Their first year was a mess and Harin was involved in more than a few tussles, invoking a howler from their mother after her fourth fight. It took a letter from Namjoon to explain that she was doing it to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves for their mother to calm down. However, after the first month, both twins became more than proficient with the wand and casting spells. They already knew the spells by heart from having read Namjoon’s books before, but they needed the practice in the practical application of the spells. That in combination with the fact that the Hufflepuff house was aiding Harin on her rampage to end bullying instead of turning a blind eye reduced the number of incidents dramatically.

And surprisingly, no one hated Harin.

Haneul had factored in the fact that Harin was generally really likable and friendly, as well as athletic, intelligent, and rather pretty. But she had suspected that putting up such a fight and causing such a splash would cause problems for the more audacious twin. However, much to her surprise, Harin was easily the most popular first year, and definitely one of the most popular Hufflepuffs in history.

Hufflepuffs were more known for being pushovers or whatnot, but Harin came in like a storm with her iron will and assertive nature while still being kind and friendly on a more regular basis. Harin was the opposite of a pushover, but she was still a Hufflepuff, and all of the others in that house really admired her for it. The Ravenclaws thought she was being over the top, but Namjoon had slowly explained to his housemates that Harin was the type to care too much, and at the very least, they’d know she’d stick up for them if they needed her too, and that kind of loyalty was oddly charming to them. Plus, she proved herself to be quite brilliant and could give any Ravenclaw a run for their money in most classes. She more than held her own in any battle of wits.

The Gryffindors took a while to warm up to Harin, but that was because that house bullied the Slytherins the most, so they fought head to head with Harin the most. But when they stopped coming after the Slytherins so much, and actually sat down and chatted with Harin, they eventually came around. Soon enough, rather than bully the Slytherins, they just found it more fun to get along with Harin and ignoring the Slytherins instead. She liked playing pranks as much as the next kid, and she was oddly good at them – without hurting anyone, of course. She quickly built a nice camaraderie with them in pulling fun and harmless pranks on anyone and everyone. She was also extremely willing to tutor anyone who asked for it.

Most Slytherins never seemed to fully accept Harin’s kindness. Haneul had to explain to a disheartened Harin that it was because they didn’t know how to trust other people who have no reason to owe them anything. That was how they always were, but even more so after all that’s happened. They didn’t know how to trust Harin because she had no reason to trust them back. They did eventually get used to having her around because she spent as much time with her sister as possible, no matter how much everyone else vied for her attention. The only other Slytherins Harin really sought out was Yoongi and, in turn, Jungkook.

And they did find out why people reacted so specifically to Jungkook and Yoongi the way they did.

Jungkook’s entire family was made up of high profile Death Eaters. Yoongi was related to them, but had fewer in his immediate family. Jungkook lost his entire family to Azkaban.

Even though he was barely one years old at the time, other students continued to call him a Death Eater. Since people noticed that Harin was particularly friendly with Yoongi and Jungkook, no one outright bullied Jungkook, but things did happen to him more often than for other Slytherin students. It took an hour of begging for Haneul not to tell Harin what she really figured out happen when Jungkook said he ‘tripped and fell down the stairs because he was carrying too many things’. Haneul did, however, follow Jungkook around more often, just in case he needed help ‘carrying things’. That really helped matters since no one ever messed with Haneul.

Harin was popular and well liked, but Haneul was climbing ranks through her incredible intelligence and talent. No one wanted to duel her after seeing the damage she did in a practice duel with a fourth year while she was still in her first year. Count in the fact that she’s been able to fend off four assailants while things were still shaky in the first year in terms of bullying Slytherins using the few spells she had mastered, and she’s only continued to improve drastically since then.

She worried even some professors ever since some idiot wizard made the mistake of hurting Harin. The day Haneul spent hunting him down, playing with his life, cruelly keeping him at the edge, running, but never quite fast enough before finally taking him out (not killing him, just making him wish she did), went down in history as the moment everyone knew not to mess with one of the twins.

Of course, that’s not to say Harin wasn’t just as intelligent or talented and would warrant such reverence due to her magical prowess. She was just as brilliant of a witch as her sister. She was just more benevolent and swift in a duel. And in their second year, she was becoming more known for her abilities as a Chaser. For someone usually so kind, she was not afraid of hurting another player – it came from her history in Rugby. In her first game, some Slytherin players thought to cramp her between them as they flew and tried to force her play. She hunched forward and kicked out with her right leg, hitting his broom, dislodging the person to her right just enough to disengage from them and spiral upwards with enough force to hit both players in the head with each end of her broomstick. Both were knocked off their brooms and landed on the ground with a thud. She passed the ball to another chaser and shook out her arms. They learned to come at her much more carefully after that.

People commented on her ferocity though her house was Hufflepuff. She’d always smile and say ‘Have you ever been in a fight with a badger? The claws aren’t just for show.’

But with such popularity, she never had a moment of alone time. Even her precious studying time with her sister in the library was constantly interrupted. This led to her sometimes taking some time away from her fellow classmates and finding places to hide to hear her own thoughts, even if just for an hour.

Today, she was just sitting behind Hagrid’s hut on a giant pumpkin. She was staring up at the sky, counting stars and thinking, not bothered by the odd smells of various animals in the area. Hagrid smiled and gave her an apple as he left to go on doing his job in the forest.

“What are you doing here?” Harin nearly jumped and whipped her head around to look at them.

Jungkook was still shy and wide-eyed, but Harin was one of the very few who he’d actually look in the eye when talking to them. Even the other Slytherin housemates avoided him in a way. Either it was because his family, though mostly locked away, was still very influential and rich, or because they were worried about his strong Death Eater ‘reputation’ would affect them badly as well. But, Harin was unconcerned with all of that. She talked to him about classes and food and quidditch and anything in between. She did most of the talking, he’d make encouraging noises to keep her talking, and he’d look at her and smile at her jokes and funny stories.

“It’s quiet out here.” Harin smiled.

“It is.” He nodded, hopping up on another giant pumpkin. “I didn’t think you’d be interested in any peace and quiet.”

“On the contrary. I like being able to hear myself think sometimes.” She laughed. “Are you here for peace and quiet too? I didn’t think you’d need any more of that.” She grinned. “You’re already so quiet.”

“Who me? I’m so talkative though.” He frowned playfully.

“Oh forgive me. I must have you confused with myself. I’m so quiet. I never talk.”

Jungkook rolled his eyes. “So, do you come out here a lot?”

“Not a lot, but sometimes. You?”

“Sometimes.”

“Are you okay?”

“Are you?”

“I’m just tired. Your turn.”

“I’m tired too.”

“Are you going out for Seeker? Everyone says you are.”

“I don’t want to.”

“But I thought you liked Quidditch?” They’d talked about it before. They chatted about sports, comparing muggle to wizard competitions. He was competitive enough not to even want to lose a game of chess to Haneul, one of the best chess players in multiple age groups.

“I’m not really interested in having more attention on me right now.”

“Oh. But I think it’d be fun playing against you. Haneul got to play you in chess. I’m more of a rugby player, but we can’t do that here. I’d like to compete with you too.” She shrugged. “And you’re the one who told me you’d be a good Seeker.”

“With your Chaser skills I’m not sure even my catching the snitch would guarantee a win.” He snorted.

“You don’t have faith in the Slytherin team?

“Not after the slaughter you put them through in your first game.”

“To be fair, they didn’t realize how much of a fight I’d put up. I’m stronger than I look.” She grinned.

“You single-handedly beat up half of the school in your first year.”

“No! My sister helped me do that.”

“Yeah, but she used magic.”

“Fine. Slytherin and everyone else should’ve realized I was going to put up such a fight.” She grumbled. “Speaking of my beating people up, anyone giving you trouble?”

“No.”

“I don’t know if you consider me a friend or not, I certainly consider you one, but I don’t like it when you lie to me. At least get better at it.”

“No one is bothering me.”

“Jungkook.”

“Everything is fine.”

“If you don’t tell me the truth, I’m going to attach myself to you like a spider monkey.”

“A what? That sounds horrifying.”

“Spider money. A clingy monkey.”

“Oh.”

“So, fess up.”

“There’s nothing to say.”

Harin hopped off the pumpkin with a frown. “You really don’t think I’ll spider monkey? I’ve done it for Haneul, I’ll do it to you too.”

“I’m serious! I’m fine!” He jumped off the pumpkin to try to back away from her.

“One last chance to tell me who’s messing you.” For every step she took forward, he took one back.

“No one! No one is doing anything!” He tried to turn and run, but she was quicker on the take down. She launched herself at his back and they both went tumbling down.

“Give me names, Jungkook. Don’t protect bullies.” She was completely attached to him. Legs around his waist, arms round his neck and shoulders, and no signs of loosening up. He fumbled around, trying to get on his hands and knees though she was attached to his back.

“Right now the only person bothering me is you!” He whined, trying to shake her off. “Why are you so damn strong?!”

“Why are you being so stubborn?” She shifted her weight and made him drop back down on his side. “Was it Jongdae? Was it Hanbin? Names!”

“Fine! It’s Hyungwon and Jooheon.” He grunted.

She let go, both of them dropping to the ground without a fight with tangled limbs. “Thank you. Was that so hard?” She sat up, smiling down at him and panting from the exertion.

“I don’t like tattling.”

“Think of it not as tattling, but solving problems.” She ruffled his hair.

“Oh! Are we interrupting something!” Two boys stopped in their tracks when they saw the two first years. “Sorry! We’ll go! We were just hoping to play with the animals…”

“No, no. It’s all fine. Hagrid is in the forest right now, so you’ll only be able to play with the little ones in the pen.” Harin grinned, not at all bothered that two upperclassmen caught her in a compromising position with one of the most ‘Death Eater-est’ Slytherin boys. Jungkook flushed at the way they glanced at the intimate position the two were in and back to his face. Jungkook quickly backed away from Harin. He grabbed his bag and ran away. “Oh, bye.” Harin waved to the quickly retreating back before turning to the two newcomers. “Park Jimin and Kim Taehyung, right?” She pointed at the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw respectively. “You guys have fun with the animals. Don’t cause too much trouble. I have some people I need to have a philosophical discussion with.” She grabbed her bag and left to go find Hyungwon and Jooheon.

“I heard rumors that Jungkook had a crush on her, but I didn’t know she returned the feelings.” Taehyung mused to his best friend.

“Maybe that’s why she was so serious about beating up people who picked on Slytherin?”

“It’d make sense. Why him though? I heard like a million kids in this school have a crush on her. Hell, even I’m partial to dating her.” Taehyung snorted.

“It’s a weird combination. Death Eater and the Princess of the Hufflepuff house.” Jimin nodded.

“Don’t let her hear you call him that. I’ve seen her break ribs with her bare hands for that kind of name calling.” Taehyung winced.

By the end of the week, Hyungwon and Jooheon publicly apologized to Jungkook in the Great Dining Hall and far more people than usual were whispering about the possible connection between Jungkook and Harin being more than just friendly or protective.

“Were you making out with Harin?” Yoongi asked Jungkook bluntly.

“What?!” Jungkook’s quill snapped messily in his hand.

“I heard you’re dating and were caught making out behind Hagrid’s hut.”

“No! She tackled me to get the names of my bullies! We’re not dating at all!”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Wait, who told you this?”

“It’s been going around.” Yoongi shrugged.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah. Why would I joke about this?”

Jungkook blanched at the thought of his reputation ruining hers any more than it already does simply by being friends. He left his stuff and sprinted out of the common room, searching for the two upperclassmen that saw him with Harin and was clearly spreading lies about them that would hurt her in the end. He needed to set things straight. He had to. He couldn’t do much in return for everything Harin has done for him and his housemates, but not ruining her reputation was something he could try to do.

He ended up finding them by Hagrid’s hut once more. “Are you telling people Harin and I dating?” He blurted out before he could scare himself out of it.

“Aren’t you? You guys were making out the other day. What? You don’t want to make an honest woman out of her? Because she’s only a half blood?” The chubby cheeked one sneered.

“We’re not dating and we weren’t making out! She was torturing a confession of names out of me so she could go beat up bullies! Why would you tell people that? Do you hate her?”

“What? Of course not. We like her. She’s really nice and funny.”

“Then why would you spread the rumor that she’s dating me? Why would you want to hurt her reputation like that?”

“What?”

“Being linked to me will make her look bad!”

“You’re being serious.”

“Of course I’m being serious. Now go reverse this, what you did, before it gets any worse -- before Harin hears about this too.”

“That’s not how rumors work.” Haneul drawled from where she’d been napping in a hidden corner. “And she already knows this is a rumor, one that has been circulating for a while. She’s also heard what these guys have been spreading about. She doesn’t care about rumors, and she most certainly doesn’t care about her ‘reputation’. She beat up half the school in the name of justice. Being rumored to be dating one of her good friends isn’t an issue in the slightest to her. Have you not heard the rumor that she’s dating Yoongi too? Or Yongguk from Ravenclaw? Or Junhoe from Gryffindor? Or numerous others people like to speculate are more than just friendly with her, regardless of the fact that we’re only 12 and clearly not concerned with dating.”

“But this is me. My reputation is--”

“Your reputation is that you come from a family of scary Death Eaters. But what matters is that you're worthy of Harin’s friendship. Stop thinking of yourself as something that would tarnish her. That's not a very Slytherin way of thinking, is it?”

“No, you're right.”

“And you're also right in thinking she's too good for you. She's too good for everyone. She's a damn saint. I'm not worthy of being her sister if we’re to be perfectly honest with ourselves. But you know how I overcome that? I push to make myself worthy of being by her side. You should do the same. Stop dithering and wallowing. It's unbecoming.”

“I… Okay.”

“If Harin wants to be your friend, she’s going to be your friend. If she had a problem with the rumors, then she’d face them head on on her own. She’s not weak and she doesn’t need you complaining about your reputation being contagious. Her sister is a Slytherin and she’s already friends with a few Slytherins. She doesn’t care about reputations. She sees the good in people’s heart. You have to know this.”

“I.. I do.”

“Good. Glad we could have this chat. Now it's time for me to go study on the pitch while Harin practices with her team. Would you like to join me?”

“Yes.”

“How about you two?” Haneul turned to look at Jimin and Taehyung expectantly. “Coming or not?”

“Coming.” They said in unison, not quite sure why. The twins had a way of collecting very obliging followers wherever they went.

“Good. Let's go then.”

Harin was doing warm up stretches with the team when her sister and company arrived. “You brought friends!” She beamed excitedly at her twin. “Taehyung and Jimin! It’s great to see you guys again! You’re not off to play with the animals again today?”

“I'm more here to spy and observe your technique.” Jimin grinned, a fellow chaser.

“And I'm going to watch your Seeker, to learn more…” Jungkook stumbled out with red stained cheeks and ears.

“That- Does that mean you're going to go for Seeker?!”

“Not this year. It's a little too late honestly, but next year.” Jungkook answered more firmly this time.

“Yay!” Harin’s smile could put the moon to shame any night. She launched herself at the boy, arms round his neck in an excited and warm hug. He awkwardly pat her back. Hugs weren’t a common thing for someone in his situation, family and reputation-wise. Harin, though covered in a light sweat from the warm up, was as comforting as anything Jungkook has ever known in his rather sorry and cold life. Haneul was right. No one was good enough for Harin, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try to be. “We can train together extra and you'll be the best Seeker!”

“Hey! I’m supposed to be the best Seeker. We’re on the same team!” Jongup pouted.

“Don't be mad Jongup. Jungkook is a special case for Harin, am I right?”

“Oh is that who she's rumored to be dating this week? I thought it was still Junhoe.”

“I'm glad you guys find it entertaining to keep up with the gossip.” Harin rolled her eyes in good humor. She smiled wryly at Jungkook before clapping her hands to snap the team back into attention. “Come on. We’re wasting precious daylight hours. Let's hop to it!”

And that was the first time Jungkook made the sincere decision to be his own person, to be better - more than just what people wanted to define him as, and it was all thanks to the Kang twins. Thanks to Harin.