They say when your life is about to shake they’d be signs, a dead pigeon at your window, an upside down pie, even a floating hen, anything that would show you that all would not be the same, but as Liu Yangyang walked out of the train, as he stared at the looming figure that is Hogwarts School of Wizardery and Witchcraft, nothing had changed, well except his hair color maybe.
It was his second year when it all began, puberty had just began to rear its ugly face, softening instead of hardening his features, maybe that’s why his mother had told him to die his hair white, maybe they had decided if he was to be fair, then fair he shall, not that he is complaining though, his skin, hair joined with the green and silver, makes him look less like one of them—the snakes that is, he doesn’t even understand why sorting is required, left for him it’d have been demolished the moment the war ended, but his father had told him it was so that they could find their peers, those who were the same as they, but what could he ever have in common as they? And while his father had laughed and told him that his house really never matters in the long run, he knew he was disappointed, and who wouldn’t be, who would want a child dark enough to be in the same house as ‘he who still shouldn’t be named’—maybe then they’d let him try again, talk to the hat, plead with him even, he had heard the boy-who-lived had done it too during his time, therefore there had to be a way, at least that was what he thought till he met him, his very first friend, and maybe the reason why his life crumpled at his feet, Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul—everyone calls him Ten he had come to know—he had been walking out of the train station when he bumped into him, this was his year to ride in the carriage, carriages said to have been dragged by thestrals,—he had wanted to be extra clean for that experience—scaly creatures who were rumored to carry the souls of the dead, and he wanted to look nice, but it was all for naught when he fell from the bump, dirtying his cloak, he had been ready to scream, to even raise his wand and fire a spell or two, but was stopped when he saw the green and sliver of his house, patterned with black hair and cream colored skin, an involuntary gulp was all that followed the encounter, and for a while they only stared at each other, before a face splitting grin broke from the snapped jaw of the man that was above him, his eyes shining just a little, and unknowingly he too started to relax, his face itching to smile too. They had talked a bit after that, he found out he was muggleborn—he never knew muggleborns were allowed into Slytherin, had always thought that it was exclusively purebloods with the occasional Half-blood—and a mix of different ethnicity, which he felt was an amazing thing, he being technically mixed too, he had also found out he was in his sixth year already, apparently he couldn’t wait to leave it all behind—when he had asked what it was he wanted to leave behind, he’d chuckled and asked him what year he was in?, When he had told him he shook his head a little and touched his forehead then whispered, “I hope you never find out”—he wanted to start his life far away from the Wizarding community as a whole.
For some odd reason he had refused to leave his side from that moment, he had deemed himself his “older brother” had even gotten him to call him “p’ten”, but with him also came others, others he would forever call his brothers, first came Huang Xu Xi, or Lucas, who was Hufflepuff but you’d never be able to tell from first glance, he was a year above him and he had walked with this girth that he had only thought applied to the house of lions, but then he spoke and he understood why he was placed in the house of Badgers, he spoke with such purity, and reverence for his friends, not like he serves them, but like he’d be able to given the right incentive, he had stared at them both like the thought of broadening their friend circle was the best thing he’d ever been a part of, he smiled a lot, talked a bit more, and always looked, watched more like it, like he was seeing through all that he had built, he had found out he was half Thai like Ten, and maybe that was how they met, they never talked about it, their meeting that is… but maybe that’s for the best.
He had met Xiao Dejun next, and he’d like to say they had hit it off at the very start, that there was a spark of something just right there when they first met, but that’d be a lie, they weren’t on bad terms, far from it even—he’s not even sure one is able to be on bad terms with Xiaojun—they had a lot in common even, and that right there was the issue, he couldn’t understand why then he was in the house he was in and he was in the house of the good if they were so alike, and every time he’d see him in his red and gold, bitterness would fill his throat and he’d have to look away or bite his tongue, then one day he saw him read out a whole textbook to a student in a lower class than him, purely because they said they couldn’t figure out a word, whilst he had a test the next day that he still hadn't studied for, and he realized what it was he had, complete and utter lack of care for self—and he having it, does that necessarily make him evil?—that was the day he vowed to be his voice of healthy selfishness, they’d been inseparable since.
Then he met Wong Kunhang… and now that he thinks back maybe he was the cause of all this, for without him they’d never had even seen him. Meeting him was the most simple of all the meetings… and maybe that should’ve been his clue, he had been reading—or at least trying to read—in the library, when he had walked in, and sat beside him, he had refused to look up—What you don’t see, doesn’t exist as they say—till he snatched his parchment from beneath his hands and hummed and said; “I’m doing a good deed a day, for twenty-four hours I’d be your friend”… apparently his twenty-four hours hadn’t ended yet.
This was when his happily ever after crashed, because with Hendery came the rest of his ‘pack’, Kun, Win-win, Yuta, Taeyong—who were all amazing, and who he’d happily talked with, if it wasn’t for the bad egg in their midst—Haung Ren jun. The first time he had met them both, Haung was standing above a cowering boy, his wand drawn, and he had drawl in a smooth silky voice, “run”, and the boy had picked up all his possession and ran like he was escaping the Lions den, and he never told his friends, but seeing him, with his green and silver cloak, he had seen everything he had grown up dreading about the house of snakes in one person, and he had seen what he might become, and he had dreaded it, dreaded him, and when he saw him again when he was getting introduce to him ‘officially’ and he had the galls to pretend like he wasn’t the same person that had taken someone to their knees and watched them scurry off, had the galls to smile when he knew he was just thinking of ways to bring them all down, he no longer dreaded him, he hated him, and with him the rest of his friends—show me your friend and I would tell you who you are—Hendery being the one exception, he had still not completed his daily good deed yet.
Weirdly enough their meeting wasn’t horrible, he had always known how to feign interest, he was pureblood, small talk with the enemy was the kind of things he learnt before he even knew what learning was, he had been perfectly polite and he had talked to them all, he had watched them all pretend that they weren’t evil, or that they weren’t condoning evil—he had found out that Yuta and Taeyong were in their seventh year, and were together, found out that Kun was in his sixth, and was a perfect, apparently he was sure fire for head boy, Winwin was in his fifth year and he had smiled, laughed, and pulled him closer towards them—he wonders how they all were friends with someone like Renjun—and when it was time to meet him, he shook his head “I know him”, that seemed to snap him from his thoughts, know him? They had never met before though, that was when he had looked at his face and finally seen the softening, the way they were little bits of red spots around, they were the same age… he was supposed to know him, he knew that—but who exactly did he even know truly in his house—but he would not be bullied into shame by such words, his lack of knowledge isn’t something to be afraid of, definitely nothing to be ashamed of,
“I’m sorry I wasn’t aware we knew each other” when in doubt be polite.
He blinked, “I said I knew you, you don’t have to know me for that to happen”
His mouth opened and closed, and he just sat down, and his mind was promptly dug up from the dirt by Hendery’s chatter, which he hummed and moved his head to.
That was all for the conversation they had, but it seemed like with him being aware of his existence, he had been kicked out of his own story and had been trussed into; Remember Renjun, the tale of one man and how many lives he’d scar by the end of his seven years.
Everyday he’d hear, “Did you see-”, “Have you heard-” “I heard-” “My partner in Slytherin said-” “I can’t believe you slept through-” “How did you miss-” “You’re in the same house-” “Do you think-” always to do with Renjun, and at a point he got tired, who wouldn’t be, he had wanted to forget he ever existed, instead he got a constant reminder of his presence, but more than anything he got curious—maybe they should’ve taken him to Ravenclaw instead, he’d take the ravens over the snakes any day—he had called Lucas one day asking for information about him, and he had just stared at him—a thing he had gotten used to at this point—and then busted into incredulous laughter—the fact he knew how to label his laughter, was ridiculous to say the least, daunting to say the most—and just kept staring at him, his lips stretched into a wide smile, he had rolled his eyes and dragged him all the way to a random room.
“You’ve got to be joking right?”
He looked up at him and stared, “I’m being serious Lucas, tell me what you know, please”
“Oh wow, oh okay what do you want to know?”
“I don’t know… anything, nothing?, He's friends with Hendery and I just want to know him”
“But aren’t Taeyong, Yuta, Kun and Winwin, also his friends? Don’t you want to know about them too?”
He sighed and pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose, and shook his head, “What do you want Lucas?”
He smiled, the leaned in conspicuously, and whispered “Gossip” and leaned back to the wall where they were standing beside, in a weird corner of the abandoned classroom.
He blinked, “Isn’t that a bit stereotypical, Hufflepuff and gossip”
He felt rather than see Lucas close up, the air chilled a tad beat, and he dealt all joy and teasing got ripped out of the conversation as a whole, when he spoke he remembered for a second that if you offended a Hufflepuff, no one would ever take your side, if you’re a Slytherin who offended a Hufflepuff, not even the headmistress would take your side.
“and?”
“w-what?”
“I said, and?, What is so wrong with ‘stereotypes’, I’m Hufflepuff, I’m helpful, I am loyal to a fault, and I’m hardworking, I’m named Lucas and I am sports junky, who loves to gossip, what’s so terrible about stereotypes? Aren’t we all trying to be happy in the end?, Isn’t all that really matters that we came out better than who we were, what is so wrong with the stereotypes that you’re deemed as scum if you don’t spend your seven years trying to break every single one-” he looked him straight in the eye, and his face softened a bit, and once again he just stared at him,
“What’s so wrong with being ambitious, having a clear defined goal in life, in dreaming big and working tirelessly, in getting them, what is so wrong with a bit of cunning? Why is that so wrong? What is so wrong with something that could take you so far in life, who do you think rule this world? Hufflepuff? No, Ravenclaw in all their knowledge? Gryffindor in all their brashness and hero like ‘qualities’? No, it’s the Slytherins, with their cunning and their nerves of steel, the ones not angered by momentarily defeat, those are the people at the pinnacle of society, and do let anyone tell you otherwise, but being cunning doesn’t mean backstabber my father once told me that at the time of Harry Potter himself, the sorting hat had sang, “You’d make your real friends” for Slytherin, what had the sorting house said about your house in your year, I’d never forget what he had sang for Hufflepuff in my first year, it’s all that keeps me going some nights, it had sang in all its majesty, it’s infinite wisdom, “Or to Hufflepuff, do not be fooled, they hold the world, by the kindness of their hearts” it was like it was singing straight to me, what did the hat sing about your house?” he stared straight at him, and he could feel tears prickle, sliding down his face, in singular strips.
“It said, ‘Or would you find yourself in the house of Slytherin, the house of snakes does bite, the weak shall fall, and only the best of the best could make it past their venom’”
He smiled, and cleaned a strip of year from his eyes, “aren’t you the best of the best?”
He chuckled, “I’m not sure, that’s what it meant”
“Potato, patata, everything is relative, I for one think there is a venom that comes with the green, the prejudice that was dropped on your heads, and only the best of best, the strongest could make it past, and I believe without a doubt that you are” he smiled, and again they stayed there for a while.
Till he broke the silence with a loud whoop, “Okay now that we’re done with all the philosophical things, on to more fun things, Renjun you say-”
He had learnt that he had entered with a bang, the first half-blood in a couple of years to be sorted into Slytherin, some even say he was the first since the half-blood prince himself, and he had wasted no time showing them he was not one to be messed with, but his name hadn’t been as spoken about till the middle of the year when they heard a third year—Jenifer Debott—a Ravenclaw muggle-born, tell Yuta and Taeyong that they were going to hell, that they were sinners, he had climbed the table and shouted, “Hey pigtails, what religion are you?”, “Christian” she screamed back, he had bent and chucked he said, and shook his head, then raised himself, and shouted with a large grin, “Aren’t you going to hell, aren’t we all going to hell, even Harry Potter?” she had paused, “What?”, “or you didn’t know?, You’re a witch pigtails, witches don't get heaven, your parents might even be the one to take you to your eternal damnation, do you have any parents pigtails? Did they tell what the holy book says about witches?, It says ‘Thou shall not suffer a witch to live’ pigtails, aren’t you a witch?” the roar that followed he claims was ‘epic’—he had told him he wonders why he never knew any of these, he couldn’t possibly tell him that he had not eaten a single meal till the end of term feast in the table of snakes, out of fear and embarrassment in his first year, so he had chuckled and rubbed the back of his mean saying that he was very oblivious to his environment—his name had never left the mouths of people since.
“What of his friends?”
“Which?”
“Which?”
“Yes which? His group with Hendery, or the 00s”
“The what?”
“The 00s his own little clan, occupied by him, Lee Je no—a Hufflepuff—Lee Dong Hyuck—Haechan, Slytherin, your year mate, actually they are all your year mates—Na Jaemin—Ravenclaw—and lastly Osaki Shotaro—Hufflepuff and the only person you’re older than—so who do you want to know about?”
“Everyone”
“You sure?”
He nodded
“Fine then, The oldest, Lee Taeyong, currently in seventh year, head-boy, Ravenclaw, he was born and raised in Seoul and would have schooled there if not for the exchange program Hogwarts had started to do, bless our headmistress soul-”
“That’s not what I want to know, and you know it”
“Sigh-”
“Did you just say ‘sigh’?” he chuckled
“I’m stressed okay, leave me alone right now”
“Fine, but I hope you know that isn’t normal—saying sigh not being stressed—please tell me what I want to hear”
“Okay, Lee Taeyong the oldest in their group, He’s the head boy, first head boy to not have ever played a single match of Quidditch, they say he didn’t even try to get in, when his friends were going he had rolled his eyes and told them to be careful, he’s a perfectionist to the very core, his books are arranged in order of color of parchment-”
“Wait I thought all parchment where the same color?”
“Oh you’d think that, but apparently there is a difference in shade, he is very nice though, always seen helping you get years, his motto is ‘Lets be good people’, his currently in a relationship with Nakamato Yuta, has been for three years now, and they are sickly cute, not the kind of ‘no I love you more, no you, no’ or the kind of walk you to all your classes even though we do half alone and the other half with people that are not in your houses, truly if you didn’t know they were in a relationship, you’d never have guessed it even, they have the ‘If you’d let me I’d take a crucio for you, but I know you would rather jump in front of the spell than let me do it’ kind of love, which for me is more touching, they are both graduating this year and there are rumors that they are getting married immediately after, with them being muggleborn there is no pressure for bloodlines or anything, no one really knows how they met, the people I know in seventh year said they came out of their boats together even, and had been close every since”
“wow, I learnt pretty much nothing, is this how all of them would be like?”
“Sadly yes, they are very private people, and I really haven’t even cared about their lives”
“Of course you haven’t, can I just get a summary, like who to avoid, who have been rumored to have killed, who to fear, that kinda stuffs”
“Fine, you’re no fun-”
“So I have been told”
“Kun, a sure for head boy, the very definition of what a head boy should look like, meticulous and fair, he had never had a single smudge in his record, never had a detention, never been caught outside after midnight-”
“Did you say, caught?”
He just smirked, “Yuta, prefect Gryffindor, has been in very few problems, loves transfiguration and Taeyong, first Japanese entry though, couldn’t speak much of English when he came, still has some problems, maybe that’s how he and Taeyong bonded-”
“Was he any good?”
“Oh no, he was shit at it too”
“Winwin, Hufflepuff, genius at dance, he’s in my house I’d know, his English is the worst I’ve ever seen, but for some odd reason his results are exquisite, I would think he’s cheating if I wasn’t a hundred percent sure he didn’t even know what that meant, he’s a very good kid-”
“Isn’t he like older than you with two years?”
“Shut up, or don’t you want to hear the fun parts, the 00s”
“Yes but why the name?”
“I have no idea, sucks doesn’t it?”
“Terribly”
“Well you can’t blame us, we’re the same community that our very saviors were called the Golden trio, we’re horrible at naming anything”
“Touché”
“Okay so, Jeno, he’s face would try to intimidate you, don’t let it, his Hufflepuff, and he’s the biggest softy in your whole year, he spends his day moaning at the lack of mangas and animes in school, and his nights working out, he’s the least of your worries”
“Next you have Haechan, who you should be a tad bit worried about, he has a sharp mouth, Slytherin true and true, he’d take the rubber band from your very hair in broad daylight, wrap it around his hair, and you’d not be able to prove anything-”
“Pureblood?”
“Yes, but also bloody brilliant”
“Jaemin, Ravenclaw, he wears braces, and he’s an only child, that’s all I know really about him”
“and lastly, my favorite, Shotaro, Hufflepuff, muggleborn and he really likes basketball and dancing, he dances with Winwin sometimes in our common room, they all met first year, and are still as close as they were then”
“That’s it?”
“Yep”
“Wow”
“Like I said private people”
“I can see that”
“Well maybe now that you’re friends with Hendery, you could find out more about them?”
“I rather not”
“Why?”
“I saw him picking on someone”
“He’s a second year like you, who could he have possibly been picking on?”
“I don’t know yet, but I’d find out soon enough”
“Wow… I think it’s getting late, let’s head back”
“Back?”
“Yeah back, to our common rooms”
“Oh yeah, do you know how?”
“You’ve gone and gotten us lost?”
“What do you expect, I’ve only been here for a year, I thought you knew where we’re going”
“How am I to know, you were the one leading”
“Why weren’t you watching?, This is child endangerment you know”
“One, I’m a year older than you, two, this is the same school that housed the king of snakes, in their pipes”
“Well tech-” he was shut up by a glare
“Touché”
“Better”
They spent a couple of minutes like that, before they decided to just walk till they got to where they were supposed to be, it took them what felt like hours before they found the snake that signified the house of snakes.
“Finally!, Well this is goodnight”
“Yeah, this was nice, let’s do the again sometime”
“What, get lost?”
He chuckled, “No, hangout, sometimes it seems like we aren’t even friends”
“True, we should”
There was silence
Then a cough, “This is getting awkward”
“Pfft, true, do you think I can get away with this?”
“Oh no, Ten is going to eat you up and spit you out”
“I was scared you’d say that, good night, I have to go beg my mother for forgiveness”
That got a laugh out of him, “Tell him to take mercy on us, we were just doing bonding exercises”
“So you want me to die?, Oh no, I’m going in there and telling him I would take all which is given to me because I feel pain and remorse, and hope he forgives me because I’m cute”
“Yeah, good luck with that, I just hope you’ve written me in your will”
“Of course, you get to keep my Dog-”
“You have a dog?” his eyes lit up and for a second YangYang felt remorse for what he was about to do, then he remembered this was something friends do,
“-bone, my dog bone”
“Why do you have dog bone?, Who has dog bone?”
“For dark magic”
“Of course, do you have the urine of a maggot too?”
“Oh no, potions that need such things are way to advance for me, I only have the belly button of the fifth cat to be birthed on the fifth day of the fift year of my existence, I’d use it for my fifth induction ceremony”
“Ahh, that makes sense, good night, before you’d have to come visit me in detention, see you tomorrow”
He turned and whispered the password, making his way into his common room mentally preparing himself for the reprimand he’d surfer in the hands of his self acclaimed “elder brother”, instead he was met by a lone figure standing at the side of the fire place, staring at the door, instead he was met with Huang Renjun in his PJs which really shouldn’t have been as funny looking as it was for him.
“Waiting for someone?”
“You actually”
“Me?”
“Yes, I heard you were asking around 'bout me”
“What? From whom?”
“The castle isn’t as big as you think it is Liu, the very classes whisper secrets to those who listen”
“Of course, they do”
He smirked, and it chilled his very core, it looked promising, like he had glimpsed at the future and he had seen that his next words were law,
“I’m just saying, ask questions and I would know”
He swallowed, “Really? And what would you do about it”
“Depends really”
“on?”
“What you do”
He squeaked a little
“Goodbye Liu, sleep tight”
With that he walked back to the room they all shared, it took a couple of minutes for him to catch his breath and remind himself that there was nothing he could really do, that it was all a bluff, that he was a liar, a slimy, bluffing liar, who he had led him into a trap,—in hindsight, maybe he wasn’t going to be able to survive this venom—maybe this is a sign to just let them all go.
The next day Hendery left his table and walked towards theirs, placing himself right by his side, drawing Renjun from where he was to seat besides him, smashing him in-between them both, and that was when he realized that maybe letting go wasn’t what the universe designed.
He didn’t like him though, not one bit, he looked old, too old, like he had seen all and had felt it too meaningless for him, but he was a package deal with people he actually came to adore, he had to make do, so by third year they were one big content family, they had known not to place them in the same seat, not to let them be alone, and they—or at least he—had learnt that he shouldn’t think of using a reducto every time he feels his presence.
By fourth year they had their first actual conversation, which truly was born out of desperation, than any need to fix the battered and burnt bridge that was their life.
Being without Ten really for him was the only reason he decided to make this effort, he hadn’t understood how much Ten's presence had been a sort of shield for him, now that he had no one in Slytherin—even their head of house doesn’t talk to him—they had all seemed to think he was easy prey, though he had showed them, it was taking time out of his studies which was something that couldn’t drop, the only thing keeping him sane.
So here he was, standing in a room he never even knew existed waiting for a boy he had thought he would never have to see alone, who still seems to scare him, who had grown taller, and decided to follow in Lucas' footsteps with jewelry, while he had not pierced his ears like Lucas, he had taken to wearing necklaces, and bedazzled wristbands, who is now standing above where he sat with the blank look he’d always wore, who could still annoy him for the very reason that he was still above someone, today it was him, another day it’d be someone who had the misfortune of crossing him.
“What do you want Liu?”
He stood to his feet, and whipped the dirt from his cloak, “Protection”
“From”
“The snakes”
“The snakes? You talk like you aren’t one of us”
He closed his eyes, “I never said that”
“You don’t have to”
“I-”
“How do you ever expect they’d leave you alone if your don’t first allow yourself be captured”
“Would-”
“We aren’t as bad as the stories say, we wouldn’t cook you in your sleep, and we wouldn’t turn you evil by association”
“I know that”
“No, I don’t think you do Liu, but that’s okay, why do you think I’d help you even?”
“That’s why I’m here, I want to know what I can give you in exchange, there has to be something”
“You have nothing I want”
“Then a favor, anytime, any where, you can cash it in and I’d do whatever you want”
“A pretty desperate move Liu, never have placed you as desperate”
“Well then, there are things you don’t know… who would’ve thought”
He smiled, a small flimsy thing, but a smile nonetheless, “I don’t think this is an offer you’d want to give a snake, Liu”
“I know”
“And yet you do, why?”
“Like you said, I’m desperate”
“Well then, I’ve never been able to say no to a pretty face, or offer”
“Shake on it?” he drew his hand forward
“I hope you know this means we’d be spending an awful lot of time together, some alone? To show closeness”
He gulped “I know, shake on it”
“And you’d keep your end of this deal?”
“Of course, my word is my pact, I would never break a promise”
He smiled at that, and it was wickedly beautiful, he stretched out his arm, and he clasped them around his, and it felt like he had sold his very soul to the devil.
And maybe in a way,
He did.