Chapter Text
- meeting
Chiara is late. Curfew is 10 PM, and Chiara had stupidly, stupidly gotten lost somewhere in the West Tower. She wasn’t at orientation with the other first years because of the full moon, but Dumbledore had been kind enough to let it go and given her a late welcome.
She’ll admit that sitting on a stool in Dumbledore’s office, while being scrutinized by various professors was not the most comfortable situation. Especially when the sorting hat was too big on her head. Professor Sprout had been very understanding when she’d told Chiara about her being sorted into Hufflepuff and had showed her around the castle.
It’s just Chiara’s fault that she’d forgotten where her common room is, and now there are three minutes till curfew and she’s going to get into trouble on her first day.
Breathing hard, she stumbles across the Grand Staircase and frantically looks for someone who can maybe help her. She hadn’t wanted to ask anyone before, but now she’s desperate.
There’s a boy loitering around in a yellow hoodie. A good color, meaning he’s in Chiara’s house.
“Excuse me?” She asks. The boy turns to her and lazily grins. “Do you know where the Hufflepuff common room is?”
“Dungeons.” He says before turning back to a talking portrait next to him. He gives her an inquisitive look when he realizes that Chiara is still standing there.
Chiara is red in the face, and now she’s definitely past curfew. “It’s my first day here; I don’t where anything is.” Her voice is spikes and she swallows, feeling close to crying.
“It’s okay. I’ll show you.” The boy says, looking alarmed. “See you Sir Cadogan.” He waves at the portrait before starting down the stairs.
“Farewell, Mr. Kim!” The portrait waves back.
Chiara doesn’t even have to run to catch up. The boy is walking slowly, and Chiara is looking around nervously, wondering why he isn’t worried about being caught. He’s too young to be a prefect.
They walk in silence, Chiara wiping her hands on her robe. “Um, Mr. Kim,” he glances at her bemusedly, “thank you.”
“You can just call me Jae.” He says, sounding like he’s holding back a laugh. “Why’s it your first day?”
The two of them descend another set of stairs, and Chiara remains silent because she doesn’t know what to say.
Jae glances at her again before shrugging. “Keep your secrets then.” He stops at a door and sweeps his hands in a grand gesture. “Here we are.”
Chiara sighs in relief. She might be late, but at the least she remembers the entrance password. She’s halfway through the door when she notices that Jae isn’t following her. She pauses, “aren’t you coming?” she asks tentatively.
Jae raises an eyebrow, the edges of his mouth pulling into a smile. “Why would I?” He asks, and Chiara is starting to get really sick of seeming like an idiot.
She looks pointedly at his yellow hoodie and he follows her line of sight. “Oh.” He says before he’s laughing, showing all his teeth. “No, I’m a Gryffindor. I just like yellow.” He shakes his foot, and only then does Chiara notice the red converse he’s wearing.
Chiara flushes a dark red. How was she supposed to know? He was wearing her house colors. Thankfully, Jae saves her any further embarrassment. “Bye!” He winks, and waves cheerfully as he jogs back towards the stairs.
She stands there, embarrassed, before shutting the door.
She’s way past curfew and now that she thinks about it, Jae must be too. The Gryffindor common room is all the way across the castle.
- potions
Jae is whistling, carrying his books as he heads to potions. He’s actually early today. Snape had taken thirty house points his first week and Angelica had gone completely bonkers when she’d heard. She’d even created a house point chart specifically for Jae (his current tally is at a solid negative twenty-eight).
Snape gives him the stink-eye when he enters, still whistling.
“Quiet, Kim.” He snaps.
Jae stops whistling, spotting the girl from last night, the lost Hufflepuff girl, and slides in next to her.
“H’lo.” he says amiably, thinking that he should really ask for a name.
She flinches back, glancing nervously at Snape. “Did you get in trouble yesterday?” She whispers.
“No. Why?”
“You were past curfew.” She says as if it’s the worst thing in the world. She gives him an anxious look when he laughs.
“Quiet, Kim.” Snape snarls again.
Jae shifts in his seat before turning to the girl. “Hey, what’s your name?” He says a little more quietly.
“Chiara.” Her gaze flits to Snape again.
Jae decides to leave her alone when she doesn’t elaborate and turns to his roommate instead.
For the better part, the class goes smoothly. To Jae’s surprise, Chiara keeps up, despite missing a week of class.
Snape is finishing his lecture on handling their equipment carefully, just as Chiara bumps into her cauldron, knocking two vials down. There’s a resounding clatter as they shatter on the floor.
Snape’s head snaps towards her direction, and Jae is briefly relieved that his wrathful look isn’t directed at him. At least, he is before he sees the look on Chiara’s face.
She’s ghostly pale, knuckles white as she stares at the shattered glass.
“Miss Lobosca,” Snape drawls, “already causing trouble, I see.”
Chiara doesn’t even look up, still staring at her feet, hands starting to shake. Her face has gone impossibly paler.
Jae can already hear Angelica yelling at him for losing house points again, but he’s standing up and stepping forward without a second thought.
“Sorry, Prof,” Snape’s eye twitches at the nickname, “clumsy me.” Next to him, Chiara jerks her head to look at him, but Jae stares steadily at Snape.
Snape gaze flickers to Chiara for a moment, mouth curling into a sneer. “15 points from Gryffindor for disrupting class,” Jae can hear his roommate groan, “and a week’s detention for being disrespectful.”
Chiara inhales sharply next to him, but Jae just shrugs and sits back down.
Snape turns to the rest of the class, still looking very malevolent. “Class dismissed.”
His roommate grabs him by the wrist as they’re leaving, whispering harshly. “What were you thinking? Angelica’s going to kill you.”
Jae laughs, turning his head slightly to watch Chiara leave. She’s staring at the ground, refusing to meet anyone’s eye. “I’m always up for helping a cute girl.” He says, loudly enough that she must hear, but he’s already turned the corner before she can react.
- corridor
The hallway is quiet as Chiara walks to charms. There are some students coming down the corridor but they don’t pay her any attention. Chiara keeps her head low just in case they do.
She’s been adamantly avoiding speaking to anyone since yesterday. Penny, her roommate, had picked up on her bad mood but hadn’t mentioned anything. She had, however, brought her something from breakfast.
Everyone in Hufflepuff has been really nice to her. Chiara just hopes she won’t slip up. She can hardly believe Dumbledore let her enroll while knowing she was werewolf. He’d told her not to attract any trouble, and Chiara had already messed up twice.
She cringes to herself when she thinks about potions class. Snape had been so scary and Jae—Jae had been so kind. Anyone with a working head could tell that none of yesterday was his fault, but he’d taken the blame for her regardless.
Guilt boils in her gut when she thinks about his week of detention. It should have been hers.
She’s ambling blindly at this point, hardly paying attention to the faces passing her when she’s abruptly jerked backwards by her robes.
She turns to see Jae.
“Hey,” he says, “where you headed?”
“I’m sorry.” Chiara blurts without thinking, voice squeaky. She’d wanted to apologize yesterday but hadn’t found the nerve.
Jae furrows his eyebrows. “For yesterday? Don’t think too much about it. I get detention all the time.” He says reassuringly.
Chiara squeezes her books to her chest, unable to look him in the eye. “You got house points taken away,” when he doesn’t seem fazed, she adds quietly, “they should’ve been mine.”
Jae snorts. “Snape would’ve taken ten points from you at most. He just really hates me.” He looks thoughtful. “I can’t really blame him.”
It doesn’t make her feel much better, but she’s glad that Jae isn’t upset with her. “Was your prefect mad?” She asks, and Jae brightens.
“So mad. I’ve never seen her face that shade of red before.” He stops grinning when he sees Chiara’s expression. “But don’t worry, she’s used to me losing house points.” He adds hastily.
“How many house points have you lost?”
It’s hard not to giggle when Jae says “fifty-seven” like he’s broken a record.
She stops outside the charm’s classroom, smiling now. Jae is so easy to talk to. “Thanks for helping me.” She says.
Jae is smiling back at her. “You’re welco—” he starts to say, but then he’s pulled into the classroom by a swarm of Gryffindor kids and Chiara is left standing alone.
- grounds
Jae doesn’t tend to pay attention to his classmate’s, but he does notice Chiara quite a lot. She’s elusive and prefers to stay alone. She talks to a few girls from Hufflepuff, but aside from that, she doesn’t seem very sociable.
He never sees her around the castle or in the courtyard. He poked his head into the library once, just to see if she might be there, but he’d been kicked out before he could make sure.
He knows it isn’t really his business to meddle in her life, and she doesn’t seem like she likes Jae’s company very much. He sat with her during charms once, and she’d hardly talked to him. She does laugh when he makes trouble, though it’s very discreet.
He attempted to make conversation the first few classes they shared—they have a lot—but she gives him quick, meatless answers. He’d stopped trying after that. It’s not as if he’s lacking friends.
He does feel bad when he sees her walking down the hallways alone. She’s nice but shy, and although he doesn’t have any trouble talking to people, it seems like she does.
Jae is walking on the training grounds, bored out of his mind. Classes had finished, and dinner had ended. Charlie had run off to study, and Ben never wanted to do anything fun. He was good at gobstones, Jae will admit, but there’s a limit to how many times he can play that game in a day.
He pauses when he hears noise coming from the archway. He can hear the quidditch players yelling from afar, and he turns to see what the other noise is.
He’s startled to see Chiara, playing with what looks like wolf pup. She jerks back when she sees him and scoops the puppy into her arms.
There’s an awkward silence as they stare at each other.
“Borf?” whines the puppy, sound muffled by Chiara’s shirt.
Jae puts his hands in his pockets, rocking on his heels. “So, what you got there?” He asks as casually as possible.
Chiara looks around nervously. “Nothing.” She says very suspiciously. “Just my pet.”
“Borf!” The puppy barks, wriggling his way out of her grasp.
Jae arches an eyebrow as it rolls around in the grass, blinking up at him. “I’m pretty sure wolves aren’t allowed as pets.”
Chiara looks pained. “He’s a werewolf pup from the Forbidden Forest. I play with him sometimes.” She picks it up again. “Please don’t tell anyone.” She adds timidly.
He doesn’t say anything, watching as Chiara gets increasingly nervous, before he sits down next to her. “What’s his name?”
She seems surprised, but doesn’t comment. “Borf.”
Borf barks again before wriggling his way into Jae’s lap, pawing at his hoodie. Jae isn’t a big fan of dogs or anything that sheds, but he grimaces and puts up with it when Borf licks his face.
“Where’ve you been keeping him?” He asks as Borf worms his way under his shirt.
Chiara shifts so she’s sitting closer to him. “He just comes and goes. I can’t control—Borf!” She scolds, but it comes out more as a laugh. Borf has his head poked out next to Jae’s—he’s sure it must look ridiculous.
“I’m sorry—” She reaches to pull him away, but Jae stops her.
“It’s okay. I like dogs.” He tells her, even though he really doesn’t.
She stops apologizing after that, and Jae gets too preoccupied with actually talking to Chiara to realize that it’s getting late. Her favorite fruit is grapes. She likes her meat rare, and actually prefers cats to dogs, but still likes dogs.
At some point, Borf gets bored with the lack of attention and runs off with a final lick, disappearing. Jae is surprised when Chiara doesn’t leave with him.
He gets up when it’s nearly curfew, patting down his jeans. Chiara seems nervous, as if she wants to say something but doesn’t have the nerve to. She’s easy to read, one of the things Jae likes about her.
“I’m sorry.” She blurts out.
Jae scrunches his nose. “What do you have to be sorry about?”
“I haven’t been very friendly.” She says, wringing her hands. “It’s just, this is all new, and I’m not very good at making friends. And you’ve been so nice to me—”
Jae interrupts her before she can get really worked up. “I’ll meet you here tomorrow?”
Chiara blinks, surprise evident on her face. Jae briefly contemplates whether or not he was too forward, but then her face breaks into a dazzling smile.
“I—okay.” She’s flushing, smiling wide.
“Okay.” Jae nods, before he walks her back to her common room. When he gets back to his dormitory, all he can think about is making her smile again.