#could've been longer but i'm still slowly working on chapter 4 of stranger thigns

[jinhyungnim]

Ahh I love your ryers stories!! They are so beautiful! Can you please do more? :')

Man, this ask is so soft, I had to answer back with something not angsty. And I tell you what, that was a struggle. Here’s a lengthy, Harry Potter AU for yah! And thank you! :)

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For the lack of any interesting introductions, Will Byers’ sorting into Slytherin was a shock to all. Nobody would’ve pegged him for being anything that Slytherin stands. He’s quiet, bookish, and weird. In short, he’s the embodiment of a Ravenclaw.

“Just like Professor Longbottom,” Ben says with a mouthful of pudding. “I heard he wasn’t quite fit to be in Gryffindor when he was sorted.”

“That’s bloody rude,” snaps Beverly, eyeing Ben over her Herbology book. “Just because he didn’t look it doesn’t mean he wasn’t.”

“No, no!” counters Ben defensively. “I didn’t mean it like that. I was just saying.” He only resumes eating when Beverly stops glaring at him and takes her eyes back to her book. Needless to say, Professor Longbottom is her favorite teacher.

“Anyway,” Richie grunts as he begins packing up his bag, standing up with the swig of his drink and placing his glass down firmly on the wooden dining hall table, “I’m late for class. So, Losers, adieu.” He salutes to his friends and sprints down the hall. To avoid being seen by any teachers, he takes the path by the dungeon in lieu of his usual route to his Defense Against the Dark Arts class. When he takes a sharp turn at the end of a dark hall, he’s surprised by a long, slender snake blocking his path. The snake turns its head towards him and hisses sharply. Richie instantly draws his wand and is about to cast a spell when it suddenly flies out of his hand and tumbles behind him, followed by the sounds of footsteps approaching him from the dark.

“Who’s there?!” Richie demands when he suddenly finds himself growing nervous at the anticipation of the person walking towards him rather than the snake before him. When the person comes into the light provided by the wall torch, he’s more dumbfounded than ever.

“Byers…? What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same, Tozier,” Will responds archly. “What are you doing so near the Slytherin house?”

“I’m taking a detour,” Richie admits innocently as he studies the fifth year in front of him. Will’s big, almond eyes glimmer in the steady flame of the torch, his black and green robe draping over his small frame, and yet there’s something about his air and countenance that Richie finds mysterious and quietly frightening. “And you?”

“I was told that there’s a mouse running around the dungeon.” The snake begins to retreat as he speaks, crawling slowly from the ground and up to his leg and then to his arm and wrapping itself around his shoulders, hissing softly by his ear as if confiding something to him in secrecy. “I think I just found the mouse,” he says with a small smile.

“You won’t tell anyone, won’t you?” Richie asks hurriedly, him being late to class no longer a significant subject. “The others will have my head if I take any more points from Gryffindor this month.”

“Tell them what?” Will asks with the tilt of his head. He lets out a soft chuckle as he turns around and walks back to the shadows until Richie could no longer hear his footsteps.

Richie stands still for a moment before scrambling to find his wand and quickly running after Will, his class completely forgotten. He continues to run from hall to hall, the maze of a dungeon seemingly taking him further away from anything he recognizes until he finds himself outside the castle and almost into the Forbidden Forest.

“You followed me,” says a voice, startling Richie who’s breathing heavily from the unexpected marathon. He finds Will perched on a tree branch with the snake still sitting on his shoulders. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” Richie pants in between his breath. “I wanted to talk more, I guess.”

At this, Will’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise, but he says nothing. He swings his legs to one side and pushes himself off the branch, his robe flapping in the air as he gracefully lands on the ground. He’s surprisingly agile and is generally full of surprises. He walks towards Richie and stops in front of him, again tilting his head to the side curiously.

“Not many people want to talk to me. Those who do either want something from my family and from my connections or to spite me childishly. Which category do you fall into?”

“For you, I suppose. I’m falling for you.”

Will’s eyebrows knit in utter confusion. The snake hisses at Richie, and Will’s face is composed again when he says, “I agree, Falun. I think he’s completely mental.” He starts to turn around when Richie reaches for his arm and jumping backwards when the snake moves to attack him.

“Wait! I’m serious, Byers. I’m reckless and a fucking idiot who does everything out of impulse and I wouldn’t have followed you all the way out here if I didn’t want to know you better.”

“If all it takes to get your attention is to chase after someone who wants nothing to do with you, then I suppose I can satisfy your affection because you will spend the rest of your life chasing after me and not get any attention in return. Goodbye, Tozier.” With a final look, Will turns back to the castle.

In this very short encounter, Richie realizes that there’s plenty of Slytherin qualities in Will than he ever before noticed. He’s quite resourceful and utilizes his surroundings to his utmost benefit. He’s cunning and proud, but his pride comes from his faith in his own skills (which Richie will later find to be extremely powerful) and apparently to his serpent friend (to whom he could converse with in parsletongue). But unlike his fellow Slytherins, Will isn’t one to boast or to flaunt, isn’t one to run his mouth, and isn’t one to favor the crowd over solitude. His difference makes him weird, but Richie has placed him in a light so admirable that he only grows fonder by and by. Suddenly, everything Will does is bloody brilliant, and whenever their eyes meet he always mutters “cute” to himself much to his friends’ exasperation.

True to his words, Will avoids Richie like the plague. And even truer to his words, Richie chases after Will every chance he gets. It’s an odd scenario, to say the least, watching the red and green robes of the two houses walking side-by-side outside the Quidditch match.

Will still wouldn’t speak to Richie for more than a minute, but Richie has high hopes knowing that he could at least make Will acknowledge him as they pass each other in the halls, a success he managed to achieve over many, many months.