“1st years students, welcome to house Slytherin. I’m Gemma Farey, one of your house prefect. Now, you may have heard that our house produce only dark witches for most times, but they’re wrong. We have amazing witches from our house too! For example, did you know that the great witch Merlin himself, was in fact, a Slytherin? Like the sorting hat said, Slytherin will help you meet your real friends and achieve to your greatness! So be proud!”

Kris yawned. He was bored with the entire sorting ceremony. Kris had planned to just sleep in his bedroom, but the prefect managed to keep shouting the boring-welcoming-supposedly-encouraging-words in their common room. She was showing off the boys and girls dormitory, of course, it was necessary for the little newcomers. Not so many students were sorted into Slytherin this year, but tonight’s ceremony was unforgettable. Not when a certain dark haired-boy who was almost sorted into Hufflepuff, ended up in his house instead.

That must had shocked everyone. And judging by the boy’s expression earlier, he was shocked too.

Kris noticed the dark haired boy was awkwardly standing in the middle of the room. The other 1st years seemed to warmed up to everyone, but not the boy. He looked so small and vulnerable, cluctching his a bit oversized robe with his tiny hands. The boy looked so lost and uncomfortable despite being in his own house. Kris felt a bit sympathethic, something he rarely had, so he encouraged himself to walked towards the small boy.

“Hey, I’m Kris wu. 3rd year.”

The boy looked up to Kris with wide eyes, fidgeting in his position. Of course, Kris with dark eyes, silver haired and tall body height would look intimidating, even to his fellow seniors.

“........”

“If someone is introducing their name, shouldn’t you tell yours too? Or do you have no disciplinary?” Kris mocked.

“N—No! I’m sorry!! I’m..my name is Huang Zitao.” Zitao bowed, a gesture to show respect.

Kris raised his brow. He would expect the boy to be softspoken, but he wasn’t expecting the boy to be ‘that soft’. He spoke several times to the other 1st years earlier, but he had not yet encountered the one with manners, just like the boy.

“Okay then, Zitao. Why don’t you join your friends?”

The boy stared dumbfounded. Of course it was obvious Zitao had no friends at the moment. Kris knew that, but It wouldn’t hurt to tease the boy a little bit, right?

“Look, you can mingle with— this boy for example—“

Kris grabbed another skinny 1st year boy that happened to randomly ran past them. The boy yelped and wriggled but lost due to their height gap.

“Hey! mind your own bussiness, gramps!” 

“Shut up, I’m your senior.” Kris growled. The boy could only scowled, and blewing raspberries to Kris, confusing Zitao.

“Now, Zitao. Why don’t you get along with— what’s your name, brat?”

“Don’t call me brat! I’m Kim Jongin. The future golden Slytherin boy! Now, show respect, granpa!” The boy excitedly exclaimed, swinging his wand with his little hand.

“Yes, whatever, now why don’t you two mingle? Or I don’t know, share bedroom?”

Kris shoved Jongin to Zitao, hoping they would get along. Jongin silently inspecting the other boy, eyes twitching as he sctratched his imaginary beard, perhaps imitating the wiseman Dumbledore. Zitao was nervous, because the boy seemed to stare at him for a long time like he was some sort of prey before Jongin grinned widely.

 “What’s your name?” Jongin asked.

“Huang Zitao..”

“Huang! Your eyes look like a cat! They’re pretty, but not as pretty as my cat, Kokobop!”

“...Oh..thank you..?”  

Who in their right minds named their cats Kokobop? But who was Zitao to judge.

“Well, Huang, I don’t mind sharing room with you. In fact, You’re lucky to have me as a roommate, I’m the greatest wizard of all time! Come on!”

Jongin quickly held Zitao’s hand and dragged the boy along. Kris felt proud to himself, he had done some kindness today, again, something he rarely did. He was ready to headed back to his bedroom when he felt someone tugged his robe.

There, stood the dark haired boy behind him, shyly clutching his robe.

“T-thank you gege..”

---

“Come on Zitao, it’s not that bad.”

“Can’t we just like— keep our biggest fear to ourselves?”

“Then what’s the point practicing Riddikulus? Come on, even Jongin did just fine.”

Kris sighed. Zitao was now a 3rd year, And that came the time where 3rd years’ defence against the dark arts in how to defend yourselves with boggarts. Zitao had complained that he refused to face his boggart, afraid that he couldn’t control his fear. Kris had told Zitao several times that the ‘Riddikulus’ charm class was as fun as flying a broomstick and perfectly save, but the boy was just so stubborn. Of course, even professor Lupin had told Professor Snape that if Zitao still refused to face his boggart, they boy might failed his class and needed to repeat next year, which according to Snape, was such a disreputation in the name of Slytherin’s house. They wouldn’t need any other student repeating, courtesy of Marcus Flint.

And as a 5th year prefect, Kris felt responsible to help the boy. The other prefects and seniors refused to help Zitao, supposed to be because Zitao was muggle-born, and strangely enough Zitao also didn’t want anyone’s help except from Kris. Zitao didn’t have any other friends from the house except for him, Jongin and Jongdae, which Kris doubting the Kims very much. Leaving the boy with the two Kims was the worst idea Kris had ever done. Once, Jongdae promised  to help Zitao practicing his charms, but ended up turning Zitao’s hair into a rainbow instead. The boy then cried non stop, and Kris spent his whole day sending curses to Jongdae while soothing a crying Zitao. Zitao’s hair turned back to its original colour after two weeks.  

“How did you face your Boggart for the first time?” Zitao eyed Kris suspiciosly, wondering how everyone could easily surpassed their biggest fear.

Kris shrugged.

“Chinese fireball, turned it into a giant fluffy alpaca plush.”

“You’re the dragon here, yet you’re scared of REAL dragons?” Zitao snorted.

“Hey, at least it’s not some lousy pixie cornish.”

“Shut up, My boggart isn’t pixie cornish.” Zitao pouted.

---

The first time Zitao agreed to face his boggart was when his housemates constantly mocked him for being useless and asked the boy to just go back to his muggle word. That, also professor Lupin had threatened the boy to fail his third year exam instantly if Zitao didn’t face his boggart immediately. Zitao had asked Kris’ help for the last time, promising the older that he would face his boggart properly this time. Professor Lupin had agreed to let both Slytherins use the classroom to practice (he trusted as Kris was a prefect, so nothing would go wrong).

“Ready?” Kris stood behind Zitao, gripping the boy’s waist with his hands firmly and he rested his chin on Zitao’s shoulder. Of course their position was so much ‘promising’, but Kris really needed to held the boy incase Zitao decided to flee like last time. Or so he thought.

Zitao silently nodded, biting his lips nervously, much to Kris being too close to him than the boggart he was going to face.

“Wand’s ready..on the count of three. One—two—three!”

The wardrobe in front of them opened, and Zitao’s breath hitched, he knew exactly what he was dealing with.

There, stood in front of Zitao, was the figure of himself. With his Slytherin robes, jet black hair, staring right into his own eyes. The eyes filled with loneliness and sadness, asking for help. Kris was confused on why would Zitao fear himself? Zitao was anything but scary, in fact, Kris thought Zitao was cute to begin with.

Suddenly, the boggart, as Zitao, turned old, with ugly wrinkles on his face, hair turning white, still wearing his Slytherin robes. The boggart stopped right in front of Zitao’s face, and he saw himself turned into a nasty old ghost, just like the school ghosts, the ghost of himself being lonely and sad, forever stuck at hogwarts. Then it clicked in Kris’ head, that It was a time lapse of Zitao himself in his entire life, being lonely with no friends and eventually died alone.

Kris never knew Zitao’s biggest fear was in fact, so deep. He certainly had seen other’s boggarts such as snakes or clowns, even his own boggart was a chinese fireball dragon, but they were all meaningless fears or just childhood nightmares.

The boggart came closer to them, Kris gripped Zitao’s waist harder than before, silently telling Zitao to cast the Riddikulus spell, but the boy made no movement and just stood still.

“Zitao, hurry—“

As Kris peeked over Zitao’s face, the boy had closed his eyes tightly and whimpering, Zitao had no longer paying attention to the boggart in front of him, and that was the cue for Kris to dispeled the boggart himself, so he did.

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s gone.”

Kris hugged the younger boy tightly, rubbing circles on his back. Zitao had always been a cry-baby and Kris knew that very well, even Jongin and Jongdae made fun of him because the boy could easily cried for such unimportant things, but this time it was different. The boy was shook of course, and Kris concluded the reason Zitao refused to face his boggart before was, the boy didn’t want anyone seeing the true form of his fear.

“I’m pathethic. I’m just a really, despicable, useless human being.” , Zitao sobbed.

“That’s not true.”

“Yes it is. I can’t even face a boggart properly!” 

Zitao cried his eyes out, clutching Kris’ robe while crying on the crook of the older’s neck. Zitao excelled in mostly every subjects, such as herbology and potions, astronomy, even arithmancy. But he was never fond with defence against the dark arts. Kris sighed, he needed to wash his robe some time later because he knew the tears stains and Zitao’s snot was hard to wear off, he was getting used to it though.

“Hey, wanna hear something funny?”, Kris suddenly asked.

Zitao stopped his crying session and stared into Kris’, he faced Kris properly this time out of curiosity. Kris’ hands were still on Zitao’s waist, their face were only few inches apart, not that Kris could protest so that he could stare into Zitao’s beautiful orbs clearly.

“What?”

“The first time I rode my broomstick was a disaster, you know.”

Zitao blinked his eyes rapidly and frowned,

“Liar, you ride your broomstick just fine!”

“Why would I lie? I couldn’t possibly forget my 1st year flying class, I was like riding a drunk beast, I ended up threwing up on Madam Hooch’s robe and, god you should’ve seen her face!”

“Maybe it’s just Jongdae Jinxing your broom”, Zitao mumbled

“Jongdae wasn’t even in this school yet, silly.” Kris chuckled while gently wiping off Zitao’s tears. The boy had stopped crying a while ago, and he seemed to started giggling, probably hearing the older’s unexpected story and that relieved Kris. He had to sacrifice his image though.

“And then what happened?”

“Of course after what happened, I was doubting myself to become a Quidditch player. That kinda traumatized me though.”

“....But you’re a Quidditch captain now...”, Zitao trailed.

“Exactly.” Kris smiled, and returning to their original potition, only that now Zitao with his wand ready and Kris holding his hand, supporting the boy while his other hand was on Zitao’s waist.

“What I wanted to say is...” Kris whispered.

“You can always conquer anything, even your biggest fear.”

---

 Zitao woke up with a massive headache. He groaned and pinched his bridge nose, hoping to reduce the pain a little. Lately, he had been dreaming about his past with Kris, which he couldn’t help but grinned. He remembered his first success turning his boggart into himself riding a jinxed-broomstick, which caused him and Kris laughed after. Of course, thanks to the older’s help, Zitao passed his 3rd year exam gracefully. He realized he was still smilling like an idiot when he noticed he was in his bedroom. He looked around confused, Their bedroom was empty, no signs of the Kims. He was still in his uniform, only without his tie and robe.

Zitao furrowed his brows, he couldn’t remember about what happened and why was he in his bed room in the first place? He glanced at the clock and shrieked when he noticed it was noon time already, meaning he had skipped morning classes. He bit his nails, a sign of panicked and tried to remember what happened before.

He helped Sehun with his homeworks, and talked to Yixing and a pretty Hufflepuff prefect.

Luhan, yes his name was Luhan. So he patrolled with Luhan, talked about the older’s crush with Sehun, recalling his past with Kris, then..

Zitao couldn’t remember anything after that. But he sure did, saw something he wouldn’t expected. He wondered if Luhan saw it too? It was vague, but he could see it clearly before he out. He needed to tell Sehun and Yixing after this, about what he saw. They probably wouldn’t believe him though.

But more importantly, how long had he been sleeping?

Wasn’t it night time when Zitao had a night shift?

Zitao gasped in horror, the boy thought Luhan must had brought Zitao to Slytherin’s common room and told Kris about what happened, or else he wouldn’t be sleeping in his bed right now. He was ready to drown himself in the Great Lake when the door to his bedroom opened, and there stood the person he didn’t really want to see at the moment.

“Oh, you’re awake?”

Kris was leaning on the door, he was wearing his Quidditch uniform, probably Slytherin team’s practicing later. His hair also wasn’t styled, messily sticking to the older’s face, and he really  wished he could savour this glorious moment if only he wasn’t in a situation where he really wanted to avoid the headboy because he knew, surely Kris was going to ask about last night and why was Zitao skipping classes.

“I told Snape you’re sick.”

Zitao blinked and stared at Kris confusedly, wasn’t the headboy supposed to scold him?

“Ó—oh?”

“How are you feeling?”, Kris walked to the boy and checked his temperature. Kris’ hand was warm, and Zitao couldn’t help but to close his eyes.

“Fine..I guess.” Zitao sighed.

“I’ve heard from Luhan about what happened.”

Zitao turned pale and his heart dropped, what did Luhan tell the headboy?

“Gosh Zitao, you shouldn’t do your night shift alone. You’re a 4th year for god’s sake, you should’ve asked Yongguk or Leo to check the basement together instead.” The older sighed.

Alone? Yongguk? Leo? What was Kris talking about?

“What do you mean?” Zitao asked confused.

Kris sat on the edge of Zitao’s bed and stared into the boy’s eyes.

“Luhan told me you were patrolling alone, him and another prefects just happenly found you on basement floor. He said there were no one except you.” The older frowned.

Zitao silently celebrating himself and thanked Luhan, the Hufflepuff prefect had lied to Kris and didn’t say anything about Zitao and Luhan did their night shift together. Kris was never fond of any Slytherin prefects doing their duty with other houses, especially Gryffindor.

“Sorry..” Zitao mumbled.

“Why were you fainting?”

Zitao blinked. Should he tell Kris what he saw?

“I don’t remember..”

Nah.

“You don’t remember?” Kris raised a brow.

“..........”

“Fine. By the way, do you happen to know any Gryffindor prefect?”

“H—huh??”

“You know, dirty blonde hair, almost as tall as you?”

Zitao turned pale once again. Kris was referring to Sehun no doubt. Kris had heard the Gryffindor prefect shouting Zitao’s name the other night, so the boy must had knew each other, not that Zitao knew about Kris and Sehun had met, he was bewitched after all. Zitao wished Kris would just ask about why he was fainted rather than discussing about Sehun instead.

“Doesn’t ring a bell to me.”, The boy lied, again.

Kris silently judging Zitao before he moved closer to the boy, and stared into Zitao deep, making the boy flustered and uncomfortable with their close distance.

“Don’t lie to me Huang Zitao, you know I hate liars.” The older wispered.

Zitao bit his lips, he felt guilty lying to Kris but he wouldn’t risk burdening Slytherin’s name any further by mingling with a Gryffindor boy. He had no choice but to lie.

“I don’t know him.”

It was a staring contest for both Slytherins in silence before Kris broke their eye contacts first and left the room without saying anything else. Zitao sighed deeply, once again he managed to make Kris angry. He was disappointed in himself, but right now he needed to talk to Sehun first and told his friend about what he saw.

 Zitao quickly ran outside his common to find his Gryffindor mate.

---

Sehun had finished his classes and he went back to his common room. It was a painful journey from Divination class to his dormitory. His house’s common room was placed in 7th floor Gryffindor tower, a very dominant room with reds and yellows.

Sehun sat on his bed and stared blankly at the ceiling. Zitao had absent today and Sehun couldn’t help but worried. Yixing had told them that the boy was only bewitched for two hours, yet Zitao didn’t show up today at any classes. Sehun saw Jongin in his classes and really wanted to ask the Slytherin boy, but he remembered Zitao saying that he didn’t want anyone from his house knew he was hanging out with a Gryffindor, also Sehun knew Jongin would only sneered at him if he asked (because hey, they were rivals), so Sehun held back.

“Sehun-ah, you’re daydreaming.”

Someone poked his cheek continuosly and Sehun groaned, swatting the hand away.

“Go away, Chanyeol.”

“Where do I go? This is also my room!” The boy with curly hair whined. Sehun really thought how could a 185cm giant with a deep voice like Chanyeol could act so childish?

“I don’t know, go bother the Slytherins with their Quidditch practice maybe, you’re good at annoying people. Perhaps with that, Joonmyeon will reward you with 150 points, who knows?” Sehun retorded.

“How could you say that to your own father?? Baekki, our son is being such a meanie!”

Chanyeol dramatically gasped and ran to the boy across the bed who seemed to be reading something. The boy with a brunette hair and sharp eyes only smiled to the giant who was throwing puppy eyes, asking for a pet in his head which the shorter did.

“Now Chan, don’t bother Sehun-ah, I’m sure he’s just tired after Divination.”

 The brunette gently spoke while petting the giant’s head. The action in front of Sehun was so comical that the 4th year prefect couldn’t help but cringed at how both his 5th year roommates acted sweet like a married couple despite their ridiculous height gap. Not to mention they arbitrarily claimed Sehun as their ‘son’ since the two started dating.

“You guys are gross.”

“It’s okay Sehun-ah, one day you will find your soul mate, don’t be jealous to us yet.”

“I’m not jealous.”

“Aww, are you lonely? Here, let me give you a pet too!” The shorter boy cooed, and Sehun could only groan.

“By the way Chan, have you found your wand?”

“Uh-uh, thanks to the mighty Lost wands I found it!” The curly haired beamed to the shorter which he got a reply with‘good boy’.

Sehun shot a glance to the duo couple almost too quickly and gaped at the two who were now cuddling on the shorter’s bed.

“Did you just say Lost wands...?”

“Yeah, you know..at Serpentine corridor, third floor?”

Sehun mentally slapped himself. Of course the Lost wands! They should had started with part of the castles for lost and found, mainly students’ lost wands instead of lingering in basements and dungeons, how could they be so dumb? After all these times Zitao’s wand probably stayed there in the first place.

“You know what? You guys are gross but you probably just saved one’s life.”

Sehun quickly ran outside his room, confusing the couple who stared at his running figure dumbly, not knowing what just happened.

Chanbaek yay!! Poor Sehun for rooming with them, haha :D (Fyi, both Chanyeol and Baekhyun are 5th years).

Gooosh, finally Zitao and Kris’ past are slowly revealed! I can’t with them, they’re too cute *sigh*

And lmao Kris was the one responsible for Zitao’s never-ending horrible days as Jongin rooming with him thanks to the older XD

By the way, I drew Slytherin!Kris fanart few days ago and couldn’t help but upload it here. I’m planning to draw the rest of the members for each chapters, should I upload them to (like as chapter cover)? I don’t want to ruin your character interpretations though, of course, If it’s best to leave it to your imaginations then I won’t upload them don’t worry! :”)

Anyway, I will never get tired thanking for those who keep reading my random fics heuheu;;;

Love, author<3