Chan was exhausted. He'd spent the whole night locked up in his dorm, scribbling quickly with what he hoped would result into a readable calligraphy all the schoolwork he'd been given that day – it was his new strategy: do everything as soon as possible, it'd prevent procrastinating.

He'd tried to give the same advice to both Wonpil and his dorm mates ("Like mate... stop procrastinating!"), but they hadn't listened to him.

As far as he was concerned though, the last time he could remember actually allowing himself a day off had been on the 31st of Agust – the last day of holiday.

Senior year had not proven to be hard on the specific things they were learning, but rather on the amount of schoolwork they were being forced (because, Chan was completely sure of that, no other way to describe their work would've been accurate) to do each day.

The boy shook his head to prevent himself from falling asleep – in fact, after finishing his schoolwork, he'd immediately ran out of his dorm to make sure he wouldn't be late to that night's patrollings, where he had all of his Head Boy duties: that day, they all fell on him; as he and Woojin had decided they would be in charge evry other day, to allow the other to rest properly (or, in Chan's case, to catch up on all the homework).

The Gryffindor had always taken his role seriously, – he made sure everyone was following the rules, and acting in safety – but after the warning the Headmistress had given him the first day back, he'd become even more strict and focused, if possible. He felt it upon himself to make sure no student was in danger, or no unfortunate events happened.

He shrugged his shoulders: if he'd stood still any longer, he would've fallenasleep right on the spot. He decided to walk slowly and silently towards the opposite corridor, expecting it to look the exact same as how it'd done when he'd last checked it, about thirty minutes before.

He'd just turned around the corner, though, when he felt someone crashing onto him so suddenly that they fell onto the ground loudly.

The fuck- he thought, quickly buzzing his wand that lit up immediately. Lowering himself to the other's level, he pointed the stick at them to see who it'd been.

"Take it off, please, it's too bright!" protested the other, whose voice seemed clear yet soft, with a slight spice to it.

Taking his wand away, Chan could finally see the face of the crasher: she was a quite tall and slender girl, with long brown hair falling gracefully on her back.

"Ahemm..." Chan started, unsure of what to say as the event had come in really unexpectedly. "What are you doing here, in the middle of the night?"

"I could ask you the same question" she replied, quickly getting back up. "You look really tired, Channie".

The Head Boy was taken aback by the nickname: did he possibly know the girl?

"I am Head Boy thogh, I have the right to be here" he stated matter-of-factly. "And I can't just sleep if I am tired". He rolled his eyes: who on earth could even think that was a reasonable solution?

"Well, and I am a Prefect" snapped the girl confidently (although Chan would've sworn to have heard her voice crack a little towards the end of the sentence). "I mean, am I this unrecognizable?"

Chan squeezed his eyes (they still hadn't adapted to the new brighter ambiance), and for the first time he actually made an effort at analyzing the girl's face. His eyes were nw finally focusing: the cat-like eyes, the visible forehead, the high cheekbones... the boy suddenly felt really stupid. The girl, who was now facing him, was the almost mythical Keeper of the Slytherin Quidditch Team, Prefect and Ice Queen (as students all around Hogwarts knew her as): Hwang Yeji.

Yeji was very well-known at Hogwarts: her incredible beauty, skillfull self and stone-like personality made her one of the most talked about, best loved and admired girls in the whole Castle.

Chan knew of many guys who'd fallen for her – it was hard not to, they said ("she's magnetic") –, but he himself had never really figured out what his thoughts about her were.

"Oh, sorry", he mumbled at last, acknowledging his gaffe. "Hi Yeji" he added awkwardly.

"Hello" she answered, looking at him straight into the eyes. "Y'know, I was looking for you. Apparently some new kid thinks there's something funny going on on the first floor, so I thought I'd tell you. But looking back, he did not seem too serious. I'd just go to bed if I were you, I can handle this section as well, but you should really get some sleep– BANG CHAN!" she then screamed, as she noticed that the Head Boy was already moving towards the first floor, and speeding up to reach him. "I told you, it's nothing serious, go to bed!"

Chan stopped abruptly, and locked his eyes with hers. She was so beautiful he almost forgot what he wanted to say. "Yeji, look..." focus Chan, something's wrong with the Castle, "I appreciate you concerns, but if you tell me something's off, I have to make sure it's nothing terrible. Going to sleep is not one of the options. Now, thank you for the info, I'll check it out myself. You can go back to your sector".

"I hate you!" she yelled in a high-pitch voice. "I can't stand it when you act all so responsible! Your perfection gets to my nerves, it's not fair to be so smart!" she scrolled her shoulders, trying to calm down. "I'm coming with you" she then stated, in a way that made it clear that 'no' was not a possible way to answer. "Lead the way, c'mon!" she hurried.

Chan, coming back to reality, was quick to recover and started to move confidently through the various corridors: it would've been a real challenge for most students, as it was quite normal to get lost even during daylight, but the Head Boy knew Hogwarts so well he could've easily covered the distance between his position and the first floor blindfolded.

Yeji was fast to move beside him, never complaining and always anticipating the right way to take every time. In less than three minutes, they'd already reached their destination.

It was immediately clear that something was off: water was filling all the corridors, its level being already concerningly high. Chan and Yeji had to stop mid-way through the stairs, as everything else had already been taken by the unstoppable water flow.

"No big deal, eh?", whispered Chan, in shock.

"It was a dumb excuse to get you go to bed!" explained the Slytherin, clearly pissed. "Now let's focus on this, if you may".

"The first floor. Right." Chan started thinking: what could cause the corridors to be filled with such an industrial quantity of water? A problem in the plumbing system? An aquarium from the Defence Against The Dark Arts classroom suddenly cracking? Some strange rain-summoning spell? Or...

"Water balls!" he cried, in unison with Yeji. They looked at each other, in total shock.

"Who would ever even think of placing Water Balls inside the Castle!" exclaimed Chan, whose calculations just didn't add up.

"I have an idea", said Yeji darkly, thinking about her brother: overall, he'd done a great job, although she'd've put the Water Ball on the seventh floor (perhaps in Mrs. Trelawney's room), so that water would've spread way more quickly and easily. She made a note in her mind to tell him first thing in the morning, at breakfast.

"Okay, there's no way out of it", said Chan after a while. "I have to swim all the way to the source, use the counter-curse – hopefully I remember it correctly – and free the Prefects. I hope they know how to swim!"

"Of course I can" snapped another voice, making the two Prefects turn to their right: a slim figure was making their way towards their spot, his wand straight in front of them, and holding what Chan assumed was another student – very likely someone who did not know how to swim – , who was most likely being carried thanks to a Wingardim Leviosa spell.

Without thinking twice, Chan dived and started to swim as fast as he could, reaching the two in no time. "You can rest now, I can handle this" he said, pointing at the thin white light coming out of the Prefect's wand and that was still keeping the other lifted: it was not fair for someone so young to be doing all that hard work alone; he was bascally obliged to take his spot. "Just keep swimming and stop where that girl is, okay?" he pointed towards the stairs where he'd left Yeji, "Then I go and find the source of this mess" he concluded, trying to sound as friendly and comforting as possible.

He looked back at where he was standing, to inform the Slytherin on the plan, but she was not there. "Yeji! Yeji!" he yelled, confused. "Where's she gone-"

Before he could finish the sentence, the girl appeared suddenly beside him: just like Chan and the first Pefect, she was wet form head to toe – but she didn't seem to care.

"I'm here, don't freak out", she said, pretty calmly for someone who'd got completely drenched and was now swimming in the middle of a school corridor. "Now you take Seungminne to the stairs while I go find that stupid Water Ball, I know the counter-curse by heart".

"Ahem – no" flatly replied Chan. "You take Seungminnie" he felt pretty awkward calling the guy that, as he barely even knew him, "and I find the Water Ball. You also have to inform others not to go in here, and call some teacher if needed".

"I swear to God" snapped the younger Prefect, still keeping the other Prefect's body well lifted above the water level – that was worringly becoming more and more high. "Call me this Seung shit another time and I am throwing hands. Now go do your life-saving buisness and let me get to the motherfucking stairs. I can warn even warn Peeves if you'd like me to everyone, but damn! Get a grip!"

"I think I need a Seungminnie in my life", stated Chan, genuinely admired, once the guy had basically reached the stairs – still now completely drowned.

"Don't we all though?" retorically asked Yeji, looking oddly saisfied as if the boy were her own child. "But on to the serious stuff now: how about we go get the Water Ball?"

"You go ahead", galantly proposed the Head Boy, understanding that there realy was no way to get rid of her presence – that at the end of the day was not a bothering one.

And just like that, the two disappeared into the dark, water-filled corridors of Hogwarts.

~♡~

For the ones wondering - yes, I did decide to put Yeji in this mess :)

Still not sure what i am going to do w her but hey at least she's here lol.
Tell me what you'd like me to do with her!

Also, stan Seungmin lol~

Vic🌙.