Tired, Taeyeon watches with heavy eyes as streaks of orange and pink ignite the sky along with the rising sun. She closes her eyes and breathes in the crisp, cool mountain air as she tries to settle her nerves from her exhausting weekend. When she catches the light scent of sweet, fruity lotion, she doesn’t need to turn around to confirm that her Hufflepuff friend is approaching her.

Once footsteps hit the tiled roof, Taeyeon’s greeted by a bright voice. “There you are.”

“Hi, Yoona.” Taeyeon doesn’t take her eyes off the tranquil sunrise as her friend joins her.

The girl that takes a seat next to Taeyeon is tall, thin, and pretty with big doe-eyes and a sincere smile. “How you feeling?”

Knees hugged to her chest, Taeyeon rest her head into the crook of her elbow. “Tired.”

“You hungry?” Yoona asks with a knowing smile, offering a tupperware full of churros for the girl.

As the sugary scent hits Taeyeon’s nose, she finally looks over to spot the snack in her friend’s hands. “Ah! You’re seriously the best!” she squeals as she reaches for the food.

Yoona just smiles as the other girl’s healthy appetite. “I brought you some pastries and dried fruits too if this isn’t enough.”

Taeyeon can’t help the bitter taste of guilt that suddenly overpowers her mouthful of sugary, fried dough. She swallows her food before saying, “you don’t have to take care of me. You know you’re not obligated to anymore, right?”

Yoona scoffs a laugh. “I don’t mind. Also, don’t kid yourself. Without us, you’d be a mess,” she tells the older girl before biting into her own churro.

A slight smirk tugs at the corner of Taeyeon’s lips. “I resent that!”

The Hufflepuff girl snickers. “Pft. If it weren’t for Sunny-unnie, you wouldn’t even leave your dorm.” Yoona spits a laugh to herself at a sudden amusing thought. “Without us, you’d never go outside, so you’d be allergic to silver bullets and UV rays!”

“Ughhhh,” Taeyeon groans, rolling her eyes at the terrible joke. “Very funny,” she says before taking another bite of her churro. “Seriously though, you don’t have to—”

“Unnie, just eat. You worry too much about me and not enough about yourself.”

Taeyeon doesn’t talk about her feelings much, but she knows she should tell Yoona this more often. “Thank you,” she says gratefully as she continues to eat.

“This view is seriously the best,” a voice suddenly calls out from behind the two girls. 

Looking over her shoulder, Taeyeon spots her two, short, Gryffindor housemates joining them on the rooftop and she naturally smiles at their familiar company.

Rubbing at her eyes, the girl with short-cut, blonde hair groans about the time. “Is this really worth being awake at this hour for?”

“Come on, Sunny! Enjoy the sun-rise!”

Sunny’s face remains stoic and unimpressed with the lame joke. “Hyoyeon,” she sighs.

“What?! I’m funny!”

“I think you’re dumb.”

Hyoyeon laughs at the other girl’s half-hearted insult before she wraps an arm around Sunny’s shoulders, finding her about as threatening as a hamster can be. “You’re not very bright for someone named Sunny.”

“Bite me,” Sunny mutters in annoyance, but wraps her arm around her friend’s waist anyways as they waddle over to the other two girls. Sitting close behind them, Sunny snuggles into the warmth of their bodies from the chilly, morning air. “What’re we eating?” she asks, digging into the tupperware.

“Don’t eat it all,” Hyoyeon scolds the girl. “Taeyeon’s probably tired and starving,” she says, gently patting the girl’s long, dark hair. “How are you feeling, Taengoo? Did it go better this time?”

“Yeah, it was good,” Taeyeon tells her, laying her head against the girl’s shoulder. “I’m here now, aren’t I?”

“So what’s the new record? Three days?”

“Four,” Taeyeon groans through an exaggerated frown.

“Hey, that’s better than three weeks,” Yoona snickers.

“Ugh, don’t even remind me,” Taeyeon softly laughs.

“You look tired,” Hyoyeon says, frowning at the bags under the Taeyeon’s eyes. “Maybe you should just rest for the day.”

“I’m alright. I think I might skip my morning classes.”

“But are you sure you feel good enough to go to class this afternoon?” Yoona asks.

“Yeah,” Taeyeon replies, cracking her neck form side to side.

“I got class with her in the afternoon,” Hyoyeon says. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on her.”

“What class do you guys have?” Sunny asks.

Taeyeon doesn’t even notice the silly, soft smile on her lips when she thinks of her incentive for getting off her and back to a seemingly normal life.

“We got potions.”

***

***

“Japan.”

Jessica sighs as she approaches their workbench, staring at the Gryffindor girl’s crooked grin. “It’s Jessica,” she corrects Taeyeon again, setting down their needed ingredients.

“I know,” Taeyeon chuckles, watching Jessica take a seat next to her. She knows it’s mean to tease the girl, but she can’t help her amusement when she’s getting a reaction from the transfer student. As Taeyeon uncaps the lid from the powdered ginseng jar, her nostrils briefly flare. “Hm. You seem anxious.”

“M-me?” Jessica responds, hating the natural stutter in her tone.

“Do I make you nervous?” Taeyeon grins, scooping some of the bitter powder onto the scale.

Staring at the toothy smile, Jessica thinks there’s something sharp about the way the corner of the girl’s lips curl. She coughs and clears . “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replies coolly, picking some of the ginseng from the scale to balance it properly.

“I don’t bite, you know?”

“If you think that—”

“You have fifteen minutes remaining to finish your lab,” Professor Choi shouts over the noise of the class.

Jessica sighs as she stirs the powered ginseng in with the rest of their dry ingredients. “We should hurry up.”

“What’s the hurry? Sica, look at us, we’re lightyears ahead of the class,” Taeyeon chuckles, well aware of their combined talents as alchemists. “Don’t rush it. Otherwise, you’re going to mess up the saturation point.”

“I know that,” Jessica replies hastily, starting to move the powdered ingredients into their liquid base. “We might as well finish first, anyways.”

Taeyeon just lifts her brows up at the girl’s impatient nature. “Sure, yeah, I guess.”

“PST! Taengoo!”

Looking to her right, Taeyeon spots her housemate, Hyoyeon, leaning into her, tickling her with her long, blonde hair. “What’s up, Hyo?”

“How’re you guys almost done? I don’t get it. How’d you guys get your solvent hot? This hawthron bark is killing us!”

“Don’t slice the bark. Grate it into a powder, instead. It dissolves faster and reacts faster.”

“Seriously? How are you not in Slytherin?” Jessica remarks as she hears her lab partner’s wise advice. “You’d do so much better with us.”

Hyoyeon snorts a laugh. “Well, that would require this kid to have some form of ambition, wouldn’t it?”

“Hey!”

“You’re a waste of talent, that’s what you are, Kim Taeyeon,” Hyoyeon bites. Her playful stare shifts from Taeyeon to Jessica though. “You’re, uh, you’re the new girl, right?”

“Yeah. I’m Jessica.”

“Hyoyeon,” the girl casually greets her, before nudging Taeyeon with her elbow. “Watch out for this kid, hey?” she tells Jessica.

“What is that supposed to mean?!” Taeyeon laughs as she pushes her friend’s head away.

Hyoyeon just giggles before retreating back to her bench.

Jessica chuckles too. “She seems nice. You guys been friends for long?”

“Oh boy,” Taeyeon laughs. “Yeah. That one, I have actually known since forever.”

“Forever?” Jessica laughs at the hyperbole.

“No, seriously. We grew up in the same neighborhood. Our parents went to birthing classes with each other. I’ve actually known her since I was born,” Taeyeon chuckles at the wave of memories she shares with her childhood friend.

“Wow, that’s crazy. Must be nice knowing someone for so long.”

“Yeah, she’s kinda like a pseudo-cousin.”

As the class wrap up their labs, Taeyeon and Jessica finish with plenty of time to spare and spend the last few minutes enjoying the frantic scramble of their peers.

“I gotta say, it’s nice having another alchemist for a lab partner,” Jessica remarks as she looks to the front of the classroom where Tiffany’s frantically writing down measurements with her other Hufflepuff lab partner. “I had a potions partner in fifth-year who thought it would be a good idea to mix a red spider and daylilies in a cold solvent.”

Taeyeon laughs. “Did they singe their eyebrows off too?”

Jessica chuckles at the vivid memory. “Oh, you bet they did. Almost lost mine too.”

Imagining the pretty, transfer students with bald brows gets Taeyeon giggling. “That’d be some sight—”

“Nice work today,” Professor Choi calls out, sending his students into silence. “If your work stations are clean, come hand in your reports on my desk as you leave. See you next class! You’re dismissed!”

Wanting to keep their conversation afloat, Taeyeon opens to ask about the girl’s old lab partner, only to be interrupted by the flash of yellow and black fabric from the corner of her eye. Peering to the side, she sighs at the sight of an all too familiar Hufflepuff.  

“Hey, Jessi,” Tiffany says with her Hufflepuff roommate in tow. “Bora and I were gonna head over to the East hall for our core classes. Want us to walk you to your history class?”

Since it’s only been a few days Jessica’s been acquainted with Tiffany, she’s touched that the girl already remembers her schedule. However, she doesn’t miss the tension between girls she’s seated between. “Um, sure. Just let me grab my things.” After she collects her books and papers, she stands from her desk and gives Taeyeon a small smile and wave. “I’ll see you next class.”

“Bye, Sica.”

“You should get some rest, Taeyeon. You look tired.”

“I will. Thanks.”

As Jessica leaves with Tiffany, she looks over her shoulder to spot Taeyeon and her Gryffindor friend eyeing them with engrossed stares.

***

Chewing on a bite of cheeseburger, Sunny looks across the dining hall and spots a thin brunette retrieving her food. The Slytherin robes are what give her away. “Is that her?”

Hyoyeon looks over her shoulder to follow Sunny’s line of sight. “Yeah. That’s the transfer. She seems nice.”

“Not if Fany’s got a talon on her,” Yoona grumbles, also carefully watching the brunette from a distance.

“Taeng seems to like ‘er,” Hyoyeon says with a shrug, turning back around to resume her meal.

Yoona groans. “That’s even worse.”

Sunny chuckles when it’s still so amusing to see a Hufflepuff flaunt its protective nature, rather than it’s expected friendly demure. Yoona’s normally sweet as candy, but when it comes to friends, Sunny knows all too well how fast the girl can turn. “The girl’s allowed to have other friends, Yoong.”

“You know that’s not what I mean,” Yoona sighs, picking at her fries. “We’re supposed to keep her safe.”

“Yeah, safe,” Hyoyeon stresses, “not treat her like a prisoner.”

“No, Yoona’s right,” Sunny says as she crumples her empty burger wrap. “The less people that know, the better. Especially, if our new friend here is Yuri’s roommate. That’s practically an invitation for a gossip train.”

“Fine,” Hyoyeon grumbles as she dusts the crumbs and grease from her hands. “I’ll handle it.”

Sunny reaches over and holds the other Gryffindor girl from standing up. “No, let Yoona.”

“Yoona? Look at that face! She’s adorable!”

“And so are 150-centimeter-tall-girls,” Yoona chuckles, standing from her seat.

Hyoyeon sags in her seat. “Fine. Be convincing!”

Smoothing out her black robes, Yoona spots the transfer student moving, so she takes quick, long strides to catch up and intercept her. She keeps her eyes fixated on the wall in the distance, but once she spots Jessica in her peripherals, she doesn’t hesitate to knock her shoulder into hers.

Yoona frowns when the girl stumbles in her step, but miraculously doesn’t drop her tray of food. Even though th