Grabbing her backpack and the stack of potions books on the table, she sprinted towards the dungeons where the potions classroom was. Mina and Yoona had gone ahead without her because she was running late, and Taehyung promised to save a seat for her before rushing off for class.

She was running through the hallways when she collided into a group of girls and boys. There were 4 of them and they were all seventh-year Slytherins, the purebloods, who despised her to no end. They didn’t seem to have a problem with Jin and Namjoon though, and Jihyun suspected it was because two of the girls - Park Hyorin and Kim Sohee had a huge crush on Jin and Namjoon respectively. She spotted their love letters lying around the attic sometimes.

“What the hell do you want?” Jihyun grunted as she picked up the books that fell from her hand, and the leader of the group, Park Jaebum, merely laughed.

“Nothing, we just want to make fun of you.” He said with a menacing voice as his friend, Lee Sanghoon stepped onto her potions book, leaving a huge footprint of the cover.

Jihyun held in her anger and merely dusted off the dirt on the cover before standing up.

“Get the hell out of my way.” Jihyun said with a glare, and the group merely cackled in response.

“Just because you’re prefect and quidditch captain doesn’t mean that you’re better than any one of us.” Jaebum said while Hyorin and Sohee eyed her from top to bottom.

“I’ve never thought that I was better than any one of you, it’s just you and your insecure selves working against me.” Jihyun stated nonchalantly.

She knew what was the reason why they despised her, and it was because when Ravenclaw had gone against Slytherin during the quidditch cup last year, Ravenclaw had eventually won because Jihyun had successfully hit a bludger towards Park Jaebum, who was seeker for Slytherin then.

He was on the verge of getting the golden snitch before the bludger hit him, causing him to lose focus and eventually allowing Yoongi to capture the snitch, securing Ravenclaw’s win.

Needless to say, Park Jaebum had been upset and salty about it since then because the knockout by Jihyun cost him his place as seeker on the Slytherin team.

“Why would I be insecure?” Jaebum said defensively as he raised his voice, “You’re nothing more than just a mudblood, while I’m a pureblood.” He snickered loudly, and as if on cue, the whole group cackled in laughter.

Mudblood.

Jihyun had heard it countless times from the group, and even some other students had said that about her before. She hadn’t told Jin or Namjoon about it, because she knew they were fiercely protective about her and would have made a big fuss about it.

No one had really made fun of Jin or Namjoon being muggleborn, and it could have been contributed by the fact that the two were the teacher's favourites and two of the seven most popular boys in school. However, being the sister of two of the most popular boys in school didn’t prevent her from being bullied either.

“Being pureblood doesn’t make you better than anyone else. It’s disgusting how you think you’re superior just because you’re of a different blood.” Jihyun spat angrily, and Jaebum looked amused.

“It’s everything, my dear. And you know it, because you’re a mudblood. No matter how successful you are, or how competent you might be, you’ll always be a mudblood.” Jaebum said evilly, and Jihyun felt as if her defenses were breaking down.

You’ll always be a mudblood.

“Stupefy!” She heard a voice shout as a sparkle of blue light shot into Jaebum, knocking him into the wall behind.

She whipped her head to find Jungkook holding out his wand with a furious expression.

Hyorin and Sohee looked taken aback to see him, and quickly composed themselves as he walked over, while Sanghoon squared his shoulders and walked up to Jungkook.

“Stay out of this, Jungkook. You’re one of us Purebloods, we don’t want to hurt you.” Sanghoon said, and Jungkook merely chuckled.

“Really? I think I was the one who casted that spell against your leader.” He pointed his wand to Jaebum who was lying unconscious on the ground.

“How have you been, Jungkook?” Hyorin and Sohee asked in a sickeningly honeyed voice, and Jungkook merely rolled his eyes. “I’ve been better before I saw you all.”

Jihyun wanted to laugh when she saw how quickly the smiles were wiped off their faces.

“Let’s go.” Jungkook said as he took Jihyun’s hand in his, leading her away from the group.

“Why are you helping this mudblood? Don’t you dislike her too?” Hyorin asked as Jungkook and Jihyun halted in their tracks.

Jungkook looked at Jihyun, who looked frail and vulnerable as she willed her tears to prevent them from falling from her eyes.

“Don’t you ever dare to call Jihyun that ever again.” Jungkook said with anger laced in his voice. “Stay the  away from her.”

That was the last thing he said before pulling her away towards the dungeons.

When they entered the potions classroom, Professor Weasley merely shook his head with a frown and waved them off to their seats as they continued class.

Jihyun took her seat beside Taehyung , while Jungkook settled in his usual seat in front of her, beside Jimin.

“You’re so late today.” Taehyung whispered as he placed the powdered horn into his polyjuice mixture while Jihyun set up hers.

“A small incident happened, but don’t worry about it.” Jihyun said, not wanting to raise Taehyung’s suspicions.

“With Jungkook?” Taehyung asked with raised eyebrows, and Jihyun shrugged, “Something like that.”

“This rivalry of yours has really got to stop.” He shook his head before continuing his potion, while Jihyun turned to her potions book which was stained with Lee Sanghoon’s footprint.

“Tergeo.” Jihyun whispered the spell softly to the book as she watched the stain disappear. Sneaking a glance at Jungkook, she turned to him and was surprised to see him already looking at her with pursed lips. He snapped his head away the moment their eyes met.

Potions class went by peacefully as her polyjuice potion boiled a similar colour to what she wanted. She glanced over at Taehyung, who seemed to be doing worse as his potion became pink this time. She chuckled as he whined about how ridiculous it was to be spending so much time on this particular potion.

She parted ways with Taehyung as she headed back to the Ravenclaw dorms with Mina and Yoona while he went for quidditch practice, and spotted a familiar brown-haired boy standing outside with his pile of books.

“What are you doing here?” Jihyun asked as the trio came to a stop in front of him.

“We need to talk.” Jungkook said, “Privately.” He gestured to his right where it l