Snake Pit (Ryeji)

Getting Things Sorted

It was the start of term, the first day of sixth year, and Yeji sat twiddling her thumbs staring up at the hundreds of candles suspended above her, lighting the room in a bright orange glow. The noise of excited chattering buzzed around her, echoing around the great hall.

With a loud bang the great doors at the far end burst open and Professor Minatozaki strode in, a gaggle of first years cautiously following behind her like lost ducklings. Yeji noticed that far at the back of the pack was a girl that looked much taller, much older too. Yeji had never seen her before and wondered who she was.

But before her thoughts could linger any longer on the what the girl might be doing, the headmaster, Professor Kim, stood up and began to introduce the new first years to the school, the usual ramblings about how dangerous it was and where not to go unless you wanted to meet an unfortunate end. The shocked whispers of the youngest students pulling an amused chuckle out of Yuna, a Gryffindor student sitting next to her. She was a friendly girl, not that Yeji was particularly close with her, but Yuna always made an effort to talk to her whenever they shared classes. Yeji in general was a fairly quiet person, she wasn't shy, but she wasn't exactly the life of the party like Yuna.

A couple of tables over she saw one of the Slytherin students, Karina, making a disgusted face at her but she pretended she hadn't seen. Karina had made it well known she hated muggle-born students very early on in their school career and since then she and her friends had taken every opportunity to remind Yeji of that fact. At first she had always gotten upset and run off crying whenever they'd called her names in front of other people but eventually Yeji had given up trying to stop them and so now she simply did her best to ignore it. Not always the easiest when they shared so many classes, but that was just life.

Suddenly Professor Minatozaki's voice sounded out through the great hall and Yeji snapped her eyes back to the front to see the sorting hat being lifted onto one of the first years' heads. After a few seconds the unmistakable call of "GRYFFINDOR!" Sounded from the hat and a great cheer went up from her table. Yeji clapped heartily as she watched the nervous eleven year old shuffle over to where a few of her fellow house mates were beckoning her to come sit with them.

After a long list of names and houses had been read, cheers going back and forth between the four tables, it was the last person's turn and the cry came "HUFFLEPUFF!" A resounding last cheer rose from the table swathed in yellow and she saw two of her classmates, Chaeryeong and Lia clapping with huge smiles on their faces. Those two were practically inseparable in and out of classes and Yeji wondered briefly if she'd ever even seen them apart from one another. However her thoughts were then again interrupted as Professor Kim stood up once more to speak.

"If I might have your attention please." Came the loud booming voice. "May I introduce to you all our new Defense Against The Dark Arts professor, Professor Jeon Jungkook." A teacher with dark black hair and a friendly smile stood up and bowed to everyone. "And last but not least." Professor Kim continued, "This here is Shin Ryujin," he said motioning to the older girl who was still standing next to Professor Minatozaki. "She is transferring from Durmstrang Academy and will be joining our sixth year students. I hope you all will give her a very warm welcome." Yeji's eyebrows rose at the information and immediately hundreds of whispered words circulated the room. Next to her she heard Yuna mumble.

"I didn't know we took transfer students?"

Yeji glanced back at the girl, who's hands were clutching nervously at her robes. She was called forward toward the sorting hat and slowly approached it, sitting on the wooden stool in front of the entire school. All eyes on her, including Yeji's.

The sorting hat was still for a minute or so while it considered until the name came. "SLYTHERIN!" Gasps and whispered chatter filled the room, applause slowly making its way down the Slytherin benches. Yeji looked and saw Karina and her friends clapping with a look of concentration plastered on their faces. They were probably trying to decide whether they liked the idea of this unusual new student that was joining them.

But just as soon as Ryujin had sat down everyone's attention quickly turned to the huge feast that appeared in front of them. The happy hubbub of hungry teenagers drowning out all else.

"If she's from Durmstrang and she's been sorted into Slytherin, surely that's already a bad sign." She overheard Yeonjun who was sitting opposite her say as she tucked into some fried chicken.

"Yeah, Durmstrang already has a bad reputation with past students." Someone else replied.

"You know they teach the dark arts there, like as part of the curriculum." Jisung piped up.

"Wait so your saying she's trained in using the dark arts?!" Yeonjun asked, his eyes wide.

"Exactly." Jisung replied.

After ten minutes of speculations being thrown back and forth around the table about the new student in their year, Yeji was bored and went back to eating the various delicious foods in front of her. However she could not deny the curiosity that still bubbled inside her. 'What was this new girl like and why had she transferred?' There had never been anyone else transfered here in Yeji's whole time at Hogwarts. She took a vague sweeping glance in the direction of the new student, her dark hair with blonde highlights easy to pick out amongst the rows of green and black robes. She didn't look to be talking to anyone. Perhaps she's shy? Maybe she's just hungry?

Yeji wondered if she shared any classes with her, not that that mattered too much. Yeji wasn't exactly fond of the idea of getting to know a Slytherin, she felt like the house name spoke for itself, Yeonjun's words coming back to her as she finished the last scrapings of her pudding.

Well, she would probably hear more about her sooner or later. For now she had to worry about unpacking and then getting a good night's sleep.