Something had truly changed starting from that day in Hogsmeade. Jisoo feels a bounce in her step every time she walks the halls, Bona keeps teasing her about how bright her smile has been lately and nudges her whenever they see Taehyung around the castle. She can’t explain it in words or even ponder on it through her thoughts but she can feel it in her bones; an inexplicable feeling that continues to pull her towards Taehyung more and more. 

When she comes down from the high a few days later, that’s when Yuta comes barreling straight towards her one noon while she was walking to the Great Hall with Bona beside her for lunch.

He was winded, exhausted from the running, he was pointing to the west while mumbling something. Jisoo could only manage to comprehend the words ‘fight’, ‘courtyard’, ‘bad’, ‘Taehyung’, but it was enough to send her running towards the direction Yuta was pointing to. 

Bona is right behind her, she’s saying something but the loud thrumming of her own heart drowns out her friend’s words. She’s scared of what she might find in the courtyard only to see a group of students gathered in a thick circle right in the center. There are no professors in sight and there are no prefects as well except for Jisoo and Yuta. 

“Come on,” Yuta breathes heavily beside her, pulling her forward with him by the arm. “I tried to pull them apart, but they just sent a curse my way. You’re the first prefect I saw when I ran for help.”

“A curse?” Jisoo said, sounding stunned and confused at the same time like she had yet to register what was happening. 

Yuta hadn’t heard her. He elbows their way past the other students, breaking up and dispersing the crowd as he did. “Shoo, you lot!” He yelled at them. 

When he lets go of Jisoo, she finds herself in the very middle of the gathered crowd along with Taehyung who has his wand pointed straight at another Slytherin boy’s face.

The said Slytherin boy was glaring up at Taehyung, blood running down his nose. 

Taehyung draws his arm back, prepared to cast another spell, but Jisoo flings herself towards him before he can do or say anything else.

“Stop it!” Jisoo shouts and Taehyung’s wand clatters to the ground as she keeps his arms pinned to his sides, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as if she were hugging him. But really, it was meant to restrain and calm him down. “Stop it,” she says again in a much softer voice, one that only he can hear. “Please. Don’t.” 

Jisoo looks up at his face and she’s surprised to see that he’s angry. It takes her a few seconds to realize this anger is not necessarily directed at her, but more likely at the other Slytherin boy who Yuta was now helping up. She’s never seen him angry before, this is the first time she's seen him like this. He looks genuinely pissed. 

“Taehyung,” there’s a bit of worry and fear laced around his name as she says it.

But when Taehyung looks down at her, his expression instantly softens and the fires of his anger have died down, washed out by the tidal wave of regret that consumes his expression right after they lock eyes. He sees how she’s looking at him with so much concern that he immediately feels bad. 

“I’m so sorry, Jisoo.” 

Afternoon classes have ended. Jisoo bolted out of Charms as soon as the bell rang and headed towards the Headmaster’s office where Taehyung was sitting on the bench beside the stone gargoyle that hid a staircase leading to the Headmaster’s private office space. In between McGonagall dragging him away and Bona pulling her to the other direction earlier, Taehyung had whispered to meet her here after class. He hadn't attend the rest of his afternoon classes after the fight. She didn’t approve of it of course but she didn’t want to say anything as she sensed how he wasn’t in the mood. 

“It’s a good thing Yuta ran into me then. What happened, Taehyung? Tell me.” 

Lee Taeyong, the guy he cursed and the same guy who they saw at Hogsmeade giving them dirty looks as Jisoo had recalled, was at the infirmary getting treated. They're both immensely lucky for not getting expelled over such a violent fight that involved hexes and curses. Taeyong had tried to hex him, but Taehyung said he dodged just in time and he threw a curse that hit him on the nose. Taeyong retaliated, but it had went past Taehyung again. Taehyung was about to counter, if Jisoo hadn't come between them. Of course, Jisoo is after the main problem: what had made Taehyung so angry in the first place? She's been wanting an explanation ever since Professor McGonagall swooped in on the scene and dispersed the crowd before dragging Taehyung and Taeyong straight to the Headmaster's office. 

“He threw a hex, and I countered back.”

She never would have thought Taehyung was even capable of being so furious at someone to the point where he would curse them. She's never even seen him angry till today. Something must have really ticked him off. Whatever it is that Lee Taeyong had done or said, it seems like Taehyung doesn't want to talk about it. And Jisoo's quite scared, because she wants to talk about it but maybe bringing up the subject will only annoy him or worse, make him angry again. She doesn’t want that. 

“What were you even fighting about?” 

She tries to ask gently, prodding him a little. There's two inches of space between them on the bench but she can still feel the way he shifts uncomfortably as he turns his head away from her. The question even makes his body uneasy and she's not really sure if he'll open up to her right away but she was just concerned for him. She wanted to help, couldn’t he see that?

“Nothing, it was nothing. I’m sorry.”

He’s said sorry to her twice already. Though he does sound apologetic, she’s not really sure why he’s apologizing to her in the first place. He should be apologizing to Lee Taeyong, if anything. 

Taehyung looks up at her and finally meets her eyes. The usual bright glint behind his irises isn't there, instead there's only shame and regret. He looks completely fine compared to Taeyong because his hexes hadn't even touched a single hair on Taehyung's head. But somehow, he still looks like he's in actual pain. “Are you mad at me?” The words come out of him like a whimper.

Jisoo tilts her head in slight confusion. “What for?”

“I don’t know,” he casts his gaze back downwards. “I just thought you’d be mad at me for losing my temper like that. I shouldn’t have let him get to me.” 

She nods, agreeing with his last statement. “Exactly. The next time he bothers you, just walk away. Alright?” 

“Right,” Taehyung scoffs but it’s missing the usual spitefulness, it just sounds empty and half-hearted. “A true wizard never turns his back on a duel, Jisoo. I’m beginning to sound like my dad, but I can see that there’s a truth in that saying now. That git just irks me.” 

Jisoo looks at him, appalled. She’s not very familiar with old wizard sayings or customs, so she can’t really make a comment on that aloud to him. “Oh…” she echoes, feeling like an idiot somehow, she racks her mind for something more sensible to say instead. “Umm, you could have gotten hurt. I just don’t want you to hurt yourself.” 

Taehyung bumps his shoulder against hers. Jisoo meets his eyes and tries to mirror his soft smile. “Thank you for your concern on my well-being, it makes me feel like I’m important to you.” 

Jisoo smiles in earnest this time. “You’re beginning to be one.” She says before she can stop herself. “Im - important, that is.”

He grabs her hand from her lap, His calloused fingers touch her skin, the contact is enough to send shivers down her spine. Just one touch sends resonances all over her system, and it makes her stop to look down at his fingers holding onto her hand. 

Jisoo looks at him in wide-eyed fascination, examining him like he was some newly discovered specimen, like she was seeing him for the first time in her life. 

She squeezes his hand in experimentation, moving her fingers so that they're interlocked with his. The action doesn't surprise Taehyung at all, he just continues to smile at her and it's that smile that penetrates through all of her walls. Their fingers fit perfectly together, like missing puzzle pieces finally found. It's strange yet enticing to be this close to him, to be holding hands with Taehyung. They're a gray area, but little by little, things are starting to make sense between the two of them. It's like in astronomy, where the planets are starting to shift and the stars are moving to alignment. She is being pulled towards him more and more, and everything's slowly falling into place. 

Her touch lingers in his skin long after he’s walked her to the staircase of Ravenclaw Tower and bid her goodbye for the day. It makes him feel that what they have so far is real and fresh. It reminds him that he can’t screw this up. 

“Are you mental?” Jimin is acting like he’s Taehyung’s mother, it’s quite annoying. Taehyung entered the room with Jimin already screaming his head off. He’s unlucky their roommates are out today again because that means Jimin isn't going to let this slide so soon. “You threw a curse at Lee Taeyong?! He’s going to tell his parents, you know that right?”

“Jimin, stop.” Taehyung rubs his temples with his hands, glaring at Jimin as he does so.

Jimin didn’t stop, however. He did the opposite of stopping: he continued on. “The relationship with the Lees is already rocky as it is and you’ve just made it ten times worse! His parents are going to tell your parents and they’re going to throw a fit!”

“Let them,” Taehyung grunted, falling back onto his soft mattress. He stares up at the bare ceiling of their room. Jimin pops into his view, looking down at him with a stern look that oddly resembles the same look his mother gave him whenever he gets into trouble. “I don’t care.” Taehyung has little interest in the status of the relationships between pureblood families at the moment and he has even lesser interest at his parents reaction to the news of today's so-called 'fight'. 

“He called you a blood traitor.” Jimin says, making Taehyung sit up straight. His friend walks back so that he’s standing in front of Taehyung with his arms crossed, but this time his sternness is less intense. “Or at least that’s what the others have told me.”

Taehyung rolled his eyes. “If you honestly think that’s what I’m upset about then you have a very poor conclusion in your hands.” 

“I didn’t even say that was the reason, I know why anyway.” Jimin shrugs, looking at Taehyung with no remorse whatsoever. He thinks it’s a petty reason to have a duel over, no matter how amateur that had been. Taehyung can see it in his eyes, he thinks it wasn’t worth it. “He called Jisoo a mudblood.” 

He clenches his fists and looks away from Jimin’s judgemental stare. Taehyung hears Taeyong's annoying, gruff voice ring in his ears earlier in the courtyard. Taehyung hadn't even been doing anything, he was just headed to the Great Hall for lunch when Taeyong stopped him in his tracks and started barking at him like some kind of feral dog. He was there on Hogsmeade when he took Jisoo out on a date, he saw the way he looked at them with disgust, at Jisoo just because she was muggle born and he was with her. 

“He didn’t have to mention her,” Taehyung says, still avoiding Jimin’s stare. Jimin’s not as bad as Taeyong but mostly all pureblood families share the same beliefs and prejudice against muggle-borns and muggles so there’s not much of a difference between Taeyong and Jimin then if Jimin doesn’t speak up on behalf of Jisoo who didn’t even do anything wrong. He just couldn't understand why Taeyong would even bring her up. “He has no right butting into my business. He’s just a nosy little git. Served him right that I cursed him." 

Jimin snorts out loud. “Oh, so Kim Jisoo is your business now?”

“She’s more than that.” Taehyung throws a pillow at him but Jimin merely swats it away with one hand. “Jisoo’s the only good thing left in my life.”

His friend sighs, perhaps hearing the way truth and sincerity oozes from Taehyung’s words. He’s at a rough patch in life right now and Jisoo’s the only one who’s helping him get by. It’s the truth. He’s only been enduring it until now, but then that date happened a few days ago and Taehyung feels like he’s finally living a life instead of merely taking up space with his existence in this world. She's been giving him a will to continue. 

“I have to protect her,” he breathes out, closing his eyes for a few moments as the meaning of his words sink into him. When he opens his eyes, he can see Jimin looking at him the same way Jisoo had earlier: with concern and worry. “I have to protect her from purebloods like Taeyong. Jisoo hasn’t done anything wrong, it’s unfair.” 

“Your parents…” he trails off, not daring to finish the sentence now that Taehyung has found a renewed sense of purpose being here. 

Taehyung waves a dismissive hand. “They’re not here now, and they can’t reach me here. I’ll tell them myself when the year ends, when we go back home.” He says, dread evident in his voice at those lost words.

Jimin sighs again, shaking his head at his friend’s foolishness. It’s not that he dislikes Jisoo or muggle-borns, he’s just particular about what the adults will do to him if they ever find out because it’s not going to be a very pretty situation when they do. He’s just looking out for his friend, it’s the way they’ve always been all these years. Sticking together and watching each other’s backs.

Only this time, things have changed. It’s clear to Jimin, who’s known him for all his life, that Taehyung’s falling in love. 

There's a certain thrill that comes with hiding behind stacks of musty old books, in the dim lighting at the very far back of the library. Jisoo doesn't know how she and Taehyung had become so close over the course of the next few weeks. She doesn't remember how things quickly escalated to this. 

This being Taeh