"I don't know what's up with him, but he hasn't spoken to me since he was chosen." Jimin sighed, rolling over on the couch. "I just want him to at least talk to me." The pair were sitting in the HufflePuff common rooms, the others had all cleared out the minute that Jimin had walked in. That was usual, they didn't want anything to do with him.

Jungkook closed the book that he had been reading. 'I think that's my fault." He said. "I cornered him the other day, when they were going into the headmistress' house, asked him what all of it was about."

"And what did he tell you?"

"He told me that I would figure it out, and then he walked away from me. He acted hostile, and completely unlike what we had been like before. We went back to not being friends." Jungkook looked back down at his hands from Jimin. "I didn't think that he would shut himself out like that again."

"Well, we've only known him for a few days--" Jimin cut himself off when he spotted none other than the man they were talking about walked in. If there had been any people left over in the room before, they were definitely gone now. "Taetae!" Jimin whined, rolling back over on the couch to see him more clearly. "Why haven't you been talking to me!?" He exclaimed.

Taehyung shot him a look, before scoffing and rolling his eyes. "Because you're annoying." He finally muttered. Jimin giggled, shaking his head.

"I'm glad to know that you're still our friend, and not completely shutting us out!" he cried excitedly. Taehyung grinned back at him.

"You're the first friends that I've ever had, the only people who've ever cared about me in the world. Of course I won't shut you out, not when you've already put yourself there."

"I feel like this isn't real." Jimin suddenly said, his eyes narrowing. He turned to Jungkook. "Slap me. Make sure that this is real."

Jungkook reached up to do what he had asked, and Jimin jerked back, looking offended that the boy would even try. Jungkook smirked, shrugging his shoulders. Jimin sighed, this time he rolled his eyes.

"You're being awfully nice to the people that you were so hostile to the other day."

"People were watching." Taehyung muttered. "I didn't want them to target you as well."

"You don't have to protect us!" Jimin exclaimed, looking even more offended than when Jungkook had tried to slap him just moments before. "We're your friends, and we're the ones that should be protecting you from Mr. Asshat one through one thousand."

"They're getting more and more cruel with their ploys." Taehyung smirked, leaning against one of the walls. "They don't care whether they're caught, either. They think that I cheated."

"Did you?" Jungkook got up from his perch on the floor, where he had been studying. "Did you cheat, because the way that you talked to me the other day, it made me think that you were."

"Albus was watching us." Taehyung said. He gave Jungkook a knowing look and the boy was looking away. Jimin was shooting his gaze between the other two.

"What the fuck is going on with Albus? I know that he's been giving you shit, Taetae, but what about Jungkook. As far as I'm aware, he's rather creepy, has had a crush on Jungkook for the longest time."

"He has a crush?" Taehyung's eyebrows shot up into the air, as he shot an incredulous look at Jungkook. "He has a crush on you?"

"Since the middle of Jungkookie's first year." Jimin piped up once more.

"Interesting. So you think that perhaps he's jealous? That Jungkookie likes me more than him." Jungkook's face bloomed a scarlet red at those words. He shook his head, his eyebrows furrowing as he rejected all thoughts of that.

"W-what? No! Y-you're just a friend!"

"Relax!" Taehyung threw his head back, laughing. "Of course I know that you don't think of me like that."

Jimin was smirking, though. "I don't know. Jungkookie's some poor little virgin who's never even had his first kiss. Maybe he saw some older man, who's hot as hell with a deep ass voice and a nice ass and maybe he wants someone to just tickle his pi--"

"Do not finish that sentence." Jungkook shrieked, launching himself at Jimin, who only giggled.

"What? He does have a nice ass."

"I do." Taehyung said, nodding along. His voice was just as monotone and calm as it usually was, causing Jimin to roll his eyes.

"All of you are children." The three of them turned their heads to see Namjoon walking in. Yoongi was right behind him. "Children." Namjoon repeated.

"So, are you done ignoring us now?" Yoongi added, turning to Taehyung. He received an eye roll in response. Yoongi frowned at the reaction. Jimin held up his hands, drawing the attention to him.

"He's done ignoring us now. But not done being his usual ass-self." The others all nodded as Taehyung took a seat beside Jungkook on the floor, who'd reseated himself and opened a book once more.

"I've missed some of my classes." He muttered.

"And I may or may not have notes for you." Jungkook unhelpfully hummed out. Taehyung narrowed his eyes, but there was a sly grin to accompany it as well. If there had been any lingering awkwardness before, it was all gone, now.

Taehyung rolled his eyes and swatted at the younger. "Sometimes you just need to learn a little respect." He muttered.

"Welcome to the club!" Jimin announced. "Taetae has finally entered the club of Hyungs against Jungkookie!"

"I thought that we only agreed that that would be a thing when we went to go and visit our families during break!" Jungkook whined. "I don't have to call you hyung here! The last time that I did, people got weird about it! They thought I was calling you something inappropriate and one of the professors even scolded me for it!"

"Ah, when little Jungkookie was so easily manipulated and still listened to his elders." Namjoon sighed, looking like he was remembering a time long passed. Which he was. Jungkook had long outgrown the scared little boy that he once was. He still had retained some of those aspects, but he'd grown a lot, in his years at Hogwarts.

"Here." Jungkook huffed out, reaching into his bag and taking out some notes. "Seeing as classes are a little different this year, you won't have to study nearly as much as we should be."

"Oh that's right. They are integrating a lot of the other students into our classes this year and shortening them to accommodate for the competition." Yoongi said. "I forgot about that."

"Do you know when the first competition is?" Jungkook asked, turning to Taehyung in excitement. "Do you know what it is?"

"Of course I don't know what the first challenge will be. But I do know that they set it out a month from now. There's supposed to be some clues hidden around here somewhere. We've been instructed to keep our eyes open for anything that we think might help us figure out what the challenge will be."

"So you have a clue, you just don't know what it is, where it is, or how to find it?"

"Pretty much."

"Well, how did they handle it when you were called for a meeting. I'm sure that Albus was not the happiest camper when he discovered the glory would not be fully his."

"Oh he wasn't. He practically screamed and had a fit like a toddler, demanding that I be taken out of the competition and that I must have rigged the goblet in some way to choose me."

"Did you?"

"In some way, probably." Taehyung shrugged. Jungkook shot him a look, and Taehyung grinned. "Fine, if you want to know, no, I didn't cast a spell or anything. I didn't think that it would actually work, but I've done some reading on the goblet before, and I noticed that there had been a mention of the goblet liking a challenge. So when I put my name into the fire and challenged Albus after he tried making a scene, the goblet accepted it and it gave me a chance to bash his face in."

"You're not going to bash his face in." Namjoon scolded. "That's not how the challenges work."

"You never know." Taehyung shrugged. "There may be a chance for me to do so. It'll be payback for what he did to Jungkook." Jungkook's eyes widened and his hand shot out, punching Taehyung harshly in the shoulder.

"What do you mean?" Jimin was staring at the two, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Jungkook?" He turned to the younger, who quickly averted his attention, and it was then that Taehyung remembered that Jungkook had asked him not to tell his friends.

"In the room with the goblet. You remember?" Taehyung quickly said, keeping his face neutral and lax. He knew enough about lying to make it seem like the complete truth and backtrack without anyone knowing. "I'm sure that you all saw that."

"Albus can be prideful." Jimin muttered, accepting the answer. "I didn't agree with what he did, and I wanted to curse him for trying to hurt you and holding Jungkook the way that he did."

"Albus is nothing more than a glorified bully that hides behind his daddy's name." Taehyung scoffs.

"I know that the two of you have some sort of rivalry going on, and I know that Albus is to blame, since he's trying to be just like his father, but don't you think that you're going a little far?" Namjoon asked. "I mean, Albus is arguably one of the nicest people on campus. Sometimes he can snap and cross a few boundaries, but most of the time, he's the perfect model student. He helps everyone and he's quite the charmer."

"Well, I don't know what kind of Albus you're talking about, but that's not the one that I've met. The Albus that I've met is mean, a bully and uses others to get what he wants, because he's too weak to get it himself."

"I don't know. Did you ever think that maybe he's just like that around you? And I'm not blaming you!" Namjoon held his hands up when Taehyung shot him a look. "I'm just saying..." He sighed, pushing his glasses further up his face. "Just think about it, it would make sense, that he's just like that around you." The others all gave Namjoon a look.

"You're brain is offering an explanation to you that none of us can hear, Joon, you're going to have to elaborate a little more, before I break your glasses." Yoongi muttered, frowning. "Taehyung is our friend, and right now, it just seems like you're taking everyone's side but his."

"Umm...well Taehyung's father was Voldemort, right?"

"Adoptive. If you can even call it that." Taehyung muttered.

"Right, well, everyone views you as nothing more than Voldemort's son. They think that you're the villain, and that someday, you're going to follow in the footsteps of your father. Now imagine being the son of the man that killed the worst wizard in Hogwarts' history, constantly being compared and held to the level that his father was at. And then you show up, and everyone is expecting you to be this hero and kill you? Albus is being pressured by the whole entire school, and I doubt that this competition is going to help with that. I mean, look what happened last time."

Namjoon pointed to the painting above the fireplace. It was a painting of Cedric, the student who Voldemort had killed, after he'd risen again, during the last Tri-Wizard tournament that Hogwarts had hosted.

"That doesn't mean anything. Taehyung hasn't given anyone a reason to think that he's anything like his father." Jungkook argued. Namjoon gave him a look.

"You're being biased."

"I am not!"

"Well, think about it this way. You're one of the students that fears Taehyung and thinks that he's nothing more than the spawn of the devil."

"Hey--"

"Shut up Jimin, let Namjoon talk." Yoongi said, turning to the man. "I want him to finish his thought so that I can take him out and smack him on the head. There's no logical explanation as to why we're having this conversation in the first place. Taehyung is our friend, and all we're doing is shoving facts at him as to why the whole school hates him."

"Well, I'm not doing it for him, I'm doing it for the rest of you, so that you can all understand where other people are coming from!" Namjoon defended. "You're all shit talking the rest of the school, after you start spewing things about not judging people without getting to know them. Some of whom are still my friends as well."

"So what? They deserve it--"

"Why, because they're scared?" Namjoon scoffed, shaking his head. "I mean no offense to you, Taehyung, but you all have to realize that even though we've all gotten to know him and realize that he's a good friend and person and that he's nothing like his father, other people haven't gotten those opportunities. And you can't judge them and force the same images they're forcing onto Taehyung back at them. That's hypocritical and will get you nowhere."

"But--"

"That dragon? The one that came out of the goblet? That was so similar to the mark of Voldemort, that several people are trying to apply to take this year off, until Taehyung is no longer a part of the school. People are scared, because they're basing their knowledge off of the things that they know and what history tells them. Taehyung isn't the nicest person ever. He doesn't talk to people, and most of the time he glares and is downright rude to those that try to talk to him."

Namjoon shook his head. "I've tried to justify your actions, and I've justified the actions of others as well, but no matter where I go, I'm the bad guy now, huh? I'm defending the freak, the monster, the spawn of the worst man in history. I'm defending the judgers, the people that won't even get to know Taehyung, the pathetic excuses of people, right?" Namjoon sighed, shaking his head.

Then he turned and walked out of the room, leaving the rest of them restless and feeling bad. "Fuck, Namjoon wait!" Yoongi chased after him.

"I think that we really went a bit far this time."

"Will he be alright?" Taehyung asked softly.

"Sometimes he has these episodes." Jungkook offered back quietly. "Namjoon's someone that thinks he has to be in the middle, he has to be the one to bring both sides to an agreement. He's the buffer between us and everyone else, and sometimes that can weigh down on him. He spirals into his own head and it makes him feel like he has the weight of the world resting on his shoulders. Sometimes he just needs some time to collect his thoughts and ground himself."

Taehyung nodded. Jimin sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I should go and make sure that they're both alright. You know how Yoongi gets."

Jimin got up and walked out, leaving Taehyung and Jungkook alone. The older turned to the younger, questions swimming in his eyes. "Yoongi cares too much sometimes. When he sees someone that he cares about in pain, he'll try everything in his power to make them feel better, even at his own expense." He explains. "But sometimes, no matter what you do, you can't make someone feel better, you know? And Yoongi takes that hard. He'll work himself into a depression. Jimin usually has to be the one to drag them both out of it then."

"I guess we're all broken, then." Taehyung muttered. Jungkook shrugged.

"I suppose that you're right. All of us have our issues."

"Jimin?"

"Well, Jimin is a fierce  friend, but he can work himself up too much at times. He has a raging temper, I'm sure you've noticed on occasion. And he cares too much about what people think about him. That's also a reason as to why he gets upset when you ditch him at class. He likes having someone close to him at all times, because it makes him feel like someone wants him, and that he's really our friend."

"Hoseok?"

"You're just so curious today."

"I want to get to know all of you better, and what better way than learning your flaws?"

Jungkook snorted, shaking his head. "I suppose you want Hoseok next, then?"

"Yes."

"Hoseok is someone who...well he struggles with feelings. He's all bright and smiles when you first meet him, but he's hiding everything else behind that smile. Sometimes he just doesn't know how to properly process feelings and so he smiles instead to make himself feel better, even if he's sad. He hides his feelings from others and himself at the same time. It's hard to knock him out of it sometimes, because it can put him in long and deep depressive episodes, in which he'll lash out and cut everyone out for a while."

"Jin?"

"He thinks that he has to be involved in everything, that he has to be there to support everyone. He's the oldest, and I don't know if you were ever taught, but in Korean culture, the oldest is supposed to be the one responsible for the rest of us, and that's what he feels. When we get in trouble, when we struggle, he feels like it's by his own shortcomings that we were caught up in those situations."

"And you?" Jungkook gave Taehyung a nervous smile. He looked down at his hands.

"Me? Well, I guess you could say that I feel pressured to please everyone, I suppose."

Taehyung hummed, Jungkook not giving him much else. He wanted more, but he understood if Jungkook didn't want to talk about it.

"And you?" Jungkook asked. "You can't expect me to spill everything like that and then not share."

"I don't know how to ask for help. I don't know how to stop or slow down." He admitted, after a few moments of silence. "The way that I grew up...well, I learned at a young age that weakness was not something that I could have, and asking for assistance at anything showed that I was weak and couldn't do anything on my own. And...well you can imagine the kind of limits that my father had. Little to none, and that's how I was taught. I..." Taehyung trailed off, not saying anything more, and Jungkook didn't press him to.

"Thank you for sharing." He only said, not wanting Taehyung to feel like he needed to shut himself out once more.

"Why don't you tell them about Albus?" Taehyung questioned. "He clearly doesn't do anything around anyone else, otherwise I know that you wouldn't have asked me not to tell anyone about it. You know that your friends would help you if you just told them what was happening."

"And what would I tell them?" Jungkook asked. "What would I say about the great Albus Potter, resident celebrity and the next greatest wizard?"

"You're a far better wizard than he could ever hope to become." Taehyung argued. "I've seen toddlers perform better than he does. I don't think that he's all that great, if you're asking me."

"That's because you already hated him, the minute that you stepped into this school." Jungkook muttered, turning away. "But I was the one that was punished for speaking up about him."

"What do you mean?"

"My third year, I finally had enough. Albus actually started out nice, you know? But he had a crush on me, and he asked me out, but I was only eleven at the time, and he was already thirteen. I said no. He got mad and then he started harassing me and making my life a living hell."

"He asked you out when you were eleven?" Taehyung's eyes were wide at that statement. Jungkook nodded.

"I don't know. Apparently I was this cute, doe eyed kid that he liked, and he wanted to date me. I didn't even know what dating really was, I thought that holding hands with someone was like...third base at that age."

"So now he's just straight up beating you up?" Jungkook nodded. He didn't want to tell anyone about the other things that Albus occasionally tried to pull with him. It was embarrassing and it honestly made him feel inferior and like some damsel in distress when he thought about it. He knew that someday he would have to stand up for himself, and that he couldn't just always sit around and let Albus walk all over him, but he couldn't really help it.

Not when it had been so ingrained into him that Albus was an alpha male and that he had to sit back and submit.

Not when it had been so many years of beatings and cruel words and whispered threats.

Not when it had been panic attacks and shame and disgust directed towards himself.

"Yeah, I just...when I was a third year, I reported him to one of my professors. The old charms professor, before Seokjin took over the role, my fourth year. He was someone that I thought I could trust, and I felt the closest to him. So I told him, confided in him about it, and instead of telling McGonagall or someone else that could have really helped me, he called Albus and tattled on me."

"He did what?"

"He told Albus that I had come in with some concerns, and then told him what I said. He didn't punish him, didn't scold him, didn't do anything. He just told him what I said and then sent him straight to me." Jungkook slumped his shoulders where he sat. "I didn't tell anyone after that, because people started talking about it, how I was pointing fingers just to get attention."

"What did the others say?"

"They weren't here." Jungkook shrugged. "I didn't want them to be caught up in all of it, so I did it over break. I didn't go home that year, because I wanted to stay and explore the castle, study some so that I could get ahead. They were all gone, and by the time the rest of the school came back, the rumors were already pretty dead. Mostly because one of the kids managed to hex himself and he couldn't say anything but 'pineapple' for two weeks. None of the professors could figure it out."

"And you didn't say anything after that?"

"Wasn't worth it." Jungkook muttered. "No one would believe me, anyway. He always pulls me into a dark corner, and half the school thinks we're dating anyway."

"What?"

"You didn't know?" Jungkook looked up at him. "Yeah, he doesn't tell anyone otherwise, and his fanclub hates my guts, and they like to talk. Everybody thinks he's the next big thing, and I'm just the nerd that helps everyone with their homework. You understand. People don't want to listen to the things that they already think they know."

Taehyung slapped the table, looking angry. "I'm going to show him that he's nothing but a coward." He turned to Jungkook, smiling softly at the younger. "You heard me at the goblet, right?" Jungkook nodded.

"Yeah." He muttered.

"I'm going to prove to him that he's nothing. Nothing. And I'm going to do it for you, Jungkookie."