September the first could not come fast enough, for anyone. Jiyong’s parents were rolling their eyes at his exuberance and Youngbae’s were ready to drop him in Hogsmeade themselves. Seunghyun had apparently managed not to annoy his parents, but it was a close call. Daesung’s parents were so excited for him, that he was almost convinced that they were more excited than him.

Youngbae was on the platform at exactly 10:34, waiting by the middle of the train, his trunk already in a compartment.

“When are they going to get here?” He whines, crossing his arms and looking up at his mother as if she knew absolutely everything about everyone. She pats him absently on the shoulder, looking around the platform.

“Probably soon, they won’t be late.” She says, smiling down at his frown-filled face.

Youngbae wasn’t so sure that he believed her. As much as he wanted to believe that his two friends would be on time for the train, he couldn’t help but believe that they would be late and then he would never, ever see them again. A ridiculous notion, he knew, but he couldn’t help but to think that as he stared eagerly around the platform, his feet tapping against the ground.

“YOUNGBAE!” Youngbae barely has time to register that his name is being shouted before he is tackled from the side and falls to the ground in a heap.

“What?” He asks in confusion, before he opens his eyes and sees Jiyong sitting on top of him, a large grin stretching across his face.

“You didn’t expect me, did you?” Jiyong asks, standing up as his father makes a sound of disapproval behind him.

“I hope you didn’t hurt him! So excitable today!” Jiyong’s mother says, shaking her head and tapping Jiyong lightly on the shoulder in reprimand before turning to talk to Youngbae’s parents. Jiyong’s smile never faltered, he just shook his mother’s hand off and moved to help Youngbae stand up.

“It’s 10:38! Not even late at all!”

Youngbae smiles and takes the hand that Jiyong offers him, pulling himself up and brushing himself off. “Yes, yes, not late at all.” He replies, pushing Jiyong lightly before going back to looking around the platform.

“Did you get a compartment? Is Seunghyun here? I got new cards…” Jiyong says, his smile never wavering as he grabs onto Youngbae’s elbow, waiting for answers.

“No, no Seunghyun yet. I got a compartment, it’s on the other side.” Youngbae says, gesturing toward the train.

“Oh great! We’ll go put my stuff in, right Dad? And you can wait for Seunghyun!!” Pulling on the sleeve of his father’s shirt, Jiyong manages to get his attention and they drag his trunk onto the train.

Youngbae shakes his head lightly at Jiyong as he walks away before turning his attention back to scanning the crowd for Seunghyun’s family.

It is 10:45 when Seunghyun and his parents walk into Youngbae’s line of sight. He starts waving his hands and nudges Jiyong with his shoulder in order to get him to focus on waving Seunghyun down.

“Ah there you all are!” Seunghyun’s father says, clasping hands briefly with both Jiyong’s and Youngbae’s fathers. As the parents fall back into conversation, the boys greet each other.

“Finally!” Jiyong says, flashing Seunghyun a toothy grin before hooking his arm with Youngbae’s, “SOL here was convinced that you were never coming and that you were going to miss the train!” Youngbae glares at Jiyong, making Seunghyun laugh.

“We have like, 12 minutes until the train leaves! Plenty of time SOL!!” Seunghyun says, smiling broadly and leaning back on his heels.

Their parents stop talking and turn toward them. “Let’s go get Seunghyun’s stuff on the train and get you three settled. We have to leave soon.” Seunghyun’s mother says, patting Seunghyun on the shoulder and gesturing for her husband to follow.

“Yep, we’ve got things to do today! So come on, let’s get you all settled.” Taeyang’s father says, motioning for everyone to move with them toward the train.

Once settled, the boys lean out the window of the compartment across from theirs to say goodbye to their parents. “Ahh! Another year!” Jiyong says, skipping happily back across the hall and into their compartment.

At 11:00am on the dot, the train started to move, and the three friends felt completely at ease.

***

Daesung woke up every fifteen minutes from 4:00am to 7:15am on September the first. He was both too nervous and too excited to sleep properly. He spent about fifteen minutes trying to shove Ernesto, the grey kitten his parents had gotten him for school, into his cat carrier before giving up and just carrying him around. At 7:45am his parents found him sitting by the front door on his trunk, washed, dressed, fed, and ready to go with Ernesto cradled carefully in his arms. His parents roll their eyes at his eager and uncharacteristically smile-less expression and finish getting ready.

They are out the door by 8:00am and the two and a half hour drive saw them arriving at King’s Cross station at around 10:30am; they would have just apparated but Daesung’s mother thought that it would be more authentic for him to experience the first train ride the more muggle way. Daesung would later tell people that it would be better considered the ‘tortuous way’, and should only be experienced by those who can’t apparate.

Once through the barrier, Daesung’s face splits into the wide grin that had been waiting to peek through all morning. Directly in front of him was the most brilliantly scarlet train he had ever seen, and probably would ever see. As he stares at it in awe, his father starts to push his trunk down the platform, weaving through the families.

“Come on, son! Let’s get your trunk on board and we’ll say our goodbyes!” Daesung obediently follows, his mother’s hand pressed lightly and reassuringly against his back.

“Dad! Careful! Ernesto doesn’t like being in his carrier, what if it falls off?” Daesung says as his father lifts the trunk up and onto the train.

“I’m sure he’s fine, let’s just get this put away and then we can say goodbye, alright?” His father says, a smile on his face as he watches Daesung fret over his belongings.

“Alright!” They search the train until they find an empty compartment where they can drop Daesung’s trunk, and then get back off of the train.

“Oh honey! You’ll do great, have a wonderful semester, owl us often!” his mother says, smiling brightly and trying to hide her tears as she hugs her son goodbye.

“Work hard, let us know if you need anything, and make a lot of friends…” His dad says, letting his sentence trail off as he pats Daesung on the back and smiles down at him.

Daesung hugs his parents again and then gets back onto the train, trying to maintain his composure; he couldn’t forget how excited he was to be leaving, because that would help him get through the train ride. He walks slowly down the hallway, only paying the minimal amount of attention required for him to find the compartment that he and his father had left his trunk in. This proves unfortunate as he ends up running headlong into a rather short red-haired boy.

“Oh!” Daesung says, eyes going wide in surprise as he stumbles backward. The boy had been standing against the wall, so they didn’t hit too hard and both were able to keep their balance.

“Gotta watch where you’re walking!” The boy says in a rather surprisingly chipper voice considering his face was set in a rather blank stare.

“Oh you stop it, Dean! He didn’t mean to!” A blonde girl says from the doorway of the compartment across from where the boy, Dean, was standing. “Don’t you mind him. Are you a first year?” She had a crooked smile, and Daesung couldn’t help but smile back, which caused her to blush.

“Yes, I am.” He says, before turning to Dean, “I’m really sorry, I should have been paying more attention…”

“ahh! No need to apologize! I was just joking with you.” Dean smiles at Daesung and then turns to the girl, “I’m gonna go get my trunk and come back, alright Ari?”

“Yeah, yeah, go on.” Ari says, waving her hand at him dismissively. Daesung smiles awkwardly, mostly to himself, and tries to walk away also but she catches him. “Hey, wait! I didn’t get to introduce myself!” She moves out of the doorway a little bit and sticks her hand out for Daesung to shake, “I’m Ari, and you are?”

Daesung smiles at her and shakes her hand, “I’m Daesung.” He felt momentarily embarrassed for the soft and almost breathy way that his voice came out, but she smiled at him and nodded anyway, so he tried to ignore it.

“It’s nice to meet you Daesung! I hope to see you around.”

With that, Daesung nods again and continues his trek down to his own compartment. He finds it hard to make it into the actual compartment once he gets there, which doesn’t actually take that long, because there are a lot of people moving about the hallway looking for their friends or moving into compartments before the train could start to move. He bumps into a number of people, accidentally of course, and trades large smiles and quiet apologies along the way.

Finally settled into his compartment and petting Ernesto, who was only a little grouchy about having been left in his cat carrier alone, Daesung was able to relax. When the train left Platform 9 and ¾ at exactly 11:00am, Daesung smiled brightly and leaned back while Ernesto clawed lightly at the front of his grey sweatshirt.

Humming lightly to himself, he decides that he should read a book and gently moves Ernesto onto the seat beside him so that he can stand up and get into his trunk. It was just as he sat back down and rearranged Ernesto comfortably in his lap that there was a commotion outside his compartment door. Before Daesung could even register what was happening, the door flew open and two boys came hurtling in, slamming the door shut behind them and breathing heavily.

“Do you think…that we…out ran him?” One of the boys, small and kind of frail, says as he leans his head against the door, panting. The other boy, a little thicker but no less small with long-ish hair, just looks at the first boy and opens his mouth, presumably to speak, before he’s interrupted by a loud banging on the other side of the door.

“Nope.” The boy responds, and Daesung can see a small smile forming on his face. The two boys look at each other for a moment before yanking the door open, causing a third boy to fall in. This boy was slightly taller than the other two, with short hair and a rather fierce looking face that was, Daesung noted, much softer as it fell into a bright smile full of laughter. The three intruders stood around the door laughing for a little bit before they started to quiet down.

Ernesto, who had been frozen in shock in Daesung’s lap since the first two boys had crashed into the compartment, took the impending end to the laughter as his cue to make noise. As soon as the three boys were quiet enough, Ernesto began meowing in earnest, causing Daesung’s eyes to go wide as he quickly picks him up off of his lap to make sure that he is alright.

The sudden noise causes the three intruders to actually look at their surroundings, and they realize rather belatedly that they had stumbled, unknowingly, into someone else’s compartment.

“Oh Merlin, we’re sorry!” The boy with the longer hair says, stepping forward with an apologetic smile on his face.

“Yeah!” The frail-looking boy responds, moving closer as well, “We didn’t mean to interrupt, didn’t realize anyone was in here…are you alone?” He spoke fast and Daesung, who was still a little confused and just a tad nervous, is frozen in shock for just a few moments before he shakes his head and smiles.

“No, it’s ok, I was just shocked.”

The long-haired boy smiles at him, “I’m Youngbae, this” and he gestures to the frail boy, “is Jiyong, and this,” and here he gestures to the tall and currently silent third boy, “is Seunghyun. We’re 2^nd years.” Jiyong and Seunghyun nod along with what Youngbae was saying, and then look at Daesung, friendly smiles on their faces.

“Oh, I’m Daesung! I’m a first year…” Daesung’s face goes a little red as he speaks, but he fights the urge to look down or away from them, as he is starting to really like them.

“Ahh, a first year…hmm” Jiyong says, a somewhat mischievous smile crossing his features. He puts his hand up to his chin as if he’s thinking and moves closer to Daesung as if he’s circling him to make sure he’s good. “Seunghyun, what do you think? I mean, I’m not a huge cat fan…but…”

Daesung looks away from Jiyong to see Youngbae smiling amusedly and Seunghyun pushing himself off  the door frame where he had been leaning.

“What’s its name?” Seunghyun asks, his voice was somehow lower than the other’s and Daesung thought it was an interesting fit.

“Ernesto” Daesung says, looking down quickly before lifting the cat up and holding it out to them. Youngbae immediately reaches out to take it from him, and Daesung watches as the boy coos over the little cat and shows it off to his two friends. “He’s very friendly, but he’s just a baby.”

At this, Youngbae suddenly starts being more careful with the way that he is holding Ernesto, and refuses to let Jiyong touch it when the boy reaches out a tentative hand.

“Alright, I still prefer dogs, but you will do.” Jiyong says, almost dismissively, before sweeping out of the compartment and into the hall. When he notices that the others aren’t following he turns around and pokes his head back in, “Honestly, you will have plenty of time to play with the kitty, let’s get to our compartment before the Trolley Witch comes.” With that, Jiyong once again turns and leaves.

Youngbae hands Daesung back his kitten and then without a word, helps Seunghyun drag Daesung’s trunk out from the storage rack above the seats. Confusion must have been written rather plainly across Daesung’s face because Seunghyun chuckles lightly and leans forward to ruffle his hair.

“Come on, we’ve got plenty of room in our compartment.”

Daesung smiles again and stands up, all thoughts of reading gone as he follows his two new ‘friends’ out of his lonely compartment and down the hall to the one they shared with Jiyong.

***

As the train slows down outside Hogsmeade Station, the four boys become very obviously ready to get to the castle.

“I can’t wait for the feast!” Seunghyun says, tapping his hands on his stomach and smiling widely. Jiyong was bouncing up and down in his seat, grabbing Youngbae’s shoulder to keep himself steady while Youngbae tries to coax Ernesto out from behind Seunghyun’s feet.

“Daesungiee” Youngbae whines making the boy look up from his nervous fidgeting, “Make Ernesto love me!”

Daesung lets out a short breath and allows an amused smile to cross his face. As nervous as he is about the sorting, Daesung realizes that there is no way that he can ignore how happy his new friends make him. Reaching down and behind Seunghyun’s feet, Daesung pulls Ernesto out and holds him up for Youngbae to grab.

“Here you go,” He says with a light chuckle floating around in his voice. “If he doesn’t just come to you, just pick him up.”

Youngbae smiles excitedly and sticks his tongue out at Daesung, “Leave me alone! It’s easy for you to say, Ernesto loves you!”

“Well, it is his cat…” Seunghyun says, rolling his eyes at the situation before turning his attention to the ball of energy that was Jiyong and cocking an eyebrow in question.

Youngbae frowns briefly before cuddling the kitten closer to himself and turning away so that Jiyong can’t touch it.

“Hey! Why can’t I touch the kitty!” Jiyong says, a pout breaking through his excitement.

“You’ll scare it, you’re all jumpy.” Youngbae says before standing up and sitting down between Daesung and the wall on the seat opposite.

Jiyong starts to pout harder, but before the situation can escalate, Daesung decides to pipe up, “so, what exactly is the sorting ceremony?” Confused for just a moment, as they had all forgotten that their new friend was just a first year, they are frozen in their seats. Then, Jiyong laughs and winks exaggeratedly at Daesung.

“It’s a secret, and it would be absolutely no fun if we told you!” Daesung looks to both Youngbae and Seunghyun for assistance, but both just nod sadly in agreement with Jiyong.

In what feels like no time at all, the train has stopped and Daesung is forced to put Ernesto back into his carrier and exit the train along with his friends and the rest of the students. At the platform, his three friends wave goodbye to him before moving off in the direction of all of the rest of the students.

Seunghyun hangs back briefly and puts his hand on Daesung’s shoulder before leaning down a bit and pointing, “See that trail over there? Follow that…that’s where Madam Periwinkle, the one who’s yelling for ‘first years’, is waiting. See you in the Great Hall!” Seunghyun turns to leave but then stops himself and looks back, “Don’t forget to look up.” Then, with a smile and a wave, Daesung is left alone to find his way to Madam Periwinkle as Seunghyun runs to catch up with the other two.

His first view of the castle was breathtaking, and he was struck suddenly with the understanding that this was actually, finally, it; he was actually on his way to Hogwarts and he was going to be sorted and he had new friends.

“It’s beautiful” A little girl with long, curly hair says, awe etched onto her face as she keeps her eyes trained on the castle. Daesung agrees whole-heartedly, and would have said something to her, but she was in another boat and he didn’t want to look away from the castle.

It was even more magnificent on the inside. As he and the rest of the first years wait at the top of the steps for Professor Sinistra to come back, they all break out into small groups, talking amongst each other about what the Sorting will be like and if the rest of the castle will look the same. Daesung had met four more people by the time they were led out onto the platform in the Great Hall in front of all of the rest of the school. He is momentarily awestruck, staring out at the sea of students, before he remembers what Seunghyun had told him and he looks up.

The ceiling of the Great Hall, enchanted to look like the night sky, blew him away, and he wonders what type of person it was who came up with that. His thoughts were cut short as Professor Sinistra spoke to the Hall.

“When I call your name, please step forward and place the hat on your head.” She unrolls a piece of parchment, and begins reading. Daesung is unable to pay attention to the names called and so starts looking around the Hall, trying to find Jiyong, Seunghyun and Youngbae. After only a short search, they were rather hard to miss, he finds them, sitting at the far end of the hall: Seunghyun on the near side of the Gryffindor table, Youngbae across from him at the Ravenclaw table, and Jiyong facing Youngbae on the other side of the Ravenclaw table. Daesung can’t help but smile brightly when he sees that, and briefly catches Professor Sinistra calling for ‘Jean, Valeria’ who he recognizes as the curly-haired girl from the boats. She was placed in Slytherin and sits down at the table behind Jiyong amid the polite applause of the Hall.

After eight more people, four of whom had the last name ‘Johnson’ and were each in a different house, Professor Sinistra calls out ‘Kang, Daesung’.

He walks slowly up to the stool, grabs the hat, and places it gently on his head as he sits down. It falls past his nose, making him smile in amusement, as he waits for something to happen. “Hmm.” A small voice whispers in his ear. “What have we here, eh? Loyalty, bravery, courage, determination. My, my look at you!” Daesung is unsure if he should respond so he stays quiet, wondering where this will lead. “Hmm, I would have to say that…ah! There it is! Yes, I just knew you weren’t suited for the other Houses! You’re perfect for…SLYTHERIN!”

The last word is shouted to the Hall, and Daesung is only a little disappointed as he hops off of the stool and carefully lays the hat back on it. He walks carefully down from the platform and looks quickly over at the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tables. Seunghyun is watching him with wide-eyes, while the other two are smiling and clapping for him. Daesung moves to the side of the table closest to Jiyong, and takes a seat, ready for the feast to begin.

***

Seunghyun keeps looking back at Daesung as the younger boy makes his way from the platform at Hogsmeade Station to Madam Periwinkle and the lake. Jogging lightly, he catches up to Jiyong and Youngbae who were waiting for him at the gate.

“Hurry up! We want an empty carriage!” Jiyong shouts, tapping his foot jokingly as Seunghyun stops in front of them.

“I’m here then, let’s go. I couldn’t just leave Daesung like that…he’s so little.” They start walking toward the line of carriages, peering in to find an empty one.

“No, of course not.” Youngbae says, leading the way down the line until he finds a nice empty carriage for them to get into. They file inside and Youngbae shuts the door. Once shut, the carriage starts to move.

“What are they pulled by?” Seunghyun asks, pressing his face to the window, trying to see the front of the carriage.

“Happy thoughts and nargles.” Jiyong says, crossing his arms and leaning back into his seat. Seunghyun raises an eyebrow before rolling his eyes and looking over at Youngbae for assistance.

Youngbae lightly shakes his head, then looks up at them both, “So, what do you think about Daesung?” Youngbae was testing the waters; he wasn’t going to give his opinion, glowing as it was, until he was certain that his friends felt the same.

Jiyong leans forward in his seat, “I like him. He’s so smiley!”

Seunghyun raises his eyebrows at Jiyong and sits back with his arms crossed, “I think he’s alright.”

It was Jiyong and Youngbae’s turn to raise their eyebrows, “Just alright? You stayed back to talk to him at the station.” Youngbae says as the carriage comes to a stop. Their conversation pauses as they climb out and head up the front steps of the castle, moving with the crowd and filing into the Great Hall.

They move to their tables and Youngbae and Jiyong sit across from each other, and just as they had started doing the year before whenever they couldn’t sit at each other’s tables, Seunghyun sat directly across from Youngbae at his own table. Once settled, Youngbae leaned back toward Seunghyun.

“I like him too; I wonder what House he’ll be in…”

“Maybe Gryffindor!” Jiyong suggests, leaning across the table so that they can hear him. Youngbae nods, the look on his face saying that he thinks it’s definitely a possibility.

“No, I dunno…” Seunghyun says, shaking his head.

“Yes! With you and then you would have him in your House like I have Youngbae in mine!” Jiyong says, still leaning over the table. Youngbae, whose eyes never left Seunghyun’s face while Jiyong was talking, immediately shushes Jiyong and shoves at him to get him back into his seat.

“Stop it, he will be in whatever House he gets into, it won’t matter.” Youngbae says, looking between his two friends.

“Yeah, and besides he’s such a Hufflepuff.” Seunghyun says, a slightly mocking smile gracing his face. Youngbae rolls his eyes and pats him lightly on the shoulder.

“Yeah…that… Now turn around, the Sorting should start soon.”

No sooner do the words pass Youngbae’s lips than the door on the side of the Hall opens and Professor Sinistra leads the first years out onto the platform. Seunghyun immediately spots Daesung, looking around the Hall in awe. He smiles lightly when Daesung pauses in his looking to tilt his head back and stare at the ceiling, just like Seunghyun had told him.

The three of them watch with interest as Daesung waits for his name to be called. When he smiles down at them, Jiyong gives him the thumbs up, Youngbae smiles brightly and waves, and Seunghyun nods at him. Finally they hear ‘Kang, Daesung’ and their smiling friend walks to the stool.

Youngbae had to muffle a laugh as the Sorting Hat fell down over Daesung’s eyes and nose; the only thing visible being his widely smiling mouth. Seunghyun and Jiyong smiled as well, Jiyong leaning forward eagerly as if those few inches would help him hear what the Hat was saying.

After a couple of moments the rip at the brim of the Hat opens and shouts, “SLYTHERIN!”

Jiyong and Youngbae are floored momentarily, but it doesn’t take them very long to decide that it fits and for large smiles to grace their faces as they clap for Daesung as he walks toward his table. Seunghyun is uncertain about his hearing in this moment. He looks back over at Jiyong and Youngbae to see their reactions. Their smiling faces were not enough to convince him that Slytherin was the place for Daesung.

Seunghyun’s not sure what the look on his face was when Daesung looked over as he was sitting down, but as the Headmistress finishes her speech and the feast starts, he realizes that it probably wasn’t terribly reassuring and he feels bad. He leans back and gets Youngbae’s attention.

“Yeah?” Youngbae asks, his mouth full of food.

“Can you get…never mind, keep eating.” Seunghyun waves his hand at Youngbae who just shrugs and turns back to his food. Seunghyun isn’t sure what he was trying to accomplish, but he decides that Daesung will have to sit with them at breakfast in the morning.