a/n: Set in Harry Potter universe, about a year after the epilogue

Wendy does a lot of things in Hogwarts, and contributing to Hogwarts Weekly is only one of them.

When she’s not busy studying and getting top marks in almost all of her classes (almost, because she just can’t come up with prophecies that are morbid enough for Trelawney’s taste) or practicing with the Hogwarts Frog Choir (“They’re toads, Professor,” she always tells the choir master, Professor Flitwick. “These are toads we’re performing with, not frogs.”), or discussing and learning advance Charms with the members of Charms Club, she can be found having a meeting with the other contributors of the weekly school magazine in the courtyard, or writing articles for it in the library. People around her swear she could probably do all of that at the same time, and so far Wendy hasn’t denied it.

Much to her delight, she recently got promoted from being assigned to write boring “educational” articles (Flobberworms And Where To Find Them, she wrote, sighing as she did so) to conducting interviews with certain individuals in Hogwarts. Her subjects so far include Headmistress McGonagall*, Harry Potter (a licensed Auror now, he drops by sometimes to give a lecture), transfer student Irene Bae from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic whose ethereal beauty leads to speculations that she might be half-Veela (she refused to comment on it), and Argus Filch who just grunted and complained when interviewed, needless to say it was not published.

Today she is scheduled to interview a fellow fourth year student; the Gryffindor Quidditch star, Kang Seulgi. Wendy has asked her the day before in Potions Class if she would be available and Seulgi happily said yes – right before the latter’s half-brewed Wit-Sharpening Potion made funny noises in her cauldron and exploded, splattering both of them with purple liquid.

(Ten points from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw each, for being ‘disruptive’.)

Classes always end earlier on Fridays. After packing the necessary things and notifying one of her choir mates that she might be missing practice that afternoon for the interview, she makes her way to the Great Hall, where she’s supposed to meet Seulgi.

The Great Hall is never empty during the day. When it’s not time to eat, students are gathered there in small groups to study or do homework, free to sit together on any table regardless of their Houses. Wendy scans the hall for her friend, and when she doesn’t find her she decides to sit on one end of the Ravenclaw table, out of habit. A group of first year boys are practicing the Levitating Charm nearby and she watches them while she waits. Just swish, and flick. None of those boys are doing the correct hand movement.

Finally she feels a tap on her shoulder from behind. “Hey.”

Wendy turns around in her seat and finds herself caught off guard for a second. The Gryffindor Seeker is all decked out in her crimson Quidditch robe, complete with the fingerless gloves, shin and arm guards, and her broomstick Firebolt Supreme. Wendy stares. Players usually just wear normal clothes to Quidditch practice. She hopes Seulgi isn’t about to tell her to cancel the interview because she has an official game to play, but she’s pretty sure the next Quidditch match is at least three weeks away.

It’s hardly her first time seeing Seulgi in her Quidditch uniform, but it’s always from a seat in the stadium. The seeker’s hair is pulled up into a high ponytail, accentuating her sharp features that are contrasting with the warm smile on her youthful face. Wendy stares some more, and lurking somewhere in the back of her mind is the awareness that they’re both currently going through puberty. Seulgi is taller than her now, she noticed this last week when they shared a table in Charms class and practiced the Banishing Charm together. (Professor Flitwick has long banned Seulgi from sitting together with her best friend James Potter II in Charms class, for safety reasons.)

“Is this too much?” Seulgi says suddenly and clears . “You said you’d need to take a picture so uh, I thought I’d wear all this but if it’s too much—Should I just lose the broom? Or—”

Wendy snaps out of her trance. “No, no!” She cuts off Seulgi’s rambling, trying not to feel at all terrible for making the person she’s about to interview feel uncomfortable. “No, Seulgi, you look great. Perfect.” She blinks. “Have a seat.”

Seulgi giggles and sits down next to Wendy, her high ponytail swinging as she does so. Her broomstick is put on the table, and the first year students who were practicing a moment ago are now openly admiring it. She flashes them a friendly smile before turning to Wendy again, who’s now digging into her bag for her things. Camera, her new fancy little notepad her parents sent her, ink—what else?

Wendy stares at her things for a few more seconds before looking up at Seulgi and announces, “Uh, I forgot my quill.” She can’t believe she forgot to bring a quill to an interview. How is she even supposed to write the answers?

“Well, there’s plenty here,” Seulgi looks around the hall and eventually calls out to a group of Slytherin students who are gathering nearby. “Hey, Joy!”

Joy and her friends turn their heads to look at them. Wendy shifts slightly in her seat as Joy smirks at both them and takes hold of the Self-Writing Quill that was just writing down whatever Yeri was spewing out by itself a moment ago. “Hey, Seulgi. Looking for the Golden Snitch?”

“Nope, just doing an interview. Would you mind if we borrowed your quill?”

Joy gets up and approaches them to give the quill to Wendy herself, who just stares at the younger student in slight terror (and awe). “You can have it,” Joy says, as her entourage starts giggling for some reason. “Oh, great show at that Halloween Feast, by the way. That long note you did at the end? Celestina Warbeck would be proud, may she rest in peace.”

Seulgi blinks. “Joy, Celestina Warbeck is not dead, even I know that.”

“Ah, really? My bad,” Joy hands over the quill to Wendy. “Anyway, enjoy.”

“T-thanks,” Wendy takes the quill meekly, still finding the younger Slytherin student slightly intimidating even when she was complimenting her on her singing. After staring at the purple quill in her hand for a moment, she finally flips open her notepad and turns to Seulgi. “I guess we can start now,” she clears and slips into her professional, reporter-like voice, enunciating every word so clearly. “Good afternoon. My name is Wendy Son from Hogwarts Weekly and I would like to thank you for agreeing to do this interview.”

The quill slips out of her hand and moves on its own to write her opening line as both students look at each other with silly smiles on their faces, no doubt feeling weird that Wendy had to introduce herself professionally like that. Despite belonging in different Houses, they have known each other for a little over three years now and share most of their classes. “It’s my pleasure,” Seulgi says, trying to imitate Wendy’s way of speaking, making them both laugh.

Wendy regains composure quickly and starts with the most basic request. “Please introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about you.”

“I’m Kang Seulgi, fourth year Gryffindor. I play Quidditch as a Seeker,” Seulgi speaks comfortably, as the quill writes down her answers in Wendy’s little notepad.

“And you’re a captain this year, congratulations on that,” Wendy interjects.

“Yeah, our previous captain graduated, and I was honestly surprised my teammates appointed me! I’m still getting used to it.”

“Your team is doing really well, though. Just last week, you led your team to a wonderful victory against Ravenclaw with 510 points. The highest amount of points any Quidditch team in Hogwarts has achieved in about ten years, I heard,” Wendy says. “The way you caught that Snitch from a fifty foot dive was impressive.”

(Meanwhile, Ravenclaw only had ninety points and suffered a humiliating loss, but Wendy doesn’t need to tell her that.)

“Thanks. Everyone on the team works extremely well with each other.” Seulgi’s cheeks flush lightly at the compliment. “We have another practice tonight to prepare for the upcoming match against Hufflepuff. We lost the Quidditch Cup to them last year.”

They talk more about Quidditch. Seulgi reveals that she originally wanted to try out to be a Chaser when she was a second year, but when she heard the team needed a Seeker she took the challenge. She also talks about her admiration for the former captain of Holyhead Harpies (“The only all-female British Quidditch Team!” Seulgi informs her excitedly, but of course Wendy already knows this), Ginny Weasley. Seulgi has the biggest smile on her face when she tells her that and Wendy thinks it’s absolutely adorable.

(Wendy’s starting to think that if Seulgi was an Animagus, she’d be a bear. And if Seulgi was to conjure a Patronus, it would also take form of a bear. None of this is going to be published in the article, of course. Just an observation.)

“I knew I was different when I was about nine. Some stuff would levitate and sometimes disappear when I got upset. I was nine then, a bit of a late bloomer, I think,” says Seulgi, when Wendy asks her about her non-magical upbringing. “Then, about a week after my eleventh birthday, Professor Longbottom showed up at our door. He told my parents I was a witch, so of course my dad’s initial reaction was to try and throw him out of our house before he could even give me my acceptance letter.” Seulgi laughs, and Wendy cracks up laughing as well at the mental image of Seulgi’s father (Wendy has seen him a few times at King’s Cross Station) yelling at poor Professor Longbottom. She almost feels bad for the Herbology professor, but he is a wizard.

“Aw, but I bet they’re proud of how well you’re doing in Hogwarts right now.”

“Not that well, apparently. Surely you remember that explosion yesterday in Potions class? Sorry about that, I didn’t mix it well enough and I put in too much armadillo bile,” Seulgi cringes. “Looks like I can benefit from the Wit-Sharpening Potion after all.”

The interview continues for about twenty more minutes during which Wendy asks Seulgi about being sorted into Gryffindor (“Everybody saw me walking to the wrong table, right? It was so embarrassing.”), classes that she enjoys (“Defense Against the Dark Arts is fun. So is Divination, but not for the right reasons. Let’s not publish that last part.”), her first Quidditch match (“I got knocked off my broom just as the other Seeker caught the Snitch, woke up three days later”), among many other things. When she rambles on about Muggle pop culture when asked about her hobbies beside Quidditch, Wendy has never felt more confused.

The more questions asked, Wendy gradually loses her professional, reporter-like tone of her voice. Seulgi talks more animatedly with her hands and makes more jokes. They ignore the noisy grinding of quill against the notepad and talk comfortably like friends which, all things considered, they actually are.

Wendy glances at the notepad. The interview has taken up many pages of it, and there should be enough material for the real article. “Anything else you’d like to say? Maybe another shout out to Ginny Weasley?” Wendy teases, wiggling her eyebrows. “This magazine is distributed outside of Hogwarts too, you know.”

Seulgi blushes. “As if James doesn’t think it’s weird enough that I like his mom so much. It’s always awkward at King’s Cross every year,” she says, shaking her head. “Oh, we’re not dating, by the way. James and I. He’s a good friend.”

The shorter girl raises an eyebrow and lets out a small laugh. “I know! Relax. I’m not Rita Skeeter, you know.” She glances at the words that are written on the notepad. All verbatim, and not at all embellished into something overly dramatic and/or scandalous. “This isn’t a Quick-Quotes Quill either.” She takes hold of the purple quill, signaling the interview has ended.

“Of course,” Seulgi laughs sheepishly. “You always do such a good job in everything. I’ve always admired you, you know.”

Wendy only smiles shyly at the compliment and starts looking into her bag for her camera, averting her gaze from Seulgi. “I’ll take your picture now,” Wendy says, looking up to meet Seulgi’s eyes again, having a camera in her hand now. “Since you have your broom and—” Wendy gestures at Seulgi’s outfit. “—your Quidditch uniform, it should be a full-body shot.”

Seulgi picks up her broom and gets up. “Okay.” She walks towards the entrance door of the Great Hall and stops there. Without warning, she turns towards Wendy and starts posing, leaning against the door with the broomstick she’s holding beside her. Wendy’s fumbles with the camera for a few seconds, not even ready yet.

The shorter girl tries not to drop the camera when she looks at Seulgi’s sharp, piercing eyes through the viewfinder. The kind of look that Seulgi only has when she’s hovering at a vantage point, scanning for the Golden Snitch in the arena. “One…two…”

Click!

She makes it to the last ten minutes of choir practice after the interview, just as McLaggen starts belting out his solo part in the choir’s rendition of a Weird Sisters song. Professor Flitwick makes Wendy stay after the session ends to let her practice her solo parts for the choir’s upcoming performance of Celestina Warbeck’s classic hit songs.

Wendy’s personal favorite is definitely You Stole My Cauldron But You Can’t Have My Heart. It’s also her mother’s favorite.

“Madam Warbeck wrote me again,” Professor Flitwick says, holding a letter from the legendary singer, who was a Hogwarts student around the time the choir was founded. “She has an interesting offer.”

Wendy’s ears perk up. “What is it, Professor?”

“Well, since the beginning we’ve always performed with frogs—”

“Toads,” Wendy mutters under her breath.

“—you know how she used to perform with a backing group of Banshees?” The choir master asks, and Wendy nods slowly at him, not liking where the conversation is going. “She’s offering to send some of her old Banshees to us if we—”

“No!” Wendy shrieks, and then immediately pulls herself together. “I-I mean, no, Professor. I don’t think that would work well with the students, especially the younger ones.” She shudders at the thought of the skeletal, zombie-like creatures anywhere near the choir. The first years would flee. She would flee.

Not to mention the blood curdling, unearthly scream of a Banshee can be fatal. As much as Wendy loves singing, she does not want to die singing.

Professor Flitwick sighs disappointedly. “Yes, that’s what the others said too, earlier. I’ll write back and tell her we’re grateful for the offer but we’ll stick with frogs.”

Toads. “Thank you, Professor.”

One of Wendy’s favorite things about the Ravenclaw Common Room is the domed ceiling that’s painted with stars. She finds the starts so pretty to look at (they also remind her of how little and insignificant a single human being is compared to the whole expanding universe, and Astronomy homework), and another one of her favorite things about the common room is the location of the room itself. During the day, Ravenclaw students have an excellent view of the school grounds. They can see the lake, Forbidden Forest, Quidditch pitch, Herbology gardens, and the surrounding mountains through the arched windows in the room. The sound of wind whistling around the windows of the tower is also relaxing, and it helps the students sleep.

A few hours have passed since the interview. The sun has set, and the only sources of light in the common room are the torches on the wall and the fireplace, casting a warm glow on the furnitures. Having just eaten dinner, Wendy attempts to finish a Transfiguration homework, fighting the sleepiness and exhaustion from practice today. She was about to take a short nap in the comfortable chair by the fireplace when the current editor-in-chief of Hogwarts Weekly approaches her.

“Hi, Wendy. How was the interview?” Davies asks, seemingly unaware of Wendy’s current exhausted state. “Did she say anything interesting?”

“Anything that comes out of is interesting,” Wendy says sleepily, taking out her little notepad out of her bag and handing it over to the seventh year boy. “Here, take a look. I’ll write the article tomorrow.”

Wendy leans back comfortably in her chair and closes her eyes for a nap. She has trained herself to block out all the noises around her, take a brief nap, and wake up at the right time to finish her tasks. It’s how she manages to do everything in Hogwarts. There really is no Time-Turner involved.

“Wendy?”

“Wendy, wake up.”

Davies pokes her on the shoulder. “Oi, wake up.”

Wendy jolts awake, feeling slightly annoyed. “What?” The boy is still standing in front of her with her little notepad, frowning.

“There’s nothing,” she hears Davies say.

“Excuse me?”

“There’s—” Davies holds up the notepad for her to see and flips through the blank pages. “—nothing. See? Are you sure you didn’t write it somewhere else?”

All of a sudden Wendy becomes very alarmed, and snatches her fancy little notepad from the boy. She flips through the pages frantically. Blank page. Another blank page. More blank pages. All the words have vanished. No traces of the interview whatsoever. Not even a drop of ink. It’s as good as new.

Panic and disbelief sets in her stomach. She goes from feeling sleepy to feeling extremely alert and dizzy. “But it was all here!” She tries to convince Davies, who just looks at her with genuine concern. Merlin, he thinks I’m crazy. “I wrote it down here! I wrote—”

She freezes. No, she didn’t write it herself. She used a Self-Writing Quill. From Joy.

Wendy digs into her bag and takes out the purple quill in question, looking at it accusingly.

“Is that a joke quill?” Davies understands right away, and lets out a laugh, making Wendy wonder if this has happened to someone else before. If it has, how very cruel. “Well, at least it’s only an interview, not your exam.”

The girl shudders at the thought. “That’s not funny,” she glares at him. “This is not funny. Now what do I do? I need those notes to write the article!”

“Well, you’re smart and all. You remember everything she said, right? Maybe you don’t need the notes.”

Wendy remembers a lot of things, like the uses of Flobberworm mucus, the incantations of every spell she has learned so far in Hogwarts (including the really advanced ones she learned with the Charms Club), the exact year during which the Goblin riot in eighteenth century took place, how to properly handle Mandrakes, the lyrics to nearly every Celestina Warbeck hit songs, and so on.

Does she remember the whole interview? Sure, most of it. A little fuzzy on some parts maybe, especially the bits where Seulgi talked about her favorite Muggle music groups and movies…it’s not like Wendy is well acquainted with any of that – that needs to change, she makes a mental note to herself. Or she can just leave it out of the article – except no, she can’t because Seulgi was really excited when she talked about that, no doubt missing Muggle entertainment in Hogwarts.

What was the name of that pop group that Seulgi likes so much again? It has something to do with cake.

She looks out the window. She can make out a number of figures flying inside the Quidditch pitch in the dark. Didn’t Seulgi say her team would have practice tonight? That one she remembers.

Wendy stands by the Quidditch Gate, hugging her robe tighter around her tiny frame. She realizes she might just have made a poor decision by being outside at such a cold and windy night, and she can’t even begin to imagine how cold it would be to be flying on a broomstick right now.

“Oi!”

Startled by the voice calling out, she looks up to see a boy hovering on his broomstick, with a Beater’s bat in his right hand. His messy black hair is sticking out in places because of the gusts of wind. “Potter,” Wendy acknowledges him.

“What are you doing out here? You’re not spying on us, are you?” James grins at her. “You know, we always have practice at night instead of in daylight so that you Ravenclaws wouldn’t have a nice view of the strategy we’re planning to use.”

She scoffs good-naturedly. “I’m not spying. Why are you out here? Is practice done?”

“No, I’m just going to get a spare bat from the dorm,” he holds up the bat in his hand and Wendy now notices a visible crack along the length of it. “Bludgers! Anyway, I heard you interviewed Seulgi today. Please include a lot of good things about our team in the article.”

“Do you think I can talk to her for a minute? It’s about the interview.”

“Yeah, sure. Just go inside.” He shrugs, gesturing to the stadium.

“Right now? Aren’t you guys practicing? Wouldn’t I get kicked out for ‘spying’?”

James lets out a laugh as he starts to fly away towards the castle. “Don’t be silly, she wouldn’t kick anyone out!”

Wendy decides to listen to him and enters the stadium, going straight up to the seats area. She looks up to see Gryffindor Quidditch players are all in the air right now. In the dark, she can make out the silhouettes of the Chasers passing the Quaffle to each other, the lone Beater watching out for a Bludger, and the Keeper hovering near the three goal posts. She hasn’t spotted the Seeker.

A moment later, something – someone – comes diving in the sky from way up above and makes a very fast turn, flying through one of the goal posts. The Seeker finally slows down and hovers near one of the stands with the Snitch in her hand. She lets it go again.

Wendy calls out to her, “Seulgi!” She waves her hands to attract her attention. “Seulgi! Hello!”

Seulgi turns her head and finally notices her, but so does everybody in the pitch, as they all stop moving all at once to look at her curiously. In embarrassment, now Wendy truly thinks she has just made a very poor decision.

Seulgi flies downward, right towards where Wendy is standing awkwardly. Everybody else starts moving again as Seulgi lands right next to Wendy and dismounts from her broomstick. She walks toward the visitor. “Wendy?”

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt—”

“No, no, it’s okay!” Seulgi assures her by patting her on the shoulder a couple of times. “We’re just playing around until James comes back. He’s getting a spare bat. Don’t worry about it.”

“It’s about the interview,” Wendy wastes no time and takes out her notepad from her robe pocket. “Remember that quill we borrowed from Joy? It wasn’t a regular Self-Writing Quill.”

“Huh? Was it really a Quick-Quotes Quill after all?” Seulgi puts a hand over her and fakes a dramatic gasp. “Were my eyes glistening with the ghosts of my past when I talked about my lonely childhood?”

”Oh, no. Even better, actually. Everything just vanished.,” she hands over the notepad, preparing herself for another embarrassment. “See for yourself.”

Seulgi takes it and flips through the pages quickly. “Wow,” she frowns when she notices all the pages are empty, and then doubles over with laughter. “So that was a joke quill? Look at all these empty pages…Ooh, imagine this happening to somebody’s exam.”

Wendy rolls her eyes. Why is everybody thinking of the same thing? That really would be one of the cruelest pranks ever. “Where did Joy even get that kind of quill?”

“Where else? Joke shops,” Seulgi looks like she’s about to laugh again before she winces suddenly, looking apologetic. “Hey…this is my fault. I asked Joy for that quill, didn’t I? I’m really sorry.”

Wendy’s face softens. She might have been slightly annoyed earlier at Seulgi but really, Wendy was the one who forgot to bring a quill in the first place. “Not your fault. I shouldn’t have forgotten my quill. You were just trying to help me.”

“I feel like should have realized it was a joke quill. It might come from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes,” Seulgi says, brushing back a few strands of hair away from her face with her hand. Instead of having her hair up in a ponytail or a bun like she usually does in the pitch, it is let down now, blown by the cold, biting wind. “One time I used one of their Spell-Checking Quills for homework, and it misspelled everything. My own name became ‘Kong Seulgo’.”

“Maybe we should make an article about that. The Dangers of Joke Quills and How to Identify Them.”

“I think you’ll just give them ideas,” Seulgi giggles. “Should we do the interview again?”

Wendy bites her lip. “I remember most of it, there are just some little details that might have slipped out of my mind,” she pauses. “What was the name of that group that you like so much again? I’m afraid I’m not too familiar with Muggle music.”

“Red Velvet.”

“Ah, yeah, that one. I knew it was a name of a cake. Also, those movie series that you talked about, I don’t really—” Wendy takes a glance toward the pitch and notices James has returned. She’s reminded that she isn’t really supposed to be there right now and begins feeling awkward again. “Uh, Potter’s here, I should go. I’m so sorry for bothering you like this, and for everything. I’ll just write down everything that I remember tonight. Again, I’m really sorry. Good night, Seulgi.”

“Wait!”

Wendy is just about ready to sprint towards the exit when Seulgi pulls at her arm firmly. The shorter girl gets yanked back and suddenly they’re facing each other again, much closer this time, with Seulgi’s hand still holding on to Wendy’s arm. The shorter girls’ heart race in her chest.

“It’s my fault too, I should’ve known better than to borrow anything from Joy.” Seulgi says, leaning slightly towards Wendy.

“B-but—”

“When’s the article due?”

“Sunday afternoon, but I’d like to have it finished by tomorrow, before dinner.”

“There’s still time, then. By the way, tomorrow is Hogsmeade weekend,” Seulgi squeezes Wendy’s arm gently, and the latter almost squeals nervously. “I plan to stock up on Chocolate Frogs and Jelly Slugs from Honeydukes, do you wanna come with me? We can go somewhere else after that.”

Wendy steps back a little, not trusting herself enough that her knees won’t eventually buckle under Seulgi’s stare. “Okay,” she breathes out. “To do the interview again, right? I…I will have a proper quill with me this time.”

Seulgi shrugs playfully, “Yeah, or just hang out,” a smirk plays across her face. “That’d be fun, right? Ah, I really wanted to let you listen to my favorite songs. Muggle songs.”

The shorter girl nods shyly, all of a sudden feeling much closer to Seulgi than she’s ever been in the last three years. Physically too, right now. “Of course. Hanging out. Yeah, that’d be fun.”

Seulgi steps back from her and mounts her broomstick, finally giving Wendy room to breathe properly. “Great!” She grins at Wendy, and just like that the slight intensity just now collapses under her child-like warm smile. “Let’s meet after breakfast tomorrow, okay?”

Wendy can only stare dumbly as Seulgi waves at her and takes off, joining her teammates in the pitch.

She doesn’t even really remember her walk back to the common room, and later that night – still in a slight confounded state – she belatedly remembers that she actually has choir practice the next day around noon.

She decides she doesn’t mind missing another practice for Seulgi at all. Maybe she can benefit from the Wit-Sharpening Potion to be able to think more clearly about this, but right now she doesn’t really care.

a/n: That… sounded better and a lot less platonic in my head…I’m so sorry lol, but if you like red velvet hp au, I have a seulrene hp au that I posted months ago. and also this

(*) I know JKR said Professor McGonagall would have retired by the time Harry’s children got into Hogwarts, but she is one of my favorite characters in HP and I’m way too sentimental.

That Celestina Warbeck song exists, by the way. You can listen to it here. Can you imagine Wendy performing that song with a chorus of Banshees? me neither

Thanks for reading :)