Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

For Myoui Mina, transferring to Hogwarts was certainly… an adjustment.

After all, she’d spent the last ten years of her life at Mahoutokoro— the school was all she’d ever known. She’d grown up there, learned every bit of magic she knew there. But then her father decided to expand his empire, Myoui Brooms, which unfortunately meant moving his family halfway across the globe.

Mina knew her father was just doing what he thought was best for their family, so she didn’t hold any resentment toward him for his decision. It wasn’t as if there was anyone important she was leaving behind in Japan, anyway— sure, she’d had a handful of friends, but at Mahoutokoro, everyone knew who she was. Myoui brooms were essentially the most luxurious brooms money could buy, so the name— her name— held a significant weight (a weight that often felt more like a burden). Mina was always keenly aware that the people she called friends wouldn’t have associated with her had her name been anything different.

At least Hogwarts would be a fresh beginning. It would be like wiping the slate completely clean— a new start.

After all, everything was certainly different at Hogwarts— even the process of arriving at the school was not what she was used to. Instead of riding on the backs of enormous storm petrels as she did at Mahoutokoro, she was faced with a long journey on a hulking steam engine. Her father wanted to deliver her to the castle himself, but Mina had begged him to allow her to ride the train with everyone else. The last thing she wanted was to draw unnecessary attention to herself on her first day.

No, Mina’s plan for her sixth year was to keep her head down and blend in with the crowd— as much as possible, anyway, considering how much she stood out already. Besides the younger students who were obviously first years and had not yet been Sorted, everyone else wore colored ties and other emblems of their House. It would be clear to anyone who saw her that Mina was a transfer student who hadn’t yet been Sorted— she didn’t look young enough to be mistaken for a first year and her coarse, heavy robes were plain black with no sort of distinguishing colors (another adjustment from what she’d been used to at Mahoutokoro).

After carefully weaving through throngs of boisterous students crowding the hallway, Mina managed to find an empty carriage at the back of the train to sit by herself. There, she was able to finally take a deep breath and try to calm the nerves that were beginning to creep in now that her new life at Hogwarts was imminent. However, she didn’t get the opportunity to enjoy the silence for very long before the door slammed open and a trio of students entered the cabin.

“Oh hey, sorry,” one of the girls with a red tie apologized, flashing her a smile, “We didn’t realize this carriage was occupied.”

Mina barely had time to assure the girl it was okay (not wanting to be impolite), when another girl— this one with pink hair that somewhat clashed with the blue of her uniform— exclaimed, “Hey, you must be a transfer student!”

The tallest of the trio elbowed the pink haired girl and gave her a look, but Mina forced herself to wear a guarded smile. Of course blending in wouldn’t be as easy as she’d hoped— in fact, it’d probably be just as impossible here as it was at Mahoutokoro. She was naive to think anything different.

“Sorry,” the girl with the blue tie winced, rubbing the back of her neck. “I didn’t mean to be rude or anything, Hogwarts just doesn’t get a lot of transfers.” She shrugged apologetically. “My name’s Chaeyoung, Son Chaeyoung.” She gestured to the red tied girl, “This is my best friend Kim Dahyun,” then to the girl with the yellow tie, “and my girlfriend, Chou Tzuyu.” Both girls waved politely, and Mina dipped her head in greeting.

There was a pause after Chaeyoung’s introduction, social convention dictating that it was now Mina’s turn to introduce herself. So, this was it. She had no other option— these girls were just trying to be friendly, and Mina didn’t want them to think she was rude. A deep breath to steady herself and then, “I’m Myoui Minari.” Maybe they wouldn’t know—

“Of Myoui Brooms?” Tzuyu immediately asked, and the two other girls’ jaws both visibly unhinged.

Swallowing back her disappointment, Mina nodded slowly, looking down at her feet. She waited for the questions that she knew from experience would inevitably come.

However, the trio must have sensed her discomfort as, without missing a beat, the girl in red— Dahyun— piped up, “My dad is the manager of a used car dealership, so uh, we’re basically the same, right?”

Tzuyu released a little scoff. “Oh please. I don’t know much about Muggle things, but I’ve seen the cars your dad sells and-“

“And what’s wrong with them, huh-“

“-Myoui Brooms are top of the line-“

“-they’re perfectly fine automobiles-“

“-don’t even compare them to your dad’s shitty-“

“-SHITTY?!-“

The overlapping argument left Mina a little confused, but grateful at least that they had deliberately veered the focus of the conversation away from her and her father’s company.

Mina could barely keep up with the rapid fire way these girls talked for the rest of the train ride, but they always tried to include her in the conversation and Mina was sure she hadn’t laughed so much in ages. It felt… refreshing. Maybe people at Hogwarts were different— maybe they didn’t care as much about status or wealth or what family you came from.

———

“For Merlin’s sake, Momo, how many times do I have to tell you to slow down! Do you want to choke?!“ Sana whined, hitting her best friend repeatedly on the shoulder.

Momo just continued to shovel food into her mouth, ignoring Sana’s voice and the disgusted— yet simultaneously impressed— faces of the Hufflepuffs sitting near them. “Sixth year means six portions!” she insisted through a mouthful of some kind of casserole that Sana couldn’t identify.

Sana just released a long sigh. At this point, she should be accustomed to Momo’s appetite, so she didn’t know why she bothered anymore. “Even after all this time, I still have no idea how you manage to stay in shape,” she grumbled, taking a bite of her own meal before Momo could steal any of it.

Momo just gave her a conspiratorial wink and held up her butter knife, putting on an exaggerated gravelly voice as she growled, “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”

Sana couldn’t help but smile and leaned into Momo’s side, wrapping herself around the girl’s left arm. She ignored Momo’s half-hearted whines of protest just as always— Momo acted like she hated Sana’s shows of affection, but Sana wasn’t blind to the way Momo would pout if she pulled away too early.

“This is gonna be a good year, Momoring, I can feel it,” Sana declared firmly, eyes scanning the bustling Great Hall.

The first years had already been Sorted, and Sana watched with a smile as the new students at each House table excitedly talked among themselves and with their new Housemates. She remembered her own first day at Hogwarts fondly— she’d been ecstatic when she got Sorted into Hufflepuff, though it wasn’t much of a surprise considering she was the third generation of Minatozakis to do so. She’d talked to a lot of people that day from all four of the Houses, many of which she was still friends with today. Sana’d met Momo for the first time on that day too— but that was a different story. (Momo had always been a different story.)

As her eyes and mind wandered, Sana caught a flash of movement from over her shoulder and turned her head just in time to catch a familiar flash of pink walking by. Her eyes lighting up, she practically dove forward to grab onto the fifth year’s sleeve, tugging the girl back toward the table. “Son Chaeyoung,” the Hufflepuff scolded, “Were you really going to pass by without saying hello to your future in-laws?”

The Ravenclaw groaned and tried to tug her arm away, but Sana’s grip was firm in her determination. “In-laws? Seriously?” Chaeyoung’s eyebrows raised, giving them an incredulous look.

“Don’t think we don’t know you’re the reason why our Tzuyu came back to the dorm late every night at the end of last year,” Momo chuckled, abandoning the plate of food in front of her to join Sana in teasing the younger student.

Chaeyoung’s cheeks turned pink at that comment, and her mouth parted as if trying to find a valid excuse to give the two older Hufflepuffs.

Sana just laughed at the girl’s helpless floundering, sharing an amused glance with Momo. Sana tilted her head slightly as if to ask, Should we let her off the hook?

It seemed Momo agreed, as she pushed back from the bench and turned around to sit facing Chaeyoung. “Hey, did you get any good chocolate frog cards on the train?” she asked eagerly, digging into the pocket of her robes to fish out three cards, all of the same person— some wizard named Alberic Grunnion that Sana’d never even heard of. Momo pouted, “I can’t believe I ate three chocolate frogs just to get the same dumb wizard for every single card.”

Chaeyoung’s mouth dropped, “You ate three-“ Sana just shook her head and waved a hand, wordlessly telling Chaeyoung to not ask. Her shock wearing off, the Ravenclaw looked disappointed and shook her head. “Nah, I didn’t get any frogs this time around. We were too busy talking to this new girl to notice when the trolley came by.”

Momo gasped as if that were the worst possible offense, but Sana, her curiosity piqued, asked, “What new girl?”

Chaeyoung turned and pointed to the Ravenclaw table, toward a dark-haired girl sat surrounded by a bunch of her Housemates. From Sana’s observation, they were attempting to talk to her, but the girl didn’t seem to be responding— in fact, she looked uncomfortable. Sana realized she must’ve been Sorted with the first years, though she looked much older than them. Sana admittedly hadn’t been paying much attention to the ceremony itself as she’d been primarily focused on making sure Momo didn’t swallow a chicken bone or something.

“She’s a transfer from Japan. Her name’s Myoui Minari.” Before Momo could so much as open her mouth to ask, Chaeyoung nodded, “Yep, that Myoui.”

“Cool,” Momo breathed, bobbing her head in respect. That familiar warmth settled in Sana’s chest as Momo instinctively leaned closer to her to explain, “Myoui brooms are the top luxury brand. Really expensive, but I’ve heard they’re worth every galleon.”

Sana squeezed Momo’s arm to show her appreciation, mentally tucking the information away for the future. Maybe one day Sana could afford to buy Momo one of those fancy Myoui brooms to replace the cheap, old one she always rode around on. Momo insisted that her broom was “lucky” and “had character”, but Sana could tell from the way Momo talked about the newer brooms everyone else on her Quidditch team had that she wished she had a better model, too.

Chaeyoung shrugged, “Well, I don’t know much about brooms, but she seemed nice. Quiet, you know, especially when Tzuyu pointed out the ‘family business’.”

Sana imagined the poor girl must get exhausted, being asked about the company wherever she went— people bothering her for discounts on brooms or trying to be friends with her because they thought it would boost their own status. It must be awful thinking that people only were interested in you due to your family name. At that thought, the Hufflepuff had a sudden burst of empathy for the girl.

“She looks like she could use some real friends,” Sana murmured quietly, not realizing she had voiced her thoughts out loud until she heard Momo humming in agreement next to her.

“Can I please go sit with Dahyun and Tzuyu now?” Chaeyoung asked abruptly, interrupting Sana’s train of thought. The Hufflepuff realized she was still holding firmly onto the pink haired girl’s sleeve, and she allowed her hand to drop. Releasing a huff of relief, Chaeyoung didn’t waste time giving a small wave goodbye before speed-walking away. The fifth year obviously wanted to flee the scene before Sana could grab a hold of her again or Momo could ask her any mortifying questions about Tzuyu.

“You better not break our baby’s heart, Son Chaeyoung!” Momo yelled after her, both of the Hufflepuffs erupting into giggles when they caught sight of Tzuyu further down the table rolling her eyes.

Sana released a dreamy sigh, “Ah, young love!” and draped her full weight against Momo.

The Quidditch player scoffed and bumped her shoulder into Sana. “You’re such a sap,” she grumbled, face wrinkled in mock disgust.

The blonde made exaggerated kissing noises in Momo’s direction, causing her best friend to groan and move away, before her gaze fell on that Ravenclaw sitting alone again. It seemed her Housemates had given up at trying to get the transfer student to talk, so now the girl just seemed utterly alone. Sana was convinced she’d never seen anything more tragic in her entire life.

“Should we go over and say hi?” Momo asked, munching on a dinner roll and seemingly reading Sana’s mind like she always did. (“It’s my Sana sixth sense,” Momo once proudly declared.)

Sana considered the question for a moment before shaking her head. “She’s probably really overwhelmed right now, meeting so many new people. We should just wait ‘til a better opportunity comes about.”

———

Mina had known for a while that she’d have to be sorted into one of the four Hogwarts Houses— Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, she’d learned— but what she hadn’t been warned about was the fact that this process would take place in front of the entire student body.

While the first years were being gathered for the Sorting ceremony, one of the professors gestured for her to join them. Mina had one of those “Who, me?” moments before she reluctantly joined the crowd of eleven year olds, feeling terribly out of place. The Headmaster began calling out names for each student to come up individually, and Mina felt the dread build in her stomach as he got into the ‘M’s.

“Myoui Minari!”

Her name rang out throughout the whole Great Hall, clear as a bell, and Mina felt her heart freeze in her chest. Any chance at her anonymity at this school was officially dead and buried. All she heard as she stepped up to the chair, that weird talking hat placed on her head, was the murmuring of the crowd.

She couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying, of course, but she didn’t have to hear them herself. She knew from experience: “Myoui Minari?” “As in that Myoui?” “Of Myoui Brooms?” “Her family’s super rich, right?”

The Sorting Hat ending up placing her into Ravenclaw. Mina didn’t even have the time (or emotional capacity) to process the placement— she just numbly moved to sit down at the designated table, only partially aware of the chattering of her Housemates that surrounded her. Forcing the tears gathering at the edges of her eyes to not spill, Mina took a deep breath and reminded herself that she would get through this, like she always did. She was a Myoui— for whatever that was worth.

The rest of the evening passed by in little more than a blur. Mina barely touched her food, and once again allowed herself to be assimilated into the crowd of first years who were being led to the Ravenclaw common room. The space was admittedly very nice, but Mina wasn’t in the right kind of mindset to appreciate its beauty at the moment. Instead, she climbed the staircase into the girls’ dormitory to the room she’d been told by the prefect would be hers, finding a pretty girl with silver hair unpacking her things from her trunk. The girl had a kind smile, introduced herself as Yoohyeon, and let Mina choose which bed she wanted even though she had obviously been there first.

As Mina laid in bed that evening after unpacking, she stared at the enchanted stars twinkling down at her from the mural on the ceiling. She thought about her family— she’d have to send an owl home to let them know she’d been Sorted into Ravenclaw. Mina listed the House traits to herself: Intelligence. Wit. Wisdom. Creativity. Did she really have those traits? The Sorting Hat placed her there so she must possess them, buried somewhere deep inside. (Though then again, she had her doubts about trusting the opinion of a battered old hat, magic or not.)

Mina sighed and rolled over to her side, allowing her heavy eyelids to fall shut. She had to cling to some small hope that tomorrow and the days that followed would be better— even if they weren’t, she’d try to make the most of her time here. She didn’t know if Hogwarts could ever truly be her home, but what other choice did she have?

Chapter Text

That night, Mina dreamt of an ornate jade palace amongst the clouds, one that was close enough to touch but just barely out of her reach. When she woke, it was with an aching desperation in her throat, one she couldn’t quite swallow down no matter how hard she tried.

Mina forced herself out of bed despite the overwhelming longing to sink back into the mattress and return to the painful comfort of her dreamworld. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Mina glanced over at her roommate’s bed— the sheets were neatly folded, Yoohyeon herself nowhere in sight. The girl must’ve already made her way to the Great Hall for breakfast. Having not eaten much the previous night and her stomach already grumbling at her, Mina figured she should do the same.

—

As soon as she stepped into the Great Hall and made her way toward the Ravenclaw table, Mina felt eyes on her. She did her best to ignore it— ignore the stares and whispers, what she had been dealing with practically her whole life. Mina knew the routine, anyway: she was like a shiny new toy, and the majority of people would lose interest in her after a while. She just hoped it would be sooner rather than later so she could get on with her life.

“Hey, Myoui! Come sit with us!” a boy from her House called to her, a group of his friends hooting and cheering in what she supposed was an attempt to entice her. But Mina didn’t trust the boy’s toothy grin and the way his friends leered at her, so she just politely smiled and moved away, hoping the group received her message loud and clear.

(She hated it when people called her by her last name only, as if that was all there was to her. “My name is Mina,” she wanted to scream sometimes, but her father had always scolded her for using the nickname. He wanted her to be proud of her full name— like it was some kind of badge of honor, something more than just a couple of letters thrown together to form a word.)

Mina ended up snagging a muffin from the table and tucking it into a napkin, retreating from the Great Hall. It was too overwhelming, being amongst all of those people— besides, she’d grown accustomed to escaping away at meals at Mahoutokoro in order to have some peace and quiet. Those precious moments alone, away from any prying eyes, were part of what kept her sane.

She ate her breakfast in a little alcove in a hallway she’d found, the huge stained glass window allowing her to observe the courtyard outside. The space was all but empty, save for two Hufflepuff girls sitting next to each other on a stone bench. It seemed they had a similar idea as Mina— a meal to themselves, both giggling as one of them tried to shove a piece of her croissant into the other’s mouth. It was sweet, and almost made Mina long for that kind of companionship— one she’d gotten brief tastes of, but had never truly known.

Wanting to focus her mind elsewhere, Mina continued to nibble at her muffin and pulled out a scroll of parchment that had her schedule inked onto it. Hogwarts had an entirely different testing system than Mahoutokoro, so Mina was briefed beforehand on the basics of O.W.L.s. Luckily, the two schools did have very similar classes, so Mina was able to continue taking courses she had excelled in at Mahoutokoro. Her first class of the day was Potions, which she already figured out was located down in the dungeons.

Lost in thought, Mina was only pulled back to reality when she heard loud voices coming from the courtyard. As she refocused on those two girls again, she was surprised to see them being flanked by that same Ravenclaw boy and a few of his friends from earlier.

“—you’re honestly such a pig, Hirai, it’s disgusting,” he was scoffing, arms crossed as he looked down at the Hufflepuff with dark hair and bangs.

“That isn’t even an insult to her,” the blonde girl said with an eye roll, at the same time as the one with bangs— Hirai— retorted indignantly, “Pigs are very intelligent creatures, you know!”

The group of boys just snickered mockingly. “Well, if you’re a pig, then you won’t mind eating this off the floor, then.” The boy’s back was to Mina, but she could hear the cruel sneer in his voice. In one quick movement, he whacked the girl’s plate out of her hands, sending it crashing to the ground while his friends hooted.

“HEY!” Hirai yelled, and Mina saw the blonde jumping to her feet, a seriously angry look on her face.

Mina knew that these two girls could handle a couple of assholes, and she really didn’t want to get involved. That wouldn’t exactly be adhering to her usual policy of staying out of trouble and keeping her head down. But then that stupid boy was pulling his wand out of his robes to point threateningly at those two girls and, before Mina’s mind could catch up with her legs, she was rushing out into the courtyard with her own wand drawn.

“I said, eat it off the ground, you stupid bit—“

“Leave them alone,” Mina called out, hating how meek her voice sounded. It caused the boy to turn around nonetheless, and Mina had to force herself to not visibly shrink under the weight of so many pairs of eyes now fixed solely on her in such close proximity.

The Ravenclaw boy gawked at her. “Are you kidding me?” He was almost half-laughing, glancing behind him to gesture at the two Hufflepuff girls who he was still holding at wand-point. “You’re too high and mighty to hang out with your own Housemates, but you’re really going to defend Dumb and Dumber here? I know you’re new, so I’ll give you another chance to align with the right crowd.” His eyes narrowed, obviously daring Mina to make the wrong choice.

Mina had never cared about status, or being aligned with the “right crowd”. That was her father, not her— and Mina, she wouldn’t stand by and let this boy torment two innocent girls. “I said, leave them alone,” she repeated more firmly, her voice finally hardening, as if a switch inside of her was flipped. “I won’t warn you again.”

She could see the boy’s confidence wavering for a moment, but it seemed he wasn’t ready to give up just yet. “What are you gonna do to me, huh?” he taunted, “A rich, snobby little girl like you probably can’t even cast a spell to save her life.”

“Want to bet on it?” Mina countered, tilting her head a little bit, a competitive glint in her eyes. “My father wanted to ensure that I would be able to protect myself, so he enrolled me in an exclusive class specializing in rare Japanese hexes. Have you ever heard of a Japanese hex?” Not allowing the boy to answer, Mina continued with a faux polite smile, “I can promise you they’re quite nasty.” It was a complete lie, of course— no such class existed, though obviously the boy wasn’t aware of that.

Mina could practically see the gears spinning in his head as he tried to figure out his next move, considering his options. He wasn’t moving fast enough, so Mina lifted her wand to point directly at his chest and began to chant whatever random Japanese words that first popped into her head.

Her tactic worked, as immediately the boy’s hands flew up and he cried out, “Okay, stop!” Mina stopped chanting, and he hesitantly lowered his hands to glare at her. “Have fun with your new loser friends,” he spat, tossing one last dirty look at the Hufflepuffs before stalking off elsewhere with his buddies.

When Mina looked back at the two Hufflepuff girls, her satisfaction at “winning” fizzled out. Now they were staring at her, eyes wide and mouths agape. Mina was seconds away from making a hasty exit before things got more awkward before the girl with dark hair exploded, “Oh my God, that was the most badass thing I’ve ever seen!”

Mina’s confidence from minutes before having disappeared just as quickly as she had summoned it, the girl’s comment made her feel suddenly and intensely embarrassed. What was I thinking?! the Ravenclaw mentally bemoaned, realizing that she hadn’t been thinking at all in that moment, which was terribly unlike her.

Both girls were standing now, facing Mina. “You didn’t have to step in, but we appreciate the chivalry anyway,” the blonde Hufflepuff said in a lightly teasing tone.

Mina just shrugged dismissively. “It wasn’t that big of a deal…” When she glanced back up, the girls were exchanging smiles with each other.

“It’s rude not to introduce ourselves!” the blonde abruptly exclaimed, fixing Mina with a bright, bubbly smile. “I’m Dumb, and this is Dumber,” she joked, pointing with a thumb to her friend.

“Excuse me!” ‘Dumber’ complained with a pout, pushing at the blonde’s elbow in irritation. “I’m not the one who asked Dahyun the other day if Muggles used a different alphabet—“

“That was a perfectly valid question!” ‘Dumb’ retorted shrilly, before turning back to Mina with an exasperated, yet somewhat endeared, look. “I’m just kidding, anyway. My name’s Sana,” she introduced.

“I’m Momo,” the one with bangs added, pausing from looking down forlornly at her ruined plate to shoot Mina a smile.

Despite them only using their first names, Mina instinctively began to recite, “My name’s Myoui Minar—“ She didn’t know what stopped her. Maybe it was the kindness in these two girls’ smiles, or maybe she was just tempted to make a small act of rebellion after the adrenaline rush of standing up to those bullies. Regardless, she quietly amended, “Um, actually, you can just call me Mina.”

“Mina,” both girls repeated, almost in unison, as if testing it out on their tongues.

“That’s a really pretty name,” Sana said sweetly, and sure, Mina’d received plenty of compliments about her name before, but for some reason that particular one made her face heat up.

“Oh, thanks,” Mina mumbled. There was a beat of silence, and for some reason anxious to fill it, she blurted out, “I got it for my birthday.” She immediately cringed at her own stupid joke— That’s it, I need to go to my bedroom and never come out. No, that’s not enough, I need to leave the country immediately.

Much to Mina’s immense relief, however, she heard tinkling laughter from both of the Hufflepuffs. “You’re cute,” Momo stated, like it was a fact, only serving to intensify Mina’s developing blush.

I need to get out of here, Mina realized, partially because she actually had to get to her first class, but mostly because of how incredibly flustered she felt in that moment. “Well, I’ll, um, see you two around I guess,” she said quietly, barely waiting for a response before she turned on her heel and high-tailed it out of there.

“Thanks again!” was the last thing she heard as she whipped around the corner, trying to suppress the smile that threatened to tug at her lips.

———

Momo couldn’t believe that a girl with such a tiny, soft voice could be so… tough? She had to admit that just looking at the new Ravenclaw, you could guess she came from a wealthy family— her perfect posture, the air of elegance that seemed to surround her. Her voice, too, was quiet but polite, even as she was threatening to hex that nasty boy. It was impressive, to say the least.

Sana’s eyes were bright as she interlocked her arm with Momo’s while they traveled down the corridor. “I knew we’d like her!” she chirped enthusiastically, “Chaengie was right, she does seem really nice!”

Momo bobbed her head. “That was so cool of her. I mean, she went out of her way to help out strangers!” It wasn’t something that just anyone would do, so that display alone made Momo develop a respect for the girl.

Before Momo could stop her, Sana dove in to quickly peck her cheek, cooing, “Anyone who helps my Momoring is an instant friend!”

Momo just made a face, lifting up her free hand to rub at the spot where Sana’s lips had made contact. “Gross,” she mumbled, even as she allowed herself to be pulled into a side-hug with Sana’s hand curled around her hip. In fact, Momo couldn’t help but melt into Sana’s warm embrace— who was she kidding, she could never help herself around that girl.

“Well, it’s decided,” the blonde hummed, Momo immediately recognizing the look of intense determination in her gaze. “We have to be friends with her now! It’s like it’s destiny!”

The dramaticness of the whole thing made Momo laugh, but she couldn’t help but agree with her best friend. After their official first encounter, she had to admit that it did seem fated that Mina would be in their lives, one way or another.

—

The next time the two girls saw Mina, it was at dinner in the Great Hall. The Ravenclaw was obviously not intending on staying there for her meal, as she made a beeline for the doors as soon as her plate was secured. The two Hufflepuffs weren’t going to let her go without a valiant effort made toward friendship, though— that wasn’t their style.

“Hey,” Sana called out, trying to keep her voice light so as not to startle the other girl. Mina turned around, and Sana could clearly see a brief flash of panic in her eyes. Wearing her best, most innocently friendly smile, Sana offered, “Want to sit with Momo and I?”

Momo gestured to the empty space across from them with her fork, right next to where Mina was standing. “There’s plenty of room!”

The Ravenclaw girl was clearly hesitating, her eyes flickering back and forth like she was a cornered animal looking for an exit.

Immediately feeling guilty and not wanting to make the other girl uncomfortable, Sana added softly, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, or if you have other plans.”

Mina’s tongue poked out of the side of her mouth, drawing Sana’s attention down to the transfer student’s (very pretty) lips. “I don’t know…” the girl admitted, her voice so quiet that Sana almost had to lean in closer to hear her. “You two really seem nice, I just—“ She released a frustrated sigh, reaching a hand up to fuss with her bangs. “I don’t want you to try to be friends with me simply because you think you owe me, or something silly like that.” Mina’s gaze was now firmly fixed on the ground, seemingly embarrassed at her little confession.

Sana’s heart almost broke in that moment— the girl looked so small and sad that every instinct in Sana’s body told her Mina must be protected at all costs. Before she could respond, however, Momo beat her to it.

“Okay, that’s fine, we understand,” the girl agreed easily, not even bothering to look up from her plate. Sana’s jaw dropped, feeling a burst of annoyance— she thought her and Momo were on the same page!— but then Momo continued, “If you’d like to sit with us, though, we can get to know you better so that way we’ll want to be friends with you because we realize you’re an amazing, cool person!”

Another burst of pure adoration bloomed in Sana’s chest— she should never have doubted Momo, who truly was a softie at heart. Sana intertwined her fingers with Momo’s under the table and gave them a gentle squeeze, smiling as her best friend squeezed back.

Mina looked taken aback, to say the least. Once again Sana’s heart ached— it was almost like this girl had never been shown true, unselfish kindness before. “I- I guess that would be alright,” she eventually murmured, cautiously moving to sit across from the two Hufflepuffs.

Both Sana and Momo beamed at the girl, pleased that they had convinced her to stay. Sana was positive that with enough time, the two of them could get the shy girl out of her shell.

“Before we start on a clean slate, though,” Momo began, leaning forward across the table and her eyes alight with curiosity, “You have to teach us all those cool Japanese hexes you were talking about!”

In a matter of seconds Mina’s face and neck were flushed a deep pink. Ducking her head with a nervous little laugh, Mina shyly admitted, “Well, actually, they um— they don’t exist. I just made it up.”

There were a few beats of silence, Sana and Momo exchanging glances. Mina peeked up, looking anxious, as if she thought the two Hufflepuffs would be upset that she lied.

Instead, both girls burst out laughing almost at the same time, triggering a slow smile to appear on Mina’s lips. “That’s really impressive!” Momo exclaimed, amazed. “You must have a really quick mind, to be able to think of that right on the spot!”

Mina’s smile wavered, just for a moment— Sana almost thought she imagined it, as the Ravenclaw quietly said, “Yeah, I guess.” The blonde couldn’t help but wonder if the transfer student wasn’t telling the complete truth, but she wasn’t about to push the subject and make Mina uncomfortable.

“I can’t believe that jerk was calling us Dumb and Dumber when he didn’t even know that Japanese hexes weren’t a real thing,” Momo huffed, scooping a forkful of her dinner into her mouth.

“To be fair, we didn’t know that they weren’t a real thing, either,” Sana pointed out with a little eye roll, bumping her shoulder into her best friend’s teasingly.

Momo just gestured dismissively with her free hand. “Yeah, but, he’s a Ravenclaw, aren’t Ravenclaws supposed to be all smart and everything? They should know these sort of things.”

“You’re just playing into the stereotypes!” Sana insisted, “Ravenclaws can be dumb just like Hufflepuffs can be smart!” Wanting to include Mina in the conversation, Sana smiled and tilted her head a bit. “What do you think, Mina?”

The transfer student was quiet for a few moments, obviously considering the question carefully before she finally answered. Her voice was musically soft as she said, “Each student is assigned to a House based on certain qualities, yes? Judging by what I’ve read and heard, those qualities can be ones that the student possesses, or ones that they value, or even both. So, that being said, if you value intelligence and learning, you can be put into Ravenclaw even if you yourself aren’t the most textbook-intelligent person. I’m guessing it’s the same with the other Houses as well.”

There was another brief period of silence as the two Hufflepuffs digested what Mina had just explained to them.

“Yeah, that definitely doesn’t sound like something a Ravenclaw would say at all,” Momo deadpanned, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

Sana whined and pushed Momo again, though she couldn’t help but mirror Mina’s smile across from her. Sana had a good feeling about this, about the three of them— if there was anything she lived her life by, it was trusting her gut, and her gut was telling her right now that they would fit together perfectly.

Chapter Text

Mina had been honestly convinced that Sana and Momo would lose interest in her after a few days. It wasn’t like she wanted it to happen— she really did want to have friends, because who wouldn’t— but she couldn’t forget her past. How could she, when it replayed in her head on a constant loop?

(“You’re worthless, Myoui, don’t you understand that?” the girl sneered, looming above her. “Honestly, it’s pathetic.” She was supposed to be Mina’s friend— why was she doing this? Why was she being so cruel? A voice, a little pestering voice in the back of Mina’s head, told her it was because she deserved it.

“Everything gets handed to you. You get good grades because the professors don’t want to anger your father, one of the school’s largest donors. You’re on the Quidditch team because your father supplies all of the broomsticks. People are friends with you because they want to be rich and famous like your father. Don’t you get it?”

Mina wanted to argue— to say that she earned her good grades and her position as Seeker, that she deserved loyal friends that cared about her because of who she was. The problem with that was she couldn’t fully believe it. Even if this girl, who she thought was her friend, even if her words were hateful and mean— Mina knew she was telling the truth. Mina had never earned anything in her life, she probably never would.

“Face it. The most interesting thing about you is your father’s name, and that’s it.”)

Thinking about the past now just made Mina feel numb. It was something she’d never quite recovered from— what that girl had said to her that day, along with other similar occurrences. It was practically beaten into her, the idea that she was worthless, insignificant, nothing more than a stupid, foolish girl who just so happened to have a rich father. How could she not believe these things when she was reminded of it every day of her life, without fail?

It’d been a few weeks, though, and Sana and Momo still hadn’t lost interest. Mina found it peculiar, but she didn’t allow herself to hope that things would be different this time. In cases like this, hope was dangerous— hope was frequently, if not always, disappointing. She was positive that them dropping her like a used toy was inevitable— maybe it’d be weeks, maybe months, hell, maybe it’d even be years, but it would happen, sure as the setting sun.

Still, she cautiously allowed herself to be drawn into these two Hufflepuffs’ world. They were certainly charming— not in a superficial or manipulative way, but rather, Mina was convinced they were best friends with everyone in the school. They were so friendly and outgoing, talking to everyone around them with so much enthusiasm and zeal— the opposite of who Mina was. She usually found these sort of people draining, but with Sana and Momo, they made her want to be excited about everything, too.

It seemed every day, Mina was being introduced to new people. Mina was accustomed to being paraded around, shown off to others who barely even saw her as a human being. Not only by those who claimed to be her “friends”, but by her father as well— constantly being introduced to investors and work associates, expected to play the role of the perfect daughter. However, this wasn’t like that at all— if anything, it was like the girls wanted to show off their friends to Mina, to impress her.

(As it turned out, Mina already knew three of their closest friends— the ‘School Meal Club’, as Sana and Momo introduced them. The two Hufflepuffs were stunned when Mina worked up the courage to shyly comment, “Dahyun and I are almost the same person.” Mina and the three younger students all laughed as Sana and Momo were the ones left utterly bewildered for once.)

Today, they were waiting outside the room of Mina’s next class, Transfiguration. Sana and Momo insisted on accompanying her on her walk, claiming they’d keep her company. (There went that little voice in her head again, wondering if they were walking with her because they wanted to or for some other shadowy reason they weren’t disclosing.) Now the two girls were sitting on either side of her on one of the benches in the hall, providing a full running commentary on the students that passed.

“Oh! You see that couple?” Sana whispered loudly to Mina, pointing far down the corridor to a Slytherin and Gryffindor walking hand in hand.

Mina nodded, replying, “Yes, what about them?” She observed the two girls indicated by Sana. They looked somewhat… unfriendly, in Mina’s opinion, with cool, stony expressions and rigid postures. (Then again, Mina had been told in the past that she possessed the same mannerisms, so she supposed she shouldn’t jump to any conclusions.) Sana and Momo were full of interesting stories, so she was curious about what they were about to tell her about these girls.

“Well, the Gryffindor is Park Jihyo, a.k.a. the Head Girl, and the Slytherin is Im Nayeon,” Momo explained, adopting the same conspiratorial tone as her best friend. “They’ve been dating for a little while now, and they’ve basically become the power couple of Hogwarts. How they got together is really weird.”

Sana easily picked up where Momo left off— almost as if they had rehearsed it, though Mina guessed that it was more due to their natural sync with each other, which Mina had witnessed countless times since she met them. “Yeah, so, Nayeon is on the Slytherin Quidditch team as a Beater, right, and basically what happened was Nayeon hit a Bludger right at Jeong—” (“Jeongyeon is Jihyo’s best friend on the Gryffindor team,” Momo helpfully supplied) “—and literally broke Jeong’s face.” Sana turned to Momo to clarify. “It was her face, right?”

The dark-haired girl hummed and looked pensive for a few moments before nodding, replying, “Yep, I’m pretty sure it was her face.”

“You’re definitely right,” Sana agreed, looking back at Mina as she continued, “Yeah, so, Nayeon broke Jeong’s face with a Bludger and then Jihyo fell in love with her. Isn’t that wild?” Her eyes were bright with excitement, obviously eager to see what Mina’s reaction would be.

As she often was with their stories, Mina was left a little confused. She’d noticed that Sana and Momo tended to omit many important details in their different accounts, and they didn’t seem to be the most trustworthy of narrators. Regardless, she couldn’t help but be amused at how passionately they told their little anecdotes. “Yeah, that is wild,” she agreed with a growing smile.

“I don’t know,” Momo piped up thoughtfully, “It’s not that wild if you think about it. If Im Nayeon broke your face with a Bludger, Sana, I’d probably fall in love with her too. I mean, she’s Im Nayeon.”

The blonde immediately looked offended, complaining, “Hey! That’s not very ni—” She stopped abruptly, frowned a bit, then shrugged. “Actually, no, you’re right, I don’t blame you. She is Im Nayeon after all.”

Momo nodded and opened her arms wide, “Right? For Merlin’s sake, the girl could break my face and I’d still fall in love with her.”

Both girls started laughing, and Mina herself couldn’t help but join in. These girls, they were so ridiculous— so happy and free, like their shoulders were completely unburdened of any weight. They just existed, like normal teenage girls were supposed to. (Was it really that simple?)

Mina liked spending time with them, which was dangerous in of itself. Every single self-preservation instinct in her warned her to not allow herself to get close to these two girls, because she knew from experience that forming a bond with someone just meant it would hurt more in the end when they left you.

But looking at Sana and Momo… Looking at how warm they were, with each other, with their friends, and with Mina too… Self-preservation instincts be damned, Mina was willing to get hurt again if it meant possibly having real friends, even if that friendship had an expiration date.

Eventually Nayeon and Jihyo were approaching them, and it seemed Mina’s assumptions about the girls being unfriendly were false. As soon as they saw the two Hufflepuffs, their stony expressions melted away to be replaced with broad grins.

“Look who it is,” the Slytherin crowed, reaching out a hand to muss Momo’s hair. “Big match coming up soon, kid. You think you’re ready?”

It was obvious to Mina that the two girls were friendly with each other, which she thought was a bit strange considering Sana and Momo were just raving about how easily they’d fall in love with the Slytherin student. Was that what friends normally said about each other? It wasn’t like Mina had much experience on that front— in these matters, she was clueless.

Momo pushed Nayeon’s hand away and beamed up at her with a competitive smirk. “Big talk for someone who lost every game against us last year,” Momo shot back, quick as a whip. “Have to warn you, the team’s looking even better this year, so your chances at beating us are getting even slimmer.”

Nayeon scoffed and crossed her arms. “We’ll see about that, Hirai. I’m looking forward to breaking that ‘unbeatable’ streak of yours once and for all.”

“We’ll see,” Momo repeated, though the confidence in her voice didn’t waver.

Mina was surprised— in their time as “friends”, she somehow hadn’t realized that Momo was on the Quidditch team. Neither of the girls really seemed like the athletic type from what Mina had observed, and considering they hadn’t asked about her father’s business once, Mina assumed (naively) that maybe they just didn’t know about it because they didn’t know Quidditch. That being said, she’d felt a sense of relief that maybe she could retain some anonymity with these girls. But if Momo was into Quidditch— what did that mean? Did she just not care? (Mina wasn’t sure if that comforted her, or just made her feel worse— if the most interesting thing about her was her dad’s company, and these girls didn’t care about that, what was left of her for them to like?)

“And who is this?”

Mina was pulled from her thoughts at the sound of another voice, this one addressing her. When she looked up, she saw the Gryffindor girl, Jihyo, smiling kindly in her direction.

“This is our new friend Mina!” Sana introduced brightly. “We were just telling her the story of how you two got together!”

Nayeon and Jihyo exchanged skeptical glances. “Which body part of Yoo’s did they say I broke this time?” Nayeon asked exasperatedly, rolling her eyes.

Mina smiled a little, admitting, “They said it was her face.”

The older girl snorted, a hand lifting up to try and stifle her giggles. “Honestly, I wish,” Nayeon laughed, “I think that would have been an improvement for Yoo if I had.”

Jihyo shot her girlfriend with a light glare. She shook her head before fixing Mina with a warm look, advising, “Anyway, I’d take these two’s stories with a grain of salt. They tend to embellish a bit.”

“What are you talking about?” Sana complained. When Mina glanced back at the two Hufflepuffs, they each sported the look of pure innocence. “We’d never do such a thing!”

“We’re perfect little angels,” Momo agreed breezily, batting her eyelashes as if to prove her point.

Mina couldn’t help but laugh, the two older students following suit. It seemed they were used to the Hufflepuffs’ antics, as Jihyo just sighed before fixating again on Mina. “You keep these two out of trouble, alright?” It was a light request, but the intensity of Jihyo’s gaze told Mina that she was dead serious. “You seem like you have a good head on your shoulders, so please look out for them.”

Mina wasn’t sure that Jihyo’s faith in her was warranted— it seemed like a stretch, frankly— but still, she nodded obediently. “I will,” she agreed, meaning it with all her heart. She knew Sana and Momo didn’t need her, and it wasn’t like she added anything to their lives other than maybe a temporary amusement. But she’d be a good friend to them anyway, be the friend that she’d always wished to have, because she knew it was the right thing to do.

The Slytherin and Gryffindor said their goodbyes, and when Mina’s attention refocused on the two girls beside her, she realized their gazes were fixed on her. They were looking at her so fondly, like they actually cared about her— Mina almost couldn’t stand the weight of that possibility, no matter how unlikely it may be.

“We’ll look after you, too, Mina,” Sana said quietly, Momo nodding along in agreement.

Six words, and Mina felt the walls she had carefully built around herself begin to shake.

———

Sana watched as rain drizzled outside the windows of the Hufflepuff dorm with a gnawing sense of boredom. They didn’t have any classes since it was the weekend, and the weather was too miserable to spend any time outside. Currently she was cuddled up next to Momo in her bed, their legs tangled and Sana’s arm flung over Momo’s stomach. One of Momo’s hands was tucked into Sana’s hair, lazily scratching at her scalp, but the older Hufflepuff was too engrossed in a Quidditch magazine to give Sana the attention she really wanted.

“Momoring~” Sana whined for what seemed like the thirtieth time that afternoon. “I’m bored, let’s go do something!” All she received was a noncommittal hum from the warm body next to her, and Sana groaned, pressing her face into Momo’s shoulder.

She wondered what Mina was doing. For the last couple of weeks that the Hufflepuffs had known the girl, Sana and Momo had done their best to take the transfer student under their wing so to speak. Mina was warming up to them, slowly but surely, but Sana could still tell that she was holding herself back. It made Sana wonder what the girl had been through, why she was so hesitant to trust other people.

It wasn’t like Sana (or Momo, for that matter) was solely interested in the other girl because she was new, or “different”. Of course, their friendship had started because the two Hufflepuffs found Mina intriguing, but it was like Momo said: over time, it was becoming deeper than that. They both genuinely enjoyed Mina’s company— how sweet the girl was, all the little facts she knew, her gummy smile and the way she blushed whenever Sana or Momo complimented her.

Sana knew Momo was fond of Mina, too. Not just because they’d occupied the same wavelength practically since the day they’d met, but because Sana noticed the way Momo looked at the Ravenclaw, too. Sana knew Momo perhaps better than she knew herself, so she recognized the soft look Momo got whenever Mina was around. They’d both developed a soft spot for the girl, it seemed.

Tilting her head up to look at her best friend, Sana couldn't help but smile. It was the little things about Momo, too, that made Sana breathless. The furrow in her brow as she read, how the tufts of her bangs were messy and pushed a bit to the side like she always did when she was trying to concentrate on something. They’d known each other for six years, and those six years felt like an eternity. It was like Sana couldn’t even remember a time before Momo— or maybe she just didn’t want to.

Suddenly tired of being ignored, Sana sat up and faced her best friend. “Momoring,” she called out softly again, nudging the girl’s arm in one last attempt to seize her attention. But even that didn’t seem to tear Momo away from her magazine, so Sana decided desperate times called for desperate measures.

She promptly adjusted her position to straddle Momo’s thighs, causing the girl to squeak in alarm. Sana pulled the magazine out of her best friend’s hands and set it aside— gently, of course, because she knew how much Momo treasured those things. The dark-haired Hufflepuff stared up at her, half indignant and half amused as her hand slipped from Sana’s hair.

“Well, that was a bit rude,” Momo grumbled, her annoyed facade betrayed by a little smirk. Her hands rested on Sana’s hips automatically, almost as if it wasn’t a conscious thought, it was just where they naturally gravitated to.

Sana leaned in closer, eyebrows quirked as she replied, “Well, it’s a bit rude to ignore me, too, don’t you think?”

The girl just shrugged before craning her neck upward in an attempt to close the gap between them. Not quite ready to give the other Hufflepuff what she wanted, Sana turned her head slightly at the last second to press a kiss right at the corner of Momo’s mouth. When she pulled back, Momo was predictably sporting an adorable pout, a whine already rising from her throat.

“I thought my kisses were gross,” Sana teased in a light whisper.

Momo just groaned, nudging her face closer to Sana’s. “Please just kiss me already, dummy.”

Who was Sana to say no to such a polite request?

Chapter Text

The academic advisor that Mina’d met with before the start of the school year had warned her that her sixth year would be a tough one. At the time, Mina had almost shrugged off the warning— she’d never had much difficulty in her studies, so why should she start being concerned now? (Then again, if what her former classmates had said was true, she’d never earned the high marks she received... Maybe she should be concerned now that she was at a new school?)

Regardless, Mina quickly learned that the academic advisor was absolutely correct in everything she said. Even though it was only the first few weeks of classes, already Mina was being bombarded with ridiculously lengthy reading assignments and 15-page papers on subjects that even she found to be exhaustingly trivial. At Mahoutokoro, Mina had never struggled to keep up with her work— on the contrary, she often found herself with an excess of free time, free time that served as a painful reminder of how lonely she was. Hogwarts proved to be a different story, however.

It seemed to be cruel irony at its finest, that now she finally had real friends (or at least the closest she could get to the real thing), she barely had any free time to spend with them. Every day Sana and Momo would ask Mina to do something with them, and more often than not, Mina was forced to politely decline. (She didn’t let herself dwell too long on wondering if she used studying as an excuse not to spend time with them, perhaps a defense mechanism of sorts.) She knew she was pushing them away, but maybe it would be for the best— they would lose interest in her now rather than later, which would likely be better for Mina’s heart in the long run.

In an attempt to not get behind on any of her assignments and end up drowning in them, Mina practically lived in the library now. Mina noticed that her roommate, Yoohyeon, spent a lot of time there as well, consistently surrounded by her own group of friends. Although the girl assured Mina that she was free to sit with them, Mina refused to intrude. Instead, she found her own little study corner at the very back, where it was sparsely populated and she could focus on whatever work she was trying to complete.

It was another one of those days where Mina had a hefty paper to write, this one for Transfiguration. On her way to her usual nook, the gears in her brain already turning as she mentally constructed her opening paragraph, the Ravenclaw almost didn’t notice Momo sitting at a table near the entrance.

When Mina did catch sight of the girl, what was immediately striking to her was the fact that the Hufflepuff was sitting alone. She almost had to do a double-take, realizing suddenly that she had never seen Sana or Momo without the other. They were always together, more or less attached at the hip, so it was somewhat bizarre to see only one of them.

The second thing she noticed was the absolutely defeated expression on the girl’s face— Momo had a pile of open books in front of her, her head clutched in both hands. Clearly recognizing the look of complete distress, Mina instinctively found herself crossing over to where Momo sat.

“Hey, Momo,” Mina greeted softly. She lingered at the edge of the table, not wanting to invade Momo’s personal space— maybe she didn’t want to be bothered, it was silly of Mina to butt in, she should have just minded her own bus-

“Oh, hey Mina!” Momo’s voice interrupted Mina’s panicked train of thought. Momo didn’t appear to be at all irritated at Mina’s sudden intrusion— on the contrary, it seemed that the girl’s presence gave her a renewed burst of energy. A grin spreading across her face, Momo teased, “So this is where you’ve been sneaking off to lately, huh?”

Mina smiled apologetically, tucking some of her hair behind an ear. “Yeah. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to see you or Sana lately, I’ve just been-”

“-busy,” Momo supplied, nodding in understanding. She waved a hand, insisting, “Don’t apologize! We totally get it.” The Hufflepuff glanced back down at the work in front of her and grimaced. “I get it too well. This exam is going to kill me, I know it.”

“What is it on?” Mina leaned in a bit to observe all of the books and parchments that Momo had spread in front of her.

Momo sighed and explained, “We’re being tested on different duelling techniques, and I just don’t understand it at all.” She shook her head in frustration. “Usually Sana and I get by just fine without studying a lot, but this year is so much more difficult and the stakes are a lot higher, too. I have to get good grades in this class so I can stay in the N.E.W.T. level, plus if my grades slip I could get taken off the Quidditch team.” Momo collapsed her head on top of her book, whining, “I’m doomed!”

She looked so sad and helpless in that moment, Mina felt a rush of sympathy for the girl. Before Mina could think about what she was saying (something that was becoming more characteristic of her whenever Sana and Momo were concerned), she offered, “I could help you out, if you want.”

She immediately knew she shouldn’t have said that— yes, of course she wanted to help, but she had heaps of her own work to do. She barely had enough free time in her schedule as is, she’d certainly fall behind if she abandoned her studies to help Momo with hers. All of this being said, Mina’s mind was already made up— her only priority in that moment was assisting her friend.

Momo lifted her head and peeked up at Mina. “Are you sure?” she said cautiously. “I know you’ve been so busy, I don’t want to distract you… Besides, I don’t think anyone could make me understand this stuff.” She poked at one of the offending books with a frown.

The Ravenclaw shook her head and offered Momo a smile. “I don’t mind at all, and besides, it might help to have the material described a different way. I learned about duelling in my fifth year, so I think I know enough to help you out.”

Momo rolled her eyes playfully, joking, “Always so modest.”

Mina turned pink at that and, not knowing how to respond, just shrugged. She moved to sit at the chair across from Momo, but before she could do so, she noticed the Hufflepuff pulling out the chair directly to her left. When Mina made uncertain eye contact with the other girl, Momo’s head was tilted a bit, smiling expectantly.

“I don’t bite,” she said, a cute lilt in her voice.

That was how Mina found herself sitting right next to Momo, helping her go over all of her notes and the information in the textbooks. The time passed by faster than Mina had expected it to— she was right about what she said about Momo just needing to hear the material in a different way. Momo was smart, unlike what that idiot boy said when they first met. In fact, Mina couldn’t help but be quite impressed with how her mind worked, how she managed to find connections between different concepts in ways Mina had never even considered.

Mina didn’t realize how close they had become in a physical sense until she felt Momo’s leg brushing against hers. Whereas their shoulders had barely been touching when Mina first sat down, the two girls had somehow managed to gravitate closer together to the point where they were now all but pressed against each other. The realization of their close proximity made Mina intensely embarrassed, and she knew it would probably be wise for her to pull away and put a respectable amount of space in between them. But Momo’s body emanated so much warmth, and Mina had to admit she’d been touch starved for so long that being close to someone… It was almost overwhelming.

Mustering her courage, she allowed herself to lean just a little bit closer, her leg bumping back into Momo’s. When she peeked at Momo from the corner of her eyes, she noticed that the Hufflepuff was clearly aware of what she was doing— though she wasn’t looking at Mina directly, there was the slightest hint of a smirk on her lips. The older student’s fingers brushed deliberately against Mina’s as she reached over to turn the page of one of her books, leaning Mina somewhat bewildered. Was Momo— if Mina didn’t know any better, she’d almost think the girl was flirting with her.

But that was ridiculous, wasn’t it? Completely ridiculous. Mina knew that she was just overthinking what was likely a totally normal interaction— this had to be what friends did with each other. After all, anyone who spent even a minimal amount of time with Sana and Momo could observe how physically affectionate they were with each other— they were always touching in some way, and they were best friends. Mina shouldn’t allow herself to jump to such silly, baseless conclusions.

After a few hours, Mina felt that Momo had a more than sufficient grasp of the topic. “You’re going to ace this,” she said confidently, helping the Hufflepuff gather all of the materials spread haphazardly across the table.

Momo smiled and bumped her shoulder against Mina’s. “Only because of you! Seems like you’ve proven to be my knight in shining armor twice now.” Her eyebrows arched, and maybe there was a suggestive undertone to the way she quipped, “I guess I’ll have to make it up to you somehow.”

At that bold statement, Mina’s face rapidly reddened without her permission. “D-Don’t be silly, it was my pleasure,” she forced out awkwardly, avoiding eye contact. Once again looking for an escape route, Mina jumped up from her chair and took a few steps back. She shot the Hufflepuff a nervous smile. “I guess I’ll see you later… Or whenever I have any free time, anyway.”

The smile faded from Momo’s lips, to be replaced by a disappointed pout. “Come sit with Sana and I at dinner,” she insisted. “She was busy today with Frog Choir, but she’ll be there tonight! I know she’d love to see you.”

Mina bit her lip, considering her options. She should get back to her essay, and although her experience with Momo today was more than a little confusing (read: vaguely mortifying), she did miss spending time with both of them. They were the closest thing she’d ever had to real friends, after all.

“Okay,” she eventually agreed.

The Quidditch player beamed and wrapped Mina in a brief hug. “Awesome!” Before Mina could even think about hugging the other girl back, Momo was pulling away, her books and parchment piled in her arms. “I’ll see you later!”

Mina was left standing there alone, somewhat lost as she was left to process the events of their meeting. Stop overthinking, she chided herself again. It was one thing for someone to be interested in her in a friendly way, much less in… that way. Mina would have to be delusional to even begin to think she had a chance with someone like Momo. It was just unrealistic. She’d only cause herself a whole other world of pain if she let herself be caught up on this, so therefore, she reached the natural solution: she would act like none of this ever happened.

——

Within the next week, Mina found more time in her schedule to spend with the two Hufflepuffs again, much to their pleasure. They still rarely saw her outside of meals, but at least that was an improvement from before. Sana couldn’t help but be worried about the girl, hoping she wasn’t driving herself into the ground with all that studying she was doing. At least she and Momo could now ensure that the Ravenclaw ate well and didn’t completely isolate herself.

Like she did at every mealtime, Sana closely watched the entrance to the Great Hall, waiting for the moment that Mina would step through. As soon as she caught sight of the younger girl emerging through the doors, Sana perked up, waving frantically to get Mina’s attention. The action was completely unnecessary considering the fact that they sat at the same location every day, but the shy smile and wave Mina returned to her was worth it in Sana’s eyes.

The Ravenclaw made her way over with her books in hand, settling onto the bench across from Sana with a quiet, breathless greeting. A flicker of confusion passed over her face as she glanced next to Sana, obviously realizing that Momo was nowhere to be seen.

“Her exam was graded, so she went to pick it up from the professor,” Sana explained, guessing that Mina likely wouldn’t ask even if she was curious.

Mina hummed in understanding, nodding her head as she began to select what she wanted to eat from the endless buffet stretched out on the table in front of them.

There were a few beats of silence before Sana ventured, “Momo told me that you helped her study for it.”

Peeking up from her plate briefly, Mina just shrugged a shoulder. “She did most of the work herself, I just helped where I could.” A little quieter, she added, “I barely did anything, really.”

Sana’s head tilted in a subtle disagreement. “Well, she really appreciated it, you know? I appreciate it too.” Another beat. “You’ve been so kind to us, helping us out when you don’t have to.”

A little cough of surprise escaped Mina’s lips, and she immediately began to shake her head in denial. “Thank you, but really, it’s nothing.”

The girl’s denial broke Sana’s heart a little. No matter how many times Sana or Momo tried to compliment Mina, she would never accept it— in fact, their compliments almost seemed to make her uncomfortable, as if she didn’t know how to respond. Was she truly not accustomed to kindness? Did she not think she deserved it? It made Sana frustrated at whoever in Mina’s past made her think she was so undeserving, but it also made her want to smother the girl with compliments until she began to truly believe the nice things they said about her.

“It’s not nothing,” Sana replied, lightly enough, although there was a serious undertone to her voice. She reached a hand across the table to gently touch the Ravenclaw’s hand. You’re not nothing.

Mina barely glanced at her with another helpless little shrug. After a somewhat tense moment, the girl cleared her throat and asked brightly, “How have your Frog Choir meetings been going lately?”

Sana was sure that Mina was just trying to change the subject, to direct the conversation away from herself. Knowing she had to choose her battles, though, Sana didn’t comment on it. Instead, she enthusiastically told Mina what Frog Choir was working on at the moment, as well as anything interesting that had been happening in the group.

In fact, Sana was in the middle of recounting to Mina the latest drama with the upperclassmen when arms were suddenly thrown around her shoulders, a familiar screeching sound piercing her ears.

“I PASSED!” Momo slammed her graded exam down onto the table, and when Sana twisted her head around, Momo was beaming. “I actually passed this stupid exam, can you believe it!”

Sana instinctively released an excited squeal as well. “That’s amazing, Momoring!” She tightly hugged her best friend as she sat down next to her, smiling into the girl’s neck as Momo squeezed her back. “I knew you could do it!”

Grinning, Momo shrugged and turned her head to nod in Mina’s direction. “It’s all thanks to Mina, she was the one who basically taught me all of this material.” Her gaze warmed as she addressed the Ravenclaw, “Thank you, seriously.”

Mina parted her mouth, obviously to begin her series of usual denials. However, she made the mistake of glancing over at Sana first, who initiated pointed eye contact. The Hufflepuff tilted her head again and raised her eyebrows— Go on, take the compliment, she coaxed silently.

There was a brief pause, then Mina glanced away, turning her attention down to her lap. ”You’re welcome,” she eventually murmured, adding in a quieter tone, “I suppose…” Her shoulders rose up a few inches, as if trying to make herself look small, and her hands fiddled with her silverware.

Regardless, Sana was proud— it was just two words, but she had a gut feeling that actually acknowledging a compliment was a big step for the girl. When Mina shyly made eye contact again, Sana nodded her head to assure her it was alright. She may not know the source or extent of Mina’s insecurities, but she would do her best to encourage the girl whenever possible. Sana told Mina that she and Momo would look after her, too, and she was a woman of her word.

When Sana glanced back over at Momo, the older Hufflepuff’s gaze was intently fixed on her. Momo tended to not be as “emotionally observant” as Sana when it came to other people, but as far as Sana was concerned, Momo knew how to read her better than anyone else. Obviously she had picked up from Sana’s end that there had been some small exchange that just occurred. Sana offered a simple smile and, her arm still curled around Momo’s body, rubbed her thumb into the girl’s hip. We’ll talk about it later.

Before the silence could become awkward or uncomfortable, Sana said cheerfully, “I think this is a definite cause for celebration!”

“You’re absolutely right,” Momo agreed, eagerly reaching across the table to cut herself a massive chunk of cake. She held up her plate with a solemn nod, voice almost comically serious as she said, “Congratulations to me.”

Momo carefully set it down, picking up her utensils to take the first bite. Unfortunately for Momo, however, Sana was a bit faster— in one fluid movement, she was diving into the slice fork-first, managing to scoop a piece into her mouth before Momo elbowed her away.

“Excuse me!” Momo whined, “This is my victory cake, you jerk!” She glared at the side of Sana’s head, though her gaze lacked any real anger.

“Sorry, Momoring,” Sana cooed, hugging her best friend a little tighter. The other girl simply grumbled to herself, dragging the plate further from Sana to properly protect it. Sana winked playfully in Mina’s direction, smiling at the way it succeeded in making her release a muted giggle. “Anyway, when I said this was cause for celebration, cake was not what I meant, you know.”

This seemed to pique both of the other two girls’ interest. Even Momo paused eating, looking at her curiously— clearly intrigued about where she was going with this. Sana wore her biggest, most animated smile as she said, “Mina, you should come to Momo and I’s room and sleep over this Friday night!”

Momo immediately jumped onto the idea, nodding in agreement as she said to Mina excitedly, “Yeah, you should! That’d be so much fun!”

There was a certain expression on Mina’s face— one that, over the weeks she’d known her, Sana had learned to recognize as meaning she was engaging in an internal war with herself. It was clear to anyone who interacted with the Ravenclaw that she had a propensity for introversion, and Sana respected that, of course. She understood that not everyone was as social as herself— even Momo was more introverted than she was. Still, Sana would make sure to offer Mina the chance, anyway, if only to make sure she felt included.

A pause— Sana waited for the rejection, but instead, she was pleasantly surprised when Mina nodded. “Yeah, okay,” the girl agreed softly, offering a cautious smile.

“Awesome.” Sana returned her smile warmly. “Momoring has Quidditch practice and I have Frog Choir until 7, so, come around at about 8? The entrance to the Hufflepuff common room is near the kitchens, do you know where that is?” Mina nodded in confirmation. “Perfect! We’ll meet you outside there at 8, then. Sound like a plan?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Mina repeated, seemingly trying to make herself sound more confident than she felt. Well... it was a good start at least, wasn’t it?

Chapter Text

Why did I agree to this, this is a terrible idea, Mina mentally bemoaned, for not the first or last time that Friday evening. A sleepover— she must truly be delusional to think she could make it through something so painfully normal without exposing herself as the absolute loser she was.

The logical part of her brain had told her she should have said no as soon as Sana proposed the sleepover in the first place. But Momo had so much hope in her eyes, and Sana was looking at her in that unnerving way she did, like she perfectly understood what was going on in her brain. Mina didn’t want to disappoint them, and maybe to some degree she wanted to prove to herself that she could be “normal”.

That was all well and fine, of course, except for the fact that in her abject panic on her way out the door of her room she’d decided to bring with her a small box that was tucked under her bed. In the moment, it’d seemed perfectly rational— sure, Mina had spent a decent amount of time with the two Hufflepuffs, but not as much time as she’d be spending with them tonight. What if the conversation dried up, and they had nothing left to talk about, and it just became painfully awkward?

Wanting to avoid that hypothetical situation, Mina impulsively decided to bring the said box with her, hoping that it would perhaps serve as a conversation starter if necessary. Now, however, as she neared closer and closer to the Hufflepuff common room, she just felt foolish. Why would Sana and Momo care about a random momento from her past? Mina wished she hadn’t brought it, but it was too late to turn back now.

When Mina rounded the corner towards the Hufflepuff common room, she immediately spotted Sana and Momo standing in front of the entrance, talking quietly to each other. It was pure instinct that made Mina freeze for a moment, heart sinking in her chest— are they talking about me? As she neared, however, it was increasingly obvious that Momo was simply complaining about something that had happened at her Quidditch practice.

When the two Hufflepuffs caught sight of Mina approaching, both of their faces lit up with easy smiles. Mina outright refused to analyze the way her stomach flipped whenever they looked at her like that— it meant nothing, she was sure of it.

Sana tilted her head down, her smile widening as she noticed what Mina was wearing. “I like your pajamas,” she complimented, both her and Momo giggling.

Mina looked down as well, blushing at her blue penguin print pajama set. Sana and Momo had instructed her in passing the other day to make sure she wore something comfortable, and utilizing her minimal knowledge of sleepovers, Mina eventually decided this set was her best option.

Now, however, standing in front of the two girls, Mina just felt like an idiot. Sana and Momo were dressed in matching dark blue tracksuits, a far cry from Mina’s childish penguin pajamas. How old was she, anyway? “I know it’s dumb, I’m sorry,” Mina mumbled under her breath, shrinking into herself.

“Don’t be silly!” Sana insisted, tapping Mina’s arm until she looked up at her. The Hufflepuff smiled, tipping her head to the side in that way of hers that instantly made Mina’s nerves quiet down. “It’s not dumb, they’re really cute.”

Momo nodded as well, “Penguins suit you!”

Although she still felt a little out of place, Mina allowed herself to relax at least somewhat. It was embarrassing, too, that she always jumped to conclusions like this. Sana and Momo had never shown any unkindness to Mina— or to anyone as far as she knew, really— ever since she’d known them, so logically, she should be able to trust that they had good intentions. Mina wanted to trust them, and maybe in some capacity she did. She was here, wasn’t she? Giving them a chance? Still, there was the lingering sense of apprehension that kept her constantly tense, as if she were waiting for them to turn on her at any given moment.

Perhaps anticipating that Mina was about to apologize again, Sana explained, “I wanted to wear my hamster onesie, but Momo here begged me to match with her.” She rolled her eyes in Momo’s direction, crossing her arms with a pout.

Momo released an offended gasp and shoved Sana slightly, “Liar! I didn’t beg at all! All I said was—“

“‘Satang, can you pleeeeease match with me?’” Sana whined in what was actually a fairly accurate imitation of Momo’s voice, batting her eyelashes. “‘I want to look cool to impress M—‘“

The older Hufflepuff shrieked and immediately clapped a hand over Sana’s mouth, eyes wide in horror. “Ignore her, please,” Momo smiled apologetically at Mina, who was trying to contain the laughter building in her throat.

To save Sana from her best friend’s wrath, Mina suggested quietly, “Should we go inside?”

Momo hummed in agreement, shooting Sana a warning glare as she slowly removed her hand from the girl’s mouth. Sana simply grinned innocently, pursing her lips to blow an air kiss in Momo’s direction.

In order to enter the Hufflepuff common room, one apparently had to tap a pile of barrels next to a large painting in a certain rhythm. Mina watched with interest as Sana did so with practiced ease, resulting in one of the barrels swinging open. An earthen tunnel was revealed, Sana and Momo leading the way through into the main room. Mina barely had time to appreciate the warmth and coziness of the room before she was being tugged by her hand in the direction of the girls’ dormitory.

Sana and Momo’s room looked quite similar to Mina’s, different only in the color scheme and the plants scattered about the room in wall sconces. There was a large pile of assorted snacks and board games on one of the beds, and when Mina turned to glance at the girls inquisitively, they grinned.

“I convinced the house elves in the kitchen to let me sneak away some snacks,” Momo explained proudly.

“And Jeongyeon let me borrow some of her board games!” Sana added.

Although the snacks were, of course, tempting, Mina naturally gravitated toward the board games. There were the wizarding classics, like wizard’s chess and Gobstones, but she also spotted a few boxes that she didn’t recognize. Monopoly… Was that some kind of Muggle game? Her curiosity getting the better of her, Mina set aside what she was carrying in order to give a closer inspection to the unfamiliar game.

“Oh, I’ve played that one before!”

Mina jumped at the sudden sound of Sana’s voice right next to her ear. She’d been so absorbed in looking at the games that she hadn’t even heard the girl approach, but now she turned slightly to face her.

“Momoring and I played it with the kids once,” Sana explained further— “kids” referring to Chaeyoung, Dahyun, and Tzuyu, Mina presumed, even if they were only one school year younger. The Hufflepuff frowned over at her best friend, and they both shook their head at the memory.

“Chewy slaughtered us,” Momo recalled glumly.

Obviously the girls didn’t seem enthusiastic about this particular game, so swallowing back her curiosity, Mina leaned over to place the box back onto the pile. Before she could do so, however, she felt Sana pressing against her from behind to reach around and lightly grip her wrist. When Mina’s head twisted around to give the girl a questioning look, she almost squeaked at the now incredibly close proximity of their faces.

Sana offered an encouraging smile. “We can play this, if you want.”

“We don’t have to, it doesn’t matter—“ Mina began to weakly protest, but Sana was already taking the box from her hands and passing it to Momo.

“Monopoly it is!”

———

As it turned out, Mina was amazing at games— within a couple of rounds, the Ravenclaw was already running laps around Sana and Momo despite having just learned the rules of the game. It wasn’t the girl’s intelligence that surprised Momo anymore (she’d already been witness to that time and time again), but rather, the competitive streak Mina possessed.

Mina’s style of playing could be described as nothing short of ruthless. When she finally put Sana and Momo out of their misery by winning, Mina’s beaming gummy smile prevented Momo from being annoyed by the loss.

“I think the Sorting Hat made a mistake by putting you into Ravenclaw,” Momo complained teasingly, flopping into Sana’s side. “After this, I’m convinced you’re a Slytherin.”

Mina released a laugh, shrugging her shoulders. “I just really like games,” she admitted quietly.

“You must love Quidditch, then,” Momo said conversationally, beginning to help Sana pick up the pieces of the game. “Were you on the Mahoutokoro team? I heard they were amazing, with a perfect season last year except for their final match.”

Momo didn’t see anything wrong with her comment until she felt Sana stiffen next to her. Glancing up, she immediately noticed how Mina had gone a little pale, her eyes trained on the ground.

Shoot. Sana had warned her to be careful with what she said about anything Quidditch slash broom related around Mina— from what they’d heard, it was a sensitive subject for the girl, and they didn’t want to scare her away. Momo opened her mouth to apologize, but Mina spoke before she could.

“I-I guess I wouldn’t know,” she replied, playing with one of the little metal figurines from the game. “I don’t play, I mean, I haven’t played Quidditch before.” Mina’s words were uncharacteristically fumbled, with what Momo guessed were nerves.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to assume,” Momo apologized, feeling guilty for making the younger student uncomfortable.

Mina shrugged, and now her expression changed to be that of slight embarrassment. “No, it’s fine, I get it,” she hurried to assure. (Typical Mina, Momo thought. Wanting to make me feel better.) After a beat, Mina continued, “I am decent at flying, though. Have had a lot of practice, you know?” She smiled slowly, and Momo may not be as perceptive as Sana, but even she could see clear as day the sadness in Mina’s eyes.

Maybe to lighten the mood (she was always so good at that), Sana whined, “I don’t even know how to fly!”

Knowing quite well the story Sana was about to tell, Momo couldn’t help but grin, fully leaning back to rest her head comfortably in the girl’s lap.

“Doesn’t Hogwarts have mandatory flying classes?” Mina asked, frowning as she folded up the Monopoly board and tucked it back into the box.

Sana released a heavy, dramatic sigh. “We do, but I never really learned anything. All that class gave me was a concussion,” she explained sulkily, one of her hands absentmindedly beginning to pet Momo’s hair.

This explanation just served to confuse Mina even further, unsurprisingly. “Um… How, exactly?”

They’d told the story so many times (to anyone who’d listen, really) that Momo knew this was her part of the tale to recount. “Well,” she began, shrugging innocently, “Sana was having trouble so I told her to get onto my broom with me. And—“

“—the broom was wobbly with both of us on it, so we crashed and knocked our heads together,” Sana finished with another sigh.

“Madam Hooch screamed at us for, like, an hour,” Momo recalled, grimacing at the memory.

Mina burst out laughing at the story, both Hufflepuffs teasingly glaring at her.

“It’s not funny!” Sana insisted, pouting.

Momo admitted, “C’mon, it is pretty funny.” She looked up at Sana’s face from her position in the girl’s lap, reaching up a hand to poke at Sana’s cheeks. Suddenly getting an idea, Momo rolled onto her side to beam up at Mina. “Hey, maybe we could go down to the Quidditch pitch tomorrow! You could help me teach Sana how to fly, and maybe give me a few pointers?” she asked hopefully. “I could even explain the rules of Quidditch, if you want.” Momo knew that she was once again bringing up a sensitive subject, but maybe it’d be good for Mina to step out of her comfort zone a little.

It seemed Mina was quite taken aback by Momo’s proposal, a little “oh” escaping her mouth in surprise. After a pause, the Ravenclaw answered somewhat apologetically, “I don’t really fly anymore...“

Trying not to feel too disappointed, Momo immediately nodded, assuring, “That’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

She couldn’t help but wonder what Mina meant when she said she didn’t fly anymore. Did that mean that something happened, and that was the reason why? Momo knew better than to ask about it, not wanting to pry, but she was still curious. Maybe just being the kid of a famous broom maker was enough to ruin the whole experience for Mina, for all Momo knew.

“But I guess…”

Momo looked up at Mina again, having not expected the girl to add more to her answer.

Mina was biting her lip in uncertainty, probably having one of those ‘mental battles’ that Sana explained she tended to have. Both Hufflepuffs gave her a moment to finish her thought, and after a short time, she continued, “I guess we could do that, though.”

“Are you sure?” Sana prompted gently. Even without looking at her face, Momo could hear the worry interlaced in her best friend’s voice. Sana was always looking out for everyone, always mindful of their emotions. She truly didn’t have a mean bone in her body— Sana had many amazing qualities, but Momo thought that one might be her favorite.

“Yeah,” Mina agreed, nodding and offering them a small smile. “It’ll be fun.”

Momo returned the smile in full, sitting up excitedly. “It’s a plan!” she proclaimed, spreading her arms wide. She tossed a smirk in Sana’s direction, teasing, “Let’s see if you can learn flying properly this time, minus the concussion.”

“That concussion was your fault!” Sana whined, standing up and pushing at Momo’s shoulder with a foot. She smiled sweetly in Mina’s direction, “I bet Mina will be a much better teacher!”

Momo gasped in faux offense, standing up as well. She pointed a finger threateningly in Sana’s direction. “You take that back, Minatozaki, or so help me!” she growled, trying to hide the smile itching at the corner of her lips.

Sana simply stuck out her tongue and turned to Mina who was still sitting on the floor, offering the girl a hand up.

Still grumbling to herself, Momo picked up the Monopoly board and walked over to the bed to put it back on the pile with the other games. About to join the two other girls again, Momo stopped when she caught sight of an unfamiliar box laying on the bed next to the games. Picking it up, she remembered seeing Mina bring it with her. Intrigued, Momo turned around and held it up. “What’s this?”

———

“What’s this?” Momo asked, brandishing the box that Mina had brought with her in a moment of what was probably temporary insanity.

The Ravenclaw automatically reached out to take it from Momo, embarrassment causing her cheeks to begin to flush. “It’s nothing important, really,” she explained dismissively, tucking it under an arm when Momo surrendered it over. “Just a momento from Mahoutokoro, I-I guess I thought it might be interesting to look at it, but it isn’t anything special.”

“Noooo,” Sana insisted, the word long and drawn out, “Please show us!”

“Yeah! Please!” Momo agreed enthusiastically.

With both girls looking at her in that way, with so much hope in their eyes— how was Mina supposed to say no? She was already not great at it, but her ability was compromised entirely when she was around these two. Sighing a little bit, she nodded, mumbling, “Alright, but like I said, it’s not that exciting.”

She opened the lid of the simple pale blue box, revealing what was inside— her robes from Mahoutokoro. Despite what she’d told them about it not being anything special, Mina couldn’t help but smile down at the robes as she ran her fingers over the soft rose gold silk, lifting it from the box to further display it to Sana and Momo. Sure, her time at Mahoutokoro held a lot of painful memories, but these robes served as a reminder of the beauty of the Japanese school.

Both the Hufflepuffs released dramatic gasps, instinctively reaching out their own hands to gently stroke the material.

“It’s so beautiful,” Sana breathed out, her eyes wide.

With a touch of indignation, Momo added, “So much nicer than our stupid Hogwarts robes.”

“You should put it on,” Sana said, and when Mina’s eyebrows raised questioningly, the Hufflepuff continued in a calmly diplomatic fashion, “We can’t get a real idea of what it looks like if you don’t put it on.” Momo immediately voiced her agreement, clapping in excitement.

Mina couldn’t help but roll her eyes with a smile. “If you insist,” she teased lightly, setting the box down on the table next to her and slipping her arms into the silk robes. Pulling it around her, Mina tied the sash around her waist in order to keep the robes closed over her pajamas. Finally, to give the girls the full effect, she used a hand to lift her hair into a bun like the way she wore it everyday at Mahoutokoro.

The first reaction was from Momo, who released a high pitched squeal and threw her arms around Mina, hugging her tightly as she cooed, “So pretty!” Mina couldn’t see Sana since Momo was blocking her view, but she heard the other girl approach.

“You look so pretty, Mitang,” Sana murmured, not too far from her ear.

Whether it was the feeling of Momo’s body pressed against hers, the compliments, the new nickname, or probably a combination of all of these, Mina immediately felt her face and entire body grow hot. “Thanks,” she managed to choke out, unsure of where exactly to place her hands on Momo in the hug. (She didn’t even know how to give someone a hug properly… Merlin help her, she was pathetic.)

After a few seconds Momo pulled away, that lopsided grin of hers making Mina’s heart flip a little. What is it with these girls? Mina wondered distractedly.

Trying to calm the weird nerves that’d appeared all of a sudden in her stomach, Mina moved closer to the table and removed the robes. She folded the silk and placed it back into the box, meticulously arranging it so there were no wrinkles or creases in the expensive fabric. When she eventually turned around to face the girls again, Sana was observing her closely, looking like she wanted to say something.

“Do you miss Mahoutokoro? You must’ve been sad to leave your friends there.”

Sana’s tone was light enough, but Mina wasn’t blind— each word’s delivery was soft and full of caution, like the Hufflepuff was trying her hardest not to tread on some kind of emotional tripwire. It was the way Sana always spoke to her, ever since the first time they’d met, if not a little more pronounced as Sana obviously decided it was an appropriate time to probe a little deeper. Mina didn’t blame her for that— she knew both girls must be dying to know why she was the way she was, so quiet and awkward and hesitant to trust.

No, it wasn’t the curiosity that made Mina pause, but rather the whole idea of her being treated like this, like she was made of glass. There was something innately condescending about it, but at the same time, Mina knew that Sana’s carefulness with her came from a place of kindness and not of patronization. Mina supposed she was frustrated more with herself than Sana— for appearing this weak, for needing to be tiptoed around at all. (No one had ever been this gentle with her before, she realized. Not ever.)

“I do miss it, sometimes,” Mina admitted after a few seconds of thought, sinking down to sit at the edge of the bed. Her words were carefully chosen, too— perhaps her and Sana weren’t so different after all. “It was a beautiful school. I grew up there… It was my home.”

When she looked up, Sana and Momo had also moved to sit. Sana made eye contact and nodded slowly but didn’t say anything— obviously leaving space for Mina to continue speaking if she chose to do so.

Her voice soft, Mina admitted, “There’s not really anyone for me to miss there, though. I didn’t… I didn’t exactly have friends, not real ones, anyway. People were only ever nice to me because they wanted something from me, or because they thought I could improve their ‘status’. Once they realized I couldn’t offer them anything, or they grew tired of me…” She shrugged helplessly.

She didn’t know why she was saying all of this— it wasn’t because she wanted Sana and Momo’s pity, or wanted to guilt trip them into being her friends. It just felt good to talk to someone about it, like a weight being lifted from her shoulders.

Mina forced herself to smile. “It wasn’t so bad these last couple of years, though. I guess kids are crueler when they’re younger… As they get older, they mostly just ignore you and leave you alone,” she explained. It was her way of attempting to assure the two girls that things were fine, that she was fine, but apparently she didn’t sound all that convincing.

“That’s awful,” Momo breathed out, at the same time as Sana murmured, “I’m so sorry, Mina.”

Again, another dismissive shrug. Mina felt a wave of guilt— this was supposed to be a fun, light-hearted evening, but she’d gone and made it all about her and her own foolish “sob story”. Her first instinct was to apologize, to assure them it wasn’t that big of a deal and she was sorry for having brought it up. Instead, her voice quiet but firm, Mina told the truth.

“It’s different here, though. It’s been… nice.” This time when she smiled at the girls, it was genuine. She didn’t say the entirety of what she wanted to tell them— that they were what was different here compared to Mahoutokoro— but judging by the way Sana and Momo smiled back at her, Mina knew they got her message loud and clear.

——

To Mina’s great relief, after she’d shared those details about her life at Mahoutokoro, the mood quickly lightened again.

Momo had them play another Muggle game that Mina had previously been unaware of— charades, she’d called it. Even though there were only three of them so they didn’t have proper teams, and there was no way to really “win”, Mina was too busy laughing to the point of tears to care. Sana and Momo’s pantomimes were hilariously overdramatic, and they came up with the more ridiculous guesses when it was someone else's turn.

When Sana chose chess as their next game, Mina was near certain what the outcome of the game would be. She’d been playing chess practically since she was old enough to speak— with all respect to Sana, Mina hadn’t met very many worthy challengers in her time.

Imagine her complete and utter shock, then, when Sana ended the game with a bright chirp of, “Checkmate!”

Mina gaped at the chessboard— how did she miss that?!

Giggling at Mina’s expression, Sana explained, “I play chess with my dad all the time when I’m home. He taught me all sorts of strategies he invented himself!”

The Ravenclaw nodded slowly, realizing that was why she couldn’t fully anticipate any of Sana’s next moves. “Well, you’ve certainly impressed me,” she teased lightly, grinning at the other girl.

Sana beamed in pride, turning her head to look at her best friend who had fallen asleep on her halfway through the game. Nudging her shoulder to wake Momo, Sana informed her cheerfully, “I won the game, Momoring!”

“Merry Christmas,” Momo mumbled in agreement, rolling slightly to throw her arms around Sana and push her face into the girl’s neck.

Sana rolled her eyes in Mina’s direction with an amused smile. “I guess that means it’s time for bed, huh?”

Mina hadn’t even realized it had gotten so late, but now that she was thinking of it, her whole body was beginning to feel tired. Nodding her head, she raised herself to her feet and looked between the two beds in the room.

Were two of them going to sleep in one bed, and one person in the other? This was Sana and Momo’s room— Mina didn’t want to intrude, and kick one of them out of their bed. “I can sleep on the floor, that’s fine with me,” Mina eventually decided on saying, giving Sana what she hoped was an easy smile.

The Hufflepuff was helping a yawning Momo to her feet, but at Mina’s comment, Sana immediately burst out into laughter. She shook her head and waved her free hand, “Believe me, that’s really not necessary.” At Mina’s confused expression, Sana explained, “Momoring hates sleeping alone. When she came to Hogwarts in our first year, her parents wouldn’t let her bring any of the stuffed animals she usually slept with at home because they thought she was too old.” Sana gazed at her best friend with undeniable fondness, a slow smile creeping onto her lips. “I hated seeing her upset, so eventually I just told her to crawl into bed with me. We’ve pretty much shared the same bed every night since.”

Sana shrugged like it was the simplest thing, but Mina was still left a little bewildered. Once again, she had little experience in the field of best friendship, but sharing a bed? It seemed obvious, even to her, that that pushed the limits of the term “platonic”. Still, Mina supposed it wasn’t her place to judge— what did she know? Besides, she’d witnessed how close the girls were firsthand, it shouldn’t have come as that much of a surprise to her that they were close in this way, too.

“You didn’t have to tell her the whole thing,” a now more awake Momo whined, still clinging onto Sana’s arm like a koala.

What did surprise Mina slightly was how much clingier Momo was toward Sana tonight. Usually, the older Hufflepuff rejected any affection that Sana showed to her, or at the very least complained about it. Tonight, it was Momo being the overly touchy one. Maybe she just doesn’t like public displays of affection? Mina wondered. If that were the case, that was still a bit odd to her, as it seemed more like how someone would act in a relationship versus a friendship. Regardless, Mina decided to dismiss the thought for now, as she focused her attention on the other bed.

She moved toward it and began to remove the board games and what remained of the snacks from the top of it. In a few moments, Sana and Momo were standing next to her and helping her out. Once the bed was cleared, Mina lifted the covers to slip in, but she was stopped by a hand on her forearm. When she turned, she was met with a sad, sleepy pout.

“Are you sure you won’t be lonely, Mitang?” Momo asked softly, gaze earnest even if it was obvious she was fighting to keep her eyes open.

Mina didn’t know how to respond to that. She’d been sleeping alone her whole life— of course she’d be fine. Not wanting to hurt Momo’s feelings, though, Mina’s mouth opened and closed as she tried to think of an adequate response.

Her sleep-addled mind obviously interpreting Mina’s lack of an answer a certain way, Momo’s face suddenly brightened. “We can push the beds together, if you want!”

Push.. the beds… together? Mina repeated mentally, eyes widening. The Ravenclaw glanced between Momo and Sana with uncertainty, both girls looking at her gently. It’s your choice, they seemed to say. Despite her instincts that told her this was probably a bad idea, Mina’s face warmed as she hesitantly mumbled, “O-Okay then.”

With a renewed burst of energy, it seemed, Momo made quick work of pushing the bed across the room to fit right into the side of Sana and Momo’s. Without much further ado, Sana slid into one side, Momo gesturing for Mina to do the same on the other as she went to turn the lights off.

Mina’s heart quickened in her chest as she felt the blankets on her side be lifted. She’d assumed that since Sana and Momo apparently always slept together, Momo would climb in next to Sana, but evidently she assumed wrong.

“Is this okay?” Momo murmured softly, and when Mina answered with a quiet “yeah”, the Hufflepuff crawled in right next to her.

After all three girls had settled in comfortably, Mina lay on her back, sharply aware of the body heat of Sana and Momo on either side of her. As pathetic as it was, she almost wanted to cry just thinking about it. Are you sure you won’t be lonely? Mina had been so lonely for so long she’d almost become numb to it, but somehow these two girls had managed to worm their way into her heart and make her feel actually wanted. She knew, logically, that was silly— she shouldn’t become so attached— but at the moment, Mina didn’t quite care about being logical.

She was already drifting asleep when she heard Sana whisper into the darkness, “We can be your home, Mitang.”

——

Mina didn’t dream of Mahoutokoro that night.

Chapter Text

When Mina woke up in the early hours of the next morning, it was with Sana’s face tucked under her chin, her steady breath warm against Mina’s collarbone, and Momo’s front pressed close against her back. One of Momo’s arms was draped over Mina, and she could feel the two Hufflepuffs holding hands against her stomach.

Surprisingly, Mina felt no panic, no flight instinct— only warmth, emanating from her chest to the tips of her fingers and the tips of her toes, lulling her back to sleep.

———

At a more decent hour for a Saturday morning, Sana was the first to wake. As cozy as she felt at the moment, cuddled under the heavy quilts with her two favorite girls, the sunlight pouring through the windows motivated her to carefully maneuver her way out of bed.

She turned to gaze back at the still-slumbering bodies of Mina and Momo, a slow smile spreading across her lips. They looked so peaceful like that, entangled with each other in the early morning light. Sana had never had any doubts since she first laid eyes on Mina that the girl would fit together with them perfectly, but even if she had, those doubts would have been assuaged completely at the sight.

Judging by the clock on the wall, Momo was bound to not wake up by herself for another hour at least, and Mina seemed similarly fast asleep. Although Sana was tempted to crawl back into bed and curl up against Mina’s side again, she ultimately decided that she would make a trip to the Great Hall for coffee and breakfast. The least she could do for her girls was bring them breakfast in bed, right?

Sana took her time on her way to and back from the Great Hall, wanting to give them plenty of time to sleep in. On the way back to the Hufflepuff common room she ran into Tzuyu, the younger student’s eyebrows raising when she saw the three coffee cups and assorted breakfast items Sana was attempting to juggle in her arms.

“Has Momo’s appetite really grown that much?” Tzuyu mused, somewhat in awe. She took one of the coffee cups and a few of the snacks from Sana’s arms, receiving an appreciative smile in thanks.

“Mina slept over last night,” Sana explained as they reached the entrance to their dorm. Balancing her goods in one arm, she tapped the barrels with her other.

When she looked up, Tzuyu was gazing at her curiously. “I’ve never seen you two have someone sleep over before,” she commented.

They both traveled through the tunnel into the common room which was almost empty, most students still in bed. Sana shrugged, carefully taking back the third cup of coffee and goodies Tzuyu had been helping her with. “It’s Mina,” she replied simply, leaving it at that. Flashing another smile, Sana thanked her friend and made her way back into her and Momo’s room.

Trying her best to be quiet, Sana settled everything down on the table next to her side of the bed. After a few moments, however, she heard the sounds of movement and the rustling of sheets. When Sana looked over, Mina was blinking blearily up at her, rubbing her eyes.

“G’mor’ing,” Mina mumbled, her voice adorably thick with sleep.

Sana’s smile grew as she repeated back, “Good morning.” She gestured to the table, “I got coffee and some donuts and stuff for when you guys wake up a bit more.”

The Ravenclaw hummed her thanks and shifted slightly, twisting her head a bit to glance at Momo who was still deep in slumber at her back.

Sana had learned after only a few weeks into her first year that Momo was quite resistant to the usual methods of being woken up— to put it bluntly, the girl slept like a rock. In Sana’s six years of sharing a bed with Momo since, however, she’d had plenty of time to perfect her game plan for waking her best friend up every morning. Guessing that her method A (covering Momo’s face and neck with kisses until she woke up) would be a bit much for Mina at this point, Sana settled on method B.

Walking around to the other side of the bed, Sana unceremoniously flopped down right next to Momo and dug her fingers into the girl’s sides. After a few seconds, in a somewhat delayed reaction, Momo woke with a jolt. Shrill little whines escaped her mouth as she tried to push Sana away with her arms and legs.

“You’re so mean,” Momo cried once she had successfully fended the girl off, eyes drooping shut again as she reached out to feel for a now-giggling Mina. “Five more minutes…” She burrowed further into the blankets and Mina’s side, scooting away from Sana.

“Five more minutes means an hour for you,” Sana scoffed, tossing Mina an amused roll of her eyes. She moved to tickle Momo again, who finally turned over to fix Sana with a sleepy glare.

“This definitely isn’t my favorite way to be woken up,” she grumbled, pouting.

A still half-asleep Momo, with her mussed hair and pout, was too much for Sana’s heart to take, no matter how many times she’d witnessed the sight. The temptation proving too much to resist, Sana leaned forward to give Momo a lingering kiss— on her cheek, however, again not wanting to scandalize Mina too much. “I’ll make it up to you later, then,” Sana murmured into her ear, quiet enough so that only Momo would hear.

Sana’s promise seemed sufficient enough to wake the older Hufflepuff up fully, as she pulled away from Mina and sat up in bed. Momo’s eyes brightened at the sight of coffee and food on the bedside table, and within a few moments she was jumping up to her feet.

While Momo began to dig into the mini feast that had been delivered to their room, Sana went to sit down next to Mina, who had pulled her legs around to hang off the edge of the bed.

“How’d you sleep?” Sana asked softly. The Ravenclaw’s gaze was firmly fixed down at her wiggling feet, a slight crease in her brow and her lower lip tucked in slightly— all of her “tells” which clearly indicated to Sana that she was beginning to overthink.

Eventually Mina glanced up and offered her a little smile. “Really well,” she answered, looking down again as she added shyly, “Better than I have in a while, actually.”

Sana couldn’t resist the urge to reach forward and tuck some of Mina’s hair behind one of her ears. “Well, I’m glad to hear it.” Her hand lingered near the top of Mina’s jaw distractedly as she added, “You can come spend the night with Momoring and I whenever you’d like.”

“Thanks,” Mina mumbled, cheeks coloring pink.

Sana finally withdrew her hand, becoming aware of her longer-than-necessary touch. Clearing her throat and nodding toward where Momo was happily enjoying breakfast, she suggested, “We should probably grab something to eat now before Momo has a chance to devour it all.”

Looking up at the mention of her name, Momo called out, “Come on, girls, we don’t have all day! We have to make it out to the pitch early, we only have until 1 o’clock ‘til the Ravenclaws have a practice!” The older Hufflepuff rolled her eyes and mumbled mostly to herself, “Joohyun’ll kill me if she catches me trying to use the Quidditch pitch for my own practices again…”

With that, Sana and Mina joined her, dragging their own chairs over to sit around the table.

“Thank you for this, by the way,” Mina piped up, gesturing to their breakfast. “It’s very kind of you.”

Momo hummed in agreement, reaching over with her free hand to squeeze Sana’s without even looking up from what she was eating— her own way of thanking Sana without words.

A pleased smile spread on Sana’s lips. She intertwined her fingers with Momo’s, squeezing back, and addressed Mina, “You’re very welcome.”

There was something almost intimate about the way the three girls consumed their breakfast and coffee in companionable silence, their legs all tucked against each other under the table. For the longest time, it had just been Sana and Momo sharing these quiet, private moments together— and though Sana cherished those memories, there was something about having Mina here with them that made the whole experience feel more complete.

——

After their breakfast, the Hufflepuffs and Mina parted ways so they could all change out of their pajamas before their mini flying practice. Sana and Momo had offered to lend to Mina some of their extra robes so she didn’t have to go all the way back to her dorm, but the Ravenclaw had just blushed furiously, promising that she’d be quick.

About a half hour later they met outside the doors of the school, at the top of the path leading down to the broomshed and Quidditch pitch. When Mina approached dressed in her normal school robes, Sana hummed and commented thoughtfully, “I think I prefer the cute penguin pajamas.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t think those are great Quidditch clothes,” Mina replied, laughing.

The trio began to make their way carefully down the hill— that is, they were until Sana halted suddenly, grabbing onto Momo’s hand to force her to stop as well. The older Hufflepuff turned around slowly, and judging by her expression, she knew exactly what Sana wanted. Sana didn’t even have to break out the puppy dog face this time before Momo sighed heavily, rolling her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, get on,” she grumbled, facing front again and crouching slightly.

With a satisfied grin, Sana climbed onto her best friend’s back, wrapping her legs around Momo’s stomach and her arms around Momo’s neck (careful not to choke her, of course). “Thank youuuu,” she cooed into the girl’s ear, resting her chin on Momo’s right shoulder.

“I swear, she thinks she’s a princess or something,” Momo whined to Mina, sounding annoyed despite the fact that she’d given in without Sana even having to verbally ask for it. “We have to walk the slightest distance, and she expects to be carried.”

Deciding to be merciful and not point out Momo’s complete lack of refusal at her (unspoken) request, Sana instead flashed a beaming, innocent grin in Mina’s direction. As they got closer to the broomshed, an idea suddenly entered her mind. Sana tightened her arms around Momo, her voice dejected as she commented to Mina, “It’s too bad that Momoring can’t carry the both of us on her back… Now you have to walk all by yourself.”

Mina immediately opened her mouth, probably to assure her that she didn’t mind walking at all, but Momo predictably took Sana’s bait. “What, you think I’m not strong enough to carry both of you?” she demanded, her pride hurt. She stopped walking to turn toward Mina, and though Sana couldn’t quite see her face, she could imagine Momo’s determined expression. “Here, Mitang, you get on too.”

Mina’s eyes widened and she shook her head, waving her hands. “I don’t know, that seems a little much, I don’t want you to hurt yourself—”

“I won’t, I promise,” Momo said confidently, gesturing for the Ravenclaw to come closer.

Mina still looked conflicted, but after a moment she obeyed, moving a bit further up the hill so she had more height. Momo again crouched, and Sana held on tight as Mina jumped onto her back, the girl’s limbs wrapping around Sana and Momo as best she could. Sana felt more than heard the little grunt Momo released as she accepted the extra weight onto her back, but that was the only real reaction the Quidditch player had to adding Mina on. Sana couldn’t help but grin at the feeling of Mina’s face tucked into her neck.

“See, no problem,” Momo bragged, her breath only slightly labored. Slowly and surely, her tongue poking out in concentration, Momo began to take steps forward. Lucky for her, the broomshed was only a couple of meters away, so she didn’t have to push herself too far.

Once they reached the door to the wooden building, Mina slid off of Momo’s (or technically Sana’s, really) back. She smoothed out her robes as she smiled shyly at Momo, the beginnings of a blush on her cheeks. “Well, I’m impressed,” she said, nodding.

Momo shrugged again, “You’re pretty light, Sana’s the heavy one.”

“Hey!” Sana complained as she was also lowered to the ground, tossing Momo a playful glare. Patting her best friend’s biceps over her robes, Sana turned to Mina and grinned, “Momoring’s really strong, isn’t she? She’s a great athlete!” Mina hummed her agreement, though she averted her eyes and looked a little flustered.

“Thanks,” Momo replied, shooting Sana a look. Sana simply raised her eyebrows with a smug smirk— You were the one who wanted her to think you were cool, weren’t you? And now she said she’s “impressed”. Understanding passing across her face, Momo huffed and rolled her eyes, pushing at Sana’s shoulder. “Dummy,” she teased Sana under her breath as she led the way into the broomshed.

While Momo retrieved her personal broom, Sana grabbed a school one since she didn’t own a broom herself. Momo had wondered aloud earlier whether Mina owned one, not wanting to jump to any conclusions— however, it seemed those assumptions were correct to make, as Mina returned from a corner of the room carrying a broomstick that looked quite different from the school brooms and Momo’s old, worn out model.

Judging by the way Momo involuntarily gaped at it, Sana assumed it was one of the best money could buy. Even she could tell how high end and expensive it must be— the broom was the perfect picture of elegance, with its polished dark wood and sleek appearance. It was almost as if it were fashioned for Mina individually, its image fit her that well. At the end of the broom, Sana spotted a gold “Myoui Brooms” logo painted onto the wood.

“That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Momo declared, somewhat in awe.

Mina frowned down at it, looking significantly less impressed than Momo did. “I guess.” She shrugged her shoulders dismissively, explaining, “My father had it custom made for me for my latest birthday, but… I don’t really use it that much.”

Sensing the girl’s growing discomfort, Sana held up her broom proudly and declared, “That’s cool, buuuuuut, I think my broom’s the best.” All three girls looked at the school broom, made of cheap pine and the twigs in the tail sticking out haphazardly in every direction, and after a few moments they all burst into laughter.

The trio exited the broomshed and walked the rest of the way to the pitch, Momo automatically taking Sana’s broom to carry it for her— a little habit of hers that Sana never failed to find terribly endearing. (If Sana expected to be treated like a princess, it was entirely Momo’s own fault.)

The Quidditch pitch was deserted as Momo had predicted, at least for the time being. Sana had only ever really been there for Momo’s games, and there was something about the vastness and emptiness of it all, plus the knowledge of what she was about to do, that had nerves begin to churn in her stomach. She wasn’t afraid of heights, necessarily, but there was something distinctly terrifying about the thought of her feet not being firmly planted on the ground. Not to mention the fact that the last time she was on a broom she ended up injured, so that didn’t help in calming her down.

When Sana’s attention turned back to her friends, Momo was already hovering on her broom, having left Sana’s broom down on the ground. “You make it look so easy,” Sana called over to her, pouting.

“That’s because it is!” Momo insisted, flying closer. “All you have to do is mount it, push off, and boom, you’re flying!”

“Yeah, okay,” Sana grumbled, unconvinced that it was actually that simple. Reluctantly, she did as Momo told her— with the broom under her, Sana summoned all of her concentration and pushed off from the ground. She succeeded in getting the broom in the air, but she released a nervous squeak at the unsteadiness of it all, wobbling back and forth. Her feet were barely off the ground, but Sana still couldn’t help but feel incredibly nervous.

Suddenly, Mina’s hands were resting on either side of her hips. When Sana’s gaze landed on her, the Ravenclaw smiled encouragingly as she said, “Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

Sana had always been an affectionate person, and more often than not, she showed said affection through touch— physical contact with other people never really fazed her. However, it seemed Mina’s touch was a rare exception. There was something about the girl’s hands resting delicately on her waist, keeping her steady, that made Sana’s entire face and neck burn.

“Okay,” Sana mumbled, trying not to show how flustered she felt in that moment.

Mina’s voice was soft and soothing as she instructed, “You just have to relax, okay? Just concentrate on my voice. The more nervous you are, the harder it will be to stay balanced, so take some deep breaths.”

Even though it was incredibly hard to focus on anything except Mina’s hands and the way she was standing so close, Sana did her best to concentrate on preventing the broom from being wobbly. Steadying her breathing, after a few seconds her broom stopped tilting, and she levitated safely in the air. Sana grinned proudly over at Mina, who smiled warmly back and gave her an encouraging thumbs up.

“Alright, now try to go a little higher,” Momo called out from above her.

Swallowing back her fear, Sana allowed the broom to raise her further into the air until she was at the same height as Momo.

“See, I told you it wasn’t that hard,” Momo scoffed. Despite her dismissive tone, Sana could clearly see the girl beaming with pride— Sana knew this was a big deal for Momo as well as herself. Quidditch and flying meant everything to Momo, so she was obviously pleased to finally share it with her best friend. And our new friend, too, Sana mentally amended, smiling down at Mina who was still on the ground.

With Momo’s coaching up high and Mina’s from down below, Sana was able to learn how to maneuver around well enough. She was still a little clumsy— she almost fell off a handful of times, almost giving her friends multiple heart attacks— but she had the basics of it down pat, at least. Sana had been doubtful that she’d even be able to accomplish that, so she was going to accept the bare minimum as a win.

After zooming around for a while, Sana realized that Mina was still on the ground, gazing up at her and Momo. Sana guided her broom down closer to the pitch, hovering near the Ravenclaw. “Aren’t you going to fly with us?” Sana prompted gently. She didn’t want Mina to be all alone while she and Momo had fun.

Mina cleared her throat and nodded once. “Yeah, okay,” she mumbled. Sana could see the younger student take a deep breath, almost as if steeling herself. More fluidly than Sana could even dream of, Mina mounted onto her broom and kicked off, gliding into the air.

Although Sana was yet again far from any kind of expert on flying or brooms, it seemed like it would be obvious to anyone with two eyes that Mina hadn’t been exaggerating when she said she was skilled in flying. The Ravenclaw made it look incredibly natural— with her fast, expensive broom, she cut through the air like a knife. If a talented Quidditch player like Momo made flying look easy, Mina made it look completely effortless.

Sana raised higher to hover next to her best friend, commenting, “Wow, she’s really good, huh?” When she looked over to smile at Momo, the other Hufflepuff seemed to be in a state of shock.

“She’s better than good, Sana,” Momo eventually said, her voice dead serious as she tore her eyes away from Mina to meet Sana’s gaze. “Some of the best Quidditch players I’ve seen here can’t even fly like that.”

Mina made a few laps around the Quidditch pitch before rejoining the two Hufflepuffs, smiling over at them. “You wanted me to join you, so aren’t you going to fly with me?” she laughed, trying to sound casual though Sana could detect the slight uncertainty in her voice.

“Of course,” Momo agreed enthusiastically.

For another half hour or so, the three girls spend their time in the air, flying around. Despite Mina’s clear advantage due to her fancy broom, and the fact that Sana barely knew how to fly as is, Momo insisted on having a race. The winner of that race was entirely unsurprising, and trying to go fast made Sana almost fall off her broom again, but it was still incredibly fun.

Eventually, all three girls met down on the ground again, the exhilaration making them all giggly.

“You’re so good, Mitang,” Momo burst out suddenly, “I’m serious, how have you not played Quidditch before? You’re one of the best fliers I’ve ever seen!”

The Ravenclaw’s grin faded as she looked down and shook her head, her curtain of hair hiding her face. “It’s just the broom, probably,” she mumbled, shrugging dismissively. “I’m not that good.”

Momo gave an incredulous laugh. “Are you kidding? You’re amazing, I’m telling you!” she insisted. Seemingly getting an idea, her voice brightened as she thought aloud, “Maybe we should stay ‘til the Ravenclaw team gets here. One look at your skills, and I’m positive Joohyun will be trying to recruit you!”

“I don’t think that’d be a good idea,” Mina began to protest, “I’d just let the team down, I know it.”

“You wouldn’t at all! Joohyun’ll train you in all the rules and techniques and, I know you’d be on another team but, I’ll help you out too! You’re so fast and agile, I bet you’d make an amazing Seeker, the Ravenclaws really need a better one anyw—”

It seemed like something about that particular comment set Mina off, as she interrupted sharply, “I’m clearly not interested, okay? Just leave it alone.”

There were a few moments of silence, both Sana and Momo shocked at the usually quiet girl’s outburst. The only time Sana had heard Mina speak in such a cold, abrupt manner was when she was defending them from that bully all those weeks ago. It made Sana’s heart ache that they had pushed her to this— exactly what she’d been trying so hard to avoid, setting the Ravenclaw off in some accidental way.

Also clearly stunned, Momo stammered out, “Mina, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to push you at all. It’s your choice, of course it is, just— ignore what I said, I’m really sorry.” Sana could tell from the thick sincerity in Momo’s voice that she felt terribly guilty, and almost subconsciously, Sana reached over to take her best friend’s hand.

Mina released a long sigh, lifting a hand from her broom to rub at her face. When she pulled her hand away and looked up, her expression was weary. “No, it’s okay,” she eventually said, moving closer to take Momo’s other hand. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you, I’m sorry, I know you were just trying to encourage me.” She smiled apologetically, though her eyes were sad as she began, “It’s just… I just don’t... “ Another sigh, and she shook her head in frustration.

“You don’t have to explain,” Sana assured her quietly, reaching out to intertwine the fingers of her other hand with Mina’s.

“Yeah,” Momo agreed, nodding, “If you don’t want to play Quidditch, no one’s forcing you.” She offered a little smile, and asked cutely, “You’ll still come to my games, though, right?”

This succeeded in making Mina chuckle, and the three girls all exchanged smiles. Sana didn’t even realize how long they’d been standing there like that until someone pointedly cleared their throat behind them. When they turned around, they were faced with a rather unimpressed-looking Bae Joohyun, whose arms were crossed tightly over her chest. It appeared the Ravenclaw team had arrived for their practice a little early.

Joohyun huffed out an exasperated sigh. “Come on, Hirai, how many times do I have to remind you that you have to schedule practice times in adv—” The Ravenclaw captain stopped abruptly, her critical gaze dropping downward. “Why are you guys all standing in a circle holding hands?”

All three girls simultaneously realized how weird their position must look, and releasing little laughs, they unlinked from each other.

“Sorry, Joohyun,” Momo apologized, rubbing the back of her head with a sheepish grin. Glancing to look between Sana and Mina, she continued, “I think we were pretty much done here anyway, right guys?”

“Right,” both Sana and Mina echoed as they all grabbed their brooms, starting to leave before Joohyun could chew them out anymore.

As always, Momo automatically took Sana’s broom from her hands. Sana was pleasantly surprised, though, when the older Hufflepuff also reached out for Mina’s. “Let me carry that for you,” Momo murmured shyly, glancing away almost as if embarrassed.

Poor, oblivious Mina just laughed and handed over the broom, teasing, “If you wanted to get a closer look at it, all you had to do was ask.”

Momo’s cheeks turned bright red. Her mouth opened and closed, obviously trying to decide whether or not to explain herself. Eventually, though, Momo just mumbled, “Okay, sorry.”

At that, Sana had to press a hand to her mouth in order to not burst out into giggles. She reached out and patted Momo’s shoulder, giving her a sympathetic (and somewhat teasing) smirk. The older Hufflepuff just responded with a glare— “I don’t wanna hear it, Minatozaki. Not a word,” Sana could imagine her saying.

As they traveled back up the hill, Momo about a meter ahead carrying the brooms, Mina grabbed onto Sana’s hand swinging near hers. Sana glanced over with a smile, and though Mina didn’t look over at her, she could see her smiling, too.

Her heart swelling with emotion, Sana hoped it could always be like this between the three of them, so effortlessly easy and comfortable.

Chapter Text

In the days following, it felt as if there was a definite... shift of sorts. Although Mina had been spending a lot of time with the girls before their sleepover, now almost every free moment she had was with them at her side. The truly astounding part was that having the two girls around all the time didn’t feel stifling or exhausting to Mina, not at all. On the contrary, it was like whenever she was separated from them, she was antsy, counting down the minutes or hours until she could see them again. She didn’t want to be apart from the Hufflepuffs for too long.

It sounded insane when she thought about it. Wanting to be with them all the time… God, just how clingy was she? It made her cringe at herself, knowing she was so attached to these girls. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, she reminded herself that she should probably learn the definition of “healthy detachment” before she wound up getting herself hurt.

Regardless, the Ravenclaw had to give credit to the girls for always including her in everything they did— lately it was less SanaandMomo plus Mina, and more SanaandMomoandMina. Mina had never really experienced that before, and she had to admit, she didn’t hate the feeling.

Not even a week went by before the Hufflepuffs were inviting her around their dorm again. It was a weeknight, so they mutually decided to have another sleepover some other time, but the girls excitedly promised that they rounded up more games for the three of them to play.

With anticipation churning in her stomach, Mina made her way toward the kitchens to meet the girls outside the common room. She hadn’t seen them since breakfast that morning, since she had to skip dinner to work on a Charms project, and she was anxious to spend more time with them today. Even if it had only been less than a week since they’d been able to hang out like this, it still felt like far too long in Mina’s opinion.

As soon as Mina turned the corner, however, she could immediately sense that something was wrong. Sana was standing alone in front of the entrance, looking down and her arms crossed. When she heard Mina’s footsteps approaching, the girl’s gaze snapped up. The immediate smile that spread across her face was convincingly bright and enthusiastic, and if Mina was a little less observant, she would have missed the fact that the grin didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Hey Mitang!” Sana chirped, reaching out to seize onto one of Mina’s hands. Tangling their fingers together, the Hufflepuff pulled her a little closer, beaming. “I’ve missed you!”

“I’ve missed you too,” Mina replied softly, smiling. She considered not saying anything, hoping she was just misinterpreting Sana’s behavior, but her curiosity got the best of her. Deciding to test out a theory, she asked innocently, “Where’s Momo? Is she inside?”

Sana’s smile immediately flickered. Now, when it reappeared, it was considerably tighter, more controlled, which seemed to confirm Mina’s hypothesis. “No, Momo actually isn’t gonna be here to play games with us tonight,” Sana explained. “I guess she had to have an urgent meeting with her Quidditch friends, so she won’t be back to the room until late.” There was something off about the emphasis Sana placed on the word “friends”— like she was skeptical, almost?

“Oh, okay,” Mina said simply, not knowing what else to say. The wheels in her brain turning as she processed the information, she reached up to tuck some of her hair behind an ear, perhaps as a matter of habit. “That’s too bad, but I’m sure we’ll still have fun, right?” She smiled widely, wanting to bring back that bright grin of Sana’s she was growing so fond of.

Sana did smile back, a little more genuinely this time, and she nodded. “Exactly!”

The Hufflepuff led her by hand into the common room and up to her and Momo’s room, where the games they had promised were waiting.

Although the two girls did have fun playing the games that allowed for only two players, Mina kept a careful eye on Sana throughout the night. She was definitely off— and judging by her reaction to Mina’s question about Momo, it probably had something to do with the older student. Was Sana upset only because Momo had “ditched” them? It seemed to be deeper than that… If she were to caution a guess, Mina thought maybe it also had something to do with the company Momo was keeping.

“So, is Momoring really close to her Quidditch teammates, then?” Mina asked in the middle of one of their chess matches, hoping her voice sounded casual.

Sana released a little huff, shrugging her shoulders. “I guess,” she mumbled. “Not all of them… Mostly just Lisa. And Seulgi.” Again, there was more emphasis placed on that last name, Sana’s voice a bit lower.

Deciding to probe a little more, feeling like she was getting close to the source of Sana’s discontent, Mina continued, “Have you met them before?”

“Yeah,” Sana confirmed, releasing a sigh and giving up on focusing on the game. She looked up at Mina, her lips pursed together in a pout that would have been cute if not for the serious situation. “We never really hang out together, though. Momo’s just… weird about it, I don’t know.” A few beats later, Sana added under her breath, “Probably because she wants to flirt with Seulgi without me there.”

That comment threw Mina somewhat for a loop— was Sana jealous? Knowing, of course, that asking this question outright wouldn’t be the most tactful choice, Mina decided to attack it from another angle. “You think Momo has a crush on her?”

Sana shrugged, fiddling with one of the chess pieces moodily. “I don’t know, but anyone with eyes can see that Seulgi has a giant crush on Momo. And, why wouldn’t Momo like her? She’s an amazing Quidditch player, she’s gorgeous, and she’s one of the most popular girls at Hogwarts.” Sana sounded so dejected, it broke Mina’s heart a little— and also left her feeling more confused than ever.

Okay, so Sana definitely had to be feeling jealous of this “Seulgi” then, right? What was Mina supposed to do with this information? She wanted to comfort Sana, assuring her that she was all of those things too (minus the Quidditch star part), but she didn’t want to step out of line. She didn’t want to assume things about the nature of Sana and Momo’s relationship either— she was confused about that part especially, but she didn’t think now was a good time to ask about it.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to rant at you,” Sana apologized, pulling Mina from her thoughts.

Dummy, you didn’t say anything so now she thinks you don’t care! Mina mentally scolded herself. Her social skills were admittedly quite rusty, but that was no excuse. She needed to be a good friend to Sana right now, even if she wasn’t sure she was fully equipped to deal with this sort of situation.

“No, you can rant as much as you want,” Mina assured, reaching out for one of Sana’s hands. She gave the other girl her best, warmest smile, “I’m here to listen.”

“Thanks, Mitang,” Sana said softly, mirroring Mina’s smile. “There’s nothing left to say, though. Momo can hang out with whoever she wants, and it’s none of my business.” She shrugged and looked down at their game again, “Now, not to change the subject, but I’d really like to beat you at this game again.”

Sana didn’t mention Momo again for the rest of the evening as they continued games and talking about any other topic under the sun. And though they did have fun, it was still obvious to Mina that Sana was much more withdrawn than usual. After a while, Mina was beginning to feel drowsy, unable to hide her yawns, and Sana urged her to get back to her dorm so she could have a good night’s sleep. Mina felt guilty leaving Sana alone when she was obviously still upset, but what else could Mina do?

She just hoped that when Momo returned to the room later, her and Sana could talk and work things out so everything would be okay. Mina wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle seeing Sana sad again— seeing the usually cheerful girl upset was like looking at a kicked puppy.

———

“Are you serious?” Momo deadpanned, fixing her Housemate on the opposite bed with a critical look. “You made me ditch Sana and Mina just to whine to us about how you have absolutely no game?”

Seulgi groaned and threw a pillow in Momo and Lisa’s direction, Lisa squealing and hiding behind Momo for protection. “Shut up, I so too have game!” she protested.

“That’s a blatant lie,” Lisa snickered, peeking over Momo’s shoulder to smirk in Seulgi’s direction. “If you had any game, Kim Yerim would be your girlfriend right now and you wouldn’t just be pathetically pining over her!”

“Exactly!” Momo agreed enthusiastically.

Momo had really been looking forward to hanging out with Sana and Mina that night, and she felt awful for ditching them. Sana especially— she was sensitive, even if she often didn’t show it outwardly, so Momo knew she’d have to find a way to make it up to her somehow. Usually lots of kisses did the trick.

But Seulgi had seized onto Lisa and Momo’s sleeves urgently earlier that day, pulling them aside to beg them to cancel their plans so they could help her out. Who was Momo to say no to one of her best Quidditch bros?

Her, Seulgi, and Lisa were a trio— they didn’t hang out a lot outside of Quidditch because they all had different circles of friends, but on the pitch, they were inseparable. In fact, they’d gained quite a reputation for themselves, known among the other Quidditch teams as the “Unbeatable Three”. Momo was a Chaser, Seulgi a Beater, and Lisa the Seeker, and in every game they had all played together, they hadn’t lost once. In fact, in all the years they’d been on the Quidditch team, the only time Hufflepuff had lost a game was when one of them had been unable to play for whatever reason. Although it was likely just some sort of coincidence, Quidditch players were a superstitious lot, and the trio’s reputation as unbeatable had unsurprisingly become a source of pride for them.

Now, Momo couldn’t believe that Seulgi had so dramatically pleaded for their help just to ask them for ideas on how to ask a girl she was interested in out on a date. Wanting to be good friends, Momo and Lisa listened to Seulgi spout off ideas for over an hour, contributing where they could. It was admittedly endearing to see Seulgi so soft, talking about her crush— a far cry from the serious, intense Quidditch star she was during games. Then again, Momo supposed the same could be said about her and Lisa, too. All three of them certainly had very different images when they were on and off the pitch.

“Seriously, you have noooooo game,” Lisa sighed, clicking her tongue and shaking her head once Seulgi had tired herself out.

“You’re one to talk!” Seulgi scoffed, pointing at her with an accusing finger. “I don’t see you with a girlfriend, either, Manoban.”

Lisa covered her face with her hands, releasing a fake sob. “Don’t remind me!” she groaned, “It’s not my fault Jennie Kim won’t even look at me!”

Both Seulgi and Momo laughed at that, Momo giving her friend a sympathetic pat on the back. “There, there, friend,” she said solemnly, exchanging smirks with Seulgi.

Lisa sighed heavily, “Okay, I guess the only one who actually has game here is Momo.”

“Yeah!” Momo said proudly, pumping a fist in the air.

Seulgi hummed in agreement, grinning as she teased, “You’ve been spending a lot of time with Myoui Minari, huh?”

Momo felt her cheeks begin to warm without her permission in an automatic reaction. “Yeah, she’s really cool,” she replied, shrugging.

“I bet Minatozaki’s not too happy about that,” Lisa commented to Seulgi, the both of them releasing chuckles.

That side comment immediately made Momo lift her head up, gaze switching between her friends with a confused look. “What do you mean?” she asked slowly. “Why wouldn’t Sana be happy? We all hang out together usually.”

“C’mon, Mo,” Lisa rolled her eyes, “Don’t be coy with us. We see the way that you look at Myoui.”

“Yeah,” Seulgi agreed. “I mean, I’m way past trying to figure out... whatever it is with you and Sana, but like…” She paused, and when she continued, her voice was stressed with some kind of underlaid meaning. “You might want to be careful, you know?”

“Careful with what?” Momo shot back, voice rising in volume. What was Seulgi trying to insinuate?

Lisa answered this time, her own tone wary as she obviously sensed Momo’s growing agitation. “I think what Seulgi’s trying to say is… You hanging out with another girl a lot, Sana might not like that. She might feel jealous, you know?”

Momo scoffed, pushing back away on the bed to scoot further away from where she was sitting next to Lisa. “Are you serious?” Momo glanced between the two girls incredulously. “Sana wouldn’t get jealous, not over Mina. You guys have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The other two Hufflepuffs exchanged looks, eyebrows raised skeptically, and that was enough for Momo. With an annoyed huff and a shake of her head, she jumped up from the bed.

“Wait, Momo, come on,” Seulgi called out as Momo made her way to the door.

“No, you guys are being assholes,” Momo retorted. She turned around to fix them with one last irritated look. “What I choose to do with Sana, or with Mina, isn’t any of your guys’ business. I don’t care if it makes sense to you two, and you have no right to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do. With them, or in general.” Swinging the door open, Momo called over her shoulder, “I’ll see you guys at practice.”

It wasn’t a far walk to her and Sana’s room— it was just down the hallway— but Momo found herself hesitating outside their door. Despite her furious denial of Sana ever getting jealous over Mina, her Quidditch teammates’ words had sewn seeds of doubt in her mind. Sana wouldn’t get jealous over Momo being fond of Mina… right?

Shaking her head, Momo assured herself she was just being silly. She was right when she said Seulgi and Lisa didn’t know what they were talking about— Momo knew her and Sana’s relationship was complicated, and a little unorthodox maybe, but she trusted the strength of it. Besides, Sana was fond of Mina herself, too, right?

Still, Momo decided the best course of action would be to talk to Sana about it, just in case. It’d be best to clear the air now before it could potentially lead to any misunderstandings.

With a new sense of determination, Momo opened the door to their room, stepping inside and closing it behind her. All the lights were off, and she could see the shape of Sana in bed— Mina must have already left for the night.

Quietly tiptoeing across the room, Momo climbed into bed next to Sana. She’d assumed the girl was asleep, and figured they could have their serious talk in the morning, but it was immediately clear to Momo that Sana wasn’t sleeping as soon as she tried to wrap her arms around the girl like she usually did.

The body of her best friend tensed, and after a few seconds, Sana scooted away from Momo.

An instant panic seized Momo— Sana never rejected her cuddles, not even when she was annoyed with her. The first thought that entered Momo’s mind was that Sana must be angry, and due to the conversation she’d just had with Seulgi and Lisa, of course Momo immediately came to the conclusion that it had to be about Mina.

In her experience, there were a few easy shortcuts to getting an upset Sana to forgive her, and Momo moved instinctively. The older student tried to hug Sana again, pressing a kiss to her shoulder blade and cooing sweetly, “Satang, what’s wrong?”

“Stop, Momo,” Sana mumbled, actually pushing her away this time. If that action alone wasn’t shocking enough, it was clear by her cracked voice that the girl was, or recently had been, crying.

Immediately concerned, Momo sat up in bed and turned the nearby lamp on, pulling at Sana’s shoulder to get the girl to turn and look at her. Reluctantly, the blonde did so, revealing her red, puffy eyes. “Sana,” Momo murmured in horror, immediately moving to wipe her best friend’s tears. Yet again, Sana pulled away from her touch, nearly breaking Momo’s heart in the process. Desperately wanting to fix what she assumed was the problem, Momo began urgently, “Listen, we need to talk about something, okay, I-”

“Don’t,” Sana interrupted her, voice smaller than Momo had ever heard it as the girl rubbed at her own cheeks. “I know what you’re going to say.”

“You do?” Momo whispered, nerves making her stomach clench. Here it was… what if Sana didn’t feel the same way? What if she was mad at her?

“Yeah,” Sana nodded her head. Swallowing, the younger Hufflepuff continued, “If you want to date Seulgi, then by all means, go ahead.”

In her absolute shock, not having expected that at all, Momo did the worst thing she could have done in that moment— she released an incredulous laugh. “Wait, what? Seulgi?”

Momo immediately realized her mistake when Sana’s eyes filled with tears again, the girl biting out harshly, “You don’t have to, have to lie and laugh in my face like I’m some kind of idiot, Momo.”

“No, wait, that’s not what I meant,” Momo insisted, her voice distressed as she reached out for Sana again. “Could you please just let me explain?!”

The blonde slid out of bed, avoiding her best friend’s touch. With her back to Momo, Sana was icily calm as she said, “There’s nothing to explain, okay? You can date whoever you want, Momo. You’re not my girlfriend.”

Momo felt those words like a blow to her gut. Sana’s voice was so harsh, so cold— completely unlike the soft and caring girl that Momo had known for six years. Each word was utterly dismissive, like Momo meant nothing to her. Maybe they weren’t dating, not officially, but Momo had thought— she’d thought that they had something special together, something that didn’t need to be defined. She’d thought they’d had some sort of unspoken mutual agreement, that they were each other’s, now and always.

Had she been wrong about that, misinterpreted it, all this time?

Absolutely crushed, and her eyes stinging, Momo found that her heartbreak manifested itself in anger. “I know that,” Momo burst out. “Whatever, fine, maybe I will date whoever I want!” She just wanted a reaction— wanted Sana to turn around, that gentle look in her eyes like she always had when she looked at Momo, wanted her to call her “my Momoring” and say she loved her.

But Sana didn’t turn to look at her at all, and her only response was a clipped, “Fine.”

The blonde began to cross the room to the door, and again feeling a little desperate, Momo called out, “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to be staying in Tzuyu’s room for a while,” Sana replied, the door slamming shut behind her before Momo could say anything else.

Momo wasn’t the type of person who cried very often— even when she was little, she’d scream and wail, but seldom were there any tears involved. The only times she had cried since she’d met Sana had been that first night at Hogwarts, and then in their third year when she broke her wrist playing Quidditch.

That night, curled up alone in her and Sana’s bed, it was like a dam had broken. She just couldn’t stop crying.

Chapter Text

Sana hated this.

It had been a week since her and Momo’s fight. A week since she’d slipped into Tzuyu’s bed, body shaking with sobs as she allowed the younger student to hug and comfort her. It felt like she was going crazy— she’d never been apart from her best friend for this long since they’d met, and she hated it. She hated not waking up to Momo’s arms around her every morning, she hated the way they now sat at different tables at meals and in their classes, she hated not speaking to her and not even being able to look her in the eye without wanting to break down all over again. It all felt so wrong.

Merlin, how did it even come to this?

Sana knew what she had said to Momo that night had been unnecessarily harsh, but she had just snapped all of a sudden. She wasn’t even a jealous person, she wasn’t— but just thinking about Momo being secretive with her, sneaking away to spend time with other girls, it awakened something ugly inside of her. After six years of constant push and pull, push and pull between them (with Sana doing most of the pulling) what else was she supposed to say? What else was she supposed to do?

And Momo, with that stupid laugh, like everything Sana said was so ridiculous— like she was so ridiculous, her feelings were so ridiculous… Momo never wanted to talk seriously about anything, and years of Sana’s building frustration just exploded in that moment. Was that so wrong of her? To want to be serious for once, after years of dancing around each other? They weren’t kids anymore— it was well past time to get over those silly, childish games.

Even if Sana hated how things were now, even if she missed Momo so much she felt like she could barely breathe, even if Sana’s body had become so accustomed to sleeping with Momo at her side that she hadn’t been able to get a single good night’s rest since… Maybe this was for the best. Maybe this was just how things were meant to be… or meant to end, rather.

———

Momo hated this.

She woke up that next morning, and for a few precious moments, she’d forgotten what had happened the previous night. Forgotten that she’d cried for hours until she eventually fell asleep. She’d just yawned, eyes still closed, waiting for the smattering of kisses Sana would surely press against her cheeks and along her jaw. But the kisses never came, and the bed felt horribly cold, and when Momo’s eyes opened the illusion shattered. Sana wasn’t there, and this aching emptiness had settled in Momo’s chest that hit her so hard she almost burst into tears all over again.

She refused to cry, though— in fact, she refused to show that this affected her at all. Despite the fight, despite everything, she was stubborn. If this was what Sana wanted, then fine. Whatever. Sana always got what she wanted, didn’t she? At least, she had ever since they’d first met. Maybe Momo was the fool for never being able to say no, for being all too willing to give her best friend anything and everything. For Merlin’s sake, she gave Sana her heart— was the other girl too blind to see that, or was that just not enough? What else did Sana want from her?

It didn’t matter, anyway. That next day and the days following, Sana didn’t approach her once, wouldn’t even make eye contact. It was like Momo didn’t even exist. Even though it stung, Momo wasn’t about to put in any extra effort toward reconciliation. Why should she, when Sana was making it blatantly obvious that she didn’t want anything to do with her anymore? They’d never fought like this, not ever, and it was almost like there was a certain finality to it. How were they supposed to move on from this? Would they even be able to?

If Sana wanted to act like nothing had happened, like they were perfect strangers, that’s how things would be. Momo could handle that— even if she hated it, even if her hand was itching to hold Sana’s and she was searching for her gaze across the room every five minutes, even if she’d become so dependent on Sana’s constant presence that it felt like pieces of her were being chipped away with every heartbeat they spent apart… Momo could handle it.

She would have to, anyway, wouldn’t she?

———

Mina hated this.

That first morning, she’d gone to the Great Hall for breakfast, praying that everything would be fine and she’d be greeted by the enthusiastic Hufflepuffs like usual. Of course, that feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach that she’d woken up with proved to be valid as neither of the girls were at their normal seat. Sana was sitting at the Gryffindor table with Jihyo, Nayeon, and a girl Mina assumed was Jeongyeon though she’d never met her, while Momo was further down the Hufflepuff table with Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu.

In that moment, Mina felt the weight of the world settle on her shoulders. If she sat with one of the girls, the other was surely going to be hurt— she didn’t want them to think she was choosing sides. With a lump in her throat, Mina found an empty section of the Ravenclaw table to sit and eat breakfast alone. Just like old times, she joked with herself, if only because it was the only way to keep her frustrated tears at bay. It took every ounce of strength in her to assure herself, over and over, that she wasn’t being abandoned, that this probably had nothing to do with her at all.

Anyway, she didn’t have to worry about being by herself for long. After that breakfast, Mina didn’t spend a single meal alone— Sana and Momo would alternate coming to sit with her, always just one of them, like clockwork. There was something almost amusing about it— if Mina hadn’t witnessed the fact that they weren’t speaking firsthand, she would have thought they had conferenced about it or something. It was almost as if, even after whatever had happened, they were still on that same wavelength they always talked about. Still connected to each other.

After a couple of days of Sana and Momo still not speaking to each other or even so much as breathing the same air, Mina decided it was finally time to start trying to figure out what had happened between them. Whatever it was must have been after she left that night, presumably when Momo returned to the room— apparently Mina had been a bit too optimistic in hoping the girls had had a nice, wholesome chat.

Unfortunately for her, neither Sana or Momo seemed eager to open up about it. In fact, they both went to great lengths to avoid the topic altogether, talking about anything and everything except each other. It was like they’d both mutually agreed to act like nothing had happened at all, even though it was clear to Mina that they were both miserable with the situation. She didn’t miss the way both of them would stare at the other across the room sometimes— oblivious to the fact that the other was staring, too, as soon as they looked away. It was awfully cliché, even by Mina’s standards.

Mina was far from a pushy person, but Sana and Momo had become the closest friends she’d ever had. She knew they loved each other, in one way or another, and in her mind she owed it to them to determine what was going on so she could help fix things between them. And since neither Sana or Momo were going to give up information willingly, it seemed Mina had to adopt a more direct approach. (Maybe it was all the detective novels she’d been reading lately that helped her to be in a snooping mood in the first place.)

Sana was her first target, perhaps because Mina believed it might be easier to get the normally talkative girl to mention something about it.

“I haven’t seen you or Momo together in a while,” Mina had commented one meal, voice quiet and cautious. She didn’t think Sana would snap at her for asking, but she still wanted to be careful.

Sana’s response was uncharacteristically aloof, echoing what she had said to Mina that night as she replied with a dismissive shrug, “I’m not Momo’s only friend, she doesn’t have to be with me all the time, you know?” Even though she forced a smile and immediately changed the subject, Mina was positive she spotted the Hufflepuff’s eyes filling with suppressed tears as she looked away.

When Mina posed a similar question to Momo later that day, she received another defensive answer.

“Well, maybe we’ve just grown apart,” Momo had mumbled, poking at her food with a frown. “I mean, obviously I’ve somehow misinterpreted how much I mean to her, so, whatever. What can you do!” Another humorless smile, not unlike Sana’s, though Momo was admittedly worse at hiding the pain behind her words.

Mina tried to press a little further, but Momo just shut down, forcing her to change the topic.

What was Mina supposed to do with the limited information the Hufflepuffs had given her? Clearly the fight had something to do with their relationship, and Mina would bet anything that it stemmed from some kind of miscommunication. If Sana and Momo weren’t willing to talk to her about it, though, she didn’t know what else she could do. She wasn’t going to push them about it and risk having them get angry with her for intruding. Technically this wasn’t any of her business, after all.

She supposed they just needed more time to cool down, and heal on their own. Maybe then they’d be able to talk to each other, and everything could be fixed, and things could go back to the way they were before. Mina had finally found a sense of “normal” here, in their little trio they’d formed, so she didn’t know what she’d do if she had to give that up so quickly. More importantly than that, though, it was almost unbearable to watch the two people she had grown to care about the most at Hogwarts be in such pain.

——

A week and a half dragged by, with no end in sight to what Mina had dubbed in her head as “The Great Samo Stalemate”. It was awful, not being able to spend time with both of her best friends, but what was even worse was not being able to do anything about it.

Mina was so busy feeling helpless and just generally miserable about the situation in Potions class that she almost didn’t hear Professor Snape’s voice when he instructed them to get with their partners. Most days Mina paid close attention in her classes, not wanting to fall behind, but unsurprisingly her mind had been focused elsewhere lately.

Usually when Mina was forced to pair up with others in Potions, she joined the two Slytherin girls who sat behind her, Bora and Siyeon. They had always been friendly to her, but they were also prone to loud screaming and accidentally exploding their potions, so Mina preferred to do her work alone when possible. Unfortunately, that was not always an option. This time around, she barely had time to turn from her desk before someone else was sliding into the empty seat next to her.

When Mina faced whoever had approached her, she immediately recognized the girl despite having never formally met her.

“You must be Yoo Jeongyeon,” Mina said, addressing the Gryffindor with a smile. Although Mina typically felt nervous talking to new people, there was something about Jeongyeon’s casual, lopsided grin and the fact that she was Sana and Momo’s friend that put her at ease.

“And you must be Myoui Minari,” Jeongyeon replied, holding out her hand for Mina to shake, “I guess we’ve never actually talked before, huh? I’ve heard a lot about you, though.”

“Likewise,” Mina chuckled, shaking the girl’s hand. “Mostly that you’re Jihyo’s best friend and supposedly had your face broken by Nayeon.”

The Gryffindor groaned, “Ugh, I swear, they’re all involved in some great big conspiracy to ruin my reputation…”

“Oh?” Mina teased, eyebrows quirking. “What reputation would that be?”

Jeongyeon puffed up a little, “You know, cool, mysterious…” She laughed and ruffled her dark hair as if somewhat embarrassed, “I mean, that’s what girls find impressive, right…?”

Mina couldn’t help but laugh, too. “Maybe,” she hummed.

“Anyway, usually I partner up with Jiyeon but she’s not here today. Mind if I work with you?” Jeongyeon offered her a hopeful smile.

“Yeah, sure,” Mina agreed easily, moving her things aside to make room for Jeongyeon at her table. Any friend of Sana and Momo’s was a friend of hers, right? Maybe it’d be good for her to try to be friendly with people other than the Hufflepuffs after all, especially now that she couldn’t hang out with the both of them for the time being.

Before Snape could snap at them for not doing their work, Mina and Jeongyeon gathered the materials necessary to prepare the potion that had been assigned. Thankfully, Jeongyeon was quite easy to talk to, carrying most of the conversation and preventing it from ever becoming awkward. Mina could see why Sana and Momo spoke so highly of the Gryffindor.

While Jeongyeon was in the process of cutting up some of the ingredients, Mina realized this might be a good opportunity for some more intel gathering. Jeongyeon had obviously known the Hufflepuffs for much longer than Mina, so maybe she could provide some useful insight on what was going on between them lately.

“It’s pretty strange, what’s happening with Sana and Momo now, right?” Mina asked, somewhat abruptly. She elaborated further, “From what I’ve seen, ever since I’ve been friends with them, they’ve been so close. It doesn’t seem like they fight often.”

Jeongyeon hummed, brow furrowed in concentration as she focused on what she was doing. “I don’t think they’ve ever fought like this before,” the Gryffindor agreed, confirming Mina’s suspicions. She huffed out a sigh, “It’s pretty sad to see, actually.”

Mina nodded her head slowly, processing Jeongyeon’s words. After a moment of thought, she decided to bite the bullet and just ask the other girl the question that had been nagging at her since even before Sana and Momo’s fight. “Are they… I mean, were they, I guess… dating…?” she managed to cough out, hating how awkward she sounded.

The Gryffindor immediately looked up with a smirk. “They aren’t subtle at all, huh?” She rolled her eyes while chuckling. “I don’t think they ever called it dating, per se, but we’ve all known since forever that they had some kind of thing going. It was pretty obvious. No one was all that shocked when poor Tzuyu walked in on them making out in their dorm room last year.”

There was a sudden twisting clench in Mina’s chest and in her gut— a feeling she couldn’t identify, or maybe just one she didn’t want to identify. “Oh,” she said, somewhat involuntarily. Why did her voice sound almost… disappointed? But then Jeongyeon was staring at her, almost like she understood what Mina was feeling better than she did herself, so Mina hurriedly added, “Do you think their fight had something to do with that, then?”

Thankfully, Jeongyeon looked away at that, breaking off eye contact. The Gryffindor frowned as she added a few ingredients into the cauldron, causing the potion to sizzle and turn a deeper shade of purple. “I don’t know what else they would fight about,” Jeongyeon replied. “Momo won’t tell me anything about what happened, and from what Dahyun tells me, Sana won’t say anything either. Since you’re asking me, I’m guessing you don’t know anything about it, either, huh?”

Mina shook her head in frustration.

Jeongyeon pushed back from the desk with another sigh, crossing her arms. “My best guess? Those two, they’ve always been so content to not define things between them, but that’s not exactly the basis for a healthy relationship, you know? It was probably just a matter of time before that ended up blowing up in their faces...”

If what Jeongyeon theorized was true, it made Mina’s heart ache to think about how much pain her best friends must be in at the moment, being apart from each other. She thought of all of the soft, intimate moments she had been witness to since she’d met them, the ones she’d dismissed as platonic— the gentle touches, the lingering glances. Merlin, they were quite obvious about it, weren’t they? Mina had just been too blind, or naive, maybe, to see it.

She made a decision, right then and there. If anyone deserved to be happy in this world, it was Sana and Momo, and Mina knew them well enough now to know that what made them happy was each other. Therefore, she would do anything in her power to bring them back together, to get them to recognize and admit how they felt about each other. (Why did it hurt, deep in her chest, knowing that she wouldn’t be a part of that picture?)

Mina fell quiet for the rest of the class period, deep in thought as she began to develop a game plan for how to get Sana and Momo to, well— “kiss and make up”, quite literally. Jeongyeon tried to make more small talk after that, but she stopped trying after she probably realized that Mina was too preoccupied to carry on a conversation. Even in her distracted state, Mina could feel the older student’s gaze on her occasionally, staring at her profile.

Eventually the period ended, and Mina hastily gathered up her things to leave. “It was nice to meet you, Jeongyeon,” she told the Gryffindor, smiling earnestly. She felt guilty for basically ignoring the girl for the latter half of class— Mina didn’t want Jeongyeon to think she was rude— but there was just so much new information to process.

“You too,” Jeongyeon agreed, mirroring her smile. Mina was about to turn and make her way to the exit when she heard the other girl call out, “Hey, Mina?” When the Ravenclaw faced her again, Jeongyeon was looking at her intently again, almost as if she could plainly see the disorganized emotions and thoughts churning in Mina’s brain. “You know… Sana and Momo, they have a lot of friends, right? But for as long as I’ve known them, they’ve always been in their own universe, just the two of them. Since you came, though… Well, from what I can see, let’s just say that their universe has gotten a little bigger.”

A slow frown appeared on Mina’s face. Before she could even open her mouth to ask Jeongyeon to clarify what she meant, though, the Gryffindor was offering a sympathetic smile and a pat on her back. In a moment, she was gone, leaving Mina to stand there completely perplexed.

What did Jeongyeon mean by that? What was she implying? She didn’t mean that Sana and Momo’s fight did have something to do with Mina… right? That didn’t seem like Jeongyeon’s intention, though, judging by the soft way she’d spoken and her comforting expression. It made Mina wonder if Jeongyeon had been able to disentangle her feelings better than she herself could— maybe the comment had something to do with that?

Mina supposed it was yet another mystery she would have to solve at a later date, as now her current priority would be “Operation Get Samo (Back) Together”.

Chapter Text

It was shockingly easy to convince Sana and Momo to attempt to talk things out.

Well, Mina couldn’t take all the credit, really— or even half of it for that matter. She’d been sitting at her usual table in the library, trying to construct a seal proof plan, when suddenly there were two hands slamming onto the table in front of her. After jumping in her seat and just narrowly holding back a shriek of alarm, she looked up to see Nayeon and Jihyo standing there staring at her.

“What’s the plan, boss?” Nayeon asked seriously, her voice a bit too loud for the library. Jihyo must have noticed this as well, rolling her eyes and elbowing her girlfriend to get her to lower her voice.

Mina blinked a few times. “Um… sorry?”

“You know… To get Sana and Momo together?” Nayeon explained slowly, waving her hands. “Yoo mentioned you were devising some kind of genius plan or something.”

Now that was surprising— Mina hadn’t directly said anything of the sort to Jeongyeon. Had the Gryffindor really gleaned all of that just from observing her reactions during their Potions conversation? She couldn’t help but be a little impressed.

Returning to reality, Mina nodded. “Oh, yeah,” she shrugged a little helplessly, “I haven’t really thought of anything, though, except for the obvious. Trying to convince them the old fashioned way.” The girls just continued to stare at her, so she elaborated somewhat awkwardly, “You know… just straight up asking them to talk...?”

The humming noise Nayeon made sounded critical. “Well, my idea was to lock them into a closet together and see what happens, but Ji here thought that was a bad idea.” She rolled her eyes, gesturing to her girlfriend with a thumb.

“As you’ve probably noticed, Nayeonie here suffers from a complete lack of tact,” Jihyo sighed, pulling two chairs out for her and Nayeon to sit. Once again, her intense gaze left Mina somewhat intimidated and unable to maintain consistent eye contact. “I know that we’ve been friends with Sana and Momo longer than you, but even so, you spend the most time with them. You know them best. Do you think they’d listen if we tried to convince them to meet?”

Mina paused for a few seconds. That was the same question she’d been considering for the past couple of days now. “I think…” she began, her voice uncertain at first then strengthening, “All of us can see that they’re miserable even if they’re pretending everything’s fine. I think if we all point that out to them, make them see reason, then they’ll listen. At this point, I think they’re waiting for any kind of sign or opportunity to fix things, they’re just too stubborn to seek it out themselves.”

Both older girls nodded in agreement, Jihyo clapping her hands once and pushing back from the table. “Let’s get to work, then!”

As it turned out, Mina’s theory proved to be correct. She, Jihyo, and Nayeon approached each Hufflepuff in turn as a team, laying out the hard truth: that it was awful seeing them so upset, and that they needed to talk to the other or else they’d likely live to regret it forever. Would they really let their years-long friendship end like this? Not with a bang, but a whimper? Without fighting for it at all?

Both Sana and Momo were resistant at first, but it didn’t take long for them to break down and admit how much they missed their best friend. The Hufflepuffs made plans (through Mina as a mediator) to meet up in the room they used to share.

Mina prayed that things would work out. After all, she wasn’t sure what she’d do if they didn’t.

——

Sana got there first that night, exactly as she’d anticipated. Momo’s Quidditch practices always ran late on Wednesdays. She walked into the room slowly, looking around. She hadn’t been here since the day after her and Momo’s fight— in the morning, as soon as she’d been sure the room was vacant, she’d snuck in to grab her robes and toiletries like the coward she was. Regardless, it didn’t look like Momo had spent much time here recently, either.

The blonde padded over to the bed and leaned back into it. Closed her eyes, inhaled as she waited. Squeezed the bunched-up quilt beneath her fingers and tried to calm her breathing when finally, finally she heard the door creak. Sana didn’t move— didn’t even open her eyes. And though she couldn’t see Momo, she knew from the lack of footsteps that the girl must have been hesitating in the doorway.

The moment passed, and it was like Sana felt Momo approach more than she heard her. A foot bumped into her own, so Sana moved over, eyes still shut like if she opened them, the moment would dissipate from her memory like a dream. But then Momo was settling next to her, their shoulders just barely touching and their feet hanging off the edge of the bed— she was really there, for the first time in almost two weeks, right next to Sana. She was real, this moment was real.

For a few minutes, the only sound was their breathing— taking turns at first, then falling in sync, slowly but surely. It wasn’t so much a standoff, them waiting for someone to break the silence— it wasn’t an act of stubbornness on either of their parts. It was like their bodies, their minds, were taking the time to recalibrate, just from being physically close to each other again.

Momo sighed. I’ve missed you. Sana reached for her hand, and their fingers intertwined, fitting together like pieces to a puzzle.

I’ve missed you, too.

They stayed like that for a while— just holding hands, their eyes closed. The anger and bitterness that had surrounded their last encounter melted away, and the moment was peaceful. But Sana knew better than to think that this was over, that the harsh words they had said to each other were totally forgiven and the pain they had felt was totally gone. Not everything could go unspoken— they both learned that the hard way.

Sana was surprised when Momo spoke first, it being uncharacteristic of the older girl.

“I know- I know that I’m not good with my words,” she began. Her voice was choked, shaky— Sana’s heart clenched in her chest, and it came like second nature, giving her best friend’s hand an encouraging squeeze. “I know that I’m not always good at telling you how I feel, or what I want. I know it’s not fair to expect you to just, know all of the time. And- and I promise you I’ll be better,” Momo finished firmly.

“We’ll both be better,” Sana amended, near tears already. She’d been holding herself back, not wanting to smother Momo too fast, but she couldn’t take it anymore. In an instant she was wrapping her arms around Momo and burying her face into her neck, taking a deep breath. “God, Momo, I can’t- I thought I was going to lose you forever. Being apart from you—”

“It killed me too,” Momo agreed, bringing Sana close to her chest. Eventually she pulled back slightly, nudging at Sana to prompt the girl to look up at her. Their noses bumping together, Momo murmured, “I’m right here, though. You won’t lose me, not really… Now or ever.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Sana closed her eyes, releasing a breath. “I’m so sorry, Momo. What I said that night… it wasn’t fair to you. I shouldn’t have been so harsh, you don’t deserve to be spoken to in that way.” She gave a humorless laugh. “I just kind of… lost it, I guess.”

All Momo did was nod— accepting Sana’s apology without dismissing the fact that her words that night had been extremely hurtful. There was a pause, then Momo spoke again. “It just- I guess, it just made me feel like what we had, it wasn’t special to you,” she explained, her words a bit fumbled, voice a little strained. It was true that Momo wasn’t great at expressing her feelings out loud— she’d always been the kind of person who preferred actions over words— but Sana appreciated the fact that she was trying.

“Of course it was- is- special to me.” Sana’s hand came up to rest at Momo’s jaw, stroking the soft skin there with a thumb. When their eyes met, Sana murmured, “I’ve been in love with you since we were eleven, Momo. Before I even really understood what love was.”

The older Hufflepuff’s eyes turned to molten chocolate at those words, so big and gentle and warm, and Sana melted a little, too. All she wanted at that moment was to kiss Momo, to show her how much she loved her, but still Sana continued speaking. She couldn’t leave this part unsaid, either.

“I just,” she paused to bite her lip, “I didn’t know if a relationship was what you wanted. You were always so hot and cold with me when I showed you affection, I didn’t know what to think, maybe that… I don’t know, maybe that I was just misinterpreting everything.”

Momo was pouting when Sana looked back at her face. “I just thought that was our thing,” she complained lightly, playing with the hem of Sana’s robes now. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel that way. I thought you thought it was, I don’t know, endearing or something, the push and pull. I didn’t think it actually hurt your feelings.”

Sana just released a laugh, shaking her head. “We really are Dumb and Dumber, huh?” she teased lightly.

“Only if you’re Dumber,” Momo shot back, with that dazzling grin that Sana had missed so much it had become an unbearable ache.

The blonde stuck her tongue out and dug her fingers into her best friend’s sides, Momo squealing and trying to push her away. She didn’t put much effort into it, though— they’d spent too much time apart to want anymore distance between them.

Both girls settled back on the bed again, laughing, the previous tension in the room dissolved. It wasn’t as if nothing had happened, rather that they had found a way to return things back to normal. They were Sana and Momo, and that was enough.

“I think,” Sana began, suddenly reflective, “I think that these last couple of weeks… Even if they were incredibly painful, I think it was good for us, actually. I mean, for the past six years we’ve barely spent more than a couple of hours apart, right? Maybe we just… took our time together for granted? Took each other for granted?” She puffed her cheeks and blew out some air, “Does that make any sense?” Momo nodded, and Sana took her hands again. “So this last week… It made me realize how much it hurts to not be with you. Not just physically, but also in not being able to call myself your girlfriend, you know? I guess what I’m trying to say is…” She steadied her breath, looked deep into Momo’s eyes, and finished, “I want to be with you, Momoring. In both senses.” Sana tilted her head somewhat. “What do you think?”

Even if Sana was 99.9% sure how Momo would respond, nerves still fluttered in her stomach. No matter how sure you might be that the other person felt the same way, there was still something terrifying about offering someone your heart, to keep safe or break as they pleased.

A hand cupped around the back of Sana’s neck, guiding her face closer to Momo’s. “I know that I love you, Satang,” Momo murmured, “and I know that I want to be with you, too.” She smiled as she added, a bit teasing, “In both senses.”

At that Sana closed the gap between them, the movement practically muscle memory. Their lips met, and Sana could feel the emotion behind Momo’s kiss— they’d told each other “I love you” before, but of course the circumstances of this time made it more meaningful. Momo’s free hand squeezed at Sana’s hip, urging her even closer.

Sana would’ve been content to spend the rest of the evening getting lost in Momo’s kisses and her touch, but she knew that Mina would most likely be waiting for them in the Great Hall. Eventually— and reluctantly— she pulled away, smiling widely at how Momo’s eyes dazedly fluttered open.

“Hey,” Sana said simply, gaze taking in every inch of Momo’s face.

“Hey.”

Momo all of a sudden looked nervous, if her own shifting eyes were any indication. Before Sana could even start to inquire about what was wrong, though, Momo began, “There’s still one more thing we need to talk about. The same thing from… from before.”

Sana frowned. Last time she had immediately jumped to conclusions, assuming Momo was talking about Seulgi, but obviously she had been very wrong about that. Now, she had an inkling about what Momo was about to say, and she hoped she wasn’t wrong this time.

“I do want to be your girlfriend, more than anything,” Momo assured her, before Sana could become too nervous. “It’s just… Do you ever get this feeling, like we’re not…” She gestured vaguely. “Like we’re not complete, just the two of us? Like there’s another part, a missing piece.” Her voice was heavy with insinuation.

A slow smile appeared across Sana’s lips, realizing that she had indeed been right. She nodded once in confirmation. “I know what you mean. I feel that way too.”

Momo, also clearly relieved, sighed. She leaned back against the bed again, bringing a hand to her forehead. “So what are we going to do about it?”

“I guess we’ll have to go find our missing piece.”

———

Mina was waiting outside the Great Hall, the anticipation making her thoughts and heart race. The nervous energy twisting up her stomach urged her to pace, but instead she forced herself to sit at one of the benches off to the side, still other than her bouncing legs.

After sitting there for what seemed like an eternity, Mina’s gaze snapped up from her feet when she heard the unmistakable sound of Sana and Momo’s voices filling the hall. She opened her mouth to greet them— they didn’t seem to notice her sitting in the corner— but her own voice faltered when her eyes fell on them.

They both wore beaming smiles, their arms interlocked and Momo leaning into Sana’s side. They fit together perfectly— two halves of a whole. A perfect picture, just by themselves, like they were meant to be. Exactly what Mina had been fighting for, what she’d wanted for them, and yet a strange lump in her throat kept her from calling out.

It was a sudden, intense hurt that hit her, the kind that abruptly made her eyes water. A hurt intensified by an accompanying wave of self-loathing— this is what she wanted. She wanted them to be together. Seeing them be happy should make her be happy, if she was even a halfway decent friend. She shouldn’t be feeling this way— like she’d just sacrificed something important.

Sana and Momo disappeared into the Great Hall, and after a few moments of steadying her breath, Mina stood and followed.

When she sat across from them, she could barely meet their eyes. Sana, ever observant, asked her what was wrong, but Mina just forced a smile. “I’m so happy for you,” she said, trying to convince herself, maybe. Why did it sound like a lie, even to her own ears?

The two Hufflepuffs weren’t any more touchy that evening than they usually were, but every casual touch that Mina caught in the corner of her eye felt like another physical blow. She forced herself to make it through the majority of dinner before finding some excuse— Charms homework, she thinks she said— to leave. She didn’t catch the wounded expressions on the two girl’s faces as she lifted herself from the table, making her way to the exit. All she knew was that she didn’t understand what was going on with her, but if she stayed there any longer, she would burst into tears.

Stupid, selfish, pathetic, repeated in Mina’s head, over and over, her vision blurring as her feet instinctively led her in the direction of the library. Stupid, selfish, pathetic girl. Did you really think they wanted you?

Mina made her way to her little nook, but something stopped her. She saw Yoohyeon and her friends at their own usual table, quietly giggling and pushing each other around. The younger Ravenclaw must have hesitated for too long, as after a few seconds, her thoughts were interrupted by a voice calling her name.

“Hey, Mina! Potions buddy!”

Once she had returned to reality, she saw the voice belonged to one of the Slytherins from her Potions class. Both Bora, the girl who had spoken, and Siyeon were waving energetically, gesturing for her to come closer.

Feeling a sense of dejavu, Mina approached the table. She offered the Slytherins, and the rest of the group in turn, a half-hearted nod of greeting.

Yoohyeon twisted in her seat, the huge (and endearingly dorky) grin on her face a stark contrast to Mina’s small, forced one. “Hey!” she said enthusiastically. “Are you gonna sit with us?”

“Um…” Mina’s shoulders rose, trying to make herself look as small as possible— an old habit of hers that she had thought she’d stamped out for good. Old habits die hard, right? She looked away, hating herself for being so unsure, for not being able to speak properly, for being such an embarrassing mess.

“Dongie just left, so you can take her seat,” a different voice piped in, and Mina glanced up to meet the kind eyes of a blonde Gryffindor girl.

Mina considered her options for a moment. With everything going on lately, maybe she needed a different group of friends to hang out with until she could figure out why she was feeling whatever she was feeling.

Eventually she nodded, “Yeah, sure. Thanks.” She moved to fill the empty seat between the Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff who both introduced themselves as Minji and Yubin respectively.

Like the majority of the people Mina had been lucky enough to meet at Hogwarts, the girls were kind and welcoming, if not a little (read: extremely) chaotic. She tried to absorb herself in conversation, especially with Yoohyeon who was asking her rapid-fire questions about the Japanese language, but Mina’s thoughts were disorganized.

She didn’t want to hurt Sana and Momo by ignoring or avoiding them, especially now that they had just recovered from their own painful issues. The problem was, not hurting them meant invariably hurting herself, and she always had been a coward.

Chapter Text

It was already well-established, in her mind as well as in those who knew her, that Momo wasn’t great with the whole “reading other people’s emotions” thing. Therefore, it wasn’t that surprising that she had absolutely no idea what was going on with Mina. What was a little more surprising, however, was the fact that even Sana— someone normally so observant and thoughtful— had no clue, either.

After Mina had abruptly left the dinner table on the night they made things official, the two Hufflepuffs were pretty lost on what was happening. Mina had approached them— repeatedly— in order to convince them to work out their issues. In fact, they probably owed their salvaged relationship to Mina entirely— without her, they likely would have just continued being foolishly stubborn and miserable.

Despite this, Mina had been unmistakably upset about something— that much was obvious. They didn’t even have any opportunities to try and pry what was wrong out of her, since Mina seemed dead set on avoiding them whenever possible. Weeks and weeks ago, when Mina had been busy with schoolwork, at least Momo and Sana knew that she was telling the truth. Now, whenever they managed to grab a hold of her and she found some excuse to slip away, it was clear that that was exactly what it was: an excuse.

Obviously, it was disheartening, to say the least. Maybe it was naive of her, but once she and Sana had resolved their issues… Well, Momo thought that things would just fall into place. Not just between her and Sana, but with their “missing piece”, as well. It was kind of hard to resolve that part, though, when said “missing piece” would barely even look at them anymore… It hurt almost as much as it had when Sana was ignoring her, but at least this time Sana was there to commiserate with.

Momo wanted to continue with the original plan, to try and approach Mina and lay everything out to her. Usually that method terrified her— and, okay, maybe it still did— but she’d learned that that approach had its own merits. When Momo promised that she would try to be better at voicing her feelings, that promise wasn’t just to Sana.

Regardless, Sana was the one who thought that the original plan was now a bad idea. She didn’t want to overwhelm Mina— though she didn’t know what exactly was going on, she thought it best to maybe give the Ravenclaw space for a bit. Perhaps they all needed time to re-evaluate things. Momo agreed, because she trusted Sana and because she didn’t want to overwhelm Mina, either. That didn’t mean it didn’t kill her to act like she was okay with practically pretending that Mina didn’t exist, though.

Momo at least found a suitable distraction in practicing hard for her next Quidditch match. Their first two matches of the season against Gryffindor and Slytherin had resulted in fairly easy wins— much to Jeongyeon and Nayeon’s displeasure, of course. Momo didn’t think the Hufflepuffs had much to worry about in the Ravenclaw team, since the latter had lost both of their first two matches, but it never hurt to be well prepared. Quidditch had always been a good outlet for her whenever she was frustrated or upset— anything to keep her mind elsewhere.

Lisa and Seulgi helped, too. They’d already apologized repeatedly for being assholes over the whole Sana/Mina thing, acknowledging it was none of their business and as long as Momo was happy (and showing up for practices and games) then they were happy, too. Momo was a little too embarrassed (shy, maybe) to talk to them much about what she was feeling. Even without saying anything, though, they sensed she was in dire need of a distraction, so they pushed her a little harder at practices.

Another thing that Sana had admitted to Momo in the days following their reconciliation was that she thought it was a little weird that Momo had never wanted to hang out with her Quidditch friends with Sana around. The truth of it, which Momo reluctantly confessed, was that she was scared that Sana would think they were lame or something. Not Lisa and Seulgi in particular, but Momo, too— when she was with her Quidditch friends, a different side of her came out. The side of her that was head over heels in love with the sport, that got way too into it sometimes, that could talk for hours about techniques and broom types and Holyhead Harpies stats. It wasn’t like Momo never talked to Sana about Quidditch, it wasn’t even that Sana was unsupportive of her passion— it was silly, really, but Momo was scared Sana would think she was just a dumb jock or something if she hung out with Momo and her Quidditch friends.

Of course, as soon as she confessed this, Sana’s eyes had gone wide and she’d thrown her arms around Momo’s neck. Covering her face with kisses, Sana insisted that she would never think of Momo negatively like that just because of her interests. She loved Momo for who she was, and Quidditch was a large part of that.

So, despite still being a little nervous about the whole thing, Momo made plans for them all to hang out. It kind of ended up being a group date— Seulgi had finally managed to buck up the courage to ask Yerim out, and though Lisa hadn’t managed to get a date with Jennie Kim, she did get one with a cute fellow Hufflepuff named Rosie. Anyway, it ended up being pretty fun, but the only thing Momo could think about the entire night was how much she wished Mina had been there as well. She could tell by the way Sana had squeezed her knee the whole night that she felt the same way, too.

——

Momo was antsy, shifting from foot to foot in her Quidditch robes as she waited for the game to start. To be fair, she always felt antsy before games, but there was something about this one in particular that made her extra jittery. Maybe it was just because her frame of mind the last couple of days hadn’t been the greatest.

Before she’d entered the locker room, she met Sana who had been waiting for her outside. Her girlfriend pulled Momo into a sweet kiss (both of them ignoring the stunned looks of Momo’s teammates who didn’t know they were dating) and wished her luck, sending her off with a smile. The good luck kisses were a definite upside to being officially dating now.

Madam Hooch announced the two teams, and Momo and her fellow Hufflepuffs took flight on their brooms. They glided into the arena in their usual V-shaped formation, with Seulgi at the lead since she was their captain.

As they waited for the game to officially begin, Momo’s eyes couldn’t help but search the stands. There was Sana, on the Hufflepuff side— holding onto Tzuyu’s arm, the both of them waving in her direction. She smiled and waved back, relieved to see familiar faces.

Slowly, she glanced through the other stands, searching for a different familiar face. Mina had gone to both of Momo’s games so far like she’d promised, so Momo still held onto a desperate hope that she was somewhere hidden in the crowd.

Finally, Momo found her— sitting between two Ravenclaws she vaguely recognized as friends of Dahyun’s girlfriend. Part of the “goth kids” as Chaeyoung described them, though Momo didn’t really understand why. Mina was laughing, bundled up in a blue Ravenclaw scarf, and holding hands with the silver-haired girl next to her.

There was a twinge in Momo’s chest— a little jealousy, and something more akin to hurt. At least she’s here, Momo reasoned. Even if she was with her new friends, and was probably rooting for her own House.

Momo looked away and shook her head as Madam Hooch blew her whistle, signalling the start of the game. Focus, Hirai.

Unfortunately, focusing on the game was easier said than done. Quidditch, like all sports really, was a game of instinct as much as skill. It was fast-paced and always changing— plus, if you got too distracted, you risked falling off your broom and splattering onto the ground below. Not exactly a pleasant thought.

The match was the only thing on her mind as she handled the Quaffle, catching it and passing it as needed. She even managed to score a few points for her team, but it was clear that she wasn’t on her best game. Every throw was slightly off, every point she scored was the result of the Quaffle bouncing off the rim of the hoops, and in one instance she even dropped the Quaffle when it was thrown to her and she wasn’t totally paying attention.

Still, the Hufflepuffs managed to maintain their edge. The Ravenclaws, despite their formidable leader in Bae Joohyun, was overall a pretty lousy team. Momo’s team outclassed them in every way, so she didn’t let herself get too worried about the possible outcome of the game. She was too frustrated with her horrible performance to be worrying about that.

In the span of about a minute, the tide of the game turned completely.

Momo had managed to recover the Quaffle after Seulgi had scattered the Ravenclaw Chasers with a well-timed Bludger. Catching it against her chest, she zoomed toward the hoops, determined to make a nice, clean score. However, the Ravenclaw forces had managed to regather just in time to defend the hoops, blocking her way.

A shout from off to her left pulled her attention to her fellow Hufflepuff Chaser, Youngjae. His hands were lifted, asking to be tossed the Quaffle— the Ravenclaw Chasers were too focused on Momo, so he had a clear shot.

Momo hesitated, judging whether or not it was worth the risk while Youngjae waved his arms desperately. Coming to a decision, she drew back her arm, throwing the Quaffle as hard as she could to get it to Youngjae. At the last moment, she saw his eyes dart to the right and then widen, his mouth forming the word No! As soon as the Quaffle left her fingertips, Momo understood why.

She couldn’t have had worse timing. A yellow blur passed right in front of Youngjae: Lisa, in hot pursuit of the Snitch, with the Ravenclaw Seeker right on her tail. Momo should have seen them coming, should have been more aware of her surroundings like she’d practiced time and time again, but her mind must’ve been too scattered.

The Quaffle collided with Lisa’s shoulder. It wasn’t heavy enough to knock her off her broom, thank Merlin, but it was sufficient to stun her. Her flying stuttered, just for a moment, but a moment was all the Ravenclaw Seeker needed to speed past her.

Before Lisa could recover, the Ravenclaw was stretching out her hand, snagging the Snitch right out of the air.

Momo’s stomach dropped. The game was over. Ravenclaw had won, the Hufflepuffs’ winning streak was dead, and it was all her fault.

——

As soon as the Hufflepuff team retreated to the locker room in defeat, all hell broke loose.

“What the hell was that, Hirai!” Youngjae shouted at her.

Momo knew he wasn’t the type to yell— none of them were, really— but she could feel the tension and frustration permeating the entire room.

“I’ll tell you what it was,” their Keeper Jongin scoffed, folding his arms over his chest. “She choked!”

Seulgi put a hand on his shoulder to get him to calm down, but Momo could tell she was pissed, too. She was just too nice to speak her mind like the others. “Every single one of your passes tonight was sloppy,” she pointed out, as if Momo didn’t already know that. “That last pass could have taken Manoban clean off her broom!”

The Hufflepuff Seeker, sitting off to the side, groaned at the mention of her name. She buried her face in her hands, wailing, “I can’t believe we lost against Ravenclaw!”

There was an iciness that washed over Momo, and for a moment she felt like she was going to pass out. All of her teammates’ faces were looking at her expectantly, like they were waiting for an explanation as to how she, one of the so-called “Unbeatable Three”, had single-handedly bombed this game for them.

(“Unbeatable Three”... what a joke.)

Lost for words, a mumbled “I’m sorry” was all Momo could get out. She tossed her stupid, pathetic old broom onto one of the benches, disgusted with it and with herself. Unable to say anything else, she fled the room, shouldering past Seulgi at the door and then past Sana who was waiting for her outside.

“Wait, Momo!”

She didn’t even look at Sana, even as the girl caught up with her, grabbing her sleeve to get her to stop. Momo just shrugged her off and kept walking, hoping that her girlfriend would get the message. She was angry with herself right now, and the last thing she wanted to do was lash out at Sana.

Of course, Sana was too persistent to just let her go. She kept following Momo, not afraid to bring out the big guns right away. “You promised that you would talk to me about things!” the younger Hufflepuff shouted after her. That was enough to make Momo hesitate. Sensing that she was getting through to her, Sana continued, her voice softer now, “So talk to me, Momoring. Please.”

Momo eventually turned around, looking down and her fists clenched at her sides. “I messed up, Sana,” she said simply. “I let everyone down tonight. We lost, and it’s all my fault. Everyone knows it.”

“That’s not true,” Sana insisted, coming closer. Momo took a step back before Sana could touch her again. “You aren’t perfect, of course you’ll make mistakes, but that doesn’t mean it’s all your fault. Besides, the team’s lost before and you’ve bounced back, one loss doesn’t-”

“You don’t get it!” Momo snapped, interrupting her. She took an unsteady breath, calming herself down— she couldn’t take this out on Sana. “You don’t get it. All the professors, most of the other kids in our classes, they think that I’m, that I’m stupid because I’m not good at spells or potions or whatever we’re learning. I’m not good at talking, or telling people how I feel, and I’m definitely not good enough for you or for, or for Mina.” Her voice wavered, and she paused, forcing back tears as she tried to get to her point. “Quidditch, it’s the only thing I’m good at. The only thing. And if I’m not good at Quidditch, then- then- then I’m nothing.” She finally looked up at Sana, needing her to understand this. Her voice harsh again, she repeated, “I’m nothing.”

Sana was crying now, frantically shaking her head. “No, Momo, that’s not true, that’s not true at all-“

Momo wasn’t listening. “Please, just give me some space,” she mumbled, walking away.

———

Despite the whole “avoiding Sana and Momo” thing, Mina couldn’t bring herself to not attend Momo’s match against Ravenclaw. She’d made a promise, after all. Knowing she couldn’t exactly sit with Sana in the Hufflepuff stands like she normally did, she managed to convince Yoohyeon and Handong to go with her. They didn’t really care about Quidditch, but they agreed to come and root for Hufflepuff, a knowing glint in their eyes that Mina wasn’t sure she liked.

Mina had this gnawing feeling of dread in her stomach throughout the match. Having seen Momo play before, she could tell the older Hufflepuff wasn’t as focused as she usually was— in fact, she was kind of a mess. She kept making little mistakes, and Mina knew too well that little mistakes usually led to much bigger ones. The kind of mistakes that caused them to lose the game.

She wished she was wrong, but halfway through the match, it happened. Mina watched in cold horror as the sequence of events unfolded, resulting in the Ravenclaw Seeker seizing the Snitch. Her eyes sought out Momo, who was just sitting on her broom, frozen, as Madam Hooch blew her whistle and declared the Ravenclaws the winner.

Mina’s heart broke a little. Every instinct in her urged her to go talk to her, try to comfort her, make sure she was okay. The fact of the matter, though, was that it wasn’t any of her business anymore. After avoiding Sana and Momo for so long, it seemed fake of her to try and act like her friend now. Mina had already burned that bridge. She just hoped that Sana would be able to make Momo feel better.

——

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon, and Mina was lounging in the Ravenclaw common room. There was plenty of homework that she could have been working on, but instead she found herself procrastinating, flipping through a novel that Yubin had recommended to her. She tried to focus on the words on the page, but it was like they barely registered in her brain no matter how many times she read and reread them.

Her gaze was torn from the pages when she heard a boy’s voice call out sternly, “Hey, you can’t be in here!” Much to her surprise, when she lifted her head, she was met by someone she certainly never expected to see in the Ravenclaw common room: one Minatozaki Sana. (Then again, she shouldn’t have been surprised that Sana of all people would be able to answer the riddle necessary to get in.)

Sana’s eyes were red and glassy— she looked like she’d been crying for hours, maybe longer than that. While Mina had seen Sana near tears before, there was something particularly upsetting about this time. The Hufflepuff was rubbing her hands together, probably in an attempt to hide the fact that they were shaking.

Without thinking, Mina placed her book aside and got up, folding Sana’s hands into her own. “What’s wrong?” she murmured. For once, Sana was the one avoiding eye contact. “Did something happen?”

Sana leaned forward for just a moment, and then back— not quite recoiling from Mina, but keeping space between them. Mina knew she had no right to feel hurt, considering it was her own fault that Sana didn’t feel totally comfortable around her anymore.

“I-It’s Momo.” Just speaking her girlfriend’s name made Sana’s face crumple, fresh tears tracking down her cheeks. Her voice was little more than a sob as she continued, “I saw you at the game so, so I know you saw what happened, Momo’s just a wreck and she refuses to talk to me about it, she’s barely eating and I can tell she’s barely sleeping too, she won’t listen to me and I just, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do anymore.”

Needing to comfort Sana, Mina did what she knew Sana would do if their places were switched. She untangled their hands in order to wrap her arms around the girl, bringing her in close. It felt weird at first, and Mina was intensely aware of the fact that she barely knew what she was doing, but she relaxed once Sana melted into her embrace.

Sighing into her hair, Sana stayed there for a few moments before pulling back slightly. She wiped away her tears with a hand, looking embarrassed. “I don’t… I don’t know if you even want anything to do with Momo and I anymore. And if you don’t, I… I’ll respect that.” She stared pleadingly into Mina’s eyes. “But Momo won’t talk to anyone, not to me, not to her teammates, not to Nayeon or the other girls, no one. And I guess I just thought… I mean, she’s so fond of you, I thought maybe, maybe she’d open up to you.”

It was like Mina’s chest was being crushed. She couldn’t believe her own selfishness— well, she could believe it, but it still disgusted her. The thought of Momo, not talking or eating or sleeping— it evoked a strong image in her mind, one of a past she’d wanted so badly to leave behind. Coward or not, Mina knew that she needed to set her own feelings aside for this one.

“I don’t know if she’ll want to talk to me either,” Mina replied softly, “But I’ll do my best.” She gave Sana one last squeeze before pulling away, offering her an encouraging smile. The Hufflepuff smiled back through her tears, making Mina’s heart ache again.

Sana should hate her, should never want to speak to or see her again, after all that Mina had done to sabotage their friendship. She and Momo had been so kind to Mina from the start, so gentle and warm, for no reason other than they wanted to. They were genuinely nice people, Mina knew this for certain now— they weren’t anything like the people at Mahoutokoro. In fact, they were everything Mina wanted in friends when she came to Hogwarts, and yet she had still found a way to ruin it.

Swallowing back her self-loathing, Mina tried to focus on the task at hand. She was about to ask Sana where Momo was when she realized the other girl was staring at her.

The Hufflepuff stepped closer to Mina, back into her personal space, until their faces were nearer than they’d ever been before. Sana’s hand rested on her jaw and their eyes locked. Mina thought— just for a moment— that Sana was going to lean in. Holding her breath, she waited. Although Sana did not close the mere centimeters-long gap, Mina felt the girl’s breath on her lips as she murmured, “Please stop thinking so hard. Please.”

All Mina could manage was a dumb nod, and then Sana was retreating, tugging her toward the entrance by a hand. By the time Mina returned to earth from her dazed state, she realized they were now somehow standing in front of the door to Sana and Momo’s bedroom.

“Please be gentle with her,” Sana whispered, though Mina could tell by the way she was shifting that she said it more out of nerves than actual, founded concern.

Sana gestured for Mina to lead the way, so the Ravenclaw opened the door and stepped inside. She was immediately surprised to see the usually bright room so… well, dark. All the curtains were drawn shut and none of the lamps were turned on. With the light from the doorway, Mina could just make out the shape of Momo in her bed, buried under the blankets.

“I told you I didn’t want to talk, Satang,” came a muffled voice from underneath the pile of quilts.

Mina approached the bed slowly, eventually sitting at the edge. Momo must have noticed the sound of two sets of footsteps, as her head soon poked out from under a pillow. Her dark hair a mess and her face bare, Momo’s frown smoothed when she saw who was actually sitting with her.

“Oh,” she said simply. “It’s you.” Momo stared at Mina for a few seconds before her frown reappeared. Rolling back over and tucking her head under the pillow again, Momo repeated, “I told Sana I didn’t want to talk.”

“I know,” Mina replied, gently pulling away the pillow. At Momo’s grumbling, she added, “You don’t have to talk, just listen.”

Momo glanced over Mina’s shoulder to Sana, who was still hovering near the door. Her eyebrows raised: “Is she serious?” Mina could imagine her saying.

Nerves made Mina hesitate, just for a moment, before beginning to speak. She knew what she needed to tell Momo, what might be the only thing that could cheer her up. Unfortunately, it was also something that Mina had been avoiding dealing with ever since it happened. You need to be brave now, she told herself, summoning every ounce of courage she had tucked away.

“I lied to you,” she eventually forced out. Mina closed her eyes, unable to handle seeing Momo or Sana’s expressions right now. Not until she was done. “I lied to both you and Sana, at our sleepover and when you brought us to the Quidditch pitch. The truth is that… I did play Quidditch at Mahoutokoro. I was their Seeker.”

Momo released a little gasp, but Mina was too engrossed in what she was saying to hear it. She’d never spoken about this before, not to anyone, and it was like she was being pulled back in time, back into her memories.

——

Some of Mina’s earliest memories involved flying. Naturally, considering her father’s work, she’d learned how to ride a broom practically around the same time she learned how to walk. She remembered, more than anything, her father’s huge grin whenever she’d zoom around the house on one of his earliest creations, back when Myoui Brooms wasn’t yet a household name. Maybe she just remembered it because those were the only times he’d smile at her like that.

Flying remained fun for a while. Of course, to a little kid, there was nothing better than the freedom and exhilaration of it all. She went to Quidditch games with her father, just happy to be able to spend time with him and get his attention. Eventually, though, as she got older, Mina realized the truth: that flying and Quidditch were not things that would ever be truly hers. They were things imposed on her, things that she was expected to love in the same way her father loved them.

He never outright told her that she had to join the Mahoutokoro team once she got old enough to attend the school. He didn’t have to— Mina already knew. It was an expectation that’d been placed upon her more or less since birth. On her first day of school, she already had a shiny new broom and a complete set of fancy Quidditch robes and pads, despite not even having tried out yet. Of course she’d get in— she was the daughter of the best Seeker Mahoutokoro had ever seen, not to mention the fact that Mr. Myoui gave enough “gracious donations” to essentially own the team.

Mina never had the backbone to point out that Quidditch wasn’t fun for her anymore, that it wasn’t what she wanted to do. No, she did what was expected of her, because she didn’t want to disappoint her father, and because maybe there was still a part of her that longed for his approval. Since his business had taken off she’d barely seen him, but she knew he’d be at every Quidditch match. At least she could see him then, could see his big smile as he hugged her and told her he was so proud. Even if he was proud of a lie— at least it was something.

Her teammates hated her from the beginning. Mina could scarcely blame them, she’d probably resent herself too if she was in their positions. At first, they didn’t say anything to her face, but she could hear the whispering behind her back and the dirty looks they gave her whenever she entered the locker room. She wasn’t wanted there.

Still, Mina had some sense of pride in her. She didn’t want to not belong, to be the outsider— so she trained. Relentlessly. Every second of her free time was spent on the pitch, whether it be at the crack of dawn or dusk, running drills until her legs felt like jelly. She barely got any sleep and had little appetite, the only thing on her mind being Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch. Because the reality of it was, she needed to be the perfect star player. To continue her father’s legacy and to make him proud, but also, to prove to her teammates that she wasn’t exactly what they expected her to be: the snotty rich kid who was only there because her daddy bought her spot on the team.

The constant training paid off in some ways, if not all. They won game after game, season after season, in her time there. Her father smiled at her, her teammates clapped her on the back. For a while, things were perfect— if she ignored the aching hole inside her that grew bigger and bigger each day.

It only took one game to ruin things. It was their final match of the season— they’d reached the championships four years in a row, and this year they went against Durmstrang. This game was different from all the rest, though— it was an actual fight for once. Their opponents were ruthless in their game tactics, taking out player after player until Mina was the only one on her team left standing. Their only hope.

She couldn’t remember exactly what happened. It was all a blur, since she’d mostly blocked that part out of her memory. Regardless, the outcome was the same— she buckled under the pressure. Durmstrang won.

It had felt like the world was ending. Maybe, in a way, for Mina it had. Her father didn’t smile at her that night. Instead he placed a hand on her shoulder, told her she needed to practice more, and said that he had to get back to work. When she entered the locker room, it was like she’d been transported back in time. Her teammates, the people she believed were her friends, looked at her that same way they had on her first day there. They said horrible things that still echoed in her mind even now. It didn’t matter how hard she trained, how many games she won— one mistake, and in their eyes, she had proven that they were right about her all along. One mistake, and she wasn’t her father’s perfect daughter, his pride and joy, anymore.

That realization broke something inside of her. She couldn’t bring herself to even look at a broom again. She couldn’t pay attention in classes or do much else other than lie in bed, an overwhelming pain pinning her down to the mattress. It wasn’t because she lost some stupid game— it was because that stupid game made her feel useless, unloved, pathetic. Small. It made her feel small.

Her father wasn’t thrilled about her quitting the team, of course. That was another reason for their move from Japan— he must have hoped that Hogwarts being a “fresh slate” for Mina would mean a fresh slate for her Quidditch career as well. She couldn’t, though. It wasn’t strength that made her want to rebel against her father and never play the sport again— the opposite, really. Mina simply wasn’t strong enough to continue the perfect daughter charade anymore.

——

Mina opened her eyes. Avoiding the two Hufflepuffs’ gaze still, she reached out and found Momo’s hand under the blanket. “So believe me, I know how you feel. That you’re completely at fault, that if you had just practiced a little longer, a little harder, you would have won. You wouldn’t be feeling this way. I’ve been there, I thought that too. But the truth is…” She took a deep breath. She’d never admitted this, to herself or to anyone else, because she had never believed it up until this moment. Once again urging herself to be brave for Momo’s sake, she continued, “The truth is, it wasn’t totally my fault, just like your game wasn’t totally your fault. When you’re a part of a team, you win and lose as a team. I guess my point in telling you all this is that, please don't be so hard on yourself, and please don’t let this stop you from playing the game you love. You’d just regret it.” Mina sighed, and nodded, signalling she was finished.

There was a pause, and then Mina was being pulled into Momo’s arms. Sana came to the bed as well, and she found herself sandwiched between the two Hufflepuffs in a group hug.

“Thank you for telling me, Mitang,” Momo mumbled right next to her ear, her voice thick. “I-I really appreciate it.”

Mina felt a weight lift from her shoulders, a weight that had been there for a long, long time. She’d spent all of her time since she met Sana and Momo thinking that they didn’t need her, that she was just an intrusion. Now, she was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, they needed her just as much as she needed (wanted) them, too.

Chapter Text

It took a little more effort on both Sana and Mina’s part to convince Momo to attend her next match two weeks later.

The Hufflepuff had been nervous enough going to her first practice after the previous week’s loss, convinced that her teammates wouldn’t want to see her face again and would boo her out of the locker room. Luckily, though, those fears had been unfounded— according to Momo, Seulgi had convened the whole team to apologize for blaming her solely for their loss. That was especially a good thing considering Sana had wanted to throttle her fellow Hufflepuff for making her girlfriend so upset. Ultimately, though, cooler heads prevailed— said cooler head being Mina, of course.

This time, it was both Sana and Mina dropping Momo off at the locker room before the game. Sana knew that having Mina there with them helped calm Momo’s nerves, both of them holding onto Momo’s hands.

Momo quickly noticed, however, that Mina’s other hand was hidden behind her back. The Chaser tried to peek over her shoulder, pouting when Mina stepped away. “What’re you hiding?” she asked suspiciously. She shot Sana a questioning look, which she answered only with an eyebrow raise and smile.

“It’s a gift,” Mina replied, finally revealing what she was holding: a long, thin package, carefully wrapped in Hufflepuff-yellow silk.

Momo’s eyes widened, obviously recognizing the unique shape in an instant. “Is that…?” She released both hands from Sana and Mina’s grip, reaching out to accept the package. Her fingers eager but careful, she unfolded the silk, gasping when she revealed what was underneath.

She held up the shiny new broom, gaping at it. Sana gathered the silk wrapping before it could fall away, tucking it into her pocket. “I think she likes it,” she giggled to Mina, watching Momo fondly as the girl was rendered speechless.

“I- I don’t-” Momo stammered, shaking her head. “You didn’t have to do this for me,” she eventually continued, staring at Mina. “You didn’t have to pull strings with your father or something just to-”

“I didn’t,” Mina quickly interrupted with a soft smile. She tilted her head in Sana’s direction, “Sana was already saving up money to buy you a new broom. All I did was contribute a few galleons and send in the order. No string-pulling involved.”

Well, Sana knew that was a bit of a white lie— Mina had contributed quite a bit more than a few galleons, and she had dropped her name only once in order to ensure a speedy delivery. They wanted to make sure they’d be able to give Momo her gift before her next match after all.

Momo’s eyes fell on Sana now, looking at her in that intensely soft way she did sometimes— like she thought Sana was the one who hung the stars in the sky every evening. It never failed to make Sana blush, even now. “Is that true?” the Chaser murmured, taking a step closer.

She nodded, offering her girlfriend a playful smile. “You can’t be the best Chaser you can be without the best broom, right?”

The older Hufflepuff nodded distractedly, her gaze panning from Sana to Mina, back and forth. There was a few seconds silence, and then, without any warning, her face crumpled and her eyes welled up. Tears streaming down her cheeks, she set the broom aside and threw her arms around both of them, pulling them into a somewhat-crushing bear hug.

Sana laughed, rubbing Momo’s back. “Don’t cry, baby,” she cooed, pulling back slightly to smush her girlfriend’s cheeks.

Not releasing either girl from her grip, Momo blinked rapidly to stay her tears. “I just love both of you so much,” she mumbled shyly, burying her face into Sana and Mina’s aligned shoulders.

Sana didn’t miss the way Mina tensed right next to her, or the Ravenclaw’s quiet, shaky intake of breath. Their group hug eventually ended as Momo did have to get to her game, the girl squealing about how she couldn’t wait to try her new broom out. Before she could scamper off, Sana pulled Momo in for their customary good luck kiss, letting it linger for an extra few seconds today.

When she turned back to Mina, the girl’s eyes were fixed downward at her feet— her shoulders hunched, her hands fiddling with one another. She looked as if she felt totally out of place, like she wanted to be anywhere else but there.

It was as if a lightbulb turned on in Sana’s mind. She recalled all the times when Mina had had similar reactions to her and Momo being affectionate to each other, and how Mina had avoided them when Sana and Momo first made things official. It made sense to Sana now, and she scolded herself for not seeing it plainly before.

Now determined to prove her hypothesis, Sana resolved to gather more evidence the best way she knew how.

———

Mina hadn’t meant to flinch when Momo said she loved them— both of them, as if she and Sana were equals— or when Sana kissed her girlfriend (her girlfriend) goodbye. She couldn’t watch them together without it hurting, so she stared down at her feet, repeating her well-rehearsed speech, over and over: Don’t be selfish. Be a good friend. Try not to let it hurt so much.

When she looked up, Sana was staring at her curiously. Feeling as if she’d been caught, Mina forced a polite smile. “We should get to the stands before they fill up,” she recommended.

Sana approached her until they were standing side by side, curling a hand around Mina’s waist and pulling her closer. “Okay, Mitang,” she replied sweetly, squeezing at Mina’s hip. “You lead the way.”

All Mina had been able to do was swallow thickly and nod, overwhelmed by Sana’s proximity as well as her almost possessive grip that had always been reserved for Momo. Trying not to overthink it, Mina led them toward the Hufflepuff tower.

Unfortunately, just as Mina had feared, the stands were packed— it seemed like the whole House had shown up to cheer on the team after last week’s disappointing loss. There was barely room for one of them to sit, let alone two.

Standing near the stairs, Mina pointed out to Sana a tiny empty gap among the Hufflepuff crowd. “You go sit there,” she shouted over the roar of the crowd, “I don’t mind standing.”

Sana shook her head and leaned in close. “You can sit on my lap,” she murmured directly into Mina’s ear, “Come on!”

The Ravenclaw scarcely had time to open her mouth to argue before Sana was tugging her along, scooting them down the aisle past rowdy fellow Hufflepuffs. Eventually they reached the tiny gap, and Sana sat down, patting her thighs for Mina to sit. When Mina didn’t immediately do so, the girl’s eyes grew large. “What’s wrong?” she asked innocently.

Not wanting to cause a scene, Mina nervously settled onto Sana’s lap. She was positive her entire face was flaming red as Sana wrapped her arms around Mina’s waist, pulling her flush against her chest and resting her chin on Mina’s shoulder.

Despite Mina’s intense embarrassment and nerves, it was hard to not relax into Sana’s warm, comfortable embrace. She shouldn’t be surprised— she’d learned firsthand that Sana and Momo gave the best hugs. At first it was hard to focus on anything except Sana’s touch, but once the match started, both girls became immersed in the game.

It seemed like Momo had regained her confidence and her focus. Unlike the last game, she played just as well as she normally did— maybe even better, now that she had an actually fast broom to ride around on. The Gryffindors were no match for the cohesive power of the Hufflepuff team, with the Chasers scoring point after point before Lisa eventually caught the Snitch barely an hour into the game.

As Madam Hooch announced the end of the match, the Hufflepuff stands went wild. The excitement was infectious, both girls standing up to cheer and scream with the rest of the crowd. Laughter bubbling in her throat, Mina turned and threw her arms around Sana, both of them bouncing around.

In that moment, Mina felt the happiest she had in a long, long time.

——

It’d been three days since Momo’s winning match, and Mina was ready to combust at any given moment.

Both Sana and Momo had been generally affectionate with her, more or less since she had first met them. She’d been able to dismiss it easily before, citing their naturally affectionate personalities, especially Sana’s. Sure, she had been wrong about their affections for each other being platonic, but she’d witnessed them being touchy with their other friends as well. Now, though— ever since Momo’s game— it was like a switch had been flipped.

It seemed like they were now involved in some kind of conspiracy to make Mina blush (and/or die of embarrassment) as often as possible.

Momo, for her part, was more clingy than normal. Wherever they went around the castle, she would hang onto Mina’s arm, pouting whenever Mina was forced to pull away. She also now insisted on carrying both Sana and Mina’s schoolwork around for them in addition to her own, ignoring all of Mina’s protests. (If Mina hadn’t caught a glimpse of her biceps one weekend when Momo was wearing a sleeveless tank top at Quidditch practice, she’d be concerned that the weight of all those textbooks would break the Hufflepuff’s arms.)

Sana was extra touchy too, though not in the same koala-bear clinginess way as Momo. Her touches were brief but purposeful— against Mina’s shoulder, her hip, her elbow, her jaw. The most dangerous change, however, were the new nicknames. For whatever reason, Sana had begun referring to Mina as “darling”. It had started out like a joke— “our darling Mitang”, Sana had said teasingly (the “our” especially making Mina’s heart flutter). Except she didn’t stop saying it after that— in fact she now referred to Mina by “darling” almost exclusively.

Mina’s soul had almost left her body the first time they’d kissed her cheek. She’d received a perfect grade on a Potions exam, and the two Hufflepuffs had leaned in simultaneously to press their lips on either of Mina’s cheeks in congratulations. She almost thought they must have planned it in advance, it was so in sync. Mina wished she could say she’d handled it gracefully, but she hadn’t, of course— all she’d been able to do was gape like a fish, stammering out something unintelligible. They had started doing it regularly now, and everytime it happened Mina was sure her heart was going to pound its way out of her chest.

They were always asking her to come over to their dorm for sleepovers, too, to the point where Mina spent more time in their room than in her own. She still spent a good chunk of her free time hanging out with Yoohyeon and her group of her friends since she’d developed a close bond with them quickly, but other than that, Sana and Momo stuck to her side like glue. Mina had begun to feel guilty, thinking she must be taking up precious moments of their “couple time”, but Sana and Momo insisted that they would much rather have her with them— a statement that truly confounded her.

Mina almost wished they wouldn’t treat her so kindly like this. It allowed her to hope, to dream that they felt the same way about her as she did about them. With the way they clung on to her and spoke to her so lovingly, she could imagine some alternate reality where she was their girlfriend, too.

Anyway, it didn’t matter, because that was still all it was— a dream. That was likely all it’d ever be.

——

After dinner Saturday night, the girls decided to take a walk by the lake to watch the sunset while the weather was still decent. The sky was crowded with rapidly darkening clouds, but still they walked hand-in-hand, Sana and Momo on either side of Mina. It was another one of those moments that felt too good to be true, that allowed Mina to fantastize that their relationship together was something beyond friendship. They talked about anything and everything, and sometimes nothing, too, just walking in silence. The silences never felt awkward with Sana and Momo.

Just as they were walking back, the brooding sky opened up— first little droplets, and then what was more or less a torrential downpour. Giggling, the girls ran back toward the castle, Momo whipping out her wand from her back pocket to conjure up an invisible umbrella. She kept her arm thrust out in order to cover Mina and Sana completely, exposing herself to the rain in the process.

Eventually they reached the safety of the castle doors, and once they were inside, Mina and Sana simultaneously realized that Momo was sopping wet.

“Momoring, you’re drenched!” Sana cried out, rubbing at Momo’s arms with a frown.

The older Hufflepuff shrugged. “It’s fine,” she insisted, though at that moment her body shuddered with chills.

In an instant, Mina was slipping out of her outermost robe in order to drape it over Momo’s shoulders. Momo blinked over at her in surprise, and Mina hurried to explain, “It’ll keep you warm until we get back to your room and you can change.”

“Thanks, Mitang,” Momo murmured. She leaned forward to place a lazy kiss on Mina’s cheek, dangerously close to the corner of her mouth.

It seemed like every one of Sana and Momo’s cheek kisses were progressing closer and closer to Mina’s lips— though then again she was sure she was imagining it. Wishful thinking, right?

With that, Sana led them back to the Hufflepuff dorm before Mina could overthink any further.

When they got back to Sana and Momo’s room, Sana immediately began to rummage through their cupboards for a fresh set of clothing for Momo. Eventually she turned around and presented two sets of pajamas— Mina smiled when she spotted the Barbie patterns. Momo had mentioned in passing her fascination with the Muggle toy line, which Mina now guessed had been an understatement.

Mina had assumed the second set was for Sana, so she was surprised when Sana walked over and handed it to her instead. She tilted her head at Sana inquisitively. She hadn’t even verbally agreed to stay the night, though then again at this point it seemed to be an unspoken agreement between them. Still, she was confused about why Sana made no moves to change into pajamas herself.

As if reading Mina’s mind, Sana explained, “I have Frog Choir tonight.” She glanced at the clock on the wall and her eyes began comically wide. “Merlin’s beard, is it that late already?!” she squeaked. Hurriedly crossing the room to gather her things, Sana tossed Mina and Momo an apologetic smile over her shoulder. “I’ll be back in a couple hours. Don’t have too much fun without me, okay?” she teased.

Both Mina and Momo nodded, and then Sana was gone.

When Mina turned back around, she immediately averted her eyes when she saw Momo starting to peel off her wet clothes. Staring down at the pajamas in her hands, she mumbled awkwardly, “I-I’m going to go to the bathroom, I’ll be right back.” Mina was already out the door before Momo could answer.

After a few minutes, Mina returned to the room, a little embarrassed that she had been too shy to change in front of Momo. The other girl didn’t comment on it, however, simply beaming up at her from the bed as soon as she saw her.

“You look so cute,” she cooed, opening her arms wide and beckoning Mina closer.

The Ravenclaw approached the bed, sitting at the edge when Momo scooted over to make room for her. The older girl held onto Mina’s arm, smiling down at Mina’s pajamas. “I like it when you wear my clothes,” Momo murmured distractedly, almost as if she didn’t realize she was speaking out loud.

Afraid that she was going to start blushing again, Mina cleared her throat in order to distract herself. She turned her head slightly to peek at Momo’s face, but it was hidden by her long, dark hair, made unruly by the rain. Mina wasn’t sure what quite possessed her to say it, but all of a sudden she found herself offering, “If you get your hairbrush, I’ll brush your hair for you.”

Momo twisted her neck to look at Mina for a few seconds, eyebrows raised curiously. “Okay,” she agreed, rolling over to the other side of the bed to get up. She padded over to her desk and returned a few moments later with her brush.

Before Mina could scoot back on the bed, beginning to fold her legs under her, Momo plopped right in between them. The Hufflepuff guided Mina’s outstretched legs to wrap around her, her hands resting just above her knees. Although Mina was wearing pants, Momo’s touch seemed to burn straight through the fabric.

Momo handed her brush back to Mina, and, trying to stay focused, Mina began to comb through Momo’s wavy hair. It proved to be a task easier said than done, but Mina tried to be gentle as possible whenever she came upon any knots. Momo didn’t seem to mind, humming every so often to assure Mina she was doing a good job. Otherwise they sat in silence as Mina worked.

As the minutes went by, Momo progressively leaned back further and further into Mina’s chest until Mina could barely brush her hair anymore. Finally Mina had to tap her shoulder to let the girl know she needed to sit up.

“Oh, sorry,” Momo mumbled, and Mina could tell from the girl’s voice that she had begun to doze off.

“It’s okay,” Mina automatically said, leaning over to place the brush aside. “I was pretty much done, anyway. You can take a nap if you want, I’ll wake you when Sana gets back.” She began to pull her legs away, intending on moving over, but Momo’s hand squeezing her knee made her pause.

There was a few seconds of silence. At first Mina thought Momo had fallen asleep again, but then Momo spoke, sounding more awake than before. “You know, I really like having you around, Mitang. We both do, both Sana and I,” Momo began. “You’re so… You’re so good, you know? You always take care of us and make sure we’re happy. You’re the most selfless person I’ve ever met. But I want to… I want to make sure you’re happy, too.” She turned around abruptly, still sitting between Mina’s legs but facing her this time. “So we should just be honest with each other. I want to know what you want.”

Her gaze dropped slightly, and Mina realized with a jolt that Momo was staring at her lips. With Momo looking at her like that, Mina didn’t have it in her anymore to say anything but the truth. “I want you,” she said, voice betraying her desperation.

She once again wasn’t sure what came over her at that moment. It wasn’t courage, exactly, that made her lean in— it was more that, for practically the first time in her life, Mina decided to give in to her desires. Regardless of her reasoning, Mina did close the gap, and suddenly she was kissing Momo.

Mina had admittedly thought a lot about what her first kiss would be like. A little bit when she was younger, but a lot more since she’d come to Hogwarts. It was embarrassing, but lately, kissing Momo and/or Sana (preferably both) had been constantly in the back of her mind. She’d also been plagued with the thought that if she ever did have the opportunity to kiss one of them— as unlikely as that seemed— then surely she’d make a fool of herself. Obviously Sana and Momo had both had a lot of practice with each other, but Mina had never kissed anyone before. She would be awful at it, and she’d ruin any chance with them that she may have had.

Now, though, that was the last thing on her mind. Mina found herself in a complete haze, only aware of Momo’s lips moving against hers and Momo’s hands resting on her thighs. She wasn’t thinking at all— not really. However, when Momo sat up and pushed at her shoulder to get her to lean back, some vague competitive instinct in her urged Mina to switch their positions. Though Momo was still setting the pace, Mina shifted so she was now leaning over the other girl, fingers tangled in her hair and clutching at the fabric of her pajamas.

Minutes passed, but it could have been seconds or hours to Mina who felt like she was floating. Neither girl noticed the sound of the door opening and then closing. Mina was only brought out of her trance when she heard a voice whining, “I thought I said no fun without me!”

Fear surging through her veins at the familiar voice, Mina immediately tore away from Momo, staring at Sana in horror.

“She kissed me, to be fair,” Momo mumbled, slightly out of breath and blushing bright red. She sat up, tilting her head at Sana curiously. “Why are you back so early?”

“I went all the way down to the Great Hall just to find out that Frog Choir is cancelled tonight,” Sana huffed.

Mina barely heard Sana or Momo’s words, and she certainly hadn’t noticed Sana’s teasing smile. All she could think about was the fact that she had just kissed Momo. Guilt crashed over Mina like waves as she realized what she’d done. She’d just kissed her best friend whose girlfriend was Mina’s other best friend. Mina had made numerous other mistakes that had threatened to ruin their friendship, but this… This was unforgivable.

Feeling like she was going to be sick, words began to stumble out of her mouth. “I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry. I’m so sorry, Sana, I don’t know why-” She pressed her hands against her face, eyes firmly shut as she shook her head. “I shouldn’t have done that, I’m so sorry-”

Before she could get up and run from the room as fast as her legs could carry her, she felt fingers curl gently around her wrists. Her hands were pulled away, and when she opened her eyes, Sana was right next to her, smiling gently.

“There’s nothing to apologize for, darling,” the Hufflepuff giggled, tucking some of Mina’s hair behind her ear.

All Mina could do was stare at Sana and Momo in turn. “Why aren’t you angry with me?” she eventually choked out to Sana. “I-I kissed your girlfriend, you should hate me.”

Sana simply shook her head. “I don’t mind,” she assured, confusing Mina even further. “Well... I don’t mind on one condition, that is.” Her eyes were suddenly glinting mischievously, her lips curved in a smirk.

“What’s that?” Mina managed to ask, distracted by Sana moving closer and closer.

Pouting, Sana insisted cutely, “I want a kiss too!” Despite her words, she stayed still, watching Mina closely. Leaving it up to her to decide how to proceed.

Mina felt like she must be dreaming. She’d thought she would never have the opportunity to kiss one of them, much less both— she thought they’d never be interested in her in that way. It seemed too good to be true. She needed to make sure that this was real. Shyly, Mina leaned into Sana’s touch, forcing herself to meet Sana’s eyes. “You… you really want to kiss me?” Her eyes shifted to Momo. “Both of you?”

“More than that,” Sana replied. At the shocked expression suddenly on Mina’s face, she started laughing and shook her head. “What I mean is that, Momo and I have talked about this a lot.” In one hand she held Momo’s, and in the other she held Mina’s. “Ever since we met you, we’ve been drawn to you. Momo and I, we’re happy together, but we don’t feel… complete. And when you’re with us, we do feel complete.” She tilted her head. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I…” Mina swallowed thickly. “I think I do, but I just want to make sure.”

Sana nodded in understanding. She looked over at Momo, quirking an eyebrow, and Momo slid closer to the both of them.

“We want to be with you, Mitang,” Momo said softly. “We know it’s kind of unusual so we understand if it’s too much for you, but Sana and I really, really care about you.”

As if she knew where Mina’s thoughts were wandering to, Sana added, “You wouldn’t be intruding, we promise. Like Momoring said, we want this, but we aren’t going to force you into anything you're uncomfortable with.”

Mina hesitated. This was everything she wanted, everything she hadn’t allowed herself to dream about in excessive detail. It was overwhelming, having to face this all at once. Part of her wanted to ask for more time to think about it, not because she was unsure of her feelings for them, but because she was unsure of herself. Why would they want her? What could she offer them?

She closed her eyes briefly. Calmed her breathing and quieted the hateful voices from her past that told her that she wasn’t good enough and that Sana and Momo could never truly love her. Mina couldn’t drown them out completely, not yet, but she refused to let them hold her back anymore.

Opening her eyes again, Mina smiled shyly and nodded. “No, I think… I think I would like that, actually. I want to be with you, too,” she admitted. Her voice shook, but at least she said it out loud. She never really thought she would ever get that far.

Momo immediately began to bounce a little on the bed, throwing an arm around Mina’s shoulders. “I’m so happy,” she squealed, exchanging excited grins with Sana.

The blonde Hufflepuff leaned closer, and Mina was reminded of that time before in the Ravenclaw common room. Mina had chided herself then for thinking Sana would ever want to kiss her— obviously she’d been sorely mistaken. She’d been wrong a lot since she’d come to Hogwarts, hadn’t she? (Somehow, Mina didn’t mind.)

“Can I get that kiss now?” Sana murmured, practically against her lips already.

All Mina had to do was drop her head a miniscule amount in a nod before Sana had closed the gap. While her kiss with Momo had been somewhat frenzied in the moment, this one was slow and sweet, warm and comforting. When Sana pulled away, she was holding Mina’s chin. She smiled before pressing another lingering kiss at Mina’s forehead.

In a daze again, Mina mumbled out, “You both are really good kissers.” She winced when she realized how stupid that sounded.

Luckily, both Sana and Momo giggled. Momo burrowed into Mina’s side and Sana crawled onto the bed as well, the Hufflepuffs framing Mina’s body as they always did whenever Mina slept over.

She couldn’t stop smiling. This didn’t feel real— almost like a story, or a dream. Sana and Momo actually chose her. They wanted to be with her because they liked her, genuinely and unselfishly, and they liked her because of who she was as a person. Mina wasn’t sure she deserved it— deserved them— but for once, she wasn’t going to question it.

——

“You got this!” Minji whisper-shouted. “Just say it like how I told you and it’ll be fine.”

Bora smirked and clapped Mina on the back, “Go get your women!”

The rest of Mina’s friends offered her more words of encouragement and thumbs ups, gesturing for her to go approach Sana and Momo at the Hufflepuff table.

It was Monday morning, and Mina had formally enlisted the help of Yoohyeon and company in order to get advice on how to properly ask Sana and Momo on a date. The three of them had already confessed to each other, but now Mina wanted to be brave and take the next step herself. She didn’t feel confident enough to do that without a little help, however.

Finally Mina walked across the room to sit with Sana and Momo at their usual spot. She slid onto the bench next to Momo, hugging the girl in greeting and smiling at Sana across the table.

“We missed you last night,” Momo commented with a cute frown. “It’s weird now when you don’t stay over.”

“I know, I missed you both too. I’m sorry, I’ll stay over tonight,” Mina promised, squeezing Momo’s upper arm comfortingly. “I just… needed some advice on something.”

“Oh?” Sana arched her eyebrows.

Mina cleared her throat. “Yeah, I wanted to ask you both something. I was thinking…” She shifted a little awkwardly, the words that Minji had instructed her to say having fled her mind. She would just have to do her best to improvise. “I was thinking that we could go to Hogsmeade sometime? Together? You know, like a, um…”

Sana’s eyes twinkled with amusement and she turned to Momo with a dramatic flip of her hair. “Why, I think our Mitang is trying to ask us on a date, Momoring,” she gasped.

The older Hufflepuff also gasped teasingly, “So cute!”

“‘Trying’ being the key word,” Mina complained, jutting her lower lip out in an exaggerated pout. “I don’t know, Minji told me that students here always ask their… significant others-” Mina caught Sana mouthing “that’s us” to Momo in the corner of her eye, “-on dates to Hogsmeade. And I have no clue what I’m doing, so I thought that would be a good place to start, anyway.” She finished with a huff, sticking her tongue out at the two Hufflepuffs.

Sana placed her elbows on the table, her chin balancing on her hands. “What, was there no special someone at Mahoutokoro?” she asked with a smirk.

The Ravenclaw shrugged her shoulders, playing along. “There was a girl I liked for a while,” she hummed vaguely. That was true— Mina had had a crush on an upperclassmen in her first years at Mahoutokoro, but the other girl had barely even looked at her. Maybe that was why she’d liked her. Mina’s eyebrows lifted playfully. “Don’t tell me you’re the jealous type.”

Releasing a little giggle, Sana sat back and shook her head. “I’m not usually. I’ll give you five galleons if you can guess who is, though.”

At that she gestured to Momo, and when Mina turned to look at the girl next to her, she saw the sour expression on Momo’s face. Realizing that Sana was referring to her, Momo’s scowl deepened. “I am not!” she insisted, obviously trying to sound serious though her whining just made Mina and Sana laugh.

“Whatever you say,” Mina chuckled, leaning into Momo’s side and squeezing her hand. “Don’t worry, Momoring, I only want to be with you and Satang.” Obviously her overly cute voice worked, as Mina spotted the corner of Momo’s lips twitching.

“Good, then,” the Hufflepuff declared, wrapping an arm around Mina’s waist in a side hug.

Before Mina could clarify that yes, Sana and Momo would go on a date with her, the Great Hall was filled with the sound of wings and owls screeching as they delivered that morning’s mail.

Mina didn’t bother to hope that she would receive any letters— the only people who would write to her were her parents, and that was unlikely. She’d written to them her second day at Hogwarts letting them know she’d been Sorted into Ravenclaw, and they’d replied predictably: a brief, disimpassioned congratulations, and then an inquiry about whether or not she’d tried out for the Quidditch team. Mina hadn’t answered, and that had been the extent of their communications in the past months. She’d been so busy with Sana and Momo that she’d barely had time to think much about it.

Both Sana and Momo got letters: Sana one from her parents, and Momo one from her older sister who had graduated from Hogwarts the year before. They got letters every week from their families, checking in on them and giving them updates about how their own lives were going. It was sweet— Mina was glad that they both had strong relationships with their families.

As the two Hufflepuffs opened and read their letters, Mina stirred her oatmeal, trying to regain her appetite. Before she could do so, something dropped into her bowl, splattering the oatmeal onto the table and onto Mina’s face. Squeaking, Mina jolted back, blinking in shock at the letter that had been rudely deposited into her breakfast.

Wiping the oatmeal off her face and off the letter, she began to open the envelope slowly.

“Is that from your parents?” Sana asked curiously, leaning over the table to see.

Mina simply nodded, pulling the letter out and beginning to read.

Minari—

Business has changed. I am needed in Japan again, so your mother and I are moving back to Kobe. You are free to stay at Hogwarts for the rest of your schooling if you wish. The house in Surrey is still being paid for, so you can stay there for the summer.

I hope you have reconsidered your foolish decision to ‘quit’ Quidditch. Remember that you are a Myoui.

Father

For a while, she just stared at the letter, the words not quite processing in her brain. Her parents were… leaving? Without her?

“What does it say?” Momo asked softly from beside her, pulling Mina back to reality.

She passed the letter over a bit numbly, not quite ready to speak. Momo read the letter out loud to Sana, her voice wavering once she reached the end.

There was a few seconds silence, then Sana whispered, “Oh, darling. I’m so sorry.”

She must have climbed over the top of the table, because all of a sudden Sana was on Mina’s other side, both Hufflepuffs hugging her.

At last Mina found her voice. “It’ll be okay,” she said, firmer than she’d originally expected herself to sound. She wasn’t just saying that to convince Sana and Momo, or even in an attempt to convince herself— with the girls on either side of her, Mina suddenly knew that it was the truth.

The events of the past couple months passed through her mind like scenes from a movie. The train ride in, her Sorting, meeting Sana and Momo and telling off that awful boy. Their first sleepover, and flying without any pressure of being the ‘best’ for the first time in her life. Sana and Momo’s fight, and their subsequent reconciliation. Yoohyeon and her friends who accepted Mina warmly into their group, and all the smiles and laughs they’d shared. Sana and Momo’s kind words and gentle touches that made Mina feel truly wanted.

Mina placed the letter back on the table and smiled warmly at Sana and Momo. She felt lighter now than she had when she’d first read her father’s words. “Hogwarts is my home now,” she explained. “As long as I’m here, with my friends and with you two, then I’m happy.”

The Hufflepuffs beamed back at her, and in moments Mina’s cheeks were being covered with kisses.

“We’re happy, too,” Sana murmured.

Momo’s head bobbed, and then she was saying excitedly, “You don’t have to stay alone this summer, Mitang. Sana and I always spend the summers together at my grandmother’s house anyway so you can stay with us! We can go to the lake every day, it’ll be so much fun, right, Satang?”

Sana hummed in agreement. She was still looking at Mina closely— most likely trying to determine if Mina was telling them the truth, that she was really alright with this. The Ravenclaw simply squeezed Sana’s hand, smiling at her reassuringly.

Of course her parents’ words and what was practically their abandonment hurt her, but she had spoken the truth when she said she would be okay. Her time at Hogwarts hadn’t been easy, not by any means. But even when she thought about the tough times, Mina had no regrets.

She thought about the girl she was all those months ago, riding a train toward an unfamiliar school. That Mina never would have guessed what she’d find at Hogwarts— a place where she could truly belong, and two girls whose arms felt like home.