Dahyun tried not to slouch as she walked into the Great Hall. She even fought a yawn as she did. Life really was going to be difficult without her potions. At the very least, she wasn’t feeling terrible after those other potions. Maybe that could be used when she tried to convince Madame Selen that she needed to brew at least one potion (technically more, but she’d get there when she got there). 

The other students raised their heads as she passed. Would she have blended in more had she left her hair brown? Maybe, but she needed to look normal. Her level of normal. Going back to an old colour wasn’t ideal, but she did like the colours. White and purple. A good combination. 

She looked over to the Gryffindor table, debating sitting there this morning. She hadn’t spoken much to Jeongyeon lately, nor Momo. It wouldn’t quite matter to either whether or not she talked to them today, tomorrow or next week—they were the types where a period of radio silence didn’t make any difference to one’s friendship. All of her closest friends were like that. It was just the rest who tended to be more sensitive to how much time you spent with them. Boyfriends included. 

She waved to them and would have gone over. Until she caught movement from the Hufflepuff table. 

“Safe post for you,” Chaeyoung smiled slightly, waving a letter, “and a care package.” 

The box was a normal cardboard box. A large moving box. She knew who that’d be from. 

“You didn’t open it already?” She took the letter, but put it in her robes. Then, taking one of the butter knives, she opened it. 

“Wanted the surprise to be for all of us.” Jihyo said. 

Inside the box were chocopies, several containers of home-cooking and tea bags, and a number of sweet packages. 

She tossed the Smarties to Jihyo and Mars Bars to Chaeyoung. 

“I love your dad.” 

Dahyun looked over the heads of the other students and found the two Gryffindors again. She waved them over. People were looking at her again. She caught a pair’s eyes and regretted it. The other Chaeyoung and Sana. She looked away. 

The girls came as she was tucking into a plate of scrambled eggs. Cold, but they were still delicious. The morning walk had made her so hungry. 

“I thought you’d finally slept in.” Jeongyeon grinned, accepting the Cadbury mix with a bow. “I’m sending a huge thanks to Mr. Kim.” 

“To Mrs. Kim as well,” Dahyun added with a smile. 

“Both then.” 

“Yourself, or through Dahyun’s next letter?” Jihyo raised a brow. 

“Both,” she said again. 

Momo broke open the Fruit Pastilles. “Me too. They need to know how much we appreciate them.” She popped two in . 

“Where did you go?” Chaeyoung asked. 

“Early workout session.”

The looks on their faces made her laugh. 

“Just the Owlery. I’m getting fitter each day. Soon I’ll run the mile.”

“And this is where you tell us you’re coming back to class?” Momo squinted at her. 

“I can make it.” And she could. Maybe she’d be breathing very heavily, embarrassingly so, but she’d get there. The trek to the Owlery hadn’t been short, but she’d made it. “Just like I’ll make it to our match.” The thought made her grin. Her recovery had started properly. Even if the letter had had sleeping potions in it, her body had still taken up the healing potions. It was just a matter of training her body. 

“You can try,” Jihyo said. “But there’s any sign you’re overdoing it, you’re not playing this one. Wendy will agree with me.” 

“Yes, ma’am.” Dahyun smiled even more. That was fine. She just needed to be on the pitch, on patrol, and in class. She needed things to be normal. “Besides,” she wrapped her arms around Chaeyoung, “it’s just Ravenclaw.” 

It earned her a whack on the arm, but also a laugh. “We need you at your best. The team needs practice for Gryffindor. The real threat.”

“Sure.” She started eating again. 

Suddenly she felt it again. That feeling of being watched. She looked up immediately, but it was only Sana. Well, it wasn’t exactly ‘only Sana’, especially not with that look. 

Dahyun went back to her breakfast. 

When she was in the library, she opened the letter. 

Come to the Hospital Wing. Left your order there—MM

She smiled. The delivery was finally here. Transporting that back to the common room would be a challenge. 

The walk down the hall didn’t make her tired at all. Another good sign. 

Madame Selen didn’t look pleased when she walked in. This would be a difficult discussion to have. The woman led her to the office. 

On the desk were several sleek metal cases, as well as a larger cardboard one. The paper on top of it had “Signal” printed neatly on top of it. Below were the things she’d ordered. 

“She told me to let you do what you needed to do, but you can’t possibly tell me this is necessary.” Her scowl was very apparent. 

“It is,” Dahyun said. And it really was. “This might help me know what happened to me.” That was less true. She didn’t know if it would. Yet. But she still had to get to work. 

“And why has Professor Bae asked me if I’m sure you can return to class?” 

Convincing her of two things would be an even bigger challenge. “I went to the Owlery this morning. Had no problems.” She let that sink in. “I’ve been out of class for ages. There’s only so much I can teach myself through books and my friend’s notes. Plus, the healing potions have been working. I don’t feel any pain and the dizziness is getting less every day.” 

She crossed her arms. “I know the draughts work,” a frown, “but why are you doing something that Destin could do?”

Again Dahyun had to wonder: what exactly did Selen know about the summer? “I know how this sounds sounds, but I have to do it.” Maybe she’d find something else out after sending back the counter. Yuri had no doubt made her own, but this was probably one of those tests. And now it wasn’t just affecting Dahyun, even though she hoped it did. She was lying to her friends and the longer she had to do that, the worse she felt. Maybe it’d help shorten that time if she figured the sleeping draught out soon. 

“You’re a clever girl, Dahyun,” she said. “Why can’t you wait until you get back to class? Why must everything happen at once?” 

“I need things to go back to normal. Being in the library all day drives me mad.” She could handle every day, just not more than ten hours each day. “And it’s good training.” 

A long moment of silence passed. Would she have to go to Professor McGonagall and ask her to convince the healer? While that wouldn’t be the best alternative, if she got to work sooner, then she’d have to sacrifice a piece of her pride. 

“You work in here,” she finally said. “With a mask, an hour maximum before you take an extended break.” Her eyes hardened. “This can’t be understated. Your body is reaching limits I know very little about. We can’t risk it being ruined just for a potion you have to make.” 

Dahyun nodded. Several times. “I understand.” And she’d gotten the location sorted. 

“As for class, you can, but practice is out of the question for the next two weeks. You will miss the match.” 

Her shoulders slumped at that. “Alright.” She straightened and smiled. “Thank you, Madame Selen. I’m sorry I’ve made things so complicated.” 

She also smiled, but it was framed with concern. “Don’t apologise. You’re only dealing with circumstances you didn’t create.”

As Dahyun walked out of the Hospital Wing, she couldn’t help but think that the statement wasn’t exactly true. She’d agreed to continue in the Department of Mysteries. What things that had led to, she hadn’t known, yes, but she’d still been the one to say yes. 

____

“What are you doing here? Aren’t you hungry?”

The girl sitting by the History of Magic shelves looked up. “I had some extra time in DADA. Bae is my favourite,” Chaeyoung replied. “Or, well, Bae is Bae.” A dimpled smile appeared. 

“What?” Mina couldn’t help but smile back. Definitely a maguru reference. 

She looked away. “Not important.”

“Can I sit with you? I’m reading through something, so you won’t hear a thing from me.” She could easily do it later. Maybe during the Quidditch match tomorrow. But she couldn’t exactly say that. Couldn’t say she’d rather chat. With her. 

“Oh,” Chaeyoung said. “Okay.” Her eyes fell to the pad on her lap. “Can I ask you something first?” 

She pushed down the urge to smile again, but nodded. Then she sat down beside her. 

“How do you think today will go?” A frown. Also with a dimple. “Do we tell them about the notes? The paintings?” She sighed. “You know how mad she’s gonna be if she finds out?”

“If it helps her, she’ll see that we did the right thing,” Mina said. “Today is for her. No one’s going to stop thinking about this. Momo and Jeongyeon, Jihyo, or Sana and Nayeon, none of them. One of them will probably go to the portraits. We’ll all go in circles.”

She nodded, leaning her head back. That exhaustion was back in her eyes. “So we have to tell them.” 

“Yes. I’d almost say we have her join us, but she’d probably try shutting us down.” Or get them to go the wrong direction. The more she got to know Dahyun—this Dahyun—the more she saw just how elusive she could be. “Is that normal for her?” 

The reaction was immediate. She’d struck a chord. The other girl stared at the ceiling for a long time. Mina debated getting up. Chaeyoung needed space and these types of questions weren’t helping. 

She got to her feet when the Ravenclaw spoke. 

“It’s not normal,” she whispered. “None of us can, or will, really get through to her, I think. I mean, I can’t.” Her eyes were glassy. “She’s hurting and getting hurt. Ever since the summer. And she doesn’t let us in. Let me in.” The first tear fell, but it was wiped away just as quickly. “Sorry, I’m tired. Teary is the default.”

Mina sat back down. “Has she not told you anything?” If yes, that wasn’t exactly a best friend relationship. But Chaeyoung'd said this was a new thing. 

She shook her head. “Told me something. Yesterday actually.” More tears were falling. She pulled out tissues and began dabbing her eyes. She looked lost. 

She reached out for her free hand. Chaeyoung didn’t pull away. 

“Makes things worse, actually,” she sniffed. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it. That she’d not tell us something like that. Until her face was shredded.” Her eyes closed. “What a ed up situation.” 

“But I’m pretty sure she has her reasons. It’s not like she doesn’t trust you, or else she would’ve said nothing.”

The only response was a nod. 

“Which we’ll figure out.” She squeezed her hand. “All of us. Together.”

She peeked at her. “You’re not gonna ask what she told me?”

“I want to,” she smiled at her, “but you don’t have to.”

Another smile appeared. Finally. “Thanks, Mina. Really.” She squeezed back. 

____

Sana knew she should’ve taken today easy, told Jihyo that the meeting of eight could wait and that they needed to conserve their energy for the match tomorrow. It was going to, and had been, a hard day. First she’d had to deal with the stupid Gryffindor pranks on each member of her team, Sana included, which led to close calls where she’d had to hold Nayeon and herself back from hexing Luke and the rest several times. Then there’d been an entire set of classes where she’d had to sit through Destin’s talk about the Confusing Concoction (shocker, it’d been confusing) and a gruelling session of trying to cast a wordless spell in DADA. She’d gotten it, but at the last minute of class. It wasn’t seeming like the best way to end the week. Now she had to be in a room where a good third of the people didn’t like her. 

Now her, Nayeon, and Mina were walking up to the seventh floor. 

“Should I really have suggested this?” Nayeon groans. “My legs still burn from your exercise routine.” 

“And your eyebrows are still green,” Mina added as they headed down the hall. 

“What?” Her eyes widened.

“They’re not green,” Sana smiled, “I think they’re actually red.” 

The girl gave her a smack on the arm. 

“You could always ask Jihyo or Chaeyoung to tell you a counter-spell. I bet they know one,” Mina said with a wink. Then she opened the door. 

“Rather not lose them completely, thank you very much.” She rolled her eyes. “At least I got them back.” 

“I’m not sure dancing robes was a fair retaliation,” Momo said. Beside her, Jeongyeon scowled. 

“Are you mad?” Nayeon’s expression was halfway between cute and stand-offish. 

“I’m not,” she grinned, “she is.” She nodded at the other Gryffindor. 

“You cut the practice time by ten minutes. Ten good minutes,” she said. “All for a hair change?” Her eyes flickered upwards and then twitched. "Or should I say, brow change?"

“Not exactly,” Sana retorted. “Tzuyu’s book tried to give her a black eye and my robes were lined with some type of itching potion.” Practice had been terrible. Hence the exercise routine she’d gotten them all doing while she dealt with her quidditch robes. 

To her great satisfaction, Jeongyeon looked away, but she shot Nayeon a look so she wouldn’t make another sarcastic remark. That would just make the whole ‘truce’ thing obsolete. 

Chaeyoung coughed. “Anyway, there are some things I think we all need to know. Get the rest of you up to speed.” She even looked at Jihyo and Jeongyeon then. “Dahyun got two notes. One a first year found on her the day after she got hurt on the stairs, the other another first year found in the Hospital Wing.” 

Then Mina spoke. “The first said, Ministries and Mysteries. Seen once. Twice? The other: Sweets are all well and good, but the true mysteries still await, don’t they?” She frowned. “Both from the same person, but they didn’t have the same handwriting as the letter from yesterday.”

Sana didn’t think she heard that right. Chaeyoung and Mina knew the same things that first years knew, but neither had told Jihyo, Jeongyeon and Momo, nor Nayeon and her? 

“We were there when they found the notes. Dahyun told us there was nothing to worry about, and—well,” the Ravenclaw frowned, “look, I don’t know why I didn’t say anything sooner.” 

“And you?” Nayeon turned to Mina. “Care to explain why I had to hear about those notes from first years?”

“You knew about this?” Jihyo asked. 

“They told us, but that’s not important,” Sana said. 

Mina sighed. “I didn’t say anything, because it wasn’t something for me to tell. If we’re not careful, we’ll turn this thing into a witch hunt for the person who caused this in the first place. That’s a dangerous place to go.” 

“You sound a lot like Dahyun when you say that,” Momo said. “It’s why she always says she ‘just fell’.” 

They were silent then. The Gryffindor just looked right back. 

“What? It’s obvious it wasn’t an accident,” tilted downwards, “but I never knew where to start. You guys had that starting point.” She met a few of their eyes. That is, the ones who had known about the notes. All of them her friends. Sana felt a pang of guilt then. 

“There’s something else too,” Chaeyoung said. “We went to the portraits after Minat–Sana was cursed, but they didn’t say anything useful about the curses. Sorry.” she glanced at her and then Mina. “Although one of them had been awake when Dahyun fell. She said she’d floated down the stairs.” Another frown. “But she didn’t remember the rest.” 

“And you’re sure she didn’t make that part up?” Jihyo asked. “Because there were,” a small pause, “blood smears down the steps.”

“We can ask her again,” Mina said. “But she said that, and that her bag had lifted up, plus someone had whispered a spell.” She looked between them again. “If she’s not making it up, I think someone might’ve taken something from Dahyun’s bag.” A shrug. “But if nothing was missing, then that might also be wrong.” 

“She didn’t tell you she was looking for something, right?” Nayeon asked. 

All of her close friends shook their heads. 

“What do we do then?” Tzuyu asked.

“We do something about it,” Chaeyoung replied. “Even if she’s not doing anything herself.” 

“You don’t know that.” The other’s voice dropped slightly. “And neither do I, but the only time we’ve been seeing her, it’s been outside of class.” 

“But if she’s working on it, it’s alone,” Momo said. “When she shouldn’t be.” 

Jihyo nodded. “But we have to know what exactly is going on before we can actually do something about it.” 

“We know more than enough that it wasn’t an accident. Dahyun, even if she won’t admit it, also knows that, but she never told any of you that she did.” Sana didn’t say ‘us’, because that would include her in Dahyun’s inner circle. She was far from that. 

“And we can’t ask her about directly,” Mina added. “She’ll just avoid answering.” 

“No offence,” Jeongyeon said. “But why are we talking about this then?” 

Nayeon raised her hands. “I just thought we’d do a little regrouping after yesterday.” Her eyes went sideways to Chaeyoung. “But I didn’t expect it to go like this.” 

Neither had Sana.

“Wait a minute, Son.” The eldest in the room narrowed her eyes. “You know something else. Spill.”

Chaeyoung looked like she’d been petrified. “I,” she stammered. 

“Don’t you think this is enough for one day?” Jihyo stepped forward. 

“Do you know what she knows?” Sana asked. 

The Hufflpuff’s brow furrowed. “No, but I don’t need any of you forcing an answer out of her.” 

Nayeon scowled, but didn’t say anything. Sana wouldn’t press the Ravenclaw, even if she really wanted to. They really didn’t need to make the situation worse. All of them were worried about Dahyun. They were on the same side. 

“We have to get to practice.” She nodded at her teammates. 

“So say whatever you like once we’re gone,” Nayeon muttered. 

“Dahyun said she was attacked at the end of summer,” Chaeyoung said. Her fists were clenched. “She didn’t say what else happened or how she got out of it.” Her gaze shot to the floor. “I just know they carved MB into her arm. She told me that whoever sent the letter was maybe the one who did that.” 

Carved into. Sana felt bile rise in . 

Jihyo’s voice was very quiet then. “When did she tell you that?”

“Yesterday,” Chaeyoung whispered. “I wasn’t even sure if I should have told everyone now, but I did.”  

“That’s enough for today,” Mina said then. “Let’s go.” She walked past Sana and then out the door. 

The three other Slytherins followed. No one said anything after them. The entire walk down, they didn’t say a word. Until they got to the first floor. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Mina murmured. “If her best friends weren’t supposed to know, then why should we have?” Her eyes were downcast. Doubt filled them. As well as regret. 

Nayeon didn’t respond, nor did Tzuyu, so Sana did. 

“We’ll talk about this tomorrow or on Sunday,” she said. “And Mina, I get it.” Then she pulled her in for a hug. 

When they separated, she smiled. Sana could see they were glassy. Nayeon probably saw it too, because she enveloped the girl in a tight hug. 

“Go relax. Whatever you think you need to get done today, you’re doing during our match.” 

A tiny chuckle. 

“If I see you at dinner, I’ll assume you’re in the common room. If not, I’ll find you.” She pulled away, but her eyes glinted with a gentle warning. 

“Fine,” she said. “But first, I need books.” She waved at them, wiping away a stray tear. 

“You’re not mad, are you?” Tzuyu asked as they left the building. 

“Not really, but it’s just,“ Nayeon sighed, “I just don’t like keeping secrets like that. I know it wasn’t hers to tell, but the person whose they are is definitely not saying anything any time soon.” She shrugged. “I’m not mad. Just confused.”

Sana was too. The whole account about Dahyun’s fall was more than weird. Floating down. Her bag lifting up. If that was true, the person had an invisibility cloak. What would they want from Dahyun? She carried a heap of books in that bag, but just about all of them were from the library. And why would any of that have ever needed Dahyun to get hurt as badly as she did? And the girl had been attacked before her fall. If those things were connected, why wasn’t anything else being done? Like a full search of the school? McGonagall was involved somehow, helping on that front, or had she only been able to step in when the letter came?

Too many questions and no hope of getting any answers. And of course, this wasn’t just some mystery they had to find out. Dahyun had been hurt. Three times. At least. That none of them knew if that number was the right one or not was terrible. How did she keep this all in? Sana could rarely go a day without letting something out. It wasn’t how she coped with things. Either it had to be solved as soon as possible, or she had to tell someone just how messed up everything was.

Don't tell anyone they called me that. 

Mudblood. The horrible name for a maguru—muggleborn. Its letters were carved into Dahyun's arm. Even in first year, she hadn't wanted her friends to know she was being singled out for her blood. Was this just the extreme of that? It couldn't be. Dahyun had more sense than that, but why else would she not want her friends to help her with something like this? Was it a matter of her being ridiculously and stupidly stubborn, or something else? Another secret she didn’t want getting out? But what could be worth suffering in silence? 

____

Author's Note

Shorter chapter today, I know, but Dahyun's getting ready to brew potions and get back to class. We've also properly got the girls set up to try and help Dahyun, either in the shadows or more obviously. I wanted a bit of Michaeng here, because I had missed them. I'm also sorely missing Saida in this story, because it feels like ages since I've written for this story. Nevertheless, there will be Saida next chapter! 

Place your bets now. Who will win the match: Gryffindor or Slytherin? 

See you in the next one!