02-01-2018, 05:57 AM
[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 NINETEEN: OUT OF THE FLAMES. ❞
For what seemed like an eternity in his mind, Chanyeol did not dare to open his eyes, and yet the boiling feeling which should have come with the flames never arrived. He stole a peek through his eyelids and saw himself getting flung to one side, Kyungsoo and Tao at his waist, the two students tackling him to the ground. Meanwhile, Sehun had swung his lighter in the air and blocked the flames from the Hydra's head with a gigantic jet of fire of his own.
The lighter seemed to hold on for a while, then suddenly died off.
"Move!" Kyungsoo shouted as the Hydra's flames momentarily stopped and Sehun stumbled backwards.
Chanyeol and Tao obeyed, pulling Sehun to his feet and dragging him away. At the same time, the Hydra whistled and plunged forward with its nine heads, necks stretched out to pursue them with more ferocity. Sehun and Tao soon branched off on their right. Chanyeol and Kyungsoo continued straight, running into one of the pools of water, and paddled through the pond before one of the monster's heads dived in with them. Chanyeol ended up pushed into the water, gurgling bubbles out, and avoiding the venomous teeth of the snake by barely an inch.
He threw off his heavy robes onto the Hydra's head to cover its eyes, and emerged from the pond at last, climbing onto the shore after grabbing Kyungsoo's expectant hand.
"Come on," Chanyeol spluttered and led them into one of the small tunnels running through the walls.
It took him less than a minute to see what a stupid mistake that had been. The dead end of the tunnel was only five metres away from them. They were stuck. Chanyeol braked and stopped, searching for a way out in vain... Then, he noticed a difference in level at the end of the passageway, which created a burrow that they would momentarily be able to hide in if they squeezed in one after the other. But the Hydra was already hissing behind them now.
Without thinking, Chanyeol pushed Kyungsoo with him into the narrow hole.
"What the fuck are you doing, it's a dead end!" the Slytherin hurled.
"Stop shouting, or it's going to-"
He couldn't finish. The Hydra's jaws had come crashing against the opening of the burrow, tongue darting out with poison dribbling onto Kyungsoo's robes, the saliva gradually starting to fume and burn through the fabric. The hole was too narrow for the monster to slip in for now, but the rocks were slowly beginning to crack and break above them. Chanyeol shoved Kyungsoo further into the den to avoid the debris while the Slytherin shook off his infected robes.
"It's going to bite through the rocks," he yelled.
"You think I can't see?" Chanyeol snapped back.
The creature's monstrous teeth were making an indent in the walls above their heads, and the opening was starting to crumble now. Kyungsoo flattened himself against the walls of the burrow, eyes shutting with fear.
"Fuck, we're going to die. Fuck, fuck, fuck."
No, no, no, Chanyeol chanted in return. No. They couldn't die here. There had to be a way. The opening was becoming increasingly wider now, the Hydra's mouth was drawing closer.
Kyungsoo inhaled sharply and stared at him:
"Do something!" the boy wheezed.
"Do what?!" Chanyeol bellowed back. "I can't think of-"
The teeth of the snake scratched against the hole edge, dust raining on them.
"-anything," he panted.
A piece of rock fell between their legs.
"Fuck," the Gryffindor racked his brain, squeezing his eyes shut as he tried to remember his Defence Against the Dark Arts essay for Jung. Think, think, think, think, think!
Jung's voice suddenly came back to his mind, weary and dispirited: "No, you wrote – and I quote – you need to poke them in the-"
"Eyes!" Chanyeol burst out, drawing his wand, "for all oversized reptiles, the weakest point is the eyes... Confringo!"
The sparks hit the Hydra's left eye first, and when it screeched and pulled back in pain, Chanyeol aimed for the second eyeball, blinding it as well with a streak of sizzling light. Its eye sockets burning with scorching flames, the monster's head retreated for the time being, and Kyungsoo used the occasion to direct his own wand at the burrow's wall: "Expulso."
The rocks collapsed at once and they barged into the subterranean Great Hall again, immediately crawling up to break into a sprint. The Hydra could be heard hissing fumingly behind their backs, still gliding through the tunnels.
Tao and Sehun were hiding behind a large curved rock shaped like a moon crescent, metres ahead.
"Over here!" the elder of the two shrieked. "Quickly!"
Chanyeol tried to answer, but a deafening thunder of falling rocks had suddenly detonated behind him, alerting him of the Hydra's return. One of its heads was now completely blind and it sounded more menacing than ever.
"Hurry up," the Gryffindor shoved Kyungsoo forward, "duck!"
They threw themselves behind the moon-shaped rock just in time – the Hydra's middle head had started spitting flames again. Sehun grabbed his lighter, opened it, and started sucking the firestorm in like a tornado.
"How the fuck does it even work..." Kyungsoo asked shakily as the fire abruptly disappeared into the younger boy's lighter, making him stagger.
Sehun shrugged.
"Who cares? It just works."
"Yes, it does. But you're only making it angrier," Chanyeol stammered as the monster shrieked, "Guys, we need to blind it...Glacius!"
The spell exploded against the dreadful monster's skin, creating a layer of ice that the snake shook off within seconds. Useless.
"Doesn't work!" Tao screamed, though he was throwing occasional spells as well from behind the rock.
"We need to find that fucking 'immortal head'," Kyungsoo shouted angrily. "Find a head that's not like the others!"
"My super lighter's full," Sehun observed with a troubled expression. "Shit."
Five heads charged towards their hiding spot at once and they were forced to desert it in a panic, throwing themselves onto the ground and scampering off as the moon-shaped rock got destroyed by the reptile's jaws.
Hitting his head against a bump on the floor, Tao fell and held his forehead in pain. At once the Hydra took its chance, teeth bared.
"Tao, get out!" Sehun screamed, "Di-"
"Diffindo!" Kyungsoo and Chanyeol shouted at the same moment.
The air seemed to cut itself into two, and a second later the Hydra's neck above Tao was severed at the base, its bloody head detaching and crashing onto the ground with an awful burbling sound. The other eight heads immediately recoiled, screeching. But then, as Sehun and Chanyeol hurriedly pulled Tao up and towed him towards another boulder, the severed neck slowly began to warble again, and after a long and agonizing struggle, two new necks sprouted out from its stem, glossy and smooth. Ten reptilian heads were now glaring at them, mouth dribbling with fury.
The young wizards looked at each other.
"Made things worse, I guess," Chanyeol mumbled for Kyungsoo's benefit and the Slytherin rolled his eyes.
"Hey, we're in trouble," Sehun stated all of a sudden, while Tao was leaning his dizzy head against him. "My super lighter really can't take any more flames."
"Do you have to call it a 'super lighter'?"
Tao murmured something incomprehensible and then blinked a few times in confusion.
The Hydra hissed and began to spit fire at them once more. But this time, unable to counter it, Sehun simply hid with the others and covered his face with one hand, the other one dragging Tao against him to bring the boy within the boulder's protection. The elder fourth year had recovered from his earlier moment of shock and was now screaming his head off again.
Chanyeol flattened himself against the ground and closed his eyes, heart racing.
"Fuuuuck," he belted out.
Kyungsoo was angrily saying something next to him, but he couldn't hear a thing over the raging flames.
"What did you say?!" he yelled.
And Kyungsoo snatched his ear to scream into it: "YOU NEED TO BURN THE HEADS OFF AT THE STEM AFTER CUTTING THEM SO THEY CAN'T GROW BACK."
"Fuck that was loud."
"Did you hear me?"
"Yes..." Chanyeol then opened incredulous eyes at him. "Wait, really?"
"Baekhyun's essay!" Kyungsoo was coughing violently into his fist, "He said it was the only way...fuck."
Chanyeol squinted, trying to remember his own essay:
"Burning the necks off at the stem..."
Maybe that was it.
The Hydra's flames died off briefly, but before he could even sit up, they had picked up again and this time, from a nearer distance. The monster was slowly closing in on them. It was waiting for a moment of inattention to eat them all up.
Chanyeol thought as fast as he could for a way out and looked at Sehun and Tao curled up together next to him. The younger of the two was holding his lighter tightly over his chest.
He nudged Kyungsoo in the ribs:
"Sehun's lighter. We can use Sehun's lighter as a fire hose to burn those necks...Sehun!"
The younger boy glanced at him through wincing eyes.
"Pass me your lighter!" he shouted and Tao shrieked with two hands covering his ears:
"It's called a deflaminator!"
"No, it's called a super lighter-"
"Just pass us the fucking thing!" Chanyeol and Kyungsoo bellowed at once.
The flames vanished. The Hydra immediately lunged at them, eight heads on the prowl, and Sehun tossed the lighter in Chanyeol's direction.
"Diffindo," Kyungsoo invoked at the same time.
And with a whistling sound, the two nearest heads fell off, slit by the force of the severing charm. Chanyeol clicked the lighter open.
"Here goes nothing," he squeaked with his eyes shut.
The flames stormed over the Hydra's heads, leaving it shrieking for an excruciating and agonizing moment of pain. Once he was sure that the creature had fallen back, Chanyeol shut the lighter again and watched for the cut off heads with unhidden anxiety. The necks were scalded at the base, black and sore, and the eight remaining heads were squirming in pain. Nothing was growing back.
"It works," Chanyeol exulted, seizing his own wand: "It really works! Diffindo!"
He was rapidly joined by Kyungsoo and Tao, and soon three more heads had fallen onto the ground, including the one he had blinded earlier on in the tunnel. Charbroiled at the bottom of the neck, none of the cut off heads were able to grow back, as Kyungsoo had said. The five which remained simply glared at them and rose up in the air menacingly before diving in at an alarming speed.
Chanyeol threw the lighter back into Sehun's hand and dashed onto one side. Tao avoided the bites by hopping from boulder to boulder. Kyungsoo was taking his aim from behind a middle-sized rock:
"Pass me the lighter," the Slytherin shouted, "Diffindo!"
The spell was about to hit one of the necks on the edge, when the reptilian head in the centre of the lot suddenly moved to take the hit. Its neck snapped, severed into two, and dark blood spluttered into the air as the only fire-spitting head collapsed onto the ground. Sehun immediately lifted his lighter to burn the root of its neck off, but Kyungsoo simply blinked in bewilderment.
"Wait...what?"
"We're safe from the fire now," Chanyeol smiled, "that head was the only one that could spit fire, which means we're at least safe from that-"
"But we're running low on flames," Sehun winced.
Kyungsoo still looked pale.
"Kyungsoo?" Tao shook him by the shoulder. "What's wrong?"
"That neck on the edge...Just now, the one in the middle threw itself forward to take the hit for it."
"I'm sorry?"
At the same instant, the massive reptile decided to attack them once more and they immediately ran for cover, rushing towards the Chamber of the Veil on the tacit understanding that there at least, they would have some room to breathe. Kyungsoo seemed resolute now.
"The last head on the left..." he exclaimed, "it's the so-called immortal one."
Chanyeol slowed down to stare at him: "What?"
The monster was back on the chase, with only four heads left, but still as much wrath.
"How do you know?"
"Before, when I tried to cut it, the other head came in to protect it...It's trying to save that head at all costs," Kyungsoo barked. "That must be the one we need to cut in order to stop all heads from growing back, like you said."
"But are you sure it's that one?" Chanyeol frowned, "Sehun says we're short on flames. We can't just throw random attacks..."
"I'm a hundred percent sure."
"But..."
"Guys, what are you doing?!" Tao suddenly yelped, "run!"
They both spun around at the same time, only to see a gigantic set of teeth and slimy tongue right above them, closing in at light speed.
"Shit," Chanyeol cursed and tried to roll away, but an earth-shattering shock shook him and the bottom of his trousers got pinned to the ground, landing him flat up on his stomach. When he looked back, the Hydra's mouth was just there, only millimetres away from his calf, one globulous golden eye leering at him in mockery. Its sharp, thick teeth were sunk into Chanyeol's slacks, nailing him to the floor like a mere puppet.
The Gryffindor swore and fought to free himself in vain: "Shit!"
Two more heads were looming over him now, salivating in anticipation as they approached. Kyungsoo, who had hit his spine against a pillar in his attempt to get away, was rubbing his back with a choking cough, face constricted with pain as he lied on the floor, a dozen of metres away.
Sehun ran out, genuine fear in his eyes:
"Chanyeol, get out of there!"
He then raised his wand to free the elder boy, but from behind, the Hydra's tail wacked it away. The dry cracking sound which resounded then was enough to tell Chanyeol of what had occurred before Sehun even collapsed on the floor with a scream of pain. The boy's right wrist was growing in size, swelling as he held it against his stomach.
The bones there had been broken.
"Fuck," Chanyeol tugged at his leg, in vain, "fuck," he searched for his wand, but the holly wand had rolled out of his grasp in his escape attempt and was now out of reach, "fuck, fuck, fuck...!"
This was it. This was really it.
Tao started to yell out a severing spell, but was choked by the Hydra's tail.
This was it, Chanyeol thought again.
The Hydra was almost laughing at them with its eyes. The monster tightened its grip around Tao's neck. Chanyeol inhaled sharply.
They were done for.
A severing charm cut through the air and cut the Hydra's tail into two as a clear and firm "Diffindo!" was heard across the room.
Tao was released at once and the huge snake's tail wriggled behind him like a disconnected worm. Chanyeol looked back at the source of the spell whilst the monster hissed in protest, and saw Jongin coming out of the Chamber of the Veil with a weakened Baekhyun on his back. The Slytherin still looked pale, but he was conscious. And most importantly, his eyes were back to their usual brown shade, warm and bright.
"Chanyeol, use my wand!" the prefect said, as he tossed the spruce wand out.
The Hydra squirmed while the Gryffindor waited for the catch, and Kyungsoo struggled to stand up:
"It's the head on the left," he spluttered, "Jongin, you have to cut it off!"
"Heard that." the fourth year turned towards the head in question and chanted once more:
"Diffindo!"
At the same time, Chanyeol caught Baekhyun's wand and blinded the head at his feet with a swift freezing spell before hauling himself out of the creature's clutch. He then beheaded it with another hex, and rushed towards Tao for Sehun's lighter. The item was slightly damaged, but it was still usable.
"There's only enough for one neck," he noted nervouly as he flicked it open.
But the 'immortal' head was still rising and swinging above them, its tongue darting out sleazily while the one he had just truncated was slowly beginning to grow back into two new ones. He panicked. Which of the two necks was he supposed to use the fire for?
"Immobulus!" Kyungsoo then roared from behind his pillar, and though the spell bounced off the giant snake without any of the desired effect, it still allowed enough time for Jongin to take a breath and close in on his target:
"Diffindo," the boy uttered, and finally, the immortal head fell under the edge of the spell, swaying and gushing with blood as it crashed onto the ground. Chanyeol raised the lighter at last.
"Do it," Kyungsoo encouraged.
And the younger boy indulged, projecting the last jets of flames onto the newly decapitated neck to burn it into charcoal crumbs. Within seconds, the immortal head was gone for good. Chanyeol let out a breath he did not know he was holding. The neck he had cut off earlier had already pleated and grown back in the meantime, but Kyungsoo seemed to have a new idea for the last remaining heads.
"Bombarda Maxima," the Slytherin articulated as he aimed at the surrounding pillars.
And before Chanyeol could realise what was going on, the huge columns supporting the ceiling exploded into huge boulders that came crashing down on the weakened Hydra, smashing their skulls over the ground. The Gryffindor scrambled to his feet as the earth shook beneath him. Rocks were raining down on them from every direction now.
The entire room was collapsing.
"Get out - everyone, get out," Chanyeol muttered as he seized the back of Jongin's shirt and shoved him forward, while Baekhyun was still relying on the fourth year's shoulder. "Get out, now."
"Sehun needs help," Tao gasped and Kyungsoo came in from the side, pulling the younger boy up before ushering him from the back. Pillars fell in every corner of the hall. Sehun was still holding his puffy wrist.
The six of them fled for the staircase as fast as they could, climbing it four steps at a time, and tripped with every quaking of the room. Soon they heard the crumbling of rocks and the running of water behind them. Chanyeol turned around and saw the Chamber of the Veil being crushed by the sinking ceiling, destroyed forever with the threat it guarded.
They were completely out of breath once they were back in Gryffindor's room and were relieved to find that the lion statues were still sleeping, like they were when they'd left them.
"You think Hufflepuff's barrier would still be there, then?" Jongin asked breathlessly.
The rest of the group shrugged. They did not speak for the rest of the trip back, but hurried towards the water-filled tunnel with the same impatience. Whilst paddling through the passageway, it indeed became clear that the plants had miraculously fallen back asleep, just like the lion statues had. They were back at the opening in half the time they had taken to make it to the Gryffindor room initially.
"Are you feeling alright?" Chanyeol said to Baekhyun while they extracted themselves from the freezing waters.
"Dizzy," the Slytherin murmured, looking away. "My mind feels numb."
"We'll bring you to the infirmary." Kyungsoo declared sombrely, and the other Slytherin only meekly nodded. "It'd be annoying if that curse left any repercussions on your mind."
"How's your wrist, Sehun?"
"I can't feel it at all," the younger boy admitted.
"We'll need to fix that too, then."
They jumped out of the secret passageway in the dungeons, and turned to find themselves face to face with Luhan and Minseok's overwhelmed features. The group of young wizards blinked in astonishment and incomprehension but Luhan and Minseok both looked to shocked to explain. Professor Jung was smiling from behind them.
"P-professor?" Chanyeol started.
"Yes. Hello, boys," Jung laughed softly, his illuminated wand in front of him, "I'm glad to see you're safe and sound."
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"Sneaking out of school on a hippogriff and a broomstick, without any heed for curfew and without telling any of the teachers, all to face a Death Eater who could have killed you all," McGonagall was saying with a deep, helpless sigh, "in all these years of peace since the Second Wizarding War, I've never seen that much recklessness coming from a student. And I don't think I mean it as a compliment."
Seated in a row of seats against the wall of the headmistress's office, Yifan, Jongdae and Joonmyun looked at each other before staring at the teachers in front of them who nodded gravely. There were also wizards from the Improper Use of Magic Office present in the room, those looking stern with their dark uniforms on, having escorted Yifan, Joonmyun and Jongdae back from the Brownings' house over an hour ago. Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, Jongin – all the involved students were seated on similar chairs, ready to receive the adults' verdict while Baekhyun had been sent straight to Pomfrey with Luhan and Minseok to investigate the potential aftereffects of the Imperius Curse thrown on him.
McGonagall, who was slowly recovering in St. Mungo's and could not yet return to the school, was now talking to them through a sphere-shaped object held in Professor Jung's hand:
"Are you even aware that you could have been killed without anyone knowing?" she said slowly, "the very least you could have done was to leave a warning for people to know where you were..."
"I did," Jongdae piped up, "I left a note in my dorm."
"Mate, I don't think you should even mention that one here," Chanyeol whispered back.
"Everything happened too fast, professor," Joonmyun squeaked, "we – we – we didn't have time to tell anyone."
"I think we are all missing the point here," a mousey officer from the Ministry suddenly twittered in a nasal voice, "those children did not only break school rules by sneaking out of the school like they did. They also broke the law that underage wizards are not allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts grounds."
"We were in a life and death situation," Yifan snapped with composure, "Jongdae's dungbombs and fireworks would not have helped us knock out Denholm and the Brownings just by themselves, you know."
"But why did you not call one of the teachers to go with you? Professor Jung had been stationed in Hogwarts just for that purpose. To catch Denholm."
"This is not the only issue," another wizard of the Ministry interrupted, "the five of you," he said, nodding towards Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, Sehun, Jongin and Tao, "also managed to destroy a world-scale heritage which was stored and protected in the school since its foundation."
"If it's about the Second Veil you're talking about," Chanyeol muttered, "I think we did a God damned good job in destroying it."
Kyungsoo nudged him with the elbow and rectified: "We didn't destroy it. We just saved ourselves from a titanic monster which was trying to devour us, and the Veil happened to get destroyed in the process."
"Again, none of that would have happened if you had warned teachers of your whereabouts."
"We were worried for a friend," Kyungsoo insisted wryly. "Also, at that time, everyone in the school board seemed to believe that I was a parseltongue speaker trying to bring back terror into the school or something."
"That was your own assumption," the officer said.
"Plus, one of you was in possession of this," the last wizard added, holding up Sehun's used lighter in his hand, making the young Gryffindor gulp, "this is not an item approved by the Ministry. It's a muggle artefact modified by wizards to obtain unnatural and potentially destructive effects in the form of oversized, hardly controllable flames. It shouldn't have been found in the hands of a fourteen years old."
"Is it called a deflaminator?" Tao suddenly asked in a tiny voice.
"What? No, as I said, it's a modified muggle artefact. It has no name."
"Oh."
"It is probably the only one of its kind, too," the man said. "The fact that it was in a teenager's hands is as bewildering as it is distressing."
With his wrist still bandaged, Sehun exchanged a sorry glance with Yifan who simply bit on his lower lip.
"Look, this is not important," Chanyeol said annoyingly, "the bottom line is this. If we didn't have that lighter, we would have all been eaten alive. And if we hadn't slipped out of our dorms so fast, we would have lost Byun Baekhyun God knows where."
"Not entirely true. Yunho here can confirm it, the fact that he found you guys in the dungeons was due to the Bloody Baron seeing the five of you sneak away through some obscure corridors. He was certain that he saw Mr Byun go after you guys, which means that you were the ones who were leading the manipulated Mr Byun, and not the opposite."
"Denholm said Baekhyun would have found the place sooner or later that night, though," Yifan retorted.
"Anyways, I don't think we need to argue over who would have found the Veil first and who would not," Jung suddenly spoke, his voice gentle but firm, "it is true that I found the boys thanks to the Baron's indications. But it is also true that I would have come too late to save them had the boys not already disposed of the Hydra themselves."
The other wizards from the Ministry momentarily paused, looking at the auror hesitatingly. Soon, McGonagall cleared her throat, and though her face looked pale, her tone was authoritative:
"This is all I have to say about the entire matter: Firstly, it is true that Mr Wu, and our two Mr Kim's did break a hundred school rules tonight and have practiced magic outside of school in defiance of the Ministry's orders. However, it is also true that without their reckless actions tonight, the Brownings would still be under an Imperius Curse, their son – who is also a Hogwarts student – would still be locked in the obscurity of his own basement, and none of us would have discovered that the Bobby Browning who attended class this year was in fact Andrew Denholm, a dangerous criminal," she paused, "they have therefore done the school a huge service by saving all the students and teachers from future harm, and capturing a Death Eater for the Ministry."
Yifan, Joonmyun and Jongdae raised their heads with a new-born filament of hope.
"Secondly, for Mr. Park, and the other four, she continued, "it is true that they have destroyed the Second Veil, which in a way could be considered a precious artefact and a heritage dating from the time of the four founders. However, it is also true that without them, Mr Byun would still have been roaming the dungeons for the rest of the night under an Imperius Curse, which could have very well led him to the secret passage Denholm was looking for. Had they not been able to stop him in time, there would have been two possible outcomes only: either Denholm's plan would have succeeded and Voldemort's spirit would have been summoned back to this world in one way or another – in which case it would have been the start of another war – or else, we would have lost an innocent student forever, as Mr Byun would have been killed by one of the four barriers," she coughed slightly before continuing, "Mr Park and the others have, moreover, demonstrated extreme courage and intelligence for solving a puzzle that none of us were able to solve for all these years – having attained the Second Veil before any of the teachers could even discover where it was."
The Gryffindors and Kyungsoo looked at each other with a small smile.
"Thus, I would like to take fifty points off each and single one of you for the reckless behaviour you have shown. But I would also like to gift a hundred-and-fifty more per head for exceptional bravery, solidarity, and your contribution to the school's safety."
The officer with the mousey nose tried to say something, but she continued:
"And I would like to ask the Ministry to overlook the underage use of magic which my students have demonstrated tonight, as the circumstances they found themselves in were both peculiar and particularly dangerous."
"I'm sure they would never have used magic if they didn't have to," Jung smiled at the other wizards from the Ministry, who were now looking slightly embarrassed, "I personally believe these students entirely when they say that they were in a life and death situation."
"It's not that we don't believe them..."
"Well, then," Jung leered, "what is there to hesitate about?"
The three men from the Improper Use of Magic Office glanced at each other. The matter was already settled.
As he heard Chanyeol and the others sigh in relief next to him, Kyungsoo lifted his eyes towards the portrait of Dumbledore hanging on the wall. The old wizard was smiling at him through his half-moon glasses and heavy beard, and when their gazes met, he gave the Slytherin a complicit wink.
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"I just realised," Joonmyun said with a touch of dismay as they walked out of the headmistress's office, "this means we're way behind Gryffindor on the house points for the House Cup, because most of you guys are Gryffindors, and I'm a Ravenclaw."
"I'm more shocked that this the first thing that comes to your mind right now, to be honest," Yifan cocked an eyebrow.
"I'll be leaving you first," Chanyeol noted, "I want to go check up on Baekhyun first."
"You could go in the morning," Jongin remarked.
"No...I...we have things to sort out in private, I think. And I don't want to wait it out anymore."
"I need to go to the infirmary too, though..." Yifan said.
"Because of Yixing?"
Yifan was about to nod when a gentle voice answered behind him:
"Yixing's here."
The Slytherin prefect turned around, and gaped at the sight of the boy standing there, with his soft brown fringe and cute dimple, camemoire around his neck. Yixing smiled at him when he struggled for words, and the others suddenly snorted behind him.
"Alright, I think we'll be heading out first," Jongin said loudly, softly nudging Kyungsoo and Tao forward. "We'll see you tomorrow at breakfast, alright?"
"And I'll be going to the Hospital Wing," Chanyeol added before scampering off.
Yifan did not reply to any of them.
He was still trying to find the usage of his own tongue.
"I, uh, I thought you were in the infirmary..." he eventually started after a while, "how..."
"Pomfrey discharged me, since I was basically just there on a quarantine," the younger boy chuckled while scratching his head embarrassedly, "and now that Luhan and Minseok explained to her that the situation has settled down for good, she said I'd be free to go."
"I see," Yifan murmured, "and, uh, so, is Baekhyun there?"
"Baekhyun...?"
"Oh, uh, a young Slytherin, fifth year, scrawny...must have come in with Minseok and Luhan."
"Oh, yes," Yixing nodded, waning slowly, "yes, he was there. He's resting. Pomfrey said he should be fine soon."
"Okay, that's good."
Yixing nodded, but somehow, he seemed melancholic. The Slytherin rapidly began to worry.
"What's on your mind?"
The Hufflepuff shook his head. "Well, I heard about Bobby. At last."
"Ah."
Yifan's expression faltered.
"It wasn't the real Bobby, don't let it affect you."
"No, I know it wasn't him," Yixing said as his voice softened, "but it's just...I feel used, you know? For an entire year, he was next to me and...I never knew what he was up to, I never even suspected him of anything bad, let alone of doing anything bad to me, and... I don't know. Usually I don't mind helping people and not getting anything in return...but...now, I feel so stupid all of a sudden."
He sighed in front of Yifan's sombre expression.
"Maybe I'm being an idiot and making a fuss over nothing."
"No, you're not," Yifan retorted sharply, "you have every right to be angry at him for doing what he did to you and he is nothing short of a bastard who doesn't deserve any of your thoughts anymore. It's not your fault, so please don't feel stupid. You're not. You're wonderful, and you don't deserve any of the things that happened to you this year, Yixing."
The Hufflepuff stared at him with a mildly shocked face, before a slow and bashful smile crept its way onto his smooth cheeks.
"Well, that's a dramatic way of saying things."
"S-sorry," Yifan mumbled, "Joonmyun often says I'm dramatic – but then he is too, so..."
"I don't mind you being dramatic," Yixing assured with rosy cheeks. "I heard from Minseok about what you did tonight."
"Oh. Um. Which part?"
"Everything."
"Great," the Slytherin moaned. "The dungbombs weren't my idea."
"Thanks a lot, that's all I wanted to say," Yixing finished while staring straight into his eyes, still looking a little morose, "before I forget again."
Yifan simply blinked, then swallowed hard and contemplated his own shoes.
"It's nothing. Now that Denholm isn't here to obliviate you every so often, your memory is going to get better, I'm sure."
"You think?" Yixing smiled a little.
"Yeah, of course."
"Will you help me if it fails again?"
The Slytherin's head shot up so fast he heard his bones snap.
"Yeah." he said brokenly, "yeah. Of course. I'll always be there to help you with anything I can."
"You'll always be there?"
"With you..." Yifan stammered. "Yeah."
Yixing walked forward, and before he could truly begin to understand what was happening, Yifan felt soft hair against his neck and a heavy presence against his chest. His arms wrapped around Yixing on instinct, and he immediately started to wheeze internally. This was happening for real. Yixing was hugging him.
The Hufflepuff rested his head against the other boy's shoulder and murmured in a gentle voice:
"Thank you."
Yifan did not reply; his tongue was tied and his heart was screeching like a pulled out mandrake inside his ribcage – he could barely hear his own thoughts over the wedding march suddenly playing in his own head.
"Yixing...I, uh..."
"Yes?"
"No...nothing," he croaked, hugging the younger boy more tightly, and planted a kiss in the fluffy brown hair, "Jhaveri was right. Your hair feels really nice."
⚜
"Can I come in for five minutes?" Chanyeol asked as he peered into the almost deserted infirmary.
Pomfrey gave him a stern look but simply placed her hands on her hips and nodded at Baekhyun, who was sitting on the bed:
"How are you feeling?"
"Good enough to talk," Baekhyun answered sheepishly.
"Alright, then five minutes," she sighed and paced away into her office, and Chanyeol immediately darted towards Baekhyun's bed, plopping down at the end of the mattress to be close to the elder boy without putting him ill at ease.
"Are you feeling better?" he asked seriously. "Still dizzy?"
"You can come closer, you know," Baekhyun commented. "I don't bite."
"I...oh."
Chanyeol hesitated, then eventually complied and scooted closer so that their hips were almost touching.
Baekhyun offered him a self-conscious look and then started to study his own fingers as he spoke:
"I'm sorry for all that you guys had to go through tonight because of me."
"Wow," Chanyeol scoffed softly, "Byun Baekhyun, apologizing?"
"You guys almost died," the Slytherin said, "and I also tried to hex all of you."
"Under an Imperius Curse." Chanyeol sniffled. "Where did you even run into that Death Eater anyways?"
"In the bathroom," Baekhyun replied quietly, "I was having an argument with Markus about the bludger he'd hexed but he left out of frustration, so I was going to follow him...then one of the cubicles opened and this Hufflepuff came out. I didn't know who he was, really. But I suddenly recognized his face because I'd seen him in Knockturn Alley once, and..."
"He got you."
"Yeah," Baekhyun muttered. "Just like that. It was so fast..."
Chanyeol mused.
"So Markus really hexed that bludger, huh."
The Slytherin glanced up at him and smirked.
"I told you he was the one who did it, didn't I?"
"Why did you argue with him, though?"
"Because I wanted him to apologize."
"Why?"
"Because he tried to hurt you," Baekhyun snapped curtly, then drew back. "Well-"
Chanyeol gazed at him in silence. Memories of their past break-up still stung him inside. He was wondering what to say, when Baekhyun suddenly opened his mouth and spoke up:
"I still care about you, Chanyeol."
The Gryffindor froze, blinking, and remained out of words, shocked at the suddenness of the declaration.
"What I did and said was stupid," Baekhyun continued urgently, "I shouldn't have told you that I wanted to break up. You have all the world's right to be mad at me. I just realised now that-"
"I'm not...mad," Chanyeol stammered, "I've never been mad, Baek."
"-I shouldn't have cared about what my parents were going to say when they didn't even know a thing about you and me, and I shouldn't have been such a paranoid jerk with you. I've been treating you like crap and I feel terribly, terribly stupid – and you know how much I hate being stupid."
"Yes, I do, you hate being stupid more than you hate cucumbers."
"That's right, I hate cucumbers. Cucumbers are gross."
"But I wasn't mad at you, Baek," Chanyeol said, "I don't know if you realise, but I've never been angry at you for what you did or said, even when you asked for a break-up, I... I was hurt, that's true," he winced, "I was really hurt. And I was horribly upset, more than anything, but I wasn't mad at you."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm not going to lie, I spent two days rolling in bed wanting to do nothing, Jongdae had to drag me to class and I still wanted to cry every hour of the day."
"I'm really, really sorry."
He shook his head, and then placed his hands on his chest dramatically.
"You broke my heart, Baek."
A small, amused smile slowly appeared on the elder boy's face.
"Stupid oversized pickle."
"Hey, you were apologizing two minutes ago, don't ruin it."
"I'm sorry for being such an idiot," Baekhyun said earnestly with fear in his eyes, "I know I messed up real bad this time, and now I'm too scared of asking you for a second chance."
Chanyeol smiled for real this time.
"That's why I'm a Gryffindor and you're a Slytherin. You leave this kind of stuff to me."
Baekhyun watched him with anxious eyes while he repositioned himself on the bed and folded his hands over his leg.
"I also had something that I've wanted to tell you for a little while, Baek," he said, "but I never had the time because all the mess that's been happening lately has been keeping me away from what's really important. But I'll take the chance to say it now, Baek. I love you."
The other boy's eyes grew round like saucers.
"I'll give you as many chances as it takes for you to get over your paranoia," Chanyeol declared steadily, "so don't abuse of it. I seriously love you and I forgive you, Baek – be the onion to my pickle."
"Ugh, Merlin."
Baekhyun fell head first against Chanyeol's chest and squeezed him hard around the waist, causing the younger boy to burst into amused cackles as he wrapped his arms around the Slytherin's thin body.
"You pig-headed Gryffindor..."
"I missed you saying that," he admitted, leaning his head against the other boy's ruffled hair, and Baekhyun mumbled into his shirt:
"I missed saying it too. I'll do my best this time, Chanyeol...I'll get there eventually. Promise."
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