Sometimes Byulyi really resents being in Slytherin.

Like, okay, maybe being able to scare people off just by looking at them is pretty cool, and it's sweet that their entire Quidditch team is endorsed by the captain’s parents, but still - she just wants to be treated like any other student from one of the ‘nicer’ houses.

Seriously. Is Gryffindor considered to be the best and most heroic house? Byulyi detests Gryffindor. And not because of all the pure blood nonsense - Byulyi’s a proud half-blood - but because Gryffindors always find a way to torment her and ruin her day. And they say Slytherin is bad. She can tolerate Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, mostly because they don't scream Levicorpus!  at her in the hallway and laugh and dangle her in the air by the ankle until she curses them with a jinx or transfigures them into a mushroom.

The discrimination against Slytherin is blindingly obvious even just between inter-house relations. Classmates? Okay, fine.  Tablemates? If they're forced to. Friends? Uh, maybe not. Relationships? H - E - L - L  N-O.

So, basically, it makes it a lot for Byulyi to have the most humongous crush she'd ever had in her entire life on a Hufflepuff student. And not just any Hufflepuff student, a female Hufflepuff student. And not just any female Hufflepuff student, a female Hufflepuff prefect.

So yeah, her being in Slytherin kind of really .

She's grown to accept it - that whether she likes it or not, her house does in fact define her. Of course, that doesn't make anything better, and it certainly doesn't make this dumb crush go away. So what if you're one of the smartest students in the fifth year, so what if you're the Seeker of the leading house in Quidditch? Being in Slytherin just ruins everything. You're not looked up to, you're hated even more.

Byulyi sighs as she flips through her Transfiguration book, searching for the chapter on the vanishing spell. She pauses when she finds it, a finger pressing the page down, and scans the confusing wall of text..

“Ugh, I still can't even get protego right, how’m I supposed to vanish a snail?” Her friend Yura grumbles, flopping on her back onto the grass.

“Protego is a Defense Against the Dark Arts spell, Yura.” Byulyi points out, “Anyway, the professor's already told us that the vanishing spell will take a while for - um - the rest of you to get.” She smiles that sly smile that gets her labelled as a troublemaker and makes the first years frightened for their lives.

“See? I don't want genius friends like you.”

“Okay. Then who’re you going to copy your Runes and Potions homework from?” Byulyi hums, the sly smile never quite leaving her lips, as she dips her quill in a precariously balanced bottle of ink and touches the tip to her partially unrolled parchment. She writes as she speaks, her eyes flitting from her book to her parchment. “ ‘sides, shouldn't you know more about this stuff than me, being a pure blood and all?”

“I'm not a bookaholic like you, Byul.” Yura clarifies, her own eyes trained on the moving tentacles of the giant squid in the lake. She grimaces as a couple of first years try to pet it.

“We have a free period now, shouldn't you be doing your homework?”

Yura knuckles her head in reply, nearly shoving Byulyi face-first into her book. Byulyi snorts and continues to write, squinting to make out the printed glyphs on her book. She's aware of the comings and goings of groups of nameless students seeking relaxation by the lake, and the general quiet murmur of voices calms her.

Well, until, of course, being the complete klutz she is, she knocks her entire bottle of ink over, the contents spilling out onto the grass and all over her parchment, turning it into soggy black paper. Byulyi sits up, swearing, while Yura laughs her off. “Merlin’s - pants - Byul, karma for mocking me!” Yura gasps between her laughs.

Byulyi scowls and s a hand into the right pocket of her robes, fingers closing around the handle of her wand and pulling it out. Thirteen inches, elder and unicorn tail hair, surprisingly swishy- in the same perfect condition it was when she first got it. She jabs the tip of her wand at the ink puddle and says, “Evanesco,” and the ink vanishes.

Also very unfortunately, another voice follows. “No spells on the grounds, Moon Byulyi.”

Byulyi looks up as a shadow passes over her, blocked by a girl in robes hemmed with yellow, with a striped yellow tie tucked into a vest beneath and a gleaming silver prefect badge pinned to her chest. Long brown hair flows carelessly over her shoulders, the same shade as the irises that are giving Byulyi the most disgusted and resentful look they can muster. And, in the most disgusting masochistic way, Byulyi still finds her completely beautiful.

Kim Yongsun, sixth year, Hufflepuff’s glorified and worshipped prefect. Deemed drool-worthy by all the dumb male drones, goddess-tier by all the desperate girly preps. Perfect role model. Perfect nice heart. Completely abhors Slytherin and all its students.

“I was vanishing some ink I spilt. I wasn't going to jinx anyone.” Byulyi says, her tone bored and slightly challenging.

“Well, either way, no magic on the grounds. I don't know if you’re lying or not. You Slytherin types are always scheming and up to some nasty surprises. I'm docking five points.” Kim Yongsun says coldly, her eyes flicking from Byulyi’s face to the wand she still has clenched in her fist. “And I'd keep that now if I were you, before a professor catches you.”

“Okay, okay,” a little anger creeps into Byulyi’s voice and she shoves her wand back into her pocket, raising both hands in mock surrender. “Wands away now. Happy?”

Yongsun grunts, still looking displeased. “Don't let me catch you performing any sort of spells out here again. It's against the rules.” She turns away and trudges back to sit with her friends,  robes fluttering slightly in the wind that tugs at strands of her brown hair. Byulyi watches her with a mixture of anger and admiration.

“Merlin’s pants,” Yura repeats, “That girl is annoying. Kim Yongsun, isn't it? She's one of the prefects that despise Slytherin.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Byulyi returns her attention to her near-completed essay, squeezing in one more sentence in her cramped script. She'd managed to finish the whole thing in a foot of parchment, though it looked more like a mass of black than anything else. “Look, just ignore her. Herbology’s about to start soon. We'd better go to the greenhouse before the prof finds a reason to dock more points.”

She packs her stuff in her bag and stands up, brushing grass from her bottle-green hemmed robes. She can't help herself - she glances at Yongsun sitting among her group of chattering Hufflepuff cronies, feeling her own stomach coil in displeasure.

What makes you think I'm such a bad person for being in Slytherin, Kim Yongsun? Just because you're from a nice house? Gods, why do I even like her?

But Yura gets up and slugs her arm, and Byulyi tears her gaze away.

“Going?”

“Yeah. Sorry. Zoning out a bit.” Byulyi slings her bag over her shoulder and the two begin their slow walk to the herbology greenhouses, silent and sweating under the heat of the sun. A constant reminder that Kim Yongsun still freaking hates her guts.

-

The Slytherin common room, dungeon, whatever, is still relatively quiet for after-dinner time. Byulyi sits at the table in front of the growing green fire, scribbling on a roll of parchment. Other Slytherin students lounge around on couches, talking amongst themselves and practising spells. Byulyi finishes with a flourishing signature and scratches her name below it.

“I'm going to the owlery. I've got stuff to send to my parents. You coming to watch our Quidditch practice later?” She asks, glancing at Yura, who's doing work for once.

“Nah, I have to finish that essay for potions after this one. I don't know squat about Charms.” Yura replies, her eyebrows scrunched in the middle of her forehead as she releases a frustrated sigh. “Stupid homework. What the hell is a cheering charm anyway? Who needs to be happy?”

Byulyi just snorts and grabs the broomstick at her feet. She stands and brushes her off. “See you back in the dorm, then.”

Yura raises a hand in goodbye and Byulyi exits the common room, navigating the hallways like a pro, her letter clutched in one hand and her broomstick in the other. The trip up to the owlery takes quite a while, but at least it helps Byulyi digest the two servings of roast beef she had for dinner.

The owlery is empty save for her and the owls nestled in their little alcoves. The moment she enters, her tawny owl swoops down from one of the highest alcoves and perches on the window, waiting for her to walk closer.

“Hey there,” Byulyi smiles, setting her broomstick down and her owl's head affectionately. Her owl hoots softly and nips her hand. “I've got a letter for my parents. I know you'll be glad to fly a longer distance again.”

Her owl sticks one leg out in a refined manner, allowing Byulyi to tie her rolled up parchment to it. She makes sure the letter is tied nice and tight and feeds her own an owl treat that she brought (yes, just one treat). Then her owl hoots, spreads its wings and soars off into the setting sun.

Byulyi watches it for a while more, before she bends and picks up her broomstick - and slams straight into another student. A roll of parchment flies past her. Byulyi scrambles to pick it up and dusts it off.

“Oh, Merlin’s beard, I'm so sorry-” She looks up, and immediately her smile dims.

“Thanks for not looking where you're going.” Yongsun says sarcastically after regaining her balance, her chocolate brown eyes annoyed. “At least apologise next time. All you Slytherins are so rude.” She grabs the letter from Byulyi and tries to hustle past her, but Byulyi steps in her way, her own eyes steely.

“Well, sorry you were walking straight towards me, Queen Prefect and most worshipped girl in Hogwarts. My lowly peasant doesn't deserve to be in your presence.” Byulyi bites off, her anger finally snapping. She absolutely hates it when people insult her for her house.

“Don't call me-”

“Don't call all Slytherins rude.” Byulyi retorts.

“Aren't you being rude right now, Moon Byulyi?” Yongsun snaps back, her nice pretty Hufflepuff prefect image shattering. Byulyi feels like stabbing herself in the eyeball when she feels her traitor heart speed up against her will when Yongsun said her name.

“That's because you were rude to me first, Kim Yongsun. It was an accident. Not everything is my fault! Gods, every time we see each other you keep raining insults on me. What did I even do?” Byulyi demands, her face reddening a little. Her honey brown hair falls into her eyes and she shoves it out of her face angrily.

“You're in Slytherin. Slytherins are no good. We all know that, Moon Byulyi. I don't want to mix with your type.” Yongsun says with finality, pushing past her to the alcoves of owls and leaving a seething Byulyi at the entrance to the owlery.

This always happens. Every single freaking time we see each other. It's not my fault that the Sorting Hat put me in Slytherin! Byulyi clenches her fist and storms out of the owlery, her face burning with anger.

She manages to work the rage off by flying. The Slytherin team captain and Keeper, seventh year Lee Jonghyun, is already there when she arrives at the pitch.

“Hey Byul. Rough day?” Jonghyun asks, looking up from the crate of Quidditch equipment he's unpacking.

“Kind of. Mind tossing the snitch up there?” Her voice is low with simmering anger.

So Jonghyun releases the snitch and the little golden ball zooms away into the gathering darkness. The both of them watch the snitch flit away until it's too far for the eye to see.

“So, you hyped for this season?” Jonghyun turns to look at her.

“Of course.”

“Which house are you looking forward to playing against?”

Byulyi pauses, her fingers tightening around the handle of her broomstick. A tight-lipped grimace finds its way onto her face. “Hufflepuff. They've been booking the pitch every single damn day. Hyping up for our match next week, I suppose.”

“Hufflepuff?” Jonghyun snorts, flopping onto the grass with his broomstick at his side. “Easy.”

Byulyi finally smiles.

She stands and waits until a couple more of her team members have arrived - the two Beaters, Hoya and Chansung, and a Chaser, Minhyuk - before she swings a leg over her broomstick and kicks off.

Her Firebolt - admittedly not the fastest model now, but still an excellent broomstick - moves with stealthy speed as she scans around the pitch.

She catches the snitch a total of eleven times before they start team practice with the arrival of the last two Chasers, Jiyeon and Soojung. The Slytherin team wasn't top of the last Quidditch season for nothing - their practices are flawless, the entire team working like seven parts of a machine. Byulyi isn't that worried about this year's championships. The Slytherin team will definitely be able to crush the others.

Especially the match against Hufflepuff. I'll make sure to let my team win by such a huge margin Yongsun won't even be able to look at me for weeks.

Her bitterness isn't shortlived, however. Flying does help to take her mind off things, true, but it doesn't stop her from feeling frustrated all the time. Especially regarding her masochistic crush on a certain Hufflepuff prefect, who can't even bear to spare her and her Slytherin house patch a glance.

It's not my fault I'm in Slytherin.

-

On the day of the first Quidditch match of the season - Hufflepuff versus Slytherin, the Great Hall is abuzz with chatter and nervous energy. The entire Slytherin table is a mass of green and silver, with the Quidditch team seated at the centre of the table, talking strategy and motivation.

“Well, just play as we usually do, I guess.” Is all Jonghyun has to offer. The rest of the team members laugh.

Byulyi digs into a huge bowl of cereal,  blueberries, raspberries and milk. Yura’s razzing her about being able to transfigure a potato into a teacup, and Byulyi only half-listens as she wolfs down her breakfast, having joined the table a little late.

Once she's done, the entire team - escorted by half the Slytherin students - troop down to the Quidditch pitch.

The team enters the changing room meant specially for the playing teams. Byulyi sheds her school robes and changes into into her bottle green Slytherin Quidditch robes and fits fingerless leather gloves onto her hands. She pulls her hair into a ponytail and sits on one of the benches, right next to Jiyeon. She can hear the sound of the students talking and cheering on the stands.

It takes another twenty minutes before everyone's settled down and the announcer, Yoon Bomi from Gryffindor, starts talking about the upcoming match and gets everyone hyped up. Byulyi stands along with her fellow Slytherin teammates and they all give each other confident smiles.

“Now, we have the Slytherin team, captained by Lee Jonghyun!”

The team walks out onto the pitch, and the quarter taken up by the Slytherin students burst into loud cheering. The other three quarters maintain a mournful silence. Basically, the cheers sound completely pathetic.

“And we also have the Hufflepuff team, captained by Kim Dongwoo!”

The cheers sound like an explosion. Byulyi clenches her fist. Jonghyun, who is a head taller than Dongwoo, looks intimidating as the two captains shake hands, the tension in their handshake showing just how much both teams want to win.

Too bad we're going to win.

Byulyi zeroes in on the yellow Hufflepuff quarter, spotting Yongsun near the side with scary accuracy. The prefect dons a yellow scarf around her neck and is cheering loudly - for Hufflepuff, of course. In a single, flaring moment, their eyes meet. Byulyi smiles dangerously. I'm winning this for my team, Yongsun. Just you wait.

The teams move to their respective sides of the pitch and mount their brooms. Byulyi keeps her eyes trained on the crate of Quidditch balls. Then the balls are released and the snitch disappears just as the referee blows her whistle. Byulyi kicks off hard and shoots off into the air, zooming straight across the pitch to tail the Hufflepuff Seeker.

“Nice seeing you again, Heejin.”

The male Seeker ignores her, keeping his eyes trained in front. Byulyi swerves as a bludger hurtles toward her. Her tactic isn't to find the snitch first, but to make sure her team has racked up a ton of points before she catches it. And that includes distracting and blocking Heejin till the end.

The first goal goes to Slytherin, with Soojung hurling the quaffle straight through the middle hoop and past the Hufflepuff Keeper. Slytherin students cheer; the rest boo them. Byulyi follows Heejin as he circles the pitch, keeping her own eyes peeled for any signs of the snitch.

Once or twice both she and Heejin have to swerve violently to avoid oncoming bludgers. She puts her Firebolt to good use, flying between the Hufflepuff team members and blocking them, zooming to block Heejin just to annoy him.

“Catch the snitch and stop blocking me!” Heejin yells angrily.

“What? Can't hear you!” Byulyi yells back, doing a loop-the-loop around him and blocking him again, before glancing at the ground and diving. Heejin follows blindly, thinking she's seen the snitch.

Yeah, right. Hope your reflexes are good, loser.

She skilfully pulls out of the dive at the last moment and shoots up into the air, startling a Hufflepuff Chaser into dropping the quaffle, which Minhyuk promptly snatches up. The students in the crowd whoa despite themselves. It isn't every day they see an actual Wronski Feint in action. Heejin isn't as lucky - he crashes straight into the grass.

“Ouch! The Slytherin Seeker Byulyi successfully pulls off a Wronski Feint, resulting in the Hufflepuff Seeker having an unexpected meeting with the ground. It seems like Park Heejin will be out of action for a little while longer.” Loud boos from the crowd. “Meanwhile - Hufflepuff Chaser Seungyoon’s got the quaffle - no, Slytherin Beater Hoya sends a bludger at him - now Slytherin Chaser Park Jiyeon has the quaffle - she's racing towards the goal - come on, Dongwoo!”

But Jiyeon scores, and the booing intensifies, drowning out the Slytherin cheers. Byulyi swoops past the scoreboard. Slytherin’s up by a hundred points. Not enough. We need even more.

She puts on a burst of speed, leaning forward on her broomstick. She shoots past the Hufflepuff sector, smiling when she sees Yongsun's eyes following her. Heejin’s still dazed on the ground. Slytherin puts in another goal before he manages to haul himself up again.

The match seems to be longer than most students anticipated - the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff quarters are beginning to chant insults at the Slytherin team. Byulyi’s still flitting around blocking people and looking out for the snitch, which, admittedly, she'd spotted about five times but didn't bother to chase.

When the Slytherin team is a hundred and thirty points up, she really begins to play seriously. Heejin, amateur Seeker that he is, is the one trailing her like a lost puppy now. Byulyi can almost sense the imperceptible change in the tension - the game seems a hundred times more serious now that she's playing to win.

Then she spots it - the snitch, barely a glint of gold in the sunlight, hovering near one of the huge fluttering silver flags. She angles her broomstick and speeds up, hears the crowd go deathly silent behind the roaring in her ears. She reaches an arm out and snatches the little golden ball from the air, and the pitch explodes in boos, drowning out the Slytherin cheers. She grits her teeth, but manages to pull off a smile when her teammates crowd her and laugh.

“And with a score of four hundred and thirty, the win goes to the Slytherin team!” Even the announcer sounds upset.

The booing intensifies. Jonghyun, grinning widely, slaps Byulyi on the shoulder and says, “Ignore them. Celebration in the common room tonight!”

“I need a shower.” Is all Byulyi says, and the rest laugh and agree. The euphoria of the Slytherins seem to be completely masked by the unhappiness of the other houses, so much that even Byulyi is beginning to feel affected. She lands safely on the grass and looks at the snitch clutched in her right hand, its wings fluttering feebly.

What's the point of winning glory for a house that is hated by so many? Who cares if Merlin himself was from Slytherin? Byulyi clenches her fist around the snitch and follows her teammates into the changing room, where she places their winning snitch on the table.

“Good job today, team. We should be able to maintain our top position in this year’s season, what with the amount of points we trashed Hufflepuff by,” Jonghyun laughs, and it would sound arrogant to others outside of Slytherin, but to the them it's the speech of people who are confident of themselves. “Go on, then. I'll see if Minwoo can sneak some stuff down to the dungeon tonight. Make sure you guys are back by nine!”

The team disperses. Byulyi waits for Yura to arrive, shaking her head at her friend’s huge grin. “The looks on their faces were priceless! All the Hufflepuff people looked like they wanted to shoot all of you with bat bogey hexes.”

“Probably more like the Unforgiveables.” Byulyi corrects as they walk out from the back entrance of the changing rooms towards the castle.

“Really, they're looked like they had bowtruckles shoved down their pants,” Yura chuckles gloatingly. Byulyi looks around and notices the dirty looks the other students are giving her. Her gut twists.

“It's going to be bad if Slytherin is the champion, all the other houses will hate us even more.”

“Pfft. Who cares?”

I care.

“Just saying.”

They enter the castle. The courtyard area is full of students just milling around discussing the match - it’s mostly little groups of red and yellow and blue. Byulyi and Yura completely stand out in their green attire, which, admittedly, still kind of totally for them. Almost immediately they're stopped by a hodgepodge of scruffy Gryffindors.

Great.

“Nice game you played, Moon,” one of the Gryffindor crones smiles amusedly. Byulyi doesn't even know this guy's name, but she puts on the most sickly sweet, sarcastic smile she can muster.

“Thanks. Go a mandrake.”

She tries to walk past, but one of the bigger guys - a sixth year? Blocks her. The first crone’s eyes dance with cruel amusement.

“I wouldn't act so cocky, Moon.”

His wand seems to appear out of nowhere - maybe his sleeve or something? Byulyi doesn't know. But she feels an almost resigned annoyance - here we go again, such unoriginality - in the split second before the guy yells, “Levicorpus!” and points his wand at her. A flash of light, then her broomstick clatters to the floor as she's hauled up by the ankle, thanking Merlin that she's wearing pants beneath her robes.

The sound of laughter and Yura’s swearing reaches her ears, but with the blood rushing to her face and her head she can barely register it.

Then she hears another, distinctly female voice yell, and with a bang like a firecracker the spell breaks and she falls. She barely manages to break it with her palms, scraping the hell out of them in the process, and still bonks her head pretty hard. She groans.

“No assault on fellow students,” the voice says flatly. “Twenty points.”

Then warm hands encircle her arms and haul her up, and Byulyi feels like dying when she comes face to face with Kim Yongsun. The prefect’s bright brown eyes are hard, and she keeps one hand around Byul's wrist and the other around her wand, as though she's afraid the Slytherin girl would run away.

“Spoilsport.” The Gryffindor es mumble, but with another glare they scuttle away.

“Moon Byulyi.” Yongsun says frostily. “Come with me.”

“Wait - she's hurt - let me take her to the hospital wing.” Yura reaches a hand out to take Byulyi’s arm, but Yongsun shakes her head, her expression softening a fraction.

“It's okay. I'll see that she has proper treatment and returns for lunch in one piece. You should take her broomstick.”

Byulyi feels resentment boiling in her stomach, but she nods at Yura and her friend steps back. Yongsun dips her head and tows Byulyi away, ignoring the stares of the students who'd witnessed all the drama.

They reach a pretty secluded wing. “Will you let me go already? Why in Merlin’s name are you even bringing me here? Just talk and leave me alone.” Byulyi spits out. Yongsun stops and turns, but instead of letting go, she flips Byulyi’s hand so that her palm faces up. Byulyi fights the nausea at the sight of her scraped and bleeding hands.

“I'm fixing this for you, you ungrateful upstart. Shut it and wait.” Yongsun snaps. She raises her wand. “Tergeo!”

The semi-dried blood disappears from Byulyi’s hand. Yongsun points her wand tip at the scrapes. “Episkey.” The skin magically heals itself, and Byulyi winces. Yongsun ignores her and proceeds to heal her other hand, then the shallow scrape on her forehead. In minutes Byulyi is as good as new. She draws her wand and mutters scourgify, cleaning the grime from her hands and arms.

“Gee, for a Hufflepuff prefect you're really violent.” Byulyi says sarcastically.

“You're welcome too.” Yongsun says, though the venom seems to have leached out from her voice. Byulyi tilts her head a little.

“Wait, are you not here to tell me off or somethi-”

“How long has this been going on for?” Yongsun interrupts, her brown eyes boring uncomfortably into Byulyi’s. Now, the Slytherin girl is the epitome of confident, but in front of this Hufflepuff girl she's tamer than an owl. “This whole… this whole…”

“What, the levicorpus thing?” Byulyi leans against the wall, crossing her arms. A shadow passes over her face, so that she looks a lot more like the Slytherin she is. “A while.”

“How long is a while?”

“Look, it doesn't matter how long. What's your point?”

Yongsun seems to be ticked off with her answer. She gesticulates, as though trying to find words that are eluding her. “And - and you just let them? I've never seen this happen in Hogwarts before, so I don't know.”

“Well, reality check, this happens a lot to Slytherin students. What can I do?” Byulyi demands, scowling. “I can hex them, I can jinx them, I can injure them. But they're just going to run to professors or prefects like you and tell their sob story and I get all the blame. Why? Because I'm from Slytherin!” Her voice rises agitatedly.

Yongsun looks startled. “Moon Byuly-”

“I hate that all of you are biased against Slytherin. Even the professors dislike us! Anything that happens is our fault. Do you not think that we have feelings too? I have feelings. It when people like you hate me because I'm from Slytherin!” Byulyi’s voice rises to a yell, and when she's done, she slumps against the wall, blue sparks crackling from the tip of her wand.

“I…I don't…”

“Save it, Yongsun.” Byulyi averts her gaze, sighing. Looks at the prefect’s yellow scarf. She just feels tired - tired of her masochistic crush, tired of being treated like trash. “You're just like one of them.”

Yongsun stops.

“I may be cunning and ambitious, but it doesn't make me a bad person. It doesn't mean I'll hold a knife to your throat. Gods, I don't even know why I'm telling you this.” Byulyi laughs sourly. Maybe it's time for her to let go of that masochistic crush nonsense too. “I don't even know why I like you that much.”

Yongsun grips her wand.

“It's okay. Blast me with all the curses you want.” Byulyi just feels empty now. She doesn't even care that she'd just confessed directly to Yongsun. She looks up at the older girl. “You're just one like of them. Another Hufflepuff student that hates my house for the deeds that other witches and wizards did years ago. Maybe I should’ve realised that from the start. Save me a lot of trouble.”

Byulyi hates herself for sounding like she wants to cry. She brushes past Yongsun. She doesn't get very far before Yongsun speaks again.

“I'm sorry.”

Byulyi laughs, but it's hollow.

“Sorry doesn't cut it.”

“I'm sorry for misjudging you. You're right. I hated Slytherin for absolutely no reason. Slytherin…Slytherins are people too. I guess I only had a prejudice because of the things I've heard about your house.”

Byulyi turns. She's greeted by a guilty-looking Yongsun.

“Right. I'm also sorry I liked you. I should've liked someone from my house, someone who wouldn't try to shoot me down every time I see them.” Byulyi says coolly. She can tell that her words sting. “Thanks for realising, I suppose.”

Yongsun bites her lip, and Byulyi feels like stabbing her other eyeball when she feels her heartbeat speed up again.

“Just for the record,” Yongsun blinks, “I don't hate you. Like, uh, I didn't hate you. I mean, minus the one-point-eight cm difference in height, your weird cheekbone dimples and the way you look like you want to kill everyone all the time, you're not…that bad.”

Byulyi registers the compliment first and the traitor flush spreads so quickly across her cheeks she wants to just drown herself in the Lake. Then she registers something else.

“Wait, how do you know we have a one-point-eight cm height difference? And my cheekbone dimples?”

“Uh,” Yongsun smiles nervously. “I kind of - noticed?”

And Byulyi hates herself for smiling.

Slytherin students are not bad people, most of the time. Slytherins are just greatly misunderstood. The students this house produces are undeniably powerful and grow up to become wizards and witches just as great as the other houses. It takes a while for Byulyi to realise that. And maybe, she reflects, if a certain Hufflepuff prefect can learn to see her as a normal human, being in Slytherin isn't so bad after all.

-

I thought it would be interesting to write a Harry Potter AU fic in the perspective of a Slytherin. Perhaps as a Pottermore-sorted Slytherin myself I feel more of a connection with this fictitious house lmao. Okay. I know it .

Anyway, the Moonsun is a lot more subdued here, because again, I can't write fluff to save my life T---T and I dislike writing things where when they're all like ‘I LOVE YOUU!!!” and stuff at the end I mean I love reading it but writing it makes me cringe HAHA

Yall have to agree that Byul is a Slytherin and Solar is a Hufflepuff through and through though~

Comments are always appreciated! I'm curious to knows which houses you think the four members should be in:3

~ Not so fluffy Fluffy