It had been two years, and now they were both in their third year at Hogwarts.
Blaine and Kurt hadn't spoken since that first sorting ceremony. Not properly, at least. Every once in a while they had gotten paired together for group assignments, because Slytherin and Gryffindor had some classes together. But they never talked any more than necessary.
Sometimes they saw each other in the hallways, and Blaine could always feel when Kurt was around, but neither attempted to make any real contact. Sometimes they exchanged smiles when their gazes met through the crowd, but mostly it was just Blaine glancing at Kurt while he was busy talking to his friends or doing his homework in the library. Kurt had made plenty of friends, and he seemed happy without Blaine. Of course he was happy, why wouldn't he be?
Blaine had successfully been sorted into Slytherin, and Kurt had been chosen as a Gryffindor.
This made their friendship even more impossible since the Houses of Slytherin and Gryffindor were mortal enemies. A Slytherin weren't allowed to be friends with a Gryffindor, and vice versa.
"Blaine, get up! It's six o'clock, you have to wake up! Blaine!"
Blaine woke with a start, not sure where he was or even what year it was.
As his gaze slowly found its focus, his mind started to catch up.
He was in his bed in his dorm down in the Slytherin dungeons, and his friend Sebastian was jumping around on his bed.
"Get off", he moaned and stuck his head under his pillow to drown out the sound of his friend's voice.
"Get up! I told you yesterday we had to wake up early", Sebastian said and pulled the covers off of Blaine.
"Why?", Blaine shouted. He had never been an morning person and this whole thing made him want to scream his lungs out.
He just wanted to go back to sleep. He had had such a nice dream -
"We're going to prank the Gryffindors, don't you remember? I swear, Blaine, you're the most absent-minded person I know", Sebastian said with a laugh.
"Do we have to?", Blaine asked crossly.
"Yes! Don't chicken out! We've had this one thought out for weeks and this is the perfect moment to do it. They're at Quidditch practise", Sebastian said excitedly.
Blaine had never seen the point in all these pranks that he and his friends played on the Gryffindors.
They were cruel and humiliating, and Blaine got no pleasure out of it as his friends did.
It was pointless, really, because the only thing he got was humiliation in return as the Gryffindors took their revenge.
In that way he was a terrible Slytherin. He sometimes glanced longingly at the other Houses, because they were all much friendlier and much, much kinder.
Blaine's friends were nice to him, of course, but only because he was a pure-blood. They were horrible to the other kids at Hogwarts. When the teachers turned their backs they would write notes and slip them to the Muggle borns, telling them how ugly or useless they were.
Blaine never participated in those notes, though. He always excused himself with a simple "I need to work", and he would be left alone. But he felt terrible for not helping the poor kids who got bullied by his friends all the time. It wasn't in his nature to be mean to other people, but he still had to every once in a while so his friends would get off his back and let him be for a while longer.
"Trent and Puck are waiting in the common room. Hurry up and get dressed!", Sebastian said and dashed from the room.
Blaine laid still for a few seconds, staring up into the roof and wondering if life was really supposed to be like this. He wasn't really miserable, but he hadn't imagined his time at Hogwarts to be like this, either. He felt like all his friends were frauds, and they only hung out with him because his family was well-known for their pure blood-status, and he had loads of famous relatives that his friends adored.
Sometimes he was quite happy with his life. He did have friends (even if he didn't always appreciate them), he wasn't bullied and his grades were satisfying.
But then he compared these things to, for example, Kurt and his friends. They were always laughing and making jokes – friendly jokes, not cruel ones. They seemed to genuinely like each other, they helped each other out and supported one another in ways Blaine was positive his friends would never do for him.
Sometimes he wished he could simply trade lives with them, or anyone at all that wasn't in Slytherin. He had the constant pressure of fitting into the folder for pure-bloods. He couldn't afford to do anything wrong because then his 'friends' would freeze him out and he would be left to being bullied by them for the rest of his school years.
No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't help the victims of his friends' so-called jokes. He couldn't defend them when his friends yelled "Mudblood!" after them in the hallways.
Finally, he got himself together and got out of bed. He pulled on a regular t-shirt and a pair of jeans since it was Saturday and they had no classes and therefore weren't required to wear school robes. He hesitated for a few seconds, then knelt down beside his trunk and rummaged through it for a while before he found what he was looking for.
His hands trembled slightly as he pulled out a small plastic box. He opened it and picked up the little deep purple bow tie that was packed inside it. He pulled on the white dress shirt he usually wore beneath his school robes and tied the bow tie around his neck. Then he took one quick look at himself in the mirror that was hanging on the wall opposite of his bed.
"Not too bad", he thought to himself.
He considered taking it off but then decided to leave it on.
It wasn't all that radical, and surely an innocent little bow tie couldn't lose him his friends. Right?
It was humiliating how much control they had over his life and his choices, without even realising it.
When he reached the common room, they were waiting impatiently for him.
"What took you so long? We don't have much time!", Sebastian whispered urgently.
Then he noticed the bow tie, and a slightly twisted smirk flashed across his face.
"Nice", he said and suffocated a laugh.
Blaine ignored it and tried not to let it get to him.
He hated being this limited. He had always been fond of bow ties, but once in his first year he had been told that they were ridiculous and tacky, so he hadn't had the courage to wear one again.
He walked past them to the hidden entrance door and walked out without looking back to see if they followed him. They did, he noticed, as Trent jogged up to his side.
They slowly crept through the dark castle, carefully glancing around every corner to look for teachers or students who were also out on early adventures.
"What have you guys planned?", Blaine whispered to Trent who was crouching next to him.
"I'll tell you when we get out of the castle", he whispered back.
Soon they had reached the Entrance Hall. They quietly slipped out through the giant doors.
"Well?", Blaine said as they stepped outside.
The cold morning air hit them ruthlessly as soon as their feet touched the icy ground, and Blaine instantly wished he had remembered to bring his cloak.
"We're going to set loose a bunch of fireworks in the middle of their Quidditch practise. Chang will have a mental break down", Sebastian said with a mean smile.
Blaine hesitated for a few seconds. It didn't sound fun at all.
But then his friends started to look suspicious, so he faked a smile and said that it sounded great.
They quickly made their way from the castle down to the Quidditch pitch.
It was mid October and the grounds were icy and incredibly slippery in the morning.
Blaine almost slipped a dozen of times only during the walk down to the pitch, a time period of ten minutes. A light fog was hanging in the air, blending in with the small clouds coming from the four teenagers' mouths as they breathed.
They could hear the swishing of brooms and the shouts of the players at a far distance.
"Okay, who wants to light them?", Sebastian whispered maliciously as they gathered right by the entrance to the Quidditch pitch. He was kind of their leader, so he always got to decide who did what during their various pranks.
They all glanced at each other, no one volunteering. They all knew that the guilt would fall on the one who lit them if they were caught in the action.
"Trent, why don't you do it?", Puck suggested quickly as Sebastian was beginning to turn to him.
Sebastian turned in mid-air and instead turned to Trent and handed him the fireworks with a small smirk.
Trent was the weakest link of their little gang, so to speak. He always got blamed for everything, because he never had the guts to stand up for himself.
He swallowed with some difficulty and took the fireworks in his arms. He put them down on the ground, aimed them against the pitch and lit them with his wand.
It only took a few milliseconds until they went off and soared onto the pitch, exploding and sending waves of multicoloured sparks in every direction. It was beautiful, really, with all those colours in contrast to the grey, foggy morning air.
But, of course, the Gryffindors wouldn't care if the fireworks were in every colour of the rainbow or completely lacked colour at all – it still interrupted their precious practise time.
They could hear furious yells coming from the Gryffindor team as they ran off the pitch to avoid getting hit by the sparks.
"We'd better get out of here", Puck said as the voices came nearer to their hiding place.
They all turned around to run up to the castle again, but found that the exit was blocked by someone standing in the way. They all stopped in their tracks, staring wide-eyed at the person who had his arms folded across his chest and his eyebrows raised slightly.
"Practising for New Years Eve?", he said calmly.
It was Kurt, of all people.
Blaine tried to shrink into the background, hoping intensely that Kurt wouldn't see him.
He hated the thought of Kurt thinking he was just another Slytherin bully.
Since Kurt was blocking the way out, his fellow Gryffindors caught up with them.
"Sebastian", Mike Chang growled. He was the Captain of the Gryffindor team.
"This is the fourth time you've sabotaged my training sessions in the past week! I'm telling on you", he continued furiously.
Sebastian plastered on a confident smile, even though Blaine could tell he was nervous.
"Oh, really? What evidence do you have?", he asked.
Mike opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again, his jaws clenched so tightly it seemed as if they would break any second.
"But Kurt saw it, didn't you?", a girl from the Gryffindor team said. Blaine didn't know her name, but he had seen her plenty of times around school.
They all turned to Kurt, who nodded.
"Yeah, but-", he began.
"That settles it. Come on, Kurt, we're going to see professor Schuester. He will listen to us", the girl said and made a move to go up to Kurt.
Professor Schuester was the Head of Gryffindor House.
"Why would he believe you over us?", Puck asked fiercely.
"Because we're all nice, honest people who are trying to practise Quidditch in peace while you lot are a bunch of mischievous, cheating Slytherins who won't leave us alone", Mike snapped.
Blaine could feel his face grow redder and redder by the second. He wished he could blend into the wall next to him and just disappear from view.
"Maybe we shouldn't tell-", Kurt began slowly.
"Are you mental? If we tell professor Schuester what they've been doing, he'll have them suspended! Or at least he'll make sure they won't bother us again. Give me one reason not to tell on them!", a boy said from somewhere behind Wood.
"I just- I don't think it's worth the trouble. We don't really have any evidence anyway. Professor Schuester will have to tell professor Sylvester in order to suspend them, and she will just say I've made it all up to mess with them. She's never been very fond of me, or either of us. So what's the point?", Kurt said.
His eyes darted to Blaine who met his gaze by mistake. It sent another shiver of shame through him.
"But maybe-", Mike began.
"You do whatever you want to. I'm going to get some breakfast", Kurt said firmly and turned his back on them.
Mike and his team sighed in unison.
"Just because you got away with it this time doesn't mean you will next time you try to mess with us", Mike said angrily.
Then he turned to his team and they walked back out on to the pitch.
Sebastian laughed as soon as they were out of earshot.
"Success! It's lucky they are a bunch of cowards so they won't dare tell on us", he said.
"Yeah. What now? Should we go get some breakfast too? I'm starving", Trent said.
"Yeah, me too. Having this much fun really gives an appetite, doesn't it?", Puck laughed.
Blaine kept quiet. He glanced up towards the castle, where he could still see Kurt's back as he disappeared up the grass slope.
He and his friends followed him at a safe distant, slowly strolling across the grounds up to the castle. The frost on the ground had started to melt in the morning sun, and the entire property was bathing in sunlight.
Blaine didn't say much as they walked back. He tried to take in the beauty of his surroundings, but he couldn't focus. As they reached the Great Hall, he excused himself.
"I've got to go check on something in my room. I'll see you later."
They didn't bother to ask him any follow-up questions. They settled for a nod of comprehension and then went to eat their breakfast.
But Blaine didn't go down to his room. Instead he waited outside the Great Hall, pretending to be tying his shoe laces, until Kurt walked out the doors with two pieces of toast in his hands.
"Kurt! Could I talk to you for a second?", he called out.
Kurt looked really surprised at being approached by him.
"Oh. Of course", he said.
Blaine glanced into the Great Hall to see if they were visible from the Slytherin table.
"Could we- could we go somewhere more private?", he asked nervously.
"What did you have in mind?", Kurt asked and took a bite of his toast. Then he offered the other one to Blaine, who just stared blankly at him.
"Why are you offering me food when I just sabotaged your friends' Quidditch practise?", he asked.
Kurt shrugged and took another bite.
"Because I know you're not doing it out of spite but because you have no other choice", he said simply.
Blaine kept staring at him. Then he shook his head in disbelief.
"I wish I could be more like you", he muttered.
Kurt smiled.
"Don't say that."
He offered him the piece of toast again, and this time Blaine accepted it.
He was starving.
"Now, you said you wanted to go somewhere else to talk, do you have any suggestions?", Kurt asked.
"Right", Blaine said. "Follow me."
He started to walk away from him, away from the Great Hall and any potential Slytherin who might overhear their conversation.
He stopped when they got to a deserted hallway. He turned to Kurt who nearly walked into him, still eating his toast. Kurt nodded attentively, urging him to talk.
"So, uh, I wanted to apologise. For the whole firework-thing. I didn't want to do it, although that doesn't justify doing it anyway. And, well, thanks for not telling professor Schuester", Blaine said hesitantly.
Kurt shrugged the apology off.
"No problem. I would hate to get you into any kind of trouble", he said.
Then his gaze fell on Blaine's bow tie.
Blaine had expected him to make fun of it, but instead he leaned in slightly and touched it carefully with one of his fingers.
He looked impressed.
"Wow, Blaine, you do have great sense in clothes", he commented as he leaned back again.
Blaine quirked an eyebrow.
"You sound surprised", he said.
"I haven't had much to judge on earlier. I only ever see you in your school robes", Kurt said.
"You have a point", Blaine agreed.
Kurt smiled suddenly. It caught Blaine off-guard and almost made him stumble upon his own feet.
Kurt had a really beautiful smile.
"Well, then, was there anything else you wanted to say?", he asked.
"No, I guess not", Blaine said.
Kurt nodded. He looked down on his shoes.
"Well, I should go. My friend Mercedes is waiting for me", Kurt said after a few moments of uncomfortable silence.
"Oh. Right. Of course", Blaine said, still feeling slightly dizzy from that dazzling smile.
He tried to think of something to say that would make Kurt linger for just a few more moments, but nothing came to mind. Absolutely nothing.
And before he could do anything about it, Kurt had given him another breathtaking smile and walked away with a simple "I'll see you around".
Blaine watched him as he disappeared down the hall.
As soon as he was out of sight, he leaned back against the nearest wall and closed his eyes.
Why hadn't he given up on Kurt yet? It had been over two years since that day on the train.
Why couldn't he stop thinking about him? Kurt obviously had.
But just as Kurt was about to turn the last corner before leaving the hallway where he had left Blaine, he stopped and looked back at the boy who was currently looking more like a broken shell of a person than a real thirteen year old boy. He hesitated for a few seconds: should he go back? Maybe he could bring some small comfort to him, even if they could never really be friends.
But then he saw Blaine stir and straighten up, and Kurt quickly turned the corner so he was safely hidden from view.
With his soul, heart and mind completely filled to the brim with sorrow he walked away.