#mc mimi

“Are you really still playing with dolls?”  He sneered down at Tinsel.  The calico stuffed animal moved on its ownneeding no prompting from others or continuous incantations.  Tinsel was an enchanted stuff toy, and sadlythe reason she knew Jeong. 

“Tinsel is my familiar. You know that!”  It wasn’t thefirst time they’d had this argument over the years. 

“Yes, but I hear that Tinsel isn’t the only thing that hasbeen known to slither out of your trunk when you get into the girls dorm.”  The distance between them felt heavy, evenmore as he pressed towards her.  “I swearyou’re going to be the reason we lose the house cup one of these days.”   

“Jeong, that’s enough.” A nice voice called out from behind him. For the first time Mimi was able to look behind him and see someoneelse.  He looked about her age, but Mimifound it hard to look away from him.  Hisbrownish eyes that were almost red, and the silky white hair that was a littlebit past his shoulders, he looked strangely familiar. Though she was fairlysure they never had a class together.  “Youreally shouldn’t talk to girls like tha- what is what?”  He went from defending her to clearpanic.  The dirt he kicked up whilebacktracking was mildly impressive, but also made her worry for Tinsel.  She looked down ready to pick her up to keepher from getting filthy, as Tinsel was unable to clean herself like other cats,but found she was alone.   

“Tinsel?”  Lookingaround she could see Tinsel taking a few tentative steps towards the newkid.  Her ears faced forward as sheneared him, fully intrigued as Mimi had been. “Tinsel no!”  The guy lookedpanicked as he fell to the ground trying to cover his mouth and cower away fromher. 

“Tsk.”  Jeong lookedbetween the kid and Tinsel with disgust, “this is just a doll.”  He stomped down hard, forcing a muffed yowlfrom Tinsel, whose legs gave way leaving her sprawled on the ground under hisboot.  “You can’t have an allergic reactionto a doll!  It’s not a cat, and not afamiliar.”  He turned to sneer at Mimiwho had her phone up, taking pictures of him with a deepening scowl on herface.  “What are you doing?”

“Gathering evidence of your animal abuse.  Now get off of her before I send these tothat one adopted son of the Headmistress’s. You know how much he loves cats.”

“Fine!  Come on Hyun, westill have some errands to run.”  Hestarted to look a little flushed as he stepped off of Tinsel, letting herscurry back to Mimi who knelt down to pick her up.  

“Actually I think I’d like to talk to her for a bit.  If that’s-“

“Whatever.  I can movefaster without you anyway.  Meet me herein one hour, and try not to catch… whatever she is.”  Jeong stomped away, still a little flusteredfrom moments ago.  They watched himleave, both of them a little frozen.  

Hyun was the first to move, he reached a trembling hand outtowards Tinsel.  “Nice kitty.”  He murmured, jumping a little when shereached out and gave a fake sniff to his hand before letting him pet her.  “First time I’ve met a cat that I don’t haveto worry about… though to be honest looking at her still makes my eyes start towater.”

“Really? Sorry.  Comeon Tinsel, in you go.”  Mimi opened upher hoodie, momentarily flashing the hidden pocket where Tinsel could hide andcurl up.  Even on the hottest day insummer she still could find any over shirt that she could add an extra insidepocket to make transporting Tinsel a little easier.  

“Oh you didn’t have to, but… umm… would you like to go get adrink?  There’s a little place nearby.”  

Mimi nodded and let him show the way, though she had afeeling she knew where he was going.  Itwasn’t the first time she’d explored these passages.  In fact since learning she was a witch twosummers ago her Grandmother had been more insistent on her exploring more ofthe wizarding world herself.   So whenHyun led her to the Glam Dragon it wasn’t that much of a surprise.  It was a neat place run by some Witches whowere born from muggles who wanted to bring a little touch of the world theygrew up in to the Witches and Wizards who were, surprisingly, stuck behind thetimes.

“A ‘unicorn hot cocoa’ please! And for you?”  He was pulling out his bag looking at hercuriously.

“You don’t have to pay for me.”

“No worries, you can get it next time.”  Her chest ached at the stupidly charmingsmile he gave her.  

“Okay, a ‘firebolt’?” They were muggle drinks with Wizarding world names put to them, but thewhite chocolate with silvery edible glitter with a dash of blueberry known as ‘unicornhot cocoa’ did seem to earn some double takes from the adults in the wizardingworld.  It was one of her favorite placesto visit when she had the opportunity.

“So ever been to a place like this?”  Hyun Ryu leaned on his palm watching hercarefully.  

“A café?  Yep.  My mom loves going to places like this, backin the muggle world.”

“Oh you’re… born from muggles?”

“Nope.”  If he wantedto know, he would have to ask.  It wasn’tsomething she brought up simply because of her Grandmother.  She hadn’t known her Grandmother was aliveuntil the day her letter for Hogwarts arrived, and there were some family issuesthat she learned about in a very short amount of time.  It had been tough accepting the past two yearsand was still hard to talk about.  Hyunscrunched his face in thought for a while before they called his name to pickup his drink.  

While he was walking back, her name was called.  Even as they passed each other he stilllooked lost in thought.  Mimi returnedshortly after, but the concern that he was showing was already gone.  “So how do you know my brother?”  Hyun asked innocently enough, but stillcaused Mimi to choke on her drink while she tried to keep from laughing.

“You sure you want to know?” He gave her a nod, giving her permission to start into her story.

“What.  Is. That?”  The words were hissed ather shortly after the door to the compartment that she was sitting in was flownopen.  

“That’s Tinsel?”   

“Why is it runningaround?  You should have it with yourtrunk so it could be brought up to your dorm with the rest of your toys. 

“Tinsel isn’t a toy,Tinsel is my familiar!  The letter saidcats were allowed.”  She held out theletter as if it would protect her, but instead he just scoffed at her.   

“Are you seriouslycarrying that around with you?  What, doyou really think you need to prove that you belong here?  Are you from a muggle family or something?”   

“And if I was?”  She wasn’t but the way he spat it out madeher shake with anger.  He was a biggerkid, but she had her ways of dealing with him. He wore the colors of one of the houses, but she couldn’t recallwhich.  Despite Grandma Yvonne trying herhardest to teach her over the summer a crash course in the Wizarding world andHogwarts, she just couldn’t retain all the information.  She didn’t even know it existed beforereceiving her letter.   

“If you were, I hopeyou don’t end up in my house.”  He sneered,triggering her standard response.  Itwasn’t one she was proud of, but she couldn’t help as the tears welled up andstarted to flow.  Startling him, but frustratingMimi even more. 

“That’s not,” shechoked on a sob as she tried to sound angry, “a nice thing to say.” 

“Jeez, what a crybaby, sorry okay?  Just keep that thingaway from me.”  He rolled his eyes ather. 

“Tinsel.”   

“What?”  He gawked at her. 

“Her name’s Tinsel.” 

“Fine whatever!”  He slammed the door as he exited.  

“I’m sorry my brother can be a bit of a jerk. “  Hyun finished his drink, giving her a pityinglook, “but that does explain why came back fuming to our compartment.  Muttering about tinsel… I was so nervousbecause it was my first year and my family was all rooting for me to get intothe same house as the rest of them!  Backthen I thought my brother had been anxious too, and was muttering about goingback home for Yule break.  But what is with that crying thing?”  He tried to hid his smile as he asked her.

“I wish I could tell you, just sometimes when someone’s up set with me it’s like I can’t help it… I hate it when it happen though.”  Mimi pouted a little, trying to change the topic she fidgeted with her drink,  “How did your sorting go? Mine was pretty… stressful.” 

“Mine too.”  Hyunlooked down into his cup. 

“You know… I think I remember you!  You were the one people were whispering aweird word about… ‘Malfoy’?” 

“Wrong family, but I could understand the confusion.”

The sorting hat was positionedon the stool so everyone could hear it’s song as it explained out the fourdifferent houses.  They all soundedvaguely familiar from the lessons her Grandmother gave, but still it felt likeit went in one ear and out the other. Despite her Grandmother trying various different ways to try and teach her.  

“Hyun Ryu.”  The name was called and a strange boy withshort white hair and panicked large red eyes approached.  For a moment she wondered if vampires wereallowed into the school, trying to listen to the tables nearby whispering theirquestions about his family and his name. 

The hat was on hishead for a while, meantime Hyun Ryu looked more panicked the longer he sat there.  Finally his face dropped in defeat as the hatcalled out “Gryffindor!”  His brotherJeong stood up and watched as the table of red and gold erupted and stood towelcome him.   

There had been a fewmore names before Mimi was called up.  Nomatter what she tried she couldn’t stop from trembling.  Headmistress McGonagall watched over theproceedings, giving a calm look to all students, no matter what house wascalled. Mimi tried to focus on that and remember to relax when she hearsomething.   ‘But why?’  There was a tiny whisper in her head.  She tried to think of all her best memories,where she was proud, bringing up her family and how proud her Grandmother hadbeen in the blue and silver as she tried to explain the houses.  ‘You’ll do fine no matter the house, don’tworry so much.  But there is one whereyou’re truly meant to be.‘  “Slytherin!”  The table with green and silver clapped andstood to welcome her.   Jeong clapped aswell as she moved to join the same table as him, but the frown he gave her wasmore genuine.

“Okay so you’re Slytherin like my brother.”  Hyun nodded, “I guessed as much.  How did your family take it?”

“Mom was excited and ordered me a bunch of green stuff tohave in my room or things with snakes on them. She was overcome with house pride. Dad was… pretty confused.  Grandmajust sighed but she kind of moved on. What about you?  Didn’t you justsay your entire family is one house? Slytherin like your brother?  How’dthey handle your house announcement?“   

Hyun shrugged, “nothing can be done when a house inannounced.”  He gave her a painedsmile.   

“Hyun…”  Mimi startedin on her concern when his name was also called by a voice behind her. 

Jeong called from the doorway, “I’m done sooner than Iexpected.  Let’s get going.”   

“Okay!” He nodded before reaching out and grabbing Mimi’shand.  “Do you think it would be okay ifwe exchanged owls and get to know each other before school starts up?” 

“What about emails?”