FOURTH YEAR

THE SLYTHERINS

The Triwizard Tournament is a famous contest much like the olympics, although it is held every five years instead of four; it’s tasks are deadly beyond comparison. Previously only the three wizarding schools of Europe competed together but years ago headmaster Park believed that others across the world should participate with Hogwarts instead, wanting to build healthier relations with other countries. Five years previously the institution of Africa’s Uagadou and the Brazilian school for magic Castelobruxo competed alongside Hogwarts, a seventeen year old Brazilian witch taking first place. The Hogwarts competitor came in last, and severely injured— let’s just say no one wants to relive the story of how the student’s hips had broken in sixteen places by three hungry Acromantulas. This year the schools competing against Hogwarts were Ilvermorny: a feisty academy from North America-- and Japan’s elite Mahoutokoro. Sana believed that Hogwarts stood no chance with either school, the wizards from Ilvermorny were beefy and strong and the students from Mahoutokoro were quick and could outwit any Ravenclaw. However she was excited to watch the events nonetheless, this was her first time ever seeing the tournament live and not on television or reading about it in the Daily Prophet. The only thing that she disliked about the whole thing was that she actually had to be at school to watch it and ever since her third year she wished that she didn’t have to attend at all.

Sana’s summer was a complete blur, although it came as welcome distraction from schoolwork, teenage drama and especially Nayeon. Of course there were the few occasions where the girls’ paths would cross such as at one of their father’s work dinners, but otherwise Sana had kept to herself. She wanted this summer to be one of relaxation and reformation. There was no way she was going back to Hogwarts the same naive little girl. She was done being pushed aside by those who were too ungrateful. If she had to be stuck with Nayeon the rest of her Hogwarts years than she was going to take full advantage of it. She was going to be the best of the best (and the baddest of the bad). If Nayeon was Slytherin’s queen then Sana would be the princess.

The sorting ceremony this time around was even more long and tedious than the year previous and Sana just wanted the feast to happen so that the night’s festivities would be close to an end. When the last student was sorted and all of the food appeared in front of them the girl let out a grateful groan.

“Someone starving?” Yeri asked, who for some reason was wearing a grey fur coat over her uniform. Sana tossed her a disparaging glare to which the girl smiled back and picked up her fork to sort through a plate of steamed greens. “You don’t look it.”

It took everything in Sana’s power not to strangle the girl right then and there with the emerald tie around her pale throat. Their leader interrupted.

“Behave girls,” Nayeon rebuked while folding a napkin gingerly across her lap. “We don’t want to look barbaric in front of the competition now do we?”

“Mahoutokoro and the Americans don’t even arrive until tomorrow,” Jennie scoffed, crossing her arms while staring longingly at a chicken wing on a silver platter. Sana knew the feeling.

“Yet we still have to practice our best behavior,” Nayeon added, taking a long sip from her water glass. The girls nodded and agreed. None of them wanted to be judged by the esteemed foreigners. “Also I heard this year they are letting Fourth Years enter their name into the Goblet. That might be interesting.”

“I doubt anyone of us would actually get picked though,” added Sana “The cup only chooses those who are worthy right? My class is sort of…” She pauses looking around the hall, scanning the faces of some of the students in her year, one of which was using french fries as walrus tusks. “Different. I’m not sure if they would survive.” In front of her Nayeon shrugged, her eyes flicking over to a spot past Sana’s shoulder, the look in her eyes glassy and wide.

“I can think of one who could,” She mused dreamily, pursing her lips in thought.

“Not that Hufflepuff again…” Jennie groaned bitterly, dropping her fork on her plate without trying to hide her distaste. Nayeon shook her head at the clattering sound of Jennie’s fallen silverware and turned to talk to her.

“What? I think she could have a good shot at it.”

Jennie let out another frustrated growl, her eyes rolling impossibly far back into her head.

“You’re game with her is turning into an obsession, it’s gross. I’ve had enough of that Mudblood crashing our hangouts.”

Jennie had a point. During the second half of last semester Nayeon had dragged Momo along to join most of their group activities. It was strange if Sana were honest, the awkwardness and tension between the two so thick it was surprising that Nayeon could see right through it. Sana had tried her best to avoid Momo and be civil but it was difficult-- although it helped that Momo was trying to avoid her too, that is until Nayeon forced the quidditch player on their whole group.

“Maybe it’s not a game,” Nayeon said firmly, tilting her head and glaring Jennie right in the eye. For a moment the atmosphere around the table had grown cold, the two girls staring each other down, none succumbing to the other. It was a silent battle for dominance. Finally after a while Jennie broke through the icy reticence.

“Do you even hear yourself?” She asked incredulously, her voice growing loud through her gritted teeth. Jennie’s fingers gripped around a butter knife in anger, the end digging a dent in the wood of the table. “You aren’t capable of loving someone Nayeon, everything you do is calculated and for a purpose. What purpose does the Mudblood serve other than some meaningless distraction or some rebellious adolescent crisis-- a cry for help, a sharp jab to your stric, belt-whipping father?”

Fire flashed behind Nayeon’s eyes at this. Immediately she slammed her fist on the table in full rage, standing up and knocking the bench she was sitting on askew.

“You have no idea what the you’re talking about! You dare to say that to me?” She shouted, the whole Great Hall was quiet now, every student turning their heads to watch. If they all didn’t know the extent of Nayeon’s temper before (which is rare) they certainly do now.

Jennie rose to her feet, completely over confident and shaking with anger and hidden jealousy.

“I know you Im Nayeon. What you’re looking for in that Chaser you won’t find. You know why? Because no one could ever love you.” Jennie’s voice was collected and cold, each word slicing deeper into Nayeon’s hard exterior. Now Nayeon’s wand was drawn and jammed under her best friend’s throat, pushing her back so that Jennie was forced to sit down again and look up at the girl towering above her. Nayeon gripped her wand so hard it probably should have snapped in half.

“Take that back.” Nayeon’s normal commanding voice cracked a little, her eyes never leaving her target. Sana and Yeri exchanged looks across the table, knowing they should do something but not knowing exactly what. Luckily the teachers that had gathered near the back of the hall to eat together had quickly rushed over to diffuse the situation. Sana’s favorite teacher Professor Kim Taeyeon ahead of all the others, her arm stretched out to the girls.

“Nayeon,” She warned softly the with just the right amount of edge “Put your wand down.”

“I’ll kill you,” Nayeon muttered to Jennie, a dangerous statement they all knew deep down she was more than capable of.

“Do it,” Jennie smiled, her teeth tightly pressed together. She even tilted her chin up and leaned forward, letting Nayeon’s wand press into her neck further.

“Nayeon!” Professor Kim shouted now, taking her own wand out of the band of her long skirt. “I’m not going to tell you again. Put down you’re wand.”

There was another moment of silence as if time had frozen the scene before the student body almost like a work of art; the queen and her betrayer, the snake and the rat.

“Drop your wand Nayeon.”

A few seconds pass before the young witch lowered her wand, dropping her arm to her side, her cheeks red with fury. As the head of Slytherin house, Professor Kim ushered Nayeon out of the Great Hall with her hand on the small of the girl’s back to take her down to her office in the dungeons. With all eyes still on their table, Jennie stood up, tilting her head to the side and cracking her neck-- the imprint on from Nayeon’s wand beginning to bruise. She took a deep breath, her sharp eyes flicking to Yeri who had hanging open in shock.

“Idiot,” Jennie scoffed, turning on her heel and strutting out of the hall leaving a mass of students, including her two friends, shocked and completely confused. Sana exhaled the breath she didn’t realize she was holding in.

“That could have been worse,” Yeri spoke up after a moment, shrugging and reaching for her spoon to continue to eat some sort of pea soup. “How entertaining.”

~~~

*BONUS*

Closing the door to her office, Professor Kim softly paced to her desk and leaned against the front of it, gesturing to the chair before her for Nayeon to sit in.

“Care to explain what just happened?” She asked to which Nayeon scoffed and dropped into the chair, lazily crossing her legs.

“Yeah, Jennie’s a .”

Professor Kim tsked and crossed her arms, waiting a moment before attempting conversation again. She observed the girl in front of her who was beyond tense and had a permanent scowl etched into her pretty face. She decided that if she wanted to get through to Nayeon she would have to choose her words carefully and be as direct as possible. She was used to having this girl in class and she was evasive. If she wanted to know what was going on inside the fifth year’s head then she would have to leave no room verbally for escape.

“You two don’t seem to fight a lot,” she stated simply, tapping her heels against the back of her desk. “So it must have been something serious for you to have that kind of outburst, do you agree?”

Nayeon leaned her head on her the palm of her hand, completely disinterested, shifting in her seat as she was too riled up to sit still.

“No.”

“So it wasn’t serious?”

Nayeon leaned back in her chair and raised her chin, rolling her eyes.

“You’re not a therapist so don’t act like one,” She snapped, her nails tracing shapes on the arm of the chair. Professor Kim couldn’t help but smile at this, she had always found Nayeon’s attitude amusing despite the complete disrespect of it. She figured if the girl was this confrontational she must have an interesting backstory or a reason behind it all-- she was curious.

“Let me guess then,” Professor Kim mused, grabbing a quill off her desk and twirling it between her fingers. “Typical teenage drama right? Did she steal your boyfriend?”

Nayeon scoffed at this and slouched further back in her seat, her eyes staring at the ceiling.

“You’re bad at this game Professor.”

“Then why don’t you just tell me what happened?”

In front of her, the Slytherin closed her eyes and took a deep breath, slowly exhaling. She rolled her head back and forth from shoulder to shoulder trying to relive some of her tension but to no avail.

“Did it ever occur to you that I don’t want to talk about it?”

She observed Nayeon, watching her failed attempts at trying to relax in the small armchair. Was it just her or did Nayeon seem a little nervous?

“You can tell me anything Nayeon. It won’t leave this room. Believe it or not I want to help you so if you tell me what’s going on maybe I could see what I can do about it.”

Nayeon opened her eyes again and seemed to ponder her Professor’s proposition, but she was unsure. She hardly knew how she felt besides feeling blinding anger. But she did know that unfortunately she didn’t have anyone else to talk to, not that anyone else would actually listen either. She trusted Professor Kim but she just didn’t know if she could trust what would come out of her own mouth if she started talking-- for real, with no facade. She was scared.

“Professor,” She started slowly as she chose her words carefully, still watching the ceiling “Do bad people deserve to be happy?”

The question had caught Professor Kim off guard as she expected more of a confession than an inquiry, although she took a moment and gave it some thought.

“Why do you ask?”

Nayeon hesitated and squirmed in her seat again, deciding to take a piece of her dark hair and twirl it nervously around her finger.

“I… I know I’m a bad person. I always make the wrong choices and I destroy everything I touch. My friends… they aren’t even really my friends because they are only around out of fear-- the fear I instill in them and I know that.” She explained, tapping her fingers along the edge of her seat. Professor Kim pursed her lips in thought.

“What are you saying?”

“There’s this girl…” Nayeon trailed off, silently too afraid finish her sentence, trapping what she really needed to talk about. Professor Kim although slightly shocked at the direction of this conversation nodded, wishing she could ease the girl’s nerves somehow. Nayeon looked stressed but for the first time in her life her eyes held honesty. Her Professor reached out her hand and placed it warmly on Nayeon’s shoulder.

“There always is isn’t there?” Professor Kim said smiling at her attempt to lighten the mood. Nayeon nodded calmly.

“She’s just so good. At first when I talked to her I was just playing around but…” Nayeon swallowed, shaking her head in confusion, staring at the floor. She tried her best to find the right words. “She makes me want to be better.”

“Ah, so the Im Nayeon isn’t perfect after all?” Teased Professor Kim. Nayeon shook her head.

“No, I don’t think so… not without her.”