Jung Hoseok and Cracked Codes
Hoseok thought that even if he hadn’t just apparated, he’d probably have thrown up anyway. A million emotions swirled in his head, pounding on his skull and eyes, begging to get out. The twisting of apparition didn’t help either, and when Teeth dropped them to the ground, he immediately threw up the contents of his stomach.
“Ughhh-” Hoseok groaned, trying not to collapse in his own vomit. “What the fuck Teeth-”
“Yous should be thanking Teeth. Teeth helps yous.”
“Helps? HELPS!” Jimin laughs loudly, sitting up. He swayed in his spot, no doubt sick too, but conscious enough to start getting angry. “Teeth, you aren’t helping!”
“TEETH IS TOO HELPING!” Teeth hissed back from her spot atop a desk. It seems she apparated them into some random classroom that wasn’t used often. Since it was past sunset, there was no light from outside, and the lack of lit candles meant they could barely see the little angry elf.
“No, you’re not! All you’ve done is steal our mail, apparate us at random times you deem necessary, keep secrets, and meddle with our lives whenever you feel like it! THAT ISN’T HELPING!” Jimin yelled, managing to stand against a desk.
“TEETH IS, TEETH IS, TEETH IS!” The elf screeched, stomping her foot against the desk. “Teeth never took yous mail, only read it and passed it on! Teeth isn’t the mail thief!”
“Then who is?!”
“TEETH NO NEED TO TELL YOUS!”
“MORE SECRETS YOU NASTY ELF!” Jimin yelled back, and Teeth flicked him off. Hoseok didn’t know anyone in the wizarding world even knew what that meant, but Teeth seemed to have a pretty good understanding.
“TEETH NOT NASTY! TEETH IS SICK AND TIRED OF DEALING WITH YOUS AND YOUS DRAMA! TEETH THOUGHT IT WAS FUN AT FIRST, BUT NOW, TEETH KNOWS BETTER. EVEN THE PRETTY RAVENCLAW BOY IS NOT WORTHS THIS!”
“THEN LEAVE US ALONE!”
“FINE!”
“FINE!”
“FINE!”
“FINE!”
“SEE HOWS YOUS DO WITHOUT TEETH!”
Teeth then threw a book that was on the desk at Jimin’s head. He dodged it with a curse, and moved to lunge at her, but she apparated away. Still dizzy from the apparition, Jimin fell to the ground, landing on his arm with a loud *crunch*.
“. . . ow.”
There was a long pause, and Hoseok took a deep breath. Holy shit, he thought to himself.
“Jimin?” Hoseok murmured, crawling till he was next to the Slytherin. “You okay?”
“I hate that little shit,” Jimin muttered, cradling his arm. “I think I broke it.”
“Well. . . at least you didn’t get hit by that book.”
“Might as well have,” Jimin groaned, sitting up. “I’m certain she’s done looking out for us now.”
“Do we need that?” Hoseok wondered aloud. “I mean, you had a point. She caused a lot of problems.”
“But Namjoon thought that she was preventing a lot of problems too. As much as I hate to say it, she was one of our allies. Now we don’t have someone secretly watching out for us.”
“Shoulda thought about that before you screamed at her,” Hoseok said bluntly.
“Meh,” Jimin said, sliding back down to lay on the ground. “I’m the only one who she listens to. I thought maybe it’d work.”
“Mmm,” Hoseok grunted, laying down next to Jimin. “I guess it was worth a shot.”
The two boys fell silent, staring at the ceiling.
“So your letter?” Jimin asked.
Sighing, Hoseok opened his fist and the small, unburnt remnants floated to the floor.
“Not much left.”
“. . . sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. If anything it’s mine. I should’ve known better than to leave it in the common room.”
“You can’t say that. No one expected the intruder to destroy an entire house dorm. That’s crazy. How did they even get everyone away from it to do that?” Jimin said.
“Cloaking spell maybe. I have to say, it won’t be fun having to clean that up.”
“At least you have all your clothes, even if they’re on the floor. You should’ve seen Tae’s room, it was absolutely destroyed. Looked like someone let Phoenix loose in there.”
“. . . weird.”
“Yeah.”
Hoseok sat up, pieces swimming in his head. It didn’t make sense. Why would someone want to destroy the common room? They had to have been looking for something. This must’ve had something to do with the girl who had her mind obliterated and the boy who died. But then, how did Seok Jung tie into it?
A few weeks ago, Hoseok had actually considered Seok Jung to be a suspect for the murder and obliteration. He certainly was shady enough, and probably crazy. It’d make sense why the Ministry was being weird too. He probably had been telling them false reports, or bribing someone.
But now he’s gone. Supposedly.
Plus, why would Seok Jung want to hurt a bunch of random Hufflepuffs?
It just didn’t make sense.
Obviously, whoever was responsible for the illegal search wasn’t looking for Yoongi’s letter to Hoseok. It was far too casually burnt, as if the intruder couldn’t care less that it was Hoseok’s comfort note.
Carefully, Hoseok picked up the remains of the note, sad to see only the top was still legible.
“Hoseok,
I’m leaving, and I doubt I’ll be ever coming back. I was a dick and everything I said, I said in protection of you. Something about you and the others makes m-”
Holding back tears, Hoseok pulled out the newest letter from Yoongi. He unfolded it, re-reading it just to soak in Yoongi’s handwriting.
“To my friends,
First of all, I am unenrolling from Hogwarts. Each of you should also refrain from trying to reach out to me. Being under my pare-”
He stopped.
The two letters were. . . very different. Just from the way Yoongi addressed them seemed off.
“-Being under my parents' new study program, I have no time to respond. 14 letters from you Namjoon, is sad. This is unnecessary. Have some self respect, we were all only acquaintances. AT least-”
AT? Why did he capitalize that?
“AT least you could respect my decision to pursue my future in a controlled environment. Should you try to reach me again, I will have my father intervene. I wish you all the best.
X, From the fire, Yoongi”
The last part made Hoseok confused too. Yoongi always scribbled a little x by his name when he signed letters, but never the ‘From the fire’ part. Namjoon said he thought it might be a reference to his parents, but now, Hoseok wasn’t so sure.
As he skimmed over the letter one more time, his eyes caught on Yoongi’s signature at the bottom.
That’s when it hit him. Yoongi doesn’t have a signature.
“Jimin. Jimin!” Hoseok reached over, smacking Jimin on the broken arm.
“OW! DUDE!”
“IT’S NOT YOONGI! I KNEW IT! IT’S NOT HIM!”
“Hoseok chill the fuck out, what are you even-”
“He doesn’t have a signature! He said that! He never does the same signature twice! He told me that it fucks with his parents who like order and neat paperwork!”
“How can you tell? It’s just one letter.”
“BECAUSE IT’S A FANCY AS FUCK Y!” Hoseok shoved the paper in Jimin’s face. Jimin skimmed over the cursive, his eyes widening when he realized, it was in fact, a really elaborate Y for someone who ‘doesn’t do signatures’.
“That’s great, but like, so what?”
“It means there’s more we’re missing! Like what’s up with this ‘AT’? Why’s it capitalized?” Hoseok narrowed his eyes, and started looking at all the capitals.
“JIMIN! HOLY FUCK!” Hoseok jumped up, grabbing Jimin’s good arm and yanking him up. “We need to get to Namjoon, like right now!”
Hoseok started dragging Jimin along, who struggled and almost fell into the vomit.
“Hyung, please-oh shit that’s nasty-HYUNG WAIT!”
Hoseok paused, breathing heavy.
“What did you find?”
—
“So that’s what you found,” Namjoon muttered, looking down at the paper. “Shit Hobi, this is amazing-”
On the paper in front of him, they had re-written ‘Yoongi’s’ letter.
“First of all, I am unenrolling from Hogwarts.
Each of you should also refrain from trying to reach out to me.
Being under my parents new study program, I have no time to respond.
14 letters from you Namjoon, is sad.
This is unnecessary.
Have some self respect, we were all only acquaintances.
AT least you could respect my decision to pursue my future in a controlled environment.
Should you try to reach me again, I will have my father intervene.
I wish you all the best.
X,
From the fire, Yoongi”
Hoseok had circled each capitalized letter at the beginning of the sentences, which spelt out “FEB 14TH AT SIX”. A clear date.
“So. . . What’s happening on February 14th at six?” Jimin asked.
“Six AM or PM?” Hoseok asked.
“Probably PM, he’d never wake up that early,” Namjoon replied. “But Jimin, I have no idea. That’s Valentine’s day, also the night of the dance. Would he be coming back then?”
“Guys you’re missing the biggest part,” Hoseok pointed. “From the fire. We need to figure that out.”
Namjoon sighed, and took off his glasses. They were all in his room, sitting in his roommates beds (It’s okay, his roommates studied till midnight every night, so they had time.)
“I wrote paper airplanes to Jungkook and Jin, so they should be here soon,” Namjoon said. “Maybe they know.”
Right at that moment, the Ravenclaw window slid open, and Jungkook jumped in.
“Hey guys.”
“What the fuck, you just jumped in here like Spiderman,” Hoseok said.
“Who the fuck is Spirderman?”
“Sounds gross.”
“Yeah. I’d never wanna be him.”
Hoseok rolled his eyes.
“How’d you get in here?”
“My broom-” Jungkook reached out the window, and grabbed a snow-covered broom. “I was out practicing and got the airplane. What’s up?”
Namjoon started explaining everything that had happened, just like Hoseok and Jimin told him. He recalled the break in, Teeth’s blowout, and finally Hoseok’s revelation about the letter. Jungkook listened intently, and shrugged when they asked him about the fire bit.
“Sorry guys, I have no idea-”
“What’s wrong!?” Jin burst through Namjoon’s closed door, and paused when he saw everyone. “-oh. Heyyy everyone.”
“Jinnie!” Hoseok squealed, pulling him over to see the letter. “Look at the great stuff we figured out! So much happened-” Hoseok started explaining the night to Jin, who only nodded in shock.
“Well, I’m glad I rushed then,” Jin laughed lightly. “I thought Joon was hurt or something.”
Hoseok didn’t miss the blush on Namjoon’s cheeks.
“Me too,” Jungkook said. “I flew here, but Merlin’s beard, I almost forgot which window. I only knew where to go because I’ve slept over a few times-wait, Jin Hyung, how’d you know where to go?”
Everyone turned to look at Jin.
It was the eldest one’s turn to blush.
“Uh. . . just. . . you know. . . study sessions.”
Hoseok and Jimin gave each other a hard side eye.
“It doesn’t matter!” Jin changed the subject. “What are we stuck on now? Teeth is done helping, Hufflepuff isn’t safe, and somethings going to happen at the dance.”
“We don’t know the last part of Hyung’s letter-” Namjoon handed the paper over. “The ‘from the fire’ is lost on us.”
“Well, pfff,” Jin scoffed. “That’s easy. He gave you a date and time, along with a place. It’s a meeting. You know-” Jin paused looking around. “Fire talking? Using the floo network?”
“Fire talking?” Jungkook asked.
“Well gosh, I’d have expected Hoseok not to know, but the rest of you? You all come from wizarding families. Haven’t you ever traveled by floo?”
“Yes, but that doesn’t work in Hogwarts. Only in the Headmistress’s office,” Namjoon said.
“Fire talking isn’t regulated. Harry Potter used to do it all the time in the castle. You just have to be at the fire when Yoongi makes the call, and you’ll see his face. He can speak to us.”
“How do you know this?” Jimin asked, unsure.
“My mom did a piece on methods of communication we don’t use enough in the Daily Prophet a few months ago. She wouldn’t stop raving about how we don’t nearly use the floo enough,” Jin said, and Hoseok saw Namjoon quietly freak out at the mention of Jin’s author mother. Jin either didn’t notice, or chose not to. “But to me, it sounds like Yoongi wants to set up a fire chat on the 14th at 6. Great time too, that way everyone will be at the dance.”
“Which fire?” Jungkook asked.
Namjoon flipped the letter over, and a small snake was imprinted on the front.
“I’m going to assume the Slyytherin common room.”
“It could just be his family crest,” Jimin said.
“Maybe, but the Slytherin common room makes sense. No teachers hang out there, and it’ll be quiet.” Hoseok mumbled.
“Then it’s settled. We meet Yoongi then. All of us have to be there,” Namjoon said.
“But the dance,” Jimin whined. “I love Yoongi, but-”
“We can use it as our cover. We all go, show face for a bit, then leave to see Yoongi. Just make sure you get a date who won’t mind being ditched,” Jin said.
“It’d be. . . uh, you know, easier if we just went together. You know, pair us all up. That way, we’re all in on it,” Namjoon sputtered, and the room went quiet. “I could, uh, go with you Jin Hyung.”
Jimin face-palmed.
Jin seemed to be unable to respond, so Hoseok answered for him.
“Yes, Jin Hyung would love to go with you Joon. Jimin and Jungkook can go together, and I’ll go by myself. It all works out!”
“Wait, wait, wait-”
“No way in hell am I being seen with him at the dance!”
“Everyone will think we’re dating!”
Jungkook and Jimin started whining and complaining, until Hoseok shot them a deadly glare.
“We’re doing it this way, and that’s final. I’ve waited too god damn long for this to be messed up by bonehead underclassmen.”
“. . . who’s god and why are you damning him?” Jimin asked.
Hoseok face-palmed.