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Jungkook and Taehyung meet on the Hogwarts Express, before the youngest of the two even sets one foot on the grounds of the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The new student and the returning student are the only ones in the worn-out yet shiny train compartment. They spend the entire ride in silence. It isn't exactly awkward, but not quite comfortable either — just plain and simple silence.
It does nothing to ease Jungkook’s nerves, who’s still suspecting the acceptance letter he received just a few weeks ago was a joke his muggle parents pulled on him to force him to attend school without complaining. Twisting his fingers together, he spends most of the train ride plotting the most efficient way to file a lawsuit against whoever started this scam, going as far as using smooth, expensive paper and fancy calligraphy writing.
No words are exchanged with the boy sitting in front of him — although the same can’t be said about the several furtive glances they both steal at each other when they think the other isn’t looking. Jungkook barely catches the boy’s name written on the torned up tag attached to one of his luggages — Kim Taehyung.
They acknowledge each other wordlessly — Jungkook closing the window when Taehyung starts coughing, Taehyung holding the door for Jungkook when they both arrive at their destination, Jungkook handing over Taehyung’s luggage which is placed underneath his own. And that was that.
It's only once Jungkook arrives in front of the gates of the magical institution that he realizes this might not be a trick after all. He can't help but gape at the old castle towering over him, House flags dancing along the wind on top of several towers, and ghosts waving at the newcomers from behind the tall windows.
The two travel companions promptly part ways. Taehyung wanders off in solitary to his dorm room, while Jungkook is swept away along with the other first year students to the Great Hall for the Sorting Ceremony. He never manages to see which House’s aisle Taehyung is headed to because of the capricious staircases that never stop moving, as if welcoming students for the new school year.
Without much surprise, Jungkook is sorted into Ravenclaw. It makes sense to him, considering his curiosity and tendency to explore ideas and concepts instead of paying attention to his small town neighborhood’s hottest gossip for sport.
Yet, he wonders if gossip here at Hogwarts would be able to tell him what House Taehyung is in.
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
Turns out, he doesn’t have to go looking for gossip at all.
Less than a month after settling into his blue-themed dormitory room and turning a few feathers into piles of embers and ashes in Charms class, Jungkook finds himself munching on a flavorful breakfast sandwich at the Ravenclaw table in the Great Hall. The room is significantly less crowded than usual since it’s only a Sunday morning, but Jungkook has decided to wake up earlier than usual and do some extra work on top of his homework.
An umpteenth sigh escapes him as he remembers the brownish mixture he made a few days ago in Potions class instead of the limpid liquid illustrated in his grimoire. Whatever he’s doing, he isn't doing it right, and his grades are already starting to suffer from his incompetence. Even his fellow Ravenclaw classmates have started looking at him funny in the hallways in-between classes, probably wondering how the Sorting Hat even assigned him to the House known for wisdom and intelligence.
Truth be told, Jungkook asks himself the exact same thing more than once each passing day.
Wallowing in despair, he slouches on the bench dejectedly, appetite lost. Maybe he should get those extra hours of studying at the library instead of stuffing his face.
He’s about to stand up, when a sudden explosion makes him jump.
Silence stretches across the Hall for a second, before cries and laughter erupt at the same time. A girl not older than Jungkook is crying, both of her hands cradling her right cheek. Some of her friends at the table, all dressed in robes lined with yellow, are urgently blowing on the abnormally tall flame ferociously burning at the wick of one of the candles placed at the center of the table. Others are already walking across the hall towards the Slytherins’ table.
Surely enough, a group of students dressed in green-toned robes are cackling there, not even attempting to contain their laughter, fingers pointed at the poor Hufflepuff girl.
“Look what you did to her,” a boy — Jung Hoseok, a Hufflepuff prefect — hisses at them furiously. “Which one of you foul cockroaches did it?”
The Slytherins shamelessly ignore him. “Hey, Lee Dayeon, nice makeover you got there! Maybe that burn can improve your face a little,” they sneer loudly.
Fists clenched and hovering over where his wand is most likely tucked in between the folds of his robe, Hoseok doesn’t back down. “I will drown your thick skulls in bleach if you don’t apologise this instant—”
“You got her good, mate,” another Slytherin muses with a smirk. “Didn’t know you had it in you.”
In merely a matter of seconds, curious students from all years and houses have gathered into a small crowd, forming between the two adjacent tables. Jungkook squirms on his seat, trying to get a look at who cast a spell on the candle, almost making it explode in Lee Dayeon’s face. He’s pretty sure he can spot a few students from the school’s newspaper club — one with a silenced camera, and another one taking notes with the help of an enchanted quill wiggling hungrily above a floating notepad.
Not without some difficulty, he finally manages to spot the guy.
It’s him — the silent boy on the train from the first day. The boy who looked so closed-off on himself, barely able to meet Jungkook’s eyes.
Him? Really?
It doesn’t make sense to him. But what he sees is pretty self-explanatory — Slytherins coming over to Taehyung to congratulate him, some even patting his back or ruffling his hair. Hoseok now has his wand out, pointing it towards Taehyung, but the Slytherin prefect is intercepting him — it’s just a burn, she’ll get over it, just take her to the infirmary and don’t make a scene for nothing.
Jungkook narrows his eyes at Kim Taehyung, still seated at his table. His head is hanging low and turned towards his half-empty plate, hands beneath the table. Dark brown messy bangs hide his gaze from sight, but Jungkook catches a few curt nods he offers to his friends and some clipped smiles as response to the congratulations.
When Taehyung does raise his head, it’s only to risk a glance at the distraught Hufflepuff girl across the table. She stopped crying, but the tears are still smeared on her cheeks, including the burnt one. It’s now tainted into a painful-looking crimson, and there’s already the hint of a nasty blister starting to form.
Jungkook winces at the sight, redirecting his gaze at Taehyung. The Slytherin boy is cowering on himself under the insults and threats thrown at him by several angry Hufflepuff, but he doesn’t stop trying to catch a glimpse of Lee Dayeon. Probably admiring his own work, Jungkook thinks with disgust.
“Maybe that’s why they say don’t judge a book by its cover,” he mutters quietly to himself in disappointment. He quickly packs the rest of his breakfast for later, before striding out of the increasingly loud hall without paying any further attention to the commotion.
That’s when Jungkook decides that he’s better off staying far away from Kim Taehyung. He’s already struggling with his studies, no need to go look for trouble.
No matter how lonely and helpless the Slytherin boy had looked when they first met on the train.
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
Throughout the next year and a half, Jungkook turns out to end up pretty lonely himself.
Wizards and witches don’t understand him the way muggles would — not even his dear professors. They don’t understand why he has such a hard time thinking of what he’s about to say, and speaking at the same time. Or why his brain swaps certain words without him realizing it until after he’s said it and someone points it out confusedly. Or why he starts a sentence, stops in the middle of it to start another one on a slightly different topic, before realizing and stumbling on his words to try and go back to finish the first point.
Muggles call it dyslexia, a well-known and fairly common learning disorder. Wizards, on the other hand, don’t call it. Like, at all.
It’s not all that noticeable — not in a way that everyone Jungkook meets would immediately guess he’s dyslexic at first sight. But it still stands out, especially among his Ravenclaw peers who all excel at anything even remotely academic-related. Even outside of the Ravenclaw House, and as far as Jungkook knows, no one particularly struggles to complete their assigned readings on time, nor do they struggle to take decent notes while listening to the lecture at the same time.
It doesn’t dampen his thirst for knowledge, though. Schooling sucks, that Jungkook can’t deny — but learning is still really cool and probably always will remain so.
Learning to enjoy his own company isn’t as bad as he thought it would be. There are no expectations to uphold, Jungkook can let his thoughts run wild in his mind without needing to find the correct words to communicate, and without ever having to halt and order them to make them comprehensible to the rest of the world.
When he’s tired of hearing himself think all the time — or when his ears become dull from the continuous music blasting out of his earphones — Jungkook often seeks the company of his sole friends on campus. Animals and magical creatures of all sorts.
He discovered his particular liking to beasts of all types and sizes when he was aimlessly strolling around at Diagon Alley, the most famous wizarding shopping street. There, well hidden between the Leaky Cauldron pub and Flourish & Blotts, he unexpectedly found himself eyeing the vitrine of the Magical Menagerie — a pet store. Even back at his muggle parents’ home, he never had such a companion, so getting himself a pet was never something he had considered when coming to live on his own at Hogwarts, despite most of his fellow students having owls and toads and whatnot.
So without another glance, he initially shrugged and moved along, denying himself entrance to the store.
But oddly enough, every time he’d go back to that crowded alley street, he felt an inexplicable pull towards the Magical Menagerie — a longing that he eventually gave in to, and fortunately for him. He quickly learnt that communicating with animals and magical creatures somehow felt much easier than communicating with wizards.
It’s really no surprise then that Jungkook practically adopts Tan — a stray tiger cat always lurking in the hallways of the castle in-between classes, strolling around and asking for attention and affection at any given time of the day. Unsurprising behavior for a cat as gentle and loving as Tan.
What’s surprising, however, is that Tan is not on his usual wooden bench beneath the tall window when Jungkook comes out of his Transfiguration class. This has been their implicit place of meet up on every Monday afternoon for the past few months, so Jungkook’s half surprised to see the bench vacant, half worried that something happened to the tiger cat.
It took checking the library, the Ravenclaw common room, the Room of Requirement, and the Owlery, before finally spotting Tan near the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. He’s pawing at the leaves, tail waving languidly in the air. Jungkook’s about to call out to the little devil when his eyes catch a hunched figure moving near the cat.
There, not a few feet away from Tan, stands Kim Taehyung. Well, he isn’t standing per se, more like crouching in front of the tiger cat, collecting something from the ground every time into the palm of his hand, a curious Tan sniffing after the wizard’s fingers as they retract into a fist.
Jungkook narrows his eyes at the scene. After what happened with the Hufflepuff girl two years ago, he can’t help but be suspicious — and perhaps a little overprotective towards Tan.
He strides over to them, not even trying to hide his scowl. When he’s able to take a closer look, he notices that what Taehyung is picking up from the ground are berries . He gasps.
“You can’t feed him those,” he blurts out without preamble in his panic. “He gets sick whenever he has them.”
The Slytherin boy startles, a few berries falling to the ground. Jungkook notices the way he flinches — probably at the sight of his hostile expression — and he feels a little bad. But what if he’s trying to poison Tan?
“I know.” Taehyung mumbles quietly. He recovers, swiftly picking back up the berries he dropped as he stands up, removing them from Tan’s peripheral view. “I was keeping him from eating them.”
Jungkook tries to ignore the way Tan’s now glaring at him from where he's sitting on the ground at Taehyung’s feet. Well, in his defense, he couldn’t have just guessed that Taehyung was actually trying to protect the cat.
He huffs, arms crossed against his chest, but his voice lacks the previous bite it held. “And why would you care?”
“I’m a Slytherin. Not this heartless monster everyone seems to assume I am.”
“You burnt Lee Dayeon’s hand two years ago.”
Jungkook watches with surprise as the Slytherin boy visibly flushes. He didn’t even know that Slytherins could blush. He gnaws at his lips with uncertainty, his hostility starting to falter, but he doesn’t come any closer either, stopping at a safe distance away from the boy.
Taehyung passes a frustrated hand through his disheveled hair, dark messy curls falling back in waves and hiding his flustered face. His hand stills at his nape, before muttering defensively.
“That was an accident. I’d never hurt anyone on purpose — except for self-defense, I suppose.”
With a frown, Jungkook takes one step forward. Late autumn leaves crunch under his stomper boots. Tan is grooming himself obnoxiously at their feet.
“So… why did you not apologise, then?” He wonders incredulously. “If it wasn’t for Park Hyerim giving Dayeon that magical salve the next day, she would have suffered a great deal for at least two weeks.”
Taehyung snorts. “The Gryffindor girl? How do you think she would have even made that salve? You need phoenix tears for that — otherwise it would be as good as some useless muggle ointment.”
He throws unceremoniously the berries he had in his hand behind a bush while Tan isn’t looking. There are some smudges staining his tanned skin, and Taehyung shoots daggers at his own hand. It makes Jungkook’s lips twitch, a giggle threatening to bubble out of his throat, but he reigns himself in, clearing his throat.
“We don’t have phoenixes on the castle’s grounds, do we?”
It’s a rhetorical question, because Jungkook tends to think out loud. This habit of his makes focusing on his exams difficult whenever he’s muttering his thought process to himself and suddenly locks eyes with the professor, who must probably assume that he’s casting some spell to cheat or something.
“What a brilliant Ravenclaw, that answer is probably worth at least fifty points.” Taehyung offers, the sarcasm clear in his voice. “I was the one who made that salve and left it on her table before our Potions class. Stole the ingredients from the professor’s private supply at two in the morning.” Jungkook gapes at him in disbelief, to which the Slytherin boy simply shrugs in embarrassment. “I, uh, couldn’t sleep anyway.”
Somehow, the two students end up standing rather close to each other, almost as close as they had been in the train compartment on the day they met. Jungkook thinks he moved first, if only in his desire to decipher the enigma that is Kim Taehyung, the quiet outcast who seems to fluster way too easily to go on a candle lighting spree.
“So you’re saying that the flame turning into an entire life-sized bonfire that day didn’t have anything to do with you? Like, at all?”
“I was trying to do the exact opposite, actually. A girl at the other end of my table was chanting under her breath while staring at the candle and I noticed the flames growing abnormally taller, so I tried to reverse the spell or whatever.” He sighs dejectedly. “I probably only made it worse though, so it doesn’t really matter anymore I guess.”
“And you didn’t think of denying it when everyone put the blame on you? And why didn’t you at least say that the magical salve was from you? Everyone thinks you’re this, uh,” Jungkook frowns. “This evil Slytherin arsonist, now.”
It earns him a small smile from Taehyung, but that quickly fades away once it’s turn to speak and try to justify himself.
“I mean,” he searches for his words. “Well, everyone at my table was congratulating me, and I just wanted all the attention to be turned away from me as quickly as possible. Agreeing with people is the fastest way to satisfy them and make them lose interest in yourself, you know,” he trails out, an ashamed look ghosting his face, once again half-hidden by his unruly bangs. His voice is barely above a whisper when he adds, “And maybe a small, tiny part of me just wanted to finally fit in with my Housemates.”
Sympathy and understanding courses through Jungkook. As much as he’s tried to deny it in the past in an attempt to save his face, he can relate a little too well to this longing for belonging. He too has imagined a myriad of times what it would feel like to be accepted for who he is, free from judgment and whispers that seem to follow him everywhere he goes.
“It would have saved you from this stupid misunderstanding, though,” he mutters in a small voice as he fiddles with the hem of the right sleeve of his robe, lips jutted out into a small pout.
Taehyung stands unmoving and blinks at him once, and then twice, a bit like Jungkook’s owl Yeonie does when he’s offered an unexpected snack. The Ravenclaw boy presses his lips together to suppress his laughter.
“Um.” Taehyung licks his lips, eyes turned downcast, finding Tan playing with an unfortunate bug between his paws. “Besides, it’s not my fault the Gryffindor girl never denied that the salve wasn’t from her when Lee Dayeon assumed things. And they’re girlfriends now, I don’t feel like coming between them, it’s not my business their relationship is based on a fraud. Can you imagine — being labelled as an evil arsonist and a matchbreaker?”
It’s Jungkook’s turn to blink. So Slytherins can blush and crack agreeable jokes?
He doesn’t suppress the giggles that make it past his smiling mouth this time. “Yeah. I suppose being an evil arsonist is terrible enough.”
The playful glare he receives in response to his teasing makes him laugh harder.
Tan lets out a barely audible huff and he resolutely strolls away, ears twitching in satisfaction. Not that either of the two witches notice it, too busy shooting shy smiles at each other. Slytherins might be able to blush and make decent jokes, but cats shouldn’t have to turn into wheels.
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
The two “not so strangers anymore but not quite friends either” bump into each other on a fair number of occasions on the castle’s grounds. Their gazes meet when they cross each other in the hallways in between class, in the deserted library during lunch time, and even on the sidelines of the empty quidditch stadium.
Little by little, time after time, from thread to needle, their hesitant glances turn into tentative smiles, and then unspoken meetups — and even later, precious study dates. At first, the two boys carry with them odd looks from their peers on the daily, but no one has any real issue with two outcasts getting along. And like with any gossip news, the initial shock that came from spotting them together dies down after some time, swept under the rug to make place for newer, juicier gossip.
As time goes by, Jungkook finds out that he isn’t the only one struggling with his studies.
“Oh.” He gently nudges an elbow into Taehyung’s side. They’re both sitting on the tiny sofa in Jungkook’s dorm room, and the Slytherin boy looks ready to melt and become one with the sofa from how deflected he looks. “It happens, hyung, it’s okay. You still have some time to improve your grade for this semester, we have at least two tests left in Potions class.”
Taehyung sighs, not looking convinced at all if his grimace is anything to go by. “But they’re all… In class. In front of everyone.”
It was indeed the case for their latest test as well — the one Taehyung flunked by inadvertently mixing up dragon’s venom with basilic’s venom. Much like how sugar resembles salt but tastes drastically different, Taehyung’s mistake had been a critical flaw and ruined the potion-brewing process, earning him the lowest grade possible on the scale.
“But you’re the best in potions, hyung. You even made that salve for Lee Dayeon’s burn — I was told that only upperclassmen can possibly succeed in making it, and only the best of them,” he offers as an attempt to cheer him up.
“You don’t understand. I’m… scared of people. Or more like social settings. You know how I tend to avoid going to crowded places, or speaking in front of a lot of people? Or how I despise calling from muggle phones?”
Jungkook frowns. He has indeed noticed that working under pressure, bearing the weight of the watchful eyes of their classmates and professor, isn’t Taehyung’s forte — but didn’t know his anxiety went that far.
“So like… social anxiety?” At Taehyung’s blank look, he elaborates. “Muggles call it that. It’s a type of anxiety disorder.”
“I guess so, maybe…” He breathes out. “Whatever it’s called, it sucks. It turns me into a complete fool whenever there’s people around. I can’t even line two sentences without stuttering when professors call on me, and dropping my mug in Divination class has become my personality trait at this point.”
It’s so Taehyung-like to acknowledge his own flaws and make fun of himself in the process, far from displaying the arrogant façade so many students in the Slytherin House wear.
Jungkook puckers his lips, pensive. “Maybe practice could help? I can call a few of my friends — just to get you used to having an audience of sorts. Namjoon, Jimin, Seokjin and Yoongi hyung, they’re all Ravenclaws like me and they used to tutor me and a few others when I was in first year. I promise they’re super nice,” he adds hastily.
“I don’t think a few practices will change much...” There’s a sad, resigned smile on the elder’s face, and it makes Jungkook’s heart clench — but not in the same way as when Taehyung takes his hand in the hallways, or when Jungkook catches him staring fondly as they eat in the Great Hall. “I just can’t brew a simple potion when I feel people observing me. It feels like they’re eagerly waiting for me to mess up.” He adds with a snort, “Which I inevitably end up doing anyway.”
“But what if we ask our Potions professor? Mental illnesses are just as valid as physical ones, they should be able to accomodate you even a little bit.”
“Maybe it’s not enough, Jungkook.” Taehyung mutters under his breath, not meeting Jungkook’s concerned gaze, as if belittling his deep-rooted insecurities. “Maybe I’m not enough.”
Jungkook likes to think of himself as pretty understanding, even patient on his best days — but if there’s one thing he’s not, it’s accepting of unwarranted slander and self-depreciation from people who deserve nothing but love and then some.
“Yes you are,” he exclaims with an affronted huff. He sits up, eyes narrowed determinedly, back straight and torso fully turned towards the Slytherin boy still sprawled on the sofa. “Taehyungie hyung. Your best will always be enough. If you tried and did your best, it wasn’t a failure. And your best can still evolve as well, so it’s not like you’re stuck in a dead end either.”
“But—”
“And even if you were stuck in a dead end, I’m here to help you go through it, okay? We’ll climb that stupid wall or drill a hole throught it or whatever,” he finishes, arms crossed and voice resolute.
The corners of Taehyung’s lips tug upwards, igniting warmth, relief and satisfaction all at once within Jungkook’s chest.
“The evil arson and the crazy vandal,” Taehyung muses. He shoots an amused smirk at Jungkook, head cocked to the side. “We make a rather great pair together.”
As he pretends to be thinking of Taehyung and him as a pair together for the first ever — which is definitely not the case — Jungkook shrugs coyly, but the way he beams probably gives his inner feelings away.
“I guess we do.”
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
“Maybe I should just drop out. I’m probably not even going to pass my Ordinary Wizarding Levels anyway at this rate.”
Jungkook kicks at an umpteenth pebble with his stomper boots, making it fly in the air in a bell shape. It eventually lands in the water with an obnoxious sound. His scowl deepens.
The two boys are standing under the shade of a pine tree, on the shore of the landlocked body of water that is supposed to be called the Great Lake but that everyone refers to as the merpeople’s home. Jungkook and Taehyung are stone skipping on shallow water — or at least, Taehyung is. Jungkook is mostly lamenting the unlikeliness of him successfully passing his OWLs like every other student in fifth year because of his dyslexia.
He isn’t being pessimistic, merely realistic. Heaving out a deep sigh, Jungkook kicks into another pebble.
“You know I’d support whatever decision you think is best for you, right?” Taehyung says gently, coming over to stand beside him.
His warm presence comforts Jungkook a little. Genuine support from the people that matter goes a long way, as he has learned for the last few months they’ve been hanging out together.
“I know.” Jungkook offers him a grateful smile, but it hardly reaches his eyes. He lets himself fall to the ground, sitting on top of a tree trunk laying on its side. “I just, I don’t feel like I can make it. But at the same time I’m too stubborn to give up without a fight even if I want to. Does that even make sense?”
“It doesn’t matter whether you make sense or not,” he assures. “Your feelings are valid, Jungkook.”
Feeling validated in the wizarding community is still something new to Jungkook. While his Ravenclaw peers have shamed him for not having a word recall capacity and processing speed, Taehyung has been nothing but an encouraging friend, never hesitating to express how proud he is whenever Jungkook achieves something, always ready to celebrate all the small wins.
“Thanks hyung,” he whispers. This time, the smile etched on his face reaches his eyes.
“You did pretty great on all the theoretical stuff, so I’d say you still have a fair chance of passing your OWLs.”
“Yeah, but all the practical stuff is pretty important — especially in Potions class, you know how I always mess up something because it’s timed and I can’t process new readings and complex instructions that quickly.” He sucks on his tooth. “Also, my final reports rarely ever make sense.”
“Well, about that…” Taehyung trails out, eyeing his messenger shoulder bag. Gnawing at his lips, he casts a mischievous glances at the Ravenclaw boy before reaching out for his bag. “I might or might not have been doing some… research.”
Eyes narrowed with suspicion, Jungkook stares at the bag, then at Taehyung, then at the bag once again. Seconds pass with neither of them moving, until Jungkook gasps.
“Please tell me you didn’t snoop into the Restricted Section of the Library because of me, hyung—”
Taehyung chuckles, raising his hand in the air. “In my defense, I couldn’t sleep anyway.”
Jungkook lets out a half-hearted sigh, a smile playing on his lips. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”
It’s like Taehyung’s brain short circuits. He freezes, his hand halfway into his bag, and blinks at him owlishly. Jungkook can’t help but grin at the way the Slytherin boy flushes. He outright giggles when a sudden hiccup comes out of his throat.
Taehyung however, does not appreciate getting so flustered out of the blue. He quickly stirs the discussion away from his so-called cuteness, and Jungkook lets him, if only for the sake of the boy’s ears which are turning dangerously red.
“Back to my delinquant adventures, if you will.” Taehyung clears his throat, pulling out a wrinkled piece of parchment paper. From where he stands, Jungkook catches some foreign words, hastily written with black ink and in what he recognizes as Taehyung’s handwriting. “This is a new charm I’ve found in a grimoire from the… you-know-what.”
He wiggles his eyebrows, and Jungkook rolls his eyes.
“Yeah, and what is it? Is it worth you getting detention and writing “being cute will not save me from getting caught on my delinquant adventures” seven hundred times?”
“That is not the point,” Taehyung chokes out, before regaining his composure. “It’s not a very well-known spell, but it’s supposed to make the text you’re casting the spell on take the form of an audio recording. It’s just like someone’s reading out the text for you, which you’ve told me is easier to assimilate for you, so it might help you get your readings done more conveniently?”
“Like an audiobook,” Jungkook murmurs, stunned. Audiobooks are such a common thing in the muggle world, yet he never thought about trying to turn his textbooks on witchcraft and wizardry into audiobooks.
“Maybe?” Taehyung offers, not quite well-versed with muggle instruments. “And look, I also found this charm that changes fonts and makes them easier to read and—”
“This is genius. You’re a genius, hyung.”
The compliments do not improve Taehyung’s already flushed state. Still, he shakes his head, unconcealed amusement painted on his face. “A genius, you say… Is this an upgrade from my evil arsonist status?”
“You bet,” Jungkook snorts, accepting the parchment paper. He reads it over once — it is indeed a spell he didn’t know even existed — and folds it carefully, storing it in his robe’s inner pocket to try later. He looks back at Taehyung. “Seriously, though. You’re resourceful, determined, and clever. I know you sometimes doubt your place in the Slytherin House, but you’re valid as you are.”
Taehyung’s amused expression softens into a fond smile. Dropping his bag to the ground unceremoniously, he leans over to Jungkook and ruffles his hair energetically. “What would I do without you to cheer me up, hm?” Jungkook swats his hand away with an affronted whine, and the Slytherin chuckles. “I could say the same about you, Jungkook. You don’t need to be an honors student to be a Ravenclaw — your curiosity and thirst for knowledge matter whole lot more than stupid grades.”
With a gasp, Jungkook hurriedly brings both of his hands up to cover Taehyung’s mouth. Eyes wide, he whisper-yells, “Don’t call grades stupid! You’re going to jinx our OWLs.”
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
There are not many explanations as to why the Hogwarts Library is still swarming with antsy students past dinner time. OWLs being right around the corner is one of those few explanations — and a really good one.
Fifth year students are prowling the aisles relentlessly, looking for more and more information to cram into their heads until the fateful day. Slytherins are glued to the library’s inventory of books in an attempt to find the most efficient and comprehensive books (as they say, study smarter, not harder ), Hufflepuffs are chatting amongst themselves as they do some form of peer review and collective quizzes, Ravenclaws are almost inhaling the words written they’re reading, their levitating quills making flash cards as they go, and Gryffindors are picking out every single book they think might be relevant from the shelf and end up with a mountain of books and grimoires towering on top of the study table.
“Hey, Jungkook.”
The two boys have been holed up in the library for what seems like the entire day — and which was probably the case, more or less. The charms that Taehyung (illegally) found have been helping Jungkook a great deal to temper his learning difficulties caused by his dyslexia, but a few weeks is nowhere near enough time to cram five years’ worth of knowledge, so Jungkook has been working really hard to catch up as much as he can before OWLs begin.
Taehyung can’t help but worry. More than his own progress on his revision programme, he worries about Jungkook’s health — the boy’s been overworking himself lately, going as far as reducing his hours of sleep and skipping their playtime sessions with Tan.
So he does his best to occasionally distract Jungkook so that at least his brain can take a breather.
“Jungkook,” he repeats when his first call goes ignored. He uses his wand to poke into Jungkook’s side, who lets out a small yelp which disrupts the silence reigning in the library and earns them nasty glares from their fellow stressed students.
“What do you want, hyung?” He hisses out. “And stop waving your wand around, you’re going to take someone’s eye out.”
“I’m not waving it around, I’m pointing it at you. And you’re wearing glasses, so your eyes will be fine.” Jungkook rolls his eyes, ready to plunge back into his book. But Taehyung continues, “I was wondering… About our tiger cat. How did you even know that his name was Tan?”
Silence. And then, “I asked him. Obviously.”
“So you mean to tell me you named the cat Tan—”
“I’m pretty sure I heard him agree to my suggestion—”
Taehyung snorts in amused disbelief. “You can’t just name a stray cat and claim that his name has always been the one you chose. Merlin’s beard, Jungkook,” he laughs under his breath as quietly as he can.
Jungkook sets down his quill into the inkpot, droplets of black ink splattering onto his notes, and whirls towards the Slytherin boy with an unimpressed glare. “Well what did you name him if you’re so clever, huh? Go on, then.”
“Jarvis.”
“... Jarvis?”
“Yeah, Jarvis, you know, Iron Man’s—”
Fighting to repress the giggle coming out of his mouth, Jungkook exclaims in outrage, “I know who Jarvis is, hyung — but Tan is a tiger cat. Not Iron Man’s AI.” He shakes his head, feigning disappointment. “And how do you even know about Jarvis, I thought you never watched any muggle movies?”
It’s Taehyung’s turn to fall silent. He shrugs, not deigning giving a response, as he attempts to hide his face behind a book. A few seconds in, he realizes he’s holding the book upside down. Raising his head, he’s about to turn it around when his gaze locks with Jungkook’s unimpressed one, one eyebrow raised inquisitively.
“Well?”
Taehyung heaves out a nervous laugh. “That’s funny of you to task because, you see…” He gulps, holding Jungkook’s gaze with intensity. “There’s this boy I really like, and he always rambles on about this superhero dressed in a red and gold suit and stuff, so I might have done some… academic research to keep up with him. You know, for science purposes.”
Jungkook’s doe eyes are wide, shining with awe and excitement and fondness. He opens his mouth, closes it — all while his cheeks color into a dusty pink — and promptly lets out a poorly controlled squeal. It makes Taehyung crack up, a hand covering his mouth to muffle the sound.
“Ahem.”
They break eye contact and turn their heads towards the girl sitting at the other end of the study table. Park Hyerim, the Gryffindor girl who claimed to have made the salve Taehyung left for Dayeon to treat her burn. She’s glaring at them pointedly, shooting daggers at the two noisy students as she taps her fingers impatiently on the table next to the books spread out in front of her.
Rumor has it, the two girls broke up recently out of the blue. No one had seen it coming, but Dayeon had suddenly broken things up before storming out of the Hufflepuff’s common room dramatically, leaving Hyerim confused. Jungkook knows Taehyung has nothing to do with the break-up, because, well… He does.
Jungkook offers an innocent grin at Hyerim, almost batting his eyelashes for effect. Taehyung narrows at him suspiciously, but only gives her an apologetic nod before dragging both of them out of the library at last. Jungkook lets himself get taken away in-between heaps of laughter.
Once they finally reach the low-lit and empty corridors save for the occasional nocturnal ghosts roaming around absent-mindedly. The two boys eventually sober up, falling into a comfortable silence as they steal glances at each other.
Jungkook breaks it as he murmurs, “I think that muggle-born boy is really lucky to have you.” He clears his throat. “And I’m pretty sure he must really appreciate your efforts and like you a whole lot too.”
Taehyung gnaws at his lower lip, looking at Jungkook from beneath his lashes. “I sure hope he does.” He beams, and boops the boy’s nose with his index finger.
Jungkook scrunches his nose in protest, chasing the finger playfully as if trying to bite it. He grins cheekily.
“I do.”
•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••
So that’s how a few months (years) after their first wordless encounter on the Hogwarts train, Jungkook and Taehyung become companions, friends, and even boyfriends. While they might have been all on their own before, now, they’re still somewhat alone, but together.
And it makes everything a whole lot better.
They’ve never been ones to seek perfection anyway.