeongyeon put down her spoon and pushed her bowl away with a sigh. She then wiped with the sleeve of her grey cardigan.

“We’ll see.”

~~~

For the first day of school after a long and well needed summer break, Jeongyeon was in a pretty good mood. However having to retake Third Year Divination with a whole class of students younger than her did put a tiny damper on things. Of course it was her fault that she let this particular curriculum slip through her fingers, but she tried her best to have a positive attitude about it.

    Walking up the Astronomy Tower’s steps were killer after long afternoons of quidditch practice so Jeongyeon was glad she wouldn’t have to start her training until the following week. Entering the class was slightly awkward. It was a combined class full of both Gryffindors and Ravenclaws and most of the Gryffindors knew who she was-- the question was how could they not? Jeongyeon wasn’t exactly the quietest of students nor was she lacking in the prank department either. As a matter of fact just that morning she had cast an invisibility charm on her older friend Jae’s backpack. After he had spent around an hour looking for it and had heard from a “little birdy” (Jihyo) that it was Jeongyeon’s doing, he chased her around their common room for what felt like ages. Long story short, most of Gryffindor house was fed up with her nonsense and messy antics. Now entering a room full of younger Ravenclaws was a different story, they all had absolutely no idea what she was doing there and were probably wondering why someone her age had to repeat something as trivial as basic astronomy. There were nice Ravenclaws sure, Jeongyeon knew quite a few in her grade-- but she also knew a handful that judged every book by it’s cover.

“Alright I hope everyone is here,” Professor Yang Hyun-suk announced dryly over his desk while he arranged a stack of papers. His voice alone made Jeongyeon scowl, she instantly cringed at his sandpaper-like voice and the thought of having to take a whole other year with him. She truly hated Professor Yang, or as his students called him Professor YG. He was insanely creepy and boring and Jeongyeon had once heard a rumor that he had locked Jennie Kim and three other girls in a basement. All in all she would rather be locked in a library with Nayeon for a thousand years than take one more class of his.

    Jeongyeon looked around the classroom for an empty seat in the back of the class but all she found was was one open place at a table smack in the front of the room, half occupied by a girl with dark hair who was, for some reason, already halfway into reading their divination textbook that they shouldn’t have even opened yet (or so she thought). Immediately Jeongyeon noticed her blue Ravenclaw tie and figured that it actually wasn’t so surprising that she was almost done with the whole first half of their semesters reading and concluded that she wouldn’t mind sitting next to this girl. Maybe she could learn a thing or two from this assumed Third Year and perhaps, or at least Jeongyeon was hoping, that the girl would let her copy some of her homework.

“Hey, you’re not… saving this seat are you?” Jeongyeon asked while clearing , dropping down into the chair before she had even gotten an answer. The girl simply shook her head and didn’t even bother to look up from the textbook.

“Welcome to Divination One,” Professor YG began, his tone succeeding in making Jeongyeon’s eye twitch. “This week we will be learning about Zodiac signs. Due to this being the introductory lesson I want you to familiarize yourself with the other students around you. That being said this is a partnered discussion. Partner up and discuss under which house you were born and what planet you are aligned with.”

Jeongyeon sighed, she really did hate this nonsense and honestly didn’t believe in an ounce of it. Plus this whole birth signs and astrology thing is way tougher than it seems. Why know what makes up the sky if you could just fly through it you know? Jeongyeon took a deep breath and looked across her round table to find her tablemate staring directly at her, the divination textbook in front of her now closed-- her eyes wide and expectant.

“Oh right--” Jeongyeon muttered, her eyes shifting away from her partner’s, her hand scratching at the back of her neck. Although this topic should be relatively easy for her because she’s done this exact assignment last year, her mind was drawing a complete blank. Jeongyeon tapped her fingers on the wooded edge of the table trying to reach back into that part of her brain that should have remembered all of this from before. “Well I was born in November so I guess that makes me a Scorpio… which is ruled by… ruled by…”

“Pluto.” Her partner interrupted her rather matter-of-factly. Jeongyeon shifted her gaze back to the other girl’s again. It was oddly soft yet relentless.

“Uh yeah, Pluto.”

“Which makes you a water sign,” the girl continued, trailing her quill in light circles against a piece of parchment paper. “A Scorpio’s traits can include mysteriousness, determination, stubbornness, moodiness and they can have trouble expressing emotions.”

Jeongyeon blinked hard at this, both at the feeling of simply being so quickly exposed like that, almost like the girl across from her at cut her open with a knife and so easily exposed her insides without so much as a word from Jeongyeon herself. She was stunned to a kind of silence, one that the girl had no trouble filling with more of her own knowledge.

“Although astrological signs and traits aren’t always one hundred percent accurate. For example I’m an Ares, born in March. Ares are known to be short tempered and aggressive but I think that I can confidently say I am neither of those.”

Jeongyeon nodded away, unsure of what to say as the girl finished her rambling with a slight smile.

“Yeah you uh, don’t exactly look like an Ares,” Jeongyeon guessed, merely saying something to say something. At this, the girl’s smile widened, a look Jeongyeon actually found to be quite cute and then she let out a kind of laugh Jeongyeon had never heard before, a sort of high pitch yet somehow sophisticated giggle, a laugh hard enough to make her wonder if she really did say something funny, which according to Jeongyeon’s best friend Jihyo is “impossible.” But Jeongyeon liked the unfamiliar sound and the gigantic smile that it came from.

“Is that a good thing?” The girl asked, covering her hand, trying her best to regain her composure. Jeongyeon nodded and smiled back.

“Definitely… sorry I’m Jeongyeon by the way,” she replied, mentally hitting herself in the head for not introducing herself earlier when she had first sat down. It was like after being in the same classes with most of the same people she had forgotten how to talk to new people. The girl dropped her hand into her lap and tilted her head to look up at her new partner. Her brown eyes sparkled under the skylight.

“Nice to meet you Jeongyeon. I’m Mina.”