“Jessica!”

Jessica opened her eyes slowly, fighting the grogginess as her mind tried to register her surroundings. The first thing she felt was the wind blowing against her skin. Squinting under the sunlight, she realized she must’ve dozed off while watching Yuri’s Quidditch practice. She rubbed her forehead tiredly, trying to get rid of the excess sleep clinging to her mind.

Glancing down at Krystal’s letter in her hand, she sighed heavily before pocketing it safely inside in her robe. The letter was probably what triggered the dream.

Jessica scoffed. ‘Dream’ wasn’t the right word. More like flashbacks of her past. She'd already lived through her past once, she didn’t need to experience it again in her dreams

“You okay?”

Jessica looked up into doe round eyes. “Sunny,” she breathed out, surprise flashing briefly in her eyes, but she did well to hide it. Or at least she thought so.

Sunny frowned. Jessica must’ve really been distracted to not have detected her presence earlier. Usually the taller girl was always alert. “Is something bothering you?” Sunny asked under hushed whispers.

Jessica shook her head. “I’m fine.” She examined Sunny head to toe, lingering on the bubble pink hair glinting under the sun.  

‘An interesting choice of color,’ Jessica mused. ‘But if anyone could pull off pink hair, it would be Sunny.’ “Did you need anything?”

Sunny hummed and took a seat, smoothing out the wrinkles in her robe as she did so. She glanced at Yuri out of the corner of her eye and noticed the girl was watching them like a hawk on her broom. “Are you under house arrest or something?”

Jessica raised an eyebrow, caught off guard by Sunny’s question.

“No? Not house arrest?” Sunny guessed from the look of confusion on Jessica’s face. “Hmmm. Then jealous girlfriend?” Sunny questioned, causing the crease in between Jessica’s eyebrows to deepen.

“What are you talking about, Sunkyu-ah?” Jessica groaned. She had just woken up from an unplanned nap and was in no mood to decipher Sunny’s quirkiness.

“Yah! It’s Sunny now!” Sunny barked. Jessica merely waved the girl away.

Sunny raised an eyebrow in inquiry, going back to the previous topic. “But seriously, why is Yuri glaring at me? Are you two dating?” she asked as she got up to scoot further away from Jessica. The last thing she needed was a jealous Kwon Yuri on her tail.

Jessica sighed, and put her hand on Sunny’s knee to stop her from moving away. “No, we’re not dating,” she denied.

“She’s seems awfully protective of you,” Sunny quipped.

“She’s just worried because of the attack,” Jessica exhaled.

Sunny hummed. “You sure that’s the only reason why?”

“Yeah, why?” Jessica shot back, rather quickly. “If I remember correctly, you were pretty distraught too.”

“Imagine seeing your childhood friend whom you haven’t seen in five years suddenly writhing in pain on the ground about to burn alive. How else was I supposed to react?” Sunny shot back defensively. “It’s just, I’ve never seen Yuri act like that.”

Sunny’s eyes traced the patterns on the ground. “She’s changed a lot,” she murmured discreetly.

“What?” Jessica eyed Sunny suspiciously.

Sunny turned her head slowly and was met with curious eyes. ‘Don’t tell me she doesn’t know about Yuri’s past.’

Jessica waited patiently, but Sunny shook her head. It was not her place to disclose Yuri’s past.

“Nothing. Just thinking to myself.”

Having known Sunny since they were kids, Jessica could easily tell when the girl was bluffing, but Sunny sold her acting with an eye smile and just like that, Sunny forced the topic to pass.

“Anyways,” Sunny drawled. “I have something for you.”

“What?” Jessica asked.

Sunny reached into the pocket inside her robes and conjured a small vial of blue liquid.

“What is it?” Jessica asked as she took the vial and sloshed it around. She experimentally opened the cap and took a quick sniff. Her eyes regarded the liquid seriously and Sunny recognized the face as Jessica’s thinking face. Within a few seconds, Sunny saw the light bulb light up in Jessica’s eyes as she figured out what it was. Jessica tilted her head from the vial to Sunny, surprise evident in her face.

“Where’d you get this? This is incredibly hard to brew,” she sounded impressed, Sunny noted, which was rare. Jessica Jung was a hard girl to impress.

“As expected of Master Jung’s daughter. She’s taught you well,” Sunny smiled. “A friend made it for me.”

“Friend?” Jessica raised her eyebrows. “Your friend must be really good at potions brewing then.” She glanced at the vial and added as an afterthought. “Really good.”

Sunny grinned. “Yeah. And she’s in our year too!”

Jessica narrowed her eyes. “Our year? Is she in Ravenclaw?”

Sunny hummed absentmindedly. “Yeah, she is. She’s so smart, McGonagall gave her permission to skip a grade.”

A slow smirk started to form on Jessica’s face. “You wouldn’t happen to be talking about...”

Sunny waited for Jessica with a tilted head, but Jessica never finished her question. She was never one to pry so much, preferring to stick to her own business.

“Nevermind. Tell your friend, I said thanks,” Jessica said simply as drank the potion in one shot like it was alcohol. Though with the way it burned and chest as it went down it might as well have been alcohol (not that she was supposed to know how alcohol felt. She’s technically still underage, but that story is for another time).

Jessica stared at the empty vial as she waited for the burning sensation to subside.

The blue liquid she just drank was a special healing potion - it healed scars caused by demonic fire, specifically fiendfyre. While not entirely uncommon, it was still difficult to brew, and should’ve been extremely difficult for a student to attain. Brewing the potion often took around two to four weeks depending on the freshness of the ingredients used. That meant whoever Sunny’s friend was, already had a stock of these ready at hand.

Jessica glanced at Sunny, who was lost in her own thoughts.

The question ‘Why?’ ran through Jessica’s head. ‘Why would someone just have a stock of this potion ready?’

She never was one to pry, but maybe keeping an extra eye on her Ravenclaw potions partner wouldn’t hurt.

Eventually, Sunny snapped out of her thoughts and stood up, patting the dirt off her as she did so. “Well, I have to go. But it was nice talking to you again,” she grinned down at the chestnut haired girl.

Jessica returned a small smile. “Yeah. It’s been five years, huh? How is your dad?”

Sunny hummed. “He’s good. He’s been good. All thank to your mother and her amazing potion brewing powers.”

“That’s good,” Jessica replied absentmindedly.

“Yeah. Before I leave, I have one last gift.” Sunny pulled out a carefully wrapped package and plopped it down on the bleachers. She turned to leave. “Give one to Soojung,” she called out before she left.

Jessica watched Sunny leave as she fumbled with the knot on the package. Eventually, it came undone. Jessica peeked down only to find her own face staring back at her. Picking it up and bringing it to eye level, Jessica could only wonder why on earth would Sunny give her two mirrors. 

“That’s a two way mirror.”

Jessica looked up from the parcel, once again surprised that someone was able to approach her without her noticing. The bright smile of Tiffany Hwang greeted her.

“Sorry, I was on my morning jog, when I saw Sunny’s pink hair, so I couldn’t not stop by.”

The sentence made no sense to Jessica, but before Jessica could even formulate a question, Tiffany had already plopped herself down on the bench and reached for the other mirror in her lap.  Jessica didn’t have time to react to the girl violating her personal space (again) and just decided to let the bubbly girl do her thing. There was no stopping people like Tiffany - that, Jessica knew from childhood.

“It works like this.” Tiffany held the mirror up and cleared . “Jessica Jung,” she enunciated each syllable clearly.

Jessica waited, maintaining, in her opinion, awkward eye contact with Tiffany through the  mirror, until - she almost gasped - she wasn’t staring back at Tiffany’s mischievous eyes, but her own.

Tiffany grinned. “Look down at your own mirror.”

Jessica looked down at the mirror in her lap and saw Tiffany’s face staring up at her with a gleeful grin. She couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle.

“That’s how it works. By holding one mirror and saying the name of the other owner of the mirror, you can communicate with each other, no matter how far apart you are,” Tiffany explained, giving the mirror back to Jessica. “I’m guessing they didn’t have these in Japan?”

Jessica shook her head. “No. There was something similar, but not this exact thing.”

Tiffany nodded her head in understanding, before her smile widened again. “Soooo…” Tiffany drawled out. “Who’s the other mirror for?”

Jessica sighed inwardly with a defeated chuckle. There really was no stopping Tiffany.

“My sister,” she answered simply.

“Oh!” Tiffany exclaimed. “I didn’t know you had a sister.”

Jessica hummed, not knowing what else to say. After all, Jessica and Tiffany weren’t that close. Jessica didn’t even know whether or not she would consider Tiffany a friend. Did Tiffany consider her a friend? Taeyeon and Hyoyeon definitely didn’t.  

Speaking of friends, Jessica took a quick furtive glance towards Yuri, who at this point was very blatantly staring at her like a hawk.

But of course Tiffany, being the smiley, bubble of sunshine that she is, didn’t notice the tension.

“That reminds me,” Tiffany clapped her hands together loudly as she came to a realization. She suddenly scooted even closer to Jessica and leaned her head in, causing Jessica to flinch at the sudden proximity. If Tiffany noticed the flinch, that didn’t deter her from leaning in even closer.

“You know that thing that we’re doing on Friday?” Tiffany whispered, her breath hot on Jessica’s ears. “Well, Taeyeon thought that we should prepare ourselves. Come to the Room of Requirement at three in the afternoon today.”
 

A whistle pierced the air, signaling the end of Quidditch practice, and Tiffany leaned back, finally giving Jessica some breathing space.

She noticed Tiffany’s eyes darting towards the Quidditch pitch, before she got up from the bleachers.

“See you then!” Tiffany beamed before jogging away.

Jessica felt the wind shift, blowing against her robe and hair, as Yuri quickly whizzed up to her.

“Next time, you’re practicing with me.” Yuri stated sternly, as soon as she got within earshot.

As Jessica watched Tiffany’s back disappear down the steps of the bleachers, she realized that Tiffany was not as dense as she had initially thought. ‘She noticed Yuri...she just didn’t care.’ Jessica felt her lips creep into a smile. ‘The foolish bravery of the Gryffindor.’

“What did she want?” Yuri questioned, suspicion playing in her eyes.

Jessica turned towards Yuri, the same smile playing on her lips. “Remember that night in the library?”

Yuri raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? What about it.”

“Well, are you free today at three?”

Yuri cocked her head, wondering what her friend was planning now. “Yes. I am.”

“Great.” Jessica leaned over the bleachers and reached up to fix Yuri’s messy bangs. “Take me to the Room of Requirement.”

“How many more flights of stairs?” Jessica complained as they waited for the staircase to stop moving before continuing upwards.

“Four more,” Yuri huffed in front of Jessica.

“Four?!” Jessica stopped in her tracks. “It’s on the seventh floor?” ‘I regret this already.’

“Yes, now come on,” Yuri turned around to pull Jessica up the stairs by the arm.

Finally, they arrived on the seventh floor.

“What now?” Jessica asked, wondering why Yuri paused.

Yuri turned to her. “Think of something you need, and then walk by the door three times. The Room will then open to match your needs. That is what the Room of Requirement is.”

Jessica raised an eyebrow. Hesitantly, she stepped forward. Tiffany conveniently did not mention this part. What if the door opened and Tiffany wasn’t there?

Jessica scoffed mentally as an idea came to her. Shaking her head at the outrageousness of it, she proceeded to walk by the door three times.

‘I need Tiffany. I need Tiffany. This is ridiculous. I need Tiffany. I need Tiffany. Please work. I need Tiffany.’

Finally, she stopped in front of the door. Yuri walked up from behind her.

“Ready?” Yuri asked as she placed her hand on the door knob.

Jessica could only nod, hoping it had worked.

With a silent grunt, Yuri pushed the door open and immediately froze.

Jessica peeked in, wondering what Yuri saw to make her freeze like that.

Around fifty pairs of eyes stared back at her.

Amongst them, Jessica noticed Tiffany, Taeyeon, and Hyoyeon.

“How nice of you to join us,” a cold voice cut in.

Jessica and Yuri both looked up to who had spoken.

“BoA…” Yuri murmured. BoA turned so her gaze was on the tanner girl and Jessica felt Yuri shift uncomfortably under BoA’s intense eyes.

“Kwon Yuri.”

The voice sent shivers down Yuri’s back. Jessica watched in curiosity. It was rare to see Yuri so unnerved. Jessica quickly gave BoA a look-over, noticing that BoA had glanced at her briefly.

BoA was a Slytherin, if the green robes were any indication, and looked older than them, maybe a sixth or seventh year. And from the way she held herself and the way everyone else seemed to pay attention to her, it was clear she was not someone to be messed with.

“What are you doing here, Yuri?” BoA questioned, and though it was said calmly, Jessica could hear the unspoken threat. “Might I remind you that you are no longer a member of the Dueling Club?”

‘Ah,’ Jessica realized as she noticed that everyone was in their dueling robes. ‘So this is the Dueling Club.’ She eyed BoA’s uniform, eyes hovering on the badges that were pinned to her left chest. ‘And BoA is the dueling champion, the Champion of the four Houses.’

“I-I,” Yuri stammered, clearly not expecting to have walked into the middle of the Dueling Club’s practice.

“I asked them to come,” a bright voice spoke out. BoA turned around, her eyes narrowing on a single girl.

Taeyeon nearly facepalmed at the recklessness of her friend.

“Tiffany Hwang,” BoA spoke out, her voice resonating through the walls and the high stone ceiling.

Tiffany grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, I invited them to come.”

“And why is that?” BoA questioned piercingly, her eyes getting smaller and smaller in anger.

Taeyeon stepped in to save her friend. “Sorry, BoA, but it was my fault. I heard rumors that Jessica was a skilled duelist and told Tiffany that I wanted to duel her.”

BoA’s eyes softened as they fell on Taeyeon’s figure. It was no secret that BoA favored Taeyeon despite Taeyeon being a Gryffindor.

“I see.” BoA turned back towards the doors where a frozen Yuri and a bored looking Jessica stood. “So you’re Jessica Jung.”

Jessica tried her best to fight the urge to groan inwardly as every single pair of eyes turned to look at her expectantly. She knew exactly where this was headed.

BoA smirked

“Let’s see if the rumors are true then, shall we?”

AN:

I'm back! Sorry for the long wait. It's dead period now, aka, finals week. So it's been a bit hectic. 

I know this is a bit short, but at least it's something.

How do you like the plot now? Still interesting, I hope. :D

Anyways, till next time. 

~Sosh