“I just wanted to tell you that you’re beautiful.”

Eunha forced herself not to roll her eyes and cursed SinB for leaving class without her again. It seemed that every time she didn’t have SinB to walk with and scare people off, people thought it was a good idea to corner her and confess. Even if she was interested, which she definitely wasn’t, what sort of spontaneous confession in the middle of the hallway sounded romantic?

“I’m sure that cold facade is something I can melt, if you’d give me the chance.” The person who decided to assault her with a confession today was a sixth year boy from Ravenclaw. Eunha recognized him from the common room when she went with SinB to pick up Umji sometimes. He was tall with a sharp jawline and a decent haircut. He was good looking, she’d give him that, but that would only get him so far in life and get him nowhere with her.

“Listen, I’m not interested,” Eunha said, cutting him off mid-sentence. She let herself look as bored as she felt, eyes wandering lazily over the boy’s shocked face at being rejected. Honestly, what had he been expecting? She didn’t even know his name. “You’re better off dating some nice Hufflepuff girl.”

Immediately his handsome face was marred by a nasty scowl. “I should’ve expected a Slytherin to not know how to take a compliment,” he sneered. “I tell you you’re beautiful and that I want to be with you, and you what? Just tell me no without considering my feelings?”

Eunha actually laughed. She couldn’t believe someone could be so stupid. “I expected more from a Ravenclaw,” Eunha taunted. “It’s supposed to be the house of intelligence, so why did they let you in? Your feelings, which are baseless and idiotic, do not grant you access to me.”

“You’ll regret this.”

“I’ll regret this?” Eunha wanted to laugh again. It was far too easy these days to slip into the her Slytherin persona. “You foolish boy, you don’t seem to realize who you’re messing with, do you? I’m Jung Eunha. I have Slytherin under my thumb, and if I want, I’ll make sure your face is messed up so badly that no girl in her right mind will want to date you.” As she spoke, Eunha’s voice grew dangerously quiet as she got into the boy’s space, practically snarling in his face. The boy lost his bravado and now regarded her with horror on his face, heels lifted to flee. “Run.” And he did just that.

Eunha watched him skitter around the corner with a satisfied smirk. While she loathed her reputation, it came in handy for times like these. She checked the time and saw she still had time before dinner. She walked down to the kitchen for a much needed hot chocolate. It may have been easier to act so cruelly, but it still wore her out to have actually done it.

When Eunha entered the kitchen, the elves all greeted her cheerfully. She’d been coming for hot chocolate for years, so they all knew and were fond of her. She sat on the floor toward the back so she was out of their way and sipped at the hot chocolate that was promptly placed in her hands. It wasn’t long before SinB poked her head in. The elves said hello to her as well before ushering her to sit next to Eunha while they got her hot chocolate too. Eunha didn’t need to ask how she knew where Eunha was. There were three spots Eunha and SinB typically were outside of class: the library, the kitchen, and their room.

“So, what’s got you in a mood today?” SinB asked after she thanked an elf for her hot chocolate and stretched out comfortably. Sometimes, it was annoying that SinB could read her face so well. “Sowon didn’t bother you during Potions, did she?”

Eunha shook her head. She knew SinB was still a little irritated from their confrontation with Sowon the other night, but Eunha was unbothered since it was more of SinB’s fight. “Just another confession,” she reassured her.

“That bad?” SinB questioned worriedly. She glanced to Eunha who shrugged. Most of the confessions Eunha got were shy or at the very worst, persistent. The boy today had been different. “What happened?”

“When I rejected him, he said he should’ve expected such from a Slytherin,” Eunha said, looking away. “I should be used to it. I just overreacted.”

SinB grabbed Eunha’s shoulders, forcing her to look at her. Eunha recognized the look in SinB’s eyes; it was a quiet sort of desperation, a shred of hope in a land of desolation. “You didn’t deserve that,” SinB told her ferevently. “You will never deserve that. He isn’t allowed to use your house against you. No one is.”

“But people do,” Eunha smiled sadly. They’d always had variations of this conversation, playing either role, since they were eleven. “They always will, SinB, and that will never change.”

“I know.” SinB’s admission was quiet and weak as she leaned back in her seat and hugged her knees to her chest. “I always wonder if that’s all we’ll ever be to people. Slytherins.” She picked back up her hot chocolate and cheered mugs with Eunha with a humorless smile. “Everyone hates us, even our own house hates ourselves. Yerin certainly hates us, as she likes to tell me during Potions. Today, she called us spineless cowards who were afraid to work off of merit rather than blood status. She told me one day I won’t have the pedestal I do now from being in Slytherin, and when I don’t, I’ll fail in life because I don’t know what true work requires, that I’ve been fed by a silver spoon all my life.”

Eunha closed her eyes as SinB spoke, letting the words wash over her. It wasn’t anything new, but it was still hurt. She knew it must have especially hurt SinB who, no matter how much she denied it, had never quite gotten over her crush on Yerin. However, knowing SinB, the cruelty probably wasn’t unprovoked. “What did you say?”

“Surprisingly enough, I just asked her if she could grab me another bundle of herbs since I had to stir my potion constantly for five minutes. If I stopped, it would’ve been ruined. She accused me of being lazy, and I told her that I actually knew what I was doing and that I couldn’t leave. Then she accused me of being bad at Potions, so I told her to check whose grade was higher. That’s when she blew up.”

“How did I miss this?”

SinB simply shrugged. “I don’t know. She was pretty loud. Most of the Gryffindors heard her. They were all smug bastards about her arguing with me, until I stole the rest of her herbs and told her I didn’t need a silver spoon to survive. She was livid I stole her ingredients, but she just asked a Gryffindor to fetch her more, like I’d just asked her five minutes before.” SinB stared into her hot chocolate with a frown and said nothing more.

Like her, SinB was always tired after playing to people’s expectations of her as a Slytherin. It was much worse for SinB though. Eunha’s reputation was not only more tame, but she simply let a few choice interactions build it. SinB was so spiteful toward everyone for forcing her into this box of expectations of who she was that she fulfilled their expectations by tenfold, giving them exactly what they wanted except much, much worse. While it satisfied SinB to give people what they deserve, it also depressed her to have to act that way. SinB was a tough person by nature, but she was never cruel. If SinB could be herself, she’d smile more and be playful with others outside the house. However, they both knew if she did anything of the sort she’d become an easy target for others to bully.

“Eunha,” SinB murmured, sounding too vulnerable. She always got like this if she thought long enough about who she was in others’ eyes. “I don’t think I should become an auror anymore.”

“What? Where is this coming from?” Eunha exclaimed, sitting up and nearly throwing her mug across the kitchen. She moved to kneel in front of SinB, trying to catch her eye, to understand. SinB had been wanting to be an auror since they met, eager to fight danger and save lives. It was one of the many things Eunha admired about her. “Why?” SinB shook her head, refusing to meet Eunha’s eyes, but Eunha merely waited for her to explain. “Why, Eunbi?”

“Who will trust a Slytherin to protect them instead of hurt them?” SinB’s whispered admission was tearful and oh-so hopeless. Whatever hope SinB had earlier when she’d been reassuring Eunha earlier, it was gone after reliving her Potions lesson. It broke Eunha’s heart to hear SinB so defeated. She pulled her best friend into her arms, letting her muffle her cries in her shoulder. She hugged her so tightly that she was sure SinB was suffocating, but SinB hugged back just as tight. SinB pulled away, and when Eunha saw SinB’s tear-stained cheeks and red eyes, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to cry or to kill someone. Maybe both. “How can I be a symbol of protection when all I’ve ever been is destruction?” SinB sniffled.

“You can and you will,” Eunha told her fimly. “Hwang Eunbi, you will be the best auror the Ministry of Magic has ever seen. You will prove them wrong and you will show them what a real Slytherin can do.”

SinB said nothing and merely hugged Eunha again as her sniffles quieted. She gave Eunha one more squeeze before pulling away with a watery smile. She then picked back up her hot chocolate and hesitantly asked Eunha to tell her about her day. Eunha did so easily. She knew SinB was embarrassed by her display of emotions and if she wanted to act like it hadn’t happened, that was fine with Eunha. What mattered was that it had happened and SinB had let Eunha known how she was feeling. If it ever became an issue again, she was sure SinB would come to her again.

They were just sitting there with Eunha talking mindlessly and SinB half-listening when Sowon and Yerin walked in. Immediately, Eunha positioned herself in front of SinB. While SinB took care of most of their confrontations, mainly because she enjoyed fighting people who misjudged her, Eunha knew today she needed to take care of SinB.

“I thought the elves knew better than to let snakes into the kitchen,” Yerin drawled, staring at SinB. SinB said nothing though, avoiding Yerin’s gaze by staring down at the floor. She obviously wasn’t ready to hear more about how she was a terrible person. Yerin seemed confused by the lack of reaction, so Eunha picked up the slack.

“Unlike Gryffindors, the elves can draw their own opinions about people instead of trusting baseless rumors,” Eunha snapped. Okay, so maybe that was a bit more revealing than she’d intended, but she was more than a little unbalanced right now, especially with SinB nearly comatose from emotion overload beside her. At the very least it’d get them to think. “If you’ll excuse us, we need to go before your stupidity spreads.”

Sowon and Yerin don’t put up a fight, merely making room for them to leave. SinB let Eunha take her hand and lead her out of the kitchen, face blank.

It was when they were almost to their dorm that Eunha heard her whisper, “Thank you.”

That night, Eunha wasn’t surprised when SinB crawled into her bed. They’d done this since they were young whenever they felt sad, lonely, overwhelmed, or anything else that made them need to be close to someone. Eunha hugged SinB to her and felt the other girl sigh in relief. As they drifted to sleep, Eunha silently promised SinB that one day they wouldn’t have to hide themselves like this.

A/N: An update to celebrate the girls' comeback!