Chapter Text
sonder - the realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as your own.
During the first week of January with Christmas and New Year’s officially done, the Great Hall turns pretty sad and depressing.
The remaining students who have nowhere to go because their families didn’t want them home or they don’t have families at all are left to wait inside the barely empty castle until classes resume. Jungkook, belonging to a family with generations of Slytherins and him being the first and only Ravenclaw, was clearly never invited home for the holidays. After five years of spending these supposedly family oriented festivities alone at Hogwarts, Jungkook found he doesn’t mind as much anymore. At least the food is better here.
Jungkook looks around the Great Hall to entertain himself for such a dull New Year morning. There were fewer students and professors alike since everybody was still hungover. He shivers when he remembers the Ravenclaw common room this morning being a mess of empty smuggled beer bottles and small puddles of puke.
His eyes trail first to the Slytherin table. There are only five of them and each one sitting apart for at least one meter from each other. Jungkook notices the boy with soft pink hair first, someone he recognizes from his Divination class. The boy, Jungkook is sure was called Park Jimin or something like that, is hardly even eating. He seems to be too busy fumbling with something on his finger that Jungkook and the entire student body knows is an engagement ring. Sometimes he would glance up then quickly look back down at his untouched scrambled eggs.
Jungkook follows Jimin’s line of sight and is not surprised to find it’s Min Yoongi. Everybody knew the Min clan, especially since they were one of the last remaining royal blood families in the magical world. So technically Yoongi is quite literally the prince of Slytherin. The prince who was recently arranged to marry the soft spoken yet hard headed Park Jimin.
Jungkook wonders if the two ever talk to each other. He certainly has never seen them together. And seeing as they were at least three meters away from each other, he figures they really never have spoken a single word to the other.
Before he could feel bad for his Divination classmate, Jungkook looks over the Gryffindor table. He normally hates this particular rowdy group. Or maybe he’s just bitter because they never fail with numbers. Right now, even with the holiday drought, half the table was still occupied by sleepy Gryffindors leaning over each other or their plates.
Jungkook is surprised to find Kim Seokjin as one of them. As far as he knew, the Seventh Year was loved by everyone in and outside of school. Then he sees the boy snoring on his shoulder and he pieces it all together. Kim Namjoon, Gryffindor’s Head Boy, has been best friends with Seokjin since their First Year. The moment Seokjin punched a Ravenclaw for calling Namjoon a mudblood, he has never left his side. Maybe for their last year, Seokjin’s family allowed him to stay for once.
When Namjoon is woken up by an excited First Year, Jungkook looks away and looks behind him to the last table. There are only a few Hufflepuffs left this year but all of them are huddled together in the middle, no one left behind. In the center of it all is Jung Hoseok telling a story animatedly that makes all of them shake in hushed laughter. Jungkook doesn’t know much about the Seventh Year aside from the fact that he’s always smiling like the sun rises up from his ass everyday. But if he looks closely, Jungkook could see a hint of longing in the Hufflepuff’s eyes when the others aren’t looking. Maybe he’s more homesick than he lets on.
Jungkook feels a sudden weight on his lap and just as he’s about to screech in horror, he’s silenced by a familiar box smile.
Taehyung rubs his eyes sleepily like he’s just got off bed, which is probably true, and his black and yellow tie hanging loosely from his neck like it was done half-assedly. “Good morning, Jungoo,” Taehyung mumbles through a yawn.
Jungkook unknowingly smiles and runs his hand through Taehyung’s blue hair.
Kim Taehyung. Fifth Year. Hufflepuff. Quidditch Beater. Half blood. Clumsy. So clumsy that the only reason he didn’t go home for Christmas was because he didn’t wake up on time for the train. If people were to watch him just as Jungkook was, they would know all this.
Taehyung whines when the owls come in to drop letters and shuffles closer to hide his face on Jungkook’s stomach.
Jeon Jungkook. Fifth Year. Ravenclaw. Pureblood. And truly madly deeply in love with his Hufflepuff best friend. If people were to watch him just as he himself was, they would not know the last part.
“Good morning, Tae.”