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𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆
𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄
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Without saying a word, Cedric grabbed Jin-woo's hand and ran, pulling him along as soon as the swarm near the Great Hall cleared. They had to go through a door, down a flight of stairs, and take a couple of turns left and right before meeting the rest of Hufflepuff House. They flocked around the entrance—a pile of large barrels about his height—but something wasn't right. From the younger to the older students, they were drenched in what he could only assume was vinegar. Iaia Cruz loved putting it on her salads, leaving the smell forever engraved on his mind.
"You both missed the shower." Rivers left the chattering crowd to pull them aside, dripping in vinegar from head to toe. "These first-years have a better sense of humour than the last. They were the first to burst out laughing."
"Wait, you did this on purpose?" Jin-woo asked, pointing at the drenched crowd.
"It's a tradition for new prefects," said Cedric, like that made more sense. "That reminds me, you haven't met a single portrait yet. You'll need to make friends with some of them if you want to sneak into the kitchens."
"Oh, we've got a daring one." Rivers chuckled, patting Jin-woo's shoulder, smearing the reeking vinegar into his robes. "Can't wait until tonight's second feast, huh? I get it. So, when are we going?"
Jin-woo turned to Cedric before he could form a single thought, and he wasn't disappointed. They had a vague hour to leave the common room, and a plan to avoid Mrs Norris or Filch if they ever crossed paths. However, after heading to the kitchens, there was yet another place he wanted to visit. Cedric wasn't keen on sneaking into the library, and it didn't help that Jin-woo refused to explain why it couldn't wait until morning, but agreed under one condition. They wouldn't stay too long, just enough for him to grab a book or two and then return to the common room.
"I don't believe it. Our rule-breakers sneaking into the library?" asked the portrait of a beautiful broad woman in a purple gown. "My dear children, you'd have to be idiots to get caught. If Mr Filch hears students are out of bed, the library's the last place he'll look."
A prefect approached, only to dry people's robes, yet turned out much more helpful than that. They introduced the three boys to a few portraits that were used to 'play' look-outs. Between them, the portrait of a little girl inside a wooden hut, whose window showed a magnificent view of the clear sunlit waters of the vast sea.
"You're just like me!" exclaimed the little girl of the portrait, Paloma. Jin-woo couldn't quite see the resemblance. If he was a copy of his father, maybe they would look something alike, but aside from their dark hair, they were opposites. "It's been so long. Almost fifty years!"
He couldn't find a proper response to that, so he kept quiet while Cedric asked about Paloma's favourite sea shell. Call it magic, call it destiny—actually, please don't—or simple curiosity, but Jin-woo's sight fell to the bottom right of the portrait's wooden frame. A single phrase, carved with an impressive precision and pretty handwriting, glowed under the faint candlelight for him to read, "To my dear Paloma, who flew away too soon."
"Fifty years ago," he mumbled, more to himself than anyone else. "Must have met my grandparents."
Somehow, he could almost picture it. Fifty years ago, when the surname Kim achieved the prestige equal to any other 'pureblood' family. When every bedroom in the old castle they had for a Manor wasn't an empty memory, and people other than House-elves strolled through the gardens and ran across the corridors. A happy family that perhaps was never happy at all, seeing how easily it broke apart at the birth of a non-magic child.
"You will help us, won't you, Paloma?" Rivers showed the little girl the greatest puppy eyes ever seen, but that didn't sway her.
"Only if he asks," said Paloma, pointing at Jin-woo, who looked behind himself before realising who she was talking about. "No puppy eyes—I'm the best at them. You won't surpass me."
He didn't need to give it any thought. "We won't make it without you, Paloma. We really need your help. Please, would you?"
She gave him the longest of sighs, but eventually nodded. "I've heard those twins won't stay put, so it won't be a chore to keep that cat off of you. Now go, I've got a game of poker to win at Madam's Saloon."
Seeing how the portraits were grunting, missing their summer-long peace and quiet, the three boys left to join the others at the barrels once more. The prefects tapped the right barrel this time, at the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff, which was catchy enough to not forget. Then, the lid slid off to uncover a passage so narrow barely two people could fit side by side.
Four to five steps brought them to a short ramp between two large pots of what Jin-woo guessed were magical plants. Helga Hufflepuff herself, in portrait form of course, was there, hanging over the central fireplace, to welcome them into the common room. She smiled, bowed, and, with half the common room plants in tow, performed a special song for the first-years.
Just as the song finished, two prefects holding a stack of notes each walked up to the fireplace, standing on either side of it. One of them, the one on the left-hand side, greeted the first-years to their 'second home', the common room. "As you might have heard, Hogwarts has the... notion that boys and girls should be divided into different dormitories. Boys' corridor's through the left door."
"Girls, yours is through the right door," added the other prefect.
"Your dormitories won't change unless there are special circumstances. However, you'll see the number carved on your dormitory door change every year." The prefect on the left looked down at their papers and then carried on. "Right, you're a good batch this year, so we'll have to divide you into several dormitories that will be colour coded for about a month. Unless you want to keep it. If you do, please find either one of us, or Professor Sprout, the Head of our House."
"Now, before we call you for the dormitory arrangements, a few more announcements." The prefect to the right lowered the papers and smiled at the first-year crowd. "The dormitories are magically locked, so only students living there, or someone they invite, can go inside. Anyone can open the door from inside, so please don't wait around if someone lets you into their room and then leaves. Now, outside of the dormitories, you may go anywhere you want without permission, including the opposite corridor."
"If our older students haven't spoilt the surprise for you yet, here in Hufflepuff, we have..." The prefect on the left chuckled faintly. "A kind of game, I guess. Others don't care enough to find this, but we, Hufflepuffs, are particularly good finders. So what better challenge for us than finding what's hidden? Did you know that here at Hogwarts,"—they motioned under Helga Hufflepuff's portrait, which had long slips of parchment hanging off the wall with the names of different students over the years—"we have a hidden swimming pool? These are the students who have found it. They each also left behind a hint. When you find it, be it alone or with friends, don't enter your name without saying anything. We like to make a little celebration."
Cedric leaned over to Jin-woo, a hand resting on his shoulder, while whispering, "Bet the next name on that list will be yours."
"Don't get your hopes up," Jin-woo replied, holding back a laugh at the thought of running around through the castle in search of a swimming pool, of all things.
The prefect on the boys' side cleared his throat to recover the attention of the murmuring crowd. "First-years, remember to come back here in an hour. You won't need to bring anything other than your appetite, your pyjamas, and a pillow if you don't like those on the sofas. Also, a reminder to older students, you are allowed to participate and stay for as long as you like, but you're not obliged, so if anybody needs their beauty sleep, you may go to bed."
Some older students cheered, others whispered among them, but by far the most excited of them all were the first-years. Jin-woo caught a couple of them holding in their breaths when the dormitories were announced. He understood, of course. Seven years living with the same people could either be heaven or hell. And he sure wasn't above them. When they were gone to their dormitories, it was his turn to hear where he had been placed. He wasn't sure if it was a blessing or a curse that he shared a dormitory with Diggory, Rivers, and another two boys.
Close to no students flocked around the common room when Jin-woo followed Cedric and Rivers through the left door. At first glance, he didn't think much of the corridor. It had seven doors, one for each class year, and a carved wooden badger to greet them. However, as they went deeper into the third-year corridor, with plenty of rooms for every five or so students, he was sure he had stepped into a sett.
Similar to the common room, the dormitories were a perfect circular room with wooden windows near the ceiling, where vines danced across the wooden beams. Kitty jumped out of his hood and hopped onto the only unclaimed bed. His trunk was already there, lying untouched by the side of his new desk.
"KimMuñoz, right?" asked a boy who looked way too young to be a third-year.
"Just Christopher is fine," Jin-woo replied. "You are...?"
"Ezra." The boy offered his hand, but his owl misunderstood and pecked at it, demanding treats. "Hooty, I don't have treats... Fine, have this." Ezra pulled a cookie from his robes' pockets and offered it to the owl, then turned back to him. "Ezra Prinz."
Of all the things he could have said, Jin-woo had to go and blurt out, "You named your owl Hooty?"
Ezra's face turned red. "I was eleven!"
"That's not an excuse,Prince," said the last roommate he had yet to meet. "I'm Liam O'Connor, by the way."
"Like you can talk,Lily. Your owl's name is Fergus," said Ezra, his flushed cheeks growing redder by the second.
Jin-woo wasn't sure what kind of name he expected for an owl, but that was certainly not it. "Fergus?"
"It was my great grandfather's name." Liam sighed deeply as his owl landed on his shoulder, impatiently pecking at his face for treats. "He had the same bad temper when we found him. Wouldn't listen to us unless we called him like that."
Fergus stayed perched on Liam's shoulder, weighing down like a log, and he looked like one too. His spotted brown feathers stuck together like a block of mud. And yet, he wasn't the ugliest owl Jin-woo had ever seen. Tía Abuela Franz had a knack for finding peculiar things, animals between them, which could go from the most nightmare-inducing sights to something right out of a fairy-tale.
Despite being the only non-owl in the room, Kitty defended herself with ease. Jin-woo hadn't doubted it for a second. After having experienced his grandparents' zoo-like home, four curious owls could do nothing. However, that hadn't prepared him for four roommates hanging about the room, chatting, joking, and telling stories he didn't know about.
Irving Rivers, having finally introduced himself, was midway through explaining their plan to sneak out to their other two roommates. He also added further details, like lookouts, scouts, and distractions. However, he had overlooked the crucial detail of how they would leave the common room without raising suspicion. Jin-woo pointed this out, only to be answered with laughter.
"Nobody will ask. It's one of the rules," said Liam.
He frowned at that. As far as he knew, there were no rules outside of what Dumbledore had announced during the feast, and he was sure the Headmaster never mentioned, 'don't ask questions'.
"The Hufflepuff rules," continued Ezra, the side of his mouth curving upwards as he watched Jin-woo's frown deepen. "How did you not see them? They're right beside the hidden swimming-pool parchments."
"Sixth rule, 'If you can sneak something into the common room by yourself, you deserve it'," added Cedric, sporting a wide smile. "That's why nobody will ask questions—well, they might want to know if we'll come right back. Too many people wandering around the kitchens will alert Mrs Norris."
"Right, well." Rivers tossed his trunk on the bed, where it burst, scattering his clothes everywhere. "So much for unpacking first."
Jin-woo glanced up at the ceiling, where a few shirts, belts, and socks were hooked onto the twists of the vines without a hint of ever slipping away. "Need help to get them down?"
Rivers doubted, but soon sighed. "I'll need it. Thanks."
It wouldn't have taken them over five minutes to unhook the clothes with a simple lifting spell, but their roommates insisted on helping, and within a minute, they were all done. This left them to care for their own trunks, which made Jin-woo hesitant to open his in front of everyone else. His sister had helped him pack, so he figured nothing weird was in there, but he still worried something could have slipped by her. Then, with a flick of his wand, Ezra lifted four trunks to his bed, like he had never heard that clothes could be washed and worn again, and he couldn't deny he felt a little better.
"A trunk less than last year?" Liam jumped onto Ezra's bed, having left his own clothes all over his desk and bed. "Our little prince is learning."
"I don't understand how you can bring only one," said Ezra, cheeks still flushed. Jin-woo couldn't help but wonder if they would ever go back to normal. The constant flushed look couldn't be good. "This is why you're always short on shirts. Maybe you should bring another one next year. I'm done sharing with you."
"Please, everything of yours is two sizes too small for me, Prince." Liam leaned in, flashing Ezra a smile Jin-woo couldn't quite decode. It seemed more than just a joke, he would dare say, flirty. "Maybe I should lend you my clothes instead."
A hand squeezed Jin-woo's shoulder, almost making him jump out of his skin. Cedric couldn't wash off the innocent smile on his face, even if he tried, which he didn't. His eyes returned to the trunk on his bed, which was filled with his simplest clothes. He wouldn't lie if he said he missed his usual clothes, the ones even Harry would scrunch his nose at, those that could be odd and ugly, but just... felt right.
"You're lucky third-years can go to Hogsmeade," said Rivers. "You need new clothes, Chris." Cedric hadn't even tried to hide it when he stomped on his foot. "Ouch—Hey! Did I lie? These clothes are way too boring! They're all blue, green, and black."
"That's not for you to say." Cedric shot him a warning look, like daring him to continue talking. "First rule, Rivers, if you can't be nice, be quiet."
"That's fine," said Jin-woo. "He's right. They're boring. But, trust me, boring is better than what I usually wear." When Rivers perked up, Jin-woo removed his robe to show his 'muggle' clothes, which Ji-yoon had only let him wear because they'd be hidden under the robes. "Ugly, isn't it?"
Rivers chuckled, but shook his head. "I think they're brilliant."
"They're not half bad," added Cedric, though that could be purely out of kindness.
"Somehow, I'm not surprised a Kim has no idea how to dress up the 'muggle' way," said Ezra, pushing Rivers aside to rummage through Jin-woo's clothes. "Irving's right." He cut Rivers' attempt at a complaint short and went on. "You need new clothes. Thankfully, I'm here to help you."
"I thought you were..." His lips parted, but he couldn't really finish his phrase.
"Pure-blood? I get that a lot." Ezra leaned back on one of the bed's wooden columns, his face back to its normal, flush-devoid self. "I'm muggleborn. It amazes me how that blows so many wizards' minds. It's like, in their heads, muggles could never be richer than them."
Jin-woo couldn't help but laugh. "Tell me about it. They're still making a fuss about my family buying that forgotten castle and discovering the magical artefacts! We already went through the trouble of registering some with the Ministry. We didn't even have to do that."
To say he didn't miss his home and daily family time would be a lie. But, it would be equally untrue to say he hadn't enjoyed what little of Hogwarts he had lived through, especially as the night went on. Like Cedric had said, nobody asked them a thing when they went to the common room's entrance, much less when they left through the passage.
Jin-woo clutched his fideuà lunchbox to his chest, ready to run off at any sign of Filch or Mrs Norris. However, he shouldn't have worried that much because the kitchens were right around the corner and nothing had happened. Although the boys weren't talking yet, nobody tried to hide their footsteps as much. That was until a little ball of light flashed past the corridor, catching their attention. Cedric tiptoed ahead, peeking out to see who had thrown whatever that light was.
The Weasley twins and Lee came into view, sporting wide grins despite their loud breathing, as if they had been running for hours. Given their reputation as Hogwarts' all-time pranksters, everyone could guess what had made them run through the castle that late at night. The three boys seemed overly proud of it, too.
"Nice to see you again, Pretty Boy. Filch's up, scouting the fourth floor," said Lee, who had given up on breathing through his nose. "We put together a little something for him. He won't be coming down anytime soon."
"Brilliant," replied Jin-woo. "Let's go then. You're also going to the kitchens, right?"
"You bet," said Fred.
Why couldn't Hogwarts just have regular doors? Jin-woo had to contain himself from cursing when he saw everyone stop in front of a painting of a gigantic silver fruit bowl. Before anyone else could, although that wouldn't have been Jin-woo's first thought, Cedric tickled the pear on the painting. It then turned into a green door handle. Holding the door open, he waited as everyone walked in.
In the immense, high-ceilinged room, similar to the upper Great Hall, but with glittering brass pots stacked against the stone walls, Jin-woo was taken aback to find that they weren't alone. Many house-elves were still tending to the pots or standing by the brick fire at the end. A couple of them, in fact, approached like servers would to ask if they would like something. The twins and Lee asked for something with words that Jin-woo didn't know could go together, while the rest of his roommates were a little more civilised. Although he would later search what 'Elephant on a Bicycle' even was.
Cedric led them right to a table next to the fire, where they could eat in dubious peace. It was clear that having the twins and Lee tag along was not part of the plan. Nobody had told the three to find another place to sit, nor had they been invited to join. Jin-woo could tell from Cedric's expression alone that this was not a normal occurrence. Their roommates were also not willing to point it out.
"What's that?" Rivers peered over the table, curious about what was inside Jin-woo's lunchbox.
"Food," he replied.
Rivers butchered his fake laugh. "What kind of food?"
"Fideuà," he said. "My father's is the best in the whole world."
"Can we try?" Liam asked, which made Ezra nod ferociously.
"Well, it's my favourite food..." Jin-woo glanced down at the lunchbox, seeing it way more empty than it really was. "It should be fine. It's not your favourite after all."
"Wasn't that part of your family tradition? I thought you were saving that for when you confess to someone," said Cedric, which claimed even the twins' attention.
"I'd be pretty selfish if I confessed to somebody with my favourite food." He turned to look at Cedric, who stood between him and a drooling Lee. "Besides, sharing is a kind thing to do, isn't it? I'm a Hufflepuff, I should go by our rules. You can try it."
Ezra stopped him from pushing the lunchbox forward. "Better yet, teach us another day how to make it ourselves. You won't have to use the loopholes in your tradition and still do something kind."
They left it at that for the day, with Lee even volunteering to attend the 'cooking class', as so he called it. He claimed he would drag the twins along too, a plan that Jin-woo didn't oppose to. The more people tried it out, the more fideuà would be made, resulting in lots of late-night full-plate snacks.
"Here, sir." A House-elf, whose sight was dancing between the plate in their hands and the floor, shuffled closer to Jin-woo, avoiding locking eyes as they gave him the plate filled with different cookies. "A present, sir."
"Thank you." He hesitated, but took the plate, taking the chance to lower his head to meet eyes with the House-elf. "May I know your name?"
"Not important, sir." The House-elf lowered their head, standing still like a statue, and whispered. "Certain eventsmusthappen, sir. Time advises not to meddle outside of one's limits."
Jin-woo dropped his fork, but didn't give the House-elf any time to pick it up as he bent down to get it, using the closeness to whisper back. "Tell time I said, 'Watch me'."
For an impertinent child, Jin-woo had a surprising bit of patience. He didn't say another word to the House-elf, nor stopped them when they went back to their duties. Like a human, rationality wasn't a priority, but a 'guideline'.
"Can I have those?" Rivers gestured to the cookies, which he hadn't touched. "They're not your favourites, are they?"
He simply pushed the entire plate to the centre of the table. "Have them all."
Lee helped Rivers empty the plate, taking a few more cookies than he could eat, which he then gave to the twins. Having finished their visit to the kitchens, Jin-woo gathered his lunchbox and, despite the complaints of many House-elves, washed it himself. With his wet hands hovering over the sink, he turned his head everywhere, trying to find either a cloth or a towel to dry them.
A dim yellow light flowed over to his hands, engulfing them with a sweet fragrance that didn't go away until they were dry. Unsure what to do, Jin-woo glanced behind him, expecting to see either Cedric or another of his roommates standing there. He was fairly surprised to see George walking up to him with the empty plate of cookies in his hand.
He wasn't sure what to say, but a simple 'Thanks' ought to be enough.
George left the plate soaking in the sink and turned to him. "Look out on your way to the library."
"How—?"
"Rivers." They both glanced over at the table, where Ezra, Lee, and Rivers were making a bet about something they couldn't quite hear. "He's boasting about having a 'daring newbie'. I think he forgot why that's rare. Peeves, the poltergeist, enjoys messing with anyone who's up past curfew, especially on their first night out. He doesn't bother Fred, Lee, and I as much, but he'll sure make a racket if he sees any of you."
"Then you could come with us," said Jin-woo. "Or do you have more things to 'put together'?"
"No, we're done for tonight." George chuckled and leaned on the counter behind them. "We're heading down that corridor anyway, so we can walk you there. By the way, why are you going to the library so late?"
"Right now?" Jin-woo smiled. "Out of spite."