The sound of the wind and a splashing voice from outside the window, probably the legendary giant squid, was anything but noisy. The difference between Slytherin and other houses was, they chose to be a bit secrecity. You see, it was well known that Slytherin’s common room was placed deep in the dungeon. The room was concealed, but far from creepy. Well, it might be for students from other houses, but Slytherins assured their common room was perfectly save. Plus, the scenery from the window was magnificent, as students were served with a breathtaking view, for example, the Great Lake.

The Slytherins were gathered in their common room, lazying around. Some of them were talking, some were reading. The beautiful green fire illuminated the room, it wasn’t cold to begin with but they just liked it when the room was vibrant like the color of an emerald. The room was indeed homey, maybe that was also the reason why altough It was almost their curfew time, students were still scattered on the couches. Most of the girls went back to sleep already, so that left the boys conquering the whole room.

Kris was in his room, relaxing on his bed while reading a book Muggle Studies (He always enjoyed reading). The bedrooms, of course, were dominated with greens and silvers. The beds and curtains were embroided mostly with their sigil, the serpent.

 So far, none of the students made any problems, not even the Kims, so he could spend his time some more. There were his roommates with him, Yongguk and Zelo. The latter was already asleep, while Yongguk practicing his non-verbal patronus charm, which he constantly failed. He had asked Kris to help him before, but the boy refused (Kris always hated wasting his time for other people, it was his nature to begin with). Kris was so deep in his world until Yongguk broke his concentration.

“Muggle studies? Really?”

Kris looked up from his book only to see a disgusted look on Yongguk’s face. It was no secret to anyone that every single Slytherin hated muggles. Slytherins always had one of this traits called pride as purebloods. It was like a legacy to their children. Even Kris’ family always taught him not to associate with any muggle-born at school. They said muggles were weak and useless. Kris used to hate them too. Now he wanted to study about them more because, with all those nasty rumors and for what he had seen himself, he knew, all these years, they were wrong.

“What? They’re quite skillfull you know. They made tall buildings without magic. Something we probably can’t do.”

“You hated muggles. WE hate them.”

“It’s time to give them a chance.”

“They’re useless against us.”

“You know what Yongguk? We’ve seen some of muggle-born here actually does magic. Some of them are even outstanding in subjects, better than you even. They’re just like us.”

“Kris, they’re mudbloods! They’re disgusting, they’re pests, If your family knew you’ve been interested in them, they’ll kill you!”

Yongguk roared, startling a sleeping Zelo. The latter stared at both with confused face, realizing the air inside their bedroom seemed to tensed. Kris glaring at Yongguk, so did the boy. The headboy didn’t mind about ‘family will kill you’ , the first words were the one that triggered him. Kris was still glaring at Yongguk, eyes darker than ever, lips pressed into a thin line, making the other boy scared. It was silent until Kris said in an almost whispered voice, cold and deadly like a venom.

“Zitao isn’t disgusting.”

---

How did it end up like this?

Zitao was now patrolling with a 6th year Hufflepuff prefect, Luhan, and it had been fifteen minutes since they hadn’t share any other conversation. Both Zitao and Sehun managed to lie before they parted, saying that Zitao had forgotten his wand, so the boy assured Luhan to lead the way. So far, they had not seen anything weird in the basement. Zitao refused to patrol in the dungeon near Slytherin’s common room, afraid that he might see Kris or other Slytherin prefects and he wasn’t prepared with spontaneous lies, encouraging Sehun and Yixing to take the dungeons side. They agreed to meet again in Gryffindor’s tower, which Zitao was thankful for, far from his common room.

To say that the night patrol awkward was an understatement. Zitao was a shy and not-so-talkative-person to begin with, he remembered the first time he talked to Sehun, it was the Gryffindor’s who started their conversation first. He didn’t want to be rude to the older so he braced himself with the most cliched conversation-starter ever.

“So, what’s your favorite subject?”

Zitao mentally slapped himself. That was beyond lame.

Luhan chuckled, he thought the Slytherin boy was cute, fidgeting behind him despite his intimidating look.

“I enjoy defence against the dark arts. I’m good at them.” He grinned.

“Really? Sehun also enjoys that, he cannot stop talking and asking questions in class, it’s annoying.” Zitao pouted, because it was true. Once, Sehun couldn’t shut up about their subject spells, cruciatus curse, saying how it looked so cool which Zitao argued because it was too violent for a 4th year instead. The rest of the days were two of them bickering.

Suddenly the older stopped his tracks, making Zitao bumped to his back.

“Oh, you’re close with Sehun right?” Luhan now facing Zitao, whipping his wand close to Zitao’s face, blinding his eyes with lumos. Zitao groaned and blinked rapidly, making the older laughed, leading them to walk again.

“We’re close enough..”

“Yeah? What kind of person is he?”

 Zitao wasn’t looking on the older’s face, but he could tell Luhan was interested in Sehun, judging by the curiosity in the older’s voice.

“He’s..nice? well, he has this stoic and cold face, but he’s actually a good person. He rarely talks, but once you know him, he just can’t shut up.”

“I see..um..” Luhan hesitated for a bit.

“Does he..you know..”

Luhan trailed. Zitao was silent, still waiting for the question.

“Does he have a girlfriend? Or something?” Luhan rubbed his neck, and Zitao could see the older’s ears were burning red.

“Girlfriend? I don’t think Sehun has one..but I’m not going to lie, he has a thing for his ‘baby’ broomstick. Don’t get him wrong, you know, he’s a Quidditch player?”

“Oh, yeah! I’ve seen him play. He’s a seeker right? He’s so handome..” the older sighed, and froze when he realized what he just said. Zitao gaped because now he knew why the older was interogating him with all these ‘Sehuns’.

“Do you...do you like Sehun?”

Luhan stared at Zitao with wide eyes, but softened when the older didn’t see any sign of disgust on Zitao’s face.

“Yeah..I do, for quite a while now actually..don’t tell anyone?” the older grinned sheepishly.

“I won’t.”

Zitao smiled. He was glad they finally warmed up to each other. But what made him even happier was, he made another friend. Now he had friends from each houses. He wouldn’t actually called Jongdae and Jongin his bestfriends, for goodness’ sake, they were annoying, but they were friends nevertheless. He just hoped he could be closer to his other housemates though.

“So, enough about me. What about you and Kris?”

Why was people so curious about him and Kris all the time?

“What about us?” Zitao pretended to not understand.

“You know..you used to be so close. I’ve seen you waiting for Kris until our class ended. What happenned?”

Zitao sighed. He knew everyone was going to ask sooner or later.

“We still talk..sometimes..we’re good.”

“Yeah? Kris had told me several times in class, he always bragged how he has a cute junior in his house. I assume he was talking about you.” Luhan smirked.

“Nonsense, I’m anything but cute.” Zitao scoffed.

It wasn’t that Zitao hated Kris. Instead, he was thankful to the older when no one from his house would talk to him. The older had taught Zitao many things, including subjects and charms, even Kris taught Zitao how to ride a broomstick, which Zitao failed miserably. Zitao had never been a fan of Quidditch match, he preferred to practice his wushu near the Great Lake than sitting and hearing the cheering with the other audiences, not to mention the annoying Gryffindor’s Quidditch commentator Park Chanyeol, but he was never absent when Slytherin played. Not when Kris always insisted Zitao to watch and cheered for him, as the headboy was also Slytherin’s Quidditch captain, which Kris was proud of. Zitao never complained either, because seeing Kris flying with his broomstick, all sweaty and his silver hair tousled into every direction in the air, was very much worth it.

And that also led to his realization, when people started to talk and told him, how “mudbloods” shouldn’t associate with “purebloods”. His personality also didn’t match with his house traits, only making Zitao hated even more. He knew, the moment blood status was a great deal in his house, he needed to stay away from Kris as he didn’t want to ruin the older’s future career and family reputation. After all, he was the only muggle-born in Slytherin. Probably in history too.

“Zitao? Are you okay?”

Luhan was staring at Zitao with concern face from distance, and Zitao hadn’t realize he stopped walking. He was too engrossed recalling his past, that he would’ve been left behind if Luhan was dense enough.

“Zitao, you shouldn’t stay too far- hey, LOOK OUT!!”

Luhan suddenly screamed, staring horror behind Zitao’s back and Zitao knew there was something wrong so he turned his head only to saw a very crooked figure floating towards him, dirty but vibrant color. It passed through Zitao’s body, making The boy floated in the air for a brief second. His body was so light and he felt his eyes suddenly felt very sleepy that he couldn’t help but close them. It was all black but he could still heard Luhan’s scream.

“ZITAO!!”

---

Sehun and Yixing were in the first story of dungeon, near Slytherin’s common room. They both tried so hard to patrolled as far as possible. Nothing weird was happening. They had been walking for 40 minutes and it was getting late, both were sleepy and bored.

Sehun also tried to look for Zitao’s wand, only this time he wasn’t using any summoning charm, not wanting to repeat the incident with Zitao hitting his face with frame.

“Hyung, let’s just go back. Zitao and Hufflepuff pretty boy probably back already.” Sehun yawned. He really needed a sleep.

“Let’s check one more round, then we’ll go back. By the way, I told you his name is Luhan, he hated being called a pretty boy.”

Sehun groaned, he just finished his deadly homeworks few hours ago and he wasn’t in the mood with night shift, what a great time to be a prefect. He whined some more, until Yixing shushed him when he saw a blinding, and glowing light came from the basement stairs.

Sehun had never seen such a beautiful floating light in real life before. It was a magnificent color of silver and calming with a shape of a doe. The doe flew towards them and danced around, circling the two prefects, illuminating the hallways. It was a beautiful and breathtaking sight until Sehun realised it was indeed, a patronus charm.

“It’s Luhan’s..” Yixing whispered.

“Luhan? Why, were there dementors in the basement?”

The patronus form kept circling them until it flew to the basement stairs, gesturing them to follow it.

“No, It’s a message. I think it wants us to follow it. Luhan might be in trouble.” Yixing said in a serious tone.

“Trouble? What about Zitao?? He has no wand with him!” Sehun semi-shouted, his Slytherin friend was empty handed, also he was only a 4th year.

“Sehun, don’t shout! For now, let’s just follow Luhan’s patronus, okay?” Yixing hissed, hurriedly catching up with the doe while dragging Sehun along with him, not noticing a tall figure following them from behind.

---

Luhan panicked, the Slytherin boy was unconscious, lying on the floor. Zitao wasn’t injured, and he seemed to be breathing normaly, but that didn’t make Luhan less panick. The crooked figure vanished just after it went through passed Zitao’s body, like thin air and Luhan had no clue where that creature was. He had conjured his patronus to look for Yixing and Sehun, he just hoped both came immediately. 10 minutes had passed and Zitao showed no sign of conscious, the older was so close to cry until he heard footsteps, and there they were, the two boys he had been waiting for.

“What happenned??” Sehun was the first to asked, he immediately ran and crouched next to Zitao, placing the boy’s head on his lap and shaking the body. Luhan could see a concern face on the boy’s.

“I- there was this weird thing, like a smoke but kinda solid? It went through Zitao and suddenly he was lifted in the air, unconscious! I needed to use Liberacorpus to unlifted him though! I’m..I’m sorry, I didn’t know...”

Luhan was now crying, the older felt guilty because he couldn’t protect his younger prefect. Sehun was the one who panicked now, he rubbed the older’s back awkwardly while trying to shake Zitao’s body at the same time.

“Relax both of you, Zitao is only asleep.”

Both Luhan and Sehun looked up to Yixing, eyes filled with hopes and relief.

“How’d you know?”

“Listen, he snors a little. He’s bewitched though, he’s in a deep slumber. This kind of spell only lasts for 2 hours, don’t worry.” Yixing explained, while gently tapping Zitao’s face.

Sehun sighed, he didn’t realise his hand was still on Luhan’s back, so he quickly let go. Sehun seemed to not notice the blushing face of the older’s though.

“I think whatever that creature was, it was harmless. But still, we need to find it before other students or it would be a chaos. Let’s just go back..” Yixing continued.

“But what about Zitao? Students outside their respective houses are forbidden to spend the night in other’s common rooms. Should we take him to the hospital wing?”

As the three of them were thinking how to carry Zitao to school’s hospital, because damn this boy was quite heavy, a tall figure approached them, dark and strong aura emitting around. Sehun was the first to noticed, and his jaw dropped and his shocked face made Luhan and Yixing turned to where Sehun had been staring.

There, only a few meters away, stood the almighty silver-haired dragon, glaring at them three.

---

Earlier in Slytherin’s common room, Kris heard some noises. When the headboy decided to stepped outside, he saw a patronus form, a doe, circling a Gryffindor and Ravenclaw boys whom he expected to be prefects. He knew immediately it was Luhan’s patronus, they had been practicing patronus in their defence class. Kris was about to let it go until he heard the Gryffindor boy seemed to keep shouting Zitao’s name.

“I followed you here. Now explain to me, why Zitao is on the floor, unconscious. Five minutes I give you.” His voice was deep and demanding.

Sehun regretted the moment when he once mocked Zitao for being scared with Kris. Kris was nothing like Joonmyeon, the Gryffindor’s headboy. Their traits were different to begin with, the Gryffindor headboy was known to be gentle and caring while Kris was well-known for his hot tempered and strict personality. Sehun gulped, now he knew the reason why Zitao never wanted to make the headboy angry.

“Relax Kris, he’s only bewitched. It’s nothing serious, he’ll be concious again in 2 hours.” Yixing explained calmly. He tried to look wise, just like one of Ravenclaw’s traits, but actually he was dead inside. Yixing nearly stabbed himself and drink his own blood when Kris didn’t say anything, eyes dark and full of hatred. The headboy walked towards them, face angrier than ever.

The three of them shrieked, especially Sehun, when Kris crouched in front of  him, they thought the headboy was going to do something harmful. Instead, Kris gently embraced Zitao in his arms and carried him bridal-styled, like the boy wasn’t heavy at all.

“I’ll hear the rest from Zitao later. For now, you’re dismissed.” Kris wasn’t even glancing back, he just proceeded to Slytherin’s common room, leaving the three prefects stunned and grateful for their lives.

---

Kris opened the door to the main common room, only to see Yongguk sitting on the couch, The boy had just finished his night patrol in 2nd floor. The room was empty, all Slytherins went to bed already. It was as if Yongguk had been waiting for Kris to come. Kris ignored the boy and carried Zitao to his room, only to be stopped when Yongguk said something.

“You can’t develop feelings to mudbloods Kris. It’s a rule.”

Kris stopped his tracks and stared into Zitao’s face. Kris had always think that the boy was beautiful, with his permanent dark circles and feline eyes, just like cats. The boy also smelled like peaches, which Kris noticed and smelled him time to time, making Zitao flustered until the boy asked him to stop. It was addicting. And Zitao’s reactions were always satisfying. But Zitao’s lips was Kris’ personal favorite, it shaped perfectly like a symmetrical bow and Kris wondered how lucky the person who stole Zitao’s first kiss was. Kris had seen every purebloods his entire life, but none of them were as beautiful as the boy, and the fact that Zitao was muggle-born, only made Kris interested in him even more. Zitao was different, not like any other Slytherins, not like any other purebloods, the boy was honest and kind-hearted. Kris’ admitted he was being unfair by treating Zitao special, but he wouldn’t call that ‘developing feelings’, Kris refused to admit it because he was not.

“ I don’t like him, Yongguk.”

Yongguk scoffed.

“Doesn’t seem like it.”

“Just because I treat him special, doesn’t mean I like him.”

Kris walked again, ignoring for whatever curses Yongguk was throwing at him. He arrived in Zitao’s bedroom, careful not to make any noises because he didn’t want to wake the Kims, that would be a disaster. He gently placed Zitao on his bed, took off the boy’s robe and tie. He stared into the boy’s sleeping figure again, hovering him. His hand was brushing Zitao’s face softly. Kris furrowed his brows, a massive disagreement with what Yongguk had said earlier.

He then whispered, more to himself than the sleeping figure underneath him.

“I don’t like you..”

Yeah Kris, keep telling yourself that muahahaha *evil laugh*

Do you like the slight HunHan? Ohoho, they’re developing fast! And some of Taoris interactions because I just can’t.

Anyway, now you know the main reason why everyone in his house despised Zitao. He’s a muggle-born, something that never happenned in the history of house Slytherin! There’s a reason why I made him Slytherin though, that would be explained on the next chapters. Don’t worry, I won’t make our baby Taozi suffer forever, his little romance and friendships are blooming veeeery slowly :3

I hope you enjoy this chapter, and thankyou so much for keeping up with my random writings!

Love, author<3