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Taehyung's knees are shaking and his hands are sweating. He came to the Great Hall to have breakfast with his classmates, discuss the upcoming test and the next Quidditch match in which he will participate as a catcher.
But now, in the noise of the hall, he heard 𝘩𝘪𝘴 laughter. The boy stretches his neck to get a better look at the laughing one, and finally finds him.
At the other end of the hall, at the Hufflepuff table, sits a fifth-year student named Jeon Jungkook. He is actively discussing something with his friends and laughing loudly, showing the sweetest smile in the whole School, because of which Taehyung's palms are sweating and his heart is beating harder right now.
The elder seems to the Slytherin so soft, small and sunny with his golden curls and wrinkled from the smile nose, especially when the guy shrugs his shoulders and hides his ears with his hands from delight and joy.
Taehyung, who is studying in the fourth year, has had crush on this "sunshine" for a year and a half, ever since he saw him at the match, rooting for Slytherin.
He, along with a couple of guys from other faculties, waved the flag of Taehyung's faculty, and noticing this, the younger one almost missed the snitch. Did they win then? Yes. Did Taehyung fall in love, wet, tired, but happy, when the older ran up to him and hugged, shouting in his ear: "You're so cool! I'm proud of you!" damn, of course.
He stood like an idiot for another three minutes that day, while his teammates were laughing, admiring boy's red face.
And since that time, Taehyung has not stopped looking for a sunny boy in the crowd.
"A year and a half, so long, and he still hasn't confessed?" you would ask. But Taehyung won't even be able to answer you. He, a tricky, savvy and self-confident student, the pride of the faculty, hasn't been able to just walk up to Jungkook and say a compliment for a year and a half. Or, for example, to invite to Hogsmeade on the weekend to relax before exams. He tried. But every time a warm smile and an attentive look confused the boy, which is why he was shamefully blushing in front of the Hufflepuff, but quickly pulling himself together, raised his head proudly and snorted:
"Pff, nothing. I said, don't forget to take a hat when you go to Hogsmeade with these weirdos, we don't need another idiot with bronchitis in our school."
And then he would immediately leave, so that after a couple of minutes, standing in the faculty's living room, he would bang his head against the wall and scold himself for such behavior.
"Idiot, damn it. My only task was to say that I don't want him to catch a cold and I failed it again..."
In general, things are bad, as you can see.
Taehyung couldn't figure out how to draw Kook's attention, until one day he heard passing by a group of hufflepuffers a familiar voice:
"Guys, let's go there on the weekend? I would like to see all possible kinds of snakes and lizards, they are so cute."
The guy, unnoticed by everyone, jerked his shoulder and shushed, "Count? Did you hear that?" after which the python's head peeked out from under the hood. "I have an idea," he continued whispering.
"I'm all ears, Mr. Kim," Taehyung heard in his head.
***
He sees Jungkook coming out of his wing and calls out too loudly from excitement:
"Hey, Jungkook!"
The sunshine turns his head, and a light smile appears on his face.
"Taehyung? What are you doing at our corridor?"
The Hufflepuff comes closer, and Taehyung feels the sweet fragrance of flowers that comes from Kook, which is why he stealthily takes in more air, and then exhales abruptly:
"W-would you like to see my python?"
Hooray, he said it.
But for some reason the smile faded from the face of the older one, and instead there are obvious embarrassment and anger, expressed by furrowed eyebrows now.
"Are you out of your mind? I understand that no one takes the Hufflepuff seriously, but you should have at least some respect for me!" and runs away, leaving the confused Taehyung standing near the entrance to the wing of other's faculty.
He sighs in frustration after a couple of seconds, looking in the direction of a disappeared guy, and scratches the hissing snake with his fingernail.
"Huh, Count... years go by, times change, but the reaction is the same."
***
Taehyung, slightly (actually, no, his familiar was insulted) disappointed and offended, for a while gives up trying to talk to Kook and doesn't even look for him, as usual, in the crowd.
And he does not see, passing by the seniors, how
the sad and anxious gaze of the guy with golden curls rushes after him.
"Hey, Jeon, what happened? Why didn't your knight pay attention to you this time?"
Jungkook coughs shyly and mumbles:
"Well... we had a little fight a week ago, I yelled at him, and, well, then…"
Classmates look at each other confused.
"Come on? You? Yelled? You once burst into tears because you felt sorry for the Mandragora in class."
"That's right", another said. "I don't believe you even know how to scream, you can only squeak like a hamst... OUCH!" the guy shut up, clutching his head, which had just received a slap from a friend.
But to be honest, Jungkook didn't care that they were going to call him a hamster. In his head there is still an image of a lost look of foxy-like beautiful eyes and lips twisted in dislike. He chews nervously on the inside of his cheek and speaks, silencing everyone:
"He... he offered to, uh, look at his python."
Instead of "oohs", "ahs" and "how awful", the Hufflepuff hears:
"What's wrong with that?"
Jungkook raises his head in disbelief and looks at the absolutely not surprised guys.
"You... what's wrong with you?! He literally proposed to, damn it, look at his dick!"
The group fell silent.
And then everyone bursted out laughing.
The poor boy looks at friends with confusion in his eyes.
"What's so funny?"
One of the guys puts his hand on Jeon's shoulder and wheezes through laughter:
"Oh God, Kook, Taehyung is calling you an idiot for a reason." Jeon already wants to be outraged, but he is getting shut up. "This Slytherin really has a python. I thought, the whole School knows about him, he is very handsome, Kim is proud of him. This is his familiar, called as Count." Like a bolt from the blue.
The guy freezes, and in his head, scrolls quickly like a Muggle movie, the moment when Jungkook dumped outright nonsense on the poor Slytherin that just wanted to show his snake, which Kook himself loves so much. He slaps his forehead and hisses desperately: "Why am I so dumb".
Boys pat him on the shoulder and, barely breathing from the laughter, advise:
"Hurry up and run to beg for forgiveness, or you'll miss your potential boyfriend and remain a virgin, you dumbass." After which Jungkook takes off, at the same time thinking where Taehyung might be now.
***
He finds him in the library.
The winter sun beautifully gilds his suntanned skin, brown hair is tied in a small ponytail, and a wrinkle lies between his eyebrows from how focused he is.
"So handsome, damn. And where did I look before?.." a thought slips through Jeon's head.
He cautiously approaches the table and calls softly:
"Hey, Taehyung."
The named one mumbles, but does not even raise his head, although he used to almost jump around the older. Jungkook sighs heavily and sits down on the chair next to him.
"Guys just told me. I'm sorry, please, I said stupid things back then." Taehyung squints incredulously, and God knows, his heart still beats faster in the presence of the sunshine and from his beautiful, trusting eyes and pitifully twisted eyebrows.
"I didn't know you had a snake, really. I'm very sorry," the Slytherin leans back in his chair as if he's so tired and compresses his lips with displeasure. "How can I redeem myself?"
Taehyung raises his eyes to the ceiling and taps his lips with finger. Suddenly, a real python with a hat on its head crawls out from under Taehyung's hood onto his shoulder and sticks out its tongue towards Jeon.
The boy looks exited, and his hands are itching to scratch the scales.
"Can I… Can I pat him?"
The Slytherin shrugs his shoulders.
"Try it, he doesn't bite."
But as soon as Jungkook puts his finger to the snake, it jerks abruptly towards the hood and hisses. The guy makes a squeak out of surprise and hides his hand.
"You… Didn't you say that he doesn't bite?!"
Taehyung somehow strangely bends his head to the snake and after a moment answers:
"Yeah, he wasn't going to bite you. He's just angry."
"Angry? For what?"
Taehyung once again turns to the snake so that he hisses something in the guy's ear, and he, in turn, diligently hides his laughter behind a serious face and a slight cough:
"Ahem, Count is deeply offended and very much indignant because you, an impudent boy, dared to compare him, a noble snake from the family of familiars, with a male sexual organ." To be honest, he is afraid that his face is already red from suppressed laughter, because the confused stare of the Hufflepuff looks just amazing.
Jungkook blinks his eyes in disbelief and gasps for air, not knowing what to say, and the whole neck, cheeks and ears are now covered with red spots of shame.
"And... and how can I fix the situation?"
The snake stretches slightly to shush something to Taehyung, and the boy silently, with only his lips moves:
"Apologize." Jungkook wants to open his mouth, as he was again stopped: "On your knees. Yes, seriously," the Slytherin adds, seeing the shock and disbelief in other's eyes.
Jungkook looks around, checking for witnesses, and then really slides to the floor and kneels.
"I sincerely apologize for my rudeness and narrow-mindedness, from now on I promise to behave appropriately."
Count hisses in the direction of the Hufflepuff, and Taehyung translates:
"Count accepts your apology, you can get up."
Guilty, all red, Jeon sits down on a chair and hesitantly asks:
"Am I allowed to pat him now?"
Taehyung smirks, crossing his arms over his chest:
"Yes, you can." He looks at the charmed guy who is patting Count's scales with quiet delight, and, catching the moment, asks the question: "Will you go on a date with me?"
"Of course…"
"And will you become my spouse?"
"Cert… Wait, what?!" The pall of delight falls off, and again in front of him there is a familiar snide smirk of a tricky Slytherin. He whispers fearfully: "W-what kind of spouse, we... we are… We haven't even kissed!"
Suddenly, Taehyung's face approaches, a large palm gently covers Kook's waist, and warm air is exhaled into they boy's lips.
"We'll fix it now, sunshine."
***
In the evening, pleased with himself, Taehyung, who's neck and cheeks were hugged and his lips were kissed during the day a thousand times on the School's tower, warms himself by the fireplace and smiles, remembering the softness of hair, the elegance of waist, the sweetness of tender lips and rosy cheeks of a Hufflepuff. He entered the room an hour ago, shiny, red and so kissed that even the rest of the Slytherins did not ignore it and approvingly cheered and patted nonstop the happiest guy in love.
He suddenly hears a hiss in his ear and lazily opens one eye.
"Admit it, I did a good job. While you were dragging feet, I made your beloved to kneel in front of you."