THE SLYTHERINS

Sana had realized she wasn’t a stereotypical Slytherin at the beginning of her third year. The realization came when she sat in a group of maybe twenty of her housemates in their common room, the latter discussing their opinions of the other houses. While she agreed with some of the points made on Gryffindor and Ravenclaw (“they all think too highly of themselves and all they want is attention”), she cringed at her house’s opinion of the Hufflepuffs. The majority of Slytherin’s agreed that Hufflepuff was a useless waste of space-- its inhabitants deemed neanderthals who were fun to manipulate because they wouldn't stick up for themselves. That assumption made her skin crawl. So maybe Sana had recently discovered she wasn't the nicest person (she cast a jinx the other day that tied a Ravenclaw’s shoelaces together, making her trip down a flight of one of the moving staircases. The reason why? The Ravenclaw was walking in front of Sana way too slow) but she wasn't the worst Slytherin she could think of. She cared about people (a select few) and whenever Hufflepuff was mentioned she couldn't help but think of that poor Hufflepuff muggle born girl, the only one in her year who was absolutely clueless. It just wasn't right to make fun of someone who couldn't help but be confused. That girl didn't grow up with wizard parents so of course it was normal to not understand every aspect of the wizarding world. That's what school was for. However most of Sana’s house didn't agree and she tried to make peace with it despite how annoying it was. She couldn't relate with other Slytherins because of her opinions on people which was a small attribute, but she still stood out. Of course it was mostly contributed to the fact that ever since her first year she continued to dress as Nayeon instructed which in turn helped her steadily climb the social pyramid. Sure being known because of how one showed their body could be considered degrading but Sana lived for it. She also became quite well known in both her house and her year for being in Nayeon’s posse. Nayeon practically dominated the castle so it was no surprise that when Sana started hanging around Nayeon and her friends, Sana began to share some of Nayeon’s glory too.

As expected Sana was well acquainted with her roommates, but she mostly hung around the older girls instead when she wasn’t in class— although she was kind of hoping she would start making friends with students from the other houses too, some her own age. But mingling houses didn't sit well with Nayeon or the others so she kept to her group for the most part. That's not to say Ravenclaws, Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs didn't know who she was, because they did. No one could escape Sana’s loud talking voice or her contagious and flirtatious attitude. Even if she wasn't trying to draw attention she did. Always.

The end of her first year was pretty good, she did well in most of her classes, they were easy and generally standard after all. She had watched the Quidditch games when she could (or when she was forced to be Nayeon) but she didn’t really care for having the houses pitted up against one another. She never liked how it felt whenever her fellow Slytherins would gloat over a win or how in any confrontation the other teams would accuse the Slytherins of being the “Evil House”. Sana wasn’t stupid, she knew that Slytherins had a cold reputation but she never thought it would feel so bad when others acknowledged it. She wasn’t evil as far as she could tell so she wished others would stop assuming so. Of course now that she was friends with Nayeon, people would most likely assume so by association and in that case Nayeon’s group as a whole lived up to that stereotype.

In Sana’s second year classes got a tiny bit harder. Luckily Nayeon had charmed a Ravenclaw boy in Sana’s year to do her Potions and History of Magic homework for her so she barely had to lift a finger. Sana had adopted a bit of a reputation, being known from her second year on as a girl who would never shut up no matter how many warnings were given. Sana tried to stop, but she couldn’t help it, classes no matter the subject were absolutely boring. How else was she supposed to entertain herself? Her table mates would usually engage in conversation as well— her charm was infectious and undeniable— but because her voice was always the loudest, she was the one who always got in trouble.

Her second year was also memorable because that was the year Sana had gotten her first kiss. It was with another Slytherin boy just a few years older. Nayeon had thought she saw Sana eyeing him one night in the dormitories on a dreary Saturday so Nayeon casually had suggested him and a group of their friends play a game of truth or dare. Sana wasn’t hesitant, she was excited in fact, but she didn’t really know what was in store for her either. Long story short Nayeon had dared Sana and this boy to have Seven Minutes in Heaven in a broom closet under a portrait of Salazar Slytherin in the corner of the common room. Sana however anxious, could never say no to a dare. Although a kiss was all that happened between the two of them, Sana couldn’t help but wonder if all kisses were supposed to feel that lackluster. Maybe I just don’t like that kind of intimacy, she had thought. Maybe he was a bad kisser.

Now that it was her third year she could just tell things were going to be different. For one, Third Years collectively had more freedom than before. Second she was starting to fill out her uniform a bit better; the longer her legs had gotten the shorter her skirt was. The bigger her chest had gotten, the smaller her shirt was around the middle. The older she got the more she started to look like a copy of Nayeon. Sana thought that was what she wanted, to be like Nayeon. After all Nayeon had done everything for her these past few years. She had gotten Sana involved with a group of older and popular students, she had helped her pass her classes (however indirectly), and she had molded Sana physically into a newer and prettier version of herself. Without Nayeon, Sana had figured she would have been a nobody.

    “Hogsmeade huh,” Nayeon breathed softly through her lips as she carefully helped Sana hook a new necklace around from behind her back. “That’ll be fun.” Nayeon’s dry tone didn’t match her words but that wasn’t unusual.

    “I know, I’m excited,” Sana smiled lightly, letting go of a fistful of her hair she had been holding up so Nayeon could properly connect the necklace, sending her light brown hair tumbling recklessly past her shoulders. “I’ve wanted to go since I first started studying here. I was always so jealous watching you and the other girls go without me. I hated waiting behind.”

Nayeon nodded along absentmindedly, barely hearing what Sana had to say, not because she was sad or disconnected, but because she simply didn’t care.

Sana bent down now to pick up a ring from the floor, one her mom had given her before she left on the Hogwarts Express this year to school. The ring was supposed to remind Sana of her mother when she was feeling lonely, which was helpful because despite all of the company she usually had around her, Sana had been feeling lonely these days. She didn’t exactly know why either. Nayeon had suggested that maybe she just needed a boyfriend but Sana wasn’t really sure if she was ready for that yet, if ever. No matter how many guys noticed her in her borderline rule breakingly small uniform, boys still seemed like a foreign concept to her.

    “Just don’t spend too much money on candy or food, you wouldn’t want people to think you actually willingly eat that garbage” was all Nayeon had to say before she expressionlessly sauntered out of Sana’s room retreating to her own dorm to gossip with her best friend Jennie.

    “Yeah…” Sana forced herself to laugh while one of her hands slid routinely down her abdomen. “Like I would do that.”

~~~

The weekend Hogsmeade trips started exactly at 12 in the afternoon and if you wanted to get a proper look of the shrieking shack or the best table in the one of the bars you would have to arrive right on time. Nayeon made sure of this and corralled the girls together so they could get the best corner table available at the Hogs Head. They met the rest of Hogwarts’ older students at the checkpoint in the courtyard near the Great Hall at precisely a minute before noon.

    “Look alive ladies,” Nayeon told their group. “I’m not losing our table to another ironically idiotic Ravenclaw.”

When Professor Kim their chaperone gave all the students the OK, everyone rushed into the little town like a hoard of baby rhinos in a stampede. Sana had kept alongside her group just before they passed the candy shop. Sana couldn’t help herself, the glistening licorice snaps in the window were calling her name. She stopped in her tracks, calling out to Nayeon.

    “I’ll meet you guys in there, I just want to check this place out first!”

    “Whatever,” Nayeon had lazily called back, rushing into the bar and disappearing. Sana sighed, the sight of dozens of choices in candy in the display case numbing her hurt. She walked inside.

The wizarding candy shop known as Honeydukes was indeed legendary. There were shelves upon shelves of chocolate, nuts, yogurt covered fruits, toffees, taffy, and even a wide variety of sugared pastries. The floor however was very dusty and creaked under the weight of the many students packing inside to find and buy their favorite treats.

Sana was extremely happy. The only time she was able to buy candy like this was on the trolley on the express to school; whenever she asked Nayeon to bring her back something from Honeydukes in her second year, Nayeon would always come up with some excuse of why she didn’t get the chance to buy anything ( it was always either she had forgotten or she ate her Fudge Flies on the ‘long’ trek back to the castle). After a while she had just stopped asking.

Sana wasn’t going to lie, despite how amazing the crazy choices and selections Honeydukes had was, it was also completely overwhelming. She would get her usual pick for sure: a bag of crystallized pineapple and a few sugar quills, but she was also really in the adventurous mood to try something different.

Squeezing into the rather small candy store between the bustling students, some already standing in line ready to purchase and others mulling about looking indecisive, Sana stopped at a barrel near the window of the shop and began to dig through it’s contents. The barrel was sectioned off into three different kinds of chocolate treats: chocolate wands, treacle fudge, and chocolate frogs. Sana had sort of an affinity for chocolate wands, like sugar quills, where she just liked to sit and nibble on the ends when she was bored or trying to cure her hunger pains from not eating for days at a time (Nayeon’s advice). Chocolate frogs on the other hand she pretty much detested. Although they tasted good she didn’t enjoy how they came alive and tried to jump out of her hands when she tried to eat them or how days later she would find them melted in some random hiding spot like under her bed or in her sock drawer. Her opinion on treacle fudge was neutral and uninspiring.

    “Here can you hand me that bag?” a girl on the opposite side of the barrel had asked to a friend beside her as she dug her arm deep into the chocolate frog section and scooped up at least three dozen of the boxed candies into what looked like an empty garbage bag. Sana had stopped picking through the treats for a moment just to watch the odd scene before her. After the second armful Sana just had to interject.

    “Someone really likes chocolate,” Sana laughed, grabbing a candy wand in one of her hands. The girl with the garbage bag looked up at her with a blithe look across her face, her eyebrows raising themselves and hiding behind the her short golden brown hair.

    “Well yeah,” the girl answered simply, dropping the bag onto the floor most likely because it was now extremely heavy. “But I like the cards more.”

    “Oh right, the trading cards. I forgot that they came with the boxes,” Sana told her, brushing her own hair out of her face “Whenever I bought them I usually never got around to checking the card, I was too busy looking for the frog.” The girl in front of her smiled a little, like she knew something or two about misplacing the magical candy creature.

    “You have to open the case into your mouth and eat it right away or else things might get a little hectic— as you seem to know.”

Sana grinned, letting out another laugh as she came to a small realization: this was probably the first time she had talked to someone she didn’t recognize from her house in the last few months if not a year. She was pretty social in classes, but Nayeon had told her to try and stay clear from anyone from the other houses. It was a weird request that Sana never really understood and she thought eventually Nayeon would let up on this rule but she never did.

This is nice, Sana had thought. She enjoyed talking to someone other than her usual brooding clique. Maybe she should do it more often.

Sana stuck out her arm.

    “I’m Sana,” she beamed as the other girl grasped tightly onto her outstretched hand. “What year are you in? I feel like I've never seen you around before.”

The girl’s small smile had now disappeared into a stolid kind of half frown and she instantly dropped her hand back to her side to grab the garbage bag. Her brown eyes flashed towards her friend that had wandered off, a look Sana knew well-- it was a look that Nayeon usually gave towards someone in their group if she was in a conversation that she absolutely didn’t want to be in (like some loser asking her on a date for example) and she needed rescuing.

    “I’m Jeongyeon. But um we’re in the same year actually. We’ve sort of had like three consecutive classes together since our first year.”

Sana felt heat rise to her cheeks in embarrassment. How could she not have remembered this girl? Was she really that oblivious and sheltered under Nayeon’s wing? Sana nodded quickly, trying to brush it off and pretend she had known that all along but Jeongyeon didn’t seem entirely convinced.

    “Right, of course, you were in my History of Magic class, I remember you.” Sana told her trying to cover her tracks but the girl was already moving her way back to the friend she had came with, dragging her bag full of chocolate frogs on the wooden floor behind her.

    “No it was transfiguration actually and flying, you know the classes that all the houses have taken together at once? Common mistake… I uh gotta go.” Jeongyeon said dryly before walking completely away. She watched as the girl she now knew reconnect with her friend and blushed as they obviously started to laugh in Sana’s expense.

    “Awesome,” Sana muttered to herself under her breath. “You came off as such a .”

She doubted Jeongyeon would ever talk to her again. It took a moment for Sana to recover, but after she had left Honeydukes with her small bag of sweets, she looked for her friends inside the Hogs Head pub.

The bar was dimly lit as most are and people between the ages of 14 to 85 were in their own groups talking loudly, laughing, clinking their drinks together and eating almost collectively with their mouths open. It was unlike a pub Sana had ever seen before: the room was decorated with ugly shrunken skeletons, uneven beads, and decapitated animal heads mounted on the walls that no one seemed to notice but her. The group she belonged in was sitting at their usual table in the corner of the bar sipping together through multiple straws on one tall glass of pumpkin juice. Sana came up to the table and looked around for a place to sit but there was none. The girls didn’t even realize she was there until she cleared and had to verbally announce her presence.

    “Hey, sorry I took so long. Honeydukes was packed. The line took forever.” Five of the girls at the table still didn’t acknowledge Sana's existence it seemed, while the sixth, Nayeon, threw her a glare after a few fleeting seconds.

    “I’m sure it was. Hogwarts is full of gluttonous morons. Those losers probably can’t function without 2,000 calories of sugar coursing through their veins a day.” Nayeon sneered, earning a couple of laughs from her minions. Sana chuckled uncomfortably as she usually did in these kind of situations. She was so ever used to Nayeon’s opinions of the other students but it never failed to make Sana feel awkward.

   “Yeah… um could one of you scoot over, my feet are so tired from waiting in line.” At Sana’s request no one budged, not even Nayeon who she was supposedly the closest to. Nayeon bit on her straw as she boldly looked Sana directly in the eyes, a sly smirk perched on her lips-- a painful routine that Sana was sadly accustomed to.

    “Actually, we’re a bit full today babe, how about we meet you back at the castle later? Sound good?” Nayeon didn’t try hard to suppress her laughter which in turn invited the other Slytherin girls to chime along in a sour, sharp and undeserved goodbye.

    “Yeah…” Sana mumbled turning slowly on her heel. “I’m tired anyway… I think I have some homework to do too... I’ll see you all tonight. That’s fine.”

As Sana exited the bar she turned back again just once to see, Nayeon grinning her off and moving one of her hands through her long dark hair obviously and completely unbothered. But still Sana had to be thankful for her. Without N I would be nothing, she reminded herself repeatedly like a mantra. At least that’s what Nayeon assured her. So far anyway for the most part it proved to be true.

Walking back to the castle Sana’s eyes were burning. She felt like she was about to cry. She wasn’t sure if she liked Hogsmeade as much as she thought she would. She was disappointed. But disappointment was something she was used to these days.