The start of second year is much the same as first, as the friends have once again chose all the same classes together. The only thing different is their free time and weekends have spilt to accommodate their extra curricular activities.

Audrey joins Cricket, Charms and Quidditch.

Baekhyun gets into the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and he manages to also snag a spot in Muggle-Music and Duelling club.

Eunmi joins the Charms Club and Dance Club.

Hera joins the Charms Club and Astronomy.

Jiha splits her time between Charms Club, Quidditch and Dance.

Jongdae chooses to try Cricket, Muggle-Music and Duelling club.

Seungwan joins Charms, Astronomy and Muggle-Music.

Soomin joins Dance, Charms, and Herbology. Well, she's accepted to join the Herbology club as club admission is through acceptance only, after the members of the club have seen their first year marks and dedication to the subject.

Yes, Jiha forces everyone to join Charms with her, though Baekhyun and Jongdae refuse due to their heavy loads, although they end up being dragged as unoffical members.

"Hera, you didn't tell us your brother is in the dance team." Jiha chirps, joining the others for dinner after their first dance club meeting.

"Yeah, so is Minseok." Hera confirms.

"Yixing is an amazing dancer. He was asked to give us an introduction and I swear I fell in love." Jiha swoons, pretending to faint, choosing to lean on Soomin, who pushes the drama queen away.

"If Jongin hears that, he'll throw a fit." Jongdae says, not even looking up from his book.

"Oh my god. How boring can you get? The term has barely begun, can you put your books away for a minute?" Jiha complains, but her twin ignores her in favor or reading the required material for DADA.

"I heard some of the older girls talking about Finnigan giving pop quizzes to second years." Hera informs them, causing the 6 to groan, while Jongdae smugly smiles into his book.

"Fine. I guess, we'll be meeting in the library tomorrow." Jiha concludes and the seven nod, before continuing to talk about their extra curricular. 

"Hello."

"What are you doing here?" Soomin's surprised, watching the male sitting across her.

"I've been here for 10 mintues now, but you were too engrossed in your book to notice me." Jongin chuckles, watching the girl blush.

"I apologize, we have a test in Charms soon, but Jiha and Baekhyun both have Quidditch practice right now." Soomin pouts, as she continues to look over her notes.

"What about the others?" Jongin asks, subtly moving his chair closer to hers.

"They're all trying to catch up on the assignment due for Herbology. I warned them not to wait too long, but no one listens to me. I'm sure Jiha hasn't even started. Though I'm certain Baekhyun's already completed it." She blushes, noticing the closeness between the two.

"What do you not understand? Maybe I can help you out?" Jongin offers and the girl takes it, handing him her notes.

By curfew, Soomin feels much better abut the upcoming test as she freely chats with Jongin. They run into Baekhyun on the way back to Hufflepuff Basement, forcing the ravenclaw to separate at the spilt.

"He likes you." Baekhyun comments, as they're nearing their entrance.

"He does not like me." Soomin laughs,

"It seems to me he does." Baekhyun shrugs, while Soomin works on opening the tunnel way.

"Soomin, Thank god. I've been waiting for you. I need help with the assignment." Eunmi jumps from one of the overstuffed sofa, she was sharing with Jongdae and clutches onto the girl's arm.

"Me too." Jongdae admits, after Baekhyun has left to shower.

"Add 2 blobs of Flobberworm Mucus to cauldron." "Done."

"Add 3 measures of Standard Ingredient to cauldron."

"Two." Soomin looks around, seeing a head poking out of one of the hidden corners in the room .

"What?" She asks, not being able to see the person due to the darkness of the room.

"It should be 2 measures of the standard ingredient. Not 3 and after, gently heat for around 30 seconds."  The person instructs and Soomin begins working on her potion. The boy doesn't reveal his face, though he watches over her and ensure she doesn't end up making any mistakes

"It turned dark purple. I did." Soomin jumps, and her mentor, she calls him since he refuses to reveal his name claps along with her.

"Congrats."

"It's all thanks to you." She about to walk to him, but he reminds her to put her potion up properly or all work would have been for nothing. She does so, but when she turns around he's not there anymore.

"Excellent job, Ms. Nam. 5 points for Hufflepuff." Professor Boot announces after examining and verifying the Sleeping Draught.

"How did you do it?" Jongdae asks, looking at his lavender coloured potion.

"I just followed the instructions." She shrugs, while Boot begins going over where many of the students might have gone wrong.

"Go Baekhyun!" Soomin and Eunmi cheer, while Jongdae looks done with his life, he's upset about having to attend the friendly match that's not even going to give them any points, when he could have been doing something more productive.

"JONGIN" Soomin yells, noticing the bludger heading straight for his head.

The boy turns around at her voice and is able to quickly dodge, though she receives a few glares from her house members, she's happy Jongin wasn't injured.

"You like him." Eunmi and Jongdae say at once as she finally turns to them, noticing the silence from Eunmi.

"What?"

"Jongin. You like Jongin." Eunmi says.

"I. I don't know."  Soomin sighs, turning to look at the game.

"You haven't committed a crime. We're not mad, we're just saying what we think." Jongdae tells her, noticing her sulk.

"Is it that obvious?" She asks.

"Not really." Jongdae and Eunmi assure her.

"Baekhyun once told me, Jongin likes me, but I don't think that could possibly be true. Right?" She hesitantly asks.

"I'm not too sure. Jongin's not the greatest with feelings." Jongdae tells her, her frown deepens.

"I think he likes you as well." Eunmi speaks up.

"I mean, he's always smiling at you and trying to talk to you. Remember at the end-of-term dance last year, he asked you for a dance. Jiha has complained countless amounts of time about Jongin not helping her with her homework, but he's always willing to help you. And don't forget the necklace." Eunmi nudges her head towards Soomin's neck and on instinct her hands clutch around the peony pendant.

"What necklace?" Jongdae asks.

Soomin warily pulls it from under her collar to let Jongdae examine it.

"Jongin gave it to me as a Christmas present." She confesses. Eunmi and Hera were the only ones who know about the gift as she was too shy to admit it to others.

"Jongin gave you a Christmas present." Jongdae robotically repeats and the two girls nod their head.

"I don't know how I feel having you as my sister-in-law." Jongdae jokes, after a few minutes of silence.

"Jongin doesn't do Christmas presents, even when Mom and Dad force him to get Jiha and I something, he refuses, but to willingly give you something and it seems to be enchanted, he must have put quite an effort into it." Jongdae reveals, causing Soomin to blush once again.

"You can't tell the others. I don't want to get my hopes up for no reason." Soomin says, just as the Ravenclaw Seeker manages to catch the Golden Snitch and end the game.

"Partner up, Boy and Girl." The dance instructor, Riley, who happens to be a 7-year student commands. Minseok intercepts Jiha when she's on the way to ask Yixing, while Sehun asks Eunmi, leaving Yixing and Soomin to partner up.

"Headmistress wants the Halloween party to be more somber compared to the last few years, so she asked for us to start it off with a small performance. Everyone will be wearing a mask throughout the performance." Riley informs them, as she goes to her partner herself.

As they learn the waltz, Yixing and Soomin are forced closer together and their noses are almost touching.

"Happy Birthday." Soomin wishes, once Riley moves on to help Jiha and Minseok. Yixing must be quite surprised as he completely freezes up, causing her to fall against him.

"Oomph. Are you okay?" She asks, once she's back on her feet and a little more distance between the two.

"Ahh, Yes. It just occurred to me right now, that it's my birthday." Yixing tells her, causing her to be shocked.

"Did your friends not wish you? What about your parents? Hera?" She fires, slowly following his lead.

"Hera has been stressed about the upcoming charms test and my parents had sent me a letter two days prior and neither of my friends as good with remembering dates." Yixing smiles, revealing his deep dimple.

"Meet me in greenhouse after dinner." She whispers to him, just before Jiha jumps on her back and takes the both of them down with her and Eunmi plops on top of Jiha, crushing Soomin.

"Where are you going?" Jongdae and Eunmi look back to see Soomin heading to the back of the castle.

"I forgot something in the greenhouse. I'll be right back." She lies, before running away to avoid any more questions.

"Is it me or has she been behaving awkwardly the past few days?" Eunmi questions and the two boys nod along.

"Happy Birthday." Soomin wishes, holding up a small cake with a lit candle in the middle. She walks over to stand in front of Yixing as Hera, Seungwan, Chanyeol and Minseok sing and clap along.

"What?" Yixing asks, once they're done singing.

"Blow the candle." Hera instructs her brother, who happily obliges.

"I'm so sorry, I forgot. Thank god, Soomin reminded me or I would have felt terrible." Hera pouts, feeding him a piece of cake.

"It's fine. I know you've stressed out recently, I wouldn't have blamed you." Yixing gently says, pulling her for a hug.

"We're sorry too. I knew I was forgetting something, it just didn't cross my mind until Soomin pulled us aside before dinner." Minseok hands him a small wrapped box.

"Sorry, Xing." Chanyeol has tears in his eyes, looking like a puppy as he stands in front of Yixing.

"Chan, I myself forgot about it. It's not your fault." Yixing assures him, quickly pulling the boy for a hug.

"Thank You." The Slytherin smiles gratefully at the Hufflepuff behind her camera.

"It's fine. All I know is, birthday's are not meant to be celebrated alone." She smiles at them, Chanyeol hurries to get the camera off her, so she can get some pictures with the birthday boy as well.

After all the cake is over, the five decide to finally go back to their dorms as it's about to be curfew soon. The Zhang siblings volunteer to drop Soomin to her dorms, but she refuses and takes Minseok's offer.

"Thank You." Soomin thinks she's hearing voices, before Minseok repeats himself.

"What for?" She asks,

"For making Yixing and Hera feel as if they're not different."

"I don't think you have to be thanking me for that." She brushes it off.

"No, I really do. It's difficult for the two of them to make friends, especially who genuinely care for them. I know it's difficult with them being quarter-Veela and their complicated family history. So, thank you for accepting them." Minseok elaborates.

"Wait. quarter-Veela. What's that?" Soomin asks, confused at the revelation.

"You don't know what a Veela is?" She shakes her head and Minseok clams up after that, as soon as the passage way is revealed, he turns around and walks away not looking back once.

"Veela?"