Mina had been honestly convinced that Sana and Momo would lose interest in her after a few days. It wasn’t like she wanted it to happen— she really did want to have friends, because who wouldn’t— but she couldn’t forget her past. How could she, when it replayed in her head on a constant loop?

(“You’re worthless, Myoui, don’t you understand that?” the girl sneered, looming above her. “Honestly, it’s pathetic.” She was supposed to be Mina’s friend— why was she doing this? Why was she being so cruel? A voice, a little pestering voice in the back of Mina’s head, told her it was because she deserved it.

“Everything gets handed to you. You get good grades because the professors don’t want to anger your father, one of the school’s largest donors. You’re on the Quidditch team because your father supplies all of the broomsticks. People are friends with you because they want to be rich and famous like your father. Don’t you get it?”

Mina wanted to argue— to say that she earned her good grades and her position as Seeker, that she deserved loyal friends that cared about her because of who she was. The problem with that was she couldn’t fully believe it. Even if this girl, who she thought was her friend, even if her words were hateful and mean— Mina knew she was telling the truth. Mina had never earned anything in her life, she probably never would.

“Face it. The most interesting thing about you is your father’s name, and that’s it.”)

Thinking about the past now just made Mina feel numb. It was something she’d never quite recovered from— what that girl had said to her that day, along with other similar occurrences. It was practically beaten into her, the idea that she was worthless, insignificant, nothing more than a stupid, foolish girl who just so happened to have a rich father. How could she not believe these things when she was reminded of it every day of her life, without fail?

It’d been a few weeks, though, and Sana and Momo still hadn’t lost interest. Mina found it peculiar, but she didn’t allow herself to hope that things would be different this time. In cases like this, hope was dangerous— hope was frequently, if not always, disappointing. She was positive that them dropping her like a used toy was inevitable— maybe it’d be weeks, maybe months, hell, maybe it’d even be years, but it would happen, sure as the setting sun.

Still, she cautiously allowed herself to be drawn into these two Hufflepuffs’ world. They were certainly charming— not in a superficial or manipulative way, but rather, Mina was convinced they were best friends with everyone in the school. They were so friendly and outgoing, talking to everyone around them with so much enthusiasm and zeal— the opposite of who Mina was. She usually found these sort of people draining, but with Sana and Momo, they made her want to be excited about everything, too.

It seemed every day, Mina was being introduced to new people. Mina was accustomed to being paraded around, shown off to others who barely even saw her as a human being. Not only by those who claimed to be her “friends”, but by her father as well— constantly being introduced to investors and work associates, expected to play the role of the perfect daughter. However, this wasn’t like that at all— if anything, it was like the girls wanted to show off their friends to Mina, to impress her.

(As it turned out, Mina already knew three of their closest friends— the ‘School Meal Club’, as Sana and Momo introduced them. The two Hufflepuffs were stunned when Mina worked up the courage to shyly comment, “Dahyun and I are almost the same person.” Mina and the three younger students all laughed as Sana and Momo were the ones left utterly bewildered for once.)

Today, they were waiting outside the room of Mina’s next class, Transfiguration. Sana and Momo insisted on accompanying her on her walk, claiming they’d keep her company. (There went that little voice in her head again, wondering if they were walking with her because they wanted to or for some other shadowy reason they weren’t disclosing.) Now the two girls were sitting on either side of her on one of the benches in the hall, providing a full running commentary on the students that passed.

“Oh! You see that couple?” Sana whispered loudly to Mina, pointing far down the corridor to a Slytherin and Gryffindor walking hand in hand.

Mina nodded, replying, “Yes, what about them?” She observed the two girls indicated by Sana. They looked somewhat… unfriendly, in Mina’s opinion, with cool, stony expressions and rigid postures. (Then again, Mina had been told in the past that she possessed the same mannerisms, so she supposed she shouldn’t jump to any conclusions.) Sana and Momo were full of interesting stories, so she was curious about what they were about to tell her about these girls.

“Well, the Gryffindor is Park Jihyo, a.k.a. the Head Girl, and the Slytherin is Im Nayeon,” Momo explained, adopting the same conspiratorial tone as her best friend. “They’ve been dating for a little while now, and they’ve basically become the power couple of Hogwarts. How they got together is really weird.”

Sana easily picked up where Momo left off— almost as if they had rehearsed it, though Mina guessed that it was more due to their natural sync with each other, which Mina had witnessed countless times since she met them. “Yeah, so, Nayeon is on the Slytherin Quidditch team as a Beater, right, and basically what happened was Nayeon hit a Bludger right at Jeong—” (“Jeongyeon is Jihyo’s best friend on the Gryffindor team,” Momo helpfully supplied) “—and literally broke Jeong’s face.” Sana turned to Momo to clarify. “It was her face, right?”

The dark-haired girl hummed and looked pensive for a few moments before nodding, replying, “Yep, I’m pretty sure it was her face.”

“You’re definitely right,” Sana agreed, looking back at Mina as she continued, “Yeah, so, Nayeon broke Jeong’s face with a Bludger and then Jihyo fell in love with her. Isn’t that wild?” Her eyes were bright with excitement, obviously eager to see what Mina’s reaction would be.

As she often was with their stories, Mina was left a little confused. She’d noticed that Sana and Momo tended to omit many important details in their different accounts, and they didn’t seem to be the most trustworthy of narrators. Regardless, she couldn’t help but be amused at how passionately they told their little anecdotes. “Yeah, that is wild,” she agreed with a growing smile.

“I don’t know,” Momo piped up thoughtfully, “It’s not that wild if you think about it. If Im Nayeon broke your face with a Bludger, Sana, I’d probably fall in love with her too. I mean, she’s Im Nayeon.”

The blonde immediately looked offended, complaining, “Hey! That’s not very ni—” She stopped abruptly, frowned a bit, then shrugged. “Actually, no, you’re right, I don’t blame you. She is Im Nayeon after all.”

Momo nodded and opened her arms wide, “Right? For Merlin’s sake, the girl could break my face and I’d still fall in love with her.”

Both girls started laughing, and Mina herself couldn’t help but join in. These girls, they were so ridiculous— so happy and free, like their shoulders were completely unburdened of any weight. They just existed, like normal teenage girls were supposed to. (Was it really that simple?)

Mina liked spending time with them, which was dangerous in of itself. Every single self-preservation instinct in her warned her to not allow herself to get close to these two girls, because she knew from experience that forming a bond with someone just meant it would hurt more in the end when they left you.

But looking at Sana and Momo… Looking at how warm they were, with each other, with their friends, and with Mina too… Self-preservation instincts be damned, Mina was willing to get hurt again if it meant possibly having real friends, even if that friendship had an expiration date.

Eventually Nayeon and Jihyo were approaching them, and it seemed Mina’s assumptions about the girls being unfriendly were false. As soon as they saw the two Hufflepuffs, their stony expressions melted away to be replaced with broad grins.

“Look who it is,” the Slytherin crowed, reaching out a hand to muss Momo’s hair. “Big match coming up soon, kid. You think you’re ready?”

It was obvious to Mina that the two girls were friendly with each other, which she thought was a bit strange considering Sana and Momo were just raving about how easily they’d fall in love with the Slytherin student. Was that what friends normally said about each other? It wasn’t like Mina had much experience on that front— in these matters, she was clueless.

Momo pushed Nayeon’s hand away and beamed up at her with a competitive smirk. “Big talk for someone who lost every game against us last year,” Momo shot back, quick as a whip. “Have to warn you, the team’s looking even better this year, so your chances at beating us are getting even slimmer.”

Nayeon scoffed and crossed her arms. “We’ll see about that, Hirai. I’m looking forward to breaking that ‘unbeatable’ streak of yours once and for all.”

“We’ll see,” Momo repeated, though the confidence in her voice didn’t waver.

Mina was surprised— in their time as “friends”, she somehow hadn’t realized that Momo was on the Quidditch team. Neither of the girls really seemed like the athletic type from what Mina had observed, and considering they hadn’t asked about her father’s business once, Mina assumed (naively) that maybe they just didn’t know about it because they didn’t know Quidditch. That being said, she’d felt a sense of relief that maybe she could retain some anonymity with these girls. But if Momo was into Quidditch— what did that mean? Did she just not care? (Mina wasn’t sure if that comforted her, or just made her feel worse— if the most interesting thing about her was her dad’s company, and these girls didn’t care about that, what was left of her for them to like?)

“And who is this?”

Mina was pulled from her thoughts at the sound of another voice, this one addressing her. When she looked up, she saw the Gryffindor girl, Jihyo, smiling kindly in her direction.

“This is our new friend Mina!” Sana introduced brightly. “We were just telling her the story of how you two got together!”

Nayeon and Jihyo exchanged skeptical glances. “Which body part of Yoo’s did they say I broke this time?” Nayeon asked exasperatedly, rolling her eyes.

Mina smiled a little, admitting, “They said it was her face.”

The older girl snorted, a hand lifting up to try and stifle her giggles. “Honestly, I wish,” Nayeon laughed, “I think that would have been an improvement for Yoo if I had.”

Jihyo shot her girlfriend with a light glare. She shook her head before fixing Mina with a warm look, advising, “Anyway, I’d take these two’s stories with a grain of salt. They tend to embellish a bit.”

“What are you talking about?” Sana complained. When Mina glanced back at the two Hufflepuffs, they each sported the look of pure innocence. “We’d never do such a thing!”

“We’re perfect little angels,” Momo agreed breezily, batting her eyelashes as if to prove her point.

Mina couldn’t help but laugh, the two older students following suit. It seemed they were used to the Hufflepuffs’ antics, as Jihyo just sighed before fixating again on Mina. “You keep these two out of trouble, alright?” It was a light request, but the intensity of Jihyo’s gaze told Mina that she was dead serious. “You seem like you have a good head on your shoulders, so please look out for them.”

Mina wasn’t sure that Jihyo’s faith in her was warranted— it seemed like a stretch, frankly— but still, she nodded obediently. “I will,” she agreed, meaning it with all her heart. She knew Sana and Momo didn’t need her, and it wasn’t like she added anything to their lives other than maybe a temporary amusement. But she’d be a good friend to them anyway, be the friend that she’d always wished to have, because she knew it was the right thing to do.

The Slytherin and Gryffindor said their goodbyes, and when Mina’s attention refocused on the two girls beside her, she realized their gazes were fixed on her. They were looking at her so fondly, like they actually cared about her— Mina almost couldn’t stand the weight of that possibility, no matter how unlikely it may be.

“We’ll look after you, too, Mina,” Sana said quietly, Momo nodding along in agreement.

Six words, and Mina felt the walls she had carefully built around herself begin to shake.

———

Sana watched as rain drizzled outside the windows of the Hufflepuff dorm with a gnawing sense of boredom. They didn’t have any classes since it was the weekend, and the weather was too miserable to spend any time outside. Currently she was cuddled up next to Momo in her bed, their legs tangled and Sana’s arm flung over Momo’s stomach. One of Momo’s hands was tucked into Sana’s hair, lazily scratching at her scalp, but the older Hufflepuff was too engrossed in a Quidditch magazine to give Sana the attention she really wanted.

“Momoring~” Sana whined for what seemed like the thirtieth time that afternoon. “I’m bored, let’s go do something!” All she received was a noncommittal hum from the warm body next to her, and Sana groaned, pressing her face into Momo’s shoulder.

She wondered what Mina was doing. For the last couple of weeks that the Hufflepuffs had known the girl, Sana and Momo had done their best to take the transfer student under their wing so to speak. Mina was warming up to them, slowly but surely, but Sana could still tell that she was holding herself back. It made Sana wonder what the girl had been through, why she was so hesitant to trust other people.

It wasn’t like Sana (or Momo, for that matter) was solely interested in the other girl because she was new, or “different”. Of course, their friendship had started because the two Hufflepuffs found Mina intriguing, but it was like Momo said: over time, it was becoming deeper than that. They both genuinely enjoyed Mina’s company— how sweet the girl was, all the little facts she knew, her gummy smile and the way she blushed whenever Sana or Momo complimented her.

Sana knew Momo was fond of Mina, too. Not just because they’d occupied the same wavelength practically since the day they’d met, but because Sana noticed the way Momo looked at the Ravenclaw, too. Sana knew Momo perhaps better than she knew herself, so she recognized the soft look Momo got whenever Mina was around. They’d both developed a soft spot for the girl, it seemed.

Tilting her head up to look at her best friend, Sana couldn't help but smile. It was the little things about Momo, too, that made Sana breathless. The furrow in her brow as she read, how the tufts of her bangs were messy and pushed a bit to the side like she always did when she was trying to concentrate on something. They’d known each other for six years, and those six years felt like an eternity. It was like Sana couldn’t even remember a time before Momo— or maybe she just didn’t want to.

Suddenly tired of being ignored, Sana sat up and faced her best friend. “Momoring,” she called out softly again, nudging the girl’s arm in one last attempt to seize her attention. But even that didn’t seem to tear Momo away from her magazine, so Sana decided desperate times called for desperate measures.

She promptly adjusted her position to straddle Momo’s thighs, causing the girl to squeak in alarm. Sana pulled the magazine out of her best friend’s hands and set it aside— gently, of course, because she knew how much Momo treasured those things. The dark-haired Hufflepuff stared up at her, half indignant and half amused as her hand slipped from Sana’s hair.

“Well, that was a bit rude,” Momo grumbled, her annoyed facade betrayed by a little smirk. Her hands rested on Sana’s hips automatically, almost as if it wasn’t a conscious thought, it was just where they naturally gravitated to.

Sana leaned in closer, eyebrows quirked as she replied, “Well, it’s a bit rude to ignore me, too, don’t you think?”

The girl just shrugged before craning her neck upward in an attempt to close the gap between them. Not quite ready to give the other Hufflepuff what she wanted, Sana turned her head slightly at the last second to press a kiss right at the corner of Momo’s mouth. When she pulled back, Momo was predictably sporting an adorable pout, a whine already rising from .

“I thought my kisses were gross,” Sana teased in a light whisper.

Momo just groaned, nudging her face closer to Sana’s. “Please just kiss me already, dummy.”

Who was Sana to say no to such a polite request?