Chapter Text
Jimin was picking at his scales. It was a bad habit, one he’s had since he was little. He would run his fingertips slowly along the thin line of light-yellow scales growing down his forearm, until one of his nails caught the edge of a single scale. Then he would trace the outline of that scale with his nail, back and forth, again and again, as if to mirror the thoughts running through his mind. He didn’t know why it made him feel more at ease, but the repetitive movement somehow provided a constant in his unpredictable surroundings.
A glance up to the clocktower showed that it was quarter to six, almost time for dinner. Taehyung would be here soon. He would look into his eyes and ask him to take three deep breaths, slowly in and steadily out. A calming strategy his best friend applied to him at least once a week. One he really needed after this day.
When Jimin first met Taehyung, they had both been wide-eyed, anxious, tiny first-year students, meeting eyes in the crowd during the sorting hat ceremony, both immediately recognizing that they had one thing in common. Being different.
Even though Jimin had been sorted into Slytherin, and Taehyung into Ravenclaw, they had met again during flying class, where it became even more obvious why they had been drawn to one another. Neither of them was a ordinary wizard. And when Taehyung had fallen from the broom the fifth time in a row, Jimin had extended a hand to pull him up, his sleeve riding up, revealing a soft trail of scales glimmering in the sunlight. There had been no disgust on Taehyung’s face as he reached for Jimin’s hand. And the moment they touched, Jimin had felt that Taehyung was also a magical being. Or, as the wizards would call it, a half-breed.
“Charms killed me today, I swear.” Jimin jumped when Taehyung’s familiar voice echoed through the courtyard. Where Jimin was quiet, always scared to raise attention, Taehyung was loud and confident, not caring about other people’s stares. Sometimes Jimin wondered how they had stayed friends for five years, considering that they were polar opposites sometimes. But the bond they shared, a bond of mutual understanding and support, sprinkled with a particular sense of humor that was so uniquely them, was stronger than any personality difference could be.
Sighing deeply, Taehyung slumped down next to him on the bench, slinging his bag off his shoulder. It landed on the ground with a loud thump, a testimony to the insane number of books he was always carrying around. He held his face up towards the last rays of the evening sun that were peaking over the walls of the courtyard, eyes closed.
Jimin carefully looked around to make sure no one was giving them any weird looks because of Taehyung’s loud entrance. Luckily, most students seemed to have left for dinner already and the courtyard was mostly empty except for a couple of Hufflepuffs on the other side.
“Is it the Disillusionment Charm? We had that one yesterday and I loved it. Would definitely come in handy to be able to make myself invisible.”
Opening one eye, Taehyung peeked at him from the side. “As if making yourself invisible would solve all your problems. That would only mean giving into your anxiety.”
Jimin rolled his eyes.
“Plus, you do realize the amount of skill it would take to actually make yourself invisible with that spell alone. Good luck practicing. I’ve got a headache from 90 minutes alone.”
“Still better than Care of Magical Creatures and Potions with the Gryffindors. Today was basically 3 hours spent having people hiss at me. I wonder if that joke will ever get old.” Now it was Jimin’s turn to sigh.
“Yeah.” Taehyung opened both of his eyes and turned towards Jimin. The golden evening light complimented his unusually beautiful features even more. Perks of being half veela. “One would think that they would get more creative after five years of practice.” Jimin snorted faintly. Creativity was barely something you could ask from a bunch of bullying assholes.
Ever since Jimin first stepped foot into the Hogwarts Express, name-calling, bullying, and even physical assault had been part of his daily life within the wizarding community. Being a half-breed was even worse than being muggle-born in their book, and Jimin had been punished for that his whole life. Being spilled water on, pulled by his hair, hiss noises, people screaming fake siren songs into his ears, Jimin went through it all almost daily.
The day his father waved him goodbye on Platform 9 ¾, his smiling face slowly disappearing in the smoke of the Hogwarts Express, Jimin had realized that he would never be or feel as part of them. That he would always be an outsider, a dirty half-breed, an anomaly in their eyes. And for that, he hated them.
Apart from Taehyung, no one saw Jimin for who he was. And no one wanted to. All they saw were the faint light-yellow scales scattered all over his body, the weird shade of green in his eyes, and his sharper than average teeth. They saw the siren in him, the monster, but failed to realize that he was also part human.
🕯
During dinner and most mealtimes, Taehyung and Jimin usually sat with the Ravenclaws, who mostly ignored them and were the lesser evil compared to the Slytherins. To this day, it was a mystery to Jimin, and to everyone else, why and how he had ended up in his house. The sorting hat had never elaborated much on his decision back then, and Jimin was more than bitter when he thought about how much different his life could have been had he ended up in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. Slytherin had never accepted him, or even acknowledged his existence beyond the usual bullying.
Jimin met a pair of eyes from the Slytherin table across from them. A very familiar pair of eyes. At the same time, they belonged to someone who Jimin had never spoken a word to before, and wasn’t planning on.
Min Yoongi was notorious for not caring about anything. He didn’t care about his grades, he didn’t care about his reputation, and, even though he was a Slytherin, he didn’t even seem to care about blood status. Sure, he was from a respected pure blood family himself, but many of his close friends, like Kim Seokjin or Kim Namjoon, were half-bloods or even Muggle born.
Even though Jimin and Yoongi were both Slytherins, albeit two years apart, their paths had never crossed in a way that forced either one of them to interact with one another. That made Min Yoongi one of the few students in Slytherin house who had never degraded or bullied him in any way. Considering all things Jimin knew about Min Yoongi, however, that was probably not because of the kindness of his heart, but because he simply didn’t care about the younger.
But there was something peculiar about Min Yoongi. He was full of contradictions. The tender way his long, slim fingers would flip through the pages of the poetry books he was devouring every night in the common room, merely hours after destroying his dueling opponents in the most cunning way. His dark, calm eyes that seemed to pierce Jimin’s skin and sink right into the depths of his mind, leaving a lingering weird, warm trace of self-awareness.
Jimin wouldn’t even be surprised if Yoongi was a Legilimens. But then again, these skills wouldn’t even work on someone like Jimin. Being half siren did come with some perks, like being immune to all kinds of mind manipulations.
Sometimes, though, Jimin wished he could read Yoongi’s mind instead.
Every other night, like clockwork, when Jimin would sneak out the common room and down to the Great Lake for a midnight swim, he usually walked past Min Yoongi in his usual emerald green armchair by the fireplace, book in his hands.
Usually, the older would look up and meet his eyes the second Jimin slipped through the door of his dorm room, while other times, he just kept his head down, seemingly lost in the pages. The first time it happened, Jimin had been terrified that Yoongi would tell someone about his late-night outings, or, worst case, chase after him to hurt him in some way. But neither of these things had ever happened.
In fact, during almost five years, Yoongi had not once asked him where he was going or addressed him in any way. Not even a nod or another gesture. But for some reason, he had never made Jimin feel invisible, either. There was something in the way he would look at Jimin during those nights. It wasn’t in a disgusted, scared, or hateful way, like most other students did. It was curious, almost, curious and deep, and full of emotions that Jimin couldn’t quite put into words. Or maybe his mind was just making all of that up.
Jimin forced himself to drag his eyes away from the Slytherin’s face and back to the fried sausages on his plate. He didn’t want to accidently provoke Min Yoongi. After all, the older wasn’t only known for being one of the smartest people at Hogwarts, he was also dueling champion, third year in a row.
“I spoke to Hoseok again today during lunch.” Taehyung mumbled in between two bites of his shepherd’s pie.
“Mhm.” Jimin hummed, trying to keep the judgmental undertone as suppressed as possible. It wasn’t that he disliked Jung Hoseok, but after all these years of constant anxiety, Jimin found it hard to trust people. Even golden retriever Hufflepuffs. At the same time, he was happy for Taehyung for making a new friend. Happy, but also a tiny bit jealous.
“You should meet him, Min. Like properly. He’s actually nice.” Taehyung turned his head and looked back at the Hufflepuff table at the other end of the Great Hall. “It would be good for us to make friends with more people like him. People who don’t care about what we are. I’m sure they exist, you know. We just need to find them.”
Jimin agreed, kind of. A tiny part of him really wanted to believe that there were people out there that didn’t care about blood or breed or whatever was deemed wrong with them. But he was also terrified. Terrified of getting hurt, terrified of being vulnerable and opening up, only to come out even more traumatized.
“I’ll think about it”, was all Jimin said. His energy levels were too low right now to start Taehyungs’ and his monthly pessimism-versus-optimism discussion.
Sometimes, Jimin caught himself thinking that Taehyung couldn’t understand the reasons for his lack of trust in people. Yes, Taehyung had also been excluded and degraded over the years, but for some reason, being half veela still seemed to carry less prejudice than being half siren. Probably because his physical features, except for his otherworldly beauty of course, weren’t as prominent as Jimin’s siren characteristics.
But luckily, the main features Jimin had inherited from his mother, a siren that his father had met on a trip to Jeju Island – at least that’s what he had told him – being the tail, the gills, and of course the voice, Jimin could only show when he chose to. And that was usually during his nightly trips to the lake.
Jimin could feel his body fill with anticipation at the thought of being back in the cool, serene depths of the water, his tail kicking through the seaweed at top speed, hair pushed back in the current.
🕯
After dinner, Taehyung and Jimin said goodbye for the day, each making their way to their respective common rooms. Potions homework was calling, so Jimin spent the rest of the evening on his bed, curtains drawn as he tried to draft up an essay on the Invigoration Draught. OWLs were coming up in a couple of months, and he was already more than panicked at the thought of exams. But for now, all he could do was try to get through his days, one by one, as he had done for the four past years.
After a couple of hours of more or less successful takes on his essay, the familiar, soft ‘cling’ of his enchanted pocket watch reminded Jimin that it was midnight. Carefully, as to not wake his roommates, Jimin stored his books, paper and quill on the small cabinet next to his bed. He took off his robes, folded them neatly and left them on his bed, then drew the curtains from outside and made his way to the door. After five years, he knew exactly in what way to push the handle down for it not to make that awful squeaky sound.
And there he was, Min Yoongi. His face softly glowing in the light of the surrounding candles, black strands of hair falling into his eyes. He had also taken off his robes, which were now hanging off one of the armrests. His chest looked weirdly broad in his remaining white linen shirt, and for a second, Jimin was wondering what it would feel like to run his fingers over it.
Internally slapping himself, Jimin started walking all the way through the door, into the common room, and then past the big window that was facing out the lake. The second he passed by Yoongi’s chair, the older looked up, his eyes almost pinning Jimin to the spot.
For a short, terrifying moment, Yoongi looked as if he wanted to say something. But then, frowning, he looked back down to his book. So Jimin kept walking, fastening his steps, until he reached the door that was going out to the dungeons.
He took a deep breath when the door fell shut after him. And an even bigger breath when he was finally diving into the lake, only this time through his gills.
Dark silhouettes of underwater plants, fish, and one or the other Grindylow passed by Jimin as his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. The water felt cool against his skin, which meant that for a normal human, the temperature would probably be unbearable. It was almost December, and the first snow was right around the corner.
Jimin was headed in no specific direction, just deeper and deeper down into the lake, down where not even the strongest ray of moonlight could reach him. Some nights, he would swim close to the merpeople’s part of the lake and watch them from afar. Though sirens and merpeople were closely related, Jimin did not really feel a connection to the mystical, sometimes hysteric and even aggressive creatures of the lake. And it seemed that they didn’t like Jimin very much either, but they did tolerate his existence.
While swimming was usually the only time where Jimin could completely shut his mind off, today, things were different. He just couldn’t stop thinking about Min Yoongi. Had he actually wanted to say something to Jimin? And if yes, what was it? Had he been bothered about the way Jimin had stared at him during dinner? Or was he, after all these years, finally curious about where Jimin was headed almost every night?
Jimin was shaken out of his thoughts by the appearance of a dim light in the distance. He must have swum towards Hogwarts, Jimin slowly realized, towards the dungeons, to be more specific, where the Slytherin common room was located. The dim light that he was swimming towards was the window he had walked past just around an hour before.
Intrigued, because he had never really explored this part of the lake before, Jimin swam closer, all the way up to the window. It was weird seeing the familiar room from this perspective, through the dark green tint of the enchanted glass window. Everything looked much calmer, peaceful even, a stark contrast to the usual buzz of students during the day.
Jimin almost bolted when he saw an unexpected movement coming from the one corner of the common room. Usually, Yoongi had always gone to bed by the time Jimin would return from the lake, one or two hours after leaving. But there he was, dark eyes wide open as he stared at Jimin through the window, his book in one hand, robes slung over his forearm.
It seemed like Yoongi was feeling just as shocked as Jimin did, because neither of them moved an inch. Suddenly, Jimin became very aware of the fact that this was the first time that another student, besides Taehyung, was seeing his siren form. And as if he could read his mind, Yoongi’s eyes gradually left his face and moved over his torso, his waist, all the way down to his tail.
Jimin couldn’t move. He couldn’t even breathe. All he could do was silently float in front of the window, frozen, as he was waiting for a reaction. Then, after what felt like an eternity, Yoongi slowly took a step towards the window. And another one. After five steps, he was standing right in front of the glass, his eyes back up to meet Jimin’s.
He didn’t know what it was about the unreadable expression on Yoongi’s face, but for some reason, Jimin knew that something was about to happen. Something that would change everything.
And then, right on cue, Min Yoongi, 7th year top-of-the-class student, dueling champion, and pure-blood Slytherin, lifted his arm and slowly placed the palm of his hand against the window, right by the height of his shoulder. His fingers were spread against the glass, and it seemed like each fingertip was placed with a strange kind of purpose, with determination.
Jimin wouldn’t have been surprised had the window glass combusted into a million pieces then and there. That’s what his chest felt like, at least. Slowly awaking from his state of shock, he looked at Yoongi, down to his hand, and then back up again. Was this a test? Was it a message or gesture that Jimin didn’t understand? What was he supposed to do?
But before he could sort his racing thoughts and decide on how to handle the situation, Yoongi had already removed his hand from the glass and turned his back to him, walking with fast steps towards the dorm rooms.
Jimin was left with a pounding heart and even more confusion than before.