It was a cool, but bright, Saturday morning; the perfect day for Quidditch. It was the second match of the season, but the first for both the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff teams. It was Youngbae’s first game, and he was a little embarrassed to say that he was nervous.

He knew that all of his friends would be there, even the ever-reluctant Seunghyun, but he couldn’t shake it. He barely ate at breakfast, and when Marcus announced that they should probably head down he felt the bottom of his stomach drop out and it took everything he had to continue the trek out of the hall. Jiyong latched onto his arm, while Daesung and Seunghyun wandered close behind them.

“You’ll be great, everything will be fine!” Jiyong was practically chanting into Youngbae’s ear as they walked down to the Pitch and locker rooms.

“Yeah! And if anything goes wrong, you have a bat!” Daesung says, skipping eagerly forward to walk beside Youngbae. Daesung’s bright smile and, well, interesting words of comfort helped Youngbae to smile slightly and calm down a little.

They had to part ways before the locker rooms, and Youngbae instantly felt the loss. He trudged along, following the rest of the team, until they met up with the Hufflepuff team who were walking down as well.

Youngbae’s utter terror was apparently much more obvious than he had thought because as the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw teams fell into step with one another, the Hufflepuff Seeker tried to cheer him up. Her name was Dara, if Youngbae was remembering correctly, and he only knew her from watching the Hufflepuff games the year before. He’s not sure exactly what year she’s in, but he remembers Marcus saying something about her having been on the Hufflepuff team for at least three years.

“Hey! What’s the matter? First game?” She asks, sidling closer to him and switching her broom to her left arm so that she doesn’t hit him with it.

“Um, yeah, it is.” He says, his voice quiet and just a little timid.

“Oh, don’t worry! It’ll be great fun! You’re a beater?” He nods, “Oh, how fun! I’m a Seeker, but the beaters always look like they have so much to do! Very important position! Gotta keep your team members safe!”

She was happy and bubbly, and her fast and excited speaking was definitely making him feel better. He smiles at her and she grins, knocking her fist into his shoulder.

“You’ve got this!” She says, still smiling at him.

“Hey! Dara! Quit helping the other team!” One of the other Hufflepuff players says, knocking his shoulder into her as he comes up next to her. She turns toward him and adopts an innocent look.

“Why would I do that?” She asks, smiling again. She turns back to Youngbae and pats him on the shoulder, “You’ll be fine, just play like no one is watching; it helps me!” She pats his arm again and moves back into the center of the Hufflepuff team.

Youngbae allows himself to relax into a smile and follows his team into the locker room where Marcus was getting ready for a pre-match pep-talk.

Seunghyun was trying his hardest not to hit Jiyong over the head. He just wanted to run away; there were too many people and some of the older Ravenclaws were staring at them. Seunghyun knew that the staring was probably because of Daesung being a Slytherin, which only made him want to leave even more. He sighs deeply for about the 80^th time that hour and taps Jiyong on the back of the head.

“Shut up.” He says, as Jiyong grabs his head in over-exaggerated pain. “The game hasn’t even started yet, and they are playing Hufflepuff. If I remember correctly, and I should since you’ve told me about 800 times, there is almost no way that Ravenclaw can lose this match. So just stop.” Jiyong glares at him and crosses his arms over his chest.

“There is always the chance. And besides, it’s Youngbae’s first ever real match, you could do to care more.” Jiyong says, his voice taking on a huffy note that grates against Seunghyun’s nerves almost worse than the way that he had been talking before.

“He does care, Ji, there are just a lot of people.” Daesung says, a bright smile on his face as he leans around Seunghyun so that Jiyong can hear him. Seunghyun winces slightly at Daesung’s words and wonders how Daesung had guessed that when they hadn’t even known each other for a full year yet and even Jiyong and Youngbae were still fairly clueless about it.

Jiyong softens a little bit but shakes his head, “Either way, we have to support Youngbae!”

“Yes!” Daesung shouts, turning his attention back to the field as the players come out and take their positions on the pitch. “Good luck Taeyang! Shine like the sun!” He shouts, and Seunghyun laughs, throwing his arm around Daesung’s shoulders and shouting too.

The match lasted 45 minutes, 45 long and nail-biting minutes as Jiyong clutches Seunghyun’s arm and jumps every time he thinks that Youngbae is going to get hurt. Seunghyun decides that his favorite part of the game is whenever Youngbae manages to hit a bludger. He would cheer loudly with ever hint of contact between a bludger and Youngbae’s bat, causing Daesung to look at him and laugh.

When the Ravenclaw Seeker caught the snitch, Seunghyun was worried that Jiyong and Daesung would up-end the bench they were sitting on in excitement. They didn’t, luckily, but their loud excitement was enough to make Seunghyun’s head hurt and ears ring for hours afterward. They watch as the teams shake hands and then pile out of the stadium with the rest of the students, starting the long trek up the lawns and back to their respective Houses.

“5^th floor, two hours?” Jiyong shouts as they get to the Main Staircase and need to part.

“Yes sir!” Daesung shouts back, throwing him a brilliant smile before following the rest of the Slytherins down into the dungeons. Seunghyun just nods and they split up on the next staircase to go to their respective dorms.

“See ya.” Seunghyun says, waving lazily before heading up the next staircase.

Jiyong hurries back to the Ravenclaw Common Room, not wanting to miss the arrival of their victorious Quidditch team.

**

The snow was falling thickly outside the windows of the Charms corridor, and Youngbae was running full tilt down the hall, dodging random first years in his attempt to find Daesung before he got back to the Slytherin common room. Seunghyun wanted to go on a little excursion down to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and Youngbae had volunteered to go collect their favorite first year.

He needn’t have worried about hurrying though, which would have been nice to know as he had knocked over two first years and a cracked statue of a raven on his way. When he finally found little Daesung, he was standing with his back pressed against the wall, underneath one of the massive windows in the corridor. Surrounding him were three of the school’s resident ghosts, the names of which Youngbae could not for the life of him remember. Daesung looked a little uneasy, and at the sound of Youngbae’s loud footsteps, he looked past the ghosts and made eye-contact, silently begging for help.

“Hey Dae! I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Youngbae says, calming his breathing and walking closer, keeping an eye on the ghosts as he approaches.

“Oh! Taeyang!” Daesung half-shouts, his discomfort with the situation made more obvious by his use of Youngbae’s nickname. “I was just…I was going to the Library and then I met these lovely people.” The slightly strained sound in his normally sweet voice made Youngbae want to laugh; but he held it together.

“Ahh! This is one of the young men I see you around with from time to time!” One of the ghosts, an older, distinguished-looking man with a hooked nose, says.

“Yes! And a lovely Ravenclaw at that!” A girl this time, much younger-looking than the man, but still probably an old ghost. “Ahh, to be a student again.” She says on a sigh, before reaching out and patting Daesung on the shoulder.

Youngbae watches in fascination as the ghost’s hand goes straight through Daesung’s shoulder, and the poor boy’s face freezes in a look that is a cross between an overly polite smile and horror. Youngbae has to turn away to hide the smile and stifle the laughter that is trying so hard to burst from his mouth. Once he’s gotten it under control, he turns back and notices that now one of the other ghosts is trying to touch Daesung.

“Alright, if you guys don’t mind, I need to take Daesung.” The ghosts all turn to look at Youngbae, and Daesung takes a deep breath and lets it out shakily behind them. “We’re going to do homework and stuff.” The older male ghost inclines his head to Youngbae and then turns back to Daesung.

“It was a pleasure finally meeting you young sir! I do so hope to have the pleasure again.” He bows and Daesung smiles, giving a light bow in return. The other ghosts say quiet goodbyes as well, before floating off down the corridor and disappearing from sight.

“I saw you laughing.” Daesung says, a shudder rippling through his body as he watches the ghosts disappear.

Youngbae’s mouth hitches up into another smile. “I’m sorry, but it was just so amusing.”

“They follow me everywhere.” Daesung says; his voice dull as he shudders again. He looks up at Youngbae with a slightly desperate look on his face. “It’s so scary.”

Youngbae throws an arm around Daesung’s shoulders as they walk down the hall, and pulls him closer. “Well, why don’t you make it a point to get to know ALL of the Hogwarts ghosts.” Daesung tries to rear back in horror, but Youngbae holds him in place. “No, listen. If you get to know them, then they won’t seem so scary, and it won’t be as weird or frightening when they come up to you.” Daesung looks down, thinking over Youngbae’s words.

“Then I would be in control of when they talk to me?” Daesung asks more than says, and looks up at Youngbae, a hopeful look in his eyes.

“Well,” Youngbae says, stopping them as they reach the top of the stairs so that he can face Daesung more directly. “I’m not sure that you would always be in control of when they spoke to you, but wouldn’t you feel more comfortable knowing who you were talking to?” Daesung bites his lip, deep in thought, before nodding.

“Yes, I think that’s a good idea!” He says, his bright and full smile spreading across his face. “I will start immediately. Maybe then they won’t come into my room at night and scare me while I’m sleeping.” Youngbae’s eyebrows leap up in shock.

“They do that? Oh Dae! Why didn’t you tell us?” Daesung shakes his head.

“It’s alright, now I can work on making them stop.” He looks down as they start walking down the stairs. “Do you…do you think you could keep this a secret from Seunghyun?” Youngbae looks at him quickly. “He would make fun of me even more if he knew…” Youngbae nods, letting out a light sigh.

“Yeah, no problem Dae Dae, I got your back!” Daesung laughs and pushes him, before racing down the stairs.

“Beat you to the bottom!” He shouts up at Youngbae. Youngbae pouts briefly before running to catch up.

Youngbae decides when they get outside and are walking toward the Forest and poor Daesung is trying to pretend that he’s shivering from the cold and not fear, that he’s going to need to have a talk with Seunghyun about how he treats the boy. At the moment, however, Youngbae realizes that the most pressing matter on his hands will be keeping Seunghyun out of the Forbidden Forest.

“What is with him and his need to almost get himself or others killed?” Youngbae asks Jiyong as they walk a short distance behind Daesung and Seunghyun on their way to the Hospital Wing.

“He’s a stupid Gryffindor. His ‘bravery’ will be the death of us.” Jiyong says with a slight frown as he looks up at their heavily limping friend.

“Ahh, you don’t mean that! You’re just upset that he hurt himself and you couldn’t talk to the centaurs any longer.” Jiyong scowls at him and stares straight ahead. Youngbae chuckles to himself and slings an arm around Jiyong’s shoulders. “Oh come on! We won’t be in the Hospital Wing for more than ten minutes! Then we can sneak down to the kitchens and get hot chocolate and then hide out in the common room for the rest of the day! How does that sound?”

Jiyong shrugs Youngbae’s arm off of him and turns around so that he’s walking backwards. “Promise?” Youngbae nods, “Are you sure you won’t freak out about breaking the rules to go get the hot chocolate this time?”

Youngbae throws his hands in the air. “I offered it, didn’t I!” Jiyong just raises an eyebrow. “Aish, alright! I promise I won’t freak out…but don’t sing your way down the hall this time, or else everyone will know what we’re doing.” He says, ending his sentence with a pout.

Jiyong laughs and nods, turning around and breaking into a light jog to catch up with the other two. “Come on! The quicker we get the Gryffindor to the Hospital Wing, the quicker I get hot chocolate!” Youngbae can hear Daesung laugh and Seunghyun whine about how it’s unfair that he doesn’t get anything.

Youngbae really likes Hogwarts in the winter. This was shaping up to be an excellent year.