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"--and then think about the uses for bipolarism, imagine if st. mungos actually used that resource of muggle mental health care and combined it with what we know, do you know how far we could--"
"you should have been a ravenclaw." namjoon said, looking up from his charms textbook, cutting through hoseok's enthusiastic tirade about something new that flitwick had taught them. admittedly, namjoon had found it fascinating too, the idea of having charms that influenced emotions so deeply, and the consequences of that upon mental health (and he could foresee a long discussion about it with yoongi and jungkook later) but right now, he sort of wanted to finish the homework, and not get distracted by the possibilities (even if they were endless). it was one of the first rules of ravenclaw, taught on the first day: homework and self-care first (no matter how boring), increasingly complex philosophical postulations about the nature of the world later.
hoseok's animated grin froze on his face for a minute, before melting into something smoother and darker, an expression that was entirely jarring, completely alien to hoseok's usual range of exaggerated expressions, but also an expression looked far too at home upon his long, expressive features. "and why would that be, joonie?" he asked, and his voice was almost like honey, the low gwangju drawl of korean, in the middle of england, like home, but entirely foreign all at once.
"you know why." namjoon answered, staring down at the shiny book hoseok'd been frantically analysing and theorizing about. he treated books with the same amount of care that every ravenclaw did, adored the knowledge within them, just like every ravenclaw did.
hoseok hummed, softly and dropped back into his chair, boneless and content, a body posture that namjoon had only seen from him thrice, and all in the presence of yoongi. it was different, but namjoon liked different, admittedly liked seeing the way that hoseok melted into someone new right here, with just a simple topic change. it was fascinating and namjoon would almost take notes, if it wasn't rude, so committed the curve of his spine to memory, a thing to analyse later, when preparing to go to bed. "if you push past stereotypes," he murmured softly, "you get to see something else altogether, right?"
namjoon nodded, wondering how to phrase the words on his tongue properly. language was rarely a problem for him, but sometimes, faced with hoseok's intensity, he was dumbstruck. and even if this was a different kind of intensity, it was hard to escape, to retreat back inside himself to pull out the well of thoughts that existed just behind the surface of polite social manners. "still, you would have done well in my house."
hoseok nodded, easily, dark eyes coming up to meet namjoon's. "i would have. but i'd have done well in any house, you see. that's the beauty of being a slytherin." his smirk pulled upwards, gently and slightly mocking, "we can fit in anywhere, belong to any house and then betray you, the moment you outlive your usefulness."
namjoon felt his mouth crook upwards into a half-bemused, half-surprised grin. "and are you planning on betraying me?"
hoseok grinned, and it was back to the enthusiastic hoseok that namjoon was used to seeing, bright and energetic and passionate about everything he threw himself into. "not yet." he said, cheerily, leaning forward into a tall, straight posture, that looked almost foreign in contrast to his words. "i'm too closely tied with you to be able to properly pull off a betrayal. you'd drag me down with you, you clumsy oaf." he teased, bright grin on his face as he reached forward to poke namjoon's nose.
namjoon chuckled lowly, and turned back to his book, "don't fly too close to me, i'm dangerous." he mocked, softly, pretending to swoon over the back of his chair. that drew a bright peal of laughter out of hoseok, clapping loudly like a seal, until the librarian gave them a pointed look, and namjoon shrugged to himself lightly.
no matter what hoseok said, there was no way that sort of bright, uninhibited laughter was forced for a purpose.
(X)
seokjin frowned to himself, staring at the bottom of his cauldron with a slight look of frustration. most of his individual ventures into potions reached even the approval of snape, who treated any non-slytherins with the same amount of respect as the gum on the bottom of his shoe, but somehow still held some regard for seokjin's natural talent at experimentation. this forgetfulness potion, however, was a complete disaster, on all levels.
well, at least it hadn't exploded, only curdled up to a vaguely pathetic looking lump at the bottom, flopping at random intervals against the hollow base of the cauldron. vanishing it with the flick of his wrist, seokjin headed back to the potions cabinet, to grab the ingredients again. he was pretty sure this wasn't how he was supposed to use his free weekends this year, but his research paper at the end of this year was definitely going to be on potions, and there was no research to be done without solid experimentation.
"you're in here early," commented hoseok, cheerily appearing from nowhere, "need any help?"
seokjin started, almost dropping the bowl of murtlap essence. "hobi, you scared me." he chided, softly, balancing all of the ingredients in the crooks of his elbows, "and no, i'm alright, just need to remake this potion, it was a little iffy."
hoseok laughed, eyes folding into natural crinkles that made seokjin smile, hoseok was just like a ray of sunshine, at times. he rounded on the other side of seokjin, as seokjin started to dice some leaves. "well, i'll keep you company, joonie and i finished all of our homework this morning, so i'm free until lunch."
"how efficient of you." seokjin remarked, looking up at hoseok with a little confusion. but then again, maybe he was too used to dealing with coercing jungkook into getting his shit done on time, and poking yoongi into trying to care a little bit about his work-ethic in subjects other than transfiguration, but this sort of productivity from korean slytherins was weird. "why were you up so early?"
"got practise all evening, it's a free-for-all this evening, so i wanted to get it all done early." hoseok said, ruffling his hair.
seokjin laughed, shaking his head, as he started to stir the potion carefully. "should have been in hufflepuff like me, you're better at homework than half of our housemates, and we're the 'work hard and diligently' house."
hoseok shrugged, slightly, shoulders pulling into a loose shrug, as he helped seokjin peel his shrivelfigs, despite seokjin's protests. "you do what you gotta do to pass. and don't tell namjoon, but i definitely copied his answers to arithmancy when he wasn't looking, that shit is confusing."
seokjin reached over and swatted hoseok around the shoulder, but he was definitely laughing. "how do you even say that so casually?"
hoseok grinned with mischief, and it looked like a carbon copy of jungkook's before he was about to say shit™. seokjin got ready to swat, slightly suspicious frown on his face. "hyung, you gotta take advantage of the resources given to you. you, for example, are the definition of 'go-to-be-cheered-up friend' and namjoon is one of the biggest study resources in the world. i mean heck, he doesn't even need manipulation, he'll do it for free if you get him vaguely interested in your wellbeing."
seokjin just exhaled and shook his head. "i take it all back, hobi, slytherin can have you. see if i share my melona with you next time i get a care package." he said, giving hoseok a mock glare. hoseok titlted his head back, and grinned, sweetly, legs swinging back and forward on his chair.
seokjin didn't care what shit he was talking about; hoseok just wasn't that sort of person. manipulators didn't stay back to watch their friend prepare boring potions and help with making it, for no damn reason, after all.
(X)
jimin pulled a face at taehyung, ducking under the bludger coming their way. "keep it on your side of the pitch, tae!" called jimin, weaving around the slytherin chasers, with a menacing edge forward. still, the group of girls didn't even seem to be fazed by his actions, spinning around in a perfect synchronized motion, and with their hair whipping in the breeze, jimin almost missed the incoming bat of the slytherin beater coming towards his hea--
the loud sound of a whistle blew, and jimin only just managed to pull upwards and away from the blow. christ, they'd really been targeting him this entire half, and he was starting to get a little frustrated. "bring it down for a break," called the lazy voice of slytherin's reserve, who was acting-referee for their practise match. next to him, the slytherin keeper, hoseok hovered, worried eyes on jimin.
jimin flew over to hoseok, watching taehyung do the same. "you okay, jiminie?" asked hoseok, cheerily, as they all carefully landed on the pitch, footsteps light against the grass.
"yeah, it just missed me. you call for the time-out?" asked jimin, pulling off his helmet, to push back the strands of red hair escaping from the mess, and wipe away some of the pooling sweat against his temples. there was frustration coiled into his bones, and taehyung, who could detect every difference in his breathing, was already giving him a little bit of berth to calm down.
hoseok nodded, easy grin as he lunged forward to hug jimin instead, ruffling jimin's hair with fondness. jimin felt his anger well up a little bit, but as hoseok's grip turned a little looser and he whispered into jimin's ear, the anger dulled a little, "keep that fire up and beat their cheating asses up, alright?"
jimin pulled back with an incredulous grin on his face, and taehyung wrapped his arms over jimin's shoulder, curiously looking between the two of them. "are you even a slytherin, or just a gryffindor in disguise? because if you've been on our side all year, i know so many goals you could have missed and given us a better shot against kookie's speed."
hoseok tilted his head back, and laughed. it wasn't an entirely nice sound, half tinted-with the normal squawky amusement, but the other half tinted with a darker humour. "you wish, jiminie." he said, voice low, and easy. "for all you know, i'm just trying to get you angrier, so you'll miss the bludger and give us an easy win."
taehyung laughed at that, his giggle rumbling through jimin's bristling back. jimin craned up towards taehyung, frown over his features a little bit, but taehyung seemed just as relaxed as hoseok. jimin envied his chill sometimes. "nah, not you. yoongi-hyung maybe, but not you. it's not your style."
hoseok grinned again, wide and easily approving. "you're my real favourite, tae." he said, winking at jimin, with amused happiness, the usual cheesiness and greasiness leaking from him, just like usual, the tiny darkness that had almost escaped from hoseok's body vanishing as quickly as it had debuted.
"aish, you can stay gross with tae, see if i care." jimin said, reverting to his busan satoori, english not being good enough to express his disapproval for hoseok trying to draw him into pointless games. both taehyung and hoseok laughed at him, at that, but before jimin could do something like tackle taehyung to the ground and back him up damnit, the whistle blew again, and they remounted to the air.
in hindsight, they should have used their break to regroup their strategy, but now jimin was a bit distracted, giving hoseok a little glance out of the corner of his eyes. now, he was worrying about hoseok's voice. taehyung had seemed to thinking hoseok was joking, but jimin had heard an undercurrent to his tone, which had seemed almost unwillingly there, and quickly hidden again, as soon as appropriate. he glanced back to where hoseok screamed loudly at the sight of the quaffle coming his way at high speed, and pinwheeling the shot away by sheer luck.
his face cracked into a smile. hah, no way hoseok was faking that incompetence, that made an entire school laugh together. that was straight from the heart.
(X)
hoseok flopped backwards, head landing in yoongi's lap, and besides them, jungkook just faceplanted, like a large, lanky starfish, against the plush carpet. yoongi looked up from his book, eyebrow raised skeptically, in the perfect way he'd preferred, to make hoseok feel smaller than he actually was. sometimes hoseok liked the ego-reduction, but after making a fool of himself to loosen up the tension between the players during the far-too-long-game, hoseok's bones hurt.
"i heard you failed against gryffindor today." yoongi said, flipping a page dramatically, and jungkook made a whining noise of protest. "not a good sign for the official cup, is it?
"we played best of five. i don't get how they keep going like that without a loss in stamina. it started raining halfway through the third game, and they kept going, not even stopping to put a charm over their eyes." jungkook ranted, head raising up with indignation, his limbs still melted into goo, into the carpet. hoseok made a vague noise of agreement, letting his eyes drift shut, against yoongi's soft, thin thighs. it was surprisingly comfy, he'd discovered somewhere in the second month of being here, and after worming himself into the personal space of all the important names in slytherin and across the school, he'd returned home, to the familiar korean names, to kookie and yoongi, who murmured to themselves in satoori, a little whisper of home, in a quiet corners of a foreign place.
"stop whining, you sound like taehyung." yoongi said, cheerily savage, and hoseok snorted, softly and jungkook pouted, with an intensity he'd almost certainly stolen from another person, no way that awkward jungkook would have been able to pull that off last year.
"i envy you, hobi-hyung." jungkook said, words smushing slightly into the carpet. "you make having friends so easy. i think taehyung and jimin are still sort of in awe or something, it makes conversation really awkward. you're like the best at being slytherin, ever."
hoseok hummed, evenly, and let a genuine smile tug at the edges of his lips. he attributed the difficulty in conversation to jungkook's general atmosphere of being extremely awkward when not on the pitch, or doing advanced magic, but that would just dishearten the poor kid. "that's not true, kookie, everyone agrees that yoongi is the big bad slytherin snake." everyone knew that yoongi was the pinnacle slytherin, cold and untouchable, always ready with a sarcastic comment ready to shut down idiots, and the perfectly charming smile.
"yeah, because he's just as lazy and looks like a noodle too." jungkook said, automatically on sass-mode, before stammering at yoongi's sudden jerk of movement, snapping the book shut. the fear across his face was hilarious, and feeling a bit piteous for the overworked seeker, hoseok just snorted and moved more firmly into yoongi's lap, until yoongi would have to physically push hoseok aside, to tackle jungkook and demand to be called cool.
yoongi, clearly sensing what hoseok was doing, glowered down at him. "no." he said, and very clearly crossed his legs trying to jostle hoseok in a display of power. hoseok twisted around, and wound his arms around yoongi's thighs, like a limpet. it was ridiculously easy to do that. "i'm so tiiiiiirrreeedd yoongi-hyung, give me piiiiitttyy." he whined, in his best baby voice.
"you don't deserve anything, you slacker." yoongi muttered, but he ran a hand through hoseok's hair and beckoned jungkook forward, to balance against yoongi's feet. this was the side that nobody really saw of slytherins, the side that hoseok liked to use, as a bit of a weapon against the rest of the houses, who expected something completely different. still it wasn't like he didn't feel the amount of love and affection he expressed towards everyone. it just meant that he definitely knew when it was advantageous to say certain things.
he was definitely not faking it. he just wasn't exactly completely truthful either. with a contented smirk, hoseok let himself drift off to a contented nap, surrounded by the sound of the crackling fire, and quiet banter.