“Tiffany! Look out!”

The shout of alarm made Taeyeon look up. Over in the cabin across from her, a trunk was toppling over the ledge onto a golden-haired girl. Before she could even blink, her hand had snatched up the wand in her pocket. “Levioso!”

The golden-haired girl opened her eyes a second later, unscathed and bemused. She looked up and saw the brown, tattered trunk hovering in the air above her head. Then, she browsed the people around before locking eyes on Taeyeon’s wand.

“Do you mind stepping aside?” Taeyeon asked gently, with a polite smile. She held her wand as the golden-haired girl looked up again before doing as she was asked. Only when the girl was out of harm’s way, did she finally let her wand drop. The trunk landed on the ground with a heavy thud and Taeyeon smiled again. “You’re safe now,” she said, promptly putting her wand away and continuing on her way to find an empty cabin.

“Tae, do you realize who you just saved?” Yuri, her best friend, nudged her as they walked down the aisle with their trunks in tow.

“I know. She’s Tiffany.”

“She’s not just Tiffany. She’s the Slytherin chaser who bumped Hannah off her broomstick last year. Hannah fell and broke her arm. Remember?”

“Oh, it was her?”

“It was her.” Yuri made a face. “You should have let the trunk fall.”

“That’s mean.”

“She’s mean.”

“Maybe she’s just competitive.”

“Competitive and mean.”

“Yul . . .”

“You’re too nice, Tae.”

“I’m nice but I’m not a pushover.”

“Only when it involves creatures.”

“Here’s an empty cabin.”

“Great. I want the window seat,” Yuri declared, pointing at the front-facing window seat.

Taeyeon looked at Yuri and shook her head. “No.”

“No? What do you mean, no.”

“I’m not giving it to you, Yul.”

“Why not?”

Taeyeon grinned. “Because I’m not that nice.”

x

“Alright, everyone. This will be our first performance of the new school year. We’re going to give them a rousing rendition they won’t forget till after the holidays at least.”

Taeyeon nodded and patted down her robes as she hummed to warm up her voice. She was excited to sing in front of a large crowd again, after the long break wherein she could only sing to her dogs and collection of plushies.

“And now, the Frog Choir!”

With that announcement, they began to shuffle out into the Great Hall. Taking their places centre stage, the choir looked to Professor Flickstick and started to sing upon his first flick of the stick.

Double, double, toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Double, double, toil and trouble;

Something wicked this way co—

“Ah!” Taeyeon shrieked as her legs began moving with a mind of their own. Jiggling and kicking and skipping, she must have looked ridiculously funny because much of the Great Hall burst into laughter.

“Expelliarmus!”

All eyes swung across the hall to the flash of light, catching sight of a wand dropping onto the ground. At first, there was a stunned silence. Then gasps and murmurs erupted when they realized who had cast the spell. Taeyeon, glad to have her legs back to themselves, was unaware of the development until her choir mate jabbed her with a sharp elbow.

“Unbelievable, Taeyeon. This is simply unbelievable.”

“What is?”

“Tiffany apprehended a fellow Slytherin!”

Taeyeon stared into Seohyun’s wide, sparkling eyes in confusion. “What?”

“Tiffany, the Slytherin prefect. She just disarmed her fellow Slytherin for you, a Hufflepuff. Tiffany, of all people, just sacrificed fifty Slytherin house points for a Hufflepuff. Are you sure she’s not under a spell or something?”

Still somewhat bemused, Taeyeon looked into the crowd that had gathered around the culprit, Svenn, a fifth year, just like her. Then she saw Tiffany. The Slytherin prefect was looking in her direction and their eyes met. At that very moment, it was as though a spell had been cast on her eyes to stop them from blinking. She couldn’t blink. She could only stare. In this hall of hundreds, there was only one pair of eyes that existed in this moment.

Tiffany, the prefect from Slytherin.

x