THE NEW GUY

Thanks to his so called best-friend (who firstly took ages to get all of his stuff together, and then – as if they hadn’t spent quite enough of time simply getting ready to leave the train - leisurely strolled down the corridor) they were among the last few people to get off the train. Despite acting as impatiently as possible, Baekhyun didn’t really mind. Soo’s (deliberate) stalling was certainly very annoying, but it also made sure they had managed to avoid the biggest crowd and granted him a better view on other students, which always came in handy when you happened to be a Prefect.

They slowly followed the crowd along the platform and then onto a mud track, where a small number of horseless carriages awaited the remaining students. Soo immediately headed towards the nearest one and Baekhyung would have certainly followed his example if he hadn't gotten slightly disturbed by unusual movement he caught with the corner of his eye. For a moment or two he wasn't entirely sure what it was, but then it downed on him.  

There was a boy in front of one of the carriages - a boy who was crazily waving his hand through the air and who seemed to have felt that someone was watching him because he turned around at the (from Baekhyun’s point of view) most inappropriate possible moment. It was true that their eyes only met for a second, but to Baekhyun it felt like eternity - being caught staring at a total stranger was certainly one of the most embarrassing things one could imagine. Especially when a stranger happened to be doing something every ordinary person would consider weird.

As he walked towards the entrance of the carriage Soo had already disappeared into, he tried to push the memory of the awkward event aside. It was no big deal, he told himself as he sat down next to his so-called best friend. Truth to be told, he would have probably forgotten the whole thing even before reaching Hogwarts, if the stranger hadn’t climbed inside their carriage only a couple of seconds later.

“It’s called a Thestral.” he said as he took a seat opposite to Baekhyun.

Baekhyun needed a couple of moments to realize that he was talking to him and a few more to respond with an intelligent question: “Uh… a what?”

He already had an impression the stranger was slightly peculiar, but ever since he opened his mouth, Baekhyun couldn’t help but wonder if he was at all sane. His words didn’t make any sense and his response managed to confuse him even further.

“It’s a good thing you can’t see it.”

Baekhyun almost asked; ‘why is it a good thing that I can’t see what?’, but after realizing that receiving an answer to that question would probably leave him even more confused, he decided it was best to keep his mouth closed.

The boy obviously didn’t have the same intentions. “Park Chanyeol.” he said after a moment or two of silence, his hand stretching towards Baekhyun, who reluctantly shook it. “Byun Baekhyun.”

Chanyeol gave him a small smile, before repeating the same practice on Kyungsoo, who immediately offered one of his I’m-innocent-and-totally-harmless smiles. “Do Kyungsoo.”

“Nice to meet you both.”

They nodded to show that they felt the same and then… silence. They hadn’t really had anything else to say to each other. Or, it would probably be better to say that he hadn’t had anything to say to the guy. His so called best friend, on the other hand, obviously wasn’t content with letting such a good opportunity (to find another person’s weaknesses, no doubt) go.

“Are you new?”

The question came as a surprise even to Baekhyun, who, despite noticing that he had never seen the guy before, didn’t think of the possibility of him being new. He actually wasn’t even sure that was possible – as far as he knew, students enrolled at their eleven or hadn’t enrolled at all.

He sent a questioning look in Soo’s direction, noticing - with the corner of his eyes - that Chanyeol was doing the same. Under their gazes, Kyungsoo seemed genuinely uncomfortable. “Sorry… it’s just… you appear to be around our age and I’ve never seen you before, so…” he shrugged, his lips forming an apologetic smile. Baekhyun barely restricted himself from rolling his eyes.

“Yes, I’m new.” finally admitted Chanyeol, cracking a small smile. “I’ve sure hoped I wouldn’t get discovered so quickly. I’ve heard that accepting older students isn’t very common here.”

“It isn’t.” confirmed Baekhyun, much more willing to participate in the conversation now that Chanyeol was making some sense. “So how does this work exactly? Are you going to be sorted with the first years, or…?”

The boy shook his head.  “Thankfully no. The principal thought that would be a bit unpleasant for me, so he did an exception and get me sorted when I came to enroll. It was a pretty creepy experience.” he explained, accompanying his last sentence with a slight shudder.

“Because you knew that the hat probably knows you better than you know yourself or because you were afraid to learn the truth about where you belong?” wondered Soo in a manner that implied he really wanted to learn the answer. And yes, he probably truly did - Baekhyun certainly wouldn’t be surprised to learn that something so minimalistic helped his (reincarnation-of-the-devil) best friend to dig up some hidden information he could later use against the person he got it from. 

Chanyeol chuckled in amusement, not even a little bit aware of the danger he was currently in. “Both I guess.” he admitted. “Which one sounds more frightening to you?”

“The first one.” answered Soo.

“So which house did you get sorted in?” Baekhyun intervened before his so called best friend could open his mouth again and asked another potentially dangerous question. It was true that he wasn’t entirely sure whether he liked the guy (which was understandable since he didn’t really know him and, as paranoid as it sounded, he could have a similar personality as Soo), but that didn’t mean that he was prepared to simply leave him to the wolves (or the reincarnation of the devil in this particular case).

“Gryffindor.” Chanyeol immediately answered. “I haven’t really decided whether it is a good or a bad thing yet. Which house are you two in?”

“Ravenclaw.”

Chanyeol nodded. “Which year?”

“Sixth.”

The Gryffindor responded by curling his lips into a wide smile. “That’s great.” he said sincerely. “We’re going to be classmates.” 

“I’m starving.” noted Jamie while they were climbing up the stone stairs towards the Great hall’s welcoming lights.

“Yes, we’ve heard.” replied Alina exasperatedly, rolling her eyes for what was probably the fifth time in the last 5 minutes.

“We certainly did.” agreed Minseok. “About ten times in the last 10 minutes if I counted correctly.”

“That is not…”

Luhan stopped listening. He would have usually joined right in and let Jamie know what a spoiled brat he was, but right then he wasn’t really in the mood for bickering. He was pleasantly tired – it was the kind of tiredness that was mixed with joy of being back at Hogwarts and a slight desire for tasty food and pumpkin juice. Delicious dinner and a warm bed happened to be pretty much the only two things on his mind - which was probably a part of the reason that he somehow managed to walk straight into Kris who – obviously - wasn’t very impressed.

“Well, well, well, just look at who do we have here.” he sneered the moment his cold eyes found Luhan. “If it isn’t my least favorite Gryffindor from my least favorite group of Gryffindors, thinking he can try to push me down the stairs and get away with all limps attached.”

Luhan exaggeratedly rolled his eyes before he proceeded to opening his mouth, a snarky remark already on the tip of his tongue, when Alina let out a loud sigh: “It was an accident Kris.”

“Was it?” Kris’s eyes drilled into him, his eyebrows raised in obvious challenge.

Luhan tried to reply, but Alina happened to be faster once again. “Yes.” she said with an absolute conviction, instantly drawing a contemptuous chuckle out of Sooyoung, who was standing only a short distance away. Luhan hadn’t really noticed her - or any other member of the group (Kai, Jongdae and Sehun) – until she spoke, but once he thought about it he found it quite logical that they would be somewhere around. Beasts liked to hunt together after all.

Sometimes he couldn’t help but wonder why Sehun hang out with them at all. Besides being in Slytherin they didn’t really seem to have much in common. He wasn’t a bully like the rest of them, and he preferred to stay unnoticed while the other four did everything they could to be in the centre of attention. And then there was this huge difference in the family background… Sehun was a half-blood with a dead father and a middle class mother, while Kai, Jongdae, Kris and Sooyoung found pride in belonging to powerful and rich pure-blood families - Sooyoung and Jongdae’s father was even the current minister of magic.

“It seems that your least favorite Gryffindor has forgotten how to speak.” remarked Sooyoung, a mocking smirk playing on her lips.

“I haven’t forgotten how to speak.” protested Luhan, this time before Alina could find a chance to cut him off again. “I just don’t want to waste precious minutes of my day dealing with your bull.”

Kris snickered, Kai chuckled in – at least that was how it seemed – sincere amusement and Sooyoung slightly raised her eyebrows. The one to answer, however, was Jongdae. “I am not sure I understand…” he said in a lazy, unconcerned voice. “…how can a polite requirement to explain why have you attempted to push a person down the stairs, be interpreted as ‘dealing with our bull.’.”

“A polite requirement?” repeated Minseok as if he couldn’t quite believe what came out of minister’s son’s mouth. The expression on his face didn’t remain confused for long though – it soon became a mask of anger, which is why Luhan decided to interfere. His friend didn’t get mad often, but when he did…

“Kris has literally threatened to remove my limbs.” he said slowly.  “How is that a polite requirement?”

“Well, we could avoid that little obstacle if a certain person didn’t attempt to murder another person.” nonchalantly replied Jondae, slightly shrugging his shoulders.

“It. was. an. accident.” Luhan could now practically feel his blood boiling and his hand started to search for his wand. It was obvious that they weren’t getting anywhere with words, so perhaps it was time to take the whole thing on the next level. His fingers wrapped around the polished wood, but before he could actually pull it out of his pocket, something quite unusual had happened – usually quiet and distant Sehun decided to interfere.

“That’s enough.” he said, his voice completely still and emotionless. “You can finish this some other time.” Then he turned around and walked towards the great hall’s entrance.

The four remaining Slytherins – who seemed to be equally surprised by this development than Luhan – exchanged perplexed glances. The one making a final decision was Kai - he let out a small chuckle, before murmuring a quiet; “later.” and following his friend up the stairs. Others headed after him – but only after they made sure to send Gryffindors the ugliest looks they could master.

“Well that was intense.” murmured Jamie when the group disappeared out of the sight. “Can we go now? I’m too starving to be standing here.”

Despite his statement not making much sense, no one disagreed.

 “Are we sitting…” whispered Baekhyun in a sharp tone “…next to the second years so you could stare at Kai for the entire evening?”

Soo noticed a slightly irritated expression on his friend’s face – it was quite obvious that he wasn’t very happy with the current arrangement.

“Well of course.” he nonchalantly replied. “A wise person always keeps a very good eye on his enemies - you never know what they might be up to next. Besides - we can now have a nice relaxed conversation without worrying someone might overhear us.”

“We are sitting here so you can be rude to me without worrying someone is going to find out what a twisted individual you are, aren’t we?” grunted Baekhyun, the irritation that was previously visible only on his face now also a very obvious component of his voice.

Soo replied with an amused smirk.

At that moment, the door from the entrance hall opened and a long procession of eleven years olds reluctantly walked into the room, their eyes wide with amazement and fear. The students’ chatter gradually quieted down, the sorting hat sang his song, names were called, first-years stumbled forwards and put the hat onto their heads… it was all thoroughly uneventful. But Soo still did his duty and unenthusiastically clapped along with the rest of his house every time the sorting hat shouted; “Ravenclaw.”

After everyone was sorted, the buzz of talk grew louder but fell silent again when the principal slowly rose to his feet. “Welcome.” he said warmly. “I have a few very important announcements to make, but firstly; bon appétit.” He made a little wave with his hand – for the dramatic effect, no doubt – before sitting back down. The food appeared a couple of short seconds later and – as usually - looked absolutely delicious. Soo wasted no time in piling some of it on to his plate.

After taking a very small bite of boiled potatoes, he reached towards his cup with pumpkin juice and made a sip before offering it to Baekhyun. “Pumpkin juice?” he asked in a voice that implied he was already familiar with his friend’s reply.

“Go to hell.”

“Now, now Baekhy - this is really not a very nice way to treat your friend. Especially not when he politely offers you a drink.” mused Soo, getting a quiet murmur that sounded strangely like; ‘do us all a favor and drop dead.’ as a reply.  

His friend’s reaction was actually quite justified, even though it would seem exaggerated to any outer observer - Baekhyun hated pumpkin juice and Soo with it on regular basis. Even a more patient man would lose his nerve.

Soo directed a small pout in his direction, before slightly lowering his head and taking another small bite of his food. Roasted potatoes were delicious.

For the next five minutes none of them felt any desire to start another conversation. Soo was too busy chewing and swallowing his food, besides; he couldn’t help but wonder whether one of those ‘important announcements’ which principal felt that had to be made, was about Alethea. She had been a student here so that was more than just likely.

There was no point in dwelling on it though.

He made another sip of pumpkin juice while his eyes absently wandered across the Great hall, looking for a distraction. His gaze almost immediately landed on his arch nemesis who seemed to be in a middle of a heated discussion with Sooyoung. Her petite figure was leaning towards him and her arms were slightly touching his - Soo couldn’t help but wonder whether their relationship really happened to be strictly platonic.

Averting his gaze, he slightly turned his head so he had a better view on Gryffindor table. He noticed a bit irritated Luhan, sitting between Alina who was furiously waving her hands and Jamie who appeared to be completely distracted by his food. And a couple of seats to the left? Park Chanyeol. The giant who could apparently feel someone was staring at him - he suddenly looked up and caught his gaze. Soo responded by curling his lips into a polite smile and slightly raised his hand. Chanyeol returned the gesture before they both directed their eyes back at their plates.

It really made him wonder…

“So Baekhy…” he said in a sudden decision, raising his head to look at his friend. “what do you think about the new guy?”

The addressed seemed slightly surprised. “We only had one short conversation.” he replied in slow voice.  “That is really not enough to form an opinion.”

Soo rolled his eyes. “Not enough to form a correct opinion, but plenty to form a subjective one.” he stated matter-of-factly.

Baekhyun narrowed his eyes in irritation and – at least so it seemed – a slight suspicion. “And since when are you interested in my subjective opinions?”

Soo let out a small chuckle and leaned a bit closer to his friend. Baekhyun often tried to punish him by refusing to answer his – completely harmless and normal – questions. Not that he actually had any right to complain though.

“I’m always interested in your subjective opinions.” he said confidentially.

“You are never interested in my subjective opinions.” retorted Baekhyun. “Which is why I’m wondering why you do now… What is so special about this guy?”

Soo nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders, before saying matter-of-factly; “He is a Park.”

Baekhyun took a deep breath to show the level of his current annoyance, which was obviously quite great, before opening his mouth. “So? There are plenty of Parks.” His voice was a mix of irritation and impatience.

“Not in England.”

His friends took another deep breath before asking; “What exactly are trying to tell me?”

Soo let out an exasperated sigh, before he put down the forks and locked his eyes with Baekhyun’s. “Really Baekhy, really?” he asked half-mockingly and half-disappointedly. “You’ve actually never heard of the Parks?”

“No, but I would really like to know why you think that I should have.” he grunted in reply.

“Well, they are among the first ten wealthiest wizard families in United Kingdom.” explained Soo nonchalantly and in a manner that implied this explained everything - it didn’t and Baekhyun seemed to be very well aware of that. He slightly narrowed his eyes, before pointing out; “I haven’t known you were interested in rich people.”

Soo shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not.” he said casually. “What I’m interesting in is the family’s reputation.” He offered no further explanation – he knew his previous sentence was enough to attract Baekhyun’s attention, which meant his friend will have to swallow some of his pride and form a question. Soo certainly enjoyed watching him struggle.

For a moment or two they just looked at each other.

“What reputation?” his friend finally surrendered.

An amused smile made its way onto Soo’s lips. “Well, let’s just say there is a whole bunch of really dark rumors going around.” he said. “Mostly speculations about the origin of their wealth and theories about mysterious deaths of people that somehow opposed them.”

Baekhyun didn’t seem to be particularly fazed by this piece of information. “You’ve lost me at rumors.” he said.

Soo chuckled in amusement. It was quite interesting how his friend always managed to follow his principles (making judgments based on rumors was thoroughly against them). “Well, suit yourself Baekhy.” he murmured. “Suit yourself.”

“I think we should include those abominable Slytherins in our plan.” announced Alina after she finally managed to swallow a huge bite of meat pie she previously took.

Luhan looked up in surprise that quickly transformed into resistance. Truth to be told he would quite enjoy showing those impertinent rich bastards their righteous place - even if meant getting caught. His father would kill him of course, but that wasn’t really an issue. What was an issue was the fact that Sehun happened to be one of Alina’s suggested targets – if he would pick on him and get caught, he wouldn’t just get killed; he would get killed twice, brought back to life and forced to spend the rest of his life as a family slave. It was certainly not a promising future.

And that was why he seriously had to prevent Alina from turning that plan into reality. “You’re kidding right? The whole thing is already quite difficult to achieve and now you would like to add targets? Forget it.” he protested.

He did feel bad for lying to his friends, but he couldn’t just tell them that Sehun was his step brother.

“Ah come on, I think we all need a little bit of challenge.” retorted Alina, pointing her forks in his direction and almost stabbing him in the eye.

“And I think not getting caught is challenging enough. You do remember last year right?” he said, pushing her hands – especially the one with the forks - away.

“Yes, but…”

“Guys, guys, come on.” intervened Minseok impatiently. “We need a good idea first. We can discuss whether to include Slytherins or not later.”

“Fine.” immediately agreed Luhan - now he will have enough time to prepare a list of good arguments against including Slytherins.

“Whatever.” sighed Alina.

“Okay, so… does anyone have any good suggestions?” asked Minseok, expectantly looking at friends.

“We could blow something up.” nonchalantly shrugged Jamie, his mouth half-full. Despite stuffing himself with food from the moment it appeared, he still hadn’t finished eating.

“We can do that anytime.” Miseok rejected his suggestion. “No, we need something special to properly celebrate the start of the school year. Something that will scare the out of teachers… You know, something unique…”

“We should firstly decide who deserves our punishment the most.” cut him off Alina, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. “Ms. Vaughan perhaps… She accused Luhan of brewing that polyjuice potion, even though she knows he can barely put together a simple potion to cure boils without completely destroying his cauldron.”

“Hey! I’m not that bad.” immediately protested Luhan, earning a skeptical look from Minseok.

“You’re right – you’re far worse.” sighed Alina, completely ignoring the offended tone in his voice. “I wonder who actually did it and why.” she murmured absently.

“Did what?”

“Brew the polyjuice potion.”

“Well, who knows.”

Alina seemed to want to say something, but was interrupted by the principal who suddenly rose to his feet, his hands raised into the air. “As many of you already know, one of our students lost her life during this summer.” he announced solemnly. “Let’s all take a moment of silence to honor Alethea Griffin.”

A grave silence immediately fell on to the great hall and erupted into surprised whispers right after the principal started talking again. Luhan could tell that many of his fellow students didn’t know about the tragic event – the truth was clearly exhibited on their pale shocked faces and wide eyes. Principal didn’t seem to be bothered by the ruckus his words had caused – he continued to recite the announcements and warnings, finishing his speech by declaring that there had been a change in the staffing and shortly introducing a tall dark woman on his left as Ms. Jamerson.

“That was pretty insensitive.” commented Minseok as they - on their way out of the great hall - walked past one of Alethea’s friends who was silently sobbing in her handkerchief.

“You’re pretty delusional if you expected something different from Mr. Lestrange.” responded Alina pensively. “Perhaps we should target him this year.”

Luhan already opened his mouth to protest, but Minseok happened to be faster. “Let’s have a discussion tomorrow.” he yawned.

No one disagreed.