#for some reason it seems like tumblr has a proble

[smilestimz]

oH Thank god. Ok glad it works.

[crystaljins]

Shadows lurking

Characters: Seokjin x Reader

Word count: 2.8 K

Synopsis: You shouldn’t have come alone.

Gryffindor!Seokjin x Slytherin!reader

Notes: The request for this particular drabble was they wanted a gryff!jin and slytherin!reader with lots of pining, tension and rivalry. Writing scenes with tension isn’t my strong point but I thought I’d give it a go anyway! Hopefully it’s fun and entertaining. I also didn’t say this before I posted the last drabble, but the gorgeous banners you’ve been seeing for these drabbles are actually not made by me! I’ve added credits now (I couldn’t find their tumblr account but that has now been sorted!). Please send them lots of love for the gorgeous banners!

Warnings: There’s a creepy, unnamed beast in the forbidden forest, mentions of cheating, organised crime, snooping, lying and betrayal. Also some very contrived moments to force our leads to get up close and personal LOL

GORGEOUS BANNER BY @joheunsaram​ 

Masterlist

Your breath comes in harsh rattles in your chest. Branches try to snag you and catch on the sleeves of your robes, but you just crash through them. You’re going to die, alone in the forbidden forest, at the hand of some spooky, evil creature. You should have listened to the warm call of your bed, should have heeded the curfew set by the professors, anything. You have so many regrets.

A rogue fallen tree in your path stops your desperate sprint. Your shin glances off the branch and you go tumbling forward. For a moment you are airborne from the sheer speed at which you hit the tree, and then you crash into the ground in a spray of dead leaves and sharp twigs.

You squeeze your eyes shut, aware of the way an ice cold something trickles down the back of your neck, ready to die. This is it. You’re never going to see your parents again, never going to hex Agatha Rhymes behind her back again like she deserves. You can only hope that death comes quickly and painlessly.

But no such thing happens. Instead, a bright burst of warmth, the full force of sunshine and laughter, lights up the area around you, breaking through the cold, frosty night. 

When the blinding glow eventually fades, you are acutely aware of how the night seems warmer, and how whatever was chasing you is gone. Not that you can see anything to explain how you were saved. 

You can still hear though, and Kim Seokjin would never hesitate when the opportunity arises to gloat. 

“I thought reptiles didn’t come out in the cold.” He comments, and you flinch when you feel him settle before you. You’re still blinded by whatever spell he cast, so you merely push yourself to your hands and knees, wincing at the way the cuts and scrapes across your body suddenly all seem to burn at once now that the adrenaline rush is fading. “Yet here you are, ready to die cold and alone in the Forbidden Forest.”

Kim Seokjin is probably one of the last people you’d want to see you like this. Not only is he the poster boy for pigheaded Gryffindors, he’s probably the reason you’re in this mess in the first place. 

At least, it’s easier to blame him instead of yourself.

“So,” he asks nonchalantly, taking one of your hands between his with surprising gentleness considering the history of animosity between you two. “How’s the whole “ignoring me” approach going for you? Were you worried I’d stop you from getting murdered by some freaky ice beast if you spoke to me?”

You don’t respond. Your vision is starting to clear, and you can make out his faint outline amidst the darkness. It’s surprising that he knew you were here, but it’s even more surprising that he ventured into the depths of the Forbidden Forest to find you. Just a few short weeks ago this wouldn’t have happened. 

Your prolonged silence seems to irritate Jin. 

“Still going with the silent treatment, huh?” He asks, and there’s a bitterness to his tone that sets you off for some reason. As if he has a right to be upset. After everything that happened. “I guess that’s just the go-to Slytherin approach. Ignore your problems and sneak around behind people’s backs.”

“I mean, I could try the Gryffindor approach.” You nearly snarl. You can see his face now in the bone white moonlight that slices through the interwoven branches overhead. “You folk have always preferred the head on approach, right? Hope that your skulls are thick enough to bash your way through, cause goodness knows your head isn’t good for anything else?” 

Jin’s eyes flash with barely suppressed anger and he clenches his jaw. But you aren’t finished. 

“Oh wait,” you recall sarcastically. You hate the venom in your tone. You hate the way his presence seems to sting against your skin, worse than the cuts and bruises you’re covered in.  “But that’s not your preferred approach, is it? You do seem to be a big fan of the Slytherin approach.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Jin says, and his tone is quiet, lethal in a way that you didn’t think he was capable of. “I’m not a mind-reader, (Y/N). If you have a problem with me, just say it. I’m sick of dealing with your stupid mind games. You’re such a-“

“Such a what?” You cut in, surprised by how angry you are.  Initially, you had been sad, and miserable, but slowly you feel the heat of anger trickle in. He drives you crazy. “Such a snake?”

Jin goes silent, pursing his lips. 

“I didn’t say that.” He grits out. You laugh and it lacks humour. 

“You didn’t have to, Jin. I can tell. You’re just like every other one of your stupid friends. You think you’re so much better than us because you wear red instead of green, but you know what?” You lean in close to his face so that you can revel in the way his expression wavers just slightly. “You’re a liar. A faker. You’re worse than a snake. Or did you forget why we’ve even been spending time together? Tell me, how does it feel, sneaking around behind your friends’ backs?” You continue. You don’t even know what you’re saying- you just want to get under his skin. You want him to be bothered in the same way that you are. You want him to squirm, because then at least you’ll feel like you’re on even footing. You despise how he always seems to have the upper hand. “It’s pretty fun, isn’t it? Lying like a snake? Surprisingly easy?” You feel the way his breath puffs against your skin in shaky exhales, and it feels good to see that stupid, perfect mask stripped away. To see the happy-go-lucky, popular, handsome Quidditch captain Jin lose that awful smile, the one that seems tattooed permanently to his face. The anger in his face slips when you echo back the words that he had used to describe you just a few days ago and understanding replaces it. You don’t like that- you don’t want him to understand you. You want his anger. If he’s angry and antagonistic then at least you feel less like a villain. “Let me tell you something about the Slytherin way, since you tried to take a page from our book. When we lie, we don’t get caught.”

Jin bites his lip and looks away, shamed. And he should be ashamed. Perhaps you should cut him some slack since he saved your life from whatever terrifying creature had pursued you, but you wish he’d just left you to die. He’s already proved he’s not the person you thought he was. Slytherins are prideful beings, and your pride is hurt. 

No, worse than that. 

Your feelings are hurt. You would be the shame of Slytherin, the laughingstock of the school, if anyone knew. Who knew Jin had the power to hurt your feelings?

A few short months ago, he didn’t. A few short months ago, everything was simple. Jin hated you and you hated him. Quidditch captain, obnoxious Gryffindor, the sweetheart of the school... all qualities in direct opposition to you. The two of you went together like oil and water and on more than one occasion, professors had actively had to adjust the entire school’s schedule to avoid you two working together. 

That all changed when your professor had begged you to join the school journalism team at the start of the year. The Daily Hogwarts Times was a dying paper with very few students interested in it, but it had combined the few strengths you had- a tendency towards nosiness and a sharp, entertaining wit that came across well in black ink. In just a short while, you’d developed a small team, gained a following of bored students eager for gossip and finally people were looking at Slytherins as more than shallow bullies. 

And then Kim Seokjin had approached you with a story. You’d only been pursuing journalism a short time, but you couldn’t turn down the thrill of a story as big as Kim Seokjin’s.

And, if you’re being totally honest with yourself, which is rare enough in itself, something about the desperation in Jin’s face when he had approached you had stuck with you. As much as you hated him, as obnoxious as you found him, as much history as there was between the two of you, he needed help. He hadn’t reached out to you, his enemy, for nothing. 

And it was likely because he couldn’t trust anyone in his own house. It’s no secret that Gryffindors are the darlings of the school, and professors are a little more likely to turn a blind eye based purely on the belief that Gryffindors would never misbehave to the detriment of another. 

Except they were and they are. It’s not even the blatant cheating, the sourcing of exams before, the contacting of external reps to “scout” students and the bribery into classes they never should have made it into in the first place. It’s the sabotage, the active steps taken to ensure the students who should be topping the year are anything but and for what? To make it into a cutthroat, prestigious wizarding university halfway across the world that had only just started accepting foreign students? 

And so, you and Jin had been working together for months in secret, trying to gather evidence, to discover who sat at the core of all these misdemeanours. Because surface level misdemeanours like these don’t mean much- students cheat all the time. Slytherins cheat all the time. No, it’s the inherent organisation to it all, the fact that there has to be some sort of mastermind behind it all that makes it such a scoop. 

And it would have proceeded, straightforward like that. You get the scoop. Jin gets his scholarship back, the one he had lost to one of the many cheaters. Except...

Except you had caught feelings. Like an idiot. Like the opposite of what a Slytherin should be doing. You’d been doing a lot of that lately, not acting like a Slytherin should. Like coming to this forest alone and unprepared because of a random letter you had received promising a lead in your investigation. 

Only, when you had been planning to approach Jin about it, he hadn’t been the Jin you knew. You don’t think he even knew you were there- maybe he wouldn’t have said those things if he did. It had been him and a group of his obnoxious Gryffindor friends, the ones who liked to roll their eyes and jeer at Slytherins in the hallways. They were laughing together, fooling around and being noisy in the way that Gryffindors seem to always be. And then you’d heard your name. It had only been lighthearted- bumping elbows and joking that Jin had been seen spending time with you.

“As if I’d spend time with a snake,” he had snorted. “Liars and cheats, the lot of them. And she’s the worst culprit of all of them.”

It was stupid, in hindsight. You’re normally the type to roll your eyes and brush off comments like that. But something about the way Jin had said it… you hadn’t even had it in you to give him the chance to clear his name or explain himself. You weren’t really in a state to, after a blow like that. Instead, you’d decided that your original approach of seeing stories through on your own was far preferable to the hard, painful sensation in the centre of your chest. It had been painful, ignoring him like that, but nowhere near as painful as his words had been, and eventually you had decided you would brave the anonymous tip off meeting on your own.

Which was how you’d ended up here, bruised, bleeding and heartbroken. 

Jin maintains his silence as he ignites the tip of his wand with a quick spell, examining the lacerations that trace length of your forearms. His anger seems to have cooled drastically, especially after your petty outburst. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small vial. He tips a small amount against the tip of his thumb, before gently smoothing his thumb across each cut with a carefulness that makes your heart tremor uneasily in your chest. The bleeding lines vanish with the movement of his thumb.

“So, you heard all that. I guess that’s why you’ve been ignoring me, huh?” He finally says, looking up at you. With the light of his wand, you can now see his expression in full. It may just be the lighting, but he looks pale, and sweat beads at his temples like he’s just run a mile. “For what it’s worth... I didn’t mean a word of it.” He looks away, adjusting the glasses that rest on the tip of his nose. “You’re ten times more trustworthy than they could ever be. I just didn’t want them to catch on that we’re on their tails.”

That leaves you silent. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense. If you’re chasing rats, the quickest way to send them scurrying back into the putrid depths is to let them know you’re there. If people clued in that you and Jin were chasing the story, your leads would dry up and the past few months of gathering evidence would have been for naught. 

“It looks like we’re too late though.” Jin remarks, peering around the eerie depths of the forest. “This is a setup if I ever saw one- obviously they were hoping you wouldn’t come out. They must have worked out you were on their trail.”

He sighs, and gets to his feet, dusting off his robes and stretching a hand outwards to you. You glare at it for a moment, and he rolls his eyes, crouching down so he can grab your hand and yank you not-so-gently to your feet. He doesn’t let go of your hand, once you are on your feet, and instead he uses it to pull you closer. 

“(Y/N),” he calls gently. It’s a tone you’re still not quite used to him taking with you, but it’s been coming more and more frequently as of late. “Talk to me. Be mad. Be sad. Anything. Just...” he hesitates, before opening his mouth again. “Don’t shut me out like this. Please. Not after everything we’ve been through together.” 

You brave the discomfort in your chest and meet his gaze. In the light from his wand, his eyes are bright and warm. They’re kind in a way you’ve always been jealous of. Why does he get to emanate such warmth and kindness when all you seem to bring to the table is ice and misery?

“Do you mean it?” You finally say. And you hate how weak and pathetic you sound. “That I’m trustworthy? Do you trust me?”

Jin looks surprised by your line of questioning. For a moment, he looks genuinely surprised before his expression melts into a pleased, cheeky sort of grin. 

He’s about to answer, but then in the next moment, he’s up against you, pinning you to the trunk of a tree. 

“Don’t move.” He hisses, catching your surprised gasp with his palm pressed against your lips and extinguishing his wand with the other.

The cold, rotten feeling from earlier returns to the air. An unpleasant rumble vibrates through the air. And Jin presses in closer against you until you can feel the shallow, tight flutters of his ribcage as it expands against yours. His breath puffs warm against you, in direct contrast with the chill that clings to your skin. 

The presence draws closer- that pungent, rotten smell returns. Jin squeezes his eyes shut and tucks his face into the crook of your neck. This close, you’re aware of the way that fear makes his breaths shaky and uneven. 

The silence draws out between you two until finally the air warms and the presence vanishes. 

“Sorry.” Jin gasps against you. “It sees us based on movement- if we don’t move, it can’t see us.” 

“I-it’s fine.” You stutter, but internally curse yourself for being so affected by his proximity. It’s so utterly juvenile to be affected by a crush like this. “We should get out of here.” You say quickly, going to push him away with a hand against his chest. 

His hand shoots up to grab your wrist. 

“I do trust you, just so you know.” He says quickly. “In answer to your earlier question. We’re partners now, (Y/N). So, I hope any future expeditions like these are done together.”

He steps back, tugging you alongside by your wrist. 

“And maybe after you publish this story, we can have a chat about how sweet it is that you care so much about my trust and how obvious that huge crush you have on me is.” He offers as a parting shot. 

He only just barely manages to dodge the petty jinx you toss at him in response.

[coffee-system-uwu]

Hi,.....if you don't mind me asking, can I ask your top 5 (or top 3) favorite characters from AFTG? And why do you love them? And your top 5 favorite moments from the series? Sorry if you've answered this question before....Thanks....

Of course!!

My top 5 characters:

1. Andrew Minyard

(This one is a little more obvious than the rest)

I really love Andrew's character for MANY reasons but I'll try to keep the explanation short.

Nora did not try to redeem him. She didn't write Andrew in a way that completely changed his attitude by the end of the series. He has a very cold unapproachable demeanor and she didn't suddenly make him loved or understood by everyone. The big part of Andrew's character is that he has ALOT of trauma and alot of very hardest boundaries. Only Neil bothered to learn what was or wasn't okay with Andrew, and neither Neil or Andrew excused his actions. I think if Nora wrote it in a way that made the foxes suddenly get along or forgive Andrew, or made Andrew apologize for what he's done, I wouldn't like his character as much.

Andrew doesn't have regrets. He wouldn't apologize for his actions because he doesn't do anything he wouldn't be sure of. What makes Andrew and Neil's relationship so special is that Neil always makes sure Andrew is OK with something before he does it. Neil recognizes that Andrew needs very large amounts of vocal consent, he has alot of needs when it comes to boundaries, and that Andrew is in a human with feelings just like everyone else. The rest of the team doesn't seem to have the capacity to recognize that Andrew feels just as much as they do. He acts cold and disinterested so they assume he cares about nothing. Neil saw through that facade but that also didn't make Andrew express more, it just made it easier for Andrew to let Neil in.

Tldr; Andrew is my absolute favorite character because he commits 'bad' deeds and doesn't search for redemption, thank you Andrew, for being a consistent little shit. And for Nora, for not changing his character.

2. Seth Gordon.

Okay this one is a weird choice Tumblr do not attack me and hear me out on this.

Seth is actually one of my favorite characters not because of what he did in the book but because of what he could've done and what he did for everyone else. I really dislike that Nora killed him off as a team morale booster to help them grow closer together. That being said I don't think Allison would've had the same amount of determination or character growth that she did, if he'd lived.

Seth was an absolute asshole. Sure. He was also homophobic, very much so. But he could've been much more. He's a character that actually had potential to grow and change. Just not enough motivation or push to do so. He stuck with the team the longest, right? The worst team in the district? That says something about him. We were robbed out of a redemption arc, and if not a redemption arc, then character growth.

There's alot of Seth haters understandabley, and honestly, if you ask my opinion, Aaron's actions are on the same level as Seth's. The difference is Aaron remains relevant to the story and is more heavily intertwined in the plot line, being Andrew's brother and all.

All I'm saying is Seth is one of my favorites not for exactly what he is, but what he had the potential to be. I don't condone his actions or excuse his words, but he wasn't an unchangeable character. He was robbed the opportunity. And instead his death was used to spur the team on.

3. WYMACK.

DAVID. FUCKING. WYMACK.

I actually have some issues with his character too. I have alot of feelings about Wymack. He is one of my favorite characters because from the beginning he didn't look for the best of the best. He didn't go out of his way to recruit amazing members. He went out and recruited people who needed to be recruited. He chose members who needed second chances. He fought for them. He sincerely believed in and supported his foxes and didn't turn his back on them. Time and time again problems came up and I'm sure he questioned his choices but he stuck with them anyways and saw it through.

Now. Ask me. What is Wymacks criteria? What does it mean to be a Fox. Just asK ME OKAY ASK.

Anyways Wymack is in my top favorites because he wasn't written as some coach who's distant from his members or is only there to order them around and win. He genuinely cares about them and bends over backwards for them.

That being said. This being said. He is also a flawed character. One of my least favorite things about Wymack is that he is prone to enabling Kevin's alcohol problem. Kevin uses alcohol to cope with the large amounts of trauma and programming he went through with the Ravens, and to help him balance out his fears. I disagree with Wymack helping Kevin by handing him a bottle when he needs one, but I also can't say I've been in that exact same situation.

But overall Wymack aimed to give the foxes a second chance, something to fight for. You didnt choose to be a fox, you ended up being a fox. Especially with cases like Neil, which is the only time we get to witness wymack recruiting a member. He does not leave without that signature. He is determined. He knows they need this and for some of the foxes it was the only option they had left at all.

He looks past the foxes past actions and chooses to see and chooses to witness what's right in front of him. He doesn't meddle *much* and he let's them be their own people and supports them as much as he can.

(4 and 5 get no large explanation because we will be here typing all day)

4. Neil

5. Nicky

Top 5 moments in the series:

1. When Neil gets back from the Ravens nest and he and Wymack struggle in Wymacks house.

It's a weird favorite scene but I think it goes along way to show the change in Neil's mental state and let's us see jsut how truly deeply it affects him.

2. When Andrew places Neil's hand on his chest

I love this part because it shows the depth of understanding between these two. Neil knows it's not a green light, he refused to move his hand from that spot because it wasn't consent, it was a give in. And I think their relationship grew even deeper in that moment because Andrew realized it too.

3. When all of the foxes sleep in the same dorm.

Do I need to explain this. Really? Do I?

4. When Neil and Kevin are talking and Kevin is ranting at Neil in French, Neil switches to English to include and make Matt aware.

It's such a large sign of trust. It's trust. It makes me want to cry. I'm going to cry now brb.

5. The visit with the foxes after the Butcher. Specifically, you already know, Andrew.

It gives us SUCH an in depth view to Andrew's feelings, how he works, that he has limits. It shows us just how much he restrains himself and how deeply he cares about Neil despite acting nonchalant.

This also makes me cry. I'm. I'm just gonna reread the book and cry like a bitchboy I'll brb waaa