Good girls falling in love with bad boys is such a cliché, right?

Of course, you know that Slytherins aren’t bad by nature and certainly not all of them turns out to be one but Jae Park can, undeniable, be a pain in the . He’s sassy and cocky, a real trickster and troublemaker. Not even the headmaster can stop him. You, as a Hufflepuff prefect, had your fair share of running into him after curfew…

(“Hey prefie, whatcha doing?” he greeted you with a beaming smile. You frowned.

“My job, patrolling but I can’t say the same about you.”)

Or catching him using charms and spells he definitely shouldn’t.

(“Why would anyone give legs to a pot of petunias? Now, it’s running around!” you sighed exasperatedly but he just laughed it off.

“Exactly.”)

However, you also heard that he tells younger students scary stories about monsters in the Forbidden Forest that attack rebellious children just to keep them away from trouble and you found it endearing when he takes the blame for something he didn’t do. He’s a light-hearted and careless jokester, too cheeky for his own good, though his jokes are mostly harmless. You, on the other hand, like rules and actually follow them. They must be rules for a good reason after all, right? Then why is your gaze always wandering around the Slytherin table in the Great Hall?

It all started last Christmas, during the Hogsmeade visit you couldn’t attend because you had to make sure that those who stayed in the castle didn’t cause any problem. It’s not like you haven’t been in the nearby village before, it just would have been nice to have a glass of butterbeer or something sweet in the cold, snowy weather instead of walking around in the empty hallways. But you always did your job without complaining and that day wasn’t an exception.

While strolling up and down the corridors, you only ran into a few first and second years who haven’t travelled back home for the holidays. Since they couldn’t go out of the castle yet, most of them wandered around in the unusual quietness or had fun in the snow outside. It shouldn’t have surprised you to meet with Jae too because he was prohibited from the visits as a punishment. If you recalled correctly, it was for the stunt he pulled last year: he conjured dozens of sparrows during the End-of-Term Feast and caused quite a big rufus. So yeah, he wasn’t allowed to go for the trips in Hogsmeade in his last year. Yet, he suspiciously approached the entrance of a secret passage that the previous prefects warned you about, the one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy.

“Hey, where are you going?” you called after him, only urging the boy to go faster but eventually, he stopped in his tracks.

“Out,” he turned towards you with that characteristic, lopsided smile of his and replied simply, without any sense of regret or shame. He was truly one of a kind.

“You can’t if you are not on the list or have a written permit of leave,” you recited the regulations you were taught over the years but it still didn’t dishearten Jae at all.

“Have you seen a single paper stopping me before?”

You frowned at his reluctant behaviour while pointing your wand at him in case he’s trying to play it dirty. “I can’t let you go.”

Still as unfazed as ever, the boy pouted.

“Oooh prefie, but it’s Christmas. Doesn’t it warm your heart a little? Shouldn’t Hufflepuffs be nice and all?” he whined, flattering his eyelashes behind his round glasses. His ash blonde hair cutely stuck to his forehead decorated by snowflakes and instead of warm, it made your heart weak. Since when did you associate him with cuteness? Gosh, this boy! Who did he think he was?

“Fine,” you sighed but couldn’t believe you were actually agreeing to it. Maybe it’s the holiday spirit but it would have saddened you to see him all alone in the castle while all his friends were in the village. What trouble could he get into there anyway? “Go before I change my mind. And don’t you dare get caught!”

“Gotcha,” he flashed you a dazzling smile and made finger guns at you with a wink.

You quickly your heels but already felt your cheeks on fire in this cold, cold weather.

The following day you found a box of creamy chunks of nougat and a large barrel of Every Flavour Beans on your bedsheet.

“What’s this?” you pointed to the yummy desserts in confusion and looked around in the room you share with several other Hufflepuff girls.

“Oh, Jae asked me to give them to you,” one of them answered casually like it was no big deal, something that happened every single day. But no, you don’t usually get gifts from boys and especially not from boys like Jae. Knowing him you thought it might be a prank. Of course, he would do something like this. Just to confuse you a bit more. Jae was infamous for his unreasonable acts. Buying thank you gifts for you in Honeydukes but not talking to you later? Who heard of such thing? So your first reaction was suspicion and you avoided the chocolate for days before finally, giving in and deciding to give it a taste. The nougat melted in your mouth like it was made of dreams… just perfect. Without any tricky after-effect.

That’s how it all started and nothing has changed in the last five months. Nothing at all, so you think this day is going to be just like any other. But oh boy, you are wrong!

Your Potions professor is famous for his unique teaching methods like offering a bit of serums as a prize for the most excellent students. The task is easy: to find the happiness serum out of seven foiled liquids that contain harmless potions. The trick is that when you think you are sure of your choice, you have to drink the chosen one no matter what.

You are so so sure you got the right one but as soon as your tongue touches the bitter liquid, you realize the mistake you made. Silly you mixed up the descriptions of the peppermint smell of Veritaserum and the Elixir of Euphoria, so you drank the wrong poison, one of the worst, not deathly kinds. The truth serum.

“For those who worry, the effect will wear off in maximum of a couple of hours,” the professor says calming down a girl who has had elephant ears grown.

It doesn’t help you stay calm either.

“What’s up with you? You don’t seem happy,” your best friend, waiting for you in front of the door, nudge your shoulder when you leave the basement classroom and you can’t help but snap at him:

“Of course, I’m not happy. I messed it up, so badly. Over a stupid mistake. I was so sure though, I had everything written down…” you’re rambling like you never do but everything you say is honest and that’s the worst because even before Brian could interrupt you, you suddenly freeze in the middle of the sentence, your gaze following a figure who just stepped out of the Slytherin Dungeon.

“Okaaay… then what got you all smiley suddenly?” Brian asks utterly confused while nervously scratching the back of his neck. He probably doesn’t know what to do with you now because usually you’re not this blatant and impulsive. Or the type to have sudden mood swings from mad to dreamy in the matter of seconds.

Normally, you would have shrugged his question off with a Nothing but since you took a sip of a freaking damned truth serum, it just slips your mouth: “Jae just walked by.”

Poor Brian, he still doesn’t understand anything.

“Aaand?” he widens his eyes trying to pry further and lucky for him, the potion got you in the mood to talk about literally anything that’s on your mind.

“Have you ever noticed how he always wears his backpack on one shoulder? It makes him walk so cute, a little one-sidedly,” you whisper to the boy never taking your eyes off of the blondish guy’s retreating figure. “And remember that when he made that clumsy mistake with a charm and got his hair pink? He just laughed it off. I admire him for that so much. I would have been so mortified. Like now… Oh my god, why do I keep talking?”

“Oh my Merlin! You have a crush on him!” Brian exclaims a little louder than he should but blame his dumbfounded state. At least it makes you shut up because for a moment, you take control of your brain and chant: don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it!

But you say it anyway. “Well yeah…”

“No way,” your friend gapes at you in disbelief. He would have never thought he would live that day when you admit something like that out loud, especially if it concerns Hogwarts’ infamous troublemaker.  But then another voice chimes in making you both jump.

“Yes way!” A painting hurrahs, clapping his hands and grinning from ear to ear. He looks Renaissance but apparently he’s certainly modern enough to know what ‘crush’ means. “This is the juiciest romance we have heard since last year’s drama between two profs. A Hufflepuff prefect and a Slytherin mischief-maker. It’s almost like that tragic Verona story our dear old friend, William always cries about.”

“Please, please don’t tell anybody about it,” you turn to the painting begging, hands intertwined in a prayer.

“Oh but what are gossips for if not for telling?” the man laughs carefreely and steps out of his frame into another painting until he disappears from your sight completely.

So yeah. By the time the serum’s effect wears off, the whole castle, at least every painting and probably most of the ghosts know about your crush. Great!

Between these old stone walls your little puppy love can’t be kept in secret for long. Hogwarts is a place where even walls have ears. Okay, maybe not the walls, but the paintings that hang on the walls certainly have, so same thing. You really don’t appreciate the teasing of the middle-aged, thick accented man in the common room, nor that lady’s nagging every single time you walk to your Astronomy class. But of course they can’t shut up, so Jae is ought to get to know about your interest in him soon.

“Oooh, have you told him yet? Does he know?” she singsongs and you keep hissing at her to keep quiet:

“Shh… Shut up, please!”

It’s only luck that the word of it seemingly didn’t get to Jae. The guy who brought back gifts for you from Hogsmeade and ever since he occasionally hid some sweets - which he most likely got from the kitchen elves - in your robe’s pockets when you weren’t looking. He probably used some kind of a spell because otherwise you would have noticed him. You can’t be sure but maybe that’s his childish way to thank you for not turning him in.

You haven’t seen or much less talked with him properly since that one time. It’s either because you avoided him like plague or that he has been out of trouble for once. Which, let’s be honest, is highly unlikely. Still, you keep lying to yourself saying it’s nothing. Because it is… right?

Days pass, you’re getting closer and closer to N.E.W.T. which throws you on edge most of the time. Especially when you see younger students enjoying the warmer weather instead of hauling themselves into studying like you have to. So maybe, just maybe, you might have snapped at them at the first sign of infringement.

The school year, your last Hogwarts year is almost over. Unbelievable. You liked it here a lot, you liked these trees, the magic in the air and the castle with all of its blabbermouth paintings. Looking back there’s only a tiny pang of regret in your chest that you have never acted on your crazy and unreasonable feelings for the Slytherin boy (because what’s the worst thing that could happen, right?) and now you will have to live with the what ifs for the rest of your life.

Or you thought.

Next Friday, you completely and utterly mess up your Advanced Charms exam and you don’t want to do anything but run to the closest girls’ restroom and cry. You can already feel the tears that are threatening to fall as you rush out of the classroom and out of the way of the professor’s disappointed gaze. That’s when you literally bump into someone in the corridor.

“Sorry,” you mumble an apology out of habit, head kept hanging as you want nothing else but hurry along. But something… or rather someone stops you.

“Oh prefie, how did it go?” Jae asks all cheerfully but soon enough he notices your sorrow and his usually gleeful voice turns into something softer than velvet. It’s so soothing, almost comforting. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

You pretend not to hear the paintings aww-ing behind you and shake your head.

“I just failed my Charms exam. I won’t get those extra credits I need to get into the Ministry,” you sob and blink rapidly in order to prevent the tears from falling. At least, until then you don’t have to look at him and see the pity on his face. Yes, you wanted a boring office work but you can’t even get that.

“Look I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think,” Jae keeps shaking his head and you make that mistake to catch a glimpse of him. A horrible slip-up because now you can’t look away from that small, reassuring smile of his.

“Oh but it is. I mistook the wine-making spell with the water-making one and my mug that was supposed to jump and do a backflip simply fell off the table after one try,” you explain bitterly your lameness and shrugging as you cast your eyes down. Sure, the non-verbal spells went okay, you suppose, so you maybe get lucky and a Poor or Dreadful mark instead of Troll but that’s still not enough to make it.

“Look, Y/N…” Jae’s voice is so soft when he speaks, it literally takes your breath away. Wow… does he actually know your name? Apparently he does because he’s talking to you while tapping your chin with his index fingers lightly so you would look up at him. His eyes, often filled with mischief, now ever so genuine, rake over your features, settling at your eyes as he continues. “You are the smartest in our year and the best in Charms, I’m sure you only exaggerate this and it wasn’t that bad.”

“No, I’m sure I…” You are so ready to protest, to prove him wrong even though his words of compliment still ring in your ears. Does he really think you are that smart?

“Come on, I have an idea,” Jae exclaims suddenly and grabs on your hand pulling you towards the end of the corridor. You can’t find it in you to say no to him, so you just let him drag you along while you rub your eyes with your robe’s sleeve and ignore the excited whispers coming from the walls around you.

Neither of you says a word, not until you are out of the castle targeting the woods ahead of you and that’s when you have a bad feeling about where you are heading.

“Are we…” the question dies in your throat as you become more and more certain that your suspicion is right. Your steps halt abruptly as you furrow your brows in a strict manner. “No! I’m not going into the Forbidden Forest with you!”

“Why not? Live a little. There would be no point of expel you now anyway,” Jae sighs dramatically, lightly dropping your hand but you still feel the buzz where he touched you.

For a moment you two just stand there, unmoving like statues, staring each other down. Then the boy cracks the most mischievous grin ever and you already know you lost this battle. You never had a chance anyway.

“Or… as a prefect, shouldn’t you stop me from going there? And how are you going to do that without following me?” he’s provoking you and you know that as you watch him getting further into the woods. You should just call the Keeper of Keys and Grounds but his words stuck in your head. Live a little. It doesn’t matter anymore, right?

You let out a frustrated sigh and take a deep breath before setting a foot on the path that’s disappearing among the shadows of the eerie forest’s trees. You are only a few steps into the dimmed woodlands when you spot Jae casually leaning to a trunk, arms crossed, seemingly waiting for you.

“I knew you had it in you,” he smiles brightly like the Sun when he sees you and you have to look away blushing from his intense stare.

“Come on, this way,” he beckons your closer, leading the way into a deeper part of the forest and you clutch onto your wand as if it was your life-belt. Just as when you are about to ask him jokingly if he wanted to kill you and bury your corpse in the Forbidden Forest, you reach a dark lawn and you forget to breath for a second.

“Oh my… are these unicorn babies?” you blurt out totally swept off your feet as you catch a sight of these golden furred equine creatures. They must be really young since they haven’t changed colour yet and you stare at the playing ponies fondly.

“Yeah,” Jae nods, a doting smile adorning his features. He doesn’t even take off his eyes off of you but you are too occupied with that one approaching unicorn to pay attention to him.

“How do you know about this place?” you ask astonished and you dare to tenderly pat the animal’s back when it snuggles close to you.

“I like to hang out here when I want to think.”

At the boy’s answer you look up and catch him keeping an eye on you which makes you feel all fuzzy and warm inside. He only smiles wider with which you can do nothing but return with your own shy smile. Somehow there, deep in the forest you two are not a Hufflepuff prefect and Slytherin troublemaker, none of it define you. You are just a girl and a boy laughing a lot, talking about future plans and opportunities until the Sun goes down. You get to know about him more than you have all this time and you feel falling harder than ever. He says he would like to work with Muggle-borns because they are misunderstood but he would also happily do something like Zonko’s Joke Shop. He tells about his non-magical family and how his dad got a job in London before he turned eleven and how surprised but enthusiastic everybody was when they found out that he’s a wizard. He tells you silly jokes, funny stories and so many interesting things about the world outside of the wizarding one you have always known, time really just slips out of your fingers and that a wolf’s (let’s hope it’s not something worse) howling is your cue to head back to the castle.

Going back, Jae persists to you right up to the Hufflepuff Basement’s entrance, so that’s where you stand awkwardly, not sure how to say goodbye or what it means at all. The school year is almost over and after that, you will probably go on your separate ways.

“This was really nice. Thank you for bringing me there,” you mumble, cheeks furiously red but thank Merlin, he cannot see that in the light of the distant torches. Still, his dark eyes are sparkling, even in the dark.

“You are welcome. I hope you feel better.”

A lot better actually, like a literal weight was lifted off of your chest but you miss your chance to tell him this when an impatient voice snaps at your duo, or most precisely him.

“Kiss her, you idiot!”

Jae doesn’t seem too surprised at the painting’s suggestion and while you almost jump out of your skin, he calmly dismisses the idea.

“I will not. I’m a gentleman. I will wait… well, at least until the second date,” he smiles at you and oh, it’s so damn cheesy, you can’t believe your ears. Did you fall asleep during studying? Are you dreaming? There’s no way your crush just promised to take you out once again and to kiss you no less!

“So it was a date?”

“It may have been,” he muses a little uncertain this time, eyes searching for yours, hands sweating as he tries to play it off coolly with that confident smile of his. And you think: to hell with fears and insecurities. Live a little.

"Hey Jae… I think I like you,” you confess as straightforward as you can and for the smile that spreads on the boy’s face, all teeth and eyes in crescents, it’s worth it.

Even if he’s irritatingly sure of himself when he answers with “I know.”

“What?” you blink, taken aback but Jae just shrugs as if it should have gone without saying.

“Otherwise, you wouldn’t let me get away with everything. Oh and maybe a little birdie told me,” he adds in a whisper signalling towards the eavesdropping paintings on the wall.

“I knew it, damn,” you smile and don’t have it in you to be mad. Not even when Jae leans forward, almost only a breath away and your heart skips a beat when his playful voice drops seriously low.

"Do you really think I’m charming?”

You don’t know if it’s the confrontation or his closeness but it makes you bold and you don’t back away or deny the truth.

“You definitely are,” you nod a little, sheepishly and in return, Jae gently pecks you on the cheek, wishing you a good night’s sleep with the promise of tomorrow and a lot of another days in the future. You step into the common room with a dreamy smile on your flushed face and a rapidly beating heart.

“Oh the lovebirds!” One of the paintings coos and this time you don’t tell them to shut up.