The Slytherin common room wasn’t exactly as Daesung expected it to be. As he follows the Slytherin Prefect down the stairs leading to the dungeons after the Start of Term Feast, he’s struck by how little his parents had told him about Hogwarts.

He had known about the four Houses, and he had known what the school was about and what happened, but for people who had gone to the school themselves, his parents had been very vague on the details. He hadn’t known what the Sorting would entail, and he hadn’t known where Slytherin House was located. In his parents’ defense, not everyone who went to Hogwarts actually knew where the Slytherin common room was located, but Daesung was sure that most could guess and his parents could have at least given him something in the form of information.

The Prefect shows them how to enter, and then all of the first years follow her through and into the common room. Daesung is struck by how lovely it is. He had only ever heard vaguely nasty things about Slytherins, and the look on Seunghyun’s face at the feast had proved that many people still thought about the House that way…but Daesung can’t help but to imagine that a lot of those thoughts were off-base. The common room had green and silver furnishings and tapestries, the fireplace was lovely and the chairs and couches seemed comfortable and inviting.

The Prefect shows them up to their rooms and Daesung is in love. His cat carrier is waiting in the center of the bed closest to the window, which he remembers is where Seunghyun had said that his bed was placed in Gryffindor Tower. His trunk is lying at the foot of the bed, and the bed itself is a four-poster with thick, green curtains.

Daesung falls asleep almost immediately; it had been such a long day and he was just so happy, and full, that he couldn’t keep his eyes open.

***

Seunghyun sat down next to Jiyong at the Ravenclaw table the next morning and immediately dropped his head onto the table, exhaustion evident in his every action. Jiyong looks at him, startled, before turning to face Youngbae with an eyebrow raised. Youngbae shrugs and leans forward.

“Did you sleep at all last night?” He asks while Jiyong starts tapping Seunghyun lightly on the arm. “You’re never up this early.”

Seunghyun groans in response, swatting Jiyong’s hand away. “How do you guys do it? It’s so early.”

“Why are you up now anyway? You could have come down later; you know we will still be here.” Jiyong says, tilting his head to the side in curiosity.

Seunghyun knocks his head against the table lightly, before lifting his head up and looking toward the entrance. “Gotta welcome Daesung to Hogwarts.” He says, his voice a little rough from tiredness. He leans his head back down onto the table while Jiyong and Youngbae share a look across the table.

“Right, well then I’ll grab your new timetable since you’re about to fall asleep.” Jiyong says before getting up and leaving the table to search the Gryffindor table for a Year 2 schedule.

“I’ll grab one for Daesung then.” Youngbae says, getting up and wandering over to the Slytherin table. Seunghyun scrunches his nose and lifts his head slightly so that he can watch for Daesung to enter.

While he’s waiting, Jiyong slides back into the seat next to him and shoves a timetable under his nose. Seunghyun makes a face but doesn’t move so Jiyong pats him lightly on the back before turning his attention toward the entrance as well. Youngbae comes back mere moments later with a schedule in hand and sits down across from Jiyong.

“There’s practically no Slytherins up yet. The Prefect that just came in told me that before he left he checked on the first years and Daesung was the only one up.” Youngbae says, placing the schedule in front of the plate next to him, making sure that it is straight before he finishes speaking. “So, he should be down soon.” Youngbae ends with a smile and Seunghyun just nods absently.

“Wait, you two are on the wrong sides of the table.” Seunghyun says, his brain finally catching up to his eyes.

Jiyong laughs, his face scrunching up and all of his teeth showing, “We don’t have assigned seats,” Youngbae says, frowning at Jiyong disapprovingly. Seunghyun tilts his head to the side and turns to Jiyong, only to find him still smiling brightly.

“What?”

“Youngbae’s just mad because I beat him to this side of the table this morning and he refused to sit next to me.” Youngbae pouts at Jiyong’s words and crosses his arms over his chest before turning his head away.

“Oh! Look, it’s Daesung!” Youngbae says, his pout disappearing in favor of a smile.

Sure enough, when Seunghyun and Jiyong turn they can see Daesung walking through the doors into the Great Hall, looking small and a little timid. Youngbae raises his hand to wave Daesung over while Jiyong stands up to rush over and steer the boy in the right direction. Seunghyun watches with apprehension as Daesung and Jiyong make their way back toward the table, splitting up so that they can reach the correct sides before sitting down.

“Good morning!” Youngbae says, a bright smile lighting up his face. Daesung smiles back and sits down slowly.

“Morning,” He says, his voice a little breathy, as if he were uncertain. Jiyong leans forward and taps the timetable in front of Daesung’s plate.

“Here’s your schedule! Bae got it for you, so you don’t have to worry about that. How was your night? What’s your common room like?” As usual, Jiyong was full of far more energy than should be allowed in such a small frame, but Daesung smiles at him and laughs lightly.

“It wasn’t bad. It’s a little cold in the hallway, but otherwise it’s perfectly comfortable.” He pauses and looks down at his schedule for a moment, “Everything is very green.”

Seunghyun’s lips twitch up at that remark and he tilts his head to the side, “I guess green is better than yellow.” Daesung looks at him, a hint of confusion showing on his face, while Jiyong and Youngbae just roll their eyes. “Well, I had bets on you being in Hufflepuff, but the color green suits you far better than the color yellow ever could.”

Jiyong and Youngbae laugh at that, and Daesung is only silent for a couple of seconds more before he laughs along with them. Now that everyone is present, Youngbae takes it upon himself to dish up heaping helpings of food for all of them; nudging them into eating more if he doesn’t think they are doing a good enough job. It’s easy and it’s fun, and Daesung is glad that he made friends with them.

Seunghyun is happy to see that Daesung is no different from what he had thought the day before; no hidden terrible ‘Slytherin-ness’. As he digs into the heaping pile of eggs that Youngbae has dished onto his plate, he admits to himself that he knew there really wasn’t anything the matter with Daesung being a Slytherin. He couldn’t, however, figure out why it bothered him so much that Daesung was.

**

Jiyong was glad that Youngbae had memorized Daesung’s schedule. He had gotten over finding Youngbae’s tendency to mother strange and annoying in their first year, and now he just found it useful. He was currently sat directly outside of the Transfiguration classroom, waiting for Daesung’s class to be let out so that he could grab Daesung and meet the other two at the main staircase.

Jiyong can’t stop his foot from tapping as he waits for Daesung to finally be let out. It was the second week of school and Quidditch try outs for the Ravenclaw team started in two hours. Jiyong wanted to go to cheer Youngbae on as he would be trying out for the very first time, and Daesung was just as eager to watch.

Jiyong tilts his head to the side, leaning with it slowly to see if he can see inside the classroom. He can’t but he can hear the scrape of chairs and the sudden chatter of the class behind the door. He smiles lightly to himself and straightens, remaining seated so that he doesn’t look as eager as he feels. The door opens and out poor the first year Slytherins, chatting and laughing. Jiyong sits up straighter, trying to look through the small crowd to spot Daesung.

He spots him somewhere in the middle, talking to a girl with curly, red hair. He smiles and stands up, hoping that Daesung will look up and spot him so that he doesn’t have to interrupt. Luckily for him, Daesung and the girl finish their conversation and Daesung lifts his head to search the small area. When his eyes land on Jiyong, he smiles brightly and makes his way through the bustling group of people and stops in front of him.

“You ready to go?” Daesung asks, as if he had been the one waiting for Jiyong, and not the other way around. Jiyong’s mouth slides into a sly smiles and he nods toward the girl with curly hair.

“Who’s she?” He asks, watching Daesung’s face for any hint of embarrassment.

“Oh, uh her name is Lysander. I think. That might just be her last name though.” Daesung says, and Jiyong is upset to find that he wasn’t embarrassed at all. “Is Youngbae ready?”

Jiyong motions for them to start walking and nods, “Yeah, I think so…He’s waiting down at the main stair with Seunghyun right now though, so who knows what he’s feeling.” Jiyong wonders briefly after he finishes speaking why Seunghyun hadn’t come up to wait for Daesung.

“Why aren’t you waiting with Youngbae?” Daesung says quickly, as though he can read Jiyong’s thoughts. Jiyong looks over at him. “Not that I would rather someone else come and wait for me, I’m just surprised is all.”

“Yeah, well, Seunghyun doesn’t really do well with crowds of people.” Jiyong says lightly, a small smile on his face. He also doesn’t do well with Slytherins because he’s a baby. Jiyong shakes his head at his thoughts and he and Daesung continue down to the Main Staircase where they see their two friends waiting for them.

“Aish! Took you long enough!” Seunghyun says, pushing himself up off of the wall he was leaning against. “Youngbae here’s about to drive me crazy with his anxiety.” He says it all with a smile, and ruffles Youngbae’s hair affectionately when he finishes causing the shorter boy to grimace and try to move out of the way.

“Stop!” Youngbae whines, a pout crossing his face quickly before disappearing and being replaced with his previous look of uncertainty.

Jiyong’s mouth falls into a frown and he throws a look at Seunghyun before practically bouncing his way over to Youngbae and grabbing him by the arm. “Come on! Let’s get going!” He points ahead of him and pulls Youngbae along in a faltering march, Daesung runs ahead of them, dragging Seunghyun along with him, falling into the march and pushing the front doors open for them as they head out and down to the Pitch.

They pause just before the entrance and sit down on the grass. Seunghyun looks up at the sky, then over at the pitch. “You have like an hour before it starts.” He says, and Daesung hits him lightly on the shoulder.

“Shh! Stop it you’re just going to make him more nervous!” He says his eyes wide. Youngbae smiles lightly at the gesture, and looks over at his broom.

”You’ve gotta go in with confidence.” Jiyong says suddenly, breaking Youngbae out of his reverie. “If you’re confident and you play like you mean it, you’ll get it.” He smiles and Youngbae nods, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. “You’ll be great. You’ll shine brighter than the sun.”

Seunghyun smiles at the corny-sounding line and wonders what it is about Jiyong that makes it seem normal for him to say things like that. Everyone is quiet for a couple of seconds, looking around them. Daesung sits up suddenly, his eyes large and bright, a smile spreading across his face.

“Sol!” He says brightly, looking at Youngbae. “Or Taeyang…” he says, his smile faltering only slightly when he realizes that no one understands. “Like nicknames. They’re related to the sun…”

“Oh!” Jiyong says, sitting up and obviously becoming excited. “I love nicknames! That’s great! I like it, now you’re SOL or Taeyang. Don’t forget it.” Youngbae nods, a small and uncertain smile crossing his face. Seunghyun just shakes his head and looks out over the lawns. He spots more people wandering down and into the pitch, so he gets everyone up and with a hug for good luck from Jiyong and good wishes from the other two, Youngbae wanders into the pitch.

Jiyong ushers his two remaining friends up and into the stands so that they can see how Youngbae does. The try-outs last for an hour and a half and with only one opening for the beater position and three people trying out for it, Youngbae’s three friends were crossing their fingers.

They needn’t have worried too much as it became clear very quickly that out of the three, Youngbae was very clearly the best for the position. At the very end the Captain of the team, Marcus, called all of the people who were trying out forward, and Jiyong almost had a fit.

“What if he doesn’t get it? Oh Merlin the other two were so awful though. But they were older and maybe they are friends with Marcus and oh Merlin I can’t watch this.” Jiyong buries his head into Seunghyun’s shoulder and mutters quietly to himself. Daesung peeks his head around Seunghyun’s other side to look at Jiyong before looking back at Seunghyun.

“He’ll be fine, probably.” Seunghyun says before nodding toward the pitch. Daesung redirects his attention and watches as Marcus calls forward the people he’s chosen for the team. Daesung leans forward in his seat to get a better view, and is able to see Youngbae smiling as he walks forward and stands with the rest of the Ravenclaw team.

“He made it! Jiyong look, look! He’s on the team!” Daesung practically shouts, jumping up and down and pointing. Jiyong lifts his head and leans forward so that he can see. Youngbae turns toward them, his thumbs up and a smile plastered on his face, and Jiyong jumps up and down in excitement.

They go down to meet him at the entrance to the pitch and when he comes out they attack him in a hug. He smiles brightly and laughs and they make their way slowly back to the castle, laughing and joking the whole way. It’s as they start up the stairs to the 5^th floor that they realize they don’t know where they are going. They get to the 5^th floor and stop, looking in both directions, trying to decide where to go.

“Let’s go this way!” Daesung says, pointing down the hall to the left of them. They all shrug and nod at him, following slowly behind.

About half-way down the corridor Youngbae’s broom touches the wall lightly, just as it had been doing the entire way down, but this time is different. The light touch caused the broom to be momentarily stuck and Youngbae was forced to stop in his tracks, confusion written plainly across his face. Seunghyun stops with him, just a few steps ahead, and it isn’t until Youngbae touches the wall that the other two even realize something has happened.

“Hey! Guys, look at this.” Youngbae says, his hand pushing against what he thought was a stone wall. His three friends hurry closer and watch as Youngbae pushes the wall and his hand presses into it as if it were fabric.

“How odd,” Jiyong says, reaching his hand out and lightly touching the wall. He moves his hand along until he finds where it turns back into stone, and tries grabbing it.

It works, and he is able to pull at it until it reveals itself to be a curtain behind which is a small but cozy seating area. The four boys stand in shock for a couple of moments before filing in and sitting down. Jiyong lets the curtain drop and turns to stare at it. From the inside they can sort of see through the curtain at the corridor without, and all four boys are silent for a moment as they take in their surroundings.

“This is so cool.” Daesung breathes, his wide eyes taking in every inch of the small seating area. Youngbae nods in agreement and places his broom on the floor.

“I like it,” Jiyong says, turning to face them, “I think that we should come here whenever we want to hang out. It’s hidden and it’s comfortable! It’s perfect!” He says, his eyes showing his excitement.

They all nod in agreement and after only a couple more seconds of contemplation, they fall back into talking about Youngbae’s new status as a beater for the Ravenclaw team.