“GRYFFINDOR!!” The silly hat on the bench shouts after five minutes sitting on Jungkook’s head, and the students dressed in red and gold at one of the four tables scream at the top of their lungs while throwing their arms into the air. Some of them are banging their goblets against the table.
Yoongi winces at the obnoxious sound. He doesn’t remember what the Gryffindor House stands for, but he does know one thing: he’s going to Gryffindor with Jungkook. He has to.
Jungkook walks down with shaking legs and his eyes catches Yoongi’s, and they look so scared and nervous Yoongi wants to barge through the crowd and envelop the boy in a bear hug. But that would only bring trouble, so he does his best to smile encouragingly.
Jungkook forces a smile back before sitting down at the very edge of the Gryffindor table, flinching away from hands trying to pat his back and ruffle his hair.
Yoongi swallows down his anger. Nobody touches his Jungkook.
Yoongi crosses his arms on his chest, and when he glances over his shoulder out of habit, he sees multiple students looking away and several conversations stopping.
Yoongi looks different, that much he knows. He’s inhumanely good-looking and inhumanely pale with snow-white hair and pale blue eyes, all of those due to his Veela genes, and he’s Asian, so people tend to stare. But those stares are making him uncomfortable.
And besides, the fact that Yoongi and Jungkook are literally the only two students waiting to be sorted into Houses is unusual. They’re transfer students from Durmstrang Academy coming to Hogwarts at the start of the second term of the year. It’s only natural that people stare a lot.
“Min, Yoongi!” McGonagall shouts, and Yoongi takes a shuddering breath before walking forward, walking into everyone’s focus and sitting down on the bench, allowing McGonagall to place the Hat on top of his head. He closes his eyes, hoping he can magically escape everyone’s stare.
The Hat stays silent for a few seconds. Yoongi, not known for anything remotely close to patient, starts swearing in his head. “Come on,” He whispers, hoping that the Hat can somehow hear him. Is that what the Hat does? “I know you’re probably sick of shuffling kids into those Houses after all those years so why don’t you put me into Gryffindor and get this over with?”
Then the Hat chuckles, seemingly from all around Yoongi. “Oh, I like this one.” Yoongi feels the Hat turning sideways. “Hey, Professor McGonagall, remember his face. This is going to be one hell of a student.”
“Shut up.” Yoongi and McGonagall say at the same time.
“Let’s see what we got here, Yoongi Min . . .” The Hat turns back and Yoongi can almost feel the Hat flipping through every single thought that has ever passed through his mind, and suddenly feels a little uncomfortable.
“Definitely a perfect fit for Ravenclaw,” The Hat mutters. “The creativity here is legendary. You’re multilingual, good. Ooh, what’s this I see here? You can see colors just from listening to music? Awesome. A great inventor too, aren’t you? But not the conventional kind of inventor . . .” Yoongi imagines the Hat squinting. “. . . an inventor of music, wow. You can magically weave scattered ideas into a masterpiece and random words into flowing lyrics!”
“Not Ravenclaw,” Yoongi says curtly. “Not a chance. I don’t want Ravenclaw. I want Gryffindor.”
“Alright, alright,” the Hat sighs. “Moving on. Hufflepuff . . . yeah, you could be a Hufflepuff, too. Tough on the outside, but a softie on the inside, are you not? Hehe. Just wait until you find a girlfriend, she’ll definitely enjoy dating someone with such a unique mix of characters. Or a boyfriend, if you’re gay. I totally won’t judge.”
“Oh my fucking god,” Yoongi says through gritted teeth.
“You said you want Gryffindor, didn’t you?” The Hat says. “You definitely have the bravery. Diagnosed with ADHD? Even better. You have the impulse and determination, and the constant urge for action is perfect for a warrior. A Gryffindor.”
Yoongi flinches when he hears about the ADHD part. “I appreciate you acknowledging the fact that I’d be a perfect Gryffindor, but if you bring up anything personal again I will burn you with my old underwear,” Yoongi snarls a little.
The Hat whistles, seemingly not spooked at all. “Intense. Now, the last House. Slytherin.”
There’s a few moments of silence. “Well?” Yoongi’s getting impatient again.
“You’re sarcastic, shrewd, and snarky,” The Hat finally says. “Manipulating people around with just words comes natural to you. You didn’t care about morals when you dueled those students who tried to harm your friend . . . that Jungkook, isn’t it? . . . who killed some students in an uncontrollable outrage, and you risked your own safety to affect the judge, who was going to give Jungkook a life sentence in Azkaban. You . . .”
“Stop.” Yoongi’s eyes are squeezed shut and his fingers dig into his arms, which are crossed on his chest. “I told you not to do that. I didn’t say you could read my mind. Just fucking put me in Gryffindor!”
He remembers Jungkook’s fearful eyes meeting his, and his heart clenches. He can’t leave Jungkook alone in that completely chaotic and terribly loud House.
“Like all great Slytherins, you’ll dedicate yourself to seek one thing in life.” The Hat says slowly. “Let me see. You can’t care less about sex. That’s a good thing. Money? No, that’s not it. Perhaps it’s power? Do you want to be the Minister? The ruler of the world?”
“No,” Yoongi hisses, putting as much venom as he can into his voice.
“Not power, then. Ah!” The Hat suddenly shouts, making Yoongi wince. “In case you haven’t noticed yet, Yoongi Min, your deepest desire in life is freedom. Freedom to learn everything you want, including some fields of study that others may deem dangerous. Freedom to be who you are without needing to hide. Freedom to express yourself without needing to care about others’ opinions. And oh, not freedom for just yourself. You want freedom for those like you. You have quite some big hopes in your head, young man.”
“Enough of your bullshit.” Yoongi grunts, not wanting to admit that everything the Hat just said is probably right. “Put me in Gryffindor. Akkurat nå.”
Yeah. If the Hat doesn’t know Norwegian, Yoongi’s native tongue, then fuck it.
He tries sending out waves of emotions and detecting a more humane part of the Hat so that he can affect the Hat’s emotions, but there’s simply nothing for him to grasp like he can whenever he tries doing it with humans.
“Your tricks don’t work on me.” The Hat laughs. “And besides, the fact that you’re asking me to put you into a particular House and that you’re even trying to trick your way to make me put you in that House is too Slytherin.”
“No,” Yoongi whispers, his eyes flying open.
“Sorry, kid. But it’s the right thing to do.” The Hat says solemnly. “One day this decision will save not just your friend’s, but millions of other people’s lives.”
He opens his eyes and is greeted with at least a thousand students staring at him, waiting for the Hat to shout out his House. His eyes find Jungkook, who stares up at him with panicked wide eyes. Jungkook looks so scared, and Yoongi is sure that he himself looks like that too.
He doesn’t fucking care that he’ll save a million people’s lives. He would personally burn the world down to its last atom if it means he can reunite with Jungkook.
But the first part of what the Hat says . . . he’ll save Jungkook’s life one day. Maybe this is going to be worth it.
“SLYTHERIN!” The Hat announces, but its voice is more like his death sentence like anything else.
Yoongi’s completely in a daze. He’s going to spend three and a half years in Hogwarts, and five more years in Hogwarts college, away from Jungkook, unable to protect him from hate and discrimination. What the fuck is he supposed to do with that?
“Shh,” Yoongi presses a finger to his lips before pushing the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room open. He can see Jungkook nodding in the dark and following him.
It’s the second night they spend here in Hogwarts, and Yoongi is already fucking mad that Jungkook’s almost never in his sight. Them being in separate years is worse enough; putting them in different Houses? Seriously? How cruel is the Hat to do this to them?
Yoongi’s going to fucking shred the Hat to pieces someday.
The Slytherin Common Room is probably (definitely) not the warmest place partly because it’s literally located in the Great Lake (the other part being there’s no Jungkook there, obviously), but the fireplace still does its job, making the room at least pretty cozy.
They sneak past the common room and head to the boys’ dorm, but then someone bumps into Yoongi’s shoulder, hard.
A Slytherin kid, probably one or two years older than Yoongi, stand tall in front of them with his buffy arms crossed. The menacing look on his angular face might look scary to wimps, but not Yoongi.
“Who do you think you are, Min, to smuggle in a Gryffindor?” The boy snarls in that silly British accent, spit flying everywhere. “Do you not know the rules here?”
“From where I came from, rules are that if you don’t fit, you don’t survive.” Yoongi snarls back, gritting his teeth. “Now fuck off before I cut your head off that big fat neck.”
“You might want to watch your mouth there, Min.” The boy sneers gleefully. Two more boys with equally buff arms appear behind the bully and glare down at Yoongi, who’s pretty short even among his own year.
“Give me a reason to.” Yoongi spits, not backing down at all. “We’ll see who’s gonna be the one crying for his mama tonight.”
“Get him, Skyes.” One of the stupidly buff guys encourages the one who provoked Yoongi first. “Punch the guts out of that little wanker.”
Yoongi turns a little when he feels Jungkook tugging at his sleeves and does not expect at all to see Jungkook’s eyes flaming with rage, the black mists of his Obscurus parasite seeping out of his feet in the dark.
“Yoongi hyung. Is not. A wanker.” Jungkook hisses, his voice a thousand times harsher and angrier than his normally gentle and soft voice. Yoongi vaguely wonders how long it’s going to take Jungkook’s cute accent to fade out. “Don’t talk to my Yoongi hyung like that.”
Yoongi looks down to see the boy unsheathing his wand, gripping it tightly as if trying to snap it in half.
“Oh, hey there, fetus.” Skyes bends down mockingly to match Jungkook’s height. “Do you miss your mommy? Did she forget to change your diaper?”
That was the last straw right there.
But before Yoongi can do anything else, Jungkook’s fist flies towards Skyes, punching him straight in the face. The Obscurus mist behind him forms a fist that is ten times the normal size and mirrors Jungkook’s movement, punching the boy to the ground.
“Fick dich, Arschloch!” Jungkook screams. He’s practically sitting on top of Skyes and punching blood out of the sad fucker.
And yes, Yoongi knows German. It’s almost mandatory for students in Durmstrang to learn multiple languages, including English, since they’re practically from all over Europe, all of them speaking a different language. Yoongi’s first language is Norwegian and his second is German. He’s fluent in English, Russian, and Serbian too, and knows enough Albanian to chat in it.
Yoongi quickly casts a silencing charm to muffle Skyes’ scream and faces the other two, trusting Jungkook to do his business. “Leaves you two suckers with me,” He sneers.
Without another warning, Yoongi swishes his wand and the next moment the ground is rumbling and shifting right under their feet,
Following Yoongi’s hand movement, a giant piece of ground the height of a grown-up man spikes up, its razor-sharp tip pointing directly at one of the boys’ eyeball, inches close to impaling it. The boy freezes, color draining from his face instantly and lets out a blood-curdling scream that would’ve waken up the entire school if Yoongi hadn’t placed that silencing spell.
Yoongi smirks as he wills more spikes to poke up from the floor, causing more panic than any real harm. All he needs is to scare those bastards off.
Jungkook definitely has other ideas, because when Yoongi turns to check on him, his fists, both his physical and parasitical ones, are covered in Skyes’ blood. The wrath in his eyes are way wilder and angrier than what Yoongi remembers it to ever be.
It scares him a little.
“Jungkookie,” Yoongi shouts, grabbing the boy’s wrist firmly. Jungkook whips around meets Yoongi’s eyes, all the anger gone. “Tu es nicht.”
“Okay,” Jungkook says in English, his voice shaky from the adrenaline rush. He must’ve caught on the look on Yoongi’s face because Jungkook’s face turns from angry to pliant to fear. “I’m sorry, I swear. I didn’t mean to, he was calling you that and I got angry but I couldn’t control it, please.”
“No one’s blaming you, kid.” Yoongi ruffles Jungkook’s fluffy brown hair and hugs the boy close, ignoring the blood that’s staining on his shirt. “Thank you for standing up for me.”
Jungkook immediately beams, with no sign of anger on his face. This kid. “One day I’ll be even stronger than you and protect you from all the mean people!” He exclaims loudly.
Normally Yoongi would be up for a challenge like this, but this is Jungkookie. Yoongi would willingly lose to this kid if it brings a smile to his face. He’d do anything, really.
He remembers how the Hat told him about sorting him into Slytherin. The Hat had said that it would save Jungkook’s life. So far it sounds like total bullshit because if Yoongi wasn’t sorted to Slytherin, they wouldn’t have had to sneak around and face these bullies and put Jungkook in danger.
“Thanks, Kookie.” Yoongi still smiles, hugging Jungkook, who is oblivious to Yoongi’s internal turmoil close.
“No!” Yoongi screams when he sees the Death Eater preparing to a curse at Jungkook’s direction. The boy is completely oblivious to his impending doom, his eyes still darting around looking for Yoongi.
Yoongi throws himself towards the Death Eater and lights up his arms with scalding flames. His searing fist connect with the Death Eater’s jaw, evoking a loud scream from the bastard. Yoongi easily takes advantage from his immunity to heat and pins the guy, who’s nearly two times larger than him, down to the ground effortlessly.
The curse is fired and from the distance, Yoongi can hear Jungkook’s loud and long string of curse words. From the corner of Yoongi’s eyes he can see the sparks the curse makes . . . it’s not green, so thank fuck.
Please be okay, Yoongi prays to whatever irresponsible deity up there. Be okay for me.
“You bastard!” Yoongi screams in the Death Eater’s ear and grabs at his face, smiling a little too cruelly at how his blazing hands hiss against the fucker’s skin, which sizzles as flesh and skin gets burnt. It only takes a few moments for the guy to literally burn to ashes alive.
Someone grabs his collar from behind and pulls him back. He screeches loudly and flings his arms around to regain balance.
“Look who we have here,” A woman with wild black hair and lunatic dark eyes coos, her wand pressing firmly and painfully into Yoongi’s temple. Yoongi barely has enough willpower to stop himself from screaming, because he recognizes this face from his History of Magic textbook as none other than Bellatrix Lestrange. “You just made me lose my prey, pretty boy.”
Fuck. Is he going to die?
“You touch him once and I’ll snap your neck so slowly you feel your every neck bone cracking before you die.” Yoongi hisses through his clenched teeth, his voice coming out steadier than he expects. A spark flies out of his fingernail.
“I wouldn’t try any of that, sweetie.” Bellatrix singsongs, waltzing around him playfully while keeping her wand at Yoongi’s temple. She caresses his Slytherin tie that’s still on his chest flirtatiously. “But since you’re a Slytherin, and admittedly an outstanding one like myself, I’ll keep you alive for now and deliver you to my Lord.”
Yoongi isn’t stupid enough to not know who “my Lord” is.
He has two options. He can fight and likely get himself, along with Jungkook who must be hurt from that curse, killed while only managing to injure Bellatrix lightly, or he can pliantly follow Bellatrix and probably get himself killed while diverting the Death Eaters’ attention from Jungkook and allowing the boy to run for his life.
It’s pretty obvious which one Yoongi should choose.
“Good boy.” Bellatrix laughs hysterically at his silence and ruffles his hair, making Yoongi incredibly tense. He never liked physical contact much, especially from stranger and assholes. He resists the urge to slap her hand back. “I can’t wait for the fun we’ll have, young Slytherin!”
At least the Hat was right, Yoongi thinks bitterly as Bellatrix drags him deeper into the woods. If I hadn’t been Slytherin, me and Jungkook would’ve been dead.
“What are you thinking?” Jungkook asks gently and offering Yoongi the third cup of hot chocolate with singing marshmallows. He must’ve noticed Yoongi spacing out during movie night.
“I just remembered how angry I was when the Hat sorted me into Slytherin,” Yoongi grumbles, his voice scratchy from the bad cold he caught a few days ago.
“It’s supposed to be a movie plus Christmas cuddle night, but whatever.” Jimin pouts from the other end of the sofa.
They’re currently squeezing themselves into the sofa in Seokjin’s chamber and binge-watching Muggle movies that involve people fighting monsters. Yoongi can’t remember much from the movies expect for that dude wearing an iron suit just because it’s the guy Jungkook keeps getting excited about (“It’s Tony Stark, hyung, not Tony Stank.).
“Seriously, though, I was so angry.” Yoongi chews on a singing marshmallow, whose song gets all twisted between Yoongi’s teeth. “The Hat was so adamant. I felt like dying when I couldn’t see Jungkook every day.”
“Remember that time when I punched Skyes so hard?” Jungkook chuckles, nuzzling into Yoongi’s neck cutely. “It was the first time I consciously got violent. The turning point of my life.”
“Skyes?” Hoseok frowns as he turns off the TV and ends the ending credits. “That guy who made Namjoon drown years ago?”
“Yeah.” Jungkook shrugs. “Good thing he got expelled.”
“An asshole through and through.” Namjoon tosses a popcorn into his mouth and glares when Taehyung catches the popcorn mid-air and eats it for himself. “I take that back. Taehyung’s the real asshole.”
“I’m wounded,” Taehyung gasps dramatically and rubs his heart.
“You can let go of me, you know,” Jungkook says against Yoongi’s neck. “I’m all grown up now. Let me protect you. Baby you when you’re sick and carry you around when you’re hurt.”
“That ain’t happening.” Yoongi shakes his head stubbornly. “I’m the hyung here. It’s my duty.”
“You’ll get tired, hyung.” Jungkook wraps his arms around Yoongi’s cocoon of blankets. “Let me take care of you for once.”
“No.” Yoongi shakes his head again.
Now that he’s staring at Jungkook, he knows the boy has changed and grown. He’s still the sweet and gentle boy Yoongi remembers who followed him around in their first years at Durmstrang and Hogwarts, but now Jungkook’s grown to be charming, independent, just, caring, perfect. Yoongi practically raised Jungkook, but now Jungkook feels like a stranger he’s bumped into the other day to him.
“That’s so sweet,” Taehyung suddenly says, much to everyone else’s confusion. “Isn’t there a word for that kind of emotion? Recognizing things that seem, for some reason, unfamiliar?”
“Jamais vu,” Jimin pipes up. “French word.”
“I’m still the Jungkook you love, hyung.” Jungkook’s big hand brushes over Yoongi’s forehead briefly, testing his temperature every thirty seconds. The small gesture warms Yoongi’s heart. “But now you can lean on me if you need me.”
“Yeah, right.” Yoongi grumbles, but doesn’t resist Jungkook’s attempt to side-hug him.
Maybe it’s not so bad after all.