“We drive past your town to get to the train station.” Seunghyun says one night over break while he and little Seunghyun were waiting for Jiyong, Daesung, and Youngbae to finish making snow angels.

“Oh?” Seungri says, looking up from his mug of hot chocolate. They had all been playing out in the snow, but after they all ganged up on Seungri and covered him in snow, he was too wet and cold to keep playing. Seunghyun had agreed to take him back inside where his mother (they were over at Seunghyun’s house for a few days) had given Seungri a towel and a large mug of hot chocolate, fussing over how small he was and how she hoped he wouldn’t catch a cold.

“Yeah.” Seunghyun says, turning to look down at Seungri, “If you ask your parents, we could pick you up on the way by.” Seungri just looked at him for a moment, blinking rapidly, before he stuck out his hand, palm up.

“Phone?” He asks, and Seunghyun gets up and ruffles Seungri’s hair before running to go and get the phone.

***

“We should get little Seunghyun some candy from Honeydukes!” Daesung says cheerfully as the walk up a muddy path leading slightly away from town. It was mid-April and so the third Hogsmeade visit of the new semester.

Seunghyun smiles as he turns toward Daesung and ruffles his hair, “Yes, we will, don’t worry.” He says on a laugh, and Daesung beams up at him before looking ahead again. The path they were on curved sharply to the left and they followed along it.

Youngbae and Jiyong were right behind them, arguing quietly. Daesung couldn’t hear what they were saying, exactly, but the tones of their voices were enough for him to guess that Youngbae was unhappy with something that Jiyong was saying. If Daesung had just been paying more attention to where they were walking then he might have slowly come to realize what it was that Youngbae was so upset about.

The path that they were walking up was on Daesung’s ‘nope, never, you can’t make me go’ list. Being as terrified of haunted things as he was, the young boy just couldn’t handle the thought of the Shrieking Shack, and so had told his friends in no uncertain terms that he was never visiting it so they may as well never try. Obviously, Seunghyun being the foolhardy Gryffindor that he is, took this as a challenge, which is why Daesung froze mid-step as they rounded the next corner.

“Oh Godric no.” He whispers, but Seunghyun ignores his almost silent plea and throws an arm over the younger man’s shoulders.

“Do you really think that little Seunghyun has earned Honeyduke’s sweets? Because I happen to think that he doesn’t.” Seunghyun remarks lightly, urging Daesung forward with his arm as he speaks.

Daesung instantly moves to defend their younger friend. “You’re only saying that because he ran into you while you were talking to that Hufflepuff girl outside the Library.”

Seunghyun pouts briefly, “No! We just spoil the brat, that’s all.” He says, as if that explained everything. Daesung rolls his eyes, but continues to follow his friend, apparently forgetting his previous reluctance.

They come to a stop a short couple of moments later, and Daesung is forced to face what ‘Hogwarts, A History’ had described as ‘the most haunted place in Britain’. “Seunghyun…” Daesung says, his face going white as he watches his older friend amble closer to the fence that blocked off the area surrounding the Shrieking Shack from the viewing area where they stood.

“I wonder if it’s really haunted.” Seunghyun says, staring up at the precariously leaning shack.

“Probably not.” Jiyong says, shrugging his shoulders when Daesung turns an astonished look on him. “What? We’ve met ghosts, they aren’t that scary.” He continues, moving up next to Seunghyun.

Youngbae moves up next to Daesung and claps a hand onto his shoulder. “No one has heard anything from the Shack in like 20 years. That’s a curiously long time for a supposedly violently haunted building to be silent; don’t you think?” Daesung doesn’t say anything, though his lip twitches and Youngbae smiles brightly at him, throwing his arm over the younger boy’s shoulders.

“Hey! Stop chatting and come on!” Jiyong shouts as he and Seunghyun start to walk toward a spot in the fence that would be easier to squeeze through. Youngbae rolls his eyes and with one last squeeze to Daesung’s shoulders he starts toward the other two, dragging a silently protesting Daesung along with him.

When they catch up, Seunghyun and Jiyong immediately boost Daesung over the fence, before scrambling over themselves, leaving Youngbae on the other side; too short to boost himself over. He stands there, shifting from one foot to the other for a couple of moments before he spots an area where he might be able to slip through the fence. Jiyong stops walking up the hill toward the Shack when he realizes that Youngbae isn’t behind him and turns to scan the area for his best friend.

A small smile crosses his face as he watches Youngbae struggle with what to do for a moment before finally finding a way to slip through. Youngbae runs to catch up and Jiyong throws his arm around Youngbae’s shoulders when he catches up.

“Couldn’t have helped me, could you?” Youngbae asks, looking ahead of him in the hopes that Jiyong won’t see his blush.

“You would have gotten all huffy had I tried.” Jiyong says, “And besides, you’re so cute when you don’t know what to do.” With that, and one last squeeze to the shoulders, Jiyong lets go and urges Youngbae to move faster.

“I would not have gotten ‘huffy’.” Youngbae mutters and Jiyong, who was only a few paces ahead, barely contains his laughter. “Stop it!” Youngbae whines, walking faster to pass Jiyong and his embarrassment as well as to catch up with Seunghyun and the frightened Daesung. Jiyong laughs a little more freely this time and jogs to catch up; slipping his arm through one of Youngbae’s when he gets close enough.

Youngbae ignores Jiyong’s presence beside him, which just makes Jiyong smile brighter. They spend the rest of the short walk in silence, watching as Seunghyun pushes and prods and coerces Daesung to keep going. The slip through a rather gaping hole near what Seunghyun decided was the front door, and huddled together just inside, waiting to decide what to do.

“It’s so…dusty.” Youngbae says quietly, as if for some reason that was important.

Seunghyun takes a couple of steps forward, but he has to stop because Daesung had wrapped himself around the older boy’s arm. “It’s so quiet.” Daesung whispers and Seunghyun shakes his head.

“Come on; let’s go check the rest of it out!” Even though he keeps his voice low, the excitement reverberating through it is apparent. Daesung makes a low whine in the back of his throat as Seunghyun drags him forward with him, Jiyong and Youngbae following closely behind.

It was in the main parlor that they noticed the track of dried blood leading up the stairs. Daesung went white with terror at the sight and Youngbae lightly suggested that they turn back. Ignoring the idea, Seunghyun pressed forward and they made their way slowly up the stairs, every light squeak of the walls and floor making them jump. They were standing in the doorway of one of the bedrooms, the trail of blood they had been following stopped at a collapsed and broken four-poster on the far side of the room, when Daesung screamed.

At the loud sound all of them turned and practically fell over themselves to get down the stairs and out of the building. They were sprinting full-tilt down the hill to the fence in a matter of moments and it wasn’t until they were no longer within view of the Shack that they slowed to a stop to catch their breaths.

“What was that?” Jiyong asks, his hand held against his chest in a vain attempt at slowing the beating of his heart.

Daesung just shakes his head, his face still white from fear and obviously unable to speak. “Whatever.” Seunghyun says, shaking the breathlessness from his voice and trying to sound like he hadn’t been as scared as the rest of them. “Let’s go get V.I some sweets from Honeyduke’s and then head to the Three Broomsticks. I’m starved.”

The other three nod and Daesung grabs back onto Seunghyun’s arm, apparently deciding that holding on to the older boy would keep him safe.

***

“What’s this?” Jiyong asks, his voice practically dripping with disdain. He was holding up a small booklet that Youngbae had just dropped in front of him.

“A booklet.” Youngbae says, ignoring Jiyong’s tone and sitting across from him at their table in the library.

“Yes, I see that, but why is it interrupting my studying?” Jiyong says, changing his grip so that he was holding it with just his thumb and forefinger.

“I want to try something…look at the first page.”

Jiyong does as he’s told, holding the booklet properly in his hands and flipping to the first page. In a deep purple and flowing script was written the question: What is your favorite place at Hogwarts? Jiyong reads it slowly before flipping the page to see if there were any other questions. When he finds the next page, as well as many others, to be completely blank, he turns a questioning eye on Youngbae.

“Only the first page has a question now. I found some enchantments, the next won’t appear until you’ve answered this one, and are ready for the next one.” Youngbae says, his voice eager and a huge smile on his face.

Jiyong frowns slightly, fiddling with the small book in his hands. “How will it know when I’m ready for the next question?” He asks, and Youngbae tilts his head to the side, a thoughtful look crossing his face.

“Well, I made this one for you, I haven’t made the others yet…I don’t know how it will work, but based on the spells and questions I chose, it should decide based on age and time of year.” Jiyong smiles as Youngbae falls into his ‘explanation mode’; sitting forward with one foot on his chair. Youngbae’s face would light up when he was explaining how he did something, especially when he was proud of it or very emotionally invested. “So this one will show up now, and that will be the same for everyone else, but like, one of the questions is about what you want to be when you graduate, so like Seungri won’t get that one for a couple of years, but you might get it next…” Jiyong nods and looks back down at the book in his hands, flipping it shut so that he can look at the front.

He smiles a little more brightly as he sees his name written in his best friend’s familiar handwriting, a very Ravenclaw bronze used as the color. “Sounds brilliant.” Jiyong says, looking up just in time to see Youngbae’s cheeks go pink at the sincere compliment.

“It’s not done.” Youngbae says, reaching forward to grab it away from Jiyong, who leans back and holds it closer to his chest in an attempt to keep it. “I have to add the rules!” Youngbae persists, and Jiyong laughs.

“What rules?” He asks, flipping the booklet back open to look at the first question again. “Wait, what if I have more than one favorite place?”

Youngbae reaches out and grabs the booklet from Jiyong before the smaller boy can protest. “Exactly. You need rules so that you don’t answer the questions improperly.” Jiyong smirks at that, and sits forward.

“What would it hurt to have more than one favorite place on the grounds?” He asks, and smiles slightly as he watches Youngbae try to come up with an answer.

“Because!” Youngbae says at last, his face turning a little more red as Jiyong lets out a soft chuckle. “Just because…” He reiterates, starting to feel a little foolish.

Jiyong shakes his head and pats Youngbae’s hand. “Alright, whatever, but I can’t promise that any of us will follow them.” Youngbae scowls lightly at that before stuffing the booklet into the pocket of his oversized sweatshirt. “Our first exam is in Transfiguration, isn’t it?” Jiyong asks, shifting the focus back to their normal Sunday afternoon studying.

“Yeah, then it’s Potions and Charms; I think that’s it for this week.” Youngbae says, pulling out his journal and flipping through the pages as he spoke. “Could you help me with that depulso charm?” He asks, obviously having found the page with his study notes.