Chapter 4

"What?" she said with disbelief and laughed as if she had found what he said extremely funny. In truth, she was shaken. She had hoped that with Professor Dumbledore's word, people would accept what they were being told. Apparently it had not worked with Hugh. She remembered her first day when Umbridge had made that sly comment about her, as if she knew something were amiss. How long would it be before she found out as well? Before Snape found out?

"I've seen the way you act—the way you look."

"I can't help the way I look," she retorted. "You think I don't want to look manlier? Do you know how annoying it gets, always hearing people make fun of me because I look like this?" She hoped some sob story would make him feel bad for ever starting the conversation; perhaps he would even stop other from doing the same.

"I saw the picture you have on that Muggle device you carry," he answered quietly. Muggle device? When had he ever seen her use a Muggle device? The only time she had one out in public was when she was in the library doing research. Had he perhaps been there too? Had she merely been too absorbed researching her assignment?

It was then she remembered earlier today, earlier when she had carelessly removed it from her backpack, visible anyone in her vicinity. Hugh had been there close enough to see and wasn't it only natural to find curiosity in objects one's never seen before?

And then there was the picture. Her heart sank and her brows contracted. How could she possibly talk her way out of this one? Explain away an image of her posing with Margie and Ellie, clad in only a pink bikini? Hugh had evidently already answered his question. He knew she was a girl and nothing she could say could possibly convince him otherwise.

"I…." She couldn't even think of how to begin. She still wanted to believe that she could somehow talk her way out of it and stop those determined blue eyes from observing her. But there, she said it herself.Determined. What choice did she truly have? She decided to do the next best thing. She begged.

"Please Professor, I know that I shouldn't be lying to Snape and that it's wrong, but I swear I wouldn't have done it if there were some other option. It's just so hard to find a place that's accepting. I swear I won't start any trouble. Just please let me stay. I can't leave here. I just can't."

He held up a hand to stop the waterfall of words pouring from her mouth. "What you do is your business. I'm not going to tell Severus or make your life hell. I just needed to know for sure."

He gave her a nod and turned to go, but then remembered something he had meant to caution her about.

"Mist-Miss Kang—"

"I think at this point we've reached a first name basis," she laughed. "It's Yun Soo."

"Well, Yun Soo," he grinned. "Just thought I'd warn you: It's a pretty obvious you're a girl. Honestly, I think the only thing keeping other people from realizing this is the Headmaster."

She groaned. "I'm that obvious?"

"You say words like 'cute' and have feminine features. Yeah, you're obvious," He laughed, waving good-bye as he strolled down the hallway.

When he had finally turned the corner, she hurriedly entered her room and locked the door behind her, pacing the room with her hands pressuring the top of her head. She was an emotional wreck, freaking out, confused and afraid that she wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer. But there was one thing she could not consider. Quitting was not an option. She had dedicated herself to her potions education. How could she suddenly quit now? No, she would have to exert her manliness, talk about sports, watch how other men acted. She needed to stop acting so much like Kang Yun Soo and more like Kang Hyun Soo.

"Fighting!" she whispered to herself with a determined smile on her face.

She entered the Great Hall the next day to the smell of cinnamon rolls and pumpkin spice coffee and the sight of autumn leaves falling from the enchanted ceiling above. She took her customary seat beside Hugh and was about to grab a those two things that had first caught her attention when she stopped to see what the others had gotten. Hugh had a sausage and egg muffin with a mug of black coffee. Snape was ladling steaming gravy with bits of ground beef over soft biscuits torn into pieces. Professor Dumbledore had nothing but a goblet of some drink she couldn't decipher that he drank from sparingly as he conversed with Professor McGonagall.

She glanced once more at the delectable cinnamon rolls and coffee before piling biscuits and gravy onto her plate and pouring out a mug of coffee, straight black. She took a sip and quickly put it down at the taste of the bitter liquid making her taste buds scream in agony. She tried drowning out the taste with the food, but this was a bit too salty for her tastes. None-the-less she ate it begrudgingly in order to quench her growling stomach.

Snape and Hugh had begun discussing a particularly good Quidditch match between the Harpies and the Harriers (although she really couldn't follow it), while she watched the students before her in boredom. It wasn't until one of them mentioned 'Heidelberg' that she truly took interest.

"Wait," she broke in, lips parted. "Heidelberg? As in Heidelberg, Germany?"

"Yeah, you know it?" Hugh asked, turning away from Snape whose expression hardened.

"Yeah, that's the team Margie plays on," she grinned. "Oh, sorry. I meant my roommate, Margret Müller. She's one of their chasers. From what my other roommate, Ellie, says, she's just as wild out on the pitch as she is at home." Her smile slowly disappeared as she finally noticed Hugh looking away uncomfortably. It had gone silent amongst them and it was then she realized that a guy rooming with two girls was a bit strange. When she glanced towards Snape, she could see his criticizing eyes glaring at her, so she buried her nose in Hugh's Daily Prophet to save herself from further embarrassment and began reading the news.

A few minutes later, Snape remembered what he had meant to tell Kang that morning. He glanced towards him and smirked at his look of utter boredom, eyes mindlessly wandering from one sentence to the next. How laughable, this pathetic show of manliness. It wouldn't surprise him to find out he was gay.

"Mr. Kang," he said. Kang looked towards him meekly.

"Yes, Professor?"

"You do not need to turn in an essay to me today. You'll be learning about the properties of different ingredients. Your next potion will be due tomorrow evening."

Oh, finally gonna teach me something? She thought this bitterly, but obediently answered, "Fine."

Snape turned away and resumed eating as she relished in the thought of having a day free from the library, although she really wasn't sure what to do. She eventually decided to visit Margie and Ellie, even though she's meant to do it on the weekend. She knew Ellie didn't have work today. She just hoped Margie wasn't out practicing.

"Professor Dumbledore," she called. He glanced in her direction with a pleasant attentiveness she never received from Snape. "Would you mind if I use your fireplace to go home? I wanted to visit my roommates since I have the free time."

"Of course you may," he replied. "But I dare say it would be much more convenient for yourself if you use the one in Professor Snape's office; it's much closer."

She couldn't help but smile at the sight of Snape's fingers curl into a fist as he stared straight ahead with a smoldering glare that could have set the fluttering banners above aflame.

"How very kind of him," she beamed, smiling at him defiantly.

Hugh glanced between the potions master and his student as they stared at each other with the fierceness of a thunderstorm. Really, what could Albus be thinking, putting two people of such explosive personalities together? Surely he knew they wouldn't get along the moment he had met Yun Soo. She was much too lively and he much too sullen. What could possibly come about but constant quarreling?

Then the phrase came to him: quarreling like an old married couple. His eyebrows contracted. There was no way, absolutely no way. He locked onto Albus's puzzling smile, a secret hidden behind those glistening blue eyes that watched the couple with the shrewdness of a matchmaker.

Yun Soo had returned to her room and dressed in a black v-neck, black harem pants, and a Nordic pattern jacket before setting off for Snape's office. The door was surprisingly unlocked; however, the one leading from his office to the potions classroom was wide open, probably so he could make sure she wouldn't try to sabotage any of his belongings. She smirked. She had to give him points for not being a complete idiot.

She sneaked past the door as quietly as she could so as not to cause a disturbance and made it to the fireplace. A glance told her that no one had noticed. The students in his classroom today seemed to be second years all much too preoccupied and disheveled by the task at hand. Whatever potion they were making, they were clearly concocting wrong. Moreover, it didn't help that Snape patrolled the room with the severity of a prison guard. The air was singed with the fire of his bleating voice, criticizing everyone and everything his steely gaze found. If he taught them the same way he taught her—and by 'taught' she meant not teaching at all—they had nothing to look forward to except years of misery.

The floo powder was contained in a clear glass jar atop the fireplace from which she took a handful, taking care to spill some of it upon the swept stone floor. Then, with as low of a voice as she could muster, she commanded, "Elle Thatcher's home," and disappeared in a whirl of green flames.

When she reappeared, it was to the warmth of nostalgia and the light pink walls that accented the home she shared with her two best friends. Margie was lying on the raggedy blue couch they really needed to get rid of and was watching a Muggle show on animals. In the air was the familiar sent of cinnamon rolls and the hum of the oven.

"Hey, girly," Margie beamed, looking up at her in pleasant surprise as she walked over to where she lay. "How's Hogwarts been treating you?"

"Fairly well," she grinned, leaning down to give her a hug. "I'm surprised to find you here."

"Yeah, well it seems there's an uncontrollable raining problem on the pitch. Probably the work of some angry Harpies fan."

"I'd heard that that game you guys played was pretty heated."

"Is that Yun Soo?" floated in a voice from the kitchen and appearing before the archway was the figure of a woman in her early thirties with medium length hair and a smile that could always somehow brighten up her day. Yun Soo ran up to hug her, smiling as Ellie laughed, "How are you, dear? How are you?"

When they pulled away, Yun Soo glided to the sage pot heating on the kitchen stove and sampled some of the decadent white icing bubbling inside.

"Hey, get away from there!" Ellie scolded, taking out her wand. A cooking lid and wooden spoon righted themselves from their position atop the counter and flew over to where Yun Soo stood, the spoon commencing to slap her hand away as the lid landed with a satisfied plop on the pot.

"Ah, I miss your rolls," she sighed contently, shooing the spoon away with the hand that was not being licked clean.

"And I don't miss you eating them before they're ready. You'll make yourself sick like that."

"Oh, what do I care?"

"You'll care when we all go drinking today," Margie called out.

"Drinking?" Yun Soo smiled, appearing before the archway. Margie had changed out her sweats for a pair of jeans. "Do tell."

"We'll just take a little floo powder out to Hogsmeade, go shopping, and then hit up The Three Broomsticks. Oh, and we could go visit Hogwarts too. You'd like that, wouldn't you Ellie?"

"And when exactly did you come up with this plan?" Ellie asked, coming up behind Yun Soo with her eyebrow cocked.

"Just now, like always," Yun Soo grinned. Ellie let out an exasperated sigh, but then smiled as she magically changed into a long sleeved sweater dress.

They entered the fireplace and reappeared at the Owl Office in Hogsmeade (to Ellie's urging Yun Soo finally sent a letter explaining her situation to her parents), from there making a tour of all the essentials in the town: Gladrags Wizardwear, Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, Zonko's Joke Shop, and Honeydukes Sweetshop. Yun Soo laughed as her two friends relived their adventures with Sirius and Lupin in the village. As evening arrived, they enjoyed a couple of glasses of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey. By the time they made it to Hogwarts, she felt a cheerful buzz tingling her skin.

It seemed that dinner was just ending as they arrived in the Entrance Hall. There was a small trickle of people leaving and in them she noticed a familiar tuff of dirty blonde hair and called out to it. Hugh turned to the sound of her voice and smiling, walked over to where she stood with two women—one face he would know anywhere and the other somewhat familiar.

"Hey, Professor," Yun Soo grinned. "I wanted to introduce you to my two roommates: Margaret Müller and Elle Thatcher."

"How do you do?" He said, shaking hands with both of them. "Ms. Müller, the goals you made in last night's match were fantastic. Where are you all in the rankings now? 4th?"

"Yeah, just 50 points behind Portugal now."

"You've got yourself quite a friend there, Kang," Hugh approved, glancing toward her with a smile.

"Whoever told you we were just friends?" Margie winked, wrapping her arms around Yun Soo's shoulders and then giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Margie!" Ellie choked out in surprise.

"What, you wanting to compete? Who do you like better?" she whispered into Yun Soo's ear.

"Guys, he already knows," she replied nonchalantly.

"And you're lucky Professor Snape doesn't know about it," he muttered, leaning towards her as Margie let go.

"Speaking of Snape, how have your lessons been going?" Ellie inquired.

"More like exams," she scoffed. "He doesn't teach me anything! His class is so useless. I'm essentially teaching myself; all he ever does is stand there and criticize my work. I swear, he's a complete and utter jackass!"

Yun Soo suddenly felt as if some dark aura were pulsating behind her and she looked back to see none-other than Severus Snape fuming. By the whispers spreading around the hall, she could tell that she had evidently spoken much louder than she had meant to. With every sound that reached Snape's ears, he was becoming more and more irate.

"Follow me," he quavered, glared at the others with disdain, and then took a war path straight through a crowd that quickly dispersed in different directions. Biting her lip, she reluctantly followed him down a deserted hallway. Once they were far away from praying eyes, he whipped around to face her with the fury of a hurricane.

"Mr. Kang," he seethed, glaring down his hooked nose with eyes as cold and merciless as a storm. She stared back from under her eyelashes, hoping to feign a look of both remorse and innocence. "You applied for this apprenticeship, did you not?"

"Yes sir," she mumbled even though she felt no regret whatsoever over what she said.

"I would think then, that you would take more care to keep it. But then again, you've proven your stupidity more than once."

Her muscles tightened but she would not allow herself to speak.

"I will not accept cheek from anyone, Mr. Kang, and especially not from someone lucky enough to have the position you have. So you'll learn to keep your tongue in check, you'll be preparing various potion ingredients after every lesson for a week until you simply cannot move your hands anymore. Next time it'll be your apprenticeship. Am I understood?"

"Yes Professor, she answered obediently.

"I assume I won't need to tell you ever again to refrain from calling me a 'complete jackass' in front of the entire school."

She almost laughed. Good to know he got the message.

"No sir."

He didn't respond. He gave her one last burning look before disappearing down the hallway. Yun Soo retreated back to the safety of the Great Hall to find her friends still as they were, waiting for her return.

"Ah, you're back. Was it bad?" Ellie asked with concern.

"Who cares? That was brilliant, mate! His expression was priceless," Margie laughed, clapping her on the back.

"I've got detention for a week now, but knowing everyone heard me call him a jackass was definitely worth it."

"You know, he'll make your life hell if you push him too far," Hugh warned.

"Well two can play at that game," she smirked.

When Yun Soo entered the Potions classroom that evening, her buzz had disappeared and been replaced with a slight headache that made her none too pleased to see Snape writing on the chalkboard at least thirty different ingredients with information on them. Thankfully she had had the foresight to bring along a quill and some parchment or else she would have further angered those jerky movements he made, bringing only more misery upon herself.

"Sit down and start copying these," he snapped, pausing for a moment to glace at her with disdain before resuming his task.

She tried to copy them down as diligently as she could, but soon he began talking about them as well, adding even more information that he warned she would need later. She kept having to stop duplicating the words on the board in order to make notes in the margins of her parchment and before long, his words had surpassed what she had written, forcing her to abbreviate everything sloppily. It was beyond frustrating. Not only that, but her bangs kept falling into her eyes, which were causing her enough trouble as it was with their far-sightedness.

Snape paused in his lecture momentarily as he watched him put on a pair of cute glasses and then hold back his hair when he resumed writing again. Snape blinked. He recollected his roaming thoughts and then continued with what he was saying.

Five minutes later, Yun Soo heard a whooshing noise and looked up in alarm to find that Snape had turned over the board and begun writing even more information on the other side. She slammed down her quill in frustration.

"Professor," she protested. He neither turned around nor asked what it was she wanted and merely continued with what he was doing.

"Professor Snape, you may be older and my teacher, but that does not mean you can simply disregard me and disrespect me. You antagonized me the moment I stepped foot into the castle, and would you please have the decency to look at me when I speak to you!"

Snape's hand stopped quivering and then he slowly turned around to stare at her with an indiscernible expression.

"Professor," she began quietly. "I can't write as fast as you're going. Could you please go back to the other side? I didn't get everything you wrote down there." For a moment he just stared at her.

"Hurry up," he finally uttered irritably, flipping the board back to the other side, and then collapsed into his chair. She muttered a hurried word of gratitude before continuing with her frantic note-taking.

Yun Soo left Snape's classroom that day with hands sore not only from all the notes she had taken, but from the blisters that had formed from the constant rubbing of a pestle against her hand as she was forced to crush a bag of moonstones for his classes the next day. That would be less than thrilling when she tried to write the essay (which she thankfully was not required to memorize) for the latest assignment he had given her. She would have to find some sort of ointment for them when morning finally arrived.

Still uploading old chapters from Quizilla ^^; I'll probably have some sort of comment each time I post a new chapter when it gets to that point (chapter 7). On the flipside, if anyone has any sort of constructive criticism, please message me! No one on quizilla ever does and I know my story isn't perfect ._.