"Kim Taehyung?"
Taeyong was surprised to see Taehyung barging inside the cottage after blasting it open. Taeyong heard shouting and more explosions from outside and it dawned into him that Taehyung and the rest of their friends must have come to save them.
"Here." Jimin suddenly came into their views with Taeyong's and Jisoo's wands in his grasp.
"Thanks." Taeyong quickly took his wand.
Taeyong used his wand to untie the knots on his ankles and when he finally got free of it, he stood up and knelt in front of the unconscious Jisoo. Jimin was fast to help him while Taehyung was frozen on his place. Just after Jimin untie the ropes on Jisoo's wrists and ankles, he looked up to see Taehyung looking lost and pained at the same time.
"Taehyung-ah." Jimin started but stopped when he quickly turned around and left them in there.
When Taeyong with Jisoo on his back and Jimin stepped out from the cottage, they got greeted with Yuta and Johnny with worried expressions on their faces.
"Glad you're okay, mate." Yuta said, patting the boy on his upper arm.
"I'm not sure about that." Taeyong's grim face was evident and that's when they saw how Jisoo was.
"For the love of god." Johnny gasped. "What happened to her?"
"Let's just go. I'm sure Bobby and the rest are worried for her back at the Manor." Jimin suggested.
"Of course. And Jisoo needed to see some doctors. ASAP." Taeyong agreed.
The four boys and the unconscious Jisoo was about to head back when they noticed that some of the peers who came with them to save Taeyong and Jisoo were still fighting against some of the snatchers and what took their attention more was seeing Taehyung viciously attacking the snatchers that he would come across with.
"What's going on with him?" Yuta asked in horror, seeing Taehyung using a dark spell to create a large gash on his enemies, making them scream in pain.
"Someone stop him. Or he could really kill someone!" Johnny exclaimed.
"Let him." Taeyong intervened. "Those snatchers deserve to die anyway." He added, his mind reminiscing on what happened to Jisoo earlier.
*****
Jisoo woke up when she felt a pang of pain on her right leg. She carefully sat up on her bed and felt someone on the side of her bed. When she looked down, she saw a sleeping Nayeon. Her mind was suddenly flooded with memories of what had happened to her for the past days and she groaned when a memory of her injury got flashed inside her head. Jisoo suddenly felt thirsty and she carefully got off from her bed and headed towards the table with a pitcher on it, limping.
"Seriously?" Jisoo scoffed when the pitcher was empty.
Jisoo limped her way towards the dark hallway with a lighted wand on her hand. When she finally reached the kitchen, she got surprised when a house elf suddenly appeared out of thin air.
"Krunk is sorry, my lady." The house elf bowed. "But it isn't proper for someone to sneak around like this especially if it's our injured guest. I will gladly do of what you ask of me, my lady."
"It's fine, Krunk." Jisoo smiled for assurance.
"But—"
"Be gone, Krunk." A deep, husky voice interrupted them. "Leave us." Taehyung emerged into the moonlight and Jisoo found herself staring to his piercing eyes.
"Yes, young master." Krunk bowed and disappeared.
Once Krunk, the house elf had disappeared, Jisoo went to grab a glass from the top cabinet and poured herself a glass of water. All those times, she could feel Taehyung's eyes following her every move. Jisoo could literally hear her heart beating so fast and the moonlight shining on them wasn't helping at all, seeing that the mood was getting more dangerously romantic.
"What's your d—" Jisoo spun around, deciding to face him already but her breath got short when Taehyung was already so close to her that she could already feel his hot breath on her face.
Jisoo immediately backed away but Taehyung was quick to follow her step until Jisoo was pinned on to the kitchen counter. Jisoo's hands clasped the counter behind her while her eyes were stuck on Taehyung. Once Taehyung noticed that Jisoo was already trapped between his arms, he grabbed Jisoo by her waist and lifted her, making her sit on the counter.
"Ya—" Jisoo started to protest but Taehyung's hand covered her mouth.
"Not. A. Sound." Taehyung's whispered, his forehead was already touching hers.
Jisoo could only widen her eyes but she didn't dare move. To Jisoo's shock, Taehyung knelt until he was eye level with Jisoo's injured leg. Jisoo flinched when she felt his hand caressing the wrapped wound.
"I— I'm sorry." Taehyung whispered, his eyes were fixed on Jisoo's leg.
"Why would you say 'sorry'?" Jisoo asked in confusion. "You didn't do this."
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for any of these to happen. I swear. I—" Taehyung started to say all at once and Jisoo noticed his voice trembling.
"Hey." Jisoo's hand caught Taehyung's face, lifting it up for her to see and she was shocked to see tears flowing from his eyes. "What's wrong?" She asked worriedly.
"This is my entire fault. And I 'm afraid that if I continue to seek your love, you'll just get in trouble and so, before everything goes back to reality, at least—"
Jisoo was too stunned. Hearing Taehyung say those words made her heart jump and seeing Taehyung like this breaks her heart too. She didn't know what to do and didn't even know what was going on, but when Taehyung finally stood up from his kneeling position, her eyes came back to focus on him once again. She didn't even realized when Taehyung cupped her face in between his warm hands.
"Before we go back to reality, at least just one more time." Taehyung whispered. "Let me kiss you."
And Taehyung finally leaned in to give Jisoo a sweet, long and heartbreaking kiss. Jisoo was closing her eyes the moment his lips touched hers and she could taste the saltiness of the kiss due to the tears that Taehyung was pouring. Jisoo finally opened his eyes when Taehyung had stopped kissing her.
"I like you, Kim Jisoo." Taehyung confessed.
Taehyung finally let go of her and stepped back away from Jisoo for about a few feet. Jisoo could only stare at him silently until she saw him smirking at her.
"And by the way, the kiss just now wasn't our first one on the lips." Taehyung revealed, an amused expression was painted on his handsome face. "Good night, Jisoo." Taehyung said, turning around to leave. "And farewell." Taehyung whispered all to his self.
*****
The remaining days at the Kim Manor was torturous but Taeyong and the rest didn't have a choice but to stay in order for Jisoo to recuperate. Jisoo on the other hand couldn't help but get annoyed by the way that Taehyung was behaving, especially towards her. Ever since that night he confessed, Taehyung became even more distant towards her and her friends. Every single day, Taehyung didn't even have the guts to show himself with them until the very last day of their stay.
"Jichu!" Jisoo suddenly got brought back to her senses by the sound of her brother's voice. "Are you okay? Is your injury okay now?" Jin started to scan his sister from head to toe.
Jisoo could only scowl back once she and her friends got off from the carriage that escorted them back at Hogwarts. When Jin got the news about what happened to his sister, he wished more than anything to go after her but the Ministry assured her safety and so, he decided to stay put and wait for his sister.
"I'm fine, oppa." Jisoo assured.
"I'm glad." Jin sighed in relief and then turned towards Bobby on her side. "And you! You should know better and guard my sister well." Jin nagged jokingly.
"Yah, hyung." Bobby pouted. "It's not my fault that V's place is as dangerous as his family was." Bobby mumbled and Yunhyeong immediately gave his friend a hard nudge on his side. "Ow!"
And at the very same time, Taehyung and Jimin got off from their own carriage. All eyes turned towards Taehyung with murmurs surrounding them. Ever since the news of what happened to Jisoo and her friends back at Little Hangleton, everyone was back with the impression of Taehyung and everything about him being dangerous.
"Don't be so rude, Bobby-ah." Nayeon whispered but Bobby just shrugged it off, feeling annoyed by everything that had happened to him and his friends back at Taehyung's place.
"That's enough." Jin stated. "All of you just head back to your quarters until the feast this later at night. You must all be exhausted from your travel back here."
And they started to disperse. Jin and Yoongi could only watch jisoo eing escorted by bobby and the rest of their group of friends. When they saw Jisoo's figure turn and out of their eyesight, they went to approach Taehyung and jimin who were still standing by the carriage.
"Hey." Yoongi greeted them.
"Nice to see you both, hyung." Jimin smiled warmly but Jin could see the troubled expression that he was trying to hide from them.
"So, mind telling us what really happened back there?" Jin asked, his eyes were focused on Taehyung.
"I— I have no obligation to tell you anything." Taehyung stated but his voice wavered for a moment.
"Yah, Kim Taehyung—" Yoongi sounded pissed but Jin stopped him.
"It's my sister that we're talking about here." Jin exclaimed with a strained voice. "And you know well enough how important she is to me." Jin suddenly grabbed Taehyung's front shirt, pulling him to him. "But for now, I'll let you go. I'm sure it's just the exhaustion that's getting into you." Jin finally loosened his grip on Taehyung's shirt and left with yoongi.
"Are you sure about this?" jimin asked feeling worried. "Why don't you just tell them?"
"No." Taehyung exclaimed. "It's for the better."
Jimin could only hum in response. Jimin could only see his friend walk away with a slump shoulders and he couldn't help but feel sorry for everything that his friend was going through. And from that moment, he decided to himself that he will always be there for his friend.
*****
"Hyung! Hyung!" Doyoung called out as soon as taeyong, yuta and johnny arrived at the Great hall for the feast. "Over here, hyung. Come sit here!" Doyoung waved excitedly.
"What's with you?" Johnny asked upon their arrival at their reserved seats.
"Knowing him, I'm sure he's going to pester us with his million dollar questions." Yuta stated.
"Yah!" Doyoung pouted while glaring at Yuta. "But what really happened to—"
"See? I'm totally right." Yuta snickered, interrupting his junior.
"We're just curious." Jaehyun added. "I mean, holy moly! Was it really true that Taeyong hyung fought those snatchers head on? I mean, that's awesome!"
"And is it really true that V's evil? And was it really his fault that you got kidnap with Jisoo-ssi? We heard that the snatchers were after V and you just happened to be the one they had caught." Ten asked.
"It was V who saved us." Taeyong stated firmly, remembering the time that Taehyung barged inside the cottage. "So stop with all your nonsense already." He eyed his friends seriously and they all kept silent.
Taeyong just scoffed when he heard all those rumours. He scowled when he started to get questions about what happened back to Hangleton and even if he would say the truth, all those people insisted with their own stories of how evil Kim Taehyung's family was.
"And it's not V that we should worry about." Taeyong thought, his memories brought him back to time when Choi Siwon showed him all the Beings that he believed was working under Lord heechul. "I think V doesn't know everything about his father's plan." Taeyong whispered.
"Did you say something?" Yuta asked through the loud noises coming from the Great Hall.
"What? Uh— Nothing." Taeyong exclaimed, feeling bewildered.
Taeyong at least knew about Lord Heechul's plan for Taehyung to win the Tournament. Even though he couldn't tell anyone about the plan, he decided to himself that he will stop it from happening. He will destroy Lord Heechul's plan once and for all. And for that to happen, he just needed to win the Triwizard Tournament no matter what.