「EXOLLIARMUS」[⚜] A COLLABORATIVE FIC・COMPLETED: 151,146 WORDS

[Sehun]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center][size=9pt]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER TEN: TALKING WITH TROUBLE. ❞
[PART ONE] [PART TWO]

---

⚜

"No, Snapchat," Chanyeol cooed warmly while lifting the ferret up, "come over here."

He sat back on Jongdae's living room sofa with the pet on his legs, holding a small nugget for the animal to nibble on. The elder boy's parents and brother had gone into town for New Year's Eve, leaving the 'children' – as Mr Kim so thoughtfully put it – to celebrate at home on their own. Meanwhile Jongdae had gone out to fetch Sehun and Tao at the train station, leaving Chanyeol to watch over the chips in the oven while playing with Snapchat in the living room. He was already in love with this ferret, a troublesome prospect, because it meant he was truly going to have to thank Baekhyun properly next time he saw him.

Who would have thought the Slytherin would be able of such a considerate gift? He had never even realised how much he could dote on a pet before Snapchat happened.

Baffling.

Chanyeol was still playing carelessly on the sofa when the front door opened and Jongdae walked in with Tao and Sehun behind him, the three of them covered by snow, and talking over each other with plastic bags in hand.

"I couldn't know that it wouldn't be like the Knight Bus, otherwise I wouldn't have asked the driver for hot chocolate..."

"Hey, Chanyeol," Jongdae heaved, "we're back."

Behind Tao, Sehun poked his head in and saw Chanyeol on the sofa, waving at him.

"Hello, guys," Chanyeol smiled brightly. "How was the trip from Cambridge?"

"Awful!" Tao wailed first, storming to the kitchen under Jongdae's instructions to put the grocery bags down. "I am never taking muggle transport again!"

"We went to a muggle supermarket on the way back," Sehun said excitedly from behind him, before disappearing in the kitchen too.

"How did that go?" Chanyeol blinked.

It was Jongdae who answered him, pulling his woollen hat off with a wide-eyed, traumatized stare, and let out:

"Terrible."

"What happened?"

"We used the self-checkout services – worst idea ever. The automated cash machines just kept on going: 'unexpected item in bagging area, please remove item' repeatedly and Tao started to bawl at it asking it to 'leave him alone'." he shook his head. "And I thought you were pretty embarrassing to take out already, but wow. This is an eye-opener."

"I wonder where that woman was speaking from," Sehun said pensively as he came back from the kitchen. "Why don't they teach us this kind of stuff in Muggle Studies?"

"I know. Why don't they teach you this kind of stuff in Muggle Studies?" Jongdae repeated and sighed, before sniffing the air with a frown. "Also, what's this smell? Something's burning."

"Ummm."

"Chanyeol, did you get the chips out of the oven?"

"Well, I suppose I might have fo-"

"Guys, there's smoke coming out from I don't know where in the kitchen," Tao suddenly came out with an alarmed expression. "What do I do?"

"Jesus Christ."

"I didn't do anything. I swear!" Tao moaned as Jongdae rushed to help him and both vanished in a concert of worrying and panicking.

Sehun remained in the living room with Chanyeol, staring at each other with a little smile.

"What's that?" Sehun pointed at Snapchat with a curious nod.

"New ferret. Snapchat. He's cute right?"

"Uhuh," the younger boy smiled and gently caressed the ferret's neck. He looked up at Chanyeol and seemed to search for the right words to say. "Thanks for the Cleansweep, by the way."

"Did you like it?" Chanyeol grinned. "It was Luhan's idea. This way you can use it for our first match, right after term starts."

"True."

"It was about time we got you a broom of your own. The models at school are starting to be outdated, too."

"I'm kind of worried about our first match, to be honest..."

"Why?" Chanyeol was genuinely puzzled. "You're doing great during practice."

"What if I start sucking again?"

"Why would you?"

"I don't know," Sehun frowned, still caressing Snapchat distractedly, who leaned into the touch, "I said 'what if', so..."

"You're just worrying too much, as usual," the elder boy shook him by the shoulder. "It's all going to be fine."

The younger Gryffindor offered him another unguarded, somewhat grateful smile.

"Thanks."

At this instant, Jongdae came out of the kitchen again with a bottomless sigh.

"That's it, guys," he said, carrying a tray of charred dust, "the chips are dead. Say bye-bye to our dinner before I dump it in the garbage."

"We couldn't just eat chips for New Year's Eve anyways...Can't we have pizza?"

Tao's eyes sparkled. "I like pizza."

"We could order some." Jongdae agreed, getting rid of the tray and grabbing the phone, causing Sehun to perk up automatically. "How about pizza and garlic bread?"

"I don't mind – can I make the order? I've never tried using a real 'telephone' before."

"Maybe next time, Sehun." the elder boy smirked, "can somebody look up the phone number for me really quickly? We've got wi-fi."

"What's wife-eye?" came three identical bamboozled looks.

"Never mind, I'll do it."

"What's that thing?" Tao exclaimed worriedly while looking at Snapchat, and Chanyeol cuddled it tightly:

"Isn't he cute? It's my new pet."

"That's a pet?"

"Byun Baekhyun gave it to him for Christmas." Jongdae smiled slyly.

Chanyeol hissed at him, but Sehun only blinked while trailing a finger against the ferret's back:

"You guys aren't fighting anymore? That's new."

"You know what else is new?" Jongdae said, holding up the land line's receiver between his cheek and shoulder as he absent-mindedly looked for the pizza shop's number on his mobile. "Ever since we came back from Diagon Alley with that ferret, he's been locking himself up for hours on end in my room when I'm not there and-"

"Jongdae..."

"Wait for it, I've been hearing guitar sounds. Guitar, guys. He's been composing."

"I'm always composing." Chanyeol rolled his eyes, sitting down again with Sehun at his side. "What's wrong about that?"

"You haven't done shit before we came back from Diagon Alley, mate. Don't even lie, you're making new songs on a sudden spurt of inspiration..."

"It's for my mum."

Jongdae snorted, staring at Tao and Sehun, who were studying Chanyeol attentively:

"I don't believe a word of it."

"Nope."

"Me neither."

"Don't believe it, then," Chanyeol cringed, flushing against his will, "that's not going to change a thing, because you won't get to hear any of it anyways."

"That's not fair!" Tao shrieked, and Jongdae opened his mouth in protest, right as the call went through and he had to turn around to speak, sounding much more civilised all of a sudden.

At his side, Sehun reached out to play with Snapchat's paws and looked at him with a smile.

"Can I listen to it?"

"Sure, you're not too bad, I'll make an exception," Chanyeol beamed softly at him.

As he spoke, he gently passed a hand through the younger boy's hair and ruffled it, causing Sehun to groan and smack his arm away with a displeased huff. Chanyeol chuckled caringly. What could he do? Sehun had always been the little brother he never had.

"What time is it by the way? Let's make a countdown for midnight."

"It's only half past nine..." Tao mused while glancing at the clock on the wall. "Let's do something, guys."

"Sure. Let's watch a muggle movie."

"Yeah, let's watch a horror muggle movie," Sehun smirked softly.

Tao's eyes widened with dread.

"Who said 'horror movie'?" Jongdae perked up as soon as he ended the call, "Just make a pick! I've got 'The Grudge', 'The Ring', 'SAW' I, II and III-"

"Mate, I have no idea what you're talking about." Chanyeol snorted from his spot on the sofa.

"I don't care about what they are, I just don't want any horror-related things," Tao declared. "Otherwise I'm going to have nightmares for the next five days."

Sehun leaned his head on Chanyeol's shoulder. The two considered Tao, then exchanged a complicit glance:

"Let's do it," they grinned.

"Sold!" Jongdae blasted, jumping towards the television. "Let's start with 'The Grudge', that's a funny one."

Tao immediately buried his face in Sehun's shoulder, whingeing loudly while Chanyeol laughed and Jongdae wrecked the drawers in his search for the DVD.

⚜

The town hall's clock displayed eleven thirty-four.

Minseok waited by the corner of the street, wrapped warmly in layers of knitted scarves and jumpers. He had not started to feel cold that Luhan already appeared from the adjacent street, trotting hastily towards him:

"Sorry, sorry, oh my God, I'm so sorry I made you wait."

"That's alright," Minseok laughed, "chill, Luhan. I barely arrived five minutes ago."

"But it's so cold outside." Luhan insisted. "I'm really sorry."

"It's fine, I'm wearing three layers."

"But Minseok-"

"Luhan." the Ravenclaw looked sternly at him, then smirked. "I'm not a flower. A little snow and wind aren't going to kill me."

"Oh. Right."

The elder boy chuckled while Luhan bit his lips and oscillated restlessly on his feet.

"So, where are we watching those fireworks you were talking about?" Minseok asked, amused.

"Oh, yeah!" Luhan jolted, catching the other boy's hand and leading him down the nearly empty street. "It's at the town square. Come with me."

Eleven forty on his watch. A family of Muggles walked down the alley towards them and granted them a kindly smile, which they returned with a nod. Minseok leaned towards Luhan's ear:

"Are there many wizards in this town?"

"Not really." Luhan shrugged uncertainly. "There are a few wizard families, probably, but not enough to form a community."

"Then how did you think of this place? I thought your family had been wizards for as far as the family tree goes."

"Ermmm...I heard about it from a classmate."

"Who?" Minseok inquired curiously.

"Allford."

The Ravenclaw blinked as they turned into a small alleyway with only one streetlamp. Then he jumped:

"Allford, as in Jean Allford? The girl who is obsessed with quixotic love stories and reads Witch Weekly religiously during Binns' class?"

"Ummm, yeah. That's her."

"I didn't know you talked to her."

"W-well...we were sat next to one another during class," Luhan dodged his gaze, blushing suspiciously. "I was helping her a bit with Defense Against the Dark Arts...n-not a big deal." Minseok followed him out of the street, watching him interestedly with a perplexed smile.

"Why are you blushing?"

"I'm not blushing," Luhan protested, reddening even more, before pointing in front of them with his vacant hand: "Look, we're here."

The town square was as small as the rest of the township, a poetic piazza of tiles and mosaics with a statue erected in the centre, of angels taking flight towards the sky. Cupid was looking down at them with his bow and arrow, winking at them with his witty bronze eyes. Minseok looked around him, noticing a few benches and smooth fences to sit on around the square, but most of which had been taken by intimate pairs of young lovebirds already.

He stared. There were couples everywhere.

"This seems like a popular spot for dates," he whispered in Luhan's ear, and felt the younger boy's grip tighten around his hand. Searching the Gryffindor's face for answers, Minseok simply saw red cheeks and embarrassed eyes; and before long the other boy cleared his throat, scanning their surroundings for a good spot to sit on, before eventually opting for a vacant bench with a broken armrest.

"Apparently, we'll get the best view of the fireworks if we sit somewhere we can see the town hall clock," Luhan smiled radiantly, energetically nodding towards the tall tower above the rest of the snowy rooftops, illuminated by lights.

Minseok mused.

"Then aren't we at the best spot?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Luhan grinned with pride, then rubbed his hands and blew a cloud of hot air through his gloves. "Now, we just have to wait for midnight. The fireworks start right after the countdown."

"You've really done your research, haven't you?"

"Kind of, I guess." the Gryffindor smiled at him tenderly.

As the whimsical canvas of stars stretched on above their heads, devoid of clouds, Minseok tilted his head to the side and glanced at their neighbours – a couple of students barely older than them, who had started to kiss on the bench next door.

"This is really a nice place," he said honestly while studying the piazza's statue again, "it's really...poetic."

"Mmhmm." the younger boy agreed in an automatism, "it's actually even prettier than I thought it would be. No wonder it's ranked second on the top ten most romantic places for New Year's Eve in Great Britain."

A blank.

Minseok peeped at him and laughed:

"Hold on, what?"

"Uhm." Luhan started to sweat. "I mean..."

"Wait a minute," the elder boy was properly giggling now, "is that why you were helping Jean Allford in Defense?"

"I-I-I-I-I mean..."

"She's the one who recommended this place to you." Minseok's smile widened in sudden understanding. "She's the one who told you about this town - of course! That explains everything. She's muggle-born; so she must have lent you her romance magazines and told you all these tips about where to sit and what not..."

"I...I just wanted to bring you to somewhere special for our first New Year's Eve as..."

"Blimey, Luhan," Minseok rocked with laughter, unable to speak correctly anymore, "L-Luhan, I'm..."

"What...?" the other boy let out in completely mortification. "What, what, what...? Did I do something stupid?"

"No," Minseok shuddered, turning towards Luhan and exhaled, "Blimey, no."

He then grabbed the other prefect's ears and tugged them playfully, initiating a concert of flustered shouting and objections from the younger boy. Minseok leaned in before the Gryffindor could react, to kiss the remonstrations away. Luhan fell silent instantaneously.

The boy's face was as red as his scarf when Minseok finally pulled back again.

Eleven fifty-three on his watch.

Minseok sat back on the bench, and somehow, Luhan's hand found his way around his, holding it tightly.

It had stopped snowing already.

⚜

In front of them, the television screen glowed, its painful blue glare keeping them awake.

Eleven fifty-five.

"I have harboured romantic feelings for a teacher before."

"Ew." Chanyeol frowned, yawning into his hand. "Uh, no. False."

Sehun had fallen asleep against his shoulder over half an hour ago, the younger boy's face buried lightly in the crook of his neck, his breathing slow and supple. Collapsed against Sehun's shoulder, Tao was also benefiting from a peaceful slumber, his arms hugging the other fourth year tightly around the waist.

"My turn," Chanyeol mumbled, eyelids drooping. "I have already made out with Yasmine Abott. True or false."

"False."

"Really?"

"Mate..." Jongdae yawned too, curled up drowsily on a neighbouring armchair, "we didn't even exchange Christmas gifts. It's not like we're going out."

"Oh well...I would have thought otherwise..."

"Nahhh. I didn't make out with her. My turn," the Gryffindor drawled and paused. "I have made out with someone during the Christmas ball."

"...Yes."

"Ha ha," Jongdae smiled groggily. "I knew it..."

Eleven fifty-six.

"My turn now," Chanyeol slurred. "I have never felt insecure about my looks, ever."

"Mate, that's easy. False."

"Seriously?"

"Yep..."

"Okay, your go."

"I have secretly made up and become friends with Byun Baekhyun."

Chanyeol sighed deeply.

"False," he said.

Eleven fifty-seven.

"I have already done something that I really regret."

"Sure. I have. Tons."

"Such as...?"

"I don't know. Loads of stuff, like..." Jongdae's eyelids struggled to stay open, "become friends with Park Chanyeol?"

"Piss off."

Eleven fifty-eight.

"I would like to have a relationship with Yasmine Abott."

"Dude, it's supposed to be my turn..."

"Oh, oops. Sorry."

"No sweat," Jongdae yawned for the umpteenth time, "and just to answer your question, in passing, the answer is no."

"No?"

"No."

"Oh... Okay."

"My turn again. I have felt a romantic attraction towards a guy before."

Chanyeol stared at the ceiling, the ticking of the clock fusing hazily with the beating of his heart.

"I have." he uttered.

Eleven fifty-nine.

Jongdae's face split into a lopsided smile.

"Did you say yes, you have?"

"Yes, I did." Chanyeol replied hazily.

"Well," the boy blinked sleepily, slowly drifting away, "I guess I knew that too."

There was a silence; Chanyeol shifted his gaze from the ceiling to the pile of snow on the windowsill:

"I have felt a romantic attraction towards a guy before."

Another silence stretched into the night, the clock ticked on. The muffled answer came after a beat:

"Yes, I have."

Midnight. The church bell tolled.

One hit. In a suburban dwelling in London, Joonmyun walked back home after a day out with his family, and shouted in outrage as he found a belated Christmas package in his bedroom waiting for him. Two. Twenty boxes of Honeydukes' ice mice, freshly packed, with a sly note on the label stared at him insolently – 'a first time for everything.'

Three. Under Cupid's benevolent gaze and bursting fireworks, Luhan hugged Minseok close and let the elder boy put an arm around his waist, the two of them indulging in Great Britain's second-most romantic New Year's date.

Four. Baekhyun stumbled down the stairs towards the living room of the Byun household. His parents were sitting in front of the coffee table, with Kiki serving them chamomile tea. Five. He stared, somewhat dazed, and his mother smiled calmly back at him. "Happy New Year, Baekhyun," she said, "we just came back. Did you have a good Christmas?"

Six. Tucking his grandmother tightly in bed, Yixing kissed her gently on the cheek and murmured a "Happy New Year" that her sleeping ears could already not hear. Seven. He shut the door behind him as he walked out of the room, smiling to himself. He had forgotten his remembrall by his grandma's pillow.

Eight. Jongin leaned in towards Kyungsoo's face in Hogwarts' dormitories, kissing the elder boy's full lips like the first time, as they both listened to the silence outside. Nine. Kyungsoo closed his eyes, and as he fell asleep, it seemed he heard a whisper near his ear. Maybe it was Jongin's contented sigh. Ten. He fell asleep with Baekhyun's present tightly pressed against his chest.

Eleven. With a cup of green tea, Yifan sat on the balcony, watching the city lights in the streets below and the thousands of stars illuminating London's sky. Far away, above the rooftops, huge flowers exploded with effervescent sparks and vibrant music. Good thing they had more than one property in town. It was the most beautiful fireworks display he had seen in years.

Twelve.

Chanyeol slowly turned towards Jongdae's armchair, taking care in not waking up Sehun and Tao next to him.

"Happy New Year, mate."

But Jongdae had already fallen asleep, snoring and drooling serenely over the armrest with his mouth hanging wide open.

Charming sight, Chanyeol thought blearily. Within seconds, he had dozed off too.



A few more days and they would be back in Hogwarts.

---

[font=georgia]THIS CHAPTER IS SPLIT INTO TWO PARTS DUE TO THE CHARACTER LIMIT PER POST. PART ONE CAN BE FOUND HERE.

[Joonmyun]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER ELEVEN: CAMEMOIRE ROMANCE. ❞
[PART ONE] [PART TWO]

---

"First match is up against Slytherin," Luhan roared with a mad look in his eyes. "We're gonna beat the crap out of these bitches, okay?!"

"Inspiring as always," Jongdae whispered emphatically for Chanyeol's benefit, drawing a smirk out of him.

What their captain's pre-match speeches lacked in subtlety, they always made up in raw emotion.

Next to them, Sehun stood, looking particularly pale with his cleansweep hugged close to his chest and his red uniform heavily falling over his shoulders. First match nerves. Out of empathy, Chanyeol glanced at him and gave the boy a gentle pat on the back.

"You'll feel better once it starts."

Sehun did not reply, simply frowning harder and looking about to faint. Outside, the low hullabaloo of the crowd cheering their hearts out momentarily grew as Madam Hooch lifted the draperies of the waiting room and made her way in.

"Are you all ready?" she asked, and Luhan nodded back at her:

"Yup. Are we starting?"

"Not yet." she turned. "But be on standby. We'll be starting in five minutes."



"Five minutes!" Baekhyun jumped as Kyungsoo snapped at him, wrapped in green and silver colours.

Standing next to the staircase leading to the Slytherin stands, the younger boy looked ready to pop a vein.

"The match starts in five minutes, Baek, was it seriously that hard for you to go to the bathroom earlier?"

"Look, do I have a say in my bladder's capacity?" Baekhyun countered while squirming on his feet as a flow of students excitedly rushed past them, holding huge Slytherin flags. "You don't have to answer, by the way. That was rhetorical." he added. "And also, the answer would be 'no'."

"Why do you always have to do something when we are tight on time?"

"This is a pressing physical need, Kyungsoo!" he frowned. "And since when do you care about the Quidditch Cup anyways? You used to not give two knuts about sports."

"Don't be ridiculous, I have always had...a minimum of house pride...unlike others." the other boy muttered embarrassedly, before snapping back in annoyance: "Now, hurry the fuck up, will you? If you're not back in five minutes, I'm grabbing a seat up there and ditching you."

"Relax, friend, it's not like I'm going to spend the whole match in the bathroom-"

"You are advised not to."

Baekhyun scoffed:

"Are you sure you're not concerned about this match just because you have an interest in the other-?"

"Get. Out."

The prefect obediently ran away and wriggled his way through the incoming flow of students and Slytherin banners.

He had not even reached the castle, however, that a person swiftly walked out from a door on his left, not noticing his presence and crashing into him as soon as he turned around. Baekhyun jerked.

It was Markus Hargraves.

"Oh, hi." he greeted quickly.

"H-hi, Baek!"

"Hey, hi."

"Hi..."

For an unseemly while, the two of them skittered in front of each other, obstructing one another's way, before the seventh year finally immobilised him and stepped to one side.

"Here we go," he smiled with self-derision, "well, that was a bit silly. Are you going to see the match? It's starting soon."

"I am, yeah. Just heading to the loo."

"Oh right, I just came back from there." Markus nodded awkwardly, already heading back towards the stands, "I'll see you at the benches upstairs, then, shall I?"

Baekhyun watched him go without replying, slightly puzzled, then finally remembered his own pressing needs and scampered off towards the castle once again.

⚜

When Baekhyun came back from the restroom, the Quidditch pitch had already been turned into the arena of abysmal inanity. Screams in the stands. Shrilling whistles. Enchanted streamers going wild:

"Here it is, ladies and gentlemen!" the commentator blared: "The balls have been released and the first match of the year begins with Slytherin's captain, Archer, in possession of the quaffle!"

Baekhyun ran up to the tribunes in a hurry and combed for Kyungsoo's tiny head in the crowd. The younger boy was sitting in the first row next to a bunch of hyperactive girls, shaking a minuscule and altogether useless green flag in his hand while looking at the line of players flying across the pitch. Huge clamour of girly screams in the Gryffindor stands.

"Bad luck for Slytherin, now it's Luhan who has the ball! Looks like the Gryffindor captain has been garnering quite a number of female fans lately...the ladies in the tribunes are going wild."

"Go Luhan!!" the girls shrieked in the opposite stands.

Baekhyun hurried towards his friend with a sheepish grin. The younger boy barely looked up when he sat down next to him:

"So, how's Jongin faring?" he asked, and Kyungsoo replied without thinking:

"I don't know, the game's just started. I'm already having a hard time finding him on the pit-"

He then stopped, throwing Baekhyun a death glare, which the prefect countered with a wriggling of his eyebrows.

"So...what was that about house pride, my dear Kyungsoo?"

"I hate you so much."

"I knew you were secretly watching this to support your little darling." Baekhyun snickered. "How cute of you... Does he know that you're sitting here and waiting for-"

"Baekhyun, if you don't shut up, I am going to chop you up like potion ingredients; I swear to God."

A whoosh of wind, and one of the bludgers whizzed past their spot in the tribunes, avoiding the top of their heads by just a hair. Baekhyun looked up.

Above them, Chanyeol had veered tightly on his broom and smacked the said bludger towards Archer. He missed. After deviating once across the field, the ball then sailed back in Chanyeol's direction, ready to hit the Gryffindor, who lowered his head to dodge the collision.

Baekhyun watched him fly away from the stands and towards the goals. Kyungsoo offered him a sly sneer:

"What a shame, isn't it?"

"A shame that the bludger didn't hit him in the face, yes." he countered, just before getting drowned by a wave of protest and booing sounds around him.

Luhan, having passed the quaffle to one of his teammates and then caught it back again, had just scored against their Slytherin keeper.

"Ten points for Gryffindor!" the megaphone blared.

In the Gryffindor stands across of them, Baekhyun saw at least ten girls from Luhan's fan club, holding up a gigantic banner with his name displayed on it in fiery letters, while chanting his name at the top of their lungs. Holding the end of their banner, Tao was also jumping and shrieking like a madman. The Quidditch player circled close to them and leaped back into the game.

"What a show off," Baekhyun sniffled.

"You'd do the same thing if you were up there, Baek."

"No, I wouldn't."

"You would." he spat before narrowing his eyes. "Now, where the fuck is Jongin...?"

Above the field, the quaffle passed from hand to hand, and landed in Luhan's grip right as he and his teammates loomed over Slytherin's hoops.

"All three Gryffindor chasers approaching the scoring area! Blimey – is that Luhan with the quaffle? No, it's Tanney! Marriott. No, Luhan. Tanney again... annnnd...GOAL! Ten more points for Gryffindor!"

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo drowned in another wave of booing. On the stands across, Tao and the ladies from Gryffindor were having a seizure.

"Luhan has a lot of fans, doesn't he?"

Baekhyun looked up, Yifan was looming over their heads.

"Oh hey, Yifan," he blinked. "You're late."

"I was tired," the other boy yawned. "Can I sit next to you guys?"

Baekhyun shifted towards the left and let Yifan plop down next to him. The sixth year thanked him quietly before crossing his arms and legs.

"So. Are you guys supporting Gryffindor or Slytherin?"

"Slytherin, of course!" both Kyungsoo and Baekhyun shouted in indignation.

Yifan simply raised both hands up:

"Calm down, I'm just asking."

"Look. Park Chanyeol's searching for the bludger again." Baekhyun muttered, "I hope it hits him in the face, this time."

Above their heads, Chanyeol appeared from behind one of the emerald towers and smacked the metallic ball at a Slytherin player's broomstick. The Slytherin swerved off before getting hit, and Chanyeol watched him escape with a discontent frown as he slowed down next to Gryffindor's goal posts. Then, all of a sudden, a second red shadow arrived from the right and sent a particularly vicious bludger in the Slytherin's direction, causing the player to tumble backwards on his broom.

Chanyeol and the second beater exchanged a smile and a high-five, before flying off again.

"Who's that?" Baekhyun squinted while Yifan smiled.

"That's Sehun."

"He's Gryffindor's second beater? Since when?" Baekhyun scowled. "Someone hand me omnioculars."

"Is this really important?" Yifan cocked an eyebrow, handing him a pair all the same.

"I still can't see Jongin." Kyungsoo mumbled.

Bang!

Chanyeol's broom made a violent flip in mid-air, and almost threw him off his seat. The bludger that Sehun had just struck had made a full circle around the field and had crashed into him with redoubled violence. He fell forward, catching onto the handle of his broomstick with both hands.

Baekhyun peered through the omnioculars and watched as the Gryffindor flew to higher grounds, the bludger at his tail.

"Um...Shit."

"What?" Yifan asked with a yawn.

A dozen metres above the goal posts, the bludger was now following Chanyeol ferociously, chasing him without relenting. Baekhyun's frown deepened slightly, when Kyungsoo's hands suddenly closed around his own, pulling the omioculars towards him.

"Stop hogging the omnioculars, I need them too." the younger boy simply said.

"The bludger is following Chanyeol, for some reason. Is that normal?" he asked, still gazing at Chanyeol's struggle above their heads.

"How should I know?" Kyungsoo grumbled, still trying to snatch the object away from his hands. "Are you done?"

"One more minute."

"You're not the only one who has Gryffindors to find, Baek!"

"Are you two really sure that you're supporting Slytherin?" Yifan creased an eyebrow.

Out in the field, Chanyeol veered and made a piqué towards the ground, the bludger still at its tail. Then, as he feinted and pulled up at the last second, the ball crashed into the ground, before digging itself out and chasing him once again.

"What the fuck!" the boy shouted.

"Looks like Gryffindor's beater is so flustered that he is blurting out blasphemies," the commentator re-joined, causing the crowd to relax into laughter.

But Baekhyun was confused. Discarding all other players on the field, the bludger was now undertaking a vengeful chase behind Chanyeol's broom, charging with frightening focus and obstinacy like a hawk. Meanwhile, Jongdae, who was following his friend's ordeal with his eyes, failed to block a scoring toss from one of the opponent chasers, causing the Slytherin supporters to break into sneering cheers.

"Ten points for Slytherin!"

Chanyeol stopped in the sky and deviated the bludger away from him with one swat of the bat.

At last, the ball disappeared, and Kyungsoo seized the occasion to grab the omnioculars from Baekhyun's hands. The elder boy let out an outraged cry. They fought for the binoculars with the pig-headedness of two cave trolls.

"Ten more points for Slytherin!"

Near Gryffindor's scoring area, Luhan had lost the quaffle and let Slytherin mark another goal, causing more cheers to erupt from his opponents' side. Above him, Chanyeol was being hunted down once again, with Sehun helping him to curb the metallic bullet's aggressive chase as much as he could.

The younger beater looked just as concerned as Chanyeol was, if not outright scared.

"This is a little weird," Yifan remarked, as he finally noticed the situation. "The bludger doesn't usually target a single player or two like that."

"That's what I've been saying for ages, thanks." Baekhyun exclaimed, then muttered irritably as he lost the omnioculars to Kyungsoo in exchange for his green flag. "It's like it's following him on purpose...Like it's been fiddled with before the match."

"What, like it's been hoaxed?"

"I don't know, but what else could explain this?" the other student glowered, "Kyungsoo, what do you think?"

But the younger boy seemed to be focused on something else. Namely, a tiny golden spot dithering low near the ground, close to the Slytherin goal posts.

"Kyungsoo, are you listening to me?"

"I...um, it's..."

"What?"

"It's the-" he pointed shakily. And at the same instant, a red flame zoomed past them with steadfast focus, diving for the golden orb, gloved hand extended forward. It was Kim Jongin.

"Hold your broomsticks, ladies and gentlemen," the commentator announced, "Gryffindor's seeker Kim Jongin has just found the golden snitch!"

Jongin streaked low and swirled back up again. The golden snitch was flying at top speed right above him, wings flapping so fast they could barely be seen.

A green tornado caught up with him the second after, brushing against him and forcing him to deviate towards the left.

"Sykes is tailing him," Yifan said with interest.

"That's all very nice, but the bludger..."

"The two seekers are heading way too high now, there are too many clouds, I need new glasses!" the commentator reprised.

"The race is going to be tight," Yifan frowned.

"Yes, but the bludger-"

"I can't see shit!" Kyungsoo stomped, uncharacteristically heated up.

And Baekhyun stared, appalled.

"Is anyone listening to me at all?!"

Above the goal posts, Chanyeol and Sehun had just combined their strengths to whack their obstinate attacker towards the Slytherins, in a beautiful execution of the so-called Dopplebeater Defence. Luhan, who was flying nearby, shouted at them with a grin: "Nice teamwork!"

A second later, he was violently hit in the shoulder by a ball dealt by Slytherin's beater, and Sehun immediately yelped:

"Luhan!"

Chanyeol soared in the younger boy's pursuit:

"Sehun, wait!" he could be heard shouting.

Then everything happened much too fast.

One second, the youngest Gryffindor beater was flying in Luhan's direction, Chanyeol at his tail. The next, he was flung off his broom by the same tireless bludger that had haunted them for half the match. His breath knocked out, struck in the chest, Sehun was thrown backwards, falling head first towards the ground, only to be caught by Chanyeol's hand in mid-air under the crowd's shocked exclamations.

Even Yifan was completely astounded now.

"Oh...fuck," he exclaimed.

Baekhyun gaped.

In the Gryffindor stands, Tao slapped a hand over his mouth, eyes rolling backwards, and then fainted on the spot.

"Bad news, ladies and gentlemen...! We have a new situation here, the Gryffindor beaters look like they are in a serious pinch."

As quickly as he could, Chanyeol lowered his broom towards the ground, to deposit Sehun on the floor without harm, his grip still shaking around the younger beater's wrist as the boy's body dangled in mid-air, seemingly unconscious. Baekhyun followed them with his eyes, still gawping, when Kyungsoo suddenly let out an undignified yelp:

"The golden snitch!"

Surrounded by an erupting crowd, Jongin had returned to the centre of the field, the fluttering snitch victoriously held in his clenched fist.

Madam Hooch immediately signalled the end of the match.

"Gryffindor won!"

Baekhyun dropped his tiny flag and jumped to his feet.

"Where are you going?" Yifan looked surprised.

But Baekhyun simply shook his head and dashed off towards the nearest staircase.

"I think I know why the bludger was following them," he spluttered for his friends' benefit, then stormed off like a whirlwind down the stairs without any further explanations.

⚜

"Chanyeol and I will handle it," Luhan said to the rest of their team in the changing room. "You guys have some rest first."

"Can't I come as well?" Jongin started.

"No, it's alright. Too many people in the Hospital wing won't do anyways."

"Will he be alright?" Jongdae inquired worriedly.

"Pomfrey will have a look," their captain replied, trying to sound reassuring despite the anxiety in his voice, "I mean, in the worst case, there's always Skele-Gro, right?"

"That's not very reassuring, captain."

"I hope there's nothing broken, of course," Luhan sighed. "What's most worrying is the emotional trauma of the accident, on his first match and all...It's a really weird incident altogether...But we'll solve it. Well done today."



Jongdae thought in all honesty that he had been pretty mediocre during the match, but Sehun's accident and their weird bludger incident were all he could think about on his way back to the common room. He was positive that the bludger had been hoaxed. But by whom? Byun Baekhyun?

Jongdae mused.

Chanyeol had not been very convinced by the prospect, but Byun Baekhyun was a possibility. After all, who else but Byun could have found it funny to do a prank like this? But even Byun's behaviour had been very ambiguous lately...One could even say that Byun had been nice these days, what with looking at Chanyeol like a puppy in love and all.

Would Byun really be capable of doing something so shrewd?

Jongdae could almost feel his brain seethe. This was way too much thinking for a post-match walk, seriously.

"K-Kim Jongdae!" came a shout behind his back as he approached the common room, and he turned around, shocked to see Joonmyun tottering towards him.

A slow smile came to his lips:

"Hullo, Joonmy-"

"I was looking for you," the Ravenclaw interrupted curtly.

Jongdae realised with a second of lateness that the prefect actually looked angry.

"Uuuuhhh...Did I do something wrong?"

"Wrong?" Joonmyun bellowed. "Did you – did you do something wrong?!"

"That's what I asked."

"Damn right, you did something wrong, young man," the Ravenclaw exploded, "You did something terribly, terribly wrong. Now, tell me where you live. Immediately."

Jongdae blinked furiously, bewildered.

"Um, what?"

"Hurry up, your address. I need your address."

"Who, what, why?"

"To send all those Honeydukes' ice mice boxes back to you, blimey! Did you think I'd keep a bribe in my house?" Joonmyun declared abruptly, red-faced. "I told you that I didn't need you to buy me off, and you tried to do it anyways. If I wasn't this level-headed, I would have told Yasmine everything about the keys already."

"It wasn't a bribe!" Jongdae exclaimed, finally realising what all this was about. A laugh escaped him before he could help it. "Holy crap," he guffawed, "it's not meant to be a bribe, Joonmyun. For sweet Dumbledore resting in heaven's sake, I just sent those as a Christmas present."

"Then, what about the note?" Joonmyun looked both confused and annoyed.

"The 'first time for everything' note?" Jongdae chortled. "Mate, it's a joke."

"A joke."

"Yeah, you know, like, when someone tries to say something silly to make another person laugh? That kind of joke?"

"I know what a joke is, thank you very much," the prefect frowned, his cheeks heating up even more.

Jongdae wasn't very convinced, but he figured he should just let it slide. The other boy looked like he already wanted to bury himself six feet underground.

He softened.

"Look, maybe it was a joke of very bad taste. Sorry if you didn't like that. But I just wanted to apologize for making you lose your ice mouse the other time, that's all."

"So you're not, um, buying me off."

"I really don't see why that matters, but if that makes you feel better, no." Jongdae shook his head.

The relief was so visible on Joonmyun's figure that the Gryffindor almost wanted to laugh again.

"You really need to relax, mate. It's not going to kill you to break one or two rules in life."

"I'm not sure I want to hear this from someone who's been stealing from a tea-"

"Shhhh," Jongdae covered the other boy's mouth, watching a few students stop in front of the Fat Lady's portrait and telling her the password.

He turned back to the Ravenclaw only once he was sure that the opening had closed again.

"Can I talk now?" the prefect mumbled.

"Sure. All you want," Jongdae laughed bashfully. "Anyways, I'm glad the misunderstanding's resolved. Hope you enjoy your twenty boxes of ice mice, man. They cost me a fortune."

"I left the boxes at home," the other boy murmured quietly.

"Seriously!"

"Well, I was about to return everything to you."

"Then what's the point...? You didn't even open a single one?"

"Well," Joonmyun started, then flushed a little, "Well, I mean, I suppose I might have opened one or two..."

"There you go."

"My little cousins were spending a few days with us, I had to feed them something."

"You don't have to justify yourself." the younger boy placed a pacifying hand on his shoulder. "Glad you enjoyed it. I wish you all the best in life."

He was about to turn around to talk to the Fat Lady, when Joonmyun grabbed his collar, choking him.

"Gargl-!"

"Wait a minute," he said, still looking mortified. "I have something else I need to tell you."

Jongdae rubbed his neck sorely, "Shoot."

"It's about...It's about the um, the [size=7pt]patronus... lessons..."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"The patronus...lessons..."

Jongdae stared.

"The what?"

"The patronus lessons!" Joonmyun almost shouted, wide-eyed and sweating, "during the ball, you said you could...tutor me to do a patronus if I wanted, and... the thing is, I've never been able to produce one that looked like something."

"I thought you didn't want me to teach you."

"I don't want you to do it as a payoff for what you did," the prefect rectified seriously, "I – I – I want this to be done on equal grounds. If you can teach me how to produce a patronus, I'll help you with your O.W.Ls."

"Oh, I see," Jongdae sneered, "you want this to be consensual."

"That sounds a little odd...but basically, yeah."

Jongdae could see the red tainting the tips of Joonmyun's ears, and that alone was enough to make his smile widen by another inch. What a bag of surprise. The more he talked with Joonmyun, the more he thought the boy was surreal. Surreal and mental, but mental was a positive thing.

"I don't mind teaching you at all," he declared with open palms, "I'm an awesome tutor. You came to the right person."

"Really?"

"Uhuh, as for payment..."

Joonmyun tensed up.

"...we'll see later," Jongdae finished with an amused wink. "Cite a time and place."

"Oh, right." the prefect seemed to think it through, "How about Friday evening after class hours?"

"Before dinner, or after?"

"Before." Joonmyun dropped, "there is a small study area on the fourth floor that is rarely used."

"Oh, I know that one." his eyes lightened up, "there's a passageway Chanyeol and I discovered there, which leads to the seventh floor; not really as cool as the secret passages that lead to Hogsmeade, but it's still pretty useful when you're trying to get rid of Filch in the middle of the night while he's hunting you down with Mrs Norris mewling behind him-"

He stopped, noticing the disbelieving glower that Joonmyun was giving him.

"Errr," he smiled. "Yeah. Anyways."

"Anyways, I'll meet you there on Friday." the elder boy interjected, still frowning. "This Friday."

"Sure."

Jongdae offered a bright face, and Joonmyun simply nodded.

"See you."

"Cheerio," Jongdae responded, then corrected himself when the prefect gave him a look, "Bye."

The elder boy threw him one last glance, before finally nodding to himself and shuffling down the corridor, leaving Jongdae alone in front of the Fat Lady's portrait. Again, the Gryffindor chuckled to himself as he watched the other boy's silhouette move further, staring until he was completely out of sight before digging into his robe's pockets.

Cute.

He started humming and casually glanced back at the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Cauldron Cake," he said cheerfully and then waited patiently for the door to open.

It didn't.

Jongdae blinked a few times, still smiling.

"Cauldron Cake?" he tried again.

Nothing.

Then, it hit him. The portrait was not moving, the Fat Lady was immobile. It was as if she had suddenly become a muggle portrait, lifeless and permanent.

He froze, frowning with perplexity.

"Huh?"

⚜

"Nooooo...it's disgusting..."

"It's for your own good."

"But it tastes like dragon shit..."

"Sehun, it's just a Calming Draught," Luhan insisted, pushing the goblet of potion against the bedridden Sehun's lips, "just man up and drink this for Merlin's sake!"

"He's more shaken than injured, which is impressive," Pomfrey explained to Chanyeol with her hands on her hips, "no broken ribs, no major wounds... and the bruise on his chest will heal in due time."

"That's great," Chanyeol beamed.

"But he's in shock." Pomfrey said sternly, "the incident really shook him and the Calming Draught will help with that for a bit. But..."

"I never want to touch a broomstick in my life..." Sehun's grating voice came to their ears, half-moaning.

"You'll have some Quidditch therapy to do for him," Pomfrey finished.

A knock on the door and a beat later, Minseok's head peeped in through the opening.

"Hey, is he okay?" the Ravenclaw asked.

"Minseok...!" Luhan jumped, spilling the potion on Sehun's face. "Oh, shit, Sehun, I'm so sorry..."

"Mr Lu, I think you better leave my patient alone," the nurse immediately stormed on him and took the goblet away from him, wiping the liquid on Sehun's face. Chanyeol walked around to the younger boy's bedside, while Minseok shifted closer to all of them.

"How is he feeling now?" the Ravenclaw inquired worriedly. "I was watching from the stands when it happened, it looked really painful."

"And odd," Luhan crossed his arms, nodding in agreement. "We still don't know what happened; the bludger was really acting weird during the match."

"Maybe it was a silly prank from someone?"

"Or else it came from someone who didn't want Gryffindor to win; but it'd be a very dangerous thing either way, and I wonder who would be immature enough to do such a thing."

"At least, there's no big injury done," Chanyeol faced Minseok and smiled. "He's mainly shocked."

"I don't want to play Quidditch anymore, I suck at it anyways..." Sehun squawked on his bed, shaking his head.

"Don't say that, it's not true." Luhan quickly pinched his cheek. "Anyhow. I suppose there's no way to discover who the culprit is now, but I'm kind of worried about the next match."

"You think this could happen again in the next match?" Minseok blinked.

"Well, I don't know, but it's slightly-"

"My Cleansweep Twenty-One...Bury it with me please..."

"Oh, Sehun, for God's sake..."

"There are too many people in this room; he needs to rest!" Pomfrey snapped, "only one person allowed for visits at a time. If you want to chat, do it outside."

The two seventh years turned to face each other, troubled. Chanyeol rubbed his neck:

"I'll stay," he glanced at Luhan, who looked at him in apology. "You and Minseok can go ahead."

"Are you sure?" the seventh year puckered his brow.

"Sure," the other boy nodded frenetically. "I'll just catch you later."

"Okay, then...Cheers, Chanyeol."

"No problem."

"Rest well, Sehun!" Minseok said to an unresponsive Sehun on the bed.

They left after casting one last apprehensive look at the younger boy's bedbound form. By now, the calming potion had slowly started to act, leaving the boy meeker and quieter underneath the heavy covers, looking dreadfully pale.

"You look terrible," Chanyeol said to him as he sat by his bedside.

Sehun moved a finger.

"B..." he started.

"What?" Chanyeol leaned in.

"Bury my Cleansweep..."

"Oh my God, Sehun," Chanyeol flicked the younger boy's forehead, "stop spluttering nonsense, no one is going to bury your Cleansweep, alright? You're still playing with us in the next match."

"But what if it happens again...?"

"Then next time, we'll be prepared. And we'll catch that wanker in the act," he grinned. "Don't you trust me?"

"...I'm sorry."

"Don't be. For a first match, you did really well."

Sehun fell silent, eyes lidded.

"Can you hold my hand?"

"Uh?"

"Like that Christmas...when we were kids and I got scared of the thunder."

"Oh, right!" Chanyeol remembered, gently picking up Sehun's hand in his and holding it between his two palms. "Hand sandwich, ha ha."

Sehun smiled, still vaguely grey in the face.

"I got really scared when the bludger started to follow you all over the pitch..." he said.

"Well, you helped me to whack it away repeatedly, didn't you?" Chanyeol smirked. "Not really scared, if you ask me-"

The infirmary door opened with a bang.

"Hello-" Baekhyun entered violently, eyes stopping on Chanyeol, "is..."

The Slytherin froze; Chanyeol too. For a second, the prefect's eyes travelled from the Gryffindor's stooped figure on Sehun's bed, to their touching hands, to Sehun's slightly confused and yet helpless expression on the bed.

The boy's cheeks flushed red.

"Hey," Chanyeol blinked. "What are you doing here?"

"Uuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh...I'm......."

"What?"

"I was... looking for you...but..." Baekhyun stuttered. "I mean..."

He jammed, and Chanyeol could literally see him screaming internally.

"I mean – I didn't mean to disturb," he stammered. "Not at all."

"Disturb what?"

Then he realised that this was the perfect moment to thank Baekhyun for the Christmas present and he perked up:

"Actually..."

At the same moment, a whirlwind wheezed through the door and threw itself at Sehun's bed, almost strangling him:

"SEHUN, ARE YOU ALRIGHT? ARE YOU HURTING?!" Tao screamed and Pomfrey shouted:

"Only one visitor at a time!"

Chanyeol used the occasion to slip out from the infirmary incognito, pushing Baekhyun ahead of him. Once they were outside, he closed the door behind them and looked at the Slytherin, who still seemed completely dazed.

"It's a good thing you're here, actually. I wanted to talk to you about Snapchat..."

"I'm...what?" Baekhyun blinked, "oh, yes. Right. Snapchat, right."

"Are you okay?"

"Perfectly fine. I'm buzzing!" the Slytherin said too loudly. "J-j-just surprised, because...because, you know...something really stupid that Kyungsoo told me...and whichhappenedtobetrueactually, wow...!" he smiled wildly "Wow, because wow, right? Who would have thought that could even happen? Ha! Ha!"

"Are you sure you're not ill?" Chanyeol frowned. "And what was it that actually became true?"

"You and..." Baekhyun gestured towards the infirmary door, "Blahh."

"What?"

"Nothing," the Slytherin prefect coughed violently into his fist, "I...I just came to ask if you guys were okay, and uh, I'm glad you are."

"That's really unlike you, but thanks," Chanyeol creased an eyebrow. "I mean, Sehun's still a little shaken, but he'll be alright once he recovers and has a rest. He really had me worried, back there."

"Mmhmm?" Baekhyun said, wide-eyed.

"Well, it's complicated between us, but..." he sighed, "since our families are related, I knew him since he was small and I treat him like my little brother, sometimes. We're really close because of that."

He stopped, watching the white of Baekhyun's eyes grow bigger and bigger, his face slowly stretching as his mouth dropped open. He could literally read the silent epiphany on the elder boy's expression. The oh and then the OH on his face.

And sure enough, Baekhyun soon opened his mouth and let out a deep:

"OH."

"Um. Yeah, 'oh'?"

"You're related."

"Distant relatives." Chanyeol elaborated kindly, "we used to spend Christmas together, before I moved away, but our families are still close. My mum treats him like her own son."

"Right!" Baekhyun cracked up, "of course!"

"Uhh, Baek, you're really fucking weird, today."

"Just had a misunderstanding." the other boy shook his head, "But I'm okay now, erm, you don't have to worry."

"I wasn't worried."

"Of course, sure, why would you worry."

"No, I'm just messing," Chanyeol grinned, grabbing Baekhyun by the wrist, "actually, if you don't have anything to tell me, I do. Do you have five minutes?"

"Now?"

"Yeah."

"Uh...sure," Baekhyun looked like he wanted to say something else, but abstained himself. "Here?"

"No, let's go somewhere quiet. Like, the room of requirement."

"What's that?"

"The room we discovered last time with the sofa and the fireplace. Seventh floor?"

"Oh, uh sure. Yeah. Whatever floats your boat."

Chanyeol beamed, pulling Baekhyun's arm and heading for the staircase straightaway.



"I've been investigating how to open up the room on demand," Chanyeol said as they arrived in front of the tapestry of the eight trolls dancing ballet. "And I found the trick. If I walk three times in front of this wall, thinking about the room I want..."

A thin door appeared, modest and inviting. He smiled, clutching the doorknob:

"Tadam."

"I'm actually kind of impressed." Baekhyun admitted reluctantly.

"You didn't think I'd be capable of this, right?" Chanyeol snorted. "Wait for it. I've got more."

He unlocked the door for a bit and peeked inside, checking the interior, then opened it completely for Baekhyun to step in after him.

"Come in."

"Why is there a guitar on that couch?" the Slytherin squinted as he scanned the otherwise ordinary living room. Apart from the instrument, the place was pretty similar to the cosy little chamber they had benefited from last time they were here.

Chanyeol seized the guitar and grinned at him.

"I've been preparing this for ages while I was at Jongdae's place," he said as he took a seat on the armrest of an armchair, "after you sent me Snapchat, I've been thinking that my card to you was pretty deplorable in comparison."

"It was."

"Yeah, well." Chanyeol waited until Baekhyun was seated in front of the fireplace, like last time. "I've been thinking about what I could do to compensate, and...so I came up with this."

He showed his guitar.

"You're giving me a muggle guitar?" the Slytherin frowned.

"No, I composed a song for you, you twat. Because you once said you wanted to hear me play sometime."

Baekhyun gaped, and Chanyeol waited for him to react. In vain.

"Baek?"

"Uh." the elder boy started, "I don't know what to say."

"Perfect, then just listen." the Gryffindor sat back and propped the instrument up on his left leg, "It's called Hymn for a Jackass (Not So Bad)."

"Well, thanks, you'll find me tou-"

"Hush. Here I go."

Chanyeol signalled for Baekhyun to shut up, and the elder boy sank into his sofa, dubious, eyebrows furrowing hard. With a dramatic hair flip, Chanyeol cleared his throat and brought it on:

"It began with a farting parchment at eleven, real sick,

I thought that you were a fucking dick,

As fucking absurd as one of Jongdae's weird novels Moby-Dick,"

"Thanks-"

"But when I think back to it,

You're not so bad."

Baekhyun halted for a bit, blinking a few times as Chanyeol strummed and offered a lidded smile:

"At thirteen years old, you blew up your self-esteem,

Blew up my fucking cauldron with it – and my potion dreams,

Drove me crazy like a werewolf under the creepy moonbeam,

But when we're in detention together, I'm like hey,

You're not so bad."

By now the Slytherin looked outright aghast, but Chanyeol decided to take his expression of astonishment for amazement. He yodelled:

"Ooohh~

You're a jackass, but you're not so bad.

You're a real fucking jackass, but you're not so bad

During the Christmas ball – wait, this gets corny;

You didn't drink a sip, looked drunker than me,

But then with you, somehow the night wasn't all that crappy,

And in those moments, I realise,

You're not so bad.

Ooohh~

You're a jackass, but you're not so bad.

You're a real fucking jackass, but you're not so bad.

Yeaaaah,

You're a jackass, but you're not so bad.

You're a real fucking jackass, but you're not so bad."

With a theatrical plucking of the chords, he finished and bowed in front of his somewhat reluctant audience, waiting for the applauds, which Baekhyun finally provided for after a second of pure, mental vacuum.

"You could sound more enthusiastic," Chanyeol declared with a falsely vexed expression, "I prepared a lot for this."

"I'm just so, uh..." Baekhyun looked for the words, "blown away."

"Look, I'd like to see you at it, okay? It was real hard to make something decent rhyme with 'dick'."

"Which is why you decided to opt for 'Moby-Dick', which happens to be composed of the words 'Moby' and 'dick'. How intellectually stupefying. What does it mean, anyways?"

"I don't know, it was just this really weird muggle book I found on Jongdae's shelf."

"No comment." Baekhyun closed his eyes.

Chanyeol smiled brazenly.

"So what did you think of it?"

"Of that song?" the elder boy smirked, "It was, if I dare say so, um, not so bad."

Chanyeol laughed, softer this time, placing the guitar down on the armchair.

"Anyhow, that's all I wanted to show you. We can leave now, if you want."

"Now?"

"Unless you want to sit down and play exploding snapcards."

"No, it's just..." Baekhyun struggled for a while, biting the inside of his cheek, "never mind."

They remained in their positions, not moving an inch.

"Look," they both started at once, then paused.

Chanyeol gestured towards him.

"You go first."

"Alright. I just wanted to say that, um, Kyungsoo got me thinking over the holidays."

"Amazing."

"Shut up," the elder boy shut his eyes, taking a deep breath, "so after thinking for a long time, I figured I should maybe provide...an explanation for that letter of mine."

Chanyeol stared at him.

Baekhyun stared back.

"Chanyeol?"

"I'm waiting."

"Right," the Slytherin narrowed his eyes and scoffed, scratching his neck, "okay, here's the deal, you fucking banana tree. I know the letter probably didn't make it all that obvious, but the thing is that what happened during the Christmas ball...it...Um, it wasn't all that bad. To me. At least."

"And?"

"Don't say that like it's nothing." he scoffed. "It's a conclusion I've drawn after countless nights of meditation and house elf counselling, okay, I just want to know what you think."

Chanyeol stared. He stood up, slowly taking a few steps towards Baekhyun's person, who gave him something similar to an uneasy glance.

"Did you hear what I said?"

"Damn right, I did."

And before Baekhyun could place in another word to ruin the moment, Chanyeol lifted the elder boy's chin and kissed him on the lips.

Just right.

Like he had imagined.

Just.

Right.

"Hhmnfg," came Baekhyun's pant.

They kissed slowly – without the scent of chocolate liqueur messing with his senses this time, which was much of a relief – and Baekhyun sort of melted against him, arms closing around him as he pulled him onto the sofa. They fell onto each other with a muffled sound of protest, and Chanyeol shook his bangs away, staring at Baekhyun underneath him.

"How's that for, uh, a thought digest?"

"Good enough," Baekhyun breathed really quickly and then dragged his face down again, pulling a shocked sound out of him as their mouths collided once again. Soft, warm and wet. Chanyeol found it bewildering, but kissing Baekhyun was still amazing even without the chocolate liqueur, if not more remarkable, because now he could really focus on each detail of Baekhyun's touch; the texture of Baekhyun's skin against his hands, for example, hot and imperfect in certain places. Or the heaving of Baekhyun's torso. Or the flutter of his eyelashes.

Sure, there would still be a lot of explaining and sorting issues to do once they were past the initial impulse stage. But right now, he figured that their priorities were both elsewhere.

Chanyeol kissed Baekhyun a few more times, and only then, dared to ask, face buried against Baekhyun's ear:

"So, um, this kiss right now," he murmured, "did this one 'happen'?"

"Yup," came the winded answer, and the rising of a chest against his, "this one happened."

⚜

---

[font=georgia]THIS CHAPTER IS SPLIT INTO TWO PARTS DUE TO THE CHARACTER LIMIT PER POST. PART TWO CAN BE FOUND HERE.

[Joonmyun]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center][size=9pt]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER ELEVEN: CAMEMOIRE ROMANCE. ❞
[PART ONE] [PART TWO]

---

⚜

It was a secret Yifan never told anyone, but he covertly loved Care of Magical Creatures. Sometimes, the creatures could be a little unhygienic, a little unrefined; bowtruckles and nifflers weren't so much his cup of tea, for instance. But most of the time, they were fascinating, bordering on adorable, even; and Yifan secretly loved adorable.

A dignified and manly guy could totally love furry little things, right?

"Fer this class, o' rather fer the next three months, more like, we'll have yeh bunch do a special project," Hagrid declared through his bushy beard, "in pairs of two."

"Pairs are already groups of two people," Yifan murmured quietly.

"Did yeh say somethin'?"

"Not at all," the prefect crossed his hands behind his back.

The half-giant was already getting on with the explanations and division of groups, when a quiet, almost inaudible whisper went by Yifan's side:

"Oh yeah, that's true..."

He turned, taken aback when he saw Zhang Yixing's face staring at him with a slightly stoned half-smile.

"What?"

"It's true that 'pairs' already means two people," Yixing acknowledged with a mildly fascinated look, "I didn't realise."

"Uh," Yifan frowned, "yeah."

Right. He had forgotten. Classes of Care of Magical Creatures also happened to be with the Hufflepuffs.

"Are yeh two a pair?" Hagrid's huge figure soon came towering over them.

"What?" Yifan began. Yixing simply blinked.

"That'll do. Yixin' an' Wu, then – that right? Leh' me write that down somewhere...Yixin' an' Wu. Next."

"Wait. You must be kidding." the Slytherin spluttered.

"Alright kids," Hagrid gruffly said after a while, "today we're lookin' at very delicate creatures. They're very proud creatures, too – can get real mad if yer rude wi' em. I used ter show 'em ter third years, bu' then it went badly so," he mumbled into his beard, "anyways, yeh guys are a mature bunch, so yeh'll be alright."

Exchange of looks amongst the student.

"So the project I'm assignin'," he said, "is ter care for a hippogriff fer three months."

Yifan felt his jaw dislocate, and he struggled to put it back in place while Hagrid grated on:

"And at the end, I'll grade yeh guys based on how much the lil' guy trusts yeh."

"Aren't those things dangerous?" a girl squeaked.

"Dangerous?" Hagrid grunted, "They're real picky, and they care abou' etiquette, the hippogriffs... Take it slow. Stay at a reasonable distance from the pen fer the firs' few weeks, I say, but I'll supervise yeh guys closely so yer all gon' be alright."

"He hasn't answered the question," someone else noted.

"Alright, come on."

He slapped two massive hands on Yifan and Yixing's shoulders, and started to lead them towards the border of the Forbidden Forest.

"I'll show yeh where yer hippogriff is."



"I read in some book," Yixing said mildly, arms folded over the tall fences of the pen, "that to salute a hippogriff, you have to do it by bowing to it first, and then wait for it to acknowledge you."

Yifan glanced at him.

"That's from our core textbook."

"Oh, yes, right. I knew it was familiar."

In the pen striped by the shadows of the tree branches above their heads, the tall dark creature, part-eagle and part-horse, was disdainfully scratching the ground with its claws, occasionally granting them an equivocal scan of its huge golden eyes.

"Yeh alright, Yixin'?" Hagrid asked from the neighbouring pen.

"All good," Yixing smiled brightly. And Yifan watched him intently.

"He calls you 'Yixing' instead of 'Zhang'."

"I often come here to help, when I have nothing to do. I don't have pets of my own."

"Why not?"

"Didn't want to impose on my parents, and my grandmother's so old..."

"Oh, okay," the Slytherin said, without understanding.

"And you, do you like pets, Yi...?" Yixing smiled peacefully.

"Yifan," the prefect coughed, "and they're alright."

That was an understatement. He loved his cat, as royally demanding as the Russian blue was. Ferdinand was not his pet – he was his one and only master.

Yifan soon tried to break the silence:

"So, uh, do you have your remembrall with you today?"

"My what?"

"Never mind."

"Look," Yixing pointed at the hippogriff, "Shackleplum is coming towards us."

Yifan stood back from the fence and watched the hippogriff politely as it slowly marched towards them. He thought that for someone who forgot everyone and everything in a matter of seconds, Yixing remembered animals' names pretty damn well.

"Let's give it a nickname, once we get closer."

As he talked, he raised the camera-like object which had been hanging around his neck for the entire lesson, and snapped a picture of Shackleplum in its pen. Except that it was not a picture. There was no flash, and no film roll in the camera either. Yifan was openly intrigued now.

"What's that?"

"What?" Yixing hummed groggily, "oh, this. It's an item that Professor Jung recommended to me in the beginning of the year...A camemoire. It helps capture memories, and I can watch them like a film afterwards, with the voice-overs and all, though I can't print them out. Kind of like an instant pensieve?"

He lifted it up and snapped a picture of Yifan's face.

"Here we go, this way I won't forget that you're my group partner, now."

He laughed placidly with those words, and for the first time, Yifan smiled back. Yixing was actually a pleasant bloke, when one stepped back and ignored how fundamentally weird the kid was.

"Thanks for helping me during the ball, by the way."

"You remember that?"

"I'm okay with big events," Yixing said with a pause, "sometimes."

"Right."

"I mean, I'd be really hopeless otherwise, right?"

Yifan pursed his lips, looking sideways then back at him.

"You tell me."

"Also, Bobby reminded me of what happened the next day."

"Ah, yes," the prefect cringed at the memory, "Bobby's your...vomiting friend, wasn't he? He looked really sick."

"Hmm, well. He's my dorm mate, and he's always sick." Yixing leaned against the fences, and rubbed his nose, "Always has to drink his medicine every hour. I think his health actually worsened this year...poor Bobby." he sighed. "That's why he's absent today, too."

Yifan remembered that on the day they had been paired up in Divination class, Trelawney had mentioned somebody being absent too, who was very likely to be Bobby Browning. He wondered if he could consider Bobby's poor health to be a blessing or a catastrophe, if it meant that he had to constantly be paired up with Zhang Yixing as a result.

"Look at Shackleplum," Yixing widened his eyes.

Yifan turned, and almost jumped when he saw that the hippogriff was now towering right in front of them, on the other side of the fence, its oily black feathers shining eerily under the streaky rays of sunshine.

"Bow, bow, bow," Yixing swiftly said to himself, and executed a gracious little curtsy, head bent so low it could almost touch the dead leaves on the floor.

Shackleplum judged him coldly for a moment, then after a dreadful minute of silence, gradually stepped back a few metres, to bend its neck in return, wings flapping once before settling down beautifully against its back.

"Amazing," Yifan found himself say out loud.

"Psst," Yixing whispered.

Yifan glanced at him, then jumped back to reality and bent his back as well. "Right."

And though his cursty was not even half as graceful as Yixing's and Shackleplum was probably less than half-impressed, the hippogriff gauged him soundlessly for a long time, and eventually granted him a casual greeting as well.

"Yeh guys are progressin' fast, aren' yeh," Hagrid's gruff voice suddenly resounded from behind them, making Yifan jolt.

He looked back at the half-giant, then at Shackleplum's calm demeanour.

"I...um, I suppose."

"Can pet' im now," Hagrid encouraged, smiling at Yixing. "Go on. Extend a hand."

When Yixing indulged, the hippogriff lowered its head and rubbed it gently against the Hufflepuff's palm, provoking a soft huff and a sparkling smile out of him.

"It's nice, right?"

Yixing nodded and then turned towards Yifan:

"Try it. It's humbling."

Momentarily distracted by Yixing's thousand-watts smile, the Slytherin bugged for a second before finally coming back to his senses.

"I...I'm alright."

"You sure?" the younger boy beamed, looking fully awake for once. "You'll regret it tomorrow. Come on."

Yifan pursed his lips, then reached out tentatively and gently traced a line against Shackleplum's feathered neck, all the while maintaining eye contact. It was humbling. Yixing was right. But that did not explain why he suddenly had butterflies down his stomach.

It did not explain why he suddenly couldn't tear his eyes off Yixing's face, either.

Why had no one warned him that Zhang Yixing was able to smile like rainbows after a rain of puppies?

"The boy likes yeh two," Hagrid grunted softly, "keep doin' what yeh do, alright?"

He left, and Yixing gave Shackleplum another smile. Yifan stepped back momentarily, feeling like he needed a moment to think.

He wondered why his heart had suddenly felt the need to go on a three hundred miles marathon without his consent.

⚜

The next morning, Yifan still felt incommensurably fucked. He was fucked, there was no way out of this. He was utterly, fully and inexorably fucked.

"I am so fucked," he said out loud to his bowl of cereal.

In front of him, Kyungsoo bit into a chocolate bread and cocked an eyebrow at him. Thank God Baekhyun had not come down yet, because he did not think he could deal with a snarky sardonic gnome right now; any more thinking and his brain would explode.

"You alright?" Kyungsoo asked after a while.

Yifan nodded, sweating.

"Fine."

But he glanced at the Hufflepuff table and repressed a moan of despair.

"You don't look fine to me," Kyungsoo said expressionlessly.

"I'll be fine with a little time."

At least, he hoped he would be. But right now, he was fucked. This was completely new and overwhelming, and he was not physically prepared to deal with this. Ever since their little class with the hippogriff, Yixing's smile had been all that was trotting through Yifan's mind, and he could not help but feel the armada of flying gulls having a party inside his stomach, making him grow imaginary wings and – holy crap, even the night had been painful yesterday, filled with dreams of unicorns and flowering rainbows. By sweet Salazar's sleazy eyes...Was that what they called the legendary 'love at first sight'?

Yifan wheezed.

Except it wasn't even a love at first sight, for Merlin's sake. It was a love at third sight, if it was love at all, that is. And that kid looked stoned in permanence, what was even good about him?

He saw Yixing eating cream puffs at the Hufflepuff table and engage in some inaudible discussion with his roommate, who handed him a glass of pumpkin juice and pointed out the remains of chantilly cream on the corner of Yixing's mouth.

How could anyone be so damn cute?

Yifan gave his mental self a violent slap and forced himself to look back at his own breakfast.

He suddenly didn't feel like eating anymore.

"If you don't want your cereal, I'll have it." his neighbour suddenly suggested with a shrug.

"Let me be, Taylor," Yifan dropped from the tip of his lip.

"Yeah, let him be," his roommate snickered. "He's having a mental breakdown because of a crush he's having on his Care of Magical Creatures partner."

Kyungsoo and one of his roommates' heads – the French one whose name he could never remember – both shot up to look at him.

"You have a crush on someone?"

"Errr, no, I don't." Yifan said, turning green.

"Errr, yes, he does," the other boy insisted, sniffling with disdain, "it's a Hufflepuff, too. Zhang, isn't it?"

"Hey, isn't that kid muggle-born?" Taylor noted through a mouthful of bread.

"Yeah, he is. And a total airhead too."

"His clumsiness is part of his charm," Yifan countered coldly. "I'll have you visit the Hospital Wing before class, if you think otherwise, Jhaveri."

The said Slytherin smirked, hand on his chin.

"Like I said, smitten."

"I heard a lot about him," from the French boy's right, Markus Hargraves piped up with an even smile. "That kid, Zhang, he's a weirdo, you know. People say he's not quite right in the head. Forgets to go to his classes, or tries to go to the same class twice...Forgets his address, forgets his belongings, forgets his own name..."

"And he's muggle-born." Taylor said again, staring at his bread with a bothered air.

"I don't care that he's muggle-born," Yifan snorted. "Blood status is an old-fashioned, outdated concept belonging to history."

He saw Kyungsoo offer him a small tug of the lips – his equivalent of a benign smile – and then, the French boy nodded vigorously:

"I agree. This situation is like, 'better love the shepherd's girls than love the princesses'."

"What on earth are you on about again, Putieux."

"It doesn't matter that he is muggleborn," Yifan said again, "because it's not like there is anything between us to start with, we are only partners for a-"

"Incoming shepherd's girl." the French boy said.

They all clammed up, turning like one man towards the fresh-looking Hufflepuff who had just finished breakfast and was now walking down the hall towards them. At Yifan's sight, Yixing had a moment of mute hesitation, then a sudden flash of recognition, and a comfortable smile, accompanied by a casual wave.

"Hello."

"H-hey," Yifan croaked.

The troop of Slytherin remained completely noiseless until Yixing was completely out of sight...before exploding into a concert of catcalls.

Yifan squeezed his butter knife and lowered his head:

"Shut up, shut up, all of you. Shut. Up."

"You know, if you're serious about the shepherd's girl," Hargraves smiled almost compassionately, eliciting a curious look from Kyungsoo as he spoke, "with your family situation, you're gonna have a bit of trouble."

"What?"

"If you're really looking for a serious relationship, that is."

"Why? What's wrong with him?"

The Slytherin leaned towards his ear, whispering. Yifan felt something like a dream bubble pop.

"Seriously?" he burst out.

---

[font=georgia]THIS CHAPTER IS SPLIT INTO TWO PARTS DUE TO THE CHARACTER LIMIT PER POST. PART ONE CAN BE FOUND HERE.

[Yixing]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center][size=9pt]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER TWELVE: THE MANLY JOY OF BATHTUB DOLLIES. ❞
[PART ONE] [PART TWO]

---

"I can never make it bounce more than twice." The boy at his side said with a light chuckle.

Yifan watched nervously as Yixing picked up yet another flat stone, and tossed it side-ways across the surface of the lake. The rock made one jump, then another one, before sinking deep into the murky waters much like, well, much like a rock would, in fact (Yifan needed a new set of similes as soon as possible).

Camemoire hanging heavily around his neck, Yixing sat back down on the fallen pine tree next to him, and stretched his legs to look for another stone between them.

"Here," Yifan handed him a good ricochet candidate.

"Cheers," the other boy smiled sleepily and took it from him, gently brushing against the prefect's fingers by the same occasion.

The Slytherin internally screamed and returned to the contemplation of Yixing's prowess – or lack thereof – in dignified silence.

"It was a nice idea to come down to the lake for a walk," the Hufflepuff soon droned, making his toss, before bending over to choose a few more stones.

Yifan stared at the other boy's exposed rear and found that it was a nice idea too.

"It was also nice of Hagrid to let us out early." Yixing continued with a tired look. "I would have thought that he would keep us until the end of the hour."

"We finished our work early," Yifan said distractedly, staring mesmerizingly at the curves of the other boy's back as he swung his arm. "Shackleplum's got his pen cleaned, his rain shack almost done, he's letting us feed him and pet him...there's no reason he shouldn't give us a break when we're progressing so much faster than anyone else."

"Do you think we'll get a good grade out of this?" Yixing asked, beaming softly at the water.

Yifan pursed his lips.

"I don't know."

He watched as the younger boy finally managed to make an incredible ricochet of half a dozen jumps, and retained his breath. Yixing's face had suddenly lightened up, all smiles and awestruck sounds again.

Merlin, this Hufflepuff and his cuteness...

"Did you see that?" the boy said, turning around with joy, "that was at least a quintuple, or something."

...were going to be the death of him.

"I should take a picture to remember," Yixing hummed once more, returning to his placid self as he snapped his camemoire peacefully. Then, he raised his head: "I think they're waving at you, by the way. Do you know them?"

"Ahhhmmmm?" the Slytherin croaked without pulling his eyes off him.

"The two boys. Over there. They are waving at you."

"Boys? Waving at me?"

"Over there."

Half-dazed, he looked in the direction pointed by the Hufflepuff, only to let out a strangled gasp when he saw not boys waving at him, like Yixing had described, but actual monsters coming his way down the forest path. Jhaveri and Taylor: dumb and dumber of his dorm.

He was fucked.

The wave of horror immediately mounting in him was justified as soon as Jhaveri's sharp-edged figure opened his mouth:

"Yo." the dark-skinned boy blared, black curls bobbing over the side of his head, "Wu, how's sheep herding going?"

The prefect bit hard on his tongue in order not to swear.

Yixing tilted his head and asked confusedly: "Sheep herding?"

Taylor immediately let out a retarded hoot.

"Shut up, Jhaveri." Yifan cringed as the two Slytherins slumped down on the tree trunk, on either side of him and Yixing. "You too, Taylor. Shut up, stop laughing. What the fuck are you guys doing here anyways?"

"We finished early," Jhaveri explained and slinked an arm around Yixing's shoulder. "So we came to chat, get to know Zhang more, you know...since we're in the same year and all..."

Taylor leaned in to whisper in Yifan's ear: "We're here to help you with operation shepherd's girl."

"Christ, no." the Slytherin prefect exclaimed. "I don't need your help with anything! Get out!"

"Hey, buddy...don't be rude." his dorm mate sighed, ruffling Yixing's hair with one hand. "We come here in peace, what are you getting your tits riled up for? Dude, your hair's really soft." he looked at Yixing in surprise. "What shampoo do you use?"

"He uses the blood that will rain down on this place once I've smashed through your filthy skull, Jhaveri." Yifan spat spitefully and covered his mouth straight afterwards.

Yixing was staring at him with round stunned eyes, now, while both Taylor and the concerned Slytherin exchanged an unimpressed gaze.

"Um, skipping over that," Jhaveri then said, patting Yixing's shoulder. "I heard your parents are Muggles, Zhang. How's it going over there?"

"It's nice...thank you for asking."

"You're also partnered with this goon called Wu for the hippogriff project. How's that going so far?"

"Very nice, thanks." Yixing said, scrutinizing his mortified partner curiously. "Yifan's a very good partner."

"A very good partner, would you listen to this...I like what you're saying right here, Zhang!" the sharp-faced Slytherin exulted. "Now look, this guy right here," he pointed at a fuming Yifan, "is the heir of a gold mine. Not literally, but close enough in the magic world."

"Really."

"No, I'm not."

"Hear me out. Everyone from a decent wizard family knows about the Wu-zzbees macaroons," Jhaveri sighed dreamily, "which are the best confectioneries ever made if I dare say so myself. This bloke is going to receive that golden business when his dad retires...which is going to take place in ten years at most, therefore-"

"Jhaveri."

"Why are you telling me this?" Yixing said, somewhat dazed and confused. "I'm not really into sweet things."

"You're not? But you're a block of sugar yourself, darling," the other boy declared, before getting distracted by something else: "Is that one of those newly made memory gadgets, by the way? Can I try it?"

The Hufflepuff took off the camemoire after a second of hesitation, and handed it over, letting the other sixth year snap a picture of Yifan's outraged face with it.

"First time seeing one...Amazing. But this is not what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to say is that, like every heir to a fortune, Yifan is going to need a nice spouse to look good on pictures with him and on public occasions in ten years' time when his dad retires."

Yixing frowned. "Uhuh?"

"Yep." Jhaveri said, contrite, and waited for a reaction.

The Hufflepuff only offered a confused gaze.

"Ignore them, Yixing." Yifan finally groaned, pushing Taylor's head down without listening to the boy's protests. "They're just being stupid. Forget everything they just said."

"Buddy, you aren't going to get anywhere if you don't talk it through," Jhaveri held two palms out.

"Yeah." Taylor added, pouting, "I mean, Zhang wants to stay in the muggle world once he graduates from Hogwarts, right?"

Pure silence. Yixing's eyes grew double in size.

"How do you know about that...?"

"Uuuhhh..." Taylor bit down on his finger. And Jhaveri rapidly waved both hands:

"Rumours. Just rumours that we heard...But I mean, it's true, right? You don't want to settle down in the wizard community, because you want to take care of your muggle grandparents or something."

"I'm not sure yet." Yixing admitted, still a little bothered.

"Not sure yet?" the Slytherin blinked, then whispered wildly in Yifan's direction. "Hey, that's actually good news for us, isn't it?"

"I think I should go first." the Hufflepuff finally announced, standing up slowly. "Yifan, I'll see you tomorrow."

Yifan's jaw dropped, cold sweat drenching him: "Wait..."

"Wait," Jhaveri intercepted, "we haven't even started discussing all the options yet."

But the muggle-born had already walked away after one last smile, leaving them behind on the broken tree trunk, exchanging knowing looks over Yifan's gaping figure.

"Buddy," Jhaveri winced, "you're going to have a tough time asking him to stay for you, he looks really set on staying with the Muggles: Hargraves was right."

"You pair of idiots."

He whacked both of them on the back of the head before springing to his feet.

"Ow, that was unnecessary!" Jhaveri shouted.

"It was totally necessary, you bastards, wait 'til we get back to the dorms." Yifan retorted, running after the Hufflepuff, with the boy's camemoire in hand: "Yixing, wait!"

The boy was already far off down the path around the lake, when he finally caught up with him, panting slightly.

"Yixing, wait. You forgot your cam-"

"Were they your friends?" Yixing turned around, looking slightly peeved in spite of the soft tone. The other boy immediately braked.

"No." he said, then realised the lie would be too hard to keep up. "Okay, yes. Yes, they are. But they are really stupid friends, I know."

The younger boy looked at him strangely.

"I like you," he said naively, making the prefect choke, "but I'm not sure I like your friends."

Understanding his mistake, Yifan rubbed his hands together, embarrassed.

"Um, well," he stuttered, "I have other friends."

He thought of Luhan, of Joonmyun, Chanyeol, all the youngsters...He nodded.

"Yeah. Other friends. I'll introduce you next time. They're a better bunch."

Yixing finally smiled again.

"I felt a little bad, over there," he said, nodding in the direction they had just come from.

Yifan smiled back.

"If it helps, I felt terrible as well."

"No, I mean...I'm sorry, I had no idea what Wu-zzbees macaroons were before they told me."

"That's not even remotely important."

The younger boy gazed at him, not knowing the slightest about the butterflies flying in Yifan's stomach. It didn't matter that Yixing wasn't ready to settle down in the wizardly world yet. Or rather, yes, it mattered – it mattered loads, but not when Yixing was looking at him like that. Not when Yixing was lighting up his world like a thousand stars.

"Here, you forgot this." he said while handing the camemoire back to the other boy.

The Hufflepuff took it, faintly surprised for a second as he grappled with the memory. Then, he murmured his thanks, observed the gadget pensively and glanced up at Yifan again.

"I'm not sure I want to remember what happened back there," he declared gently. "It's not good for either of us."

Under Yifan's confused eyes, he pulled out his wand and directed it at the camemoire, extracting the ethereal photo out of it, which he sent flying into the wind. The Slytherin prefect watched the memory float away, dissipating like silver filaments of silk, slowly vanishing for good to leave them on a clean slate...and then gazed back at Yixing's serene smile.

"We should only keep happy memories of us," the boy was nodding with lidded eyes.

And Yifan knew that he had fallen in love.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"I have a surprise for you."

Baekhyun looked down at the square piece of parchment in his lap, reading it silently. He then tapped it, letting the words disappear, and grabbed his own quill to write his answer to the tall boy who was sitting a few desks away from him, at the front row of the class.

"I hope it's not something stupid."

He then hid the parchment between his legs and pretended to be completely transfixed by his Defence Against the Dark Arts notes. February was rounding the corner, getting close to that ridiculous date called 'Valentine's day'. It also meant that they were approaching the time of the year where O.W.Ls panic was the most overwhelming... At the front of the class, Chanyeol glanced down at what Baekhyun knew to be a similar square piece of parchment, and then turned around to give him a vexed look.

"Of course it isn't." soon came the written reply on Baekhyun's piece. "It's actually fucking awesome and it's in my bag right now."

Baekhyun glanced up and Chanyeol gave him an exaggerated wink.

"What is it, poop head? I'm scared."

"I'll show you if you give me an air kiss."

Baekhyun's head shot up and he made a grimace. A few rows ahead, Professor Jung was slowly travelling between students, explaining his theory on various dark curses' weaknesses while Chanyeol continued to send him suggestive looks and noiseless cackles.

Ever since the first match of the Quidditch Cup, when they had finally "gotten together" – Baekhyun still found the idea bewildering when he put it out this way – the two of them had taken off on a strange rollercoaster of emotions, meeting in secret in the room of requirement, or talking clandestinely like this during class, through charmed parchments, instead of listening to the teachers. Going from being archenemies to boyfriends certainly was a violent transition, and Baekhyun's head still reeled whenever he remembered their old days, when everything was easy and they only needed to think about how to make each other's life a misery (ah, the good old times). But then, each time they met for secret dates, Chanyeol still managed to give him butterflies in his stomach, and he figured that made it all worthwhile.

It was nice to know that they were finally on the same side of the curtain, at last, after all this push-and-pull.

From his left side, Kyungsoo threw a look at him and Baekhyun bent over the parchment again:

"Dumbass. I'm not doing this in front of Jung. He'll fucking see."

"GASP. Since when is the bold Byun Baekhyun scared of being caught by a teacher?"

"Ha, bloody, ha." Baekhyun wrote. "We already got into five detentions this month for skiving... I need to maintain a minimum of a good student image."

"Why?"

"I'm still a prefect and O.W.L grades are important for me."

"Why are you scared? Kyungsoo's helping you with the catching up."

"I can't count on Kyungsoo for everything."

"You're right. You can't." Kyungsoo suddenly whispered from beside him. Baekhyun blinked at the younger boy, who stared emotionlessly at him, and then hid his parchment between his legs again.

"Sheesh, that's private correspondence." he added for good measure.

"Mr Do and Mr Byun, keep it down a notch," Jung drawled without even sparing them a glance.

Baekhyun gave Kyungsoo one last disapproving glare, and then returned to his parchment.

"Ha. Ha. Loser," Chanyeol wrote immediately after, mocking from beside a snoring Jongdae.

The Slytherin puckered his lips.

"Shut up. Or you won't get that air kiss of yours," he wrote.

"Oh? So, you mean I was actually getting one from the start?"

As Chanyeol slowly raised his head to look back at him, Baekhyun deliberately lifted up one hand to hide his face from Jung's field of vision and, behind the wall of his palm, tightly shut his eyes to make a pouty, kissy face.

Chanyeol's ears turned a little red as he smirked at him.

"Okay, I'll show you the surprise."

"Hurray."

He had written the word without emotion, but soon Chanyeol reached for his bag and discreetly showed the corner of a pack of Skiving Snackbox to him, and his face immediately brightened up with a huge, exalted grin.

"You fuck face."

Chanyeol smiled widely at him.

"You're welcome."



Five minutes later, they were out of the classroom, Baekhyun with a forty degrees fever and Chanyeol with a cascading nosebleed. Instead of going to the infirmary like they had been sent out to do, each of them gulped down the second part of the candies they had bitten from earlier on, and waited behind a pillar for their symptoms to disappear, before scampering off through the corridor and looking for the staircase to go up to the seventh floor.

"These sweets work each time, I can't believe it." Chanyeol said while pacing back and forth in front of the room of requirement for it to appear, "I love Skiving Snackboxes."

"It's the second time we're using them to skip class this week, though." Baekhyun groaned.

"So...?"

"We can't do that so often," the Slytherin frowned as the door appeared and Chanyeol opened it. "Do you realise we still have our O.W.Ls to pass this year?"

"Yes, but who's the one who doesn't want us to meet publicly because he wants to keep us a secret from his parents?"

Baekhyun pursed his lips, following the other boy into the spacious lounge which had materialised behind the door.

"You're not much better, keeping us a secret from your best friend."

"I'm not keeping it a secret from him," Chanyeol defended himself. "As soon as Jongdae asks, I'll tell him everything. It just so happens that he doesn't, so I'm keeping my mouth shut in the meantime."

Baekhyun rolled his eyes.

"As I was saying, not any better."

"Hey," Chanyeol smiled. "The difference between you and me, is that I don't actually mind if Jongdae knows. If I tell him, he'd get over it. Whereas, you do mind if your parents discover about me."

"They're very traditionalist." Baekhyun justified, then scrunched his nose. "I think."

"Does that make me your dirty little secret, or something?"

"More like," the Slytherin rectified, "my dirty fucking huge secret, or something."

Chanyeol sat down on the nearest couch with a smug look on his face.

"Cool."

"Why? Why is that cool?" Baekhyun frowned.

"I don't feel pressured by the idea of our relationship going public, but you do. That leaves me in a position of dominance compared to you."

"Dominance, my ass!" the prefect exclaimed, outraged, "I'm totally the dominant one in this relationship."

"Please," Chanyeol snorted, raising a hand, "look at me. And then look at you. There is not a single area in which you actually top, you scrawny little fox-eyed man."

"A scrawny little fox-eyed man can kick your ass too, you troll-toed giant," Baekhyun decreed as he jumped onto the couch and wrestled Chanyeol off it with a war cry, making loud tribal warrior sounds while grabbing handfuls of the younger boy's hair. Chanyeol was half-crying with laughter and half-screaming in pain.

"I give up! I give up! Let me go, you bloody barbarian!"

"Am I the dominant one, or am I not?" Baekhyun hollered.

"No, you're not – you're – you're a power bottom."

"Outrage!" the Slytherin slapped the air near Chanyeol's face. "Take that back right away, you poor excuse of a man."

"Um, let me see, oh, wait. I decline."

And with a mischievous glint in his eyes, he abruptly rolled side-ways, hauling Baekhyun with him, and inverted their positions in one sharp move, grinning once he pinned the Slytherin prefect underneath him.

"Ha ha." the younger boy said. "Who wins, now?"

Baekhyun struggled for a while, but Chanyeol trapped his wrists and obstinately held them against the floor. The Slytherin seemed to give up at first, then brusquely bucked his hips against Chanyeol's crotch, pulling a surprised and totally undignified shriek out of him.

"What the heck," the younger boy shifted, face burning instantaneously.

"Ha ha. Who's laughing now?"

"You – you – you debauched ...person!"

"That's weak." Baekhyun scoffed, "is that really the best you've got?"

"I'd think twice before challenging me, Byun." the younger boy growled ominously. "You're the one with your arms pinned to the ground right now."

Baekhyun considered his position for a moment, then offered an inviting smirk. No matter what the Gryffindor said, he was the one who was blushing like a tomato at the moment.

"Do something about your tomato face before you try to sound aggressive." he soon said.

And Chanyeol blushed even harder.

"Oh, just shut up, will you..."

"Ridiculous."

"I said, shut up." Chanyeol snapped and loomed in, blocking Baekhyun's mouth with a nervous kiss. The Slytherin huffed. There went the butterflies again...

Soft and gentle, Chanyeol pecked at his lips, dipping in avidly, and Baekhyun felt himself melt a little more. He could do this forever, if only they didn't have other classes to attend. The strong palms around his wrists, the humid lips against his, the hot breaths mixing with his. Every touch was sweltering.

He could almost feel himself falling for this.

"I seriously think I can do this forever," Chanyeol suddenly grunted against his lips, releasing the elder boy's arms at last, to cup his cheeks.

"I was just thinking the same thing." Baekhyun replied softly, then closed his eyes as Chanyeol dived in once more, hands around his face, hot lips locking on his own. A tongue darted through, teasing his with bashfulness before plunging in completely. He closed his own hands around Chanyeol's to keep them there against his cheeks, to keep them there with him, with him alone. Because now that they had gotten over all their silly little quarrels, Chanyeol was his, and his only. Right?

Man, the younger boy's tongue was doing wonderful things in there.

"Wait," the Gryffindor suddenly said, dragging a groan of objection from Baekhyun underneath him. "Holy crap, I almost forgot."

"What?" the Slytherin pouted.

"I still have Quidditch training tonight." Chanyeol sat up, heavy against Baekhyun's abdomen, causing him to grunt.

"Is that all?"

"Dude. Quidditch's pretty important." the other boy declared, lifting one leg to free Baekhyun from underneath him. "Luhan would have killed me if I'd really forgotten."

"The finals are in two weeks' time, right?" Baekhyun sighed. "Not that it's any of my business anymore, since we lost so early on in the games."

"Sore loser," Chanyeol stuck out his tongue. "You could at least continue to watch the games for me."

"Ugh, why would I? Last thing I need is to watch your proud ass batting bludgers off like a peac-"

He stopped, eyes widening.

"What?" Chanyeol blinked.

"Holy shit!" he shouted.

"What? What?"

"The bludger!" Baekhyun screamed, sitting up in a frenzy. "The incident last month; I completely forgot to tell you...Th-the bludger incident!"

"Can you calm down before speaking?" the other boy squinted.

"Markus Hargraves!"

"Hargraves?" Chanyeol said, surprised at first. Then, his eyes darkened with jealousy. "What does he want again, I thought you hadn't seen him since..."

"No," the elder boy rolled his eyes. "I think he's the one who hexed the bludger last time."

"Huh?"

Chanyeol looked downright shocked, this time.

"Why?"

"Look, I don't know why myself, but I think I might actually have seen him right after he hexed it."

"That's bloody ridiculous," Chanyeol frowned. "Why would he do that?"

"I was going to the bathroom when I ran into him near the Slytherin stands...he looked really uncomfortable, and he was walking out of some room near the stands, which looked suspiciously like a storage room." the elder boy paused. "Now, what would you store under the Quidditch pitch apart from Quidditch balls?"

The Gryffindor sat stupidly on the floor, looking at Baekhyun blankly.

"I don't know, man," Chanyeol frowned. "That guy might have been my nemesis in love, but to accuse him without proof... that's still a bit of a long stretch to make."

"What do you mean, without proof?" Baekhyun blinked. "Do you need him to hex that bludger a second time and disfigure you during the finals for you to believe me?"

"But who says anything's going to happen during the finals?" Chanyeol frowned.

The other boy thought about it, slightly hesitant.

"Well."

"Slytherins and their paranoia," Chanyeol laughed through his nose, shoulders shaking. "I think it was a one-off thing, whoever did it. It's not going to happen again."

"You don't know that."

"Just like you don't know that Hargraves did anything."

"But I saw..." Baekhyun halted, eyebrows furrowed. "Why do I bother? You're too stupid, I give up. Just get your nose smashed for all I care."

"Are you really that worried about me?" Chanyeol grinned, leaning close and grabbing the back of Baekhyun's head.

For all reply, the elder boy snatched the Gryffindor's nose and turned it side-ways as hard as he could, towing out a deep howl of agony from him.

"Fuck, that hurts!"

"Ha ha," Baekhyun grinned, throwing himself over him. "Ten points for Slytherin. Zero for Gryffindor. "

They grappled at each other's shirts messily until Baekhyun found himself folded over Chanyeol's face, kissing the younger boy deeply with both hands clasped over his cheeks. It felt nice, to spend time without caring about anything. Maybe Chanyeol was right not to worry.

Right now, they were on top of the world, after all.

⚜

---

[font=georgia]THIS CHAPTER IS SPLIT INTO TWO PARTS DUE TO THE CHARACTER LIMIT PER POST. PART TWO CAN BE FOUND HERE.

[Yixing]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center][size=9pt]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER TWELVE: THE MANLY JOY OF BATHTUB DOLLIES. ❞
[PART ONE] [PART TWO]

---

⚜

"Nothing like a nice bath before going to bed," Minseok smiled gratifyingly as he slouched in the foam-filled bathtub of the prefects' bathroom, arms resting on the edge.

From one side of the pool-like tub, covered in pink bubbles, Yifan raised an eyebrow at him.

"Haven't you been here for, like, over an hour?" he asked.

"I have, but it's just so hard to get myself out of this piece of heaven, oh my god..." the Ravenclaw groaned. "I can't move a single muscle anymore."

"Your hands are wrinkled like ripe dates." Joonmyun kindly noted.

"Really?" Minseok looked at them carefully under the moonlight and sighed. "Oh dear, you're right. I guess I should really go to bed, then...Time for discipline."

He stood up, all rustling water and steam, and reached for his towel, drying himself carefully before giving them a smile.

"Are you guys staying here for another while?"

"We just arrived, so..."

"Good." the seventh year nodded, putting on his clothes in swift, casual moves. "Then if you guys see Luhan around, can you tell him I've gone back to the Ravenclaw Tower?"

"We'll pass the message." Yifan gestured with his hand. "Don't worry about it."

"Cheers."

Minseok then beamed another grateful smile at them, before walking out of the bathroom with his belongings. As soon as the door closed behind him, Joonmyun and Yifan threw themselves onto their respective bags, pulled out their toy dragons and floating mermaids, and chucked them into the tub.

They sighed with satisfaction as the bath dollies began to navigate their way through the foam, happily floating in the water.

"Not a word about this to anyone." Yifan reminded, just in case. And his partner in crime nodded solemnly as always, with his toy dragon close to him.

"Not a single word," he exhaled, then smiled while pointing at one of the red mermaids. "Hey, isn't that the one I gave you for Christmas?"

"As a matter of fact, yes."

"I knew you would like it."

Yifan did not reply right away, splashing around distractedly in the bubbles and playing with the miniature mermaid absent-mindedly, before letting out a deep sigh.

The Ravenclaw soon gave him a concerned look.

"You alright...? You look kind of down."

The Slytherin's eyes shot up.

"Is it that obvious?"

"A bit. I mean, if I didn't know you so well, I would have thought that you were heart-broken."

"I'm not heart-broken... But it's as if."

The Ravenclaw widened his eyes, then slowly looked to one side of the room before focusing back on him.

"I beg your pardon?"

Yifan exhaled deeply once again, poking the mermaid's tail despondently. He then stared at the other boy, utterly discouraged.

"Joonmyun, reply me honestly." he said. "Do you believe in love at third sight?"

"I think you mean 'love at first sight'."

"No. Third sight. Definitely third sight."

"Alright?" Joonmyun hesitated. "Um, I don't know, I'm sorry. I can't say I have experienced it."

"I thought so."

"Why? Are you interested in someone?"

"Just a kid... A clumsy kid I have in my Care of Magical Creatures class... He's my Hufflepuff problem."

"Ah."

Again, the elder boy let out a wistful sigh, looking dramatically into the distance: "My sunshine..."

Joonmyun side-eyed the bubble taps worriedly.

"Yifan, I am not used to seeing you like this and I have to admit it is very scary."

"This is what love feels like." the Slytherin said faintly. "Painful. And deep. An unescapable maze of conflict and struggle...Ah." he held his chest. "My heart."

"...So why is this Hufflepuff a problem?"

"Because he's perfect." Yifan replied immediately. "But it's a goner. Can you believe this? I am most probably the best-looking guy in our year, the heir to one of the most famous businesses there is in the wizardly world, and a prefect... but I can't even have love."

"You do have, on the other hand, a higher esteem of yourself than is perhaps appropriate."

"He wants to settle down with the Muggles to help his parents' restaurant." the other boy shook his head without listening. "He just confirmed it to me last week, saying that he wasn't sure about his future. With my own family situation, this relationship is impossible."

Joonmyun simply blinked, unsure of what the problem was, before realising with a silent jolt.

"Are you already thinking about needing someone to help you with the business later on?"

"Exactly." Yifan held the bridge of his nose.

"That's going a little fast." he blinked doubtfully, playing with his dragon distractedly, "Actually, that's going way too fast, Yifan. You're not even with this person yet, why are you already thinking about a civil partnership?"

At those words, the Slytherin raised confused eyes.

"Is that not okay?"

"Did he already agree to all your wild plans about your future together?"

"No." Yifan said. "Actually, he doesn't know a single thing."

"See?" Joonmyun frowned.

"I just thought that since he's heading east and I'm heading west..."

"Why are you thinking so far ahead? Besides, you mentioned that he wasn't even sure about his future yet." he tried to give a comforting smile while wading in the water. "So that means you still have a chance at convincing him to stay. Right? You just have to try harder."

"Really."

"Of course. Effort makes up for all imperfections."

A blank look crossed the Slytherin's face, before he granted a small smile in return.

"Maybe."

The other prefect stared, beaming.

"Are you feeling better?"

"Surprisingly," Yifan coughed, suddenly looking much more composed and vain, "yes."

"Alright. I'm glad. But let me just put it out there: you are seriously disturbing when you're in love and I am sincerely worried about your Hufflepuff."

"Shut up. I'm just looking for a stable relationship, what's wrong about that?"

"A stable relationship..."

Joonmyun pondered, looking at Yifan's mermaid swaying in the water.

"Maybe..."

Now it was the elder boy's turn to cast him a curious glance.

"Um. Something the matter?"

"Well, I suppose I have, what you would call..." Joonmyun said and then sighed. "A Gryffindor problem."

"A Gryffindor problem."

Silence.

Yifan squinted: "You mean Luhan?"

"What? No!" Joonmyun splashed water everywhere. "No. Why would I have any feelings for Luhan? That is simply wrong."

"I'm just guessing. Out of the Gryffindors I know, it was the most likely option..."

"It is outrageous and wrong." he refuted, then slowly waned. "Wait, it was the most likely option?"

The Slytherin shrugged. "You can always try to show me the contrary."

"This is embarrassing."

"Don't tell me you have a thing for Tao, then."

"No," Joonmyun flushed.

"Okay, good. That'd be a bit worrying, to be honest."

"Will you let me finish my story first?"

The Slytherin closed his mouth. A pink bubble popped next to him.

"Thank you." Joonmyun said, slouching a little as he looked down at his little dragon. "So here is my problem. I agreed with this person from Gryffindor that we would take patronus lessons together – as in, him teaching me to make a patronus since I can't do one at all. Of course, that also means I'll have to let him tutor me. Alone. One on one." he looked up hesitantly. "But I'm really not sure I want to get closer to him than I already have anymore."

He waited for Yifan's reply eagerly, but was only met with a blank stare, the boy's expression completely emotionless.

"You can't produce a patronus?" he spat.

Joonmyun blinked.

"That's not what I'm talking about."

"I'm sorry. But I mean, you? You, Kim Joonmyun, can't produce a patronus."

"Yifan. This is honestly not what I'm talking about right now."

"But a patronus..."

"Yifan!"

"Okay, I'm sorry, I'll shut up."

"Thank you." the Ravenclaw pursed his lips, scratching his ear. "Anyways, I think we're polar opposites. His values are completely different from mine, his habits are outrageous, and also, he has no respect for rules and order. Basically," he breathed out. "I just don't think Jongdae is the type of person I should hang out with, that's all."

He turned, and met with another blank stare from Yifan. A long, speechless stare full of disbelief and...revolt.

"You have a thing for Jongdae." the boy spat.

"What, no-" he wallowed, realising his mistake with horror and shaking both hands with vehemence: "No, I..."

"Jongdae?" Yifan was repeating, eyes wide with revulsion. "You have a thing for Kim. Jong. Dae?"

"Look, this is beyond the point..."

"Beyond the point?" the Slytherin blinked, looking at him like he was sprouting complete nonsense. "Sorry, I think that's right in the middle of the fucking point, Joonmyun."

"Look. I mean...I just...it's..." he stared. "Merlin, why is it so hard for you to give me proper, serious advice?"

Still gaping with disapproval, Yifan fell back against the edge of the bathtub and passed a hand over his hair.

"You have terrible taste."

Joonmyun shut his mouth sadly.

"Thanks."

"Look, if it's Kim Jongdae that this is about, I cannot say a single word about it. It's just too much, just the visual itself challenges my every brain cell. I clean my hands of this whole affair."

"Something tells me you didn't have much advice to give anyways," the Ravenclaw remarked downheartedly.

"I can only wish you good luck." Yifan snorted. "Seriously, good luck. When did you agree to meet?"

"This Friday. Actually, this Friday, a month ago, but I kept postponing because I was really stressed out by this."

"Nice."

"I'm really bad at this." Joonmyun moaned, covering his face before grabbing a green dragon and navigating it through the bath. "Maybe I'm not meant to deal with stuff like that to start with."

"Hmmph. Well, then." Yifan said, softening slightly. "That makes two of us."

"Does it?"

"Yep."

They both stared at each other, toys still swimming near their laps, and then sighed despondently. All at once, the prefects' bathroom door swung open and Luhan barged in, bag over his shoulder. At the sight of all the colourful floats surrounding the two naked prefects, the Gryffindor briefly paused, blinked, then turned entirely white. Yifan slapped a hand over his face while Luhan stuttered:

"Um, okay. I'm not gonna ask questions. I'm not gonna ask questions. I'm not gonna ask questions. I'm not gonna ask questions..."

"Or you can ask your fucking question and get the hell out of here," Yifan said through gritted teeth, "now."

"Minseok says he's back at the Ravenclaw Tower, by the way." Joonmyun squeaked politely, his green dragon still in hand.

"Right, thanks." Luhan hurriedly retreated, slowly fumbling for the door handle. "Um. I think I better go find him, then."

"Yeah, I think you better."

Luhan grabbed the door in a frenzy, the start of a laugh bubbling down his throat as he flew out of the room, and Yifan roared after him:

"And not a word about this, or I'll be hunting your entire family down!"

⚜

⚜

⚜

"Hey, sorry, I'm late." Jongdae announced loudly that Friday evening, wearing only his shirt and trousers as he stumbled into the deserted study area.

Joonmyun, bundled up in the whole robe and tie apparel, suddenly felt a little overdressed in comparison. He pulled out the ice mouse hanging from his mouth and nervously shook his head.

"It's alright. Let's get to work."

"I was going to start with the small talk first," the Gryffindor smirked, "but okay. Whatever suits you best. Where's your wand?"

"Here," Joonmyun patted his pocket where the willow wand rested.

"Alright," the other boy nodded, hands on hips. "Cool."

There was a brief pause, in which Joonmyun suddenly felt an odd hunch he wasn't quite sure where to place. But he was almost certain that it had to do with the fact that Jongdae was entirely empty-handed. In fact, the boy didn't even have a manual with him.

He suddenly started wondering whether Jongdae's self-proclaimed tutoring skills had actually been tested beforehand.

"Is this it?" he suddenly asked.

The other boy offered a comfortable smile.

"Hmmm?"

"I mean, how are you going to teach me about the patronus? Aren't we meant to...I don't know...use a boggart as substitution, or something?"

"Where would I find a boggart? I'm only a student."

"I see."

"Also, what's your deepest fear?"

"Presenting myself to N.E.W.T exams and getting "Troll" grades for everything."

"See? A patronus isn't going to help with that."

Joonmyun frowned.

"So what are we going to use as a substitution?"

"Me!" Jongdae grinned wildly.

A blink. Joonmyun reeled.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Just think of me as a dementor. Don't I look like a dementor? Rawrrr."

Flabbergasted, the Ravenclaw prefect remained out of words for what felt like an entire minute.

"Joonmyun." Jongdae blinked. "Joonmyun, I'm just joking."

"I want my money back."

"You didn't pay me," the other boy countered casually, "yet. Don't worry, you don't necessarily need a substitution to practice your patronus. Actually, you don't need anything at all, except a wand and your brain."

But Joonmyun wasn't convinced. He should have known that trusting Jongdae's skills was a bad idea. The other boy only knew how to bluff.

"Seriously, though." he said. "I actually am here to learn, so if you're just saying that to waste time... Can you even produce a corporeal patronus yourself?"

"Wow, now that's just insulting." Jongdae retorted, looking shocked. "Of course I can. I'm much better at Defence Against the Dark Arts than I look."

"Really." Joonmyun said dubiously. "I call crumpets."

"You call what?" Jongdae frowned, then blinked in understanding. "Oh."

"If you can really produce one, what shape does it have?"

"A beagle." the Gryffindor shrugged, scratching his head. "Go figure. It's the same one as Chanyeol's... Talk about lack of originality."

"I don't believe you."

Jongdae's eyebrows jumped.

"Seriously, just see for yourself." he pulled out his wand, swirling it a few times before articulating: "Expecto Patronum."

And under the Ravenclaw's dumbfounded eyes, a silver, smoky dog suddenly appeared from Jongdae's wand, capering around the room before vanishing into thin air. The prefect was speechless, almost dropping his ice mouse to the floor.

"Fiddlesticks. That's...crazy. You can actually do it."

He looked at Jongdae, only to see the younger boy smiling weirdly at him.

"What?"

"Fiddlesticks. You actually use the word 'fiddlesticks'. And 'crumpets'."

"S-so?"

"I don't know, mate. It's like your whole obsession with being bribe-clean. No one really does that nowadays."

"There's nothing wrong about being an upright person," Joonmyun scoffed. "As for soft swearing, it...it just comes out automatically."

"You mean to say you've never sworn in your life."

"I do. I can. F...f-f-f-f-fudge..." he trailed off uncertainly.

Jongdae watched him with an incredulous smile.

"Are you even for real?"

"Why?" the Ravenclaw asked defensively, cheeks flushing.

"Nothing," the younger boy smiled, "It's just...kind of endearing."

Within a second, the elder boy felt his heart pounding against his ribcage like a rhinoceros. He choked on his saliva.

"Anyways, that's beyond the point," the Gryffindor said, shaking his head briefly before giving him a rather gentle look. "what's your happiest memory?"

"Um. I...I don't know..."

"Ah. That's the whole problem, isn't it?" Jongdae smiled. "No happy memory, no patronus."

"I have happy memories." he racked his brain, biting his lips. "I mean...that Christmas back in 2000 was pretty nice. We had really nice turkey."

"Uuuuh, Joonmyun. You're not going to summon up a patronus by thinking about stuffed turkey."

With a slight feeling of self-pity, Joonmyun realised that his whole life had been a flat line of excellence. No ups and downs, no big surprises. Just...goodness. His face fell soundlessly at the thought.

"Hey, no sweat." Jongdae suddenly intervened. "It doesn't have to be something huge. You know, that turkey might actually work, if you were really passionate about it."

"I wasn't."

"Still, no big deal." he shrugged. "If you don't have any big memorable event in mind, think of small everyday things."

"Oh Merlin, I can't think of anything," Joonmyun shook his head, staring at Jongdae with genuine worry, "does it mean I'm miserable? Or that I'm ungrateful for what I have? Jongdae, I feel terrible."

He was met with another strange smile, and a somewhat amused look coming from the younger boy. Surprise, he blinked, feeling slightly self-conscious all of a sudden.

"Jongdae?"

"Hmm?" the younger boy grinned. "Nothing. I'm just thinking about how mental you are."

"Men..." the prefect scowled. "Thanks."

"It's a good thing." Jongdae assured, leaning against the nearest bookshelf. "you're seriously unbelievable."

And with those simple words, Joonmyun felt a little bigger inside. With those simple words, he became Super Joonmyun, a wizard capable of greater things.

"By the way, while we're at it," the Gryffindor beamed. "Wanna try the secret passage I told you about last time?"

⚜

⚜

⚜

"Kyungsoo, my love." Baekhyun said with a huge grin.

Kyungsoo eventually deigned to look at him, half-collapsed on his pillow.

"What?"

"Pass me the notes for last week's Transfiguration class?" Baekhyun joined his hands together. "Please."

"Let me see...Remind me why I should?"

"Because you're the best." the elder boy said earnestly.

"Keep going."

"And I wouldn't be able to pass my O.W.Ls without you."

"Not my business."

"And also, because you're my best friend and I love you very much."

The younger Slytherin finally gave him a look and reached into his bag, throwing out a rolled up parchment onto Baekhyun's bed.

"Thank you so much, Kyungsoo. I owe you one."

"Actually, you owe me fifty-seven." Kyungsoo cocked an eyebrow, as he sat up. "You know, you should stop missing so many classes if you actually care about your O.W.L grades at the end of the year."

"Don't worry about me," Baekhyun hummed, already bent over a piece of parchment, copying the notes with focus. "None of my records have been affected yet."

"Can't you and Chanyeol find another time to meet?" Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes.

"My parents can't know, remember?" the elder boy rolled his eyes, still scribbling carefully. "Too many people in the school know my family, I don't want any rumours going back to them."

"What a pair of idiots," the other boy simply sighed, abruptly jumping off his bed and grabbing his tie.

The prefect took a peek at him.

"Where are you going?"

Kyungsoo opened his mouth, and at the same time, Yifan peeped his head into the room, door almost bumping into the younger boy's back. Kyungsoo scrunched his nose at him.

"Careful."

"Sorry," Yifan declared, looking somewhat drained. "Baekhyun, Jung sent me here for you."

"Jung?" Baekhyun pushed himself upright, right as a slender grey cat strolled its way into the dorm. "Hey, watch your cat."

"Oh, sorry. Wait. Ferdinand, shhh, don't go over there, it's dirty."

"No, it isn't." Kyungsoo cocked an eyebrow.

"Anyways, he wants you in his office as soon as you can." the sixth year sighed, scooping the Russian blue in his arms. "He doesn't look like he's joking. What have you and Chanyeol done this time?"

Kyungsoo and Baekhyun looked at each other.

"Ummm. Honestly, I don't know."

Ever since they had gotten together, Chanyeol and he had not even played a single prank on each other.

"Well, either way, I'd say you better go. Fast." Yifan rubbed his eyes. "Oh, and yes. Kyungsoo, Jongin said you had a date planned. He is waiting for you outside."

"Already?" Kyungsoo immediately jumped, and fumbled for his bag, under Baekhyun's disapproving frown.

"Geez, a bit of dignity, man. You're a Slytherin."

"I can say the exact same thing about you, you goon," the younger boy snapped back, then froze before he could slip through the door. "Hold up. Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

Kyungsoo's eyes wavered, then blinked a few times.

"No. Nothing." he said. "Anyways, I'm off."

"Whatever." the fifth year prefect plopped back onto his bed, returning to his notes. "Thanks for the message, by the way, Yifan. I'll pop Jung a visit later on in the day."

"Um, what are you doing?"

"Copying my Transfiguration notes?" Baekhyun blinked at him. "Jung can't be in that much of a rush, can he? It's a Saturday."

"Uh..."

Yifan did not look very convinced. Baekhyun turned a little pale.

"Really?"

⚜

Chanyeol arrived in front of Professor Jung's office only a few moments after Baekhyun, the two of them glancing at each other with twin expressions of confusion before looking at the teacher's door.

"He asked for you too?" he questioned Baekhyun, who looked uncharacteristically uneasy. "Who fetched you?"

"Yifan...You?"

"Luhan." Chanyeol scratched his head. "He didn't look too happy."

Baekhyun remained silent, face a little grey.

"I wonder what he wants."

The door opened at the same moment, revealing Jung's tall, eerily sombre figure peering down at them ominously. For once, the teacher wasn't smiling, which Chanyeol found more than a little worrying.

"Hello," the teacher greeted emotionlessly, holding the door open for them. "Come in."

Jung waited until they were both installed in front of his desk, before sitting across them and giving each of them a meaningful look.

"Boys," he said, "do you two know why I called you here on this beautiful Saturday afternoon?"

"Because you missed us too much?" Chanyeol attempted hopefully.

"Nice try, but no." Jung cracked, slapping two pieces of homework down onto his desk.

In one quick scan, Chanyeol recognized his own handwriting, along with Baekhyun's scrawl on the parchments. Then, he realised with a gulp, that there was a huge "D" written on his essay, and a big, fat "T" on top of Baekhyun's.

"Disappointing." the young teacher stared at both of them, a hand on his chin. "This was an essay I asked your class to hand in last week, on the quickest and safest ways to defeat diverse magical creatures if you had to confront them. I regret to announce, Mr Park, that if you ever were to find yourself face-to-face with a dragon, you would have been burned to death within five minutes."

"Hey, that's still not too bad."

"It wouldn't be too bad, if I hadn't spent an entire January telling you how important it is to look for weak points first when confronting big, dangerous creatures, Chanyeol. In all oversized reptiles' case, that weakest point is the eyes. I spent an entire month saying that."

"But that's what I wrote."

"No, you wrote, and I quote, 'you need to poke them in the ass'."

Chanyeol bit down on the inside of his cheek. He suddenly remembered it, now: Baekhyun and he had written that essay together in the room of requirement, and that had completely distracted him off writing anything decent.

Next to him, Baekhyun had a rictus, and Jung immediately looked at him.

"Mr Byun, you're really not any better."

The Slytherin faltered.

"Your grade speaks for itself." the teacher rubbed his temple. "This is the worst Defence Against the Dark Arts essay I have ever had the misfortune of correcting in my life. I'm glad you weren't born during the Second Wizarding War or you would have gotten slaughtered within minutes, and then been trampled by trolls as a bonus."

"In all fairness," Chanyeol defended, "Defence is all about practice anyways."

"That's true. We're not going to survive a fight with a dragon or a dark wizard by writing an essay about it."

"You're right," Jung agreed, but stared sternly at them. "Nevertheless, you have O.W.Ls to pass this year, which includes a written examination. And with a level like this, neither of you is going to pass."

At this, Baekhyun's face turned white as a sheet. Their professor ruffled his hair and peered at them severely.

"I'll give you two another chance. We've spent quite a few detentions together, I feel like we're close enough for me to trust you, and I don't want you to fail. You can submit a new essay for next Friday, but I want deeper research this time. And not only on dragons, but also on acromantulas, basilisks, hydras, graphorns, giants, trolls and werewolves."

"But we already have so many projects from other teachers...!" Baekhyun exclaimed.

"Well, I'm not the one who wrote bullshit on my essay, am I?" Jung sighed, looking considerably younger and more exhausted. "Look, let's not dwell on this any longer than necessary. I haven't had a good night's sleep in months."

"At least give us one more week," Baekhyun negotiated.

"We still need to work on dementors." the teacher groaned and shook his head. "Boys. It's next week, or these grades stay on your records."

"How many inches?" Chanyeol asked.

"Forty."

In front of the two students' horrified faces, Jung simply had a shrug.

"You have a lot of creatures to cover," he said.




"This seriously sucks, man." Chanyeol grunted once they were far out of their professor's earshot. "This is already the time of the year where we get everything thrown at our face. And now we've got to do this on top of everything else, in only a week."

"Better this than keep that "T" on my records," Baekhyun hissed. "I told you we should've slowed down on the skiving."

"Hey, how is it my fault, now?"

"You were the one who suggested that we do our homework while seeing each other."

Chanyeol stopped a few steps down the staircase leading to the North tower while Baekhyun paused on top of it, looking down on him.

"Come on, it's only one essay. You don't have to be this reeled up about it."

"I care about my O.W.Ls, I already told you." the Slytherin muttered. "It's actually important for me."

"You spend your time making everyone's life a misery, and you care about some wizardly examination grades?"

"Pranking people doesn't have anything to do with O.W.Ls," Baekhyun blinked. "I need to have an "O" in Defence Against the Dark Arts to have a chance at auror training."

Chanyeol pursed his lips and passed a hand through his hair.

"Alright, then. No dates for the upcoming week." he said decisively. "It's actually convenient, because Jongdae was starting to ask me where the heck I was all the time. No date. No meeting. We obviously need some time to study."

"Right." The Slytherin agreed wholeheartedly, before getting seized by hesitation. "Or maybe..."

"Hahs." Chanyeol chuckled. "Care about grades, my ass."

"Alright, alright, no more dates."

The younger boy simply laughed, leaning comfortably against the wall while Baekhyun looked down at him, lower lip slightly bloated.

"You look cute when you're mad, did anyone ever tell you that?" he said teasingly.

The Slytherin prefect faked a vomiting face.

"And you suck at pick-up lines." he replied, and then playfully leaned in for a peck on the lips – when all of a sudden, steps resounded around the corner, and Baekhyun pointed his wand at the stairs in a panic:

"Glisseo."

"What-" Chanyeol started.

Then he fell backwards, gliding on his butt down the ramp which the staircase had just transformed into, all the way to the bottom where he landed with a strangled sound and a heavy sentiment of déjà-vu. At the top of the staircase, a bunch of Gryffindor girls were now huddled together behind Baekhyun, looking weirdly at him.

"Ha. Ha. That'll teach you, FartPark," Baekhyun added for good measure, and the girls soon encouraged each other to go back up, looking for a different way to pass through.

The Slytherin waited for all of them to disappear, before finally rushing down the slide to sit by Chanyeol's side. The younger boy snorted, closing his eyes.

"I'm sorry. You alright?"

"I felt better before this." the Gryffindor groaned and massaged his sore butt. "Blimey...You're really paranoid, you know that?"

"Sorry about that," Baekhyun murmured, giving his rear a light tap. "They could have been people I knew, it was just in case."

"I thought I could be exempted from this kind of bad pranks now that we were-"

Baekhyun blocked him with a kiss, and the younger boy suddenly forgot all that he wanted to say.

"You are exempted," the prefect declared against his mouth. "Just not in emergency cases."

"Hmmph," Chanyeol touched his own ear embarrassedly. "I'll make you pay for this one, just you wait."

"Resentful, are we?"

"I'm usually not. But my butt's doing all the talking, here."

"I'm curious as to what you can do to make me pay." Baekhyun sneered.

"A big one," Chanyeol whispered wickedly against the other boy's face, though he thought none of it. "A big fat prank. Just be patient."

⚜

⚜

⚜

A week later, Joonmyun sat alone in the prefects' bathroom, bubbles covering him up to the neck, water dollies swimming around him, sounds of running taps filling his ears and cheeks flushing red from the vapour.

It's just...kind of endearing.

He swallowed his mortification, playing with his thumbs under the water. In spite of the cascading water all around him, Jongdae's voice was still crystal clear in his head.

You're seriously unbelievable.

"Oh, crumpets." he moaned and covered his cheeks, as Jongdae's grinning face soon came back floating in his mind, haunting him with its annoying cackles.

Yifan was right. He had really terrible taste. But now that the younger boy was already set on tutoring him about patronuses and had even showed him one of his own secret passages as if they were friends, Joonmyun figured it was already too late to go back.

He remembered that Jongdae had fumbled for his hand in the dark passageway, because the staircase was really steep. And when they had gone all the way to the top, Joonmyun had lost his footing and one of his cufflinks had gotten knocked off by the same occasion. The Gryffindor had promised he would look for it some other day, when he came back alone.

And with those words, he had offered a sheepish grin, tongue sticking out impishly.

"Ugh." Joonmyun rubbed his eyes, then emitted a whimper of pain when the soap got into his eyes. "Ah. Fudge. Fudge. Fudge."

Reaching blindly for his towel, he pulled his backpack closer to him and wiped his eyes, before eventually plunging one hand into his bag, and drawing out an unopened ice mouse pack with a sigh of relief.

The candy almost melted in his mouth, making his teeth chatter.

He slouched against the bathtub edge and tried to relax, closing his eyes.

A few minutes later, a shudder overtook him.

"Hmm?" Joonmyun emitted, blinking disconcertedly.

The taps had stopped running. With a slight jolt he realised that without him knowing, the water level had actually gone all the way down to his waist, making him sit up with violence.

"What the-" he looked around.

The water continued its descent, bubbles with it, getting sucked down by the pipes with a dreadful lapping sound. He sat, completely lost, covering his shivering body with his hands as the last drops completely disappeared down the drain, leaving him naked in a completely empty tub.

He blinked confusedly at the dry taps around him, then at the discarded toys next to his legs, frowning.

"Huh?"

---

[font=georgia]THIS CHAPTER IS SPLIT INTO TWO PARTS DUE TO THE CHARACTER LIMIT PER POST. PART ONE CAN BE FOUND HERE.

[Yifan]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center][size=9pt][font=georgia]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER TWELVE-AND-A-HALF: VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL. ❞

---

Valentine's day.

A day for romantic affections. A day for challenges of the heart and marinades of roses.

In Hogwarts this year, Valentine's day also rhymed with something else.

"EVERYONE PARTICIPATE IN THE VALENTINE OLYMPICS! IMPRESS YOUR LADY OR MAN BY WINNING THE HOGWARTS VALENTINE OLYMPICS!"

Standing watch beside one of the gargoyles of the main courtyard, Jhaveri was booming through the Sonorus charm on his throat. His green scarf flew in the biting wind as Taylor held him up precariously on his broad shoulders, the sturdier boy wavering under his weight as he rumbled to everyone who passed by:

"IF YOU ARE A COUPLE, JOIN THE VALENTINE OLYMPICS! IF YOU'RE NOT A COUPLE, GRAB YOUR CRUSH AND JOIN THE VALENTINE OLYMPICS!"

"What the fuck are you guys doing?" Yifan came down the steps running, completely bemused. "Is this a joke? We can hear you guys all the way from the second floor."

"That's the whole point, show some sportsmanship, buddy." the other boy resonated, causing Yifan to block his ears, then spoke once more to the crowd gathering around them. "What better way to prove that you're a match made in heaven, than to win a whole tournament of couple games? It's Valentine's day, ladies and gents. Join the Olympics, man, best way to improve your couple dynamics."

"Do we get to win something?" a girl inquired.

"I'm glad you asked." the Slytherin nodded, gesturing wildly towards the back, "Putieux, show them."

François Putieux instantly raised a flattened handkerchief in the air, bearing a set of Everlasting Eyelashes, and a shockingly pink cup from Madam Puddifoot's Teashop.

From within the castle, Luhan and Minseok walked out, both of them looking totally unimpressed.

"What's this ruckus about?" the Gryffindor scrunched his nose in distaste, "Putieux, Jhaveri, Taylor. What kind of satanic ritual is this? And what's that dreadful pink thing...?"

"Excuse you, Lu, we're actually promoting the romantic welfare of the school by encouraging sportive bonding and innocent skinship." Jhaveri showed a haughty face. "Also, that's a limited edition of Madam Puddifoot's Teashop cup gracing your eyes, mister, so show some respect."

"Did you guys steal a cup from her teashop?" Minseok frowned with mild worry.

"Seriously, everyone, stop gathering around these idiots," Luhan hissed at the crowd dismissively, "find yourselves something else to do on Valentine's day, for Merlin's sake."

"Same to you, Lu, playing model prefect on Valentine's day is just sad," Jhaveri susurrated, though his voice resounded through the entire courtyard. "Find yourself something better to do, you know, such as..."

"...joining the Valentine Olympics." Taylor finished.

The two of them exchanged a cackle and a high-five, and Luhan shook his head:

"You guys need to get your heads checked, seriously."

"Eyyy, don't say that, buddy," the Slythern nodded shrewdly at Minseok's dismayed face. "You don't want your hubby here to think that you're a loser without balls, right?"

"A..." Luhan blinked, all hair standing up, "a what?! Say that again, you motherfucker!"

"Luhan, calm down..."

"Yeah, calm down, little one... Real men don't get riled up for so little, they participate in the fucking Olympics and they win it."

"I'm going to win these fucking Olympics if manliness's what you want," Luhan wheezed, all reason gone to nirvana, grabbing his flabbergasted boyfriend's hand, "Bring it on! Minseok!"

"Wha – Luhan..."

But the Gryffindor had already raised both their hands up, blaring: "We're joining the Valentine Olympics!"

"Olé," François cheered, then brought out a parchment and quill, "Please sign this disclaimer stating that no responsibility shall be taken by us for any injuries suffered during the games, then you can sign up and we'll explain the preliminaries to you."

"Everyone participate," Jhaveri shouted at the chuckling crowd, "just find yourself a partner and sign up first."

"Where do we sign up?" Luhan was fuming, "Sign us the fuck up?!"

"This is ridiculous," Yifan covered his face. "I hate you all. All of you."

"Hey, calm down, it's also for you we're doing this," his dorm mate leaned in after murmuring a quieting spell on his throat.

"How is any of this chaos for me, you bastards?"

"Well, you needed an occasion to get your shit together, right? So this is it."

"This is what?" Yifan repeated with dismay.

"Go and grab Zhang," Taylor explained impatiently. "He's all the way at the back of the crowd."

"Next to his always-sick friend," Jhaveri squinted, hand shading his eyes. "Buddy, you should go for it now. Quickly make him yours before he gets taken."

"You guys are insane."

"Not at all, just go and tell him it's for sportsmanship. Say it's to better your teamwork, or something, just ask him out."

"For God's sake, no." Yifan reeled, eyes wide, "I refuse."

"Explain the fucking games, you bastards," Luhan suddenly butted in, still holding a face-palming Minseok's hand. "We signed up, got the disclaimer done, now what?"

"Patience," Jhaveri fanned himself with the corner of his scarf, flicking some dark curls away, "the plebs are still gathering. We should leave some time for people to come up and show their interest, don't you think? The more, the merrier."



Less than ten minutes later, Jongdae and Chanyeol were both in front of the sign-up list, which had been pasted on the corridor wall and was now overcrowded by giggling students and couples signing their names. The elder of the two Gryffindors nudged the other boy in the ribs.

"What do you think, mate? Tempted to try?"

"Errrm, to win Everlasting Eyelashes?" Chanyeol judgmentally narrowed his eyes at him.

"Mate. You can always give the eyelashes to Tao if you actually win. The fun part is to participate in the pandemonium."

"If you have someone to enter the games with, I guess." he glanced up at Luhan and Minseok's scribbled names at the very top of the list, then at Jongin who was now writing down Kyungsoo and his name at the bottom, looking bashfully at the Slytherin.

"It could always be fun to try, right?" the fourth year smiled at the equally embarrassed Kyungsoo who was nodding back at him. "It's good for teamwork."

Chanyeol watched them and felt slightly envious. If only Baekhyun didn't have his whole paranoia of being discovered...

"Okay, that's it. I'm signing up." Jongdae suddenly said.

"With who?" Chanyeol sulked. "Yasmine Abott?"

"No, mate." the other fifth year turned around and stretched his neck to look for someone, before noticing the person he was looking for, passing by the far end of the crowd, and waving frenetically. "Joonmyun! Oi, Joonmyun!"

Ice mouse in mouth, the Ravenclaw raised his head, questioning look on his face, when Jongdae grinned:

"Wanna come with me to the Valentine Olympics?"

The prefect dropped his candy with a horrified face.

"W-w-w-hat?" he squeaked.

Chanyeol sighed, looking around for a sign of his own – much less behaved – prefect. He ended up finding Baekhyun somewhere behind the mass of students queuing up to the parchment, and immediately waved at him.

"Psst, Baek," he whispered loudly, cutting through the crowd.

The Slytherin noticed him with an almost imperceptible widening of the eyes, and then grabbed his arm to pull him away from the mob.

"Did you see the announcement?" Chanyeol smiled hopefully as they stopped behind a stone statue. "It sounds fun. I've never tried couple games before."

"Hold on, what?"

"The announcement, about the 'Valentine Olympics'." the younger boy elaborated. "You enter as a couple to win a tournament of couple games."

Baekhyun's eyes grew round for a second, then suddenly wavered. His eyebrows crumpled.

"Dude, you know I can't..." he started.

And Chanyeol waned, smile falling.

"I know." he sighed, scratching his head. "Sorry, you're right, this is stupid. Let's skip that."

"Do you honestly want to participate?" Baekhyun sounded rueful.

"Not really."

"You're looking at the sign-up list while saying that." the other boy noted. "You really do want to participate, don't you?"

"No, no. Honestly." Chanyeol assured, shaking his head. "If you're not ready to go for it, I'm cool with that too."

"You can..." Baekhyun hesitated, looking away, "go with someone else, I don't know. I'll look over that just this once."

"Baek." the Gryffindor snorted this time, punching the elder boy's shoulder. "The whole point of this is to do it with the person you like. There's no meaning for me to go there without you."

Baekhyun stared at him blankly, then chortled.

"Alright. Thanks for that," he eventually said.

Chanyeol held out his hand, and Baekhyun clasped it, the two pulling each other into a sort of tugging handshake.

"Whenever you're ready." he answered and patted the other boy's back.

Hopefully, next year's Valentine's day would be just as lively.

⚜

⚜

⚜

Somehow the games turned out to be a lot more violent than most expected.

"To the left, the left, the left, the left!" Jongdae shouted to an overwhelmed Joonmyun who had his arm attached to his, and was pointing his wand at an enchanted bird flying past them. The spell which flew out missed the target by a hair.

"I said, left!"

"It's hard," Joonmyun panicked.

They continued to throw spells at dozens and dozens of ghost birds in this crazy game of 'shoot-the-target-with-your-arms-bound', while Jongdae shouted messy orders and the mob of excited spectators cheered for them.

In a corner of the courtyard, Yifan rubbed his temples in consternation.

"Absolutely absurd."

"Why aren't you participating?" Luhan came in running, breathless, Minseok at his heel. He still looked mildly insane, fire glowing in his eyes. "You should join. Even Joonmyun's in."

"Just because Joonmyun gave up on his dignity doesn't mean I should do the same."

"It's actually fun," Minseok said with an exalted smile. His arm was still bound to Luhan's, the two of them glancing at each other eloquently. "I feel like a kid again... I don't think I've played like this since I was seven."

"You think this is a game." Yifan said to the Ravenclaw intently, "but this guy next to you is taking it as a matter of life and death."

"Winning doesn't matter. It's the participation that counts," Luhan scoffed, sweating as he and Minseok entwined their fingers together, "That said, we're going to win anyways."

"We passed the preliminaries."

"Hell yeah, we did."

He stretched his neck, weird glow slowly reviving in his eyes.

"Since they postponed the Quidditch finals because of extremely crappy weather, I've been dying to do something like this."

"You're hopeless," Yifan squinted.

But Minseok was smiling too: "It's a good way to channel out all your negative energy."

"I used to think you were the sane one, Minseok." the Slytherin stated. "Turns out you're just as bonkers as him."

"Maybe that's why we match each other so well?" Luhan said, all loving eyes and melting smiles, eliciting a laugh and a gentle punch from of the other boy.

Yifan put up a hand, closing his eyes.

"That's it, I'm done with you guys. Get out."

A few metres away, Kyungsoo and Jongin were struggling with the rope to attach their arms together.

"You're right-handed, right?" the younger boy soon asked him, pulling out his wand from his pocket.

"Yeah."

"Okay, then let's bind my left arm to your right," Jongin mused, "this way, you'll feel more comfortable throwing your spells once we're attached."

"Or we could do the other way round." Kyungsoo blinked, "I mean, what about you? We'll both be holding our wands in our bound hands, right? Aren't you right-handed too?"

"It's okay, I'm younger than you, so you probably know more spells...Priority goes to you."

"That's not really a..."

"I'll take care of the reflexes." Jongin smiled, murmuring a binding spell on their arms before pointing at his eyes. "I'm a seeker, so I have a good vision."

"Something which I don't have..." Kyungsoo's expression darkened. "Maybe I should have mentioned that earlier."

"Honestly, it doesn't matter. We're just doing it for fun, anyways."

For fun. That was right. They were only doing this for fun, it didn't matter whether they lost at the preliminaries or at the finals; this wasn't the Quidditch World Cup.

Of course.

Kyungsoo took a deep breath. He just needed to trust Jongin and enjoy himself.

"Guys, you ready?" Jhaveri soon called out through an actual megaphone, this time.

Kyungsoo frenetically nodded while Jongin made a circle with his vacant hand:

"We're good to go," he said.

"Okay, then." the other Slytherin announced: "Taylor, send in the birds!"

The bulky boy pointed his wand at them and uttered a loud "Avis Opugno!"; instantaneously, Kyungsoo and Jongin were attacked by a flock of birds, surrounded within five seconds, overwhelmed by so many of them that they could barely see the rest of the students in the courtyard anymore. There were feathers flying everywhere, forcing them to squint.

Kyungsoo felt a surge of panic.

"Calm down, calm down, calm down, calm down," he internally muttered to himself.

A wing slapped him on the face; he jumped.

"Lift your arm there, on the left," Jongin's warmth pushed against him from his right, "Finite Incantatem!"

One of the ghost birds shattered and vanished into nothingness. But the others continued to flock around them, hitting them, clawing at them. Kyungsoo stumbled, heart beating fast. A dark shadow was slowly starting to dawn on him, dimming his vision, causing a veil to fall over and cloud his mind... For a while, he panicked, wondering what on earth was happening and why he was suddenly burning up from the inside...Then he realised.

He was getting angry.

"On your right," he snarled and Jongin reacted fast, following the move of his arm as he shouted: "Evanesco!"

The target fell. He then aimed again, shouting more spells at the balls of feathers, again and again, watching the ghost birds fall one by one before vanishing on the ground. This was oddly satisfying, he thought.

He was genuinely starting to enjoy this.

"Evanesco! These little fuckers...Evanesco!" he growled, uncharacteristically riled up.

Jongin threw him an amused glance.

"Umm...Kyungsoo, you look fired up."

"Shut up, there are three on your left, get them!" he shouted wide-eyed. "Get them, for fuck's sake!"

"K-Kyungs..."

"Get those fuckers! Evanesco! Get them now!"

"Kyungsoo..."

"Shoot it!" he roared. "Jongin, shoot it down!"

Two minutes later, once their time was up, they had decimated the entirety of the flock and he was wheezing, back drenched with sweat, with Jongin next to him covering his face from the laughter. The younger boy soon untied their arms and chuckled at him, wrinkled eyes full of amusement.

"Blimey." the boy said. "Didn't know you were this competitive, Kyungsoo, they should get you on the Quidditch team... Why didn't they get you on the Quidditch team?"

"Probably because they didn't know I was like this," he simply replied, still panting, "and to be honest, I didn't know it either."

⚜

A few games later and it was four o'clock in the afternoon, the sky starting to darken on the edge. After surviving a few rounds of chicken fighting and 'herd-the-pygmy-puffs', the last eight couples standing gathered on the Quidditch pitch and waited for instructions. On a giant stool he had conjured with his wand, Jhaveri loomed over the Quidditch pitch, where two lines had been drawn – one on either end of the oval pitch.

"Okay, guys, here goes the quarterfinals of the Valentine Olympics: Catching your partner bridal style on a broom, before racing to the finish line!"

Yifan sat on the grass, at the edge of the pitch amongst all the other spectators, wondering how many detentions would be given if Filch or Madam Hooch ever had the idea to take a look at the broom cellar today.

"'Brides', I'm going to ask you to stand in a horizontal line on the half-way line of the pitch. That's where your partners will catch you, alright? Racers, please line up with your brooms behind the red marks near that goal post...Yeah, there...Right there. Side by side, thank you. Stay in your lanes, don't move out of it... And put enough space between you as to not knock each other off your brooms later on..."

People shuffled over the field.

"I'm going to explain the rules. When I whistle, you guys are going to jump on your brooms and race towards the finish line. At the middle mark there, catch your partner without getting off your broomstick...Just pick them up bridal style and race to the finish line. The longer you take to pick them up, the slower you'll get. The first one who passes the finish line with their bride in arm-"

"We got it already, can we fucking start?!" Luhan roared from behind the starting line.

"Wow, sheesh, calmos Romeo."

In the middle of the field, on the Gryffindor's lane, Minseok bit his lips in embarrassment.

"Okay, on your mark..." Jhaveri shouted, "get set..."

"Hold on," Joonmyun squeaked from the edge of the half-way line, legs oddly twisted. "I um...I think I need to go to the bathroom before we start, or...or I'm seriously going to have an accident."

"That's gross," the girl next to him moaned.

And from the racers' side, Jongdae chortled into his fist. Yifan covered his face with his palm.

"Hello," he then suddenly heard from behind him.

He turned around to Yixing's peaceful face, drowsy smile on smooth lips as usual, squatting right behind his back.

"Umm...hi," he gargled.

"You're not participating?" the younger boy nodded at the tracks.

"It's already the quarterfinals. That's a bit late for me to participate."

Yixing nodded, looking a bit morose.

"I thought it would be fun to try...but I didn't know who to go with."

"I uh..." Yifan struggled, red alerts flashing in his head, "really? Well, you...you...you should have said that earlier, because...because you see, I...I-I-I mean, that's pretty unfortunate."

Yixing simply blinked in incomprehension, and the Slytherin mentally fustigated himself a thousand times.

Meanwhile, Kyungsoo had started throwing deadly glares at everyone else on the pitch, gaze burning with abnormal passion.

"This is taking way too fucking long," he mumbled. "Can we get this done already?"

"I give up," Jean Allford suddenly sighed, slapping her thighs and looking at her boyfriend. "Baby, let's pull back from these stupid games; this is so not romantic. We should take a walk by the lake instead."

"And say hi to the Giant Squid," Jhaveri spoke through his megaphone, initiating a few mocking snickers.

But Allford had already left her spot on the half-way line, stubbornly pulling her boyfriend along in spite of the crowd's disappointed sounds. From the lane next to hers, Kyungsoo stared through her head as she left, murderous intent so visible that Minseok felt the need to place a cautionary hand on the boy's sleeve.

Jhaveri scratched his head, slightly troubled. "Um, okay, we should have someone to stand in for them, then. Any volunteers from the runner-ups? Someone who wants to do it for fun?"

"Flying's a bit risky, man." a boy said. "Don't want to end up in the infirmary."

"We could just pick someone in the side-lines," Jongin said.

"Yeah, just pick someone from the side-lines," Luhan bellowed, eyes trailing over the crowd person by person, before finally stopping on Yifan, who immediately paled.

"Um. Wait..."

"Yo, Wu Yifan." Luhan deadpanned. "Get your ass out here."

"Hold up, Luhan...You can't do this to m..."

"Hey, that's a great idea, actually." Jhaveri smiled creepily, "Wu, why don't you give this a chance?"

"You should," Yixing smiled, pushing him from the back. "I'll support you if you do."

"I just...I'm..."

"Oh you don't have to just support him, Zhang." Jhaveri sneered. "You could participate with him."

Yixing blinked dizzily.

"Me?"

"Yeah man, just get yo' ass out here, pretty boy." Luhan snapped, "we ain't got no time."

"Why are you trying to talk like a gangster?" Jongdae asked.

Jongin nodded peacefully, trying to offer an encouraging smile.

"I think it could work, actually."

Meanwhile, Joonmyun had come back from the lavatories and was now skittering back to his own place, looking both confused and embarrassed.

"I really don't think this is a good idea." Yifan tried one last time.

"Wu Yifan." Kyungsoo suddenly said.

And though his tone was soft, Yifan thought he briefly saw Satan's shadow in his eyes.

"Get on the field. Now."

A few moments later, Yifan was standing side by side with the younger boy on the half-way line, feeling worse than a lost cat in the rain.

"This is possibly the worst day of my life." he muttered.

Next to him, Kyungsoo barely threw him a glance.

"Suck it up."

"I'm not even on the racers' side..."

He looked at Yixing's figure on the other side of the pitch, standing next to Jongin, who was helping him with his broom. This was very different from how he imagined his first intimate touch with Yixing to be.

"Does Zhang Yixing know how to fly a broom?" Kyungsoo frowned.

"To be honest...I don't know." the other Slytherin squinted.

"You don't know? Then why is he up there and not you?"

"He wanted to try so I let him."

"Without knowing if he could do it."

"Well, yeah."

The fifth year side-eyed him.

"What?"

"You're a weak ass." Kyungsoo whispered.

And Yifan turned to stare at him, squinting suspiciously.

"These games are making you surprisingly aggressive, aren't they?"

"Okay, let's start for real this time." Jhaveri announced. "On your marks...get set..."

Yifan closed his eyes and prayed to Merlin.

"Go!"

Luhan and Jongin set off like fireballs, storming on them at the speed of light. In one second, the seventh year had grabbed Minseok by the waist and scooped him up, charging for the finish line. Jongin struggled a little more, having to slow down considerably before finally carrying Kyungsoo up, the shorter boy clutching the front of his shirt with muffled expletives.

A few lanes away, Jongdae was holding a shrieking Joonmyun in his arms.

"Jesus Christ, Joonmyun, you need to slow down on the ice mice!" the Gryffindor screamed, struggling not to drop him. The Ravenclaw prefect did not reply, too busy screaming and hugging the younger boy's neck like his life depended on it.

Yifan watched them with dismay for a fraction of a second, then Yixing was on him, arms wide open. He lifted up his hands:

"Wait...Yix...!"

With a huge 'oomph' the Hufflepuff knocked into him, arms locking around his waist, and in one stifled grunt, he was lifted onto the broom and into Yixing's arms – which were demonstrating a strength he never suspected them to be capable of. For a second, all Yifan could see was Yixing's neck...Yixing's chin... Yixing's shirt collar with a stain of pumpkin juice on the corner. Then he blinked furiously and grabbed the younger boy's neck to avoid falling to his own demise.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK."

"Ha ha ha," Yixing was laughing his head off through the wind, eyes squinting. "I can't see anything, this is the best-"

A sneeze overtook him, and the broom made a brutal piqué, tunnelled into the grass, and within seconds they were both ejected, Yifan catapulting into the sky before falling into a crumpled mess on the floor, his teeth digging violently into humid mud.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Luhan pass the finish line first and celebrate by twirling Minseok in his arms. Jongin and Kyungsoo ended up second, the elder of the two still cursing everyone's ancestries.

A voice near his head then shook the birds out of his skull as a hand tapped his shoulder.

"Yifan, are you okay?" came Yixing's soft inquiry.

The Slytherin rolled onto his back with a groan of pain, mud dripping from his eyelashes.

"Buddy," Jhaveri suddenly came up, looming above him and brimming with hilarity, "that was probably the most beautiful nosedive I've ever seen in my life. You are amazing."

Too knackered to reply, Yifan simply let his head roll to one side, lamenting the fact that the earth could not open up beneath him and swallow him whole, thus delivering him from this humiliation.

Yixing leaned over him and rubbed a finger over his cheeks, his touch as gentle and caring as his mother's.

"You have so much mud on your face." the Hufflepuff said and softly smiled, making Yifan melt. Maybe, the earth not opening beneath him was a good thing, after all.

Then, Yixing glanced at his face and scratched his head.

"It's mixing with the blood oozing from your nose, though" he said in concern.

This was still a very bad day.

⚜

"Is it just me, or am I really hearing screams outside?" Tao momentarily diverted his attention from the flower wreath he was making.

"Probably you." Sehun replied emotionlessly, sat across him on the other side of the library table, and holding the other end of the huge headdress. The elder boy nodded:

"Okay."

"I'm bored to death," Sehun soon dropped the daisies and carnations, and stared flatly at Tao. "Let's go outside. Why are we staying here making flower wreaths for Minseok? We should be in the courtyard playing in the fresh February snow."

"We made a deal with Luhan. The two of us make this flower wreath before they come back from their date tonight, and in exchange he writes up the homework of our choice for us."

"Yeah, but that was before we knew that it was going to snow yesterday, right?"

"We are already half-way through," Tao shrugged with a dreamy smile. "And you know what? I'm kind of enjoying this, actually. It's surprisingly soothing. Delicate work like this is really good for meditation."

Sehun judged him with a vague look of revolt, then reluctantly returned to his flower braiding, picking up a red rose from the untouched lot. A minute barely passed before Tao raised his head again:

"I swear I keep on hearing shouting outside. Am I dreaming, or-"

"Yes. You're dreaming." the younger boy shrugged indifferently. "Why would people shout on Valentine's day? It's supposed to be lovey-dovey. What would they be doing?"

From the doorway a flight of steps passed by and they turned their heads, just in time to see two Slytherins and one Hufflepuff carrying Yifan to the infirmary. The prefect was alive, perfectly conscious, but blood was coming out of his nose profusely and his face was covered in mud.

Sehun and Tao looked at each other, the elder of the two narrowing his eyes:

"Yeah, what would they be doing?"

"I'm really bored." Sehun cocked an eyebrow. "Can we take a walk outside? Sledding. Let's do sledding."

The elder Gryffindor scratched his chin, torn between temptation and anxiety.

"I like making flower wreaths," he considered, pouting. "Also, I'm not sure I want to suffer Luhan's wrath – whenever it concerns Minseok, that guy turns into a psychopath..."

"Luhan is not scary."

"The guy's made us sign an actual contract for this flower wreath. You think he wouldn't kill us? He's a maniac."

"Still. Clear sky? Sunday? Snow...?" Sehun gestured towards the window, squinting.

Tao hesitated for real this time. A smile was starting to tug at his lips.

"What would we do sledding with?"

"My aunt offered me a new magic sledge for Christmas."

"Okay, deal!" Tao jumped out of his chair with a shriek, and the two of them swept the pile of flowers into their arms before sprinting out of the library with cackles and shouts, and Madam Pince shouting remonstrations at them which their excitement-filled ears could already not hear.

⚜

"I'm sorry, Jongin, but as a matter of pride, I cannot let you win this. You're going down."

"I don't think this is a matter that you can decide on, Luhan, the better sportsman will have to win."

"We are just sledding from the owlery to the bottom of the hill, can we not make it so dramatic?" Minseok sighed.

"No." Kyungsoo spat from across him.

The Ravenclaw sighed, pursing his lips.

"Okay."

"You guys ready?" Jhaveri grinned into his megaphone, "this is the exciting finals of the Valentine Olympics, guys. The Everlasting Eyelashes and the limited edition teacup are only one sledge ride away."

"We know that already, can we fucking beg-"

The Slytherin raised both hands in peace.

"Okay, just get onto your sledges, people."

Minseok and Luhan hopped onto their wooden sledge, with the elder boy in front and the Gryffindor spooning him from behind, grabbing the rope from around his waist. Eliminated at the semi-finals, Jongdae was now shaking two small red and golden flags in the audience, one with a J on it and the other with an L.

"Are you not going to choose one side, at least?" a dishevelled and utterly drained Joonmyun asked from beside him.

"Nah," Jongdae grinned. "Both is good."

From Luhan and Minseok's side, behind the starting line, Jongin pulled Kyungsoo close to him on the sledge, and leaned over his shoulder to glance at him.

"Is this okay? You comfortable?"

"Great." Kyungsoo mumbled. "Now, I count on you for the steering. Let's beat them up."

"You know, we've actually made it further than I expected." Jongin noted in a whisper. "Does it mean our teamwork's actually really good?"

At those words, the Slytherin granted him a slightly softer, less murderous look.

"What will you do if we win the Everlasting Eyelashes?" Jongin ended up asking with a smile.

"I don't know. I'll put them on Baekhyun, maybe. Stick them on with an indefeasible charm..."

"Okay." the Gryffindor tilted his head, holding the ropes tighter. "Let's do this, then."

"For Baekhyun's misery."

"For Baekhyun's misery, that's right."

"And for us."

Jongin glanced at him. The elder boy was flushing slightly.

"Yup. For us."

"On your marks...get set..." came the announcement, "and........." he paused. "GO!"

Jongin violently pushed their sledge forward with his feet, letting it hit the slope and rush down the hill of its own volition. Instantly, the snow splashed from the edge of the sleigh and he shut one eye. As they tilted to one side, he pulled the ropes and steered them the other way.

From the corner of his eyes, Luhan and Minseok were going fast and strong; Jongin wondered if Luhan was a secret professional sledge rider, or if he simply had a natural talent for anything speed-related.

"We can do this! Go! Go! GO!" he could hear Luhan shout like a fanatic.

Far away down the slope, in front of their eyes, the tiny flag they had to snatch wavered in the snow.

Jongin peered at Luhan. Their own sledge was actually slightly faster than the seventh year's.

"We're ahead of them," Jongin said, grinning. "Kyungsoo, we can win!"

"I can't hear shit," came the Slytherin's only reply.

The Gryffindor gathered the ropes, taking a breath, when suddenly, two shadows appeared ahead of them in the snow, walking leisurely on the tracks with their own sledge behind them. Two shadows which soon took the shape of Sehun and Tao; and made Jongin's eyes widen with horror as he screamed:

"No, no, no, no, no no NO-!"

The two fourth years turned to look at them, and whack! They bashed into each other with a muffled groan, snow splashing, sledges flying and limbs splitting. Sehun and Tao fell onto each other on top of Kyungsoo and Jongin's sleigh, their own ride gone into the sky and digging into the snow a few metres away, and as Kyungsoo and Jongin landed on their butts, they saw Tao and Sehun sliding off the hill like a human sandwich, stomach first on the sledge, gliding towards the flag with the speed of a torpedo.

"HOLY SHI-T!" Tao's ear-splitting scream resonated all over the slope.

And before Luhan and Minseok could even react, the two fourth years had already knocked into the flag, Sehun snatching it into his hands before plummeting onto the ground and landing on his back, arms wide open. Tao continued for another few metres, then knocked into a tree and ended up buried in a square metre of fresh, twig-covered snow.

"Are you kidding me?" Luhan squawked, palms open as he and Minseok eventually passed the finish line. "Tao! Sehun!"

"I'm okay," Sehun replied, sitting up with the flag still in hand. "I'm totally fine, no worries."

But Luhan was still staring at them, with Minseok laughing into his shoulder. The Gryffindor reeled:

"What the fuck are you doing here?! You guys aren't even part of the games!"

A few metres up the slope, Kyungsoo and Jongin were still recuperating, forehead sore and trousers wet from lying in the snow.

"What happened?" the Slytherin suddenly groaned, covering his face. "Am I dead?"

"No, you're not." Jongin smiled at him. "But we lost. Sorry."

"We lost?" Kyungsoo blinked, breathing in deeply. "Well, that's okay."

The younger boy gave him a look.

"Are you back to your normal self now?"

"What normal self?" the Slytherin cocked an eyebrow.

"Nothing." Jongin chuckled, flicking some snow off the elder boy's forehead. "Your intense side was really endearing. But I'm kind of glad to have your calmer self back."

⚜

⚜

"They really look like they're having fun." Baekhyun slurred as he and Chanyeol sat behind Hagrid's hut, sharing a pack of liquorice wands.

Far away, up the hills to the owlery, resonated the cheers and laughs of careless onlookers. Chanyeol simply shrugged, handing the pack of candy to the Slytherin with an amused grin:

"Are you regretting the fact that we didn't enroll?"

"Do I look like I do?" Baekhyun scoffed.

"Yeah."

"Tsk," the Slytherin flicked his bangs away melodramatically. "No way in hell."

Chanyeol chuckled, pulled out a liquorice wand and pushed it under Baekhyun's nose.

"Here," he said.

And the elder boy scrunched his nose. "Why are you feeding me?"

"I'm not feeding you. It's a game. Let's play the pepero game."

"The what?"

"Pepero. It's a game I saw on Jongdae's 'television' when I was at his house. It was a muggle show, where people had to share a long biscuit stick, and eat the biscuit until there's almost nothing left."

"Then why is it called the 'pepero' game?"

"I don't know, I think it was just the name of the stick."

Baekhyun studied the liquorice wand under his nose, and put it carefully in his mouth.

"Now what?" he then said through his teeth, looking at Chanyeol with a frown.

The Gryffindor sneered and bit the other end of the sweet, then began chewing on it, slowly making his way towards the other boy until their lips were only millimetres apart. Baekhyun stared at him, eyes almost crossed, and then they both burst into ugly chortles, dropping the rest of the liquorice wand on the floor as they separated and held their sides.

"I don't even get the point of this game," Baekhyun snorted, reaching into the bag of sweets and shaking his head, "Muggles are preposterous, seriously."

"You're laughing, though." Chanyeol pointed out.

"I'm mocking, there's a subtle difference. Subtle, but substantial."

"Well," the Gryffindor smiled, grabbing another liquorice wand and tucking it into his mouth, "Preposterous or not, I'm having fun. Who needs the Valentine Olympics, anyways? We're really good on our own."

Baekhyun smiled at him and stared at his feet.

"I would have liked to put the Everlasting Eyelashes on you, though," he admitted after a while.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"Now, seriously?" Luhan said the next morning, sitting at the Gryffindor table with Minseok standing behind him, hands on his shoulders.

On the chair facing him, Sehun simply sniffled slightly and brought the shockingly pink Madam Puddifoot's Teashop cup to his lips, pinkie in the air.

"It's very nice for having tea," the fourth year said earnestly.

"You're just rubbing our loss in my face." Luhan dropped with rancour.

"They didn't even know about the Olympics," Jongin said and shrugged from behind his bowl of cereal. "But they still won anyways... Talk about luck."

"Real champions only show their skills in the most crucial moment."

"You guys were just walking right in the middle of the fucking tracks." Luhan leaned forward, and Minseok smiled, planting a comforting peck on the Gryffindor's head. Sehun wriggled his nose:

"Yeah, whatever. In the real world, it's the result that counts."

"What did you guys do with the eyelashes, then?" the Ravenclaw asked, arms still loosely locked around Luhan's neck.

"Gave them to Tao," Sehun took another sip from his pink cup.

And in front of Luhan, Jongin and Minseok's shared look of concern, the younger boy simply offered a shrug.

"He's making good use of it."

[Baekhyun]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center][size=9pt]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE FIRST VICTIM. ❞

---

"Kyungsoo, my love-"

"You need to stop calling me this."

"Sorry," Baekhyun stuck out his tongue sheepishly at him. "My dear friend, Kyungsoo, I need to make a detour by the dorms before going for lunch...I need to fetch my essay for Defence Against the Dark Arts this afternoon."

Kyungsoo threw him a glance as they came back from the greenhouse, nails still grimy with fertiliser and smelling like the treated dragon dung they had used during Herbology class.

"I'll come with you," he said.

"Really? You're a saint." Baekhyun grinned.

"I need to wash my hands anyways," Kyungsoo shrugged, then cocked an eyebrow, "so is that the compensatory essay Jung gave you for that homework you got a 'T' on?"

"Yup," the elder boy snorted a little, "I've been holed up in the library an entire week for this, I think I know more about acromantulas and giant water serpents than I ever cared to know. Like, did you know that acromantulas can lay eggs that are the size of a beach ball? And they can lay up to a hundred at a time, which hatch in a span of approximately six to eight weeks..."

"Merlin. Shut up, that's downright gross."

"Also, did you know that to kill a basilisk, you would have to pierce the skin through the head, that is, if you can avoid being poisoned first or being stunned to death? And to kill a hydra you have to burn each of its heads off at the stub before it could grow back on. How delightful is that?"

"Honestly, I don't give a knut. But I see you've really been doing your research."

Baekhyun shook his head and rolled his eyes upwards as they made their way towards the dungeons. "If I don't get an 'O' on this, I'm going to kill somebody. Seriously, that, and I might just shed a tear."

"None of this would have happened if you weren't meeting with Park Chanyeol during class time, though."

"So?"

"So...don't you think it's a bit ridiculous that you're this paranoid about the two of you seeing each other in public?"

"We didn't have any problems until now." Baekhyun shrugged.

Kyungsoo heaved a sigh, but did not insist. They were walking down the staircase to the dungeons, now, and he was starting to feel a little uneasy. For the last two or three months, he had been hearing the same, ambiguous whispers around this area, and sometimes, even when he was dozing off alone on the Grand Staircase. The voices were always enticing, equivocal, with soft giggles punctuating it, but Kyungsoo felt more creeped out by them than anything.

He tried to stay alert when Baekhyun and he strolled down to the dungeons' main hallways.

"...so it's not like I'm the only paranoid one." the elder boy suddenly said.

And Kyungsoo blinked: "I'm sorry?"

"You weren't listening?" his friend tutted playfully. "Kyungsoo, I expected better from you."

"...Sorry. I've been a bit distracted lately."

"By Kim Jongin, I suppose?" the prefect scoffed.

"Not distracted in that sense. Also, what I do with Jongin is none of your business, thank you."

"Distracted in what sense, then?"

"It's just that I've been experiencing something kind of creepy these days." he trailed off.

"Creepy, like what?"

Kyungsoo hesitated. He had suspected the whole phenomenon to be more or less linked to his private studies on Dark Magic, and if he was right, then he was going to have a lot of explaining to do should he choose to tell Baekhyun.

Or actually, maybe not. Maybe Baekhyun wouldn't give two knuts. Maybe Baekhyun wouldn't even be surprised. He was the one who wanted to sneak into Knockturn Alley for Christmas presents, after all, right?

"Well," he started carefully, choosing his words at slug speed. "It kind of started on the morning-"

"Hold on, what is this?" Baekhyun suddenly jumped back, causing Kyungsoo to look down at their feet, and step back in a hurry.

There was a large puddle of water on the floor, slowly spreading from the end of the corridor, where the Slytherin common room was, to where they were currently standing. A few students bumped into them from behind, and stopped to see what they were staring at. There were also people hastily coming out of the common room now, and Kyungsoo saw with one glimpse that their robes were all wet at the bottom, their shoes squishing as they streaked their way towards them.

"What happe-" Baekhyun started.

"There's a flood in one of the dorms in the Slytherin dungeons." Leila Sturdivant explained, holding her robes up and letting out an exasperated groan. "I knew something like that was bound to happen when you put a common room underneath the lake...What a stupid idea. Now all the other houses are going to mock..."

"Wait, there was a leak?" Baekhyun paled off.

"What else could it be?" she sighed.

"If there was a leak from the lake, we'd all have drowned, dear," Jhaveri smiled casually as he showed up behind her. He had come from the Slytherin Dungeons too and his trousers were soaked up to the knees. "Plus, the flood started in one of the rooms only, so it couldn't have been the lake. What it is, though, I have no idea."

"Which dorm did it start in, then?"

"Not mine," Jhaveri sang cheerfully with a flourish, then expanded more earnestly when he saw that Baekhyun was serious, "Oh, don't worry, buddy. The flood started in Putieux's room, so it's not like it's any of your business. Just let him take care of his own misery."

"Uh..." Kyungsoo began.

And Jhaveri opened his mouth.

"Oh, right. You guys are in Putieux's dorm, aren't you."

"Fuck." Baekhyun bolted, face whitening instantly.

He took off without waiting for Kyungsoo, who stayed next to Jhaveri long enough to hear him muse with a finger on his lower lip: "I really wonder who could have played a prank like this, though... It's really large-scale."

He then left the sixth year behind and caught up with Baekhyun, who had stammered the password in a hurry and was now swaying through the water flowing in the dark, vast corridors leading to their dorms.

As soon as he opened the door to their dorm, the water splashed at them up to the stomach, pouring out with a sea of quills, wandering underwear, socks, and ruined parchments. The prefect cursed and forcefully closed the door again. But they had both seen the state of their room through that one quick peek. All their belongings had been spoilt.

"I think I saw my desk floating," Kyungsoo spat, shaking his waterlogged sleeves. "This is ridiculous."

"I'm...ugh," Baekhyun murmured, shaking.

He stopped, eyes fixed on the floor, where a pair of pink boxers belonging to their French roommate were slowly drifting towards Kyungsoo's legs. The younger wizard kicked them away in distate, wriggling his nose, then abruptly realised that Baekhyun wasn't actually looking at the boxers at all.

He was staring at a bunch of sodden parchments, all black with scribbled words that was floating near the underwear. The words, once neat and small, were now completely illegible because of the water, though Kyungsoo could sort of make out Baekhyun's ugly scrawl on it once he squinted hard. He watched the ruined piece of homework for a while, then Baekhyun's confounded expression, and eventually faltered.

"Is this...your homework for Jung?" he asked.

One look at Baekhyun's face told him everything he needed to know.

⚜

"Baked beans or spinach?"

"I say spinach," Chanyeol said, munching on a chocolate frog, "because we haven't had it since last Thursday."

"I bet on baked beans," Tao smiled next to him, "because I can always detect the scent of baked beans from miles away, and I swear I can smell the sauce right now."

"I also say baked beans," Jongdae said, "because no reason."

Behind them, Sehun shrugged as they walked into the Great Hall.

"I bet on cabbage. Because I like cabbage."

"That's not a good reason."

"Jongdae just said 'no reason' as his reason. Why can't I like cabbage?"

A glance at the nearest pot on the Gryffindor table revealed something green floating in a sea of pepper and salt.

"See?" Sehun said as he made a move to sit down. "Cabbage."

Chanyeol opened his mouth, but at the same time, a rumbling commotion from outside the hall diverted his attention and he turned to have a look, only to see a group of Slytherins heading towards the Great Hall in a hurry, Baekhyun in the lead. Kyungsoo was tailing him closely, a worried look on his face.

Chanyeol blinked, smiling at him.

"Hey-"

Then, without a warning, Baekhyun closed in and sent a flying punch to his nose, knocking him down in one bone-cracking hit. Students around them gasped. Before he had time to realise what was happening, Baekhyun was straddling him on the floor, absolutely livid, and punching him again and again.

"Byun Baekhyun, what the fuck!" Jongdae shouted.

"You fucking asshole!" Baekhyun yelled without listening, face red. "If you wanted to do a horrible prank like this, then you could have at least chosen another day, you brainless, dumb bastard!"

"Baek, stop," Kyungsoo grabbed his arm.

"Get off him!" Tao screamed, and tried to hoist the Slytherin up, in vain.

The boy was still raining punches on Chanyeol without giving him the chance to breathe. Amidst the insults and the beating, Chanyeol tried his best to find something to say, but angered and sore, and unable to get enough oxygen up to his brain, he instead did the first thing he felt like doing. In other words, he kneed Baekhyun in the stomach with all his might.

The elder boy coughed, then redoubled in wrath. Snatching his hair with fury, the Slytherin pulled him down with him and rolled on the floor before landing a painful blow on his eyes. Chanyeol retaliated, and the two of them were soon beating and clawing at each other and hitting each other in all their most painful spots, until the teachers and prefects rushed in to separate them.

"Enough, this is more than enough!" Sprout said, splitting them by force.

Minseok rushed in and dragged Baekhyun aside, holding him by the arms to prevent him from landing any more blows.

"You fucking had to ruin it," Baekhyun shouted, and his eyes glimmered with tears of frustration. "A whole week of work, which actually counts for the whole year...and I told you I actually cared about that!"

"Mr. Byun, please calm down," Flitwick started.

"I repeatedly told you that I cared, and you still fucking ruined everything!"

"Ruin what, for fuck's sake?!" Chanyeol spat back, still talking under the influence of his bleeding nose.

"You know exactly what, you filthy scumbag!"

"Can we stop this right away?!" Sprout stomped, her round figure red with anger. "This is unbelievable. What got into you two?"

Baekhyun did not reply, still heaving and glaring at Chanyeol. It was Kyungsoo who replied instead.

"The Slytherin dorms got flooded. Our room... We called Slughorn already, but Baekhyun's homework and all his belongings were ruined."

"I can't even redo it, now." Baekhyun snapped, and Chanyeol widened his eyes, finally understanding what the elder boy was accusing him of.

Except it was wrong. It was utterly wrong and he had never flooded the Slytherin dorms. Blimey, he didn't even know how to get into those dorms in the first place!

"It wasn't me," he spluttered, "I haven't played a single prank on you since we started...dating."

"You guys are dating?" Tao yelped innocently.

And immediately, Chanyeol bit the inside of his cheek, because the students who had assembled to watch their fight had also started to giggle and whisper amongst them. Baekhyun was boring holes into his head with his glare now.

"Your lovers' quarrels are none of our business," Sprout declared. "What is our business, however, is that the two of you started using fists to resolve personal issues within the Great Hall."

"Decent young wizards should never have to come so low, gentlemen," Flitwick chirped through his beard. "Fifty points off Gryffindor and Slytherin! And Mr Park, if you've really thought it a good idea to flood the Slytherin Dungeons..."

"I didn't!"

"We'll have to investigate." the small wizard twittered, then wriggled his nose. "In the meanwhile you might want to get your nose checked at the infirmary, see if it's broken."

Baekhyun jerked himself free of Minseok's hold and suddenly stomped away from the hall, after throwing Chanyeol one last, resentful glare. It was mystifying. The Gryffindor was both hurt and flabbergasted. He was innocent and he had gotten a beating for nothing, what more could Baekhyun want from him?

Why was it so hard for Baekhyun to believe in his innocence?



"Mate, it's okay," Jongdae said, once they finally got to start on their lunch. Luhan, Minseok and Joonmyun had also gathered around their table to join the conversation. "They can't really accuse you of something you haven't done. Baekhyun's just butt-hurt that he doesn't get to have his straight 'O's like he usually does."

But Chanyeol wasn't feeling hungry anymore, and he could only sit there, stirring his soup with his spoon distractedly while Tao observed him with an equally shaken look.

"I didn't know you two were dating," the younger boy said. "You didn't tell us anything."

"He didn't want..." Chanyeol began, then rubbed his sore nose. "Never mind. All of that's down the drain, now."

"I'm more concerned about the flooding in the Slytherin Dungeons, to be honest." Minseok exhaled.

"What?" Jongdae blinked. "Merlin...Chanyeol's just got his ass wiped by a scrawny little Slytherin who tried to break his nose, and you're simply worried about the Slytherin Dungeons? You've got to get your priorities checked, mate."

"You've got to get the way you speak to Minseok checked, too," Luhan stressed, giving him a meaningful glare.

But Joonmyun shook his head, looking pale.

"No, I agree with Minseok, here. The major concern for now is about the flood in the Slytherin Dungeons."

"Why?" Sehun sniffled.

"Because just think about it," Minseok said, "if there really was a flood, and Chanyeol really didn't do it, then how the heck did that flood happen?"

The table fell silent.

"Have you ever heard of a flood in the castle before?" the Ravenclaw squinted. "Because this is the first time I've heard of something like this in my seven years at Hogwarts."

"It's my first time, too." Luhan mused. "Kind of odd, now that you think about it."

"It's not the only odd thing that's happened, though." Joonmyun suddenly said, still vaguely uneasy.

The entire congregation turned to stare at him.

"What?"

"Ummm, well, this is kind of embarrassing, but...um, I was taking a bath..."

"Oh yeah?" Jongdae wriggled his eyebrows and Luhan elbowed him in the shoulder.

"Go on, you were taking a bath...?"

"Right, I was taking a bath," Joonmyun continued, "in the prefect's bathroom. Yesterday. And you know, I was kind of just enjoying it, when suddenly, the taps stopped running. And then all the water in the tub started to get sucked down by the pipes...and...and before I knew I was left in an empty tub."

He frowned.

"Actually, this could be where the water from the flood partly came from."

"That's really weird," Luhan murmured loudly.

"Hey, but now that you mention it, something bizarre's happened to me too." Jongdae jumped, swivelling on the bench. "During the start of term, when we had our first Quidditch match...once, the Fat Lady's portrait stopped moving altogether. It was like she got stuck, for something like a whole minute. Then she woke up again, but somehow didn't remember a thing about blackening out."

"That's downright creepy," Tao moaned.

"And remember during the Sorting Ceremony in the beginning of the year," recalled Minseok, "the enchanted ceiling started to bug, and there was a huge flash of lightening out of nowhere."

"The bludger started acting weird during our first Quidditch match, too." Sehun added.

But Chanyeol shook his head wearily:

"Baekhyun thinks the bludger is from Markus Hargraves."

"Hargraves, as in, the seventh year?" Luhan furrowed his eyebrows. "He'd certainly be capable of hexing a bludger." he dithered. "But for the rest..."

"Why would a Slytherin flood their own common room?" Jongdae scoffed and scratched his nose.

"Yeah, why would he? This is all very confusing." Luhan sighed. "Merlin, I suppose it's a good thing that the Quidditch finals have been postponed until next week, after all."

"To be honest, I don't really care about all this," Chanyeol dropped after a while, leaning his chin against his hand. "I just don't understand why, out of everyone and everything, his first reflex was to come and punch me."

The others watched him with an empathetic gaze.

"Don't feel so down," Minseok declared softly. "He had a lot on his mind, so he wasn't acting rationally, either. I'm sure he'll apologize to you once he realises you were innocent."

But Chanyeol simply moped into his palm. The incident had made him realise, much against his will, how fragile the trust that he and Baekhyun had built up truly was, in the face of four and a half years of mutual hate and pranking. He found the thought disheartening. That no matter how attached to Baekhyun he felt now, their history would always loom over them like a storm cloud, ready to burst when he least expected it.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"You still depressed?" Jongdae chimed as he waltzed back into their dorm that evening.

Chanyeol was lying on his bed, not making a sound.

Tao was showering in their bathroom in the meantime, the one in his own dorm having been invaded by an infestation of bundimun. If Chanyeol stayed silent, maybe Jongdae would let him sulk in peace.

Instead, the elder boy came flying in like a bat and landed on him with a choking sound. He immediately tried to elbow the invader away but Jongdae simply cuckooed and started spooning him with exaggerated cooing sounds, extracting an annoyed grunt out of him:

"What are you doing?"

"Comforting you?" the other Gryffindor grinned, "acting like your Baekhyun substitute?"

For all reply, Chanyeol narrowed his eyes and pushed him off the bed.

"Don't say that idiot's name in front of me ever again," he grumbled unhappily.

"Why? Aren't you two going to make up and move in together?"

Chanyeol snorted. Then, slowly, his expression vacillated and he curled up a little more.

"Jongdae."

"Hmm?" the elder boy said, sitting up.

"Sorry, for not telling you before..."

"Oh," Jongdae mouthed, then smiled. "No worries. It's not like I didn't know anyways."

"Yeah...?"

"Hmm. I brought Joonmyun to our secret passageway to the seventh floor, recently. And when I went back alone to retrieve this," he pulled out a small golden cufflink, "I saw you and him come out of a room I'd never seen before, on the seventh floor, holding hands."

Chanyeol's face turned pale.

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oops." Jongdae laughed softly. "Talk about a surprise."

"I'm sorry, mate...that's like one of the worst ways for you to discover the truth. I should have told you everything myself-"

"Hey, don't worry. This isn't kindergarten, man. You don't need to tell me absolutely everything about your private life."

Chanyeol opened his mouth, then squinted a bit:

"That's not what you said during Christmas."

"Yeah, but I was trying to make you talk back then, wasn't I?" Jongdae shrugged, then jumped in remembrance: "So was that letter from him, in the end?"

"The one I was hiding from you on Christmas eve? Uhh, yeah."

"Hah, I knew it."

Chanyeol hesitated before showing the corner of a small smile.

"You're such a nosy wart," he said, "but cheers for being here, mate."

"No problem. I'm not here for long anyways, I still have a lesson to do with Joonmyun in approximately twenty minutes." he nodded, "So if you feel like talking, you've got to do it fast."

"So much for friendship..."

"I try to multitask," Jongdae declared with a sigh.

"It's not that I need to talk..." the younger boy suddenly said, hesitating. "It's just that...I don't really have the courage to take care of my problem," he elaborated laboriously, "with You-Know-Who."

Jongdae simply stared at him with one creased eyebrow.

"You mean, the dark wizard, or the other one?"

Chanyeol rolled his eyes.

"Voldemort has been dead for almost ten years, of course I mean the other one, you dumb ass."

"AAAAHHHHH!" Tao's voice suddenly sprang from the bathroom, followed by a lethal whacking sound. Jongdae and Chanyeol froze, then exchanged a look.

"Spider?" Chanyeol called after a silence.

"Yes..." came Tao's muffled reply.

Then a shriek, and the sound of someone slipping and falling in the bathtub reached their ears. Chanyeol slowly sat up straight.

"Uhhh...Do you need help killing it?"

"No, i-it's okay...!" Tao whimpered.

A second whack. Silence.

"I got it...!" he said.

"Good job," Jongdae raised his thumb.

Chanyeol felt a huge gush of motherly pride within his chest. Man, their Tao had grown up so much since first year...

"Okay, so my problem with You-Know...with Baekhyun."

"Thank you."

"Is that I feel like we doubt each other too much," he sighed, "you know? Like, I didn't even do anything to him and the first person he thought of when his essay got flushed was me. And we've been dating for more than a month, but he's obsessed with secrecy and not wanting anybody to know..."

"Yeah, you kind of have to give up on that now, by the way."

"Secrecy?" Chanyeol nodded, "yeah, I know. But you get what I mean, right? I feel like we moved too fast from being pure enemies to being together, and he can't get used to it. And maybe he doesn't care, but I do. I care. I feel like I want something more tangible than just...kisses and play fighting, and making out... I want him to at least trust me completely, and to believe in me, and rely on me... Is it really so much to ask?"

He stared at Jongdae who was ogling him with wide, dry eyes.

"Do I make sense?"

"By McGonagall's mighty slippers," Jongdae dropped, gaping, "you're in love with him!"

"By what?" Chanyeol blinked, then froze, astounded. "No, I'm not."

"What do you mean, no? Chanyeol, go tell him what you've just said to me, you dimwit. Go now."

"What? Why?"

"Just go." Jongdae stared sternly. "Grab him, look him in the eye and say: "Baekhyun, I love you. I would never want to harm you" straight to his face. Because that's what you're feeling, mate. Even I can see the hearts in your eyes right now, and I'm not even Trelawney."

"You can see what?" Chanyeol squawked, touching his eyelids as if rainbows would come out if he didn't. He scowled: "Blimey. Don't say stupid things."

"Uh, excuse you, you're the one being stupid right now," the elder boy retorted as he dragged Chanyeol off the bed and led him towards the door.

The younger Gryffindor choked on his saliva.

"What are you doing?"

"Go look for him," Jongdae asserted, jutting up a finger up his chin, "at this hour of the day, he should be back in the Slytherin dorms, right? Go get him."

"But I..."

"Honestly, don't make me sing the Muses' part in Hercules' 'I won't say I'm in Love'..."

"Hold on, I know that movie – we watched that at your house, don't tell me which one it is-"

"It's the one with the grey guy who has a little blue flame on his head."

"Oh yeah, that one!" Chanyeol brightened up. "Alright, I'm going. But...hey."

"What?"

"What if I say all that crap...and he doesn't feel the same?"

"Then, you can come back here, crying and sucking on your thumb like a baby, and I'll comfort you." Jongdae nodded. "But first, go, because it's getting late and I really need to find Joonmyun now."

"Oh, right." the younger boy scratching the back of his head. "Okay, I'll see you later, mate."

"See you, Casanova."

"Thanks a lot for the help, by the way." Chanyeol smiled bashfully.

Jongdae blew him a kiss.

"Anything for you, mate. Best of luck."




Chanyeol's resolve disintegrated as soon as he reached the dungeons, however, when he came to the simple realisation that he did not have the slightest idea about Slytherins' password this week. A quick interrogation with Jongin revealed itself to be futile. Kyungsoo and he had stopped seeing each other in their dorms since the end of Christmas holidays, he said.

And thus, Chanyeol found himself roaming in the dungeons without any solution to contact Baekhyun.

'Back to square one,' he thought and sighed to himself.

He turned around a corner and almost had a heart attack when he met face to face with the Bloody Baron's blank staring eyes.

"Sweet Merlin...!" he wheezed, then held the front of his belt. "Oh my God...I almost peed on myself."

"Well, so much for Gryffindor's bravery." the Slytherin ghost snickered coldly.

He was about to float away without another word, when Chanyeol pranced forward and called out:

"Wait, Baron!"

"What?" the blood-spattered ghost spat huskily, turning disdainful eyes towards him. "I have business to do up in the Astronomy Tower."

"I'll be fast...Um, I was just wondering if I could have the password to the Slytherin dorms, this week," Chanyeol grinned in what he hoped to be a confident manner. "the teachers have sent me to do something about the flood that happened...this morning."

The Bloody Baron burst into loud, frightening laughter and leaned his gaunt white face towards him.

"I know what the teachers said about the flood this morning. I know everything's been cleaned up. No one said anything about sending a lanky, fifth year Gryffindor to do anything here."

"Err..."

"You need to find a better excuse next time." he hissed. "Or you'll pay the price."

"Look, I really need help." Chanyeol dropped the pretense and sighed. "Can you please close your eyes for once and do me this big favour? I'm not going in there to wreck anything, I promise."

"Why on earth would I let a Gryffindor into our quarters, whether or not he wrecks anything?" the Bloody Baron sneered in his characteristic hoarse whisper. "Give me one good reason why I should allow you in there. I doubt you'll find one."

"Errrr...I...for," Chanyeol frantically racked his brain, "for...for..."

"I'm all ears."

"For...for love," he widened his eyes.

To his greatest surprise, the Bloody Baron seemed pricked by the words, somewhere, in some ridiculous part of his transparent, incorporeal body, and seemed to remember something terrible from his own past, perhaps from when he was still alive, for he soon left without granting Chanyeol another glance.

"Wait, Baron. Please, um, in the name of love," Chanyeol insisted hopefully, "I'm sure you understand...Didn't you do silly things for love too, when you were young and alive? Didn't you-"

"The Highest Respect." the baron simply said.

The Gryffindor blinked.

"I'm sorry?"

"I will not repeat it twice," the ghost whispered, "take it, or leave it."

"The Highest Respect..." Chanyeol reiterated once, then beamed in understanding. "T-thanks."

"Now if you'll excuse me...The dungeons are a little overcrowded, lately. I need some fresher air."

"No need to exaggerate," the student laughed, "it's just me."

"Oh, no," the Bloody Baron offered a genuine look of distaste this time, along with an awful rictus, "no, I'm not talking about you when I say this place is overcrowded... I'm really not."

Chanyeol looked at the empty corridor around him. His smile faded.

"What...?"

But with one last glance at the dark walls of the corridor, the ghost was gone, and Chanyeol bit his lips, suddenly feeling a little uncomfortable by himself.

⚜

"Baek?" he asked as he entered the Slytherin common room for the first time.

The place was gigantic. He could see the lake through the windows, with its phosphorescent glow and floating algae. A jolt took him when he saw one of the Giant Squid's enormous tentacle pass by, then he shook his head and quickly made his way to the corridor where the boys' dormitories were hidden.

As the Bloody Baron had said, everything had been cleaned up already and the carpet of the hallway was almost dry, though there were still random articles hanging around, here and there, in obscure corners. Chanyeol was starting to wonder how on earth he was going to find Baekhyun's dorm in all these doors, when he passed by an open chamber and immediately stopped, shocked by the chaos there. Although the water was long gone, the cupboards and wardrobes in that room were completely emptied of their contents, and the floor was swarming with spare items, clothes and wandering books with soggy pages.

A blond boy was bent over an overturned chest in the centre of the room, and struggling to put it back in place.

Chanyeol walked in and hauled the chest over with one sharp tug.

"Here you go."

"Oh, thanks!" the boy exclaimed with a French accent, then grimaced as soon as he recognized his face: "Oh, shit!"

"That's a bit rude." Chanyeol cocked an eyebrow.

"Baekhyun doesn't want to see you." the boy uttered categorically.

"Um, great. Thanks. Nice to meet you too."

"I'm François Putieux, Baekhyun's roommate," the French boy made amends, shaking his hand, "but really, Baekhyun doesn't want to see you."

Chanyeol winced:

"Why?"

"Because you're a jerk."

"I'm..." Chanyeol blinked.

"Because you're an inconsiderate jerk who is responsible for all of this," François specified, pointing at the mess on the floor.

"But I didn't do it!"

"Hmmph, that's what I thought too," he crossed his arms and looked pensive, "Gryffindors are too stupid to do pranks like this. But Baekhyun seems to think otherwise."

"I'll skip over the insult since you at least believe in my innocence," the Gryffindor sighed. "Enough said. Where is he?"

"I don't know," François said innocently, without looking the part. Then he peered at him with a vicious air: "Oh, wait. You're a Gryffindor and not even supposed to be here to start with... I should actually report you."

Chanyeol rubbed a hand over his eyes.

"Look, I'm really too tired to argue with you on this. Report me if you must, but tell me where Baekhyun is, please."

"You really want to see him, then."

"I've got things to tell him...and some points to straighten out about...today..."

"I heard he beat you to a pulp." François noted casually, pulling out a bathrobe of an alarmingly bright fuchsia colour.

Chanyeol had to muster all his self-discipline not to knock the boy's nose back into his face.

"That's not entirely true," he cringed.

"Well, you know what we say in France in this kind of situation," the Slytherin snorted, "spare the rod and spoil the child."

"I'm sorry, what?"

Chanyeol stared, then scrunched his nose.

"I'm sorry, I don't think that's the right proverb, here."

"I think it is," François looked genuinely confused, but shrugged. "Anyways, the literal meaning in French, is that who loves you a lot, will also hit you hard. So take Baekhyun's beating as a blessing and be happy about it, because it means he loves you a lot."

"Uh...right. Thanks."

"Also, I can't tell you where he is, because he'll kill me otherwise, but Jung gave him a last extension until midnight to do his ruined homework." he said with emphasis, "so there is a very big chance he is doing it right now."

At this, Chanyeol widened his eyes, agreeably surprised.

"Thanks," he let out. "That actually helps...! Kind of."

"You're welcome." François smiled proudly.

He then sighed and looked at the mess around his feet: "Now, if only I could get someone to help me with these boxes..."

But Chanyeol had already soared out of the room, faster than lightning.

⚜

"I'll see you tomorrow, then?" Jongin smiled.

"Yeah," Kyungsoo nodded softly, "we can finish our lesson on the Draught of Living Fire if you want? We haven't done that in ages."

"Oh..." Jongin widened his eyes imperceptibly, "um, actually, I think I want to give that one up. I hope you don't mind too much."

The Slytherin blinked.

"You sure?"

"Um...yeah. Sure." Jongin smiled again, warm as always as he came up the staircase to Kyungsoo's level. "I'll see you tomorrow at the viaduct."

"Alright." The elder boy said, then trailed off uncertainly when the Gryffindor leaned in towards him, landing a soft kiss on his cheek.

"Goodnight," Jongin murmured.

Kyungsoo nodded embarrassedly as the younger boy walked down the staircase, turning around once he was at the bottom to give him a hearty wave. The Slytherin smiled stupidly while waving back. Jongin was always strikingly beautiful when he smiled like that. And when he did that slight flaring move with his eyes, God...

Simply gorgeous.

Letting out a long sigh, Kyungsoo picked up his books in his hands, and proceeded towards the Grand Staircase alone.

He was already halfway to the third floor, drowsy and weary, when steps suddenly resounded behind his back, catching up with him on the stairs with uninhibited haste.

"Oi, Do Kyungsoo," the deep voice called.

And Kyungsoo turned around, trying hard not to grimace when he recognized Park Chanyeol's face.

"Oh." he noted. "Hi."

"Hi...look, um. I'm...I'm looking for Baekhyun."

"He's doing his homework." the younger boy explained. "Again."

Chanyeol looked slightly guilty.

"I really want to see him. I've been looking for him since after dinner, and I have no idea where he is."

"Well, what makes you think I'd know?"

"You're his best friend."

Kyungsoo internally laughed. Of course, yes, he was his best friend. He could write an entire essay on the infinite benefits and disadvantages of being Byun Baekhyun's best friend; it was as much a blessing as it was a pestilence.

"Baekhyun doesn't want to see you," he eventually whirred monotonously, passing a hand over his hair. "Sorry about that. Good night."

Chanyeol looked particularly sad.

"Kyungsoo, can you please talk to him-"

"He's the one who does most of the talking, usually."

"You know what I mean. If you're the one who says it, maybe he'll believe it."

"Believe what?"

"I didn't do it. The flood, I mean."

Kyungsoo scoffed, massaging his forehead.

"Look, I'm really tired and I don't have the energy to deal with your little lovers' disputes. Let's talk about this tomorrow-"

He stopped, wide-eyed, feeling a chill run down his spine as his eardrums detected an echo, a sound, a low hum in the background. The air grew colder. He could hear the start of a whisper in his ears, louder and louder as he stared at Chanyeol's confused face:

"Come. Over here."

"Oh my God," he inhaled.

And Chanyeol stared at him: "What?"

But Kyungsoo shook his head in alarm. At the same time, the staircase started to move sideways, slowly, trapping the two of them in the middle of the steps. His heart was racing. This was the first time that this had happened while someone else was present. He looked at Chanyeol with nervousness:

"Can you hear it?"

"Hear what?" Chanyeol simply asked, climbing a few steps to be at his level.

"The...the voices."

The Gryffindor stared at him like he was completely insane.

"Kyungsoo...Come over here...This way."

"There!" Kyungsoo shouted, as the staircase continued to move. "Again! Did you hear that?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Fourth floor. Fourth floor corridor..."

"I don't hear a single thing." Chanyeol said, frowning in confusion.

Kyungsoo heaved.

"Fourth floor corridor?" he murmured.

"What?"

The staircase stopped.

Kyungsoo looked at the paintings on the wall, who stared back indifferently, then at Chanyeol's mildly anxious face, and bit down on his lips. Then without a warning, he broke into a run, plunging into the fourth floor corridor under Chanyeol's shocked expression.

"Oi...Kyungsoo!" the Gryffindor yelled as he followed suit.

But Kyungsoo did not stop to wait for him. The whispers were still nebulously swimming in his ears.

"You're almost there...Hurry."

"This way," Kyungsoo stammered, bifurcating into a narrow hallway with eerie gargoyles on the walls.

"Where are you going?" Chanyeol shouted.

The Slytherin braked, hesitating in front of two different passages, before finally opting for the furthest. He turned once, then another time, and finally, out of breath, arrived in front of a dead end, with Chanyeol bumping into his back a few seconds later.

"What the hell..." The Gryffindor murmured.

Then they both stopped, panting, as they noticed that someone was standing there, facing the wall at the very end of the narrow corridor. A student. Kyungsoo frowned, still catching his breath.

"Who's that?" Chanyeol asked gruffly.

"It's..."

The student dazedly turned around, revealing a Hufflepuff tie and a droopy, vacant pair of eyes under a soft, brown fringe. Kyungsoo had just enough time to recognize the features of the ditzy Zhang Yixing, whom he had seen only a few weeks earlier, then, under his and Chanyeol's horrified gaze, the Hufflepuff's eyes rolled upwards and Yixing collapsed onto the floor, sinking at their feet unresponsively.

His eyelids were closed and he wasn't moving, limbs floppy like a lifeless doll.

---

Alternatively, this chapter could be called "The Disadvantages of not having USB sticks in the Wizarding World". Also, we love Zhang Yixing dearly - please believe us. ;;;

[font=georgia]And something important to note for readers: There is no absolutely no Parseltongue involved in this conspiracy.

[Kyungsoo]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center][size=9pt][font=georgia]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER FOURTEEN: ZHANG YIXING. ❞

---

"Alright, boys, can you tell us the full story one more time?"

Gathered in the headmistress's office with professor Jung, the house heads, and McGonagall herself, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo exchanged a nervous gaze, before explaining the whole incident from beginning to end:

"We were on the Grand Staircase together by coincidence, when it started moving and stopped on the fourth floor corridor. That's when I heard...I mean, that's when we got off from the staircase," Kyungsoo murmured, omitting the voices' part, "We arrived into the dead end in which Zhang was found, and...and when we stopped there, Zhang was already facing the wall all by himself, before turning towards us and falling on the ground."

He took a deep breath.

"Th-then, we checked that he was still breathing, and immediately called the teachers."

"He didn't say anything?" Slughorn probed. "Before falling down, he didn't try to tell you about what had happened to him...?"

"No, he just fell." Chanyeol confirmed.

"How did you guys know he'd be in that corridor specifically?" Flitwick chirped through curious eyes, "you mentioned earlier that it was a dead end."

"Because he omitted a part of the story," Chanyeol cut in, to Kyungsoo's horror, "when we were on the Grand Staircase, all of a sudden, Kyungsoo looked at me and asked me really weirdly if I couldn't hear...things."

"Things?" Jung squinted.

"Voices, he said...Voices leading us to Zhang Yixing..." Chanyeol dropped slowly, still glancing at the Slytherin, who suddenly felt the room's entire crowd focusing on him at once.

He paled off.

"I just..." he paused. The teachers were all staring at him with stern, serious gaze now, "um..."

"Where did you hear those voices, Mr Do?" Jung enquired very softly, "were they, in the walls? Were they...in your head?"

"I don't know, I...I just felt like they were humming in my ears, buzzing at times, and just... talking to me."

"How were those whispers?"

"S-soft...kind of high-pitched, but not really. It happened a few times."

There was an ominous silence.

"The last time we had something like that occur in the school," McGonagall said gravely, "it was for a Basilisk, back in '92."

Kyungsoo immediately froze.

"No, that's not..." he stammered, "that's not the same...I'm...I'm not a parselmouth."

"Are you sure?" Jung was tilting his head.

"I've never talked to a snake in my entire life, and my family has nothing to do with Salazar Slytherin's descent, so I couldn't be a serpent-tongue heir even if I wanted to..."

"Some parselmouths can be non-hereditary."

He shook his head, knowing where this would lead. He could already see the suspicion brooding above all their heads, and it was terrifying.

"We know that parseltongue tends to be associated with a bad status for most wizards, Mr Do," Slughorn suddenly started with a sympathetic and somewhat hopeful smile, "but if you truly are one, you shouldn't be afraid to..."

Again, Kyungsoo shook his head vehemently.

"That's not it: I can't talk to snakes," he spluttered frankly, "I'm really not a parselmouth!"

The teachers looked at each other silently. After a long moment of contemplation, McGonagall sighed and gathered her sleeves:

"If the boy says he has never been able to talk to snakes, as teachers we should at least trust him enough to give him the benefice of the doubt," she declared. "Besides, I find it very hard to believe that a fifteen years old would have anything to do with an incident as dark as Zhang's case. That boy was hexed by a very skilful wizard..."

"Of course," Jung agreed, touching his lower lip, "you'd have to be one of those roaming Death Eaters still trying to bring back Voldemort, to be able to pull off a feat like that. There was Dark Magic involved in this affair. A lot of Dark Magic..."

Kyungsoo looked up with dread, breaths short and palms clammy. McGonagall stared at him through her glasses.

"You'll have to tell us next time you hear those voices, Mr Do. Immediately."

"Y-yes, I will."

Chanyeol also gave him a suspicious look, making him feel worse than he already did. He felt like a criminal. All his clandestine trips to the forbidden section of the library slowly floated back to mind now, all those researches he considered to be purely educational before this. He used to think he was cleverer than his friends, cleverer than all his classmates; learning about Dark Magic was like an innocent hobby to overcome his endless boredom. But now that Dark Magic had become something real that he was possibly associated with, something tangible instead of mere words written on an eerie book, he felt scared. Overwhelmed.

He had overestimated himself too much.

"Mr Park," McGonagall soon said, "you can go back to your common room already, it's getting much too late and you should be off to bed."

"But about Zhang Yixing..."

"He'll be perfectly alright without your worry," she assured, "He's in the infirmary under Pomfrey's care. You don't have anything to do with this affair anymore."

"What about me?" Kyungsoo tilted his head. "Can I go?"

"We'd like to ask you a few more questions about those voices, Mr Do," Flitwick answered thinly.

He felt a chill down his spine.

"Please wait for us here, we'll be right back," the headmistress said as the rest of the teachers led Chanyeol away.

"But...professor..." the Gryffindor insisted.

"Mr Park, don't have me say it twice."

The door closed a few instants later and Kyungsoo stood alone in the circular office, bothered by the soft snoring of the previous headmasters' portraits on the walls. He slowly dragged his feet towards the head's desk, behind which McGonagall's immediate predecessor was resting in a canvas much larger than all the ones he had seen so far. Kyungsoo raised his head to look up at it.

"I really didn't do it," he murmured to the picture, feeling lost and scared, "I don't even know what's happening to me. But I'm honestly not a dark wizard."

Dumbledore's portrait beamed gently down at him.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do if they don't believe me." he breathed out, "I know I might sound suspicious, and that I might not be as brave and valiant as one of those hot-headed Gryffindors but...I honestly didn't do anything to Zhang Yixing."

"Oh, I believe you," Dumbledore's kind eyes smiled at him when he looked up again.

Kyungsoo blinked a few times.

"We all get tangled into something much greater than ourselves, sometimes." the old man in the portrait chuckled benevolently. "The key is to keep trying, and to not let the knots defeat you."

The Slytherin lowered his chin at those words and broke eye contact with the portrait. He was still intimidated by all the possible accusations hanging over his head and still overwhelmed. But somehow, the deceased headmaster's words had managed to make him feel a little better. A little warmer inside. Suddenly, he felt calmer already. Maybe he would be able to get through this night, after all.

⚜

Chanyeol walked out from behind the gargoyle guarding the headmistress's office and turned around the corner, only to bump into Baekhyun's figure in the darkened hallway. The elder boy looked exhausted, but he also seemed more surprised than properly angry to meet Chanyeol there, and thus, the Gryffindor wondered if it would be safe for him to try a smile as a greeting. One look at his face told him that Baekhyun had already heard of the news somehow. He attempted a smile, and Baekhyun did not try to punch him this time.

He looked both embarrassed and preoccupied:

"Is he still in there?" Baekhyun gestured towards the headmistress's office.

"Kyungsoo?" Chanyeol nodded quickly, "Uh, yeah. But how did you...?"

"Slughorn kind of barged into Jung's office just when I was knocking on his door... it was hard for me not to hear everything. Are you guys okay, though?"

"We're fine. It's mostly that Hufflepuff called Zhang Yixing who's gotten it bad," Chanyeol said, still a little awkward. "the teachers said he'd be waking up soon and that there would be no after-effects, but..."

"I get what you mean," Baekhyun murmured. "It's really strange."

Chanyeol looked down at the elder boy and pursed his lips.

"So, did you manage to hand in your homework, in the end...?"

Baekhyun raised his eyes to gaze at him.

"Um...yeah. I did...but it wasn't great. With the amount of time I had, I couldn't do much better... Probably enough to scrape an average grade, anyhow."

"Alright."

"I'm...sorry about today," Baekhyun dropped after a while, looking apologetically at him.

"It's okay, you were really stressed out," Chanyeol scratched his head and looked back at the headmistress's office. "Plus, that flooding in the Slytherin Dungeon was weird too; I wonder if that and Zhang Yixing's incident are not related. If only they'd let me stay for a bit longer..."

"Why are they keeping Kyungsoo in there and not you?"

"Because they want to ask him more about the 'whispers' he heard when everything happened."

"Whispers?" Baekhyun repeated with a touch of scepticism.

"Yeah, whispers...whispers which told him where to go and led us straight to the dead end in which we found Zhang Yixing," Chanyeol shook his head with a wince, "honestly, I don't know what's wrong with him either, but it's seriously creepy."

"Hold on," the elder boy interrupted, sounding outraged, "you mean to say that they're suspecting Kyungsoo of having something to do with what happened to Zhang Yixing?"

"I'm not saying that it's true-"

"That's grotesque!"

Chanyeol frowned, bothered by Baekhyun's vehemence.

"Well, he did say it wasn't the first time he heard those whispers."

"So what?"

"So there were no whispers," the younger boy opened up his palms. "I was there. I was right there with him on the Grand Staircase, and I heard absolutely nothing. It was as if he was talking with ghosts or something, getting all freaked out by himself... He could be a parselmouth, Baek. That's what the teachers think too."

"Even so, it's no reason to suspect him, Kyungsoo would never do something like that to a student!"

"How would you know?" Chanyeol furrowed his eyebrows. "You sound so certain that he's innocent, when you didn't even hesitate for a second before accusing me this morning."

Baekhyun opened wide eyes at him, brimming with indignation for a fraction of a second before he regained his composure and rubbed his neck, looking troubled.

"Look," he said, "Kyungsoo is my best friend. I've known him since I was eleven and I know he would never do something terrible like this. If he says he's hearing whispers, then something strange is happening to him and it's creepy, true, but it's definitely out of his control and we need to help him. He wouldn't have harmed Zhang Yixing. I trust him."

"Yeah, but what about me, then?" Chanyeol flinched.

"What does this have to do with you?"

"Well, you know me since we were eleven too and I'm your boyfriend now, aren't I? That didn't stop you from punching my brains out when your homework got flushed this morning. "

"Yeah, but you're..." Baekhyun started, then stopped.

He looked really uneasy, now.

"Let's not talk about this," the elder boy finally said. "We obviously have a lot of stuff we need to sort out. I'll need to think about it again."

Chanyeol had a bad feeling about this. He flexed his fingers nervously.

"I'm sorry for making it public in the Great Hall..."

"Don't talk about that anymore. Seriously."

The Slytherin's figure was becoming more and more defensive by the minute. Chanyeol was beginning to feel like they were distancing themselves from each other, and yet had no idea how to stop the phenomenon from happening.

Baekhyun soon took a breath.

"The bottom line is this," he articulated, "I trust Kyungsoo completely."

"What if he really was a parselmouth? What if there really was a giant snake in the school again, like in 1992?"

"Was Zhang Yixing petrified?"

"No, the teachers say he's been hexed."

Baekhyun scoffed. "There, you have it. No basilisk. No giant snake."

Chanyeol closed his mouth. He oscillated on his feet and then waved towards the gargoyle.

"Are you going to wait for him, then?"

"If they allow me to."

"I'll wait with you."

But Baekhyun shook his head:

"You're tired. You should go to bed."

Chanyeol wanted to remark that Baekhyun was the most tired out of the two of them, but something firm and unyielding on the elder boy's face dissuaded him from saying another word. In silence, Chanyeol ruminated about what Jongdae had told him in the dorms, about telling Baekhyun how much he loved him out loud...but as the quietness between them stretched on, all Chanyeol could manage was a diffident "Goodnight, Baek" before walking away, and he wondered whether he would have the courage to confess to the Slytherin soon, after all, or if he would ever find the courage to confess at all.

⚜

⚜

⚜

The next morning, Yifan was awakened at the end of History of Magic by an alarmed Joonmyun who shook his arms with the force of twenty armed gnomes.

"Did you hear about yesterday?" the Ravenclaw interrogated through a shower of spit.

Yifan slowly wiped a hand over his face and blinked at his friend.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, did you hear about what happened yesterday yet?" Joonmyun started again, looking pale and worried. "Yesterday evening...On the fourth floor."

"Um, no, obviously I didn't," he leaned his chin against his hand, still blinking with drowsiness, "What?"

"A student got attacked."

For a second, Yifan's mind whirled.

"What?" he said again, this time much more incredulous.

"I suppose Slughorn didn't get to tell you guys yet," the Ravenclaw sighed. "A Hufflepuff from our year was found by Do Kyungsoo and Chanyeol on the fourth floor yesterday night. He's in the infirmary now, been unconscious for the whole night. It's the strangest thing. Apparently he just collapsed out of the blue... The teachers are being really secretive about it, and only the prefects are being told." He leaned towards his ear, "they're telling us that there has been some Dark Magic involved-"

"Hold up, a Hufflepuff from our..." Yifan stuttered, turning green, "it wouldn't be Zhang Yi...xing?"

Joonmyun nodded frenetically:

"So you did hear about it!"

But the Slytherin had jumped out of his seat as if on fire, already not listening to him anymore. In a matter of seconds, he had swept all his books into his bag and sprinted out of the half-emptied classroom, dashing all the way down the corridor towards the Hospital Wing.

He arrived in the infirmary a dozen of minutes later, wheezing against the wall under Pomfrey's incredulous gaze.

"Someone needs to be more in shape," she noted sardonically, a goblet in hand.

He waved the remark away and gasped:

"Zhang... Yixi-"

"Calm down," she said, then nodded towards the last bed in the room, of which the curtains remained closed, "the boy is fine, he's resting in that bed over there."

"Oh...Thank God."

"But be quiet," she warned. "He has only woken up a few hours ago and needs calm to recover. I don't want any ruckus, alright? Or I'll have no scruples kicking you out, Mr Wu."

Yifan nodded soundlessly as she walked away. He noticed that despite the nurse's apparent sarcasm and collected attitude, Pomfrey actually looked much more anxious than she usually was, making him question whether Joonmyun had really been right about Dark Magic being involved in Yixing's situation. Swallowing his uneasiness, Yifan slowly made his way towards the younger boy's bed, and stopped in front of the floating curtains.

"Yixing...?" he called.

No reply.

He hesitated, and then pulled the curtains open, inhaling sharply when he saw the Hufflepuff's tranquil features on the immaculate bed, serene and soft against the giant pillow. No wound. No bandages on his skin. As peaceful as always, Yixing appeared to be benefiting from a dreamless sleep, but as soon as he heard the rings of the curtains move, his eyelids twitched slightly and his eyes opened.

The prefect froze and felt his jaw drop on its own, mesmerized by the Muggle-born as usual.

"Yifan...?" the younger boy murmured softly.

"Harnfgh..." Yifan emitted stupidly, then shook his head with abruptness, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up."

"No, it's fine." Yixing smiled placidly. "No worries. I was just taking a nap...And hello. It's great to see you."

The Slytherin nodded, eyes still fixated on him, as he pulled a stool out and sat by the bed. He wanted to take Yixing's hand resting on the covers, but thought it to be too much, and eventually decided against it.

"Are you feeling better now?" he asked, "I heard about..."

"Oh, I'm feeling great." the Hufflepuff assured, then faded off, "or sort of great, at least...I'm still a bit dizzy and light-headed, but I feel able to walk and go to class."

"What happened?"

The question seemed to leave Yixing troubled.

"I don't know either," he confessed after a while, and Yifan blinked:

"You don't remember?"

"No. I was told by Professor McGonagall that I was found unconscious on the fourth floor, but I have no idea how I got there, or why I would have been there in the first place. And then she asked me a lot of questions about what I did after dinner and who I saw...but I couldn't remember anything. All I could remember was heading towards the boys' bathroom, and then, nothing."

"You're not hurt, though... Are you?"

"No, not at all."

"And you don't remember anyone throwing a spell on you or anything like that?"

"No." Yixing murmured, leaning into his pillow with a sigh, "I wish I could. I know the teachers are very worried for me, for some reason. I wish I had a better memory, sometimes."

Yifan softened a little, fiddling with the corner of the boy's duvet.

"Was...your memory always that bad?"

"I think so. But," he laughed, "I think it got especially worse this year."

"I wish..."

"Hmmm?"

Yifan jammed, then blurted out hollowly: "I wish I could be by your side all the time to protect you from harm."

The Hufflepuff's eyes, usually lidded and drowsy, slowly widened as he stared at him, and the Slytherin immediately let out a high-pitched laugh:

"Ha ha, ignore that. I mean, I just mean... you got hurt without anyone knowing, right? And - and God knows what could have happened to you had Chanyeol and Kyungsoo not found you just then. A-as your class partner, it's normal that I'm worried for you. Also..."

He fumbled and ended his sentence in a bundle of disjointed syllables. Fortunately, Yixing simply grinned at him, dimple showing, and slowly reached for a pack of chocolate frogs on his nightstand, which he handed to him with an amused crinkle around his eyes.

"Here. My friend Bobby came to visit me this morning and gave these to me. Have one."

Yifan obeyed embarrassedly, gobbling the frog down and chewing in silence.

"Does it help with the thinking?" Yixing enquired.

"Yesh it doesh," the Slytherin managed through a mouthful.

That elicited another smile from the Hufflepuff, who leaned forward to see the card he got, closer to Yifan's head. The elder boy could feel himself starting to sweat.

"Ohhh, you got Uric the Oddball, 'weirdest wizard of all ages'."

Yifan batted his eyelids, then there was a knock at the door and Chanyeol poked his head in, accompanied by Luhan, Minseok, Joonmyun and the entire Gryffindor gang.

"Hey," Chanyeol shuffled in with a sheepish look. "Um. We came to visit Zhang Yixing, since...uh, since we heard that you were here as well..."

Yifan threw a glance at Joonmyun, who raised both hands, as if to signal his innocence. He smirked.

"Well, that's convenient."

"Are you feeling better?" the Gryffindor smiled at Yixing, who simply blinked at him in confusion. Yifan rapidly explained:

"Chanyeol is the one who found you yesterday night."

"Oh, I see!" Yixing's eyes brightened in understanding, "Thanks a lot for yesterday... Sorry for the trouble."

"The other one is a Slytherin who's not here right now." Yifan said. "Where's Kyungsoo, by the way?"

Jongin looked despondent. "Don't know. He's been busying himself with God knows what since yesterday. Cancelled our date, too..."

"Weird," Sehun said.

"He's probably working on his own again," Yifan shrugged. "Anyhow, Chanyeol here is a friend of mine."

"Actually, all of us are friends of Yifan's," Joonmyun hurriedly said with one of his glowing, motherly smiles. "So please consider us as your friends too, Yixing."

"This guy's called Joonmyun," the Slytherin introduced, pointing at them one by one with a sigh, "This is Luhan, and this is Minseok. Then you have Jongdae, Jongin, Tao...and Sehun."

The youngest boy nodded at him. "Hullo."

Tao waved curiously, to which Yixing replied with a similar gesture.

From behind them, Minseok gave Luhan a meaningful shove, and the Gryffindor prefect jumped in remembrance:

"Right! Uuhhh...We got you some Sugared Butterfly Wings as a get-well-soon present, Yixing," he handed the metallic jar to the Hufflepuff, whose lips parted with surprise. "What happened yesterday was really an odd incident and a horrible one. I hope you'll recover soon."

"You really shouldn't have, I'm really fine." Yixing slurred, then pulled out a handful of butterfly-shaped sweet and lifted up for them to pick, "Do you guys want some? Let's share it together."

"Really?" Tao's eyes brimmed.

Jongdae sang: "Oh, Yixing. I'm loving you already."

"I can never say no to sugar," Minseok accepted after a long moment of guilt.

"Were you guys looking at chocolate frogs cards?"

"Yifan got one I've never seen before..." Yixing explained.

The elder boy lifted the card towards him.

"You want it?"

"Really?" Yixing scratched his nose. "I don't want to take it away from you if you collect them too."

"I don't. And I also have a few others, if you want," he said, "Paracelsus, Herpo the Foul, Felix Summerbee...If you're making a collection, I can give them all to you."

"I've got the card for Andros the Invincible," Minseok smiled, "you can add that to your collection."

"And Falco Aesalon, first Animagus ever," Chanyeol added encouragingly, "I've got two of him, so I can contribute too."

"Grinderwald," Jongdae uttered through a mouthful of sugary wings, crumbs falling everywhere under Tao's disapproving scowl. "And Choudry, the English beater."

"I have Wendelin the Weird," Joonmyun said with an enthusiastic grin.

He then scratched his head and looked troubled by the thought. "I have eight Wendelin the Weird's, actually, I always get Wendelin the Weird for some reason."

"That's trying to tell you something," Sehun flatly remarked.

On his bed, Yixing simply stared at them, looking both stunned and touched.

"You guys are all so nice... Thanks."

Luhan shook his head with a proud, pacifying hand.

"You shouldn't thank us. This is completely normal. Also, if you happen to remember anything about what happened yesterday, don't hesitate to tell us. We'll make sure to capture your aggressor in no time."

"I'll try to remember," the Hufflepuff agreed, dimples showing once more. "Thanks again."

He then leaned back into the white pillow and sighed again, but contentedly this time.

"Man. I hope I'm not going to forget that I met all of you guys today, I don't have my camemoire with me."

"It's okay," Yifan declared, "even if you forget, I'll remember for you."

And in a moment of bravery, both wild and natural, he slowly clasped Yixing's hand in his own, ignoring his friends' looks of amusement as he took a deep breath and cleared his throat. When he eventually dared to look up again, it was to see Yixing's smooth features beaming down at him.

"If you remember anything about your aggressor," he repeated with a dry throat, "tell us, okay?"

"Will do." Yixing nodded.

The Slytherin smiled back. Who cared if he was whipped? He mentally made a note to himself that he would capture the one who had done this to Yixing for sure, and kick his ass.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"Not this one," Kyungsoo muttered to himself, flipping furiously through the pages of the heavy, black book in his hands, "no, no, no and no."

He shut the leatherback at once, peeking out of his improvised tent with his lit up wand. The dorm was still snoring around him, meaning that the silencing charm on his curtains was doing its job efficiently. He flipped his duvet off his head and sat up, letting out a sigh of exasperation.

Ever since he'd come back from McGonagall's office, Yixing's incident had been consuming him, keeping him awake and preoccupied. He had gone back to the scene of the happening first thing in the morning, looking for whispers or eventual hints, but had found nothing apart from an old carving, a funny inverted "3" carved into the wall, as well as a long fissure shaped like an angular hangman's noose on the floor. The pattern was similar to the mark he had seen in that eerie passageway down in the dungeons, which represented a circle with little horns on its right. That, along with the sudden appearance of the whispers leading him away, all seemed to point to the two locations being related somehow. But he could not understand what the symbols meant to save his life.

"They ring a bell," he muttered, racking his brain, "I've definitely seen them. I've seen them somewhere before."

But where? He mused.

'There was Dark Magic involved in this affair', Jung had said. 'A lot of Dark Magic...', and Kyungsoo had an inkling that this was only a fraction of what the teachers knew.

The best guess for him now was to make as many trips to the forbidden section of the library as possible, and to find the book in which he had seen those signs. Discreetly putting his current volume in his bag, he then quietly pulled the curtains of his bed open and tip-toed out of the dorms after making sure that he had thrown an effective Disillusionment Charm over himself.

The corridors were sombre and empty at this hour of the day, and thus, going up to the library undetected by neither ghost or Filch was becoming an increasingly hard task, but somehow, he made it to the forbidden section unscathed, and tapped on the wall at the far end of the room, before murmuring the password to it: "Ianuam Aperi."

The wall vanished, and he penetrated the secret section in silence, daring to light up his wand only then with a whispered "Lumos".



It was on his way out that he finally heard some noise, and immediately threw himself against a statue to conceal his outline as he recognized Jung's voice around the corner.

"It's easier than you think, Horace," the young man was saying. "It's just an Imperius Curse, combined with a Memory Charm, to make him forget. The child does whatever he is told to do, searches for whatever he is told to search for...and then, everything gets obliviated."

"Yes, but...to use the Imperius Curse, here in our school," Kyungsoo heard Slughorn's voice ridden by anxiety.

He retained his breath, heart beating loudly. Why were those two still awake at this hour?

"It's not too late for another victim, Horace," Jung murmured, "I need you to think."

"But how would I possibly...?"

"This is your House we are talking about. Didn't you hear it back in Minerva's office? Do Kyungsoo could hear whispers around that area. Merlin knows how he can, but that is the signal. The passageway is half-opened."

Kyungsoo shut his eyes tightly, knowing that if he was found now, he would be in big trouble. What on earth had he just walked in to? What signal?

And what passageway?

"One of the door has been found and opened," Jung continued in a whisper, "Once both doors are completely ajar..."

"You don't mean...?"

"Yes."

"The veil...?"

Kyungsoo frowned.

"What else would be the point of all this?" Jung snorted softly. "I need you to think. Think hard."

Slughorn seemed completely at a loss for words.

"I can't possibly...I do not have a single clue. No one does. It's not like the location of that place is common knowledge."

"But it is somewhere within the castle," the younger man said. "And eventually, we'll find it."

Kyungsoo flattened himself against the wall as he heard the younger teacher snap his heels and head down the corridor towards him. He immediately sucked in a breath, toes curling with fear when Jung seemed to look in his direction, eyebrows furrowing for a second before the teacher turned away and treaded off. On the other side of the wall, he could hear Slughorn lugging himself away with heavy steps, but that was none of his concern for now.

He had learned more than enough to continue his investigations... The whispers were a sign that something was about to happen. And most importantly, those engravings on the wall which he had found in the dungeons by inadvertence were probably the markings to a hidden door leading to some secret, dangerous place... and no one in the school knew where that door was.

No one apart from him.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"Can you meet me down at the lake before classes?" Baekhyun had told him in passing during breakfast, "I have something to tell you."

His pumpkin juice still making tiny tsunamis down his stomach, Chanyeol lowered his goblet down and left the Great Hall with his head low. Baekhyun was waiting for him near a bean-shaped rock when he finally reached the shore. They'd been blessed with good weather, the water was gleaming with streaks of gold.

He tried to smile:

"So...what's up?"

"I've been thinking a lot for the past two days," the Slytherin prefect sighed. "and listening a lot. To people talk."

"People," Chanyeol repeated blankly.

"Yeah, people. People who heard you on that day we had a fight, and felt the need to spread the news to all their friends."

"Oh, yeah, right." he laughed hollowly. "That kind of people."

"It's only a matter of time before the rumours reach my parents, honestly."

Chanyeol bit down on his lips. His stomach growled.

"Are you hungry?" Baekhyun frowned.

"No," Chanyeol shook his head, still queasy, "it's just the pumpkin juice. You were saying?"

The Slytherin hesitated.

"What I'm trying to say," he eventually managed, "is that we've reached a stalemate. You were right."

The younger boy pulled a face.

"I was right? What was I right about?"

"You were right when you said that I trusted Kyungsoo much faster than I trusted you. And you're right, I punched you because I suspected you, and the reason I suspected you was because of all the things we went through for the past four years, all the problems, all those insults and stupid pranks..."

"Oh."

"It stayed, you know." Baekhyun sighed. "The image."

"Look, I really don't care that you almost broke my nose, Baek." Chanyeol smiled. "I don't care anymore. It's true that we have a long history behind us, but I just hope you can trust me in the future. That's all. If you can do that, we'll be perfectly fine."

"Yes, but that's what I'm saying," the other boy said.

Chanyeol was not sure he was following.

"Err...What?"

"We've got this huge ass history behind us that we tried to just...skip over, by diving into this crazy relationship that neither of us really thought about..." he took a breath, "We just moved on too fast, didn't we? It was stupid. And I realize that it was stupid now," he lowered his voice, "so I can't do it anymore."

Chanyeol's brain did a time-freeze, in which the pumpkin juice had the time to gurgle and backflip down his guts.

He shut his eyes and then opened them again.

"Errrrrrrrrr.....what."

"I think we should break up." Baekhyun uttered.

"Break up."

"Yeah, break up." the other boy said, very slowly. "Like, you and me. Ending a relationship... Our relationship."

Chanyeol stared at him.

"This is not April's fool, right?" he said. "Because it's not very funny."

Baekhyun scrunched his nose: "It's not even close to April."

He wheezed, closing his eyes:

"Holy shit, Merlin, fuck."

"Okay, listen, it's not just about our past history-"

"No, but Baekhyun..." Chanyeol stammered, "No. No. Just no!"

"Look, I thought a lot about it – we are distracting each other, we can't get work done, we get shitty grades, on top of that my parents are probably going to send me a Howler any day soon, and God knows what more..." Baekhyun rolled his eyes, then looked apologetic. "I think this is for the best."

"But you can't do that!" the Gryffindor exclaimed, then ran out of words and panicked, "N-no!"

"Can we at least try to have a decent conversation?"

"There are other ways we can overcome our problems." he finally articulated, "We just need to think as a team. Take the rumours, for example... We could get rid of those together, couldn't we? Stage another fight, pretend we broke up...And then we'll take care in not getting caught again. You can punch me in the nose, I won't even complain."

"Chanyeol," the Slytherin sighed, "I'm usually all up for crazy ideas, but this is about something serious."

Chanyeol was now sure that he definitely did not like serious.

"I just think this is a hasty decision," he blustered, "you haven't thought it through."

"I didn't sleep at all last night, just thinking about this."

"Still, don't you think we should wait it out a bit?" Chanyeol appealed out of despair. "You need two people to work out a relationship. And you need time to figure out how to solve the problems... Time, Baek. Why don't you give us a bit more time?"

"Exactly, time...apart, to think it through."

The other boy looked really pained now, but he stood up and squeezed Chanyeol's arm as he passed by:

"I'm really sorry."

Chanyeol thought about pulling him by the hand and holding back, but couldn't even move his arm. He was rooted to the spot, feeling hollow and dry inside.

As Baekhyun walked off towards the castle, he remembered their first day of class together, sitting next to each other in Binns' class. If they had struck up a friendship back then, if he had laughed at Baekhyun's playful joke with the farting parchment instead of getting angry, or if they had simply learned to know each other before jumping onto the archenemies wagon...Would things have been different now?

⚜

⚜

⚜

"Luhan, have a look at this." Minseok said seriously as they sat facing each other in the quiet study room.

The Gryffindor turned bright interested eyes, grinning lovingly before he noticed the graveness on the other boy's face. He coughed and straightened his back:

"What is it?"

"This," Minseok pushed a huge volume from the library into Luhan's arms, turning to one of the first pages in the book. Around them, students were slowly leaving to dinner or going back to their common rooms, the sun was about to set.

Luhan scanned the page perplexedly for a minute before looking up at the other prefect.

"This is Hogwarts: A History."

"Um, yeah. Nice observation, sergeant," Minseok chuckled, "that's not what I was pointing at, though. Did you read?"

"Yeah...?" Luhan blinked: "I don't get it. '...like its enchanted ceiling, the castle is equipped with a large number of powerful charms, some of which are defensive in nature and can be triggered automatically in case of an emergency, such as to prevent an intruder from accessing forbidden, undisclosed places. Most of those spells have been in place since the conception of the school, when its four founders were still alive.' Yeah, I don't get it."

"All the events that have been happening lately," the Ravenclaw pointed at the page, "this is probably it."

"What?"

"A defence mechanism!" the other boy whispered loudly. "The prefects' bathtub going crazy, the flood in the Slytherin Dungeons, the Fat Lady's strange bug...it all started on the night of the Sorting Ceremony, and it's all because the castle is trying to warn us of something. Something happened on that night, and since then, Hogwarts hasn't been in its usual state."

"You think all those incidents are linked for real?" Luhan murmured.

"Linked to something dark." Minseok emphasized, tracing a line over the yellowed page of the book, "there's someone in the school who's doing something really terrible behind everyone's back. Something so terrible and dangerous that it's disrupted all the spells which have been in place in the castle since its foundation."

"Dark Magic, right?" the Gryffindor leaned forward, "that's what the teachers said about Zhang Yixing. He was hexed with Dark Magic, although we don't know what curse it was exactly..."

"I have my theory on that too," the elder boy said solemnly, "you know how Yixing doesn't remember anything about what happened?"

"Uuuh...Yeah."

"Well, it's true that his memory is bad, according to Yifan, but it can't be that bad as to forget events completely straight after they happen. So my guess is that there's someone who's been obliviating him this year. That's why his memory keeps on getting worse."

"That doesn't explain why he was where we found him."

"This is the second part," Minseok took a breath, looking uneasy at the thought, "I'm thinking Yixing could have been acting under the effects of an Imperius Curse..."

The younger boy's eyes grew round like saucepans.

"You think?"

"It would work. What if the order given to him was to 'look for something'...and to 'fall head first onto the ground if discovered by anyone during the search' or something like that? That'd explain why Yixing fainted as soon as he saw Kyungsoo and Chanyeol. Moreover, Yixing is the perfect victim for the Imperius Curse. Naïve, weak memory, likes to move around alone..."

"Yeah, but even so...what would Yixing be ordered to scout for?" Luhan frowned deeply, nose scrunched up, "And – and – and who in their right mind would be using one of the Unforgivable Curses within Hogwarts?"

The Ravenclaw offered him a consternated look.

"Death...Eaters?" Luhan winced.

"I've been reading the Daily Prophet and some Death Eaters are still on the run... Fanatics who want to bring Voldemort back by all means. They've been hiding mostly in Wales, but God knows where they could really be. They could be anywhere in the United Kingdom."

"You really think a Death Eater would be hiding here in Hogwarts?" the Gryffindor scratched his head sceptically. "What is there, here, which could possibly bring Voldemort back...?"

At this Minseok shook his head despondently.

"I don't have a clue...but that's probably what Yixing has been searching for without knowing for the whole year. And now that he is in the infirmary and out of harm's way, I wonder whether there isn't going to be another victim..."

"If that's the case...We need to stop this." Luhan blurted out automatically as he slammed his fists on the table.

The elder boy smiled, amused against his will.

"How?"

"I don't know."

"Nice start, future auror."

"But if we don't do anything, this Death Eater is going to make another student his marionette and make them do horrible things. Everyone's in danger. We need to find this bastard before it's too late. We need to-"

He stopped, suddenly interrupted by a set of flustered footsteps down the corridor, which squeaked around the corner before rushing into their study room, letting a freckled first year storm in, his face paler than a ghost. Minseok stood up to look at him and Luhan blinked, pushing his chair back.

The boy looked shaken like a leaf.

"What's wrong?"

"P-p-professor Slughorn asked me to look for you. He told me to bring all the p-prefects around; the – the teachers say..."

"Calm down," Minseok pacified him, patting his shoulder, "calm down. Tell us slowly...What's going on? Did something happen?"

The freckled boy nodded frenetically, looking absolutely terrified.

"Th-they said," he stuttered, "they said the headmistress got attacked just now... in front of her own office."

The two seventh years exchanged a horrified gaze.

"What?!" they let out simultaneously.

"Is it a serious attack?" Luhan asked out of incredulity. "Is she really hurt?"

The petrified look on the young boy's face was enough to send chills down both their backs.

[Chanyeol]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center][size=9pt][font=georgia]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER FIFTEEN: STATE OF EMERGENCY. ❞

---

It was nearing midnight and the Gryffindor common room was jam-packed with students, all of them waiting whilst giving each other anxious looks, nerves on the edge. His back against Tao, Sehun was sitting by the chimney fire, pensively using his lighter to suck the fire out of the fireplace, when Luhan finally penetrated the room with the other Gryffindor prefects behind him.

Chanyeol, who was dwindling on a sofa near the entrance, jumped to his feet as soon as the prefect walked in.

"So, how's the situation?"

"No one goes outside," Luhan announced, loudly enough so that everyone in the common room could hear. "The curfew order is still on, no one is to leave this place until the teachers are done touring the castle to find the culprit. This applies to all houses."

"But...what happened exactly?" a little girl murmured. "I heard the headmistress got..." her voice waned, "...attacked."

There was a heavy silence in which Chanyeol swallowed difficultly and Tao shuddered in his chair.

"We still don't know everything." Luhan explained grimly, "but you're right. Basically, Professor McGonagall has been attacked on the way to her own office, and she has been sent to St. Mungo's now. The school is officially in a state of emergency."

A wave of gasps travelled through the crowd as the general atmosphere grew thick.

"And the thing is," the prefect continued, "she was apparently attacked by the gargoyle of her own office, which somehow managed to blow fire at her."

"What?" Jongin frowned.

"Mate, that doesn't make sense," Jongdae snorted, "the gargoyle's there to protect her office. Why the heck would it be trying to kill her?"

"That's what the teachers are trying to investigate...It could be that someone has been able to hex the gargoyle without anyone knowing; therefore, this is no laughing matter. I repeat," he took a breath, "Hogwarts is officially in a state of emergency. The Quidditch final has been cancelled and will remain that way until the matter is settled. Hogsmeade outings are annulled. Classes will resume as usual, but there is a curfew of nine o'clock for absolutely everyone including seventh years and sixth years..." he raised his voice when a few mutters found their way through the crowd, "Yes. I said, including seventh years and sixth years...Do you hear? Nine o'clock, everyone must be back in their common rooms. This is not a joke. We've already had two people attacked in less than a week, and no idea on who did it. We are all in danger."

"Yeah, but what kind of danger?" Ally asked from half-way up the staircase. "Is this the work of a dark wizard or...?"

People looked at each other again and Luhan pursed his lips.

"We don't know yet," he said.

"The teachers are being way too secretive," someone else noted. "It's fishy."

"Whether or not it's fishy, the curfew is on from tomorrow onwards, and everyone needs to stay alert. Don't let your guards down. Don't wander off alone. Stay safe, alright?" Luhan glared. "That's all, guys. You can go and sleep."



"This is connected to Yixing's case, isn't it?" Chanyeol inquired quietly as he walked up to Luhan and the rest of the Gryffindors dragged themselves to their respective dorms. "There really is a dark wizard hiding somewhere in the school?"

"I hate to say it, but I think there's no other possibility," the seventh year frowned. He approached Jongdae and Jongin's sofa, so that they could hear him talk without having to shout. "I think Minseok's right. The castle has a defence mechanism and it has been triggered somehow, meaning that all the weird events that happened so far are linked. A Death Eater's infiltrated the castle."

"Whoa, whoa, hold up." Jongdae put both his hands up, "Slow down.What Death Eater? What defence mechanism?"

Luhan crossed his arms and lowered his voice: "Minseok thinks that something done on the night of the Sorting Ceremony has disrupted all the enchantments around the castle, and that Yixing has been manipulated all year long to look for something to bring Voldemort back."

"How is that connected to McGonagall's attack? Why would that Death Eater attack her if he's just looking for something?"

"Well, that's the thing," Luhan murmured. "What if the gargoyle didn't want to attack her, but the Death Eater instead? What if it just happened that they were in front of the office together when the incident happened?"

"Huh." Jongdae looked up at the ceiling meditatively, "a Death Eater...and McGonagall together?"

"And there were no witnesses?" Tao frowned worriedly.

"None."

Sehun opened his lighter again, and the fire returned to the fireplace. Then he clicked it distractedly and absorbed the flames again, making Jongin groan with a hand on his cheek:

"Man, are you going to keep doing that? You've literally been sucking the fire out of every fireplace we've seen this term."

"I'm stocking up," Sehun replied with a sniffle.

"For what?"

"Well, in case there's a Death Eater coming near me, I can just blow him up."

"That won't be necessary, Sehun," Luhan sighed, "you guys aren't meant to roam around the castle looking for trouble – none of us are, actually. Also, move in groups, alright? I really don't want you guys to get hurt."

"That Death Eater," Chanyeol said, "whoever he is, he is going to look for another victim. Right? Now that Yixing is out of the way, someone else is going to get attacked."

"There's a possibility."

"A huge possibility," the younger boy emphasized, "we need to stop him before anyone else gets hurt."

"My thoughts exactly!" Luhan shouted at once, fist in the air.

The other Gryffindors all looked at him, and he rapidly struggled back to find his calm demeanour: "I mean, no. No. We should all wait for the teachers to do their job, and stay out of harm's way."

"Did Minseok tell you to say that?"

"Minseok is actually the most intrigued about this whole affair, but this is not the point." Luhan declared, "you guys should stay out of this. Knowing how reckless you are, this could end very badly, and it would be worse than if you didn't do anything at all."

"Or, we could save the world from danger and be proclaimed as the next Harry Potters, but you know..." Jongdae shrugged.

"Anyways, there's no way to discover who the next victim is for the simple reason that we don't know what the Death Eater is searching for to start with. Yixing forgot everything already. You were there when we asked... You know he did."

"Unless..." Chanyeol began.

The others all looked at him.

"What?"

"His camemoire?" he murmured.

This declaration had Luhan gobsmacked after a short moment of silent reflection. The rest of their group simply blinked at him:

"What?"

"He mentioned it when we were in the infirmary...Yixing uses a camemoire to capture memories that he has trouble remembering himself. I don't know if it's going to be a definite lead, but there is a chance that he could have snapped something on his aggressor, or at least something related to what he was searching for, right?"

"That...that could be."

"We could ask him," Jongdae grinned, jumping up.

"It's still kind of private," Luhan scratched his cheek. "Very private, actually. And we barely got to know him."

"Well, then, we could ask someone else to talk him through it."

"Such as...?"

Chanyeol paused, and they exchanged looks full of mutual understanding.

"Yifan."

⚜

"What?" Yifan spat the next morning, turning grey, "that is the dumbest idea I have ever heard; count me out of it."

"Come on," Luhan insisted through a loud whisper, grabbing his arm as he dragged him forward through the corridors, "you're the only one amongst us whom he knows well for now. Don't you see that we need his cooperation to get to the bottom of this conspiracy?"

"Is this why you were bringing me to the Hospital Wing?" the Slytherin growled. "I'm not doing it. This is a gross invasion of his privacy and he would hate me for this...You go and find yourself another way to play detective, Luhan!"

"You think we wouldn't if we could? This is the only way we managed to think of. Help us."

"What do you mean, help 'us'?" Yifan spattered as they approached the Hospital Wing and he abruptly saw the congregation gathered there which made his eyes widen in dismay. The group of Gryffindor youngsters, Minseok, and even Joonmyun were all waiting for him in front of the infirmary, expectant looks plastered on their faces.

He braked and covered his eyes in consternation.

"I hate you guys so much."

"Come on, Yifan," Joonmyun started with a pleading smile, "Think about the safety of all Hogwarts students...!"

"Well, it's not like I have a choice now, do I?" he rolled his eyes and sighed, looking at each of them in turn.

"Alright," he eventually said, pausing as he grabbed the doorknob. "I'm going to give it a try, but you guys stay out here. If he says 'yes', then I'll make you guys come in. And if he kicks me out, well... you'll know it by the look on my face."

"Yes!" Jongdae and Chanyeol fist-pumped with a grin.

"Don't." the prefect grumbled, "because if he hates my guts after this, know that I will drown myself in the lake tonight, become a ghost, and then haunt your family and your descendants for the next thousand years to come." He snarled. "Bye."

He pushed the door open after taking a deep breath, and slipped in as quietly as possible before shutting it close behind him. On his bed, Yixing had his head turned towards the window, his expression hidden from view. Pomfrey was nowhere in sight for now.

The Slytherin cleared his throat, and then rapidly walked towards Yixing, breathing in deeply.

"Yixing?"

The Hufflepuff turned around, and Yifan instantly felt his throat close up as he saw the expression on the younger boy's face.

Yixing's cheeks were red, and tears swam in his eyes.

"Oh my God..." he dropped, panicking. "My God, I'm sorry, I-I-I didn't mean to do anything uh-"

"What?" the other boy blinked, wiping at his eyes with an embarrassed laugh, "oh, sorry about that. Hello. I'm just having a bit of an emotional moment."

"Uhuh?" Yifan stalled, still sweating. "Wh-what happened?"

"My friend Bobby came to visit me this morning." Yixing explained morosely, "His parents are taking him home tonight, because they don't want him to stay here any longer after the things that happened to me and the headmistress...I think a lot of people are getting really scared of what's happening."

"Right. I...I see."

"Hmm," Yixing murmured, looking blue. "I'm going to miss him."

"Of course." the Slytherin fretted internally.

How was he supposed to raise the subject of the camemoire now that the mood was like this? He hated this so much.

"I'm...I'm sure he'll be back once things go back to normal."

"Yeah, that's true." The other boy mumbled slowly, then blinked, "oh, right. Did you come to tell me something?"

Yifan tried hard not to curse.

"Well," he started, then let out a hollow laugh: "well, first of all, I came to tell you that...that I'm not leaving, ha ha!" he exclaimed too loudly, "I'm not leaving and I'm staying right here, with you, until everything goes back to normal. That's right...! Great news, right?"

Get a grip, Yifan, what are you doing, he moaned internally.

Yixing, however, did not even seem disturbed; in fact, he was smiling: "I'm glad you are."

The Slytherin waned, struggling not to let out another unseemly sound.

"Second thing," he inhaled sharply after a while, his voice fading as he spoke, "I...I came here to ask you about your camemoire."

"Sure. What about it?"

"It's not really my idea," he emphasized, "but my friends are investigating about the scumbag who did this to you, and they were wondering...if we could, you know...if we could..."

"Have a look at it." Yixing finished. "Right? Do you want to have a look at it?"

Yifan blocked, blinking a few times in uncertainty.

"Um. What?"

Yixing bent over towards the drawer of his nightstand and produced the very article which they had been talking about, handing it to him with a compliant nod. The elder boy frowned and took a step back.

"I'm sorry...but isn't this private? Why are you giving it to me so easily?"

"Oh," the younger boy offered a shrug and held out his hands, "they are my memories and I do treasure them in a way...But I don't remember most of them, and... if they can help with investigations, then I think I should contribute. Plus, they shouldn't be too bad to be seen since I've recorded them with this camemoire, right?"

"Huh."

Sound logic.

"And to be honest, you're not the first one who's asked to have a look at it today," he said, "which is the reason I have it here with me in fact."

"Who else asked to have a look at it?" Yifan squinted.

"Professor Jung," the other boy replied with an innocent smile.




Five minutes later, they were all sitting around Yixing's bed, piled up on the mattress to look at the camemoire in the Hufflepuff's hands.

"Guys, are you ready?" Luhan asked animatedly, leaning over Yifan's shoulder, who sighed whilst glancing at Yixing:

"Again, sorry about that."

"No, it's fine..." the boy noted with a groggy smile, "it's kind of like a pajama party."

"Okay, here we go, guys." Jongdae chanted. "Trip down memory lane."

Yixing chuckled and turned the camemoire on. It activated, letting out a small purring sound before lighting up with a dim, green glow. For a second, Yifan narrowed his eyes in discomfort and hesitated whether to ask where they were supposed to look at, but suddenly, his eyelids grew heavy and he felt his muscles loosen up automatically, his entire mind leaving him in a floating state of nothingness. A moment later, there he was, standing in an empty classroom, and Professor Jung was beaming down at him, holding the camemoire in his hands and fiddling with all sorts of handles:

"Just press here to capture the memory you want," the teacher explained whilst calmly looking at him, "It will do it automatically. See?"

Yifan tried to ask where he was, but to his surprise, was unable to utter a word. With a slight jolt, he realised that he was in Yixing's shoes, now. He was in his memories, reliving them.

"The memory captured may vary in length, it doesn't have to be measured in seconds..." Jung was saying. "One memory ends where its significance ends, so you don't have to worry about capacity. Here," he handed the object to him, "make good use of it."

Next thing he knew, he was walking along the rows of the Herbology greenhouse, memorizing plants names and writing them down one by one. He let out a sigh and put the paper in his bag. Yifan remembered this too, it was for a Herbology project they had back in October. And sure enough, when he looked outside, there were leaves falling from the trees outside.

The scene changed, and he was now walking in a corridor full of students, pacing next to his ill roommate who was drinking his medicine in big, long gulps, as someone ran after them, calling out to him:

"Hey, you dropped this."

Yifan – as Yixing – turned around, and held out his hands. It was Markus Hargraves who was now giving him his camemoire back.

"I think it snapped something just now, but I hope it's not broken," Markus's lips curled up in one of his usual charming smiles. "By the way, I heard you guys were having that Herbology project on snargaluff pods. If you need help with that, I'm free for tutoring lessons on Saturday."

"That's really nice," Yifan heard Yixing say. "Cheers. But why?"

"I've been starting this little club to help lowerclassmen with their school work," Markus smiled. "Just a little helping hand during hard times, you know."

"He's trying to get himself elected for most benevolent wizard of the year," Jhaveri threw in passing, before the seventh year rolled his eyes at him.

"Oh shush, Jhaveri." he then waved a little at Yixing, "anyways, if you need any help with the snargaluff pods, just ask me, alright?"

The memory faded. When Yifan opened his eyes, he was on his way to watch a match of Quidditch – Slytherin against Gryffindor – and holding a tiny red flag in his hands while sucking on one of Honeydukes mice pops. The duration of the memory was arduously long, and the boy named Browning had enough time to empty two doses of medicine next to him before the match eventually ended with Jongin coming out victoriously, the golden snitch in his grasp. On his way out, Yixing almost bumped into Markus, who smiled briefly at him motioning with his hand, "Sorry. Going to the bathroom."

Someone else said: "Didn't you say you were going before the match started already?"

Next thing, Yifan blinked, turning around, only to find himself staring at an image of himself standing in front of a pen for hippogriffs. This was their first class together with Shackleplum.

"Here we go, this way I won't forget that you're my group partner, now." Yixing was saying.

And in front of him, his own image smiled courteously.

Followed an endless strings of memories of them together; Yixing throwing rocks at the lake until he could make a ricochet...Yixing and he building Shackleplum's shack from scratch, and the moment the hippogriff had rubbed his beak affectionately against their shoulder for the first time...Yixing and he participating in the silly Valentine Olympics... Yixing and he sharing peppermint toads in between classes in the courtyard...Yifan suddenly felt his cheeks heat up and he forced himself out of the memories, shaking his head furiously as the sight of himself smiling lovingly at Yixing disappeared, only to be replaced by Luhan, Minseok, Chanyeol and Joonmyun's judging faces staring at him.

"Um." he blinked, looking at them in turn. "What?"

"Dude, you were in there for ages." Chanyeol noted. "We've all come out minutes ago, you were the only one who was still watching."

"Oh."

Yifan cleared his throat in a way he hoped to look nonchalant, though he wished he could disappear right there and then.

"Right."

"So, did you guys see what you needed to see?" Yixing looked at Luhan and Minseok expectantly. "Anything that could help?"

"Um...not really." Minseok scratched his head, "or rather, I'm not sure."

"I'm sure of one thing," Jongdae exclaimed loudly, "that guy you were talking to, the Slytherin...he's fishy as fuck."

"Language," Joonmyun frowned.

"He's called Markus Hargraves," Chanyeol said, "and Baekhyun suspects him to have hexed the bludger during our first match against Slytherin. He said he saw him come out of a room below the pitch right before the match. A storage room."

His brow furrowed.

"He also had a thing for Baekhyun a while back..."

At the mention of Baekhyun's name, the Gryffindors offered comforting looks. Yixing simply looked confused. Yifan rubbed his ear contemplatively and emitted an irritated sound.

"I don't know. Something bugs me a bit, but I don't know what."

"What's this thing about 'most benevolent wizard of the year' anyways?" Sehun snorted, leaning back against the Hufflepuff's pillow.

"Oh, it's just a contest between the students in our year," Luhan waved it away. "We've got different titles going around; 'most benevolent', 'most charming', 'most intelligent...'"

"Luhan is leading by a whole heap for 'most charming' so I doubt Markus could make it into that category," Minseok stated casually. "Which might explain why he's taking some additional steps."

"Still," Jongdae mused, looking at Yixing, "did you take his tutoring lessons in the end?"

"To be honest, I can't really remember if I did."

"I'm really bugged by this." Yifan winced. "What is it? This is really annoying."

"By the way," Jongin crossed his arms, "why did Jung ask to take a look at your camemoire this morning?"

"Well," Yixing looked pensive, "I think he just said something about wanting to look for clues as well."

"He's the one who gave it to you."

"Yeah," he smiled. "I think he knew that I had a pretty defective memory... God knows how he heard about it, though."

Minseok pondered for a while and narrowed his eyes:

"Could it be that-?"

"What on earth is going on here?" Pomfrey's voice sounded angrier than ever, the nurse emerging from her office with her hands on her hips. "What do you think you're doing? This is not a place to have a party!"

"Okay, time to go," Jongdae cringed and hopped off the bed.

The rest immediately followed, everyone hurdling off the mattress after handing back the camemoire to the Hufflepuff.

"Come back and visit!" Yixing waved, then the door closed and he fell back against the pillow, giving Pomfrey a sheepish look when she glared at him.

⚜

⚜

⚜

Baekhyun left the urinals and headed for the sink, turning the tap open to wash his hands. He had memories, albeit vague, of him and Chanyeol tumbling around this bathroom during the Christmas ball, laughing like pigeons and struggling to stand up like it was the hardest thing to do in the world.

The image of Chanyeol's laughing face was a depressing thought. He reached for the soap and rubbed his hands angrily, taking out his own frustration out on the cleanser.

"I hate this," he muttered to himself.

He hated himself for being so paranoid and doubtful. After all, had Chanyeol ever done anything wrong since they had started dating? Not really. It had always been him, being worried, freaking out and making stupid decisions.

That was right. Stupid decisions. Breaking up with Chanyeol was a stupid decision.

"I need to tell him," he rinsed his hands and turned off the tap, only to hear a sound of flushing toilets and a door opening on his right. One of the cubicles was open, and Markus Hargraves walked out, smiling at him as he noticed him.

"Oh, hi." came the casual greeting.

Baekhyun opened his mouth to speak.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"Not this one, either." Kyungsoo muttered with a hand over his eyes.

He closed the book in front of him and threw a glance at his surroundings, checking that no one was watching him before looking down at the pieces of parchment on the table, where he had drawn the symbols he had found so far, again and again.

Useless.

All his researches were useless, as long as he had no lead. The secret section of the library wasn't huge, but its content was. How was he going to find the exact book he needed if he didn't even know what he was searching for?

Kyungsoo had just finished putting his current manual back into his bag, when a presence by the nearest bookshelves made him tilt. His eyes shot up. It was Jongin.

"Oh God..." he let out a sigh of relief, along with a chortle. "You scared me."

"I haven't seen you in ages," the younger boy was smiling. "It's time for dinner."

"I'm sorry, I've been so immersed with this whole business about the attacks, and the weird stuff, and...and now even McGonagall got wounded. I feel like I should know what's going on, but I really don't and it's pissing me off."

"Are you looking for clues, too?" Jongin breathed as he approached the table.

"If you want to call it that."

"What else would you call it?" the younger boy laughed softly.

Kyungsoo darted apologetic eyes at him.

"Sorry. Did I make you feel neglected these past few days?"

The Gryffindor thought about it seriously.

"A bit, in the beginning," he said playfully, then sprawled his arms over the table like a cat, looking striking under the waning sunlight. "But you know what? I can understand you, I think. I mean, I get pretty obsessed with things too when I care about them, like Quidditch, for example. If there was something really important going on with Quidditch, maybe I'd be like that too."

"You would?" Kyungsoo frowned, then shook his head. "Well, I suppose I'm not in a position to complain."

"No, you're not." the Gryffindor hummed with a smirk, though there was a soft edge to his expression. "So, are your researches coming along?"

"Pfft. Not at all."

"Do you want me to tell you what Minseok found out so far?"

"Kim Minseok?" Kyungsoo blinked, genuinely bemused. "What does he know about all this?"

"You'd be surprised," Jongin nodded knowingly. "He's got a whole theorem, it's mad."

"Hmm, I'm sure it is. But right now I'm stuck on the meaning behind those symbols, here..."

"What symbols?"

"The ones I drew here." he said. "If I could just make sense out of them, then surely I'd have a clue about a lot of things. But until then, complete darkness. And the worst is that I know I've seen those things before. I know I did, I just don't know where..."

Jongin frowned. "Maybe I can help."

"Maybe," the elder boy shrugged and after letting out a sigh, pulled out the parchments with his scribbles on it for Jongin to see. The Gryffindor leaned over it and scratched his cheek:

"What's that...?"

"Merlin knows." Kyungsoo groaned, "Half-assed circle with horns on one side and some inverted 3."

"Yeah. Basically a deformed 'a' and an epsilon. No idea what it means."

"An epsilon?" the elder boy widened his eyes.

From the bottom of the table, a mewling was heard and his snowy cat soon jumped her way onto the table, making Jongin point at her: "Hello, Hydra."

"Hydra..." Kyungsoo repeated slowly with a frown, heart gradually beating faster, "Epsilon... Hydra... A deformed 'A' for Alpha – Holy shit!"

He slammed his fist onto the table.

"It's the constellation!" he exclaimed. "Jongin, you're a genius, it's the constellation, Hydra!"

The Gryffindor stared at him in pure astonishment and befuddlement, visibly not understanding a thing.

"What?"

"I knew I'd seen it before, but it was in none of the books I'd been searching in so far...because the truth was that I'd seen it in our Astronomy textbook! Last term..." Kyungsoo furiously scrambled for his bag and dragged the heavy volume out of it, flipping to the right page, mumbling a bit before letting out a yelp: "There! Hydra: "constellation often related to the Greek mythological water monster sharing the same name, Lernaean Hydra . . . the constellation has one bright star named Alphard, or Alpha Hydrae and another called Epsilon Hydrae..." he paused, eyes bright: "This is it. The symbols on the wall I've seen aren't about an inverted '3' or a lopsided circle with horns, it's an 'epsilon' and an 'alpha', as you said, to represent the brightest stars of the constellation. As for the humongous crack on the floor which was shaped like a crooked hangman's noose..."

He looked again at the doodle he had drawn of the fissure on the floor where Yixing had fallen, and compared it to the picture of the constellation in his Astronomy book.

"It fits perfectly. The noose in the fissure was not a noose at all. It was the head of the snake in the constellation."

"I'm so lost," Jongin blinked, rubbing his temple with a bewildered look, "hold on, what wall? What fissure?"

"There are passageways in the castle." Kyungsoo explained pressingly, "Passageways which leads to obscure places, and even the teachers are looking for them. One of the doors to those passageways was found by Zhang Yixing – it's where we saw him faint, on the fourth floor. Maybe he found it then, maybe he found it much earlier. But no one knows where the second door is."

"No one... except you?"

"Yes, because I fell upon it by complete coincidence, one day, on Christmas morning, actually. It's in the dungeons...That's where I saw the Alpha sign on the wall, along with this huge serpent-shaped fissure on the floor, exactly like the one we found on the ground on the fourth floor where Yixing fell."

Jongin seemed flabbergasted for a long time, then suddenly he inhaled sharply, as if he had forgotten to breathe all this while.

"Merlin," the boy exhaled, "Minseok was right, then."

"What?"

Jongin rapidly explained to him everything that the Ravenclaw prefect had been speculating so far, from the presence of a Death Eater trying to bring Voldemort back, to the usage of the Imperius Curse on Yixing to find the precise door which Kyungsoo had been talking about.

"That's what he was looking for," the Gryffindor said anxiously, "the door. Whatever it leads to, it could bring Voldemort back, and you said one of them was already open."

"That's...that's what I heard, yeah."

"But what does the door lead to? What could be hidden behind it which could actually bring someone back from the dead?"

Kyungsoo slowly leaned back into the chair as his cat nestled herself against him.

"Whatever it is, it was probably in the castle since a long time ago...But we wouldn't find any information about it here. If we want to know..."

He hesitated, thinking about his secret section, when suddenly, Jongin was the one to whisper with unhidden urgency:

"Your books on Dark Magic. Maybe there'll be more information in there, you need to consult them."

The Slytherin jumped with astonishment:

"How the hell do you know about-?"

"Oh." Jongin widened his eyes, looking terrified, "No. Sorry, I just...That night on Christmas eve, when you were asleep in front of the chimney fire, I saw that book lying on the floor and..."

"Christmas eve?!" Kyungsoo paled, "and...and...you never asked me why I had a book on Dark Magic?"

"I did, remember? Well. Kind of." the younger boy flushed as he shrugged, "I mean...I asked whether you were into world domination and stuff. And you said you weren't, so I just trusted you and left it at that, because I didn't want to make you uncomfortable..."

"Make me uncomfortable?"

The fifth year student was dumbfounded.

"You...you had all the rights to be the uncomfortable one," he murmured.

"Look, it's not like I approve of it," Jongin breathed out quietly, "but I...I think I just didn't want to pry into your private life without your permission. Now, if you ask me, of course I'd be much less worried about you if you simply gave up on those researches completely, but..."

"I will," Kyungsoo interrupted, looking at the window, "I mean, after everything that happened recently, I just realised how dangerous those researches actually were, and...it disgusted me completely from it. As soon as things go back to normal, I'm not touching a book on Dark Magic again. But..."

Jongin stared gently at him.

"But right now," the Slytherin finished, finally meeting the other boy's gaze, "Dark Magic is our best shot."

"Yeah." Jongin's lips curved up slightly, "I think so too."

Kyungsoo smiled with relief. He must have been a saint in his past life to deserve a guy like Kim Jongin, really.

"Alright, then." he said and grabbed the younger boy's wrist, making Hydra fall with a hiss as he stood up from the table: "Come with me, now. I've got a special place to show you."

"Where?"

"Down the Forbidden Section."

⚜

"Here goes," Kyungsoo smiled, squatting down beside one of the most recluse shelves in the secret section of the library, picking up a heavy black leatherback: "The Darkest Crooks and Bends of Necromancy, this should be a good guess."

"This place is incredibly creepy," Jongin murmured next to him, his lit wand glowing gloomily in the complete obscurity of the room. "Did you discover this place all by yourself?"

"No, McGonagall brought me here on a tour," he snorted, "of course I found this by myself. You're the first person I'm sharing this with."

"Really?" the other boy smiled sheepishly, "not even Baekhyun saw this?"

"No."

"Whoa."

"Don't get all proud about it, young man," Kyungsoo muttered calmly, before leaning over a particular page and squinting forcefully: "Get your wand closer for a second? I got something."

Jongin obliged quickly, heart beating.

"You know it's nearing eight thirty." he remarked worriedly, "the curfew is in half an hour."

"I know."

He read as fast as he could, feeling the blood pump faster and faster against the inside of his ears as the information filtered through his staggered brain. He could feel himself grow colder by the second. His hands were clammy.

Jongin threw a peek over his shoulder:

"Let me have a look?"

"You were right," Kyungsoo murmured shakily instead, "there's something terrible hidden down there, in the dungeons."

"What?"

"Look," the Slytherin showed the book to the other boy, still shaken, pointing to the image of a huge archway with a ragged black veil hanging down from it, both eerie and whimsical: "it's a veil. Like the one rumoured to be in the Department of Mysteries. Have you ever heard of the Veil before?"

"Can't say I have."

"I only know because my dad works in that creepy department. The Veil is something like the archway between life and death, spirits from the other world gather around it and call out to you if you get too close, trying to pull you in. But once you fall for the whispers and pass through the veil, you're dead. You can never come back; it's a one-way trip...But that's only the case of the Veil in the Department of Mysteries." he breathed. "This book, here, says there's a second Veil known to exist, and it's a Veil which leaves the possibility, albeit meagre, of a spirit travelling back to this world through the barrier...And it's been hidden in Hogwarts since the foundation of this school."

"Are you kidding me?" Jongin blustered. "Coming back from the dead is impossible. People would have known about this ages ago if there was something like this around and-"

"Look at it," Kyungsoo showed the book to him. "the Second Veil is a wall between the land of the living and the land of the dead, but it's frailer, less stable, more connected to this world than the other one...and therefore necromancy fanatics have been speculating that one day, a breach could be made through that veil, to pull back people from the land of the dead. Even if it's just their soul, they might be able to float back to this world."

"But that's insane."

"Which is why it was hidden deep within Hogwarts, back in the first days of this school, when its four founders were still alive." Kyungsoo breathed, pointing at a few obscure lines. "Here. It says that each of the four founders provided a different barrier to protect the Veil after hiding it. Rowena Ravenclaw provided the feint about two different doors leading to the Veil, two different doors to provide a lure:" he raised his head with a half-smile: "Epsilon and Alpha."

Jongin stared blankly at him.

"A lure."

"Epsilon is probably a fake door," he mused, still holding the book open over his knees, "it's a feint to trap intruders. Opening Epsilon unlocks a slight fissure between the Veil and this world, but it's only enough to activate the castle's defence mechanism; not enough to actually open the chamber of the Veil. All that Epsilon does is therefore open a crack, which alerts people that the passageway is being searched for. Alpha truly leads to the chamber of the Veil. Alpha is the real door."

"So...the Death Eater, by finding Epsilon first, did a mistake?"

"No, you have to open both doors," Kyungsoo nodded, "but by opening one, you alert people that you are looking for both. Therefore, he's doing everything he can to find Alpha before things get out of control."

"The book says: 'All that is known about the doors to the Veil, is that to get through the first barrier, one must dodge Ravenclaw's feint, and solve the 'meaning of the stars'.' We did. We got it. Those stars are about the Hydra constellation. And we know where Alpha is."

"Yeah."

"What did the other three founders put as a barrier, then?"

"Well, no one ever got past the first barrier, apparently," the elder boy scoffed, scratching his chin. "So Merlin knows..."

"I have a feeling Slytherin put something really unpleasant." Jongin grimaced.

The elder boy snorted.

"I wouldn't be surprised."

He looked down at his watch and held his breath. Eight forty-five.

"We need to go." Kyungsoo shut the book and placed it in his bag, "I'll take the book with me for now, study it a bit more...If I discover anything before tomorrow..."

"Hold on, wait a second." Jongin cut him, blinking with a frown: "What are you doing?"

"Going back to my dorm."

"You need to tell your theory to all the others."

"What others?" the elder boy scrunched his nose.

"Chanyeol, Sehun, Luhan, Yifan, all the prefects..." Jongin listed. "The teachers..."

"We're not even sure what the other three barriers are, and who the Death Eater is. How is telling them going to help?"

"Well, if they know what the Death Eater is searching for, they can at least bait him."

Kyungsoo blinked, churning the idea a few times in his head. He supposed that Jongin was making perfect sense, and that in a way, this was probably the best thing to do, but at the same time, the memory of Park Chanyeol's suspicious glares at him back in the headmistress's office was still burning in his mind. He remembered the teachers' looks of misgiving too, and the recollection made him keep his mouth shut. He distractedly looked down at the first page of the book, where a small scribble had been inscribed in the corner of the cover, saying: "A second copy of this edition can be found at The Coffin House, Knockturn Alley", then he raised his head and let out a sigh:

"Alright," he gave in after a while, "let's tell them everything we know tomorrow morning. But right now we'll both get caught if we don't go back to our respective dorm."

"Okay," Jongin agreed, smiling a little.

"I'll see you then." he muttered. "We should go out separately to avoid being caught."

"Sure. The password to Gryffindor's common room this week is 'Falmouth Falcons', by the way. In case you want to come in early."

"Alright." Kyungsoo smiled. "I'll keep it in mind."

The Gryffindor breathed out. At first, a warm smile graced his features and he stared at Kyungsoo in comfortable silence for a little while, but then, his expression gradually faltered as a thought suddenly crossed his mind.

"You know," he said, "I'm thinking about the fact that Rowena Ravenclaw used Hydra as the constellation to unlock the door to the Veil...It wouldn't actually have a meaning, would it?"

The elder boy watched him soundlessly and felt his own countenance wane.

"Like," Jongin continued, looking uneasy, "Slytherin's barrier...it wouldn't be an actual hydra, would it?"

Kyungsoo remained silent.

He was scared to think about it.



Kyungsoo was back in the Slytherin Dungeons in a record time, barging into the dorms unceremoniously and eliciting an outraged shout out of Putieux, who turned around to scowl at him, oily black trail of magical skin product over his brow and nose.

"You almost gave me a heart attack."

"Why? Not used to sharing the dorm with other people?" Kyungsoo cocked an eyebrow as he threw his bag onto his bed, before doing a double-take and squinting distrustfully: "Is that a facial mask?"

"Blackheads are like the plague." Putieux simply said. "Getting rid of them is obligatory for anyone who is civilised."

"You could do it in the bathroom."

"Archer and Maddux are in there."

"Together?" Kyungsoo pulled a face.

Putieux nodded knowingly, mouthing a 'I know', before rolling his eyes and looking at the mirror again. Suddenly, Kyungsoo looked around at their rather quiet dorm, and felt a curious feeling down his stomach. The room felt strangely...empty.

"Where's Baekhyun, by the way?"

"No idea," the French boy hummed, "haven't seen him since this morning."

"Since when did you come back to the dorm?"

"Half an hour ago? After dinner, really."

"And Baek didn't come back? Curfew is in five minutes."

"I didn't see him during dinner, to be honest," Putieux blinked.

Kyungsoo turned grey at those words.

"You didn't see him at dinner?"

"No." Putieux frowned. "He wasn't with you?"

Kyungsoo shook his head. Suddenly, he was heaving with newfound dread.

⚜

"I thought about it a lot," Luhan declared, gathering his belongings as he and Minseok rose from their chairs in the study room where Yifan, Joonmyun, and they had been sitting all evening to discuss their doubts. "the Death Eater is probably one of the students."

"Five minutes ago, you were saying that it was one of the teachers."

"Hear me out. The Death Eater infiltrated the castle easily because he's one of us. God knows how a kid could have been influenced into becoming one, but...with Slytherin parents, you never know."

"Thanks for the stereotype," Yifan cocked an eyebrow.

"My bad," Luhan grabbed him by the shoulder. "But think about it: McGonagall was attacked by the gargoyle protecting her office, meaning she was probably with the Death Eater when the incident happened...Hence, there's a big likelihood that it was a student that she was bringing to her office for whatever reason: mischief, terrible grades, or even outstanding achievements...She thought he was a normal student, but then boom."

"Why not a teacher, then?" Joonmyun mused, plunging his hand into the pack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans which they had placed on the table, and putting one in his mouth. "A teacher could be going to the office with her too. Why specifically a student?"

"Even Filch could have been in front of her office with her, mate," Yifan sighed. "That really doesn't help to prove anything."

Joonmyun nodded apologetically, and Luhan groaned:

"I have a gut feeling, and my gut feelings are never wrong."

"You had a gut feeling that Minseok's sister was into Jongdae, once." Yifan enunciated.

"Yeah, I'm still holding a bit of a grudge over that one, by the way." the concerned Ravenclaw side-eyed his boyfriend.

"This and that are totally unrelated," Luhan countered, then lowered his voice. "I think the Death Eater here is Markus Hargraves."

Joonmyun paused in his chewing to make an unconvinced face.

"Look..."

"Are you saying that because we saw him a few times in Yixing's camemoire? You were the one saying back then that he was just being overzealous about the whole 'most benevolent wizard' contest."

"Gut feeling, I'm telling you guys." Luhan pointed a finger, then glanced at Minseok: "What do you think, Minseok?"

"I'm not really sure anymore." the Ravenclaw admitted with a sigh, still pensive.

"Anyways, the curfew falls in a few minutes." Joonmyun hurriedly said, "We should all go back to our common rooms soon, otherwise we'll all be exposed to danger too."

"Of course." the other Ravenclaw nodded. "You're right, Joonmyun. Very right...We'll be going first."

"I'll take Minseok back to his dorm," Luhan said, throwing his bag over his shoulder.

"Every-Flavour Bean before you go?"

"No, thanks. My luck isn't good tonight," the Gryffindor grimaced as he left their table. "If I eat one more snot-flavoured candy I'm throwing up... See you guys."

"Don't do anything reckless during the night, okay?" Joonmyun glowered.

Luhan waved the concerns away and the sixth year Ravenclaw watched anxiously as his friend's figure disappeared through the slit in the door... only to be replaced by Jongdae's grinning face a second later, making him yelp.

"Hello." the fifth year Gryffindor was leering through the opening.

Joonmyun immediately yapped:

"What are– Jongdae, you're supposed to be in your common room!"

"Uhhh, just saw Luhan and Minseok come out from here. Looks like there was a party." The younger boy shrugged as he walked in. "What's with the face? Why can't I join?"

"I don't know," he said sarcastically. "Maybe because the school is in a state of emergency and you're supposed to be in your dorm by now?

"What about you guys, then?"

"We're prefects." Yifan noted flatly.

"So? Curfew applies to prefects too. You'll get lynched if the teachers see you here. They'll be taking you for the Death Eater they're looking for." Jongdae shrugged again. "I'm actually here because guess what? It's a Friday evening, and someone's forgotten about their patronus tutoring lesson."

Joonmyun froze, drenched in cold sweat within a second, horrified.

"Oh...no!"

"Oh yeah, oh no." Jongdae smiled, then waved dismissively, "Don't worry, by the way. I'm not mad, I just wanted to make you flustered."

Joonmyun fell back against his chair.

"What a troll," the Slytherin scoffed.

"I have to entertain myself, mate. Everyone's so disheartened because of the whole Death Eater business," the younger boy replied, while reaching into the Every-Flavour Bean pack and pulling out a handful under the Ravenclaw's appalled scrutiny. "Plus, Chanyeol's still depressed because of Byun Baekhyun dumping him. Whenever he's not thinking about Death Eaters, he's thinking about Baekhyun, which is absolutely depressing," he sighed despondently. "Yeah, the Gryffindor Tower's a miserable place to be right now."

"There's something that bugs me about the Death Eater business." the Slytherin remarked spitefully, pushing his chair back to stand up and leave. "I want to catch that bastard who dared use an Imperius Curse on Yixing, but I don't know who to look for, and I feel like there's something we've been overlooking here."

"Maybe we'll have more luck tomorrow," Joonmyun said.

"Yeah, or maybe we can have a look at Yixing's camemoire again." Jongdae suggested, throwing one baby pink bean into his mouth. He chewed onto it prudently, and then slowly grimaced in aversion: "Oh, God. Eww... That tastes like make-up powder."

Joonmyun looked dismayed: "Why do you even know how make-up powder tastes like?"

"I have a mum," Jongdae replied easily, still struggling to swallow before continuing: "...and a sense of curiosity."

He then shuddered.

"Ugh, this was revolting. As people say, things are never quite what they seem, man. That looked cute, but it was gross."

Next to him, Yifan suddenly froze.

"Things are never quite what they seem...?" he murmured meditatively. "Things are never quite as they seem."

"What's up?"

"That's it," Yifan declared, grabbing his bag and storming towards the door. "That's it, guys. I get it. I know the identity of our mystery Death Eater."

Joonmyun gaped openly.

"What?" he dropped.

"You heard me," the elder boy simply retorted, and gestured for them to move. "Now, come on. Let's go."

"Go where?"

"Catch the fucking bastard who did this to Yixing," the Slytherin muttered, tucking his wand into his pocket. And Joonmyun panicked:

"Yifan...It's literally two to nine; the curfew... We can't...We'd be breaking a hundred school rules!"

But Jongdae grinned, raising both hands in the air exaggeratedly: "Woohoo. Anarchy."

"We don't have time to wait anymore, if my theory's right, this guy is going to act again tonight and we need to stop him before he gets a second victim to toy with. Put your robes on. It's going to be cold."

"Cold?" Joonmyun frowned. "Where are we going?"

Yifan turned to face him, then nodded towards the window and smirked coldly:

"Outside the school," he dropped. "We're going to London."

[Sehun]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center][size=9pt]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER TEN: TALKING WITH TROUBLE. ❞
[PART ONE] [PART TWO]

---

Sehun had always been weak with mornings. He thought he had made that a fairly clear point over the past few years, but obviously not enough for everyone because otherwise Tao wouldn't be here, quaking the living life out of him.

"SEHUN, WAKE UP. IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY, LET'S OPEN OUR PRESENTS, COME ON, WAKE UP."

Sometimes, Sehun just wanted to curse the other boy's internal clock, which caused him to wake up every morning at six sharp like a bloody cat. Tao was now shaking him like a coconut tree and he had to muster all his self-control not to punch him in the face.

"IT'S EIGHT O'CLOCK." the other boy was yelling at the top of his lungs. "I WAITED FOR TWO HOURS, YOU NEED TO WAKE UP NOW."

"...No." he grunted.

"IF YOU DON'T WAKE UP, YOU WON'T GET TO SEE YOUR PRESENTS."

"...m'kay."

A silence ensued.

Slowly, two arms came to wrap themselves around his shoulders, and carefully lifted him up from his pillow – or rather, from Tao's pillow; he was in Tao's house and Tao's bed after all – dragging another moan out of him.

"If you don't wake up," Tao's voice insinuated in his ear, "you won't get bubble tea."

Sehun sat up and knocked the elder boy's face with the back of his head.

"You got us bubble tea?" he blinked haggardly, turning around as the other boy rubbed his nose in pain.

"Ow, yeah..." Tao mumbled with a groan, "it's downstairs in the kitchen."

"No way. Where did you get the muggle currency?"

"I asked my mum to change some for me. Then I went to the bubble tea shop down the street while you were sleeping," he looked up and let go of his nose with a small pout. "Anyways, can we go down to open our presents now?"

Sehun jumped off the bed before Tao could finish his sentence, and the elder boy soon followed him with an excited shriek, the pain long forgotten to be replaced by childish eagerness as they tumbled down the stairs together.

"I caught a glimpse of your presents when I was awake, earlier on," Tao said once they were both sat under the Christmas tree with a bubble tea in hand. "You received a present from Yifan!"

Sehun stopped and stared at him.

"Way to spoil the surprise."

"I'm sorry," Tao covered his mouth. "It's just, I'm too excited."

"Which one is it?" Sehun responded easily, fumbling through the pile of wrapped boxes and sealed cards, stopping at a very plain, small box with black glittery paper. "This?"

"How did you guess?" the other boy blinked. "Damn, you must know him well..."

"You'd know him well too if you weren't so busy stuttering each time he's around – are you still infatuated with him?"

"It's not called infatuation," Tao remonstrated, then sullenly recoiled. "I just find him very, erm, mysterious. And cool."

"Him, mysterious."

Tao shrugged, frowning slightly.

"You don't think so?"

Sehun pondered, opening up the present that Yifan had given him, which revealed itself to be an ordinary-looking fire lighter. A glance at the Christmas card that came with it soon enlightened him on its usage, which was identical to a deluminator except for the fact that this one ate and gifted gigantic flames, instead of absorbing light. Tao grabbed the silver lighter in his hands and studied it under the sunlight.

"It should be called a 'deflaminator', then." he said.

"That sounds really lame."

"I'm jealous. That's a really good present." Tao sighed, sitting back. "Can I borrow it when you're not using it?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because you'd probably let it be seen by the teachers and they would confiscate it." Sehun re-joined, putting Yifan's present and card aside to open another present from his parents. "I don't even know where he got it from; he could have bought it from Knockturn Alley for all I know."

Tao only stared at him with bulging eyes.

"What?"

"Hmm?" Sehun glanced at him while sipping on his drink. "Nothing."

Truth be told, as terrible as it sounded, that was where they had first met, Yifan and him – Knockturn Alley. Sehun remembered the day as if it was yesterday. They had both found themselves in that dodgy area at the same time; him by accident, the elder boy by maybe not so much of an accident. But Sehun had never told the teachers, or anyone else about this; after all, it was thanks to Yifan that he had gotten out of there safe and sound, and thanks to that meeting that they had become friends at all.

For Sehun, getting into Knockturn Alley had just been a mishap. He was in second year and there had been a badly locked cellar in the last corridor of the seventh floor with a vanishing cabinet in it, hidden amongst other artefacts that had partly been destroyed during the Second Wizarding War and had been retrieved over the years, for filing purposes. Yifan and he had discovered that cabinet at different times, except that Sehun had never intended to use it to go anywhere, so that when his twelve years old self found himself accidentally trapped in it and was transported to Borgin and Burkes as a result, he had panicked, and would have probably been into much deeper trouble had Yifan not found him wondering in the shabby streets of Knockturn Alley, and brought him back to the castle under his supervision.

Sometimes, Sehun wondered if that half-destroyed vanishing cabinet was still locked away in the castle, somewhere, or if the teachers had finally decided to get rid of it...Either way, he supposed that this did not concern him anymore.

Tao looked slightly sceptical as he continued to keep quiet, then shook his head and opened wide eager eyes once again:

"Anyways, that doesn't matter," the elder boy declared. "You need to open your next present. Now."

"Why?"

Tao simply grabbed a huge, elongated shape covered by multi-coloured wrappings from beneath all the other presents, and pushed it into Sehun's arms under the younger boy's incredulous eyes.

"We all chipped in," Tao informed him, "so this is from Jongin, Chanyeol, Jongdae, Luhan and me."

Sehun gazed at the package in his arms, diffident. The size and shape only pointed to one thing; and yet, as he tore the paper apart with cautious moves, nervous with anticipation, he could still not bring himself to believe it.

"Do you like it?" he suddenly heard Tao's voice next to his cheek.

But he was speechless. In his lap lied the newest model of the cleansweeps, a brand new, varnished and graceful Cleansweep Twenty-one which gleamed faintly under his quivering fingers.

He opened his mouth, passing a hand over the smooth handle of the broomstick with unreserved awe.

"It's not as fast as a Firebolt or anything." Tao noted with his head resting on Sehun's shoulder. "But well, Luhan said that as a beater, speed wouldn't be your main purpose anyways, and that since you've been using the school's old cleansweeps until now, it'd be more comfortable for you because you'd at least be used to it."

"Luhan said that?" Sehun said with an involuntary hitch in his voice.

He laughed before he could help it, and next to his face, Tao smiled too.

"Are you going to cry?" the elder boy said teasingly. "Don't cry."

"I'm not crying."

"I'm happy if you like it."

The elder Gryffindor grabbed his nape and pinched it playfully, causing the younger boy to push him away with a weak grunt of objection.

"I do love it," Sehun replied once he regained his composure, examining the broomstick once again. He lightened up: "Thanks, Tao."

"It's not just my present!"

"I know, but I can only thank them by letter, right?" he paused. "Also I'm saying thanks for, um, for...inviting me... to your house, I mean."

The other boy smiled brightly and threw both arms around Sehun's shoulders to nuzzle his neck; for once, Sehun did not complain. With Tao, it was always more about giving than receiving, and Sehun continuously wondered how he would ever pay the elder boy back, if he ever could.

"Damn," he soon let out grimly, "now my present to you is going to seem super useless in comparison."

"Which one is it?" Tao shot up, immediately revived, as Sehun handed him a small, rectangular box and smiled tentatively at him.

The elder boy did not hesitate for a second. He ripped the green wrappings apart and slowly froze in front of the small lengthened case in his hand, inspecting it in snooping perplexity for a while, before finally opening it up and blinking, completely mystified by its emptiness.

"What's this?"

"A wand case," Sehun explained unhurriedly, "for your wand, in particular."

"My wand?"

"I mean," the younger boy fumbled slightly, "Remember, how Flitwick said that hazel wands were super sensitive to their owner's emotions, and that they reacted with magic accordingly? So this wand case is made especially to, um, stabilise your wand's emotions while you sleep. It's also made to enhance the special properties of hazel wands, like its abilities to detect underground water, for example... and, yeah. Since your wand was being a bit difficult last year, I thought this would be a good idea."

He stared at Tao, and Tao stared back, the elder boy still holding the wand case in both hands, his face completely blank. Sehun gradually started to feel bad.

"Sorry if you think that's useless."

"Useless?" the other boy abruptly blurted out.

And then, without a warning, he grabbed the younger boy by the shoulders and hauled him into a deep hug, almost making him drop his bubble tea.

"That's everything except useless. I'm going to use it every night!" he pulled himself back, looking at the gift with glowing eyes. "This is the end of my wand woes. The ultimate wand case...!"

"I'm not sure it can work all that well-"

"Let's find out tonight," Tao exclaimed without listening, while taking a sip from his bubble tea. "And what's this? A present from Jongin? It's a Ruyi."

"What's a Ruyi?"

"It's a Chinese good luck charm; I make a collection of these for good fortune," Tao explained, pulling the object out of its box. "But how did Jongin know that I make a collection of these?"

Sehun shrugged.

"It's weird, I thought I'd never told anyone."

"Maybe he made a wild guess."

"Well, I'll thank him! What's next?"

They continued to waddle through discarded wrapping paper and unopened boxes for a while, then Sehun slowly let go of his straw and glanced at the beverage in his hand.

"You know," he suddenly said, "I just realised, but there's a hell of a lot of toppings in here, for a bubble tea. Most of these things aren't even bubbles."

Tao straightened his back and sat down more comfortably.

"I got really scared while waiting in the muggle queue," he finally confessed, "so when she asked me what toppings I wanted I just said everything."

Sehun stared at him with the start of a grin on his face, and the other Gryffindor immediately reared:

"What? At least be thankful that I went out of my way to buy one for you."

"I know."

He was thankful. He was so thankful, that instead of saying thank you out loud, he used his index finger to gently push his friend's nose, causing the other boy to draw back with a frown before lunging forward and pretending to bite his hand. They fell, laughing, then returned to their present opening once again.

As it turned out, Tao had received a present from Yifan too. It was a giant orrery for Divination, along with a pair of leather gloves that the Gryffindor decided to put on straight away.

⚜

"–so I just told him our closet was growing nettles naturally, but he didn't believe me." Baekhyun shrugged, offering Kyungsoo a wide-eyed look through the burning flames of the fireplace. "No more glumbumbles in the house now, he cleaned up everything."

Using the floo network to talk through the Slytherin common room's chimney fire was not a glorious way of having a morning chat with his best friend on Christmas day. But Kyungsoo had to admit that he had missed Baekhyun's presence over the last few days and just having the other boy's face in the fireplace was already good enough for him right now. Comfortably installed in front of the chimney fire in the Slytherin common room, the younger wizard now sat back in his armchair and sneered at his friend derisively:

"I'm very sorry for your loss."

"I know," Baekhyun's head in the wavering flames pulled a frown, "I rather preferred when my brother was less perspicacious. Now he just mothers me whenever he's at home... But enough of that. Tell me how your Christmas eve went with Kim Jongin."

"Not bad," Kyungsoo replied.

He glanced back at Jongin's sleeping form on the sofa, covered up to the neck, with Hydra curled over his belly. The Gryffindor was still snoring peacefully, having gone back to sleep after opening their presents together. Kyungsoo smiled.

"Yeah, he's not doing too bad, I'll wake him up later."

"Oh, you depraved souls," Baekhyun snorted and narrowed his eyes, "sleeping in the same dorm, huh? I don't want to know what dirty business you've been up to, yesterday night-"

"We didn't do anything."

"–but if you ever feel like telling me, know that I'm all ears." the elder boy finished as if Kyungsoo had not spoken at all. "By the way, thanks for the set of explosive ink, I tried them just now. They're really effective!"

Kyungsoo softened, tugging his shirt's collar up to fend against the cold.

"You're welcome."

"Now I know what to use if I get to write lines in detention," the boy smiled. "What about you? Are you wearing that protective charm I gave you for Christmas?"

"The Seventh Sense thing?" the younger Slytherin said, pulling the small pendant out of his collar to show it to his friend. "I'm wearing it right now."

"Good, wear it well. Wear it all the time, if you can."

"It's a nice present," Kyungsoo added after a pause. "Thanks."

"Did you like the Christmas card that came with it?"

"The one that farted at my face when I opened it?" the Slytherin cocked an eyebrow. "It was lovely. Very subtle and sophisticated of you; I was moved to tears."

Baekhyun simply grinned and sent him a flying kiss.

"Anything for you, my one and only love," he blared in an opera voice.

"Shut up, you're going to wake up Jongin."

"What, are you picking him over me?" Baekhyun exclaimed, but Kyungsoo noticed that he had already lowered his voice by a few decibels, "you two and your mawkish love story. I can smell the daisies from all the way over here; and that's over the stench of Kiki using doxycide to get rid of the doxy infestation in our bloody kitchen," his face disappeared from view for a moment as he turned around, "no offense, Kiki."

"Let's not talk about me anymore, since it makes you so sick. How is it going for you and Park Chanyeol?" Kyungsoo leered.

For minute, Baekhyun's face remained invisible in the grizzling flames, then, suddenly reappeared with a vaguely dazed expression.

"Park Chanyeol?"

The younger Slytherin almost wanted to laugh.

"Yes, of course, Park Chanyeol, your punching bag and enemy of always. Or what, has all that flip-flopping that went down during the Christmas ball already made you forget that fact?"

"I'll flip-flop your face, if you mention the ball again. That night was a total fiasco."

"Oh, come on, you had lovely Sturdivant at your arm for – at least – part of the evening."

"Who is as pretty as the starry night indeed, but Lord have mercy, is she a chatter box," Baekhyun made a saddened face, "you know how I feel about people who are more talkative than me."

"You'll be pleased to know that she found herself another dance partner as soon as you disappeared to the bathroom that night."

"As I said, total fiasco."

Kyungsoo smiled, softer this time.

"Do you regret the flip-flopping?"

"You know he sent me a Christmas card?" came Baekhyun's sole reply, and Kyungsoo blinked in mild surprise.

"Who, Park?"

"No, the Minister of Magic. Of course it's Chanyeol. It's a really badly written Christmas card," Baekhyun grimaced, lifting up a sloppy reddish greetings card with a somewhat psychotic-looking Christmas tree on it. "Dreadful taste. And the handwriting, ugh, it's just ghastly."

"You're not one to talk about handwriting, to be honest."

"But have you seen this abomination?"

"I'm surprised he sent you a card at all." the other Slytherin frowned, "And it says 'Happy Celebrations, Byun Baekhyun' with the correct spelling, too. You know, for someone who is supposed to hate your guts, it's really quite decent."

Baekhyun shrugged, and the card disappeared from the floo network's zone as the elder boy cleared his throat.

"Not compared to what I sent him."

"What did you send him?"

⚜

⚜

"Is that a ferret?"

Chanyeol stood awkwardly in the menagerie store, with its ridiculously low ceiling, his bag over his shoulder and Baekhyun's small note, which he had received amongst all the other Christmas presents this morning, in his hands. He glanced down at the address and magical seal inscribed on it, then back at the furry animal licking its paws in the woven basket in front of him. From behind his back, Jongdae was trying hard not to laugh.

"You sure this is for me? This. A ferret." Chanyeol frowned hesitantly at the shop owner, and the small bearded wizard nodded animatedly.

"Of course, why don't you let me see your seal again?" the wizard took his note and lightly tapped his wand against it, letting a thin, blue light elevate in the air and reveal transparent words above the paper. "Yes...Brown ferret named "Snapchat" already paid for, to be presented to the recipient against this note... The order's correct." he smiled at Chanyeol while handing the piece of parchment back, and the student gaped.

"So the ferret – Snapchat – is mine."

"Yes he is, boy, do you want to give him a snack?"

Chanyeol looked down anxiously at the piece of chicken handed over by the shop owner, and behind him, Jongdae finally burst into uncontrollable laughter.

This was bollocks. What was Baekhyun doing, actually going through the trouble of getting him a surprise ferret as a Christmas present...? He took the piece of chicken guardedly, before finally holding it out towards the ferret's mouth. Snapchat lifted its peppy little head at once, eyes glowing, and grabbed onto his hand with its tiny paws, biting the food with its pink tongue darting out from the side.

Chanyeol let out an unseemly sound.

He had fallen in love already.

"He is so adorable..." he mumbled with his eyes transfixed.

"He gets a little overexcited if you give him too much food to eat. Don't worry though, the boy won't bite unless you really offend him."

"But... why a ferret?"

Chanyeol glanced at the little ribbon around the animal's neck. Baekhyun had attached a message to it; it said:

It's a compromise between dog and cat.

Don't take it too seriously.

Merry Christmas.

- B

A smiley face accompanied the words, making Chanyeol laugh in silent disbelief. The Slytherin still remembered that? He was slightly out of words.



"Thank God he gave us a basket to carry it home," Jongdae said once they left the menagerie store. He was still giggling irrepressibly through his scarf, a hand clasped on his friend's shoulder. "If you had to carry it in your arms for the entire tube ride, you can be sure the Muggles would all begin to stare at you like you've grown a second head."

"I'm just glad you live in Greater London." Chanyeol answered, peering lovingly at the napping animal through the slit of the basket. "I can't imagine taking a train back with this little guy here; he would wake up before we go home and get hungry..."

"Hold on a second, though." the other boy sniffled amusedly. "Are you telling me," he said, "that Byun Baekhyun, the pest and blight of Slytherin whom you abhor more than anything in the world, has actually bothered to buy you a pet for Christmas?"

Chanyeol finally lifted his head to glance at him.

"It's just a conversation we had back in detention...about cats, and dogs, and which of the two is better. We couldn't agree on one or the other, so I suppose he got me a ferret as a joke."

"Which also means that he goes around remembering your conversations, and buys you cutesy gifts according to them. Mate," Jongdae shook his head, "the boy has fallen for you."

"No, he hasn't," Chanyeol retorted too fast. "He hasn't fallen for me, and he doesn't even like me, and – and I don't like him, and – as I said, it's probably just a joke."

"Yes, and obviously, you're loving the joke – because look at all the love this ferret's getting already..."

"He's just so cute," Chanyeol puckered his lips while hugging the basket.

"Mate," he cackled, "maybe Byun's actually courting you and you just don't know it."

"Cour-"

He stopped walking, stared at Jongdae dead in the face, and then scowled.

"Don't say dumber things than a Trelawney on a roll would say, Jongdae," he hissed.

Baekhyun couldn't be doing this to court him. If he was, then what would have been the purpose of that letter on Christmas eve?

But Jongdae simply shrugged and pretended to kiss an invisible person: "Oh, Baekhyun, I'm so happy; thank you – thank you so much for the cute present, you sweetheart..."

"Sod off."

"You should give him something in return," the other Gryffindor suggested playfully. "After all the trouble he went through for you, it's the minimum you could do."

Chanyeol thought about his terribly sloppy Christmas card and paled off.

"Errr. Maybe I should, yeah. But let's talk about something else; when are Tao and Sehun coming down from Cambridge?"

"On New Year's Eve."

"Sweet. They know how to use muggle transport?"

Jongdae gave him a look.

"Do they look like they know how to use muggle transport?"

⚜

⚜

"So you gave him a ferret," Kyungsoo cocked an eyebrow, and Baekhyun's face pulled an indifferent expression in the fire, "as a reminder of the touching time you spent in detention together. How very sweet."

"It's meant as a joke. I told him not to take it too seriously."

"Right...So what was that again about 'pretending it never happened'?"

"My dear Kyungsoo, I didn't tell you that story just so you'd make fun of me," Baekhyun narrowed his eyes.

"On the contrary, I think that's exactly what you signed up for when you told me, my dear Baekhyun. When are you going to get over the denial stage?"

"As I said, it's just a joke. An inside joke. I maintain what I said in my letter to him, the two of us just slipped – by his fault, if I may add. Now that the air's been cleared, I can sleep like a baby again."

"Hmm."

Kyungsoo nodded, staring at him blankly. Baekhyun pursed his lips and glowered.

"What?"

"I didn't say anything."

"Your face did."

"I was just thinking about, you know, how a month ago, your definition of a joke involved slipping burping hoaxes into his pastries and spraying stinksap all over his books in Herbology class..."

"I can always spray stinksap all over his books in Herbology class, what are you talking-"

"I'm just saying that maybe," Kyungsoo interrupted him and cocked an eyebrow, "maybe, things are starting to change these days."

The other boy scrunched his nose.

"Change. What do you mean, change?"

"I mean that maybe it's time to start admitting that this letter of yours obviously did not stand for much, you stubborn idiot."

"Stubborn. What do you mean, stubborn? I'm not stubborn. You are just seeing trolls where there are none. And, no, Kiki, stop agreeing with him, or he is going to think he's right..." Baekhyun looked back at Kyungsoo. "Where was I? Ah, yeah. You guys are both silly. Seriously. Do I even look like someone who's in denial?"

"Yes."

"Your synchronicity was terrifying." the Slytherin rolled his eyes. "Just because you're dating a Gryffindor doesn't mean everyone else has to, you know."

"Well, what do you know," Kyungsoo coughed with a slight embarrassed flush, "I have discovered fairly recently that Gryffindors can be somewhat decent when you get to know them, and that depending on the moment they are really not so-"

"Yes, yes, here come the daisies. Kiki, more doxycide please."

"To go back to your case," the other boy added, "just don't come back crying to me if you find yourself outsmarted. Park might be a goon, but he's not a bad-looking goon as far as I'm aware, so if he becomes taken over the holidays, it will entirely be your fault."

"Firstly, I have never cried in front of anyone and I don't intend to change that fact anytime soon, thank you very much." Baekhyun smirked. "Secondly, it's thrilling to know that you find Park Chanyeol good-looking, Kyungsoo; and thirdly – what makes you think he'll get taken over the holidays anyways? That boy couldn't even find himself a partner to the ball."

"Baek, don't be silly," now it was Kyungsoo's turn to smirk. "New Year's Eve? Gryffindors? A lovely evening with friends and potential underage drinking?"

Baekhyun grew quiet, eyes widening slightly. The idea seemed to have not crossed his mind.

"Also, Jongin told me that Park is spending Christmas holidays at Kim Jongdae's house, and that Oh Sehun and Huang Zitao are joining them for New Year's."

"Ah? Well, it's not like Kim Jongdae and Park Chanyeol are an item, those guys already-"

"Not Kim Jongdae, Baekhyun. Other friends."

A silence.

"Sometimes you're just so aggravating, Kyungsoo," Baekhyun said with a hand over his face, "why are you like this?"

"You'll thank me one day." the younger boy spoke quietly. "In any case, sending a letter of denial isn't going to straighten things out between you two. I hope you know that."

"Ugh, straightening things out is overrated; I like to leave my things crumpled and messed up and as confusing as possible, thank you."

Kyungsoo pursed his lips, looking at him in quiet consternation.

"You're so stupid."

"I love you too, my dear Kyungsoo. Hold on, my brother's home," Baekhyun suddenly said, his attention diverted. "I have to go. Will talk to you later?"

The younger boy blinked, slightly staggered. "Already?"

"What do you want? I'm wanted everywhere," he sighed dramatically, "it's a sin to be this popular, but can I help it? I'm just born this way."

"Just shut up and go already."

"Don't be so cold," Baekhyun said, sending him another flying kiss. "I miss you loads. Don't replace me with Kim Jongin while I'm not around, okay?"

"What? That's not eve-"

"I really need to go. Bye bye!"

The flame swished, and with a crackling noise, Baekhyun's face disappeared, leaving Kyungsoo alone in front of the fireplace, with Jongin's soft snoring sounds for all companionship and the greenish glow of the lake glowing through the arched windows. He contemplated the hearth in silence for another minute or so, then finally sighed and pulled himself up, walking around the armchair to get to the Gryffindor's snoozing spot.

Hydra had woken up from her nap while he was talking, and had now scampered away on her daily mice hunt around the castle, having knocked over Jongin's covers on the way, leaving the younger boy completely exposed to the cold winter air. That did not stop the Gryffindor from swimming in a dreamless sleep, and Kyungsoo watched him snore for another minute or two with an amused smirk, before finally rearranging the covers over the younger boy's body as delicately as he could. Taking his bag, he then headed towards the exit of the common room, and walked out into the dungeons' cold corridors to go to the library. He had kept the same books with him for too long already. It was time to pop a visit to the secret room of the forbidden section, his own secret hide-away.



Kyungsoo was pacing somewhere down a dark corridor towards the staircase to the floor above, when he first heard it. At first, it was nothing but background noise to the usual hubbub of his daily thoughts, but then, the noise became words. Actual words that he could hear.

The whisper.

A tiny, floating whisper.

'Come here.'

He froze, heart beating. Darting a cautious eye behind his back, he saw nothing. In front, nothing either...A blood-curling feeling arose in him.

'Come over here... Closer. Don't be shy.'

"Who's there?" he spoke up quaveringly.

No one answered. With trembling steps, Kyungsoo flattened himself against the wall, drawing out his wand and pointing it in front of him. The torches casted a murky light over the floor, too dark and too eerie to be of any comfort. His mind swiftly debated between making a dash for the nearest staircase to run to a professor's office, or sprinting back to the common room in order to hide in the crook of Jongin's arms. As a matter of pride, he ignored the latter option.

Soon, the whisper grew louder, accompanied by sighing sounds this time.

'Come...Help, please. Come over here.'

"Who is it?" Kyungsoo prodded the ground shakily. "If you say who you are, maybe I could help."

A sort of exhaling giggle welcomed his words, sending a chilling shiver down his back, before zooming past him and disappearing around the corner.

Kyungsoo lifted his wand defensively. This was bad. This was terrible, even.

"Lumos," he declaimed with urgency.

The dim corridors brightened up, showing all their dampness and general peculiarity, and causing him to bite his lips with renewed fear. The whispers seemed to have vanished around a corner, into a dark path he was not sure he had seen before and he took a few steps in the direction of the obscure passage, then retreated, too scared to move forward. His heart was thumping violently against his chest. A dim echo resounded in his ears, shapeless, too low to form coherent words.

"Fuck." he murmured under his breath to calm himself. "Merlin. Shit. Fuck."

Why did it have to happen now, while people were all on holidays? For a moment, he seriously considered going back to get Jongin to come with him, but something also told him the phenomenon would stop if he found the younger boy again. Taking a deep breath in, he pursed his lips and tip-toed around the corner, ready to throw a shielding spell at any time. He slashed his wand forward.

The corridor, wholly unfamiliar and completely obscure, was also empty.

Thank God.

He exhaled, almost inaudibly. Still the low echo buzzed in his ears, coming from deep down the unexplored passage. His curiosity taking the better of him, he eventually plucked up some courage and dived into the darkness, his wand before him.

As he walked, the whispers did not immediately come back. Instead, the humming in his ears became louder, then, softer, then louder again without a fixed pattern... He walked for a long time, turning left and right. But the longer he walked, the more silent the walls became. By now, the whispers had completely disappeared. Only his steps echoed against the cold hard stone.

"Incendio," he said while directing his wand at a line of torches on the wall, and the hallway he was in illuminated itself instantaneously. Still, no whisper. Even the humming seemed to have turned down, now. He was completely alone.

'I should go back soon', he thought grimly to himself.

But then, a huge opening at the end of the corridor caught his eye, causing him to halt and stare at it. The opening was not arched like ordinary doors, nor did it begin at ground level like other entrances did; instead, it seemed to be a tunnel embedded in the wall, and he walked up to it with caution to peer into it. The light of his wand brightened the way through another corridor, but still no whispers could be heard. Mentally prepared and much more composed already, he climbed through the opening and plunged into the profound path in front of him. A few minutes passed before he finally found himself in a sort of small room, without any windows, door, or opening of any sort apart from the one he had just used. Around him, just stone walls, cold and humid. He lifted his head, and a drop of water fell onto his forehead, startling him and causing him to stumble backwards. He tripped, for the floor was uneven at that spot and the ground had been split by a large fissure shaped like a hanged man's noose. He shook his head and fixed his wand towards the wall once again.

There was a sign, there, that he had not noticed before.

Kyungsoo squinted. It was a round eye, with little horns on one side, an inscription that was barely bigger than his own hand. He let his palm hover over the drawing, feeling the icy, humid stone beneath his fingers... but nothing else happened. No flash of light or secret passage opening. No strange phenomenon.

'What were you expecting,' he told himself with a self-deprecating sneer, and let his arm fall back to his side.

Rapidly, the temperature of the room grew colder, and he glanced one last time at the sign on the wall before making his way out of the obscure passage as fast as the damp and slippery floor allowed him to.

He had never been this happy to go up to the library.

⚜

---

[font=georgia]THIS CHAPTER IS SPLIT INTO TWO PARTS DUE TO THE CHARACTER LIMIT PER POST. PART TWO CAN BE FOUND HERE.