Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“I’m telling you, I’m not fucking doing it on purpose, back off!”

“How do you fuck up measuring that badly, you literally just pour it into the bloody cup and put it in, it’s not that hard!”

Yoongi could hear his voice raising in volume along with a tingling sensation along his scalp that signalled his hair was changing color again. He leaned back in his seat when his partner got into his space and had grabbed the edge of the table to keep the Gryffindor he was paired with from crowding him.

“Hey! Separate, both of you. What’s the problem over here?”

The professor grabbed Josiah Blackwater by the back of his collar and physically pulled him back to keep him from knocking Yoongi off of the chair.

“He keeps screwing up the potion, I can’t work when I have to babysit him constantly to make sure he’s not gonna blow us up!”

“Can you two just– you know what. Yoongi, go switch with Taehyung. You and Jimin are partners for the rest of the year.”

The silence that fell over the classroom could best be described as stunned. All motion in the room stopped as Yoongi felt the tips of his ears heat up and there was that tingle in his scalp again.

He could see the tips of his hair bleeding from dark red to pink as he looked down. The whole class was holding their breath in anticipation, even his seat mate was silent, wide-eyed in surprise.

“Mr. Min?” the teacher prompted, gentler this time.

Yoongi felt his shoulders tense and he took a deep breath before snatching all of his things off the desk, hands shaking and trying desperately to conceal his embarrassment. He stood and hauled his book bag over his shoulder and walked with his head down towards Jimin’s desk. Taehyung walked past him and Yoongi didn’t have to look up to see that lost little guilty look Taehyung would have on.

He felt him brush past and whisper, “Hyung, I’m sorry.”

Yoongi just shook his head and continued to his new seat, next to Park fucking Jimin. Of all the people the professor had to pick, of course it would be Park Jimin.

He set his things down quietly and started digging through his bag so he wouldn’t have to look back at all the people staring at him. When the silence lifted and he was certain no one was looking at him, he deemed it safe to lift his head out of his bag.

He set his potions book onto the lab table and when he felt brave enough to peek over at his new lab partner, he found him staring unabashedly at him, with a tilt of his head that reminded him vaguely of Taehyung. He didn’t look angry as far as he could tell, just… curious?

Yoongi lowered his gaze down to the table quickly and asked to break up the silence between them, “What step of the potion are you on?”

Jimin spoke softly and leaned into Yoongi’s space to point out on his open book the step they were on, “We were almost finished, now we just need to add the last three ingredients.”

Yoongi held his breath and almost jerked back in surprise as Jimin passed into his personal sphere. He reached back onto his side of the table where there were a couple gnarled aconite roots, bloodroot petals, and salamander blood.

“Do you mind measuring out the salamander blood?”

The second the words came out of his mouth, Jimin realized what he’d said. Yoongi had just gotten yelled at by his last partner for measurements.

“Um, here, why don’t you chop up the roots? I can take the blood.”

Yoongi just stared at him for a couple seconds in sheer surprise because his partner hadn’t even let him touch a knife since first semester.

Jimin looked away from his stare fairly quickly as he went back to something on his side of the table. Yoongi couldn’t even stop and apologize for his rude ass not answering because Park fucking Jimin was leaning into his space again and Yoongi could count each individual eyelash and the hint of eyeshadow around the corners of his eyes.

Jimin passed him the cutting board with the roots on it and handed the knife over to him. Gingerly, Yoongi picked up the knife and looked down at the root like it was foreign. He hadn’t cut anything in general in at least four months, and he hadn’t even touched this root since last year.

Yoongi took the knife and began taking hunks out of the root indiscriminately, trying not to fuck it up too badly.

Jimin couldn’t help but sneak a glance over at Yoongi every once in a while and catch snippets as he shoved and pushed down on the knife to force it through the root.

“I, here, let me just…”

Yoongi couldn’t help the way he started when Jimin laid his hands over his own and readjusted the knife in his grip.

“The recipe calls for thinner slices, and it’s easier to cut it like this anyway. Just put the tip of the knife against the board and bring it up and down. Make sure you keep your fingers away from the blade too.”

Yoongi wanted to scream because he had just got his hair to settle back down into its natural state of black. Now his face was growing hot with his hair and he had to hold back a full body shiver as Jimin’s shoulder pressed up against him. Then just as quickly as it happened Jimin was on his side of the table again pouring the salamander blood back into a measuring container. Yoongi swallowed heavily and went back to chopping up the roots, steadily ignoring the shaking in his hand and the way his skin was still tingling where Jimin had guided his hands over his own.

Yoongi turned to Jimin to ask what to do once he was done with the roots, but promptly realized two things. One, Jimin was a lot closer to him than he remembered, and two, he was in the middle of pouring the blood into the potion, something that required a very steady hand. And Yoongi had just startled and bumped into him.

Jimin made a pained noise as the measuring cup spilled over its contents all into the potion and he let go of the cup. The sound of the glass cup hitting the bottom of the cauldron made an ominously loud noise in the lab, and Jimin immediately pulled his hands back as the cauldron began to spew a thick weighted black smoke that rolled over the top of their lab table onto the floor.

On instinct Yoongi braced himself for the explosion that would inevitably occur before the professors booming voice came up behind him. When Yoongi could afford to open his eyes, there was a thick glowing bubble that contained the rolling black smoke inside of it. He could see small licks of orange whipping out of rim of the cauldron only to hit the barrier and melt back into the smoke.

“Everyone out into the hallway, I need to ventilate the classroom!”

The smoke was heavy in Yoongi’s mouth as he brought his sleeve up to cover his mouth. He stumbled off of his stool and grabbed his bag hastily from the desk as he made his way to the double doors.

The students pushed in front of him and his foot caught on one of the cobblestones, sending him tripping into the person in front of him. An arm grabbed him around the middle and hauled him up. It stayed around his waist as it guided him out into the hallway.

As soon as he hit clean air he wheezed and bent over onto his knees. He looked up long enough to see Jimin stumble away from him and cough violently into his elbow.

“Merlin, Jimin are you alright?”

He saw one of the Gryffindors walk up to him and smack him on the back a couple times.

“Fucking hell man, you didn’t even last a class with him.”

Right. Yoongi dug his fingers into his thighs and dropped his head into his chest. Of course. Jimin was the top of the class and has been since 1st year. It was one of his strongest classes and every double block he could hear the Professor singing praises about his work. Some of them had even been sent up to the hospital wing to be used on patients.

And then there was Yoongi. He was perpetually tired, tripped every other step, and contended with Namjoon for the title of God of Destruction. He’d heard the talk about how bad he was at potions, he was notorious for his record of blowing up as many potions as he did. At the beginning of the year he’d hear whispers in the hall from his year mates about who was the poor unfortunate fool that would be his partner this year. Now he was partners with the golden student.

Yoongi stumbled away from the wall shoved through the cluster of people, knocking shoulders with Jimin in the process. The boy looked up alarmed and watched as the metamorphmagus peeled himself away from the class into the hall.

Jimin watched as he disappeared around the corner and he didn’t even think before he started running after him. Before the potion Yoongi’s hair had been in a transient state between the neutral black and that dark pink color Jimin had over the years concluded to mean either flustered or embarrassed. As he slipped around the corner, Jimin was almost positive his hair had been a dulled white. Out of all the colors he’d seen Yoongi turn, he’d never seen white before, so he really wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“Yoongi!”

The metamorphmagus ignored the voice, and walked faster, skin buzzing and head spinning. Whether that was from the smoke or the bubbling upset was questionable. Yoongi found himself walking, then sprinting, then running through the empty halls, breath running hazy in his chest. There were sections of this castle that went untouched, lecture rooms that hadn’t been used in years, corridors that were seldom used except for late night steal aways by couples. Corridors that hadn’t been used since the Battle of Hogwarts.

Yoongi found himself in one of those places, empty portraits, dusty floors with bits of stone lining the walls, and even the light that came in from the looming glass windows was dull and diffused with columns of towering dust spirals. With his luck Yoongi’s foot skid against the fine scatter of stone debris and he was just as suddenly lying horizontal with a stinging pain in his thigh, a much more sharp pain in his hand where he had braced his fall, and a ringing in his ear where from where his head had bounced off of the ground.

He blinked and watched as all the dust that flew up around him began to settle, along with all the papers that flew out of his book bag when he fell. He let his head lay back down onto the floor and he sucked in a big breath and swallowed down the urge to cry.

There was the sharp click of shoes down the hallway behind him and he wanted to scream.

“Yoongi? Yoongi– oh my god!”

Just like that Park Jimin was in his space again, a hand on his shoulder and the other fluttering nervously over his body. He lifted his head and looked at Jimin and the way he was standing wide eyed over him. Jimin’s breath caught as Yoongi stared up at him, eyes unreadably dark. Now that Jimin was closer, he could see that Yoongi’s hair wasn’t exactly white, just translucent. All the pigment had left the individual strands clear that took on the soft gray of the hall.

“I-I– Here.”

He offered his hand and belatedly Yoongi noticed that the apples of Jimin’s cheeks were turning pink. Yoongi watched him, almost dazed, as he pulled him up into a sitting position.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

Jimin picked up his other hand and he winced when the joint twinged with pain, “You’re bleeding…”

“I– Jimin it’s fine.”

Jimin sent him a stern look, and Yoongi was immediately cowed, Jimin usually looked so nice, it was out of sheer surprise that he shut up. He watched as Jimin turned his hand over and examined the raw scrape and the the dirt around it that turned his entire palm into this off-gray color. The blood looked supersaturated and unnaturally red against the dirt, which concerned Jimin.

“Here, come with me to the bathroom, we need to wash this out.”

He didn’t even give Yoongi time to protest as he stood up and gathered all the spilled papers and Yoongi’s book bag before putting it on his own shoulder. Jimin grabbed Yoongi’s good hand with his own without thinking as he lead him back into the more populated area of the castle. Yoongi held his breath as he trailed behind Jimin, eyes fixed on the back of his head and just the tiniest bit dazed as he looked down to their linked hands.

Jimin ushered him into the washroom, which was thankfully empty, and led him to the sinks. Jimin pulled on a leather cord looped around his neck took it off to reveal a moleskine pouch. He stuck his hand in much further than Yoongi would have expected from a pouch about the size of a note card.

He pulled out some gauze and continued digging through it before looking up briefly at Yoongi and motioning to the sink, “Can you rinse your hand off for me?”

Yoongi nodded and winced as he ran the tap water over the wound. Yoongi scrunched his nose up and picked at some of the loose skin that was hanging off the scrape.

“Don’t do that.”

Yoongi jumped again and he really needed to pay more attention to his surroundings. Jimin took his hand out from under the wound and examined it with Yoongi’s wrist balanced carefully on his fingertips. Once he’d deemed it sufficiently clean, he took one of the gauze pads he’d taken out and dabbed gently at the wound.

Yoongi couldn’t help but be extremely conscious of how close Jimin was standing to him and he held his breath. As he studied Jimin he pressed down a bit on the gauze to stem some of the blood and Yoongi sucked in a sharp gasp of surprise.

Jimin looked up and they held eye contact for a few seconds before he swallowed and looked back down at Yoongi’s hand, “I-um… I’m gonna put a salve onto it.”

He took a tin out of the little pouch and Yoongi had to stop himself from smiling when he spotted the peeling vinyl stickers on the top of the lid. He popped open the container and the insides were oily and green, reminiscent of plant matter.

Yoongi watched entranced as Jimin cradled his palm and began gently daubing smears of the salve over the exposed skin. Even with how careful Jimin was being with him it still stung like a motherfucker. Instantaneously, and a bit creepily, the skin began to knit back together.

“How come you didn’t just use a spell?”

Jimin looked up from where he was daubing at the mostly healed skin and said, “My mom, she’s a uh… potion mistress. Really old traditionalist. Like we live out in the middle of nowhere, farm fields full of potion ingredients, the whole jig.”

Yoongi stared at Jimin as he talked quietly, “ I remember when I was younger she used to have me and my brother go out and harvest with her. Then she would take us back and teach us how to make all these salves, potions and stuff, there were at least 5 cauldrons sitting active around the house somewhere at all times. But anyway, we rarely ever use wand magic in my house ‘cause my mom says it makes the air taste funny. Anyway, she made me make all these different types of potions, healing, cleaning, poisons, you name it I probably have at least heard of it.”

Jimin pursed his lips and brought Yoongi’s hand closer to his face to examine the flesh as it began to knit together, “I know the spells now, but I’ve always kinda prefered potions. It’s sorta my failsafe. I think they work better than spells anyway.”

Yoongi watched as it healed over completely and he was impressed, he’d never seen a salve do that.

“Where did you get this?  Merlin knows I need it with how often I get hurt.”

Jimin blushed, “I… um, it’s kinda a homebrew. My mom taught me the recipe. If you want I can make you a batch, or better yet I can teach you how to make it!”

Yoongi shook his head immediately and protested, “Nope, not a good idea, definitely not. You saw what happened just now, I touch a potion and it self destructs.”

Jimin looked like he wanted to laugh, but was probably too polite to do it in Yoongi’s face, “How about we do some lessons out of class, you know since I’m your partner now I need to know what you can do anyway.”

Don’t do it Yoongi, you’re going to fuck up so much shit.

“S-Sure.”

Park Jimin was the devil with that pretty smile, otherwise Yoongi would never have agreed to it so easily.

--

“Hyung how the fuck did you manage to skin your leg through your pants?”

“Do I look like I know? I knew I’d hurt it somehow, but I didn’t see blood so I wasn’t worried.”

Yoongi smacked the top of Hoseok’s head when he went to prod at the raw skin again and drew his leg back, “Look if you’re not gonna help me fix it, quit touching it!”

Hoseok laughed and grabbed him by the ankle to bring him closer, “Stop moving or I’m gonna fuck up.”

Yoongi grumbled and forced his leg still as Hoseok tapped his wand against his bare thigh and the nasty looking scrape disappeared. He almost wanted to roll his eyes when he frowned and patted at the spot where it used to be.

“Hoseok…”

He looked up from where he was kneeling on the floor and stared at him with raised brows, “What?”

Yoongi put his head in his hands, “I’m screwed, I’m so fucking screwed.”

Hoseok looked alarmed, “What? Why?”

Before Yoongi could answer someone coughed, startling Hoseok badly enough that he let out a screech.

“You know if I didn’t know Yoongi was head over heels for Jimin I would say it looks like something weird was going on.”

Hoseok looked up from where he was kneeling between Yoongi’s knees and stuck his tongue out at Taehyung who was standing in the doorway. Instinctively, Yoongi pulled his legs up onto the bed with him and in the process nearly kicked Hoseok in the face.

“Hey, watch it!”

Taehyung laughed and Hoseok immediately took Yoongi’s discarded trousers before launching them hard in his direction. Yoongi laughed when they caught him in the face, but quickly regretted it when Taehyung tossed them back at Hoseok and ran at him.

Which then, of course, led to Hoseok letting out this ungodly shriek as he crawled up onto the bed over Yoongi and grabbing him like a human shield.

“Nooo, I’m too young to die!”

Hoseok pulled Yoongi in front of him as Taehyung hit the bed and tried to get at his boyfriend.

“Ow fuck– get off me you overgrown puppy, you’re heavy.”

Taehyung laughed and rolled onto the bed next to them, “Soooo… What’s up with Jimothy?”

Hoseok raised a brow and looked at Yoongi, “What indeed is up with Jimin?”

“Wait, he didn’t tell you? Jiminie is his new potions partner!”

Hoseok sat up quickly and almost knocked Yoongi in the face as he did, “What, how?”

Taehyung ignored his hyung’s protest as Hoseok leaned forward over his torso and demanded the explanation, “Hyung’s asshole partner got his panties in a bunch and started a fight so the Professor made me and Hyung switch with each other. Then their potion blew up so we had to evacuate.”

Hoseok laughed as he laid back down and made himself comfortable on his side, “Again?”

“Hey!”

“Yeah, again, this time I think it caught fire, but we evacuated and then Hyung ran off and then Jiminie went after him like his knight in shining armor!”

“You’re over exaggerating…”

Hoseok snorted, “Well you’re not exactly offering up details yourself Yoongi.”

“He was talking over me I didn’t exactly get a chance to! I was about to tell you before he came in anyway.”

“Yeah, before I walked in on you and my boyfriend–”

“Taehyung, I will dunk you in the Black Lake and leave you for the Giant Squid.”

Taehyung grinned, “I call it like I see it hyung, it was like a scene from one of those cheesy romance novels under Jin-hyung’s bed he pretends we don’t know about.”

“You know he’s gonna kill you if he knows you know about that right?”

Taehyung waved it off, “I’m already on his shit list right now, might as well get it out in the open while he has it out for me for taking stealing the last of those candy bars from his stash.”

“Holy shit that was you? I thought Jin-hyung was gonna burst an artery!”

“I did too–”

Yoongi grabbed a pillow and began screaming into it, “It’s like listening to fucking chihuahua’s yap at each other, why do I hang out with you two?”

Hoseok and Taehyung looked at him and immediately began laughing, furthering Yoongi’s exasperation.

Hoseok rolled half on top of Yoongi and pinned him down as he tried to squirm away, “Love you too Hyung!”

Taehyung pouted, “I thought you loved me?”

Hoseok snickered, “Of course I do you big baby.”

Taehyung sniffed and turned his nose up at Hoseok, “I don’t believe you, prove it!”

“Oh fucking hell– get off me you two are disgusting! You are literally on top of me”

Hoseok cackled and let Yoongi push him bodily away while he shoved more forcefully at Taehyung, who nearly fell off of the bed with a shriek.

“Now seriously, spill the beans, what’s up with Jimin?”

Yoongi sighed and pulled the pillow back on top of his face, “Nothing.”

Taehyung immediately raised an arm from where he was laid out and pointed at Yoongi without looking, “Bullshit!”

Yoongi flipped him off and scowled, “Fuck off.”

Taehyung laughed, “It’s true, you guys ran off and didn’t come back, something must have happened.”

Yoongi threw the pillow at Taehyung before staring up at the beds canopy and sighing, “I ran off because I was pissed, Jimin followed, I tripped, fucked my hand up, and Jimin fixed it for me. End of story.”

Hoseok sat up and placed a hand over his chest like he was offended, “He fixed it for you? That’s my job! Local healer, hello!”

“Babe, just because you’re taking lessons under Madame Pompfrey doesn’t mean you’re a healer yet.”

Hoseok leaned over Yoongi to swat at Taehyung, “Oh fuck off. Anyway, are you sure that’s all that happened?”

Yoongi was uncomfortable with how Hoseok was squinting at him, it reminded him far too much of his mother when she knew he was hiding something, “I mean… He kinda offered me potion lessons?”

Taehyung sat up with a grin and wiggled his brows at Yoongi, “Potion lessons, huh?”

Yoongi glared at Taehyung, “Not like that, gutter brain.”

Hoseok rolled his eyes and pressed Yoongi for more details, “Potion lessons?”

Yoongi pouted and looked away from the both of him, “He kinda wants me to stay after with him for some classes so he can catch me up…”

Taehyung cheered and cackled, “Yoongi’s gonna get dicked down!”

Yoongi didn’t even have to move this time, Hoseok took the pleasure of launching a pillow for him, “Kim Taehyung!”

--

Fuck, fuck, fuck, he was late.

At this point he didn’t even care if he slipped again he just need to get to that fucking classroom on time. For the love of all that was good in the world, of all the days he could choose, this would be the one he would forget to set an alarm before he took a nap.

Turn, turn, turn, turn, fuck, was that a first year?

Wait, shit that was the lab? Go back, go back.

He knocked the door open and looked around the empty lab, chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath, why did he run again?

“Yoongi?”

“Shit!”

The metamorphmagus jumped and whipped around to where Jimin was standing by the ingredient shelf staring inquisitively at him.

“I, fuck, hi– sorry I’m late, I overslept, I just– I just ran here.”

Jimin smiled kindly and plucked a bottle off of the shelf, “It’s fine, I just got here, why don’t you help me set up?”

Yoongi nodded and went to their table and began setting up his kit. Just as he was hauling the cauldron into place above the fire stove he heard Jimin walk up behind him.

“Here we go.”

Yoongi had to hide the jump as Jimin carefully set all the bottles and jars down before sitting down himself.

“Okay! So…”

Jimin began explaining the potion and Yoongi would admit it was probably his fault he’d zoned out halfway through and ended up staring at the way Jimin’s lips formed around the words and ingredient names. So it was absolutely his fault when Jimin noticed his absent look and stopped talking to stare back at him.

“Peach…”

Yoongi nearly shot out of his seat when Jimin reached up and brushed his fingertips across his forehead, startling him into dropping the knife he had just picked up. He could feel his heart physically stop for a second when the knife rolled towards the edge of their table and scrambled to grab at the handle before the it dropped.

Yoongi took a second to steady his racing heart before looking back up at Jimin. His hand was still stretched out in front of him and his eyes were wide with surprise.

Fuck. Okay, time to salvage the situation, say something.

“... What?”

Smooth.

Jimin snapped out of whatever trance he was and lowered his hand. He tilted his head and his eyes flickered back up to the top of Yoongi’s head.

“Your hair, it was peach.”

Yoongi could feel the tips of his ears warm and he ran his hand through his hair purely out of habit. Fuck was his hair peach? He hated this shit, he could never hide anything, he really needed to be more careful about what he was thinking.

Jimin leaned in closer and observed the almost translucent quality his hair had in some places. Steadily it was losing the pale peachy tone it’d had previously and was now turning a darker pink, almost the exact shade of his ears. He’d seen it turn this color several times over the years, most recently being the day they became lab partners.

Since 2nd year he’d been keeping a sort of mental list of all the colors he’s seen Yoongi’s hair turn and what they probably meant. He’d seen all sorts of colors, but he had to admit the neutral state was probably his favorite.

“I– um, yeah– sorry what’s the next step in the potion again?”

Jimin smiled as he stumbled over his words, but let him change the subject by pointing silently at the step on the page. He watched as Yoongi coughed awkwardly and went back to work, with interestingly enough a tremor in his hands.

From then on Jimin tried to keep it professional, he really did need Yoongi to understand this after all. He could tease him later.

Carefully he kept an eye as he watched Yoongi complete the last step, and held back the cheer as he made the last stir to the potion. It was a shade off, but close enough.

He waited til Yoongi had set the spoon down and turned off the burner before exclaiming, “See! You did it, I think you just need to be more confident in yourself.”

Yoongi looked down and shrugged before saying, “Thank you again for helping me. This is honestly one of the first times in a while I feel like I actually understood what I was doing.”

Jimin smiled with teeth and nudged Yoongi with his elbow, “I don’t mind it Yoongi, it was nice working with you. I don’t think you’re bad, I think it’s more you just need a bit more practice.”

The metamorphmagus went wide eyed and it took him a second to get out what he was trying to say before stumbling over his words.

“I-I gotta go, thank you.”

Yoongi shoved his things into his bag and basically booked it out of the classroom as quickly as he could, ears flaming red. Behind him, Jimin watched curiously as his hair turned that shade of dark pink again and smiled. He shook his head as he cleaned up their station, he would tell him when they needed to meet again later.

--

“Josiah, just give me my fucking books back.”

The Gryffindor laughed as he held it above his head and wiggled it just out of reach.

“Hey! Leave him alone!”

Yoongi whipped around and wanted to slam his head against the wall, what was it with Park Jimin popping up everywhere?

Jimin rounded the corner in all 5’5 inches of righteous fury.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me, leave him alone!”

Jimin crowded Josiah Blackwater and poked one of his fingers into the taller boy’s chest. For how short he was Jimin sure knew how to carry his height.

“Relax Park, we were just talking.”

Jimin seemed to rankle at the words and it was like watching a cat puff up, “Talking my ass, you know damn well what you were doing!”

The Gryffindor took a step back in shock as the 5th year talked down to him, “Back off mate, it’s none of your business.”

Huh, Jimin’s teeth were crooked, one of them stuck out a little past his lips when he opened his mouth.

“It’s my business if I make it my business you rusty cauldron bottom!”

Yoongi watched entranced as Jimin’s expression drew up into a scowl. His shoulders pulled back and his chest puffed out. He couldn’t help but wonder if Jimin was doing it intentionally or if it was a subconscious thing.

“Oh fuck off!”

Jimin recoiled like he’d been slapped before narrowing his eyes and hissing out, “Excuse me?”

Hot.

“Listen numbskull, you have two options, quit bothering Yoongi and leave, or I’ll stick you in detention for two weeks!”

It was all of a sudden the Gryffindor remembered the shiny enamel badge on the front of Jimin’s robes. Jimin held eye contact steady with Josiah until he ducked his head away in discomfort. He tossed the book down onto the ground finally.

Josiah rolled his eyes and backed away, almost sulkily. Jimin had relaxed a bit as he watched the boy skulk

away, and almost walked away himself. Almost.

“Fucking blood traitors.”

Yoongi stared wide eyed as this cold sort of fury settled over Jimin and he whipped back around and stared at the Gryffindor with narrowed eyes.

Jimin glanced to the side and mouthed, “Watch this.”

He watched wide eyed as Jimin’s wand slid out of his sleeve and he flicked it discretely in Blackwater’s direction. The spell went careening into his back and sent the Gryffindor tripping headfirst into the cobblestone. Antlers began to sprout out of the crown of his head and his head slammed back down onto the ground as he over balanced. Jimin clapped a hand over his mouth to cover the snort that escaped and turned to look at Yoongi.

“YOU TWO ARE FUCKING DEAD!”

Holy shit for a Slytherin that sure was a Gryffindor move.

Yoongi jumped at the volume of the yell and Jimin cursed quietly next to him. He couldn’t miss the giggle he tacked on at the end before he began slowly backing away.

“Shit, follow me.”

Jimin grabbed him by the hand and they ran. They ran and god Jimin’s hand was so warm in his, his laugh in his ear and the adrenaline coursing through his veins was exciting. Absently he could see that his hair was turning mint green, almost blue as it fell into his face when he looked down.

He sped around the corner with Yoongi tagged on behind him as they weaved between students in the main hall and the giant house point hourglasses that he knew in a couple hours were going to be lacking some green. The smile on his face only grew wider as Jimin dodged and giggled through the bodies. Yoongi wasn’t even sure where Jimin was leading him but if he was honest with himself he really didn’t care.

As they cut through the courtyard he saw Hoseok, Taehyung, Namjoon, Jungkook, and Jin staring open mouthed at Jimin and him as they sprinted through the courtyard. Yoongi stared back at them and he couldn’t control how hard he was smiling as Jimin lead him through.

“Get back here, you two are fucking dead!”

Jimin giggled and tugged him harder by the hand, “Come on, this way!”

Park Jimin was a fucking enigma.

--

“I don’t want you two back until that bucket is full of pondweed, do you hear me?”

“Yes Professor.”

Yoongi was tempted to laugh at how synchronously monotone they sounded together, but he figured that it might be a little inappropriate considering their circumstances. Beside him Jimin seemed suitably regretful as he stared back at their teacher.

The professor gave them both a stern look before turning back and walking up to the castle. They watched him stalk back up without saying a word before Jimin sagged in relief and let out a sigh.

“You know I was expecting much worse.”

Yoongi sent him a questioning glance and Jimin elaborated, “I mean I really didn’t know what to expect, I’ve never been in detention before.”

Jimin said it with such nonchalance as he undid the top button of his shirt and rolled his sleeves up into far neater cuffs than Yoongi would ever manage.

Yoongi looked doubtfully at him and bent down to remove his shoes and socks, “You’ve never had detention before?”

Jimin shook his head and shrugged as he picked up the bucket and began wading into the shallows, “I’ve never really been in trouble before.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get you involved.”

Jimin squatted down and started digging into the silt before looking coyly over his shoulder, “I never said I regretted it.”

Yoongi watched stunned as Jimin turned his head to conceal his grin and he realized he was just a bit infatuated with this boy. The sun was spilling orange over the waters of the Black Lake and it caught and reflected onto Jimin in fractals like veins of gold.

Carefully Yoongi waded into the shallows behind Jimin before squatting down next to him and digging through the waters.

“You’re a prefect.”

Jimin looked over and gave him an amused glance, “Yes?”

“I mean… since you’re in trouble, won’t this affect that?”

Jimin shook his head and smiled, “Nah, it’s my first time getting in trouble and when I explained what happened to the Head of House they let me off easy, he said if it happened again he’d have to take it though.”

“Fuck, Jimin I’m–”

“Stop.”

“Jimin–”

“Yoongi it’s fine, I don’t care.”

“But–”

Jimin yanked some pondweed out of the shore and slapped it in the bucket before turning around suddenly. He leaned in and Yoongi couldn’t cover the startled yelp when he tipped backward out of his squat directly into the water. Jimin was hovering over him with his arms braced close over his shoulders. Oh fuck he could feel his face heating up from how close Jimin was and he was sure his hair was doing the same.

“Let me make something clear, you didn’t drag me into anything, I did it because I wanted to. Do you think anyone can make me do something I don’t want to do? Because if you do I need you to seriously reevaluate what you think of me. If I didn’t want you as my potions partner, I could have kicked up a fuss and the Professor wouldn’t have put us together. There’s a reason why I went after you when you ran off after class you thick idiot! When I went up against Blackwater, it was because I wanted to not because I was obligated to. If you could get that through your dense head that I like you–”

“You like me?”

Jimin was a bit winded from his rant and stared down at him for a few seconds before squeaking, “What?”

“You said you liked me.”

Jimin sat back onto his heels abruptly letting Yoongi back up, “No I didn’t.”

Yoongi couldn’t stop the smile from breaking out on his face if he tried, “Yes. You did.”

Jimin was bright pink in the apples of his cheeks as he slapped a hand over his mouth, “Oh Merlin I did, didn’t I?”

Yoongi just nodded with the biggest shit eating grin and his hair turned that stupid shade of mint green again.

“Look, can we just–”

Jimin didn’t even get to finish his sentence before Yoongi was the one crowding into his space.

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence Park Jimin.”

Jimin would deny the little ‘eep’ that left his lips as Yoongi leaned in close enough for him to see the little mole on his nose and above his lip. It was like the air was electrified between them and Jimin was almost afraid to move in fear of disrupting whatever was going on right then. He could tell Yoongi’s eyes were searching, flitting over his features as if it was looking for some trace of disinclination in Jimin’s face.

Yoongi was close, eyes a shade softer beneath the sunlight as Jimin unwittingly leaned in. The space between was narrow enough that they could feel each other's breath puff onto their faces.

“I… Can I kiss you?”

Jimin held his breath and nodded jerkily, hands shaking as he placed one onto Yoongi’s shoulder. Then, just as tentatively, Yoongi nudged forward to press to Jimin. The kiss was soft, clumsy with warm cheeks and the yield of lips to each other. It was so unbearably warm to the both of them, lips tingling and jaws trembling as they hoped to god the other couldn’t feel how hot their cheeks were growing.

When they finally pulled away from each other and the mesh of lips Jimin seemed to gasp for air, lashes fluttering as he tried to catch his breath. Gradually he let his eyes open and Yoongi was staring dazed at him, lips parted and his hair shifting under the light between that pretty peach color and the one he’d figured out to be flustered.

“Peach.”

“Huh?”

Jimin reached up and pulled on a strand of hair, “Your hair, it’s peach again.”

His face scrunched up and he’s pretty sure he was still blushing, “Yeah, well your cheeks aren’t doing much better mochi.”

Jimin laughed and tried to bring up a hand to cover his cheeks before Yoongi grabbed his wrist and lowered it, “Don’t, it’s cute.”

“I can’t believe you of all people are my first kiss, what a bully.”

As soon as he said it he clapped a hand and stared with wide eyes at Yoongi like he’d just given up top secret information, which to Jimin it might have been.

Yoongi blinked, “I was your first kiss?”

Jimin buried his face into Yoongi’s neck and smacked his chest, “Shut up.”

Yoongi tried his best not to laugh because he knew it would end up with Jimin probably slapping wet pondweed in his face, “I’m not making fun of you!”

Jimin’s face was still almost completely pink as he removed his head from the crook of Yoongi’s neck and avoided his gaze.

He coughed and pressed a hand to his warm cheek before changing the subject hastily, “We uh– We better finish getting the bucket filled.”

Yoongi nodded but he still had this shit eating grin on. Jimin dug back into the lake for more pondweed and Yoongi waddled over next to him.

“You know–”

“Hush.”

“But–”

“Nope, not talking about it.”

“It’s okay though.”

“Uh uh, nope, not up for discussion–”

In the middle of his sentence he finally yanked back the plant out of the water and sent an arc of water whipping out at Yoongi. Jimin’s mouth dropped open and he looked in disbelief between the the stock of pondweed and a soaked Yoongi.

“Oh Merlin, I’m so sorry–”

His voice cut off in a squeak when Yoongi held a hand up and slowly wiped pond scum down off his face. He opened his eyes and Jimin couldn’t help but swallow nervously. He looked like a drenched cat.

“Jimin…”

He laughed nervously and slowly began scooting away from Yoongi, “Yes?”

“Come here.”

“No I think I’m good right here.”

A really unsettling grin began to spread over Yoongi’s face and he looked at Jimin with sharp eyes, “I really think you should come here.”

Jimin squeaked as he dropped the pond weed and began backing away further, “I really think I should stay right here.”

If anyone asked, Jimin absolutely did not screech when Yoongi lept at him and swept a crest of water at him, which quickly devolved into a splash war that ended with Jimin tackling Yoongi into the shallows and dunking him beneath the water.

“Fuck, uncle, uncle!”

Jimin grinned and let him up, falling back onto his ass from how hard he was laughing.

Yoongi blew pond water out of his nose and shook his hair like a wet dog.

Jimin choked out between laughter, “O-Okay, I think that’s enough pond weed.”

They’d barely filled half the bucket but Yoongi wasn’t going to complain. He took Jimin’s hand when he offered it and they stumbled out of the shore back up to the castle. If Yoongi minded that Jimin hadn’t let go of his hand, he didn’t mention it.

As they approached the cobblestone path into the gates dripping wet, Jimin turned his head and asked, “Hey… Do you want to sneak out to the astronomy tower tonight?”

“I-um… I can’t tonight, I need to go pick up something from a professor, what about Saturday?”

Jimin smiled at him, and he really needed to stop doing that before Yoongi’s poor heart went out, “Sure! Meet me by the common room entrance at one, that’s when prefect and teacher rounds are done.”

Yoongi nodded thankfully and stopped walking as they got up to the school gates and turned to face Yoongi, bucket of pondweed swinging in his arms. His cheeks were turning pink again and he was looking at the floor as he bit at his bottom lip.

“Jimin?”

Suddenly Jimin darted forward and pressed a kiss to Yoongi’s cheek before pulling away just as quickly, face flaming and visibly pink.

“Go, I’ll bring the bucket up, I’ll tell them you fell into the lake and needed to change clothes.”

Yoongi stared wide eyed at Jimin as his hair turned that soft color of pink again and he couldn’t help but giggle at the expression before waving and backing up through the gates. Before Yoongi could get his brain to properly work Jimin was gone and he was left standing there with a hand hovering over his cheek probably looking like a goofball with how hard he was grinning.

--

“Hey, hey, this way, we’re almost to the common room, you can lay down in a second, but I need you to stay up right now.”

Hoseok held his hands steady under Yoongi’s arms and guided him down the stairs from the hospital wing towards the Hufflepuff common room. Yoongi’s head felt like dead weight on his neck and it was like the potion he’d just taken was sinking down into his waterlogged bones and urging him towards the ground.

“Hey Hyung, come on seriously, unless you want me to pick you up and carry you the rest of the way, you need to stay moving.”

Yoongi’s head lolled forwards on his shoulders and he mumbled, “I hate this fuckin’ potion...”

“I know, I know.”

There was the unspoken ‘I do too’ in the sentence. Ever since 2nd year when Yoongi started taking the prohibitor potion to keep parts of his body from changing as wildly as it was prone to when he hit puberty, it was like this every month. There were some dampening properties in the potion that stopped his body from morphing painfully quick and kept his face his own, but those were due to the ingredients they shared with the Draught of Living Death. So at the beginning of every month either Hoseok, Namjoon, or Seokjin would take turns bringing Yoongi to their respective common rooms and keeping an eye on him for the next day or so while he slept off the major side effects of the potion.

Hoseok pushed a frustrated sigh out through his nose and looked around the corridor. He hated doing this because Yoongi would always get upset about it after he woke up, worried someone had seen them, but how the fuck was he supposed to get him safely down the last stairwell without dragging him by the arms?

Carefully he stuck his leg out in front of him and leaned Yoongi back into his chest so he was properly supported before turning him and slipping his arm beneath his knees. He lifted him slowly, watching him to make sure he wouldn’t lash out, but the last slip of consciousness was already blinking out of Yoongi like stars into dawn.

Hoseok made sure he was secure in his arms before walking as fast as he could down the steps without risking dropping his friend. When he reached the portrait he gave the Hufflepuff painting a tight smile before giving her the password and slipping into the Common room as soon as she swung open.

He walked him up the stairs to the door and kicked at the 5th year’s dorm and called out, “Tae, open up!”

There was a crash from inside and the sound of someone stumbling before the door popped open and Taehyung nearly fell out in his haste to open them.

“Oh shi– bring him in!”

Hoseok nodded hurriedly and hoisted Yoongi up before he lost his grip on him and walked him over to the bed. Despite how small Yoongi had stayed throughout the years, he still got heavier each year. He laid him down onto the covers and climbed in over him before adjusting him carefully so he was laying straight. Hoseok sighed as he sat up against the headboard with Yoongi’s head close to his hip and smoothed a hand over his completely black hair.

“Wow, it really hit hyung hard this time…”

Taehyung crawled on after them and tugged at the covers so they were at least halfway on. He laid on his side and curled around Yoongi, face unusually somber as he wrapped himself around the elder like a limpet.

Hoseok frowned and his mouth did that little triangle thing they all hated as he looked over Yoongi, “I know, he didn’t even get all the way down the stairs this time.”

Taehyung stayed silent as he tucked his head into Yoongi’s neck, arms wrapped almost protectively around his hyung. Yoongi and him were from the same hometown, his go to person when he was feeling homesick and wanted to hear something that felt familiar. Yoongi was his hyung, and he always took care of him even if he did get a little grouchy at times, he always had time for him.

Taehyung knew he could be an exhausting dongsaeng, but he still wanted to be a good one. When Yoongi shifted in his arms he wrapped his larger frame tighter around him and made sure to tuck his hands between their bodies, he always got cold like this after he took his potion. At least he could return the favor and take care of him when he got like this.

Hoseok looked down at the two and smiled when he watched Yoongi turn his face into Taehyung’s crown and snuffled a bit. He reached over to the bedside table and turned off the lamp, whisking the room into darkness for the time being.

–

When Yoongi woke up he was warm. He was pressed between two bodies and drowning in the covers as he stared up at the purple twilight coming in through the canopy over the bed. He looked blearily down and figured out that Taehyung was lying like a deadweight over his left side, face squished against his shoulder and mouth gaped open. Disgustingly enough he was drooling a bit. Yoongi would push him away but Taehyung had his arms and legs wrapped all around him preventing him from moving his arms entirely.

“Morning sunshine.”

Yoongi rolled his head to the side and was met with Hoseok’s hip. When he looked up the Hufflepuff was skimming through a textbook by wand light and what little slips of sun were rising.

“How long was I out?”

Hoseok leaned over and peered down at him as he placed a hand onto the back of his head, “I think around 9 or 10 hours.”

Yoongi hummed and leaned into the touch, eyes falling closed instinctively as Hoseok carded his fingers through his hair.

“Hobi…”

“Hmm?”

“I don’t know what to do…”

Sleepy Yoongi was probably the most vulnerable version of Yoongi. He was clingy, loose tongued, and spilled secrets like a cracked mug. Which is why they had to supervise him before he ended up getting himself into trouble. It wasn’t that hard, he usually just passed out, it was when he woke up in between that it was a problem.

“What don’t you know what to do?”

“I think… I think I fucked up?”

Hoseok paused in his ministrations and looked down at Yoongi before asking carefully, “What do you think you fucked up?”

Yoongi squirmed out from under Taehyung and pressed his face into Hoseok’s side, whining, “I fucked up Hobi…”

Hoseok knew better than to laugh right now no matter how childish he was being, a whiny Yoongi he could deal with, a crying one, absolutely not.

“How’d you fuck up Yoongi?”

“I kissed Jimin.”

Hoseok took a second to process that before he blink and asked slowly, grin spreading over his face, “How is that a fuck up hyung?”

Yoongi buried his face into his thigh, “I don’t know.”

“Did you want to kiss him?”

Yoongi nodded, almost too excitedly, and Hoseok barely covered up the snort.

“Did Jimin want to kiss you?”

It took a few seconds for him to answer but he still nodded and Hoseok cooed, patting him on the head, “That’s not a fuck up Yoongi.”

“... It’s not?”

Hoseok wanted to cry, why was his best friend this adorable? Now he needed to tread carefully, because Yoongi may or may not kill him when he got out of the ‘Sleepy Yoongi’ phase.

“No Yoongi-hyung, it’s not.”

“Oh.”

“Yoongi if you both wanted it then what’s the problem?”

Yoongi seemed to sit on this for a solid minute before he mumbled something into his thigh he could hear.

“Huh?”

“He’s too pretty…”

“Oh my fucking– the lord is testing my patience– Yoongi I know he’s pretty, you aren’t explaining why that’s a problem though.”

“He told me he liked me.”

“And…? How is that a problem?”

Yoongi was beginning to slip into that miserable phase he would get into after being awake for too long and seemed to sink even further into the bed, “How can someone that perfect want someone like me?”

In an instant Hoseok had to soften, almost wearily as he scooched down the bed so he was level, “Hyung he likes you because you’re you. He wants someone like you because you are just as perfect, and I don’t know why you can’t get that.”

Yoongi seemed to stare at him with bleary eyes and this pout fixed permanently onto his lips.

Hoseok pursed his lips and sighed, “Let me rephrase that simply, Yoongi you deserve to be happy”

Yoongi stayed silent Hoseok began to gather him into his arms and tug the blankets properly over the three of them, “Are you happy around him?”

Yoongi let his head be tucked under Hoseoks chin and whispered, “... yeah.”

Hoseok sighed and pat Yoongi on the back, “Then don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. You’ve been crushing on him from a distance for so long, I was beginning to get a little worried when you memorized his timetable hyung. Take him liking you as a blessing.”

Hoseok would have continued but he noticed Yoongi had lapsed out of consciousness again, eyelashes down like shutters and breath puffing out over Hoseok’s collarbone. He stared down at his friend for a moment before sighing and dropping his own head back down onto the pillow.

–

Yoongi tip toed down the stairwell towards the common room entrance. Luckily enough there wasn’t anyone up, leaving the room dark and still with the exception of the dying fireplace. He checked his watch and began moving towards the exit once he was sure no one was down there.

Carefully he opened the door and peeked out, checking for any sign of a teacher patrolling.

“So what are we looking for?”

Yoongi jumped and nearly knocked Jimin over, who had snuck up behind him to lean in and whisper into his ear. Luckily Jimin backed away just before Yoongi turned around to whack whoever had scared him.

“You’re awful jumpy you know?”

Yoongi scowled at him and stepped out of the portrait hole, whipping his cloak over his shoulders and crossing his arms.

Jimin laughed quietly as he trailed behind him, “Aww, don’t be mad.”

Yoongi turned around and stuck his tongue out, “No, you’re rude.”

“You need me though.”

Yoongi snorted, “No I don’t.”

Jimin gave him a bland look, “Potions.”

Yoongi’s cheeks turned a little pink, but luckily enough it was too dark for Jimin to see the effect of it in his face and hair, “Okay, maybe one thing, I don’t know if that’s me needing you, or you needing to help me so you can save your grade.”.

“Oh come on, it’s not that bad Yoongi, I don’t know why you always do so bad at potions anyway, when you stayed after with me you seemed to get it pretty well.”

“I’m clumsy as shit, that’s why.”

“Don’t worry, it’s cute.”

Yoongi went to scrunch up his face but still felt his ears heat up a bit.

“I don’t do it on purpose.”

Jimin turned his head to look at Yoongi and found him staring up into the elaborate stained glass figures in the windows, “Huh?”

“Trip, fall, be clumsy, whatever. I don’t do it on purpose.”

Jimin frowned and stopped for a second before realizing Yoongi was still walking ahead and jogged to catch up, “What do you mean?”

“Because I’m a metamorphmagus, sometimes I get dizzy spells and I have balance issues when I change stuff. I take potions at the beginning of the month to keep my body from changing too much without me meaning it, but for some reason the potion has never been able to keep my hair from doing it. So a lot of the times when I fuck up like that it’s because it’s towards the end of my dosage and then I get really tired when I first take it. I don’t… I don’t do it on purpose.”

Jimin was looking at him with wide eyes and watched as Yoongi slowed to a stop, words dripping almost uncomfortably off of his tongue.

“I don’t… I don’t want your pity. I want you to know I’m not trying to sabotage your grade or whatever, I’m not… I want you to know what you’re getting into.”

Yoongi was speaking to the wall at this point, refusing to look at Jimin as he talked.

“Hey…”

Yoongi almost jumped as Jimin reached over and linked their pinkies together, “Thank you for telling me. I know you aren’t doing it on purpose, it certainly explains a lot more, but I never thought you were trying to mess up intentionally.”

Yoongi looked at their hands and pressed his lips thin, Jimin bumped shoulders with him and studied Yoongi’s pensive face, “The only thing that’s gonna change is we’ll learn to work around it, kay?”

He nodded and Jimin smiled, moving his arm around to Yoongi’s shoulder, “Now come on, I wanna show you something in the Astronomy Tower.”

Yoongi smiled hesitantly and leaned into Jimin’s embrace, letting him pull his arm around him.

“It’s pretty cool I think you’ll like it, it’s one of my favorite things about the Astronomy tower.”

Right as they turned the corner, further down the hall there was the ominous illumination of a lamp.

“Who’s there!”

“Oh fuck, I forgot she was on patrol today, hide!”

Jimin grabbed his hand and pulled him up before starting to run. Yoongi knew they would probably be picking pondweed again tomorrow, but he didn’t really care when Jimin was holding his hand like this.

“How the fuck did you get into Slytherin again?”

“The hat said you need ambition or cunning, not both!”

Park fucking Jimin, everyone.

Jimin yanked him by the arm as he turned the corner, shoes skidding as they did and for a second Yoongi thought he was about to have repeat of his after Potions class performance. They managed the corner with little difficulty before Yoongi felt himself get yanked, almost painfully, to the side of the corridor where there appeared to be… a tapestry?

“Here!”

“What? Are you fucking crazy?”

Jimin didn’t even bother to answer as he yanked back some of the cloth and shoved Yoongi between the shoulders what he thought was going to be a wall. Instead he was met with a damp, narrow opening in the wall that had just enough room width wise to fit maybe two people, but seemed to go on for a long time.

After Jimin wiggled his way in after him, Yoongi ended up pressed close up against him as Jimin stared at the opening wide eyed.

“What are you–”

“Shh!”

Jimin placed a hand over his mouth and Yoongi had to tamp down on the urge to bite down onto the flesh out of sheer reflex. After an anxiety ridden minute full of Jimin listening intently as Yoongi breathed against his hand. After the paranoia died down a bit, Jimin slowly lowered his hand and sighed in relief.

He leaned out to peek at the edge of the tapestry and cursed under his breath,“Shit… We’re probably safe in here, but I don’t think we can go out there again without risking it for a while.”

Yoongi tilted his head and smirked, “Y’know, I don’t think that’ll be much of a problem.”

Jimin turned back to him and hissed, “What? Yoongi we’re hiding from a fucking teacher at 1 in the morning, how is that not a prob– oh.”

Yoongi laughed and pulled him closer by the tie before murmuring against his lips, “For all the trouble you’ve gotten me into, you sure are a teachers pet.”

Jimin braced a hand on the wall of the nook and whispered, “If I recall correctly the only reason I’ve gotten you into all that trouble is because you drove your partner up the wall cause you fucked up the potion.”

Yoongi huffed out a laugh and pressed closer to Jimin, “All of a sudden I’m really fucking glad I’m shit at potions. I have a good tutor now anyway.”

Jimin grinned as he pulled back a little from Yoongi, earning a scowl, “Really? You’ll have to introduce me sometime.”

“Jimin.”

“Yes?”

“Shut up please.”

“I mean, if you ask nice– mmph!”

–

“You’re such a trouble maker.”

“Me? You’re the one that started this!”

“Yeah well you’re the one that got us caught.”

“We wouldn’t have gotten caught if you hadn’t–”

“Both of you knock it off and get back to work!”

“Yes ma'am.”