warning: laziness induced lapslock. future chapters will (hopefully) contain more proper capitalization. otl. hogwarts!au.

one by one, she sits on her bed and watches with observant eyes as her roommate pack their clothes into their trunks. seulgi hears the rush of sheets as they scramble to find last minute papers or that one underwear that's been missing for months, she smells the familiar scent of eggnog and spices as december slowly draws to a close, and most importantly, she experiences the feeling of helping her friends with their very, very last minute packing or finding their lost toads for them without having to worry about her own trunk and its hazard contents.

"i'm really going to miss you," she mumbles as her last roommate, wendy, finally finishes packing her last robe into her trunk and has spelled it close. "why can't you spend christmas with me?" seulgi asks quietly, eyes pleading as she stares at her canadian roommate, who laughs that beautiful laugh of hers seulgi doesn't get tired of hearing. (wendy's also got a great voice, which is also like, 50% of the reason seulgi wants her to stay. she likes it when she hears wendy sing christmas carols).

after checking her trunk has been sealed, wendy looks over at seulgi and shakes her head, before reaching forward and ruffling the top of seulgi's hair affectionately. "i'm going to miss you, seulgi. give me a bear hug before i go!" and seulgi complies easily, rushing forward to give her best friend a warm hug. she feels wendy's laugh tickle as the girl hugs her back tightly before pulling away, and a familiar sound of joohyun's shouting from the common room reminds them of the time.

wendy grabs her trunk and kicks open the door to their dorm, and seulgi can't help but worry over her like how a mother bear would.

"are you sure you've got everything?"

"yep! i'm pretty sure. you helped me pack, remember?"

"okay, okay." a pause, before another question. "what about that book - "

"i've got it, seulgi."

the two of them stare each other, wendy's of amusement and affection, and seulgi's look mirrors that of worry and sadness. seulgi can't remember the last time she's spent christmas without wendy, but seeing as wendy's family hadn't gotten extra tickets for their christmas holiday in moscow, seulgi is stuck spending her holidays in hogwarts.

seulgi sighs, and lifts her gaze to wendy, hands forming a small wave. "i guess i'll see you next year."

"you're making this sound like goodbye forever." wendy scoffs, and seulgi stays silent, but she has a small knowing smile formed on her lips. "see you soon, seulgi!" and just like that, wendy bundles down the stairs enthusiastically, humming the tune of 'santa baby' under her breath, leaving seulgi to stand outside their dorm alone, shoulders slumped and heart heavy, expecting the worst.

it'd be a lie to say she hates christmas, because seulgi loves christmas - she's a fan of the festivities, the presents, the feeling of warmth and belonging and all those cute cards everyone gets each other - but she doesn't see the point of christmas when you're celebrating it alone.

and alone is exactly what she is for this holiday season.

(that makes her sound like a scrooge, and she's not - seulgi just really, really hates being lonely for the holidays).

/ / /

on christmas eve, seulgi slumps her way down to the almost empty common room, noticing how the fireplace doesn't look as passionate as usual or how the yellow linens and decorations of the hufflepuff dorm just seem meaningless without any hufflepuffs around to celebrate it with her. joohyun, their head girl and the one who usually makes things actually work around the house, has gone off along with wendy and most of her other housemates a few days ago to embark on a christmas cruise with the rest of her well-off pureblood family, and seeing as joohyun's seulgi's other closest friend, the painful reminder of joohyun's absence just kind of makes seulgi feel more like a loner.

"merry almost christmas, kang seulgi!" seulgi tilts her head to see one of her housemates smiling at her warmly - what was her name again? oh god, this makes her feel guilty - and seulgi laughs awkwardly, mostly because she can't remember the name of the person congratulating her, but she smiles anyway, albeit rather frozen and forced. she just hopes she fakes it convincingly enough.

"you too," says seulgi, and notices how the girl seems to sit comfortably on one of their plush chairs, a blanket draped over her stomach. "you're not coming to the great hall?"

the girl shakes her head. "nah, i'm not really in the mood. i'll just go eat in the kitchens later."

"well, alright. see you later." after flashing a polite wave, seulgi rushes over to the door of the common room and exits without a second glance (though it does make her feel guilty), and starts walking towards the great hall, her eyes lighting when every step and every christmas tree reminds her of one step closer to the center of the festivities.

the great hall is decorated beautifully for christmas, just like it always is, and despite the lack of students, seulgi finds the great hall still has its usual warmth and friendliness - maybe even heightened, judging by the amount of ornaments scattered on the big christmas tree or the various mistletoes springing around the ancient stone walls, every inch of the hall screaming 'happy holidays!' - and thinks that maybe, spending christmas alone in hogwarts wouldn't be as horrible after all.

rather obviously, the most crowded table is the gryffindor table (also, the loudest of them all, seulgi notes with a slight grimace as she hears the loud cringeworthy jokes coming from the table of the lions), closely followed by her own house, though she doesn't see many familiar faces in the table, most of the hufflepuffs remaining in hogwarts being the younger years. over at the ravenclaw table, she counts seven heads, and on the slytherin table - a thin line forms on her face upon seeing it - there's only one person sitting there alone, picking on his food with a grimace settled on his face. his face is painstakingly familiar, and seulgi's sure she knows his name, but the name lies on the tip of her tongue and her expression is set to a constipated one as she racks her brain for his name, with no success.

'i feel kind of bad for him though,' seulgi thinks sadly, looking over at how lonely the boy looks. an idea comes to her, but she thinks twice, because the idea that's formed is kind of a little more than crazy, considering the centuries-old house rivalries and bias going around in hogwarts. the good, nicer, part of her literally screams at her to walk over and keep him company, because not all slytherins are evil (she's pretty much aware every house has their own bad apples), but the more rational and logical part of her keeps her rooted to the spot, because the last thing she needs in her sixth year is a scandal with a slytherin, or losing her friends because of a silly move on christmas.

but then again, isn't christmas all about the giving and all that merry mumbo jumbo?

gathering her courage and swallowing her pride, seulgi walks with shaky footsteps towards the slytherin table, for once glad that the great hall isn't too abuzz with life as usual nor is it crowded to the point she could feel people's penetrating gazes on her skin. she stops walking when she's standing across the boy, and after a moment of hesitation, she slides into the bench in front of him, brain trying to think of a proper way to introduce herself.

"why are you sitting here?" the boy asks before she's able to produce any sound from , and he looks up from his plate, a small scowl on his handsome features.

seulgi shrugs. "you looked lonely." her answer is simple, but it's also the truth, and she can see the boy's unpleasant expression forming into confusion tinted with slight disbelief.

"seriously?" he asks incredulously. "that's it?"

"well... yeah," seulgi answers, the confusion evident in both her tone and her voice. her brows draw together as she looks at the boy oddly. "what did you think?"

for a moment, he looks like he's going to answer, but then he shakes his head. "ah, nevermind."

seulgi deflates upon hearing the answer, and she looks at him with a small pout. "you can't just bring up all this tension and make the answer so anti-climatic," a dramatic pause. "i refuse to accept that as an answer," she jokes, and she hopes the boy knows enough about joking to not push her away. seulgi's not as good as wendy when it comes to acting like old friends with new people, but she tries her best.

"then you're not in luck today." he laughs, and it's a pleasant sound. soon enough, seulgi finds herself laughing with him although nothing's actually that funny. "i'm min yoongi, seventh year."

ah! that's his name, seulgi thinks. she has heard about min yoongi before from her friends, as his name is a name that comes up often whenever they talk about boys - upperclassmen, usually - and yoongi's somewhat known as that one slytherin senior everyone from her group of friends want to know more about, but he's a little bit on the mysterious side so they never really get anything to talk about when it comes to him. she recalls wendy saying how yoongi seems to be alone a lot, besides being close with a few other boys from different houses (one of the things her friends admire about him, really), and seulgi wonders why. yoongi doesn't seem like an awful person, considering her three minutes experience with him.

"kang seulgi, sixth." she holds out her hand for a handshake, but instead he highfives her, a small smirk on his face. "what? a handshake too old for you?"

"nah, i just didn't want to kill the atmosphere with something so official," yoongi replies, and she chuckles, a smile forming on her lips.

"do you usually spend your christmas..." seulgi trails off, not knowing whether the question she's asking is more on the personal, uncomfortable side, but yoongi waves it off.

"yeah. is this your first time spending christmas in hogwarts?" he questions, lips quirking in an almost-smile. seulgi finds he looks a lot cuter when he smiles, and wonders why he doesn't smile more. then again, she's one to talk - despite being a hufflepuff and nice (and adorable, according to joohyun and wendy) enough, seulgi doesn't smile as often as her friends. except joohyun, who has a case of the resting face.

seulgi nods. "yeah. is it obvious?"

"hm, a little." he chuckles, and seulgi rolls her eyes playfully. "mostly because you haven't dug into the food yet. they go more all out for christmas feasts, especially during christmas eve and the actual christmas itself." at this, he looks pointedly at his food, and seulgi looks at her own empty plate. after a few moments, she sticks a few slices of roasted turkey in her knife before placing them on her plate neatly. "the turkey isn't even the best part."

"seriously?" she looks at him with a disbelieving glance, and he nods seriously.

"oh, yeah. you have to try their christmas pudding - it's legendary."

the two of them end up talking until a professor has to walk over to the both of them and remind them of the curfew, causing the both of them to part with matching looks of embarrassment and shyness, and seulgi's pretty sure her cheeks were dusted pink when the professor had coughed at them to end their conversation about music, but she's happy.

maybe the holidays wouldn't be as lonely as she thought it'd be.

/ / /

author's note:

so ye AAAh this is the first chapter and i hope you guys enjoyed it!! well not first chapter more like first story? oh weeelll.