ㄖㄩㄒ匚卂丂ㄒ- ㄒ乂ㄒ

I

Two weeks before that night, the grand hall was covered in cheery students. Laughter echoed from the high regal looking ceilings, voices bouncing off of the walls. Cutlery scraped against plates.

There, on one of the long wooden tables, sat a group of five boys, all laughing over their now slightly cold food. "I can't believe she messed up so badly!" The eldest boy, Choi Yeonjun, managed to get out through his laughter. "I know right?! How do you mess up so bad that a potion explodes and turns you purple?!" The red-headed Ravenclaw, known as Kang Taehyun added, rubbing his eyes of joyful tears behind his golden circular glasses. "Not even Huening messed up that bad!" The other glasses wearer, Choi Beomgyu remarked. The Hufflepuff in question faked offense "Oh, buggar off! At least I can get on a broom!". Hueningkai sent a pointed glare at his housemate, who had zoned out completely, eyes focused completely on Yeonjun, mouth slightly open. "Oi, Soobin!" This snapped the other out of his daydream, as the rest of the group turned to look at him. "Ah, sorry! What was that Kai?"

The youngest sighed in frustration. "You know what, nevermind. Clearly there are more important things for you to zone out like that. What were you thinking about?" This sudden question caused Soobin's dark eyes to widen out of panic and he quickly thought of an excuse. "Uhh, I was thinking about that History of Magic essay I have to do...?" He was unsure whether this excuse would actually get past the sharp minds of his friends, one of them in particular.

Taehyun let out a sigh "It's not a hard subject if you actually pay attention instead of sleeping, you know." The bunny-like Hufflepuff thanked Merlin that he fooled the younger Ravenclaw. "Yeah, but you're just smart Taehyun. All of your mock O.W.L. exams were Os, and they weren't even the real thing..." Yeonjun let out a laugh at this. "He'll find a way to get them in the real things. Did you guys see the eye bags he had during the mocks? I bet he stayed up studying all week."

Beomgyu let out a snicker, rolling his green and brown eyes "Yeah, you could of hid the entire curriculum's textbooks in there. Besides, I think they made the mocks harder than the actual tests!" This is followed by an exhausted sigh from Soobin. "Let's hope they are. N.E.W.T mocks were a nightmare..." To this, Yeonjun gave a nod in agreement. "Yeah..."

It was at this point where Taehyun's dark, calm eyes flickered with what seemed to be panic for a moment. He ate the last bite of lunch before standing up, and saying "I'm going to get going then. I'm going to the toilet and then back to my dorm. I'll probably see you guys at supper!" With that, the cherry haired wizard walked out of the room in a hurry. This was nothing new, the boys were used to Taehyun's disappearance on the timetable, because he had the entire afternoon free to study.

A miniature slap fight between Hueningkai and Beomgyu later, Soobin felt someone bump harshly into his shoulder, and muttering an apology. He turned around a little late, seeing three girls walking out of the hall. Looking at the floor, he noticed a Charms textbook that one of the girls seemed to of dropped on impact. "Ah, I'll be right back guys. One of those girls dropped something!" With that, the older Hufflepuff set off out the door, provoking a few confused stares from other students.

"And this is why people think we're weird huh?"Hueningkai commented, shaking his head at the older who looked like he left on some sort of mission. "Maybe. Probably also because we're all purebloods and aren't forced to be friends by our families, because all of the people they wanted us to be friends with are complete asses." Yeonjun commented, Beomgyu snorting from the last part of his statement. Then, a little melodic ping sounded, causing the oldest student to sheepishly pull out his phone and read the intrusive notification. The younger Slytherin swore that he saw Yeonjun's jaw clench, and his face go a shade paler. This was quickly concealed by a wide smile, and a neck scratch. "Sorry you two, I have a potions group project to go and work on. Enjoy the rest of your lunch!" With a goodbye given, he scurried out of the room, looking at his phone, likely for the meet up location.

Kai lets out a tired sigh, and receives a shoulder rub from the older. "Are the courses for N.E.W.T.s as bad as they are for O.W.L.s...?" At this, Beomgyu chuckles and fluffs the boy's hair, causing the other to pout a little, before fixing his hair. "N.E.W.T stands for Nastily Exhausting Wizard Test Level, why would it be better? I wish it was, but unfortunately the system permanently flips off our brain cells." At this, Hueningkai let out a groan of defeat, and rested his head on the table. "Gyu, would you mind casting Arvada Kedavra on me now so I don't have to do the exams and fail them just to go home for my parents to kill me-" He looked up at the Slytherin with puppy eyes, who could only say with a grin "You won't fail, because Taehyun won't let you." At this, the youngest let out a snicker, nodding in agreement with the statement. "True. That boy won't let me sleep unless I can name all the spells we learnt in Defence Against The Dark Arts backwards." Suddenly Hueningkai seems to remember something. He bolts upright, checks his bag and throws it over his shoulder, before clumsily standing up off of the wooden bench. The Hufflepuff starts speed walking out of the room with no explanation. He then realises this and yells back at his friend "I have homework to do for Muggle Studies next lesson! I'll talk to you later Gyu, tell Hyun to save me a seat if he comes back!"

And like that, Beomgyu was left alone to finish his food. Shortly after he finished his now stone cold food, the Slytherin felt a spindly hand curl around his shoulder. With a gulp, he turns around to find the hand belongs to Leo Silanvus, a slender, angular boy, his pointed face adorned with a sharp nose, sour mouth and deep-set yellowish green eyes, partially covered by sandy blonde bangs, gelled perfectly into place, unmoving with motion. Behind him stood his friends (or as Beomgyu liked to call them, his brutes), Otto Zemenar, a short and stout boy from Turkey, head baring a shock of black hair, trimmed into a firm crew cut, and face harvesting a large, wide nose, and beady hooded hazel eyes. And then there was the second brute, Jintao Devlin, a muscular boy who's father was from China, stern mono-lidded ice blue eyes accompanied a crooked button nose, and pale lips permanently twisted into a frown, topped off with an unstyled mop of jet black hair, streaked through with white stripes. Each of these boys held a hateful scowl on their faces, hard eyes sending chills into Beomgyu's soul, especially from the blond. Leo suddenly pulled his hand back, causing the Hufflepuff to almost fall backwards of his seat.

It didn't take anything else for him to tell that the three boys were clearly not in a talking mood, and he rapidly picked his backpack up and slung it over his shoulder. Reluctantly standing up, the trio silently walked out of the door, observing his moves with steel eyes, just in case he tried to run. With a shaky inhale, he followed after them, reassuring himself that this was nothing new. Turning his gaze back to the now empty space, he smiled at the thoughts of earlier's conversation. He had his friends by his side, and that was his happy place. Nothing else mattered in this school, all that mattered was that he found his haven.

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First chapter done! I have big plans for this story, so I hope this starts it well!

Little moons, what are your Hogwarts houses?
I'm a Ravenclaw!

Anyways, that's all from me. See you all in the next chapter my little moons, and stay safe!
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