"They only stopped calling me a witch when they found out that I actually was one" Santana snorted at the conclusion of her own story, shaking her head as the two fourth year Slytherins sitting on the floor laughed and exclaimed it was the best thing they'd heard in a long while.

Just then Kurt walked into the common room with his arms crossed against his chest after listening to the storytelling session from the hall for a while, a small smile playing on his lips. "I’ve heard that a million times. You will too. It gets really boring around the fourth time" He said, aiming his words at the two girls who suddenly quieted and exchanged a few displeased looks before getting up and fleeting the room with a quick wave to Santana.

"I kind of hate you" The Latina declared with hardly any heat to match her words, turning towards him on the sofa. "What is it now, Hummel?"

The boy spent a very few moments debating whether or not he should be revealing the whole entire thing to her before explaining her his rather one-sided conversation with Sebastian in detail. Because quite frankly, as Slytherin or as badass he might’ve been, he needed someone to tell him that he’d done the right thing telling Sebastian off.

"Okay, wait a second. What?" Santana furrowed her brows after he’d finished, looking outraged. "Sebastian said all that to you? Oh, I'm gonna-"

Kurt held a hand up, gently pushing her back onto the sofa where she'd tried to get up from.

"You're not going to anything, Santana. And you clearly missed the part where I told you what exactly I said" He said, slightly frustrated. He'd been replaying the entire conversation over and over in his head and the more he did that, the more he found reasons to wish he never had said anything at all. He wouldn't say that aloud, not to Blaine especially, but he couldn't help feeling like Sebastian was only going to want more to do with him now that he knew how much he truly irritated him.

Perhaps he didn’t belong to Slytherin at all. He was incredibly proud of being one, but clearly it was beginning to show that he didn’t deserve his place in the house.

"No, that was great" Santana said simply, examining her long, red nails like they were far more important than the discussion at hand.

Kurt raised his brows at her, which she took as an invitation to keep going. "Yeah. I think it's about time someone called him out on his shit. Good job" She said and reached out to squeeze his shoulder.

"You have never said anything like that to him before?" He asked, not even trying to hide the disbelief in his voice.

"Yeah, I have, but I constantly yell at everyone so - needless to say, he wasn't very fazed."

There were a few silent moments of Kurt just trying to sit back on the sofa more comfortably before Santana spoke up again.

"So, you and Blaine" She said – not even asked, a grin spreading on her face. “I'm really happy for you”

Kurt ducked his head with a laugh, not even wanting to deny that there was nothing for her to be so happy about. There actually really was. 

”And I’m getting my wedding, too!” She exclaimed, shooting him a genuine grin to which he replied with an all but amused raise of eyebrows aimed at her.  

-

“Dude, where have you been for like - ten days?”

“What?” Blaine asked, furrowing his brows at Sam in confusion as he sat down next to him at the Hufflepuff house table for lunch. He truly loved Sam - he had been his best friend since their first year at Hogwarts, but more than often it was a challenge to get what his deal was. “Are you kidding? I spent approximately two hours out studying with Rachel. What kind of a question is that? If you're pulling some prank on me again Sam I swear to-”

The blond cut him off with a scoff and shook his head, his hair bouncing on his forehead. “What? No, not this time. Never mind. It just felt like a small forever. How’s your leg holding up?”

Blaine sighed and rolled his eyes so exaggeratingly at him he was glad Sam was paying more attention to the comic book in front of his eyes rather than him.

“It’s fine. It’ll be fine. It doesn’t bother me anymore. I don’t wince every time I need to put weight on it.”

“Yeah, okay” Sam nodded a couple of times, flipping to the next page of the comic book he was reading. “That’s good.”

Blaine raised his eyebrows at the other Hufflepuff and chuckled, truly amused at how little attention he was paying to him. He did have to admit that it was kind of a nice change to all the interrogations Sam had held for him ever since the accident. He was obviously grateful for his friends’ care and worry, but even that there could be too much of. “What’s that one about?” He asked, gesturing his hand towards the comic in his hands.
Sam then proceeded to explain the entire plot of the story in the colorful still-pictures between the pages that Blaine really didn’t get in detail. Sure, he did understand the books in the way that many wizards didn’t – by all thanks to both his father and his older brother Cooper; he understood the process of how the creation of non-animated illustrations worked and found it absolutely hilarious how pure-blooded witches and wizards were so outraged by such a thing. He just didn’t quite get the appeal of the comics themselves anymore. He knew for a fact that his mum had saved his excessive comic book collections from when he was maybe ten years old, but like with many other things after all that happened to him in and post elementary school he’d completely lost interest in them.

“I’m also guessing that this guy-” Sam pointed at an inhumanly muscular figure in full-body silver armor “-is a jerk. I won't believe for a second that he's the good guy, and he will most definitely get assassinated by one of the actual guys sooner or later.”

“Or maybe you just haven’t read enough of the story yet. Maybe he is actually a great person but you have yet to find out, because he makes sure nobody knows him for nothing but being tough and- you know, a superhuman that can fly and lift up hundreds of thousands of pounds with just one hand” Blaine mindlessly offered - because that was the most typical plot that he could remember from all his comic books once upon a time, downing the last of the pumpkin juice left in the cup in front of him.

“Who’s a great person?” A voice came from behind the two of them, causing Blaine to startle slightly before he came to register the voice and then the person who it belonged to sliding onto the bench right next to him.

“Kurt” The Hufflepuff cautiously glanced at Sam first, but he didn’t seem a single bit fazed. “You need to stop doing that” He said then, turning towards Kurt who was grinning at him, making it hard for him to try and not to smile as well.

“Yeah, sure. I’m sorry. But, see- I hate to repeat myself, who is this great person you were talking about?”

Sam scoffed, leaning on the table enough to look at Kurt past Blaine. ”Nobody in these comics, I’m telling you that much” He said, rolling up the book and tucking it under his arm. “Good to see you though, Kurt.”

“Oh-“ He breathed out, furrowing his brows momentarily in surprise at how genuine Sam’s words sounded. Kurt could count the times that they had had a conversation on one hand. Was this another Hufflepuff thing that he just wasn't going to understand? “You, too” He finally said back, deciding on just being decent for once.
The blonde saluted them both and left, catching up to Quinn who was just leaving the Great hall at the same time.

Once Blaine had wished his goodbyes to his best friend, he turned back to Kurt. “To what do I owe this honor of seeing you now?” He asked, tilting his head to one side with a small smile.

“I just wanted to come and talk to you. Really no other motive for me here. Isn’t that kind of what relationships are about, or do we still need excuses to spend time together?” Kurt quirked up an eyebrow with a teasing smile to match Blaine’s and before he had time to react in any way, the Slytherin’s hand was on top of his, squeezing it gently.

When he caught up to realize that, he stared at the boy with wide eyes, not quite knowing what to do.

“Kurt?”

“It’s fine. There’s barely anyone here” He assured, voice barely above a whisper and eyes suddenly so kind and warm on him he couldn’t look away. “But if it makes you feel better-“ Kurt grabbed a light yellow, unused napkin and placed it on top of their linked hands on top of the table. “There.”
Blaine took one look at the constellation that was their hands and the napkin and burst out laughing, immediately covering his mouth with his free hand. “Okay” He said after he’d recovered a little, looking Kurt in the eyes with what he hoped came across as the sheer adoration bubbling inside of him. “The sorting hat must’ve had a tough time six years back. Are you sure you don’t belong to Ravenclaw?”

Kurt chuckled, shaking his head. “Mock all you want, but it actually did. I was almost placed into Ravenclaw.”

“You’re joking” The Hufflepuff said with a small smile. He did believe what Kurt was saying, but he enjoyed being the one to get to tease Kurt for once and not the other way around.

“I swear, I’m not. Now I’m sure you will tell me the hat had a long monologue on how you should be a Slytherin but because of the capability of your heart and soul to find and cherish the best in everyone, you are a Hufflepuff from birth. I’m right, aren’t I?” Kurt was grinning widely now, nudging Blaine with his shoulder in a light-hearted, teasing manner.

“As a matter of fact, you are. I am a Hufflepuff from birth” He said diplomatically, having a hard time keeping a straight face. “But no to the Slytherin part, sorry. I was actually considered to be a Gryffindor at first.”

The Slytherin just stared at him for a moment before making the effort to scrunch up his nose in tad too forced disgust to be really taken seriously. He shook his head then, chuckling lightly. “But I’m kidding, you know? You do find and see the best in everyone and that’s why you’re such a good person. Well, that’s an understatement. You’re really the best of every good person in the world.”

Blaine slowly looked up at him from where he'd glanced down at his shoes, shooting him a fully disbelieving look while his heart began stammering wildly in his chest. It was one of the funniest things he’d ever felt, but despite everything it was starting to become one of his favorites because only Kurt could make it happen.

“So, my sorting story doesn’t put you off?” Blaine asked jokingly just because he didn’t know what else he could possibly say because, you know - he’d just perfectly casually been called the best of all the decent people in existence.

“Oh, no. It does. That is incredibly upsetting. Lucky for the both of us, you are more than just your house or the house you were almost put in” Kurt smiled, so open and honest yet amused that Blaine wasn’t sure how he’d made it this far in his life without seeing just that, every day.

The Hufflepuff let a soft chuckle escape from his lips as he shook his head at Kurt’s comment and tossed the napkin aside from on top of their hands. "So are you, so we're good."

“Now that you’ve confessed that you are a scientific genius, would you uhm- Can you help me with an assignment? I've been trying to finish this thing for Transfiguration for days now and I have come to accept that I won't be getting it done in time alone.” Blaine didn’t let go of his hand, and he refused to start looking around himself like some scared woodland creature, instead focusing fully on the boy in front of him. Kurt had come quite clear to Sebastian about certain things already and been incredibly brave, so that was the least he could do.

Kurt bit the inside of his cheek, letting his gaze wonder away from Blaine for the briefest fracture of a second before focusing right back on him. With a nod and a smile, he said; “I can’t promise anything, but of course.”