Seulgi was standing in front of the mirror, tying her green and silver necktie over her plain white buttoned shirt. She has defence against the dark arts class later and she planned to quickly drop by the Great Hall and stuff some toast before heading to said class. Her stomach has been rumbling since last night and the liquorice wand Yeri offered earlier did nothing to stop her hunger. After she hastily brushed her hair, Seulgi wasted no time and marched her way out of the dormitory, into the common room – ignoring the ‘good morning’ greetings from those persistent fifth years – and off to the Great Hall. “I think I’m starting to believe the rumours of you flying around about having a scowl as a tattoo on your face, Seulgi.” Jung Soojung, more known as Krystal, spoke as she watched the blonde girl biting big chunks of the toast on the table. “I could say the same to you.” Seulgi retaliated, while Jongin snorted but immediately stop after receiving a glare from the girlfriend. “Are you in a rush?” “I have D.A.D.A in 15 minutes.” Krystal hummed before taking out something from the pocket of her robes. It was a brown card with moving utensils in the middle and “Slug Club’s New Year Party” printed with flashy colours. “I met Professor Bi on my way here and he told me to give this to you.” Seulgi took the invitation card, frowning at it. “I thought he didn’t make one this time. Usually it’d be before Christmas break.” Krystal shrugged, “Oh well…you know him and his parties with his favourite students…” “Why are you talking in such a tone? Aren’t you invited as well?” Jongin interfered, “She wasn’t.” “Not after the gossip about my sister doing business in the dark market…” Krystal rolled her eyes, “He picks feathers that one and oh such audacity he has to make me, pass it to you!” “Can I not go?” Seulgi recalled the party last year where she, krystal and two other Slytherins were there, not having so much fun with the one-by-one interviews that Professor Bi kept inquiring of them and their families. Although, the food was alright. The discussion – boring. “Don’t you need to bring a plus-one for this?” Kai asked, looking at both her and Krystal. “Didn’t you bring Mijoo last time?” Krystal frowned, clearly not approving over her decision last year. “Uh-huh.” Seulgi took her goblet and clear down the apple juice in quick gulps. “On second thought, maybe I should go. I think I have a more suitable plus-one this time around.”                                                    ***   Seulgi did not expect for Professor Song to choose her to be a candidate for mock wizard’s duel. She had witnessed a number of times where her fellow Slytherins and some of her classmates embarrassed themselves during the duel, though some of the people she knew succeeded; some tragically became a laughing stock. Their D.A.DA class were joined with the Ravenclaw students and when Professor Song called her up onto the rectangular stage, the whole Slytherin – especially Yeri – made a whole lot of noise, cheering for her. “You’re pursuing an Auror path, aren’t you?” Professor Song asked for confirmation, while his eyes scanned wildly amongst the Ravenclaws. And without waiting for an answer, “Well then, why don’t we have Mr Park – yes you, Bogum – to come up the stage here.” Her jaw clenched as her eyes trailed over the towering boy, Park Bogum. A well-known prefect, who sports an innocent face; but behind that pretentious face masked a foul-mouth that Seulgi has less to zero tolerance. Also just like Seulgi, Auror runs in the family. “Well, I’m sure this duel would be fun! Both soon-to-be Aurors, I believe.” Professor Song chirped, oblivious to the dead stare Seulgi was giving to the boy. “ Following the Wizards Duel procedure, the both of them meet in the middle of the stage, bowed to each other in which Bogum slipped, “You ready Kang?” “Born to be ready.” They turned and faced each other’s back before walking back to their respective position at the end of the stage. The crowd was already a mixture between cheering and booing before being calmed down by Professor Song. “Now remember, only disarm or stunning spells. And most importantly no physical contacts or unforgivable curses!” Professor Song lay out the rules, “Do I make myself clear?” “Yes.” “Well then, on the count of three…” Three… Two.. One. “EXPELLIARMUS!” A bright jet of scarlet light blasted from both of hers and Bogum’s wand. The spells hit the both of them hard, making the two blasted backwards with their wands flying out of their reach. Seulgi landed on her back, groaning under her breath. Feeling herself getting red, embarrassed, she quickly stood up to see Bogum who was already on his feet, his hand ready to flick another spell. “Stupefy!” She quickly intercepts the curse with a non-verbal shielding spell, earning cheers from the Slytherin, before attacking once more. “Impedimenta.” Bogum was a second too late and the curse hit him on his chest, making his movements rendered and slow. His expression slowly changing from surprised to a frown and for a second Seulgi wishes the frown changed to pain. “Stupefy.” She calmly pointed her wand to the sluggish guy and the latter toppled backwards, semi unconscious. Cheers quickly erupted in the room with the Slytherins jumping up and down, jeering at the Ravenclaws while the latter throw glares. “Bravo!” Professor Song walked on to the stage, clapping his hands, “A short and clean duel. Also it seems that Miss Kang here, have mastered non-verbal spells which gives her a split-second advantage.” Seulgi bowed at her still dazed partner before joining back with her classmates who patted her back. Yeri stood beside her, laughing at the state of Bogum who was now being helped to get down from the stage. “What is he? 12?” Yeri guffawed, “Was pretty dumb of him to yell every spell.” “And he got the nerve to ask me if I’m ready to duel him.” “Well, he does have filthy mouth that one.” Yeri shook her head, “If I got the chance to duel him, I’ll give him a Tarantallegra and we can see him make a fool out of himself.” “Tell me when. I plan to watch.” Seulgi muttered under her breath with a smirk on her face. The duelling session went on with two other rounds in which Ravenclaw won one round and the other cancelled because Sehun and Junmyeon ended up wrestling on the floor. Both wind up with a bloody nose and a detention.       Once all her classes ended for the day, Seulgi went to one of the school’s toilet – splashing her face with cold water to make herself feel more awake. Professor Kwon just gave them a homework where they have to write an  essay on the importance of vanishing spell and each of them are required to be able to master the spell by tomorrow noon – and by that, is being able to make things vanish. “I’ll give 15 points for any of you who’d managed to make an owl vanish.” And Seulgi recalled Bogum, who also took Transfiguration with her, flamboyantly – and successfully –  made the owl perched over the window vanished in a blink of an eye. He was the only student who could master the spell in just an hour. The boy did not even miss to taunt her. “Do keep up with my pace, Seulgi.” It took every single mental discipline she has to not punch the smug in his face but she just kept calm and replied, “Don’t talk about pace with me. Don’t you remember our duel earlier?” Red face, the guy flipped his robes and turned away from her. Now, walking out from the toilet, Seulgi made a mental note to send a letter to her dad and talk about the duel earlier. She is sure her dad would find it amusing since, he and Bogum’s dad were also not in the best terms despite being co-workers. “Seulgi!” She turned behind to see a Hufflepuff senior, Luna, also coming out from the toilet but gripping a familiar card. “You dropped this.” It was the invitation card for the Slug Club’s New Year Party. “Thank you.” The senior nodded before walking away, leaving Seulgi to stare at the invitation for a second before being reminded that she planned to ask Irene to be her plus-one. She haven’t seen her girlfriend all day long and lately the both of them were pretty occupied with homeworks and Irene, add on with her prefect duties. It was already time for dinner so Seulgi wandered off to the Great Hall in hopes to meet Irene and ushered her out, but halfway through she met Wendy and Joy who just walked down from the Arithmancy Tower. “Hey you two…” Seulgi called out, gaining their attention. “We have names you know. I’m Joy and she’s Wendy.” Seulgi ignored the girl. “Have you seen Irene?” “Is that all you have to say every time you see our faces?” Joy deadpans, “She’s probably in the prefect’s bathroom, enjoying her privilege with a warm bubble bath.” Trying not to think of Irene enjoying a bath, she inquired once more. “Where’s the prefects bathroom again?” “You haven’t set foot inside a prefect’s bathroom before?” Wendy’s eyes bulged, appearing very surprise at the revelation. “I’m neither a prefect nor a Quidditch Captain if you’d noticed.” “But you’re friends with Yeri.” Wendy reasoned. “And that girl has sneaked in there a couple of times.” Joy revealed, “Hell, even I did!” “Well I haven’t. So where is the bathroom again?” Seulgi was getting impatient at this couple. “Fifth floor, behind the fourth door to the left of a statue of Boris the Bewildered,” Joy answered, before wiggling her eyebrows, “There’s also a password if you planned to enter. Do you wanna know?” “What?” “Pine Fresh.” Joy easily gave away, “Oh, do you want me to secure the areas in case any other prefects wants to enter? You know, in case you and Irene decided to drop it down low inside you know what I me – .” “No thanks and thanks.” Seulgi curtly answered before heading off to said location. The words ‘drop it down low’ and ‘warm bubble bath’ kept replaying in her head and she had to keep chanting ‘plus-one’ so that she could focus on her main purpose. Reaching the fifth floor, she spotted the statue of Boris the Bewildered and the area was clearly deserted. Everyone must have been at the Great Hall for dinner. Should she just enter the bathroom? But what if there were other prefects inside taking a bath too? Seulgi kept pacing back and forth along the corridor – trying to decide if she should just break in, not realising the door just opened and two very familiar prefects just walked out. “Seulgi?” Surprised at the familiar voice, she spun behind to greet the girl with a smile but her face quickly fell when she was met with not only Irene, but also that swanky, Bogum. “What are you doing here, Kang? Not thinking of breaking in into the prefects bathroom, are you?” Bogum used his prefect tone on her. And so Seulgi made up a lie. “You amused me, Bogum. I’m here to see a friend.” “Who?” It was Irene’s turn to ask. Seulgi was almost running out of names but the heavens was on her side. “Sunmi. I’m meeting Sunmi.” It was true because Sunmi just walk in into the corridor. The seventh year Hufflepuff senior saw her too and was excited as always. The senior even loudly called for her from afar, “Ddeulgiiiiii!!” “Well, there she is.” Seulgi walked away, not giving another spare glance at the pair – even to Irene. Irene on the other hand – slightly baffled – just stood and watched the scene of Sunmi tackling Seulgi into a hug, before the both of them went out of sight. Bogum broke the silence. “Ddeulgi, huh? Is Kang dating that eccentric girl?” Irene scoffed.                                                        ***   “What’s up with you?” Seulgi just came back from the Owlery and pulling off her sweater, she immediately