Chapter Text
The red-haired doctor was nervous. Yukhei could tell by the way he kept walking up and down the hallway, his fingers dancing over the silver snake that curled around his wrist.
The bracelet seemed to blink back whenever Yukhei stared at it for too long. Over the past few weeks, Yukhei had often wondered whether it held any kind of powerful magic. He figured the bracelet had to, if only the doctor seemed to find great comfort in caressing the snake’s silvery body whenever his nerves were strained.
The doctor’s nerves were strained a lot these days. Yukhei knew it was his fault and he wanted to apologise for that, but he didn’t have the words. Not the right ones, anyways. As it was, he couldn’t do much more but give the doctor his most optimistic smile, hoping to convey all the hope he felt. He was glad when it looked like the doctor understood.
He interrupted his pacing to sit down on the stone bench next to Yukhei, his hand coming up to stroke Yukhei’s head. Yukhei couldn’t help the blissful sigh that came out of his mouth. He was a very tactile person and the last weeks in quarantine had left him touch-starved. It was for that reason that he felt little shame leaning into the doctor’s touch, pressing his face into his shoulder.
His eagerness made the doctor laugh. He began to properly run his fingers through the strands of Yukhei’s hair, all the while speaking words into his ear that Yukhei struggled to understand, but whose underlying sense he could derive from the doctor’s soothing tone. The edge of laughter framed his words. It made Yukhei feel a little lighter, a little less worried even though he should have been. The doctor’s care was as soothing to Yukhei as the bracelet’s warm silver was to the doctor.
He reluctantly lifted his head when there was the sound of fleet-footed steps echoing down the hallway. He recognised the wizard that was approaching them, though he couldn’t tell where he had seen him before.
The last weeks had been a blur of unfamiliarity. He had been surrounded by unfamiliar witches and wizards with unfamiliar hands touching him and unfamiliar mouths speaking in a tongue he couldn’t understand except for the few, basic words the doctor had managed to teach him. The only constant among the sea of strangers had been the red-haired doctor, who had been there when Yukhei had arrived and for every of his waking hours since then.
During his time in quarantine, Yukhei had found great comfort in his smile. The red-haired doctor never looked at him as if he was a monster. Or rather, he looked at Yukhei as if that wasn’t the only thing Yukhei was. Yukhei watched him smile now, as he sprung up from their bench to embrace the other wizard.
“Sicheng,” he greeted and Yukhei remembered.
He had seen the other wizard twice before, each time through the small, barred window embedded into his door at the hospital and each time arguing with the red-haired doctor. They seemed to get along now, though the red-haired doctor was still twitching with nervousness.
Yukhei swallowed when Sicheng turned towards him.
“Hello, Lucas,” the blond wizard’s smile was reserved, but kind, “how are you?”
It took Yukhei a moment to realise that he had understood what the other had said. It wasn’t Yukhei’s mother tongue, but it was the common tongue that was spoken at Weishen and so it was as native to Yukhei as his home dialect. It was a greater relief than he had expected, to speak after he had been reduced to head nods and hand gestures for so long, first on the ship that had brought him here and then in the gated rooms of the hospital.
“I’m fine.” Manners, he could hear Master Zhoumi reprimand him in his head and so he tagged on a quick, “Thank you.”
“Did Taeyong explain to you why we brought you here?”
Yukhei shook his head. “I think he tried, but I…I didn’t understand him.” The admission made Yukhei anxious. He didn’t want Sicheng to think that he was blaming the doctor. “It’s my fault, though. I don’t understand enough."
Something about that statement made Sicheng’s expression soften. “Don’t worry,” he said. “You will learn. For today, I can translate for you.”
There was the sound of wood scraping over stone and then the double-winged doors to their right opened. A small group of people exited, consoling the crying witch in their middle and Yukhei wanted to ask what was wrong with her when he noticed the wizard that had come out after them. The wizard was dressed in rich, purple robes, a silver W stitched onto the front pocket. Yukhei had a feeling that he didn’t belong to the group of witches, who were dressed in much more ordinary robes.
The wizard’s expression was stoic, seemingly indifferent as he made his way over to them, but Yukhei could see a spark of warmth in his eyes when he placed a hand on Taeyong’s shoulder. Deep dimples dug into his cheeks as he leaned down to speak into the doctor’s ear.
Yukhei wanted to greet him, maybe introduce himself, but before he could do so much as lean forward, his chin was grabbed and his head was turned. Yukhei’s eyes widened when he found himself faced with the tip of Sicheng’s wand, pointing right at the space between his eyes.
Sicheng’s voice was urgent as he spoke, “We’re up earlier than I thought, so I don’t have the time to explain everything to you right now, but what you must know is that the day of your hearing is today. Right now, to be precise.”
Yukhei’s eyes widened.
“I’m going to share my mind with you for a moment. It’s a translation spell that lets you understand everything I’m capable of understanding. You might feel dizzy, but that’s normal.”
“What’s going on?” Yukhei asked, but let Sicheng tilt his head around until the other wizard was content.
“In the hearing, the Wizengamot, our grand jury, will determine whether the Ministry of Magic is granting you asylum,” Sicheng flicked his wand, drawing a line of light in between Yukhei’s forehead and his own.
Yukhei scrunched up his nose as there was pressure on his mind and the spell connecting him to Sicheng’s temple glew bright before fading.
When Sicheng continued speaking, Yukhei heard him in his mind as well as with his ears, “If everything goes well, you’re allowed to stay and we can even release you from the hospital.”
“What if it doesn’t go well?” It wasn’t something Yukhei liked to think about, but the past weeks in isolation had given him time to prepare. Now, he wanted to know. He had to know, whether all of his parents’ efforts had been in vain. “Will they send me back?”
Will they send me back to die?
“No,” Sicheng said and Yukhei decided to believe the smile that threatened to curl in the corner of his mouth, “not if we can prevent it.”
*
The hearing wasn’t going well.
Yukhei could tell by the tight set to Sicheng’s mouth as he argued with the rows upon rows of purple robes sitting on the stands in front of him. Though the spell Sicheng had put on him allowed Yukhei to understand the gist of the conversation, Yukhei’s brain struggled to focus on any words spoken when there were so many different impressions pressing into his mind.
There were so many eyes boring into his form, so many bright lights flickering above, the sounds of the wooden benches creaking underneath the weight of its occupants. The other didn’t like being underground, and neither did Yukhei. It made his skin crawl.
Taeyong’s leg next to him was jiggling nervously, his grip on his bracelet so tight it turned his knuckles white. Nonetheless, he shot Yukhei a small smile when he noticed him looking. There was a certain determination in his eyes that made Yukhei not give up hope quite yet.
Currently, one of the purple-robed jurors was speaking, his voice croaky as the elderly wizard pointed at Yukhei. Yukhei didn’t have to be able to understand his every word to hear the underlying disgust in his voice.
He ducked his head, rubbing his hand over his thigh. For the first time in his life, he wished that he hadn’t grown quite as tall as he had. If he had been small like Taeyong, he might have been able to hide behind the doctor, hide from all the eyes boring into him, judging him for something he hadn’t chosen.
The elderly juror had talked himself red-faced by the time Sicheng finally managed to get a word in and Yukhei watched as his voice remained calm while his hands curled into fists behind his back.
“We’ve already established that we have the financial cost of his treatment covered. We both know his sponsor is more than able to provide the necessary funds to ensure a seamless treatment with the Wolfsbane potion. Money is not an issue.”
“That may be,” the elderly wizard croaked, “but that doesn’t cancel out the argument that the boy’s mere presence is a threat.”
Yukhei could hear Taeyong next to him scoff, his nerves seemingly turning into anger as he mumbled out a very unkind “As if you’d know anything about that, you ignorant fossil.”
“I’m inclined to agree,” another purple-robed witch spoke up. Her mouth curled in distaste. “Why would we put the entire student body of Hogwarts at risk for a foreign lycanthrope? Whether he’s a child or not, we all know that he could be the nicest boy in the world, as soon as the full moon strikes, he won’t be able to control himself!”
“The Wolfsbane potion will allow him to retain his consciousness during the shift, we’ve been over this.” Sicheng was clearly frustrated.
Eventually, their discussion was put to an end by the wizard that was sitting in the middle of the panel, his seat raised above the others. Sicheng had explained to him that that wizard was the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, the one that would pass his verdict. His expression was just as stoic as the one of the wizard that was sitting next to him, the same one that had come to fetch them for the hearing, and Yukhei thought that they must have been related with how similar they looked.
The Chief Warlock raised his hand, commanding silence and Yukhei squirmed at how grave the atmosphere in the room became. Even the hand Taeyong had rested against his back couldn’t save him from the palpable hatred directed at him. It made him feel a sense of foreboding and Yukhei felt hope leave his body like grains of sand falling through the body of an hourglass. His time had run out.
The Chief Warlock opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get the first of his words out, the atmosphere was broken by a loud bang, followed by the familiar sound of wood scraping over stone. Yukhei breathed out in relief when the noise caused the Wizengamot to look at the doors instead of him.
They had swung open to allow a single wizard inside. He was tall, taller than Yukhei even, his steps echoing loudly as he slowly descended the stairs that lead to the bottom floor of the auditorium. Yukhei found himself sinking lower in his seat with every step the wizard took and he didn’t realise why until he noticed that his action mirrored the rest of the people around him. Yukhei blinked in surprise when he saw how many of the Wizengamot members had recoiled in their seats, only those closest to the dais of the Chief Warlock seemingly unaffected by the wizard’s appearance.
Unlike Yukhei had expected, the wizard didn’t join them in the pit. Instead, he slid into one of the spectator rows, the rich, dark fabric of his robes spreading as he propped his elbows on the backrest behind him. There was a huge, white scar on the back of his hand and, lower on his wrist, Yukhei spotted a flash of silver, the winding body of a snake.
Yukhei instinctively looked at Taeyong, whose hand had fallen from his own bracelet. The doctor was facing forward, paying utmost attention to the court proceedings, but where he had been jittery with nerves before, he seemed calm now, almost relaxed. On his lips, there was a miniscule smile. Yukhei decided to mimick him, facing forward though he felt the skin of his nape prickle, as if he was being looked at from behind.
The Chief Warlock had resumed his speech and Yukhei tried to concentrate, but he couldn’t focus past the static in his ears. When the noise became unbearable to him, he closed his eyes and thought of mountains, higher than any human could reach. He thought of his home, Weishen’s halls that were so close to the sun that the rooms never fully went dark and how many summers he had spent chasing his brother through the woods that hugged the mountain like a blanket. They had betrayed him in the end, the forest and his brother, but Yukhei thought that if the Wizengamot sent him back, then at least he would get to see his home one last time.
“Lucas...” Sicheng’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.
For a moment, Yukhei was scared that he might have missed something, but he quickly realised that Sicheng wasn’t talking to him. He was talking to the jurors, giving his final address. One last plea for Yukhei’s life.
“He deserves that we grant him his request. He is a boy. He is a boy as much as he is a beast and the penalty for his affliction is death where he comes from. We can prevent that. We can give him a chance. He deserves to live and go to school and find friends just like any other boy his age. With the help of his sponsor and Hogwarts’ agreement, this is possible. We have secured both, now it is up to you.”
Sicheng lightly inclined his head before he turned and took the seat on Yukhei’s other side.
The Chief Warlock rose, commanding attention with a wave of his hand. Silence befell the room at once. Yukhei could hear his heart hammering in his chest, felt Taeyong grab onto his knee. Yukhei was surprised by how warm the metal of the doctor’s bracelet was against his leg.
“All those in favour of approving the defendant’s application for asylum under the Decree for the Protection of Minority Species and Unharmful Beasts, please raise your hands.”
The first to raise his hand was the wizard that had come to fetch them. His expression was just as stoic as it had been before, but there was a spark in his eyes as he looked to where the wizard with the snake bracelet was sitting. Yukhei thought that the two wizards must have known each other, judging by the way they seemed to be able to communicate with their eyes alone.
Yukhei held his breath as more hands followed the first one, more votes in favour of his life. The grip Taeyong had on his leg became incredibly tight and Yukhei felt none of it as he tried to count, tried to make out whether he had the majority. There were so many hands in the air, so many that didn’t rise. Yukhei’s vision blurred, his lungs cramping with the lack of oxygen, but he couldn’t breathe, not until the gavel came down.
Yukhei forced air into his lungs as the Chief Warlock rose.
“Lucas Wong,” the Chief Warlock announced, “under the Decree for the Protection of Minority Species and Unharmful Beasts, the Wizengamot grants you asylum. You may report back to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures to receive your new wizard identification documents. I’m sure Mr Dong will have no trouble seeing to it that you fill out your forms in a timely manner.”
The gavel time came down a second time and Yukhei breathed out.
He felt a blinding smile overtake his face as arms wound around his neck. Taeyong pulled him against his chest while Sicheng covered his back, the two men holding him together as noises escaped from his throat that didn’t quite make sense in any language but carried all the he wanted to say.
He would live.
After months in isolation, in agony both because of his wounds and the uncertainty of his future, he finally knew that his journey had been worth it. He would live . He longed to tell his parents about this, but he had no way to contact them and even if he had had the means, Wong Yukhei was dead. He had to remain dead for as long as Lucas wanted to live.
Yukhei said his new name quietly to himself. Thinking about the doctor, and all the things he had done to save Yukhei’s life, it didn’t taste bitter on his tongue.
Taeyong and Sicheng let go of him to hug each other and Yukhei used that opportunity to turn around. He looked up the rows behind him, searching the spot where the black-clad wizard had been. He hadn’t said a single word during his hearing, yet Yukhei knew that his presence had been important.
Yukhei felt disappointment rise in his chest when he saw that his seat was empty, but then he spotted the wizard coming down the rest of the stairs, inclining his head at any of the Wizengamot members that passed him by.
Seeing him up close, Yukhei found that the other wizard was much younger than he had expected. He was maybe half a decade older than Yukhei, and yet he seemed to command the respect of his elders. At Weishen, only those with extraordinary magical abilities met their masters eye to eye and Yukhei couldn’t help but wonder what made this wizard extraordinary.
He shrunk back into his seat when the wizard reached the bottom of the steps and looked in his direction. With a rabbiting heart, he watched as the wizard approached him and then felt his eyes widen in surprise when the wizard passed him by without so much as a single glance. He went straight for the doctor instead.
Taeyong met him halfway, rising from his seat and Yukhei thought that he’d never seen the doctor smile quite as bright as he did when the wizard took his hand, pressing a kiss to Taeyong’s knuckles before he lowered his head to speak directly into his ear, “Are you happy?”
Yukhei felt his eyes go wide. He hadn’t known that the doctor had someone, but thinking of the bracelets the two wizards shared, Yukhei should have realised sooner. Tokens like that weren’t easily given.
He quickly averted his gaze to the ground. With Sicheng having gone to talk to some of the Wizengamot members, he felt like he was intruding on the moment. He fiddled with the hem of his sleeve. The fabric was nice, much nicer than his scratchy hospital robes, and Yukhei hoped that the doctor would let him keep it.
He looked up when Taeyong called his name. He was pulling the wizard over to Yukhei by their joint hands, an excited smile on his face. Yukhei made sure to stand up, but even if he was only a couple of centimetres smaller than the doctor’s wizard, he still felt small as amber eyes perused him.
“Lucas, I’d like to introduce you to someone,” Taeyong said. “This is my fiancé.”
Yukhei swallowed when the dark-clad wizard offered him his hand.
“Hello, Lucas.” The wizard’s voice was low and winding, like the snake both him and the doctor wore around their wrists. “You can call me Johnny.”
“I’m Lucas,” Yukhei said. Johnny obviously knew that already, but it was one of the few things he knew how to say. He wanted the other wizard to know that he had an interest in talking to him.
“It’s lovely to finally meet you,” Johnny reassured him, squeezing his hand before letting go. “Taeyong has told me so much about you.”
The doctor in question grabbed onto Johnny’s hand before it could disappear into the folds of his robes again and Johnny used it to pull Taeyong closer, placing a gentle kiss on his cheek. It made Taeyong wrinkle his nose at him, but there was fondness shining through his frown. His movements were gentle when he used his free hand to tug a strand of Johnny’s hair behind his ear in return.
Yukhei watched their interaction with longing. Before his accident, Yukhei had revelled in the attention of others, craved human contact where it was offered to him. Now it was difficult to find someone who was willing to do so much as look him in the eye.
It was a saddening thought, so he willed himself not to hold onto it.
“Let me get Jaehyun and then we can leave,” Johnny told Taeyong before turning to leave them.
Yukhei watched in fascination as the tall wizard weaved through the crowd of purple robes with ease. It seemed to be a practiced motion for him and Yukhei found himself envious. He didn’t mind being around masses of people, but if they didn’t make an effort to step out of his way, there was a great chance that he would step on somebody’s toes. Yukhei didn’t move like water. He didn’t wind with ease like a snake.
He looked down when he felt a hand on his arm.
“Ready to go?” Taeyong asked him.
Yukhei nodded. “I’m alive.”
It was another word he had learnt early on. From barely being alive to finally being allowed to remain so, he had fought a lot during the past months to say this. If anyone understood that, it was the doctor. Yukhei wished that he would’ve had words to tell him how grateful he was.
Taeyong seemed to understand nonetheless. He pulled Yukhei into a tight hug and even the disdainful looks he could feel burn into his back could not keep Yukhei from reciprocating the hug with all his might.
“Things are going to get better now,” Taeyong promised into his shoulder, the highest point he reached. “You’re going to have the best life we can give you.”
“Where…will I go?” It was not a question he had even been able to entertain until today. But with his asylum request granted, he had to think about where he would stay, now that he was allowed to.
Taeyong pulled away from their embrace. “Tonight we’re going back to the hospital. There’s still a mountain of paperwork waiting until I get to officially discharge you, but tomorrow—”
They both turned around at the sound of laughter. Yukhei saw Johnny coming towards them, his arm slung around the shoulders of the purple-robed wizard that had voted for Yukhei first. Deep dimples dug into the latter’s face as he tried to fend of the fingers Johnny was repeatedly poking into his side. It seemed to bring Johnny great joy breaking apart the stoic expression on the other wizard’s face. Sicheng was trailing behind them, watching their antics with an expression that lay somewhere between fond and long-suffering.
Yukhei suppressed the urge to laugh when he saw that it perfectly mirrored the expression on Taeyong’s face.
He smiled when he looked at Yukhei. “Today, I have to take you back to the hospital, but tomorrow I’m going to bring you to the best place in the world.”
*
The wizard with the feathers braided into his hair offered him a piece of crystallised pineapple.
Yukhei felt his cheeks bulge out from the amount of candies he had already shoved into his mouth, but he didn’t have the words to decline the wizard’s offer in a polite manner and so he was stuck pushing half of the sweet mass in his mouth to his other cheek before accepting the wizard’s offer with a sticky smile.
The wizard winked at him before tuning back into the conversation he was having with Taeyong. Headmaster Heechul was his name, Yukhei recalled from their earlier introduction. Without Sicheng’s translation spell, Yukhei had gotten lost as to what they were saying about five minutes into the conversation, but it wasn’t hard to guess. The weight of Taeyong’s hand on his shoulder was comforting as he watched himself being talked about.
Their voices were kind though, their gazes only ever worried for him when they looked at him. Yukhei knew that the doctor would only ever do what he thought was best for him, believed it with his entire being. If Taeyong hadn’t believed that his place was the right one for Yukhei to be, then they wouldn’t be here.
Here, Yukhei thought as he looked around the room, his eyes trailing over the abundance of heavy furniture around him, the shelves on the walls that held all kinds of trinkets and the moving paintings in between, here was where he would find his luck.
He wasn’t sure yet as to how, but he had faith. Faith in the doctor, and faith in himself, too. Once upon a time, he had been the first son of Weishen. He would never be that great again, but he could be good. He could live well. You’re going to have the best life we can give you, the doctor had said.
Yukhei believed him.
He rubbed his hand over the front of his new robes. They were plain black and one of several sets that the doctor had bought for him, along with a trunk, books Yukhei couldn’t read and a new wand. Yukhei smiled as he thought back to the quirky old men who had pressed the rowan wood into his hand, remembered the feeling of being chosen again, that irreproducible feeling of warmth and ownership as his fingers had closed around his wand.
Yukhei had liked the shopping alley the doctor had taken him to that morning. He had been able to see the sky as they walked from shop to shop. Inside this room that the green fire had spit them into, there were only ceilings of stone and stained glass windows that cast shadows in a multitude of colours, none of which came close to being as bright as daylight.
“Lucas.”
Yukhei jolted when he heard the doctor called his name, hastily pushed himself to his feet when he noticed that the other two wizards where standing. It caused him to bang his knee against the edge of the table, but he managed to swallow the pain as Taeyong motioned him to follow them.
He hobbled over as fast as he could and followed the other two wizards into a corner of the room. It was empty safe for a single, wooden high stool. Yukhei looked at the doctor for reassurance before he took a seat.
He wasn’t sure what to expect as the other two wizards perused him, maybe an examination, maybe a curse to alleviate the one already in his blood, but what he hadn’t expected was a stinky, old hat that was unceremoniously dropped onto his head. The large brim folded over his eyes, cast his world in darkness.
Yukhei was about to push the hat off his hat, willing to ask the doctor with the little words he had to ask what was going on, when a small voice piped up in his head.
Interesting, the voice said and it took Yukhei entirely too long to realise that it was the hat that was speaking. It’s been a long time since I’ve been worn by someone like you.
“Someone like me?” Yukhei frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean? Is it because I’m a foreigner? Or because I’m a lycanthrope?”
Neither of those, boy. No. The hat hummed. I see a lot of ambition in you, Wong Yukhei, courage too. You ran into that forest without second thought, didn’t you? Tell me, do you regret it?
Yukhei felt his breath catch in his throat.
“No." It was the truth.
Interesting, the hat said once again. You do not wish to turn back time?
“It wouldn’t change anything.” He withstood the urge to knock the hat off his head. “There is only the future I can look forward to.”
What if it had been your brother instead of you? Wouldn’t that be more just?
“No.” The thought alone was too terrible to stomach. It made him feel nauseous. “I’d rather it be me a hundred times over than him.”
Are you sure?
“It will never be fair,” Yukhei dug his nails into the flesh of his thighs, “but this is the fairest I can make it.”
I see. For some reason the hat sounded satisfied, as if Yukhei had told him what he had wanted to hear. Yukhei doubted that it was true, but he was glad when the sorting hat’s voice suddenly rang in his ears as well as in his mind and then the hat was lifted from his head.
He blinked against the sudden light to find Taeyong beaming at him while Headmaster Heechul had raised his wand to point it at Yukhei’s chest. Yukhei felt it when the spell hit his chest, but unlike he had expected, there was no pain that followed.
Confused, Yukhei looked down at himself to find that nothing had changed about him except for his robes. Where the inner linings had been plain black before, they were a rich yellow now and when he looked down at his chest, he found an embroidered crest above his heart. Yukhei was unfamiliar with the mammal it showed, but he thought that it looked cute. It reminded him of his brother, with its large, dark eyes and curiously tilted head.
When he looked back up, the headmaster had gone and Yukhei was alone with Taeyong. He was grateful when the doctor pulled him into a hug. Yukhei understood that this was goodbye.
He was even more grateful when the doctor’s words were easy enough for him to understand, “You’re going to do great here, Lucas. Hogwarts will become your home in no time.”
“Thank you,” Yukhei retched past the lump in his throat. There was so much more he wanted to say, but he didn’t have the words, so he just held onto Taeyong as long as he was allowed to.
He was still clinging to the doctor when the door of the room opened and Headmaster Heechul reentered. He was followed by a boy wearing the same yellow and black robes as Yukhei. The boy was listening diligently as Headmaster Heechul spoke, not paying attention to much else at the moment. Yukhei was grateful when it gave him a chance to stare.
The other boy seemed to be around the same age as Yukhei, his hair as silver as the mountains he came from. And then, when the boy throw his head back in laughter and his fine features scrunched up with the force of it, Yukhei thought that he was maybe the most beautiful boy he had ever seen.
He was still awestruck when the attention of the room turned towards him. The boy was looking at him now, his expression gentle as he nodded along with what Headmaster Heechul was saying.
The room fell silent.
Yukhei only realised belatedly that he was supposed to introduce himself.
“Lucas,” he was quick to amend his mistake. Hesitantly, he reached out his hand like Taeyong had taught him to do.
He was indescribably grateful when the other boy took his hand. It also told him that he didn’t know of Yukhei’s affliction. Yukhei was grateful for it. He couldn’t have borne it if the other boy had looked at him with disgust, recoiled from his touch.
"Lucas," the silver-haired boy repeated and for the first time Yukhei thought his new name sounded like hope.
Like maybe he could be more in this castle than the boy with the beast inside.
"It's lovely to meet you, Lucas. I'm Jungwoo.”
Jungwoo, Yukhei repeated in his head, over and over again until he was sure he wouldn’t forget. Jungwoo’s name was a gift and he would treasure it.
“Lucas here is our October transfer. He’s a Hufflepuff and a sixth-year, just like you, so I thought it would be sensible to have you show him the ropes.”
Jungwoo nodded at the headmaster’s words and Yukhei felt hope consume him when the other boy smiled at him. “You're transferring in a little late into the year, but that's okay. We'll make you feel right at home."