Jimin isn’t nervous.
 

Okay, that is a lie. A big, fat lie. Jimin’s hands are shaking and he’s sure his feet are very sweaty. There are hushed whispers amongst the first year students, and he can hear his mother’s reassuring words in his ears. “It’s not going to hurt, and trust the system. The Sorting Hat knows best.”

The Sorting Hat is sitting on the head of someone named Kim Taehyung, and it screams out the house, “Hufflepuff!”

Jimin has a feeling that the Sorting Hat does not know best. How in the world can it figure out the next seven years of his life by sitting on his head? Maybe it’s his muggle side but he wrinkles his nose, distrustfully watching the black pointed hat.

It’s a wonder that his parents even got married. His mother is much more free-spirited than his father, who is logical and reasonable. His father has asked his mother so many questions about how magic works, but his mother shrugs with a mysterious smile, swishing her wand to make sparks come out, much to Jimin’s awe.

And most of the time, Jimin buys the mystery of magic, but not so much when he’s staring down the Sorting Hat. It’s a stumpy little thing that looks ridiculously dusty. Did it sit on his mother’s head? What about his grandparents? Would it sit on his brother’s head in a year?

The girl next to him is called to the front of the Great Hall with a, “Nam Yujin!”

The Sorting Hat takes at least a full minute, but she’s ushered to the Slytherin table with a bowed head and a shuffle. Several others are called up, and then it’s time for his turn. His legs are shaking as he takes the steps up to the Sorting Hat.

It’s placed on his head, and Jimin squeezes his eyes shut, not wanting to see the curious crowd peering at him, studying him, trying to gauge his potential and if he would be a good addition to their house.

“Your mother was a perfect Ravenclaw, and it wasn’t too long ago when she was sitting in your shoes, but I have a feeling you’re not meant to be in her house.” The Sorting Hat muses, and then chuckles. “A sense of doubt, hm? I don’t see many half-bloods doubting me, but you are ambitious, so it better be SLYTHERIN!”

The Sorting Hat finishes with a shout, and Jimin shakily takes off the creepy thing and leaves it behind on the chair before nervously walking towards the clapping table draped in a dark green.

He feels very out of place. When the sorting is over and the tables are filled with food, he picks at his plate, a direct opposite from the girl across from him, who seems to be stress eating. Someone tries to soothe her with a, “Yujin, the food isn’t going to disappear.”

But she looks up with shaking hands and continues to shovel kidney pie down .
 

His mother sends a message with the family owl, Twill, early on. He arrives with a ton of flapping, dropping a letter and a package on top of his eggs during the first week before landing, preening himself and wanting affection.

Jimin him as he opens the letter, scanning through the questions about how he’s finding Slytherin and if he’s enjoying Hogwarts so far. The answer is scary and that he’s not, but that’s mostly because he has no friends and keeps getting lost on his way back to the dorms.

The only person he seems to get along with is this Slytherin third year, Yoongi, but that’s mostly because Jimin had shyly asked about his broom when he saw Yoongi with it. Wordlessly, Yoongi had held out the state-of-the-art broom that Jimin recognized to be a new kind called Equinox.

“Like it?” Yoongi’s voice had been quiet.

Jimin nodded, passing his fingers over the perfectly glossy handle with a small smile.

“Ever play?”

“My mom taught me,” he murmured quietly.

“Hope to see you on the Quidditch team next year, then.”

And that's the end of the conversation. To be fair, that’s probably the best conversation he had since the beginning of school, but now that they’re having a Quidditch lesson, he’s excited. Madam Kim, the flying referee and teacher, had laid out broomsticks in rows, and Jimin waits for her instructions, fidgeting with his hands.

It’s a clear day, with few clouds overhead. The sun is bright and warm, and it’s a perfect day to be flying. Clearly, other students didn’t feel the same way. A few looked skeptical. A few looked terrified. Most of the Slytherins look nonchalant though, and Jimin can’t say he is surprised. Most Slytherins come from wizarding families, even after the Great War when the hate for Muggleborns died down.

When Madam Kim finally gives them permission, Jimin murmurs a firm, “Up!” The broom flies into his outstretched hand easily, and he smiles, feeling a bit at ease. He can’t say the same for poor Nam Yujin, though. The broomstick flies up and the handle hits her in the face. She hisses, covering her nose, looking mortified as several people laugh.

Jimin shuffles over a bit, “Maybe try a firmer voice?” He encourages her. “They obey with—”

“I don’t need your help!” She spits back at him, eyes blinking away her tears and embarrassment.

He shrugs off the incident later, happy to be allowed to climb on to a broom and float around under Madam Kim’s watchful eye.
 

He’s terrible at Potions. Actually, terrible is an understatement.

As a Slytherin, he’s supposed to be good at Potions, but the thick bubbles in the color of puke look very different than the intended color of Red for the Boil Cure. It smells foul, and he knows better than to touch it, knowing that he would get boils instead of being cured if it’s made incorrectly. He might not be able to brew potions, but he can read his textbook, and to his dismay, everyone else around him at least has the pink smoke rising from their cauldrons.

Professor Park, often referred to as JYP for some unknown reason, peers into his cauldron and grimaces. “Park Jimin, right? You didn’t seem to inherit your mother’s Potion abilities.”

In shame, Jimin bows his head. The professor laughs anyway and tells him to study. On the other side of the room, a few Gryffindors snigger. And then one gets splashed in the face with his potion, and boils erupt all over his skin.

Jimin bites back a smile. Karma.

“Ten points to Slytherin for a perfect Boil Cure, Yujin.”

Jimin’s bad mood returns just as quickly as it had left.
 

He fares much better in Charms. He had practiced his swish and flick over and over, and to his delight, a feather is hovering over his head delicately.

It’s short-lived though, because behind him, someone’s feather explodes and catches his feather in the fireball, leaving ashes to rain over his head. He sneezes, and the professor cleans up the mess with a swish of his wand.

Jimin sneezes again from the remnants of ash. He gets another feather, and his eyes catch a fuming Yujin, muttering to herself that this one isn’t going to catch on fire. Much to her chagrin, she’s gone through four feathers by the time class is over and Jimin is sneezing all over the place.

Yoongi catches him in the hallway, whips out his wand, and mumbles, “Scourgify,” leaving Jimin feeling much better and very clean behind the ears.

He rubs his red nose, sniffling, “Thank you.”

Yoongi just nods and yawns before walking towards his next class. Taehyung, behind Jimin, sighs, “At least you could get your feather to float.”

Jimin waves off his concern. “It actually took practice. I turned it purple on accident once.”

“Do you think you could make my hair turn purple?”

“I’d really rather not.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?”

“I could make your head explode.”

Taehyung shrugs. “Not much of a loss.”

And like that, Taehyung and Jimin become two peas in a pod, much to their professors’ and prefects’ chagrin. If you could find one, you could find the other, and that means there was some sort of trouble going on. Most of the time they didn’t try to create trouble. It just happened.

They’re scrubbing away in the Trophy Room, polishing the silver and gold because they had flooded the bathrooms on the fifth floor because Taehyung was practicing the levitation spell and made the sink spout explode with pressure.

Much to their surprise there were a few other students joining them, including Jung Hoseok, a Hufflepuff second year and Kim Namjoon, a Gryffindor second year.

“What are you here for?” Taehyung is the friendlier one out of the two of them, and he quips to Namjoon, who is dully wiping a trophy that seems to get dirtier.

“I nearly broke my wand during Transfiguration and then I made the ceiling collapse.”

“On purpose?” Jimin asks stupidly.

“If it was on purpose, I wouldn’t have made it happen.” Namjoon sighs.

The most surprising addition to the odd group is the female first year Slytherin student that is quickly becoming Jimin’s opposite. Her hair is tied up and a few stubborn strands hang loosely in front of her face. She pouts as she scrubs a piece of metal, wrinkling her nose at the smell of the chemical cleaner.

She’s a bit of a loner. She talks to a few people, but doesn’t seem to have many friends. Jimin’s not sure how exactly she got into detention because she always leaves the common room late and is there early in the morning, but it’s not like he’s actually paying attention. He has better things to do. Like figuring out how to keep his cauldron from melting.

Jimin tries asking anyway, “Why are you in detention?”

She flushes and turns away with a sniff. She never answers her question, and when they’re dismissed from detention, she seemingly disappears on the way to the Slytherin common room.
 

Yoongi is a good flier. He brandishes a bat and hits a Bludger head on, making Hoseok dodge away from the desirable Snitch, losing sight of it. Even though Jimin and Taehyung are supporting opposing teams, the two are yelling their lungs out together.

A Gryffindor third-year named Seokjin is giving commentary that keeps them giggling.

“And Jung Hoseok misses the Snitch! Too bad I wasn’t on the pitch because the Snitch would be attracted to my beautiful face, but nevertheless, the game will go on because everyone’s favorite broody Beater is swinging his fat bat around—”

“SEOKJIN!”

“—ah yes, I’m sorry for the little ones who are now aware but—”

Kim Seokjin is promptly cut off by a professor as Yoongi flushes furiously, much to the titters of the female upperclassmen.

Someone shoves their way to the front of the stands, next to Jimin, and he’s surprised to see that it’s Nam Yujin who breathlessly asks, smiling as she looks out on the pitch, “Did I miss anything so far?”

Before Jimin can answer, someone else gives a snarky response. “Like you know anything about Quidditch. Didn’t you get hit in the face with a broom?”

Her face burns and she looks down at her feet.

Jimin feels bad for her. “Min Yoongi just made Jung Hoseok, the Hufflepuff Seeker—”

“I don’t need your help,” she mumbles. 

She spins on her foot, cheeks red and lip quivering, and in a blink, she’s disappeared through the crowd and Jimin can only guess where she’s gone.

Slytherin ends up losing, but it was a good game. Taehyung keeps insisting that Hufflepuff is going to win the Quidditch Cup this year, and Jimin asks how he knows that after the first game. They’re laughing and cheerful because of the game, and Jimin is finally starting to feel comfortable at Hogwarts.
 

Jimin laughs at Taehyung’s joke before getting up to duck into the shelves of the library and look for a Potions textbook explaining more about techniques. Unlike Potions, he feels like he has a decent grasp on Charms and Transfiguration, and that’s somewhat helping his confidence.

Herbology is fine, but often leaves him sweaty. Defense Against the Dark Arts is quite boring so far, but he’s interested in the concept. Astronomy seems like a load of bull so far, but he’s fine faking his way through it so far.

If only he could get his potions to work. Jimin yawns and ruffles through his hair, perusing through the books. One of the books looks heavily worn, judging by the spine, but the title looks like it has ‘Simple’ in it, and that’s exactly what Jimin needs.

But just as his hand reaches for it, so does another. Both of their hands quickly retract, and Jimin is surprised to see Yujin backing away.

“Don’t you need the book?” He calls out after her.

She doesn’t answer, walking away and disappearing in between other shelves.
 

Jimin couldn’t be more excited to go home for Christmas. The walls are being decorated with silver frost and garlands, but if he’s to be completely honest, as fun as Hogwarts is, it’s been a while since he’s been home.

Well, Hogwarts is home. Or at least it’s starting to feel a little like home.

But he’s missing his little brother and Twill and the normalcy of his parents. So he’s relieved when he’s wrapped in a thick jumper and arrives home. The kitchen smells like pies and his brother is sneaking fudge off a platter when their mother isn’t looking.

The four of them sit on the couch and watch old movie reruns, which his father really enjoys, before they ask him about Hogwarts and how he’s being treated.

“Slytherin is—well—different.” Jimin says haltingly, because he knows the rumors that follow the house.

“Slytherin has always been different,” His mother says warmly. “Just because the founder had bad opinions and there’s been some bad witches and wizards from the house doesn’t mean that the other houses don’t have their own share of them.”

“I thought you would be mad that I wasn’t in Ravenclaw.” Jimin mumbles into his hot chocolate as he curls up on the couch cushion. He isn’t stupid. He knows that Slytherin and Gryffindor have a running rivalry. His house seems nice enough, and not like the Slytherin that most people knew from the Great War. They’re ambitious and cunning, but now that Jimin is a Slytherin, he can’t say that Slytherins and Ravenclaws have that much of a difference.

“If you’re in Slytherin, it’s where you were meant to be.” She answers simply, as if he was making it more complicated than it needed to be. And maybe he is. But suddenly, his shoulders feel a lot lighter.

His father ruins the conversation with a groan. “How does it work without electricity? How do owls even know where to go? How do I know Twill doesn’t just disappear—”

The other three laugh.
 

Jimin comes back to Hogwarts with renewed determination. Despite the time spent lounging around at home, his mother had armed him to the brim with tips about Potions. He had finished all the essays due, and to his delight, had time to spare with his broom.

All that goes awry, however, when the snow becomes so thick it’s impossible to go outside, and the Slytherin common room seems gloomier than usual. For some reason, he’s having trouble concentrating, and despite curfew, he steps out for a few minutes for some quiet time. The likelihood of him getting caught is very low, and—is that Yujin?

He squints, but she disappears around a corner and despite all sense of logic, he follows her with a whisper of, “Lumos,” and feels a bit pleased with himself after a warm light illuminates his surroundings because he knows that’s a spell taught in year two and he has a nagging feeling that there’s a chance that he could have set his wand aflame.

Her footsteps are fading, and he sets off to follow them. He catches up to her in a corridor moments later, and she turns to him with narrowed eyes. “Why are you following me?”

“You’re going to get in trouble if you’re out after curfew.”

“You’re out too.”

“I—yes, but—” he can’t exactly argue with that logic. “We should head back so we’re not caught.”

“You go back. And don’t follow me again.”

The next day he catches a glimpse of her bloodshot eyes and drooping head in Potions, and much to his dismay, she still brews a perfect Herbicide Potion. Something about it makes him seethe.
 

The tiny mouse sitting on his desk looks up at Jimin, who combs his hair back in frustration. It was supposed to be a snuffbox by now, but all he’s done is turn the tail into a metal handle, weighing the mouse down, much to its distress.

He’s faring better than the majority of people in his class, to be fair. Most of them have only succeeded in making their mice run away from them. The Transfiguration professor soothes the class, saying it’s supposed to be a bit difficult for their level, but frankly that doesn’t help Jimin feel any better.

He waves his wand again, and much to his surprise, the mouse transforms halfway. Too bad the snuffbox is furry and has ears and whiskers.

Jimin groans.

“Five points to Slytherin for Jimin getting the farthest today!”

His head hurts too much and the points somehow make him more frustrated. A few tables down, Yujin somehow has red sparks pouring out from her wand and can’t make it stop. Taehyung, confused, is half asleep and he actually drops his wand in his stupor.

Despite his lack of concentration, the table leg somehow disappears and Taehyung wakes up when the professor raps his wand against the desk, repairing the missing leg. “Five points from Hufflepuff.”

Taehyung wipes the sleep out of his eyes with a yawn. The class ends quickly enough after Jimin’s failure to get the transfiguration right, and the two of them head toward the Great Hall to moan about class over plates of roast chicken as Taehyung furiously scribbles on a roll of parchment to meet the length requirement for Astronomy.

“I want to go outside.” Jimin sighs, looking up at the ceiling. “I miss my broom.”

“Puddlemere United is doing well this season.” Taehyung tips his head back too, leaving a blot of ink on the parchment. “I was thinking of trying out for the team next year but we already have a good team and I don’t think anyone is graduating.”

Much to Jimin’s displeasure, Hufflepuff is currently the favorite for the Quidditch Cup after a narrow victory of ten points against Slytherin. Jung Hoseok had caught the Snitch just in time, despite Yoongi waving his bat around and making the Bludgers quite annoying for the Hufflepuff players.

(Speaking of Yoongi, female upperclassmen are now calling him Fat Bat, much to his embarrassment and utter horror. Normally the second year looks completely dull unless if he’s on the pitch, but now he flushes furiously and scurries away when he sees a female older than him.)

“What do you have to lose?” Jimin frowns, pushing him back to his essay. “I want to try out too.”