“I’m starving,” Momo sighed through her mouthful of bread and eggs. The breakfast provided this morning by the house elves was nothing less of an assortment from the feast the night prior, and Momo intended on trying all of it.

    “How is that possible?” Jisoo, Momo's new roommate had asked, looking sick as she watched Momo go from one dish to another, barely stopping for air. “After last night I don’t think I can eat for another three days.”

     “It’s all just so good!” Momo giggled, now so full of ham that grease dripped lightly from the corners of her lips. Jisoo sighed, grabbing a napkin to help wipe Momo’s face.

    “At least chew.”

Momo couldn’t stop herself, she was just so excited. Last night’s sorting ceremony was so fun, despite her crippling nervousness when it was finally her turn. Momo never really had a preference for which house she wanted to be sorted in and never gave it much thought considering she didn’t know much about each one— she grew up in a muggle household so her information on Hogwarts was limited to say the least. She would be happy anywhere, she assumed, as long as she made friends and had stories to tell her parents when she came back home for summer and winter break. To be honest, Momo couldn’t believe this all was real: the magical boarding school, the supernatural creatures and entities, being a real live witch. It was a concept that was a little hard to grasp onto at first, for both her and her parents. But nonetheless her family was proud of her, as always and couldn’t wait for her to start this amazing and unbelievable journey. Momo hadn’t found out about what she was until a few months before school started when an owl with a letter in it’s beak and the Hogwarts' Headmaster showed up at her front steps deciding to deliver the news. It was a shock of course, but when Headmaster Park described her situation she began to remember the signs.

When Momo was younger, about seven, she made a tea kettle on her mother’s stove explode with shards blasting all around the kitchen. Although at the time Momo and her parents had assumed perhaps the stove was a little too hot and the kettle couldn’t take the heat. It was all sort of a lazy and probably inaccurate science explanation but they all didn’t think much of it. Momo now remembers that day clearly: she was deeply upset after she had came home from school that afternoon. The girls in her grade were treating her unfairly, calling her names, teasing her because they thought she was stupid. It wasn’t true at all, she just had failed to color in the lines for one of their projects, but as far as Momo was concerned, going outside the lines was a sign of creativity and not stupidity. Unfortunately though that wasn’t the last time she was going to be accused of being an idiot. But she doesn’t let it affect her anymore— or at least she tries not to. All in all it was a little strange for her to acknowledge that the exploding kettle was a magical reaction due to her anger, but it was still pretty cool nonetheless.

    “Hurry and finish up,” Jisoo laughed, standing up and fixing the high socks of her uniform. “We have to get to class.”

Momo nodded, swallowing a bite of oatmeal before joining Her friend on her feet.

    “First day. It’s going to be amazing.” Momo beamed, looping her arm with Jisoo’s as they skipped out of the Great Hall, squealing as they went. Momo didn’t think she had ever been this excited about school before but why wouldn’t she be? It was a new world for her to discover and Momo was determined to experience all of it.

~~~

    “Where do we go first?” Momo asked Jisoo as she leaned against an archway that lead out into one of the castle’s courtyards. The air was brisk and the patch of grass Momo was standing close to was still wet with morning dew.

    “Um, I believe Potions,” Jisoo mumbled as they both huddled over their paper schedule, Momo squinting to make out the small letters. Momo couldn’t even hold back the grin forming along her lips. Her feet were tapping rapidly against the cobblestone with excitement.

    “This is crazy. Potions? That like, shouldn’t even be real.”

Jisoo shrugged, she grew up in an all wizard household so potion making was nothing new. But she was excited too, it’s not like her parents had ever let her brew something up in their kitchen.

    “I heard it’s quite hard though,” Jisoo told Momo, pulling her over to a group of new Hufflepuffs that were walking down the hall to their first class of the year. “And dangerous.”

Despite the anxiety in Jisoo’s voice Momo shrugged, both Jisoo’s nervousness and the impending difficulty of Potions blowing over her head. Momo was never the type that was good at picking up on emotions or caring about if something was hard or not. She liked to try everything at least once before forming an opinion. She was almost always optimistic.

    “I think it’ll be fun,” Momo hummed as they turned a corner, the hoard of Hufflepuffs stopping at an open door. There was a wooden sign next to the entrance hanging on a nail that read:

    Potions 01; Professor Kim Taeyeon.

Momo smiled biting eagerly on her bottom lip as she followed the crowd, dragging Jisoo with her into the classroom.

The room was dimly lit by torches hanging high above the worktables, while what seemed like a dozen shelves were stacked with ingredients and old books, all leaning against stone walls.

    “Hello, welcome,” spoke a voice from the front of the classroom, Professor Kim, sitting straight with a certain air of elegance on a stool as she watched students file in. “I’d prefer at the moment if you all would find seats based by House, it won’t always be that way but I think sitting in designated groups will help me remember your names a little bit better.”

Momo looked around. If it wasn’t for Professor Kim’s request she wouldn’t have noticed that there weren’t just Hufflepuffs filing into the classroom. Other students wearing a uniform with dark green accents were gathering into one side of the class, taking up desks on Momo’s right.

    “Ugh, really? The Slytherins?” she heard Jisoo grumble as the pair sat down at worktable in the back— the rows in front of them were already filled with the rest of their fellow Hufflepuff first years.

    “What about them?” Momo asked, dropping her book bag beside her feet at the base of the tall stool she was sitting on. She turned to give the students on her right a once over. They all had a strange air about them, but Momo wasn’t exactly sure what it was. The atmosphere in the room became heavy, partially quiet and a little bit hostile. Why did it seem like everyone else knew something that Momo didn’t?

    “Congrats to everyone for making it here on time, I know that is mostly due to the fact that it’s the first day, however I would like to expect nothing less for the rest of the year if that is fine with you.” Professor Kim stated in a loud and clear voice. Each word she spoke sounded eloquent. She was tall and wore a dark open robe that fell to her feet. Momo thought she seemed a little too young to be a Professor but she didn’t mind. Momo would rather have someone closer to her own age as a teacher than have a class led by a grumpy seventy year old.

As Professor Kim began her introductory lesson, Momo couldn’t help but zone out a little. So far from what she had gathered, Potions seemed like a science class and Momo was absolutely horrible at science. She hoped her next period, Herbology, would suit her better.

    “Now I’m assuming you all have your 'Magical Drafts and Potions’ textbook, yeah?” Professor Kim asked the class. A junction of the students nodded and grumbled in agreement but Momo suddenly formed a lump in , her head falling in her hands. She just knew she had forgotten something the night before as they had gotten off the express but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. Of course now she clearly could see what it was: her textbooks sitting beside her in the compartment of the train. Momo slowly rose a shaking hand.

  “Excuse me, um Professor?”

Professor Kim turned to her, her expression soft and her eyebrows raised.

    “My books…” Momo continued, her voice cracking. “I don’t really have them.”

    “You never bought them?” Professor Kim asked, slightly puzzled. This rarely happened. Momo shook her head and dropped her arm.

    “I um forgot them. On the train.”

A flood of giggles and hissed laughter drowned the classroom for a moment, a few of the Hufflepuffs joining in too but mostly the Slytherin side of the class was responsible for the noise. Momo’s cheeks turned pink and she smiled sheepishly, pretty embarrassed. This is not how she wanted to start out her year.

    “I see.” Professor Kim responded with a kind and slightly pitying sort of look. “I’ll figure out what I can do to help you get them back but for now just share with a classmate okay?”

Momo nodded and slumped over in her chair, glancing to her roommate next to her who had slid her own book between the two of them to share.

    “Of course the Mudblood would have a bad memory,” muttered a Slytherin boy just loud enough for most of the class to hear. He sat at a worktable directly across the aisle from Momo with a few others from his house. More laughter followed his comment but this time Momo didn’t understand why. She was deeply confused. What did he call her?

    “Shut up,” a voice from the Slytherin side of the room hissed. Momo leaned forward on the table to get a better look at who it was. This time a girl was talking, one with dark hair and lightly tanned skin. She had sharply turned around to the boy who had made the ill-worded comment behind her and flipped her hair over her shoulder as she spoke. The boy looked surprised at her interjection but not enough to be concerned for what she had to say. Nevertheless she continued. “Blood discrimination isn’t a thing anymore. But you obviously had a hard time remembering that.”

The number of people laughing now was few, most of the class had become quiet and kind of tense. Despite the sharpness of the dig, the boy just shrugged and failed to come up with a response. However he probably wouldn’t have had the proper time to actually say something clever because Professor Kim quickly inserted her authority.

    “Hey! Watch that language in here! I don’t like giving out detentions but I will if it’s necessary.” She ordered pointedly. “There will be no hate tolerated in this room.”

Momo was still thoroughly confused about what was going on but when she looked at Jisoo for an explanation she just quietly shook her head. M then glanced at the girl who had stood up for her on the other side of the room who had turned back to face the front. Apparently not all Slytherins were so bad after all.

The class had ended an hour later and Jisoo had protectively taken Momo’s hand and led her out of the classroom with the others spilling out from behind them.

    “Not sure if I’m going to like potions,” Momo laughed lightly, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. Jisoo looked at her with sympathy and nodded but didn’t acknowledge the comment made against her.

    “Me either. It’s already bloody confusing and all we did was look at the syllabus.”

    “To think we have seven years of it left,” Momo sighed.

Suddenly Momo felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning around, she saw the girl from before, the one who had bravely told that boy to shut up. Her touch was light but not sympathetic.

    “Hey.” The girl looked directly in her eyes as she spoke and had no shame about it. “Sorry about earlier. I guess some people are still stuck in the past.”

Momo nodded but she still had no idea what that word meant, although at this point she had figured it was nothing good.

    “Thanks,” was all Momo could say due to the suffocating proximity of the Slytherin girl in front of her— she stood only inches away, almost too close for two strangers. The girl had an inspiring but strange air of confidence about her.

    “I’m Sana, sorry I should have introduced myself. Um I wanted to give you something."

Momo squinted at the object held out in the Slytherin girl’s hand. It was a large, marble shaped glass with details etched onto the sides that Momo couldn’t make out. She took it lightly from Sana’s palm to get a closer look. The instant the ball touched her skin, red smoke bloomed in it’s center. Momo glanced between the object and the girl still breaching her personal space.

    “What is it?”

A knowing smile stretched across Sana’s lips as she noted the presence of the smoke clouding up the glass.

    “It’s called a Remembrall. It’s something to remind you that you’ve forgotten something and by the look of it you have.” Sana explained, laughing lightly. Jisoo peered over M’s shoulder at the thing and added:

    “It turns red when it’s owner is being forgetful but goes clear once you’ve remembered what was forgotten.”

Momo gripped it tightly in her hand and stared at it; the red smoke was swirling slowly in it’s container. It was oddly beautiful. The only problem was, what was she forgetting?

    “Thank you,” Momo finally said, looking up at Sana with gratitude. “That’s really nice of you but... it’s yours, wouldn’t you need it?”

Sana’s smile only grew wider as she stepped back, ready to walk to her next class.

    “I have a feeling you’ll need it more than me,” she quipped smirking over her shoulder before she fully turned around and walked with the rest of the first year Slytherin crowd down the corridor. Momo stood there stiffly for a moment and looked back down at the object in her fingers. What a strange interaction that was. Jisoo nudged her on the shoulder and squeezed her hand again, pulling her in the direction of their next course past one of the courtyards.

    “I thought you said Slytherins were bad news?” she asked Jisoo who rolled her eyes and groaned.

    “They are,” she stated simply, a skip in her step. “Sure one of them may have helped you out now but that doesn’t mean she always will. I bet she will try and get a favor from you at some point. Slytherins always expect something in return.”

Momo shrugged, unsure if she should believe what Jisoo had to say. Sana seemed nice and maybe sometime in the future they actually could be friends.

Momo chewed on her bottom lip as they walked partly aimlessly through the castle, trying to find their next class. Jisoo refused to admit they were lost but Momo didn’t mind. She wasn’t sure she really wanted to face any more student today. At this point she didn’t really trust them. Except for one besides Jisoo. She trusted Sana.