「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][font=georgia]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
THE FOUR FOUNDERS' WHIMS AND LITTLE BLACKBIRD. ❞

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"Hey, I just realised I've got a few dungbombs in my bag," Jongdae said with an elated smile as the three of them sat on the very last bed, on the top floor of the Knightbus. The vehicle was currently snaking violently through narrow streets at an alarmingly high speed, but Joonmyun still found the time to throw him a venomous glare:

"If you decide to set one off here, I swear..."

"Relax, I won't," Jongdae said, one hand still gripping the footrest of the bed to avoid being ejected from it. "I'm not going to set one off if I can't run away fast enough, I mean, who wants to stink themselves to death?"

Yifan threw a look outside the curtained window, then sat back down as the Knightbus made a vicious turn, letting out another bang! as it moved.

"Looks like we're nearing London."

"Good," the Ravenclaw, squeezed between the two other boys, sighed in relief before grabbing onto the creaking mattress for dear life.

"I also have a Thestral Thrasher in there," Jongdae looked into the contents of his bag, his face buried through the opening, "and a Spectrum Splasher...cool rockets that cost me a fortune. Plus, the box of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans we didn't finish earlier... A sneakoscope..."

"How big is your bag, really?" Joonmyun frowned.

"Really big, actually,," the other boy replied on the beat. "As big as my-"

"Don't you dare."

"You guys seem like you're having fun," Yifan noted.

"Do you realise we're on our way to confront a Death Eater?" the other prefect simply hissed at Jongdae, "you're not going to get us far with dungbombs and a sneakoscope."

"Want some chocolate?" the Muggle-born offered.

The elder boy swatted his hand away. From the bed next door, an old hag turned onto her side and began snoring loudly, her wrinkled head facing them.

Joonmyun glanced at her and sighed.

"We should have called the teachers after all...How are we going to confront a Death Eater? We're just students."

"Hmmf. We'll think about that when we're there," Yifan said softly, "If I'm not mistaken, Browning lives in this tiny community called Little Blackbird, number 235. Lots of wizards around."

"That's what I wanted to ask you actually," Joonmyun turned towards him with squinting eyes, "how the heck do you know where Bobby Browning lives? I don't remember the two of you being friends and I don't think I've heard Yixing talk about it either..."

Yifan gave him a look, and then slowly pulled out a small notebook with a golden cover from his chest pocket.

"See this?"

"Yes?"

"Write your parents' names in there, please. Any one of them."

Joonmyun frowned.

"Why?"

"Just do it."

Dubious, the Ravenclaw did as he was told, and scribbled his father's name onto the first page. The name glistened for a bit, then, a small address – his – suddenly appeared beneath it in the same handwriting, sparkling under his and Jongdae's dumbfounded eyes.

"So, this is kind of like a muggle phone book?" the Gryffindor said.

"Yeah, same principle," Yifan explained. "I've had this in my family for ages. It's practical when you want to find a friend you've lost contact with for a while, or if you have to go to someone's house party and cannot apparate or use the floo network for some reason."

"It's good for stalking, you mean," Joonmyun retorted in an outraged voice, while Jongdae tried to have a closer look at the notebook. "Do you just go around and memorize random students' addresses in your free time?"

"Well..."

"Creeper," the Gryffindor cackled.

"It only works when you're famous enough in the wizard community," Yifan muttered, slapping the book shut, "you wouldn't be able to find Jongdae's address, for example. Because his parents are Muggles."

Joonmyun still scrunched his nose, before glancing up at the Slytherin doubtfully:

"Did you try finding Yixing's address first for you to know?"

"Uuuh."

"Oh my God..."

"Hey, guys," Jongdae tapped them on the shoulder, "correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we're here."

They looked forward at once, and realised at last that the Knightbus had stopped, still puffing breathlessly as it paused next to a small alley of residential homes. From the window, they could see the row of houses, neatly built with tiled roofs and timbered walls across the road. The conductor soon climbed up to their level and grinned crookedly at them.

"Little Blackbird, guys," he announced, "Time to disembark."

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Meanwhile, back in the Hogwarts dungeons, Chanyeol was floundering...quite literally.

"Are you guys okay at the back?" he turned around as he and the other four students entered the water one by one.

The last one to get in, Sehun grimaced as the freezing water submerged him up to the chest, and then nodded at him.

"Yes."

"Okay, we're good." Chanyeol looked ahead of them. The water was lustrous and vaguely transparent, allowing him to see his own feet beneath the ripples. The ground they were currently standing on, right below the Alpha door, seemed to be a submarine platform of stone which stopped a few metres further ahead. The rest of the tunnel, long and murky, stretched forward into unsettling obscurity, echoing with the sound of trickling liquid. There was a streak of round steppingstones below the water, at their feet, aligned one after the other ahead of them. They would have to walk on those in order to waddle through the passageway.

"Hold onto the roof for support," Chanyeol suggested as he took the lead, his illuminated wand still above his head, "don't slip off the rocks. We don't know how deep the water really is."

"Does everyone know how to swim?" Jongin said from behind Kyungsoo.

"Yes," the Slytherin replied.

"Yes." Tao nodded too.

"Ish." Sehun said.

"Ish?" Jongin frowned at him.

The youngest boy shrugged, pulling his lighter up so that it would not get wet.

"Anyways, just try not to fall, guys," Chanyeol sighed and wallowed onwards. "On we go."

The steppingstones beneath their feet were slicker than he had originally thought and he struggled with every step taken, but encouraged by Kyungsoo's tolerant little pauses behind him, and led by the motivation that Baekhyun was relying him, he fought against his own clumsiness and slowly progressed onwards, directing his wand at the dark tunnel ahead. Kyungsoo was actually being quite helpful – Chanyeol realised it only now – waiting patiently one step behind him each time he wobbled over a boulder, instead of pushing him forward or nudging him in any way. As they floundered on, Chanyeol began to regret his harsh behaviour and initial suspicions of the night. He had judged Kyungsoo much too fast.

The Slytherin was actually a decent person.

"It's so cold," Tao moaned after fifteen minutes of splashing through the water and grabbing onto the mouldy ceiling to avoid sinking.

"I think I see something ahead, though." Chanyeol answered carefully, probing with the light from his wand as he saw the walls widening ahead of him. "I think there's an actual staircase over there."

"My robes are pulling me down," Jongin mumbled through chattering teeth.

"Same," Sehun rolled his eyes, "I'm so going to catch a cold."

"Don't worry, we're almost there..." he said. "The staircase leads out of the wat-"

He was interrupted by a loud splash behind him and a panicked yelp from Tao's direction. When he turned around, Jongin and Sehun were watching the empty spot between them with panic in their eyes. Tao had suddenly disappeared into the water after slipping off a steppingstone.

Chanyeol yelled out his name while Kyungsoo opened wide, terrified eyes.

"Tao!"

Then all of a sudden, Kyungsoo let out a surprised shout as well, and in an instant he had sunk deep into the waters too.

Chanyeol looked down in horror, brutally realising that neither Kyungsoo nor Tao had actually slipped off the steppingstone. They had both been pulled down by something.

"Kyungsoo!" Jongin screamed, reaching down to catch the elder boy's hand, but Chanyeol stopped him:

"Careful, there's something-" he squawked, then abruptly slipped when he felt a grovelling rope tugging onto his left leg. He yelled, scratched at the roof... and then a second rope grabbed onto his other leg and before he knew it, he was looking at the ceiling above and getting engulfed in water, pulled downwards irremediably.

Liquid penetrated everywhere within a second. His mouth... His nose... His ears...

Suffocating, Chanyeol struggled and opened his eyes as he felt a slimy chord wrap itself around his neck. There was something down there, something humongous and black, with gigantic tentacles reaching out from the abyss to grab at their limbs.

Chanyeol gurgled.

Was this one of the barriers Kyungsoo had been talking about?

"Diffindo!" he burbled through the water, and the vines around his legs severed with a shrilling sound. He then fought against the last tentacle around his neck and freed himself with one sharp tug before rapidly swimming back to the surface.

Above the water, Jongin was still standing on one of the steppingstones, darting alarmed eyes back at him. He had somehow managed to pull Kyungsoo back to the surface, the Slytherin coughing his lungs out while paddling through the waves.

"It's a plant," the boy spluttered, still spitting water out, "this is Hufflepuff's barrier. It's some fucking gigantic plant...!"

"Where are Sehun and Tao?" Chanyeol gasped.

"There..." Jongin pointed, and then suddenly two black lianas lashed out from the abyss and wrapped themselves around his arms.

Kyungsoo gasped: "No-"

"Diffindo!" Chanyeol shouted at once, but missed his aim. The next second, the three of them were all bound by greasy, screeching lianas, their limbs immobilised as they made their second reluctant dive.

This time, Chanyeol caught a glimpse of Sehun and Tao from the corner of his eye. The youngest of the two was grabbing desperately onto the base of one of the steppingstones with one arm, his other hand holding frantically onto Tao, who was being dragged by lianas coming from all sorts of directions. Both of them seemed to be running out of air.

"Fuck," Chanyeol tried to swear, but only lost more oxygen as he struggled against the vines.

He clawed at the one around his neck with the strength of desperation, but the plant was more tenacious than he remembered it. He was slowly starting to choke. Were they all going to die? He gargled.

Then all of a sudden, Kyungsoo shouted something in a mumble next to him, and a huge flash of red light appeared, hitting the vines with a loud, shrilling sound. The next moment, Kyungsoo was free. Chanyeol was about to slip into unconsciousness when another flash of red light from Kyungsoo's wand hit the line around his neck and the plant let go of him with a loud screech. He felt Kyungsoo's hand around his wrist and a moment later, was back above the water, breathing at last.

"Holy shit," he gasped, filling his lungs as he grabbed at the ceiling in a frenzy. "Oh Merlin, what the fuck..."

Kyungsoo was completely soaked next to him: "You can stun them," he panted, "it's a living thing, and it's got a will of its own ..."

"What?" he wheezed.

"I said stunning will hold them back!" Kyungsoo repeated before pulling him, "Quick. They're still down there. We need to go."

Chanyeol nodded dazedly and plunged for the third time.

This time he aimed at the plant's oncoming vines before they could snatch him and shouted a muffled "Stupefy" through the water, producing a jet of scarlet light which paralyzed the lianas in their momentum. They fell back. Chanyeol then swam as fast he could towards Tao, holding the younger boy up whilst pointing at the plant below:

"Stupefy!"

The vines shrieked and let go of Tao at last. Panicked, Chanyeol grabbed the younger boy by the waist and hoisted him towards the surface. Sehun followed him at once. With a sharp gasp for air, they emerged at the same time and immediately made a dash for the staircase at the end of the tunnel.

"Where's Jongin?" Sehun spluttered with a cough.

"There," Chanyeol panted.

Behind them, Kyungsoo was paddling whilst holding the said Gryffindor by the shoulder. Chanyeol quickly pushed Sehun and Tao in front of him and shoved them up the staircase, almost dragging them with him as the three of them finally walked out of the water for good, and landed on firm, stable ground. Kyungsoo and Jongin tailed them a second later, and the five of them collapsed onto each other, exhausted, coughing water and panting for air.

"I thought I was going to die," Tao griped on his back, arms wide open and hair sticking to his face in thick, black patches.

"Same," Chanyeol muttered, still heaving heavily. "I guess those barriers are really there to kill, huh?"

Next to them, Sehun was shaking his lighter, smiling when he opened it and a flame appeared. It was still working.

"I can't believe there are plants that can live for that long," Kyungsoo spat, hitting his ear to get the water out. "I thought Hufflepuff was supposed to be the nicest of the houses. What the hell was that?"

"It was more of an aquatic monster than a plant, for sure," Chanyeol agreed, then looked at him. "But one thing is certain, if it wasn't for your idea with the stunning, we would have been done for back there...So thanks a lot for that."

Kyungsoo simply stared at him, wide-eyed, while Jongin smiled softly. Then, Tao suddenly rolled onto his back and pointed at something ahead of them.

"Guys, what's that?" he asked.

Chanyeol looked. A gate stood in front of them, a heavy metallic gate which appeared to be blocked by two empty armours holding gigantic spears.

"Is this the Chamber of the Veil?"

"It shouldn't be, we still haven't seen anything from Slytherin or Gryffindor yet."

"The door is closed," Jongin noted, "you think it's locked?"

"No." Chanyeol shook his head, frowning.

The gates did appear to be closed, however, as if they hadn't been touched for a very long time. He suddenly wondered if Baekhyun had truly been passing by this place before them.

"Look, since we're already here..." Jongin muttered, "might as well go."

"Okay," Kyungsoo settled as he stood up and changed the orientation of the two spears so that they could yank the door open. As soon as he pulled the gates open, however, a huge flame blinded them momentarily and he had to shut them once again, heart racing.

Chanyeol uncovered his eyes and stared at him.

"What was that?"

"Bad. That was bad," Kyungsoo stammered.

The other fifth year scrambled to his feet and shook his soggy robes off his shoulders. He then yanked the gates open and had to step back immediately as the flames swamped the entire place once again. But they lasted only for a fleeting moment. Then the blazing died off, temporarily letting them see the true nature of that place before picking up again. The room was oval, a good twenty metres in length, and menacing lion statues were posted at meagre intervals from each other, all around the room, each of them spitting fire which burned in the centre of the chamber for a second disappearing in a huge puff of smoke.

At the other end of the room, there was a passage. A passage leading to yet another door.

"Moving the spears of the armours outside must have triggered this spell," Chanyeol remarked as the lions discharged another wave of destructive flames towards the centre of the room.

"Sorry," Kyungsoo murmured guiltily.

"No, it's alright. None of us could have known."

"Are we seriously meant to go through this?" Tao's voice cracked. "Because I'm not sure I want to."

Chanyeol watched the flames as they set the place ablaze, then died, over and over again.

"I think it works with a certain pattern," Jongin soon said. "If we can figure the pattern at which the flames come out, we probably will have enough time to go to the other side."

"What if we don't need to figure out the pattern?" Sehun suddenly said, moving forward to the front of the group.

He then lifted his lighter up in the air, flipped it open, and all at once, the flames in the room soared from the lions' jaws to the lighter in his hand. They flew into the silver artefact for a good minute or two, setting the whole place ablaze in shades of red and orange before an extraordinary popping sound erupted and the statues abruptly fell silent. All lights in the room disappeared, leaving them in pitch darkness. The fire was gone.

Sehun's lighter clicked itself shut, full at last.

"Tada," the young Gryffindor said flatly in the darkness while Chanyeol exulted.

"Amazing!" Tao exclaimed his voice echoing eerily in the newfound silence.

"Was that Gryffindor's barrier?" came Sehun's confused voice. "It was way more manageable than Hufflepuff's, I think."

"Only because you had your deflaminator," Tao replied while fumbling for his wand.

"It's not a deflaminator, it's a super lighter."

"I still think deflaminator sounds better."

"Anyways, we need to set off before the spell reactivates or something," Chanyeol declared with a smile, pulling out his wand from his trousers' back pocket: "Let's have some light in here."

"Lumos," Kyungsoo and Jongin said at the same time.

Chanyeol's wand lit up a second later than theirs, and that fleeting moment of delay was enough for the incident to happen.

He had just enough time to notice a new pair of feet behind Kyungsoo and Jongin's back – a new set of waterlogged clothes and a new, yet familiar face glowering under wet hair – then, from behind Jongin's back, Baekhyun brutally jabbed his elbow into the young Gryffindor's face and pointed his wand at Chanyeol while shouting in a hissy voice:

"Confringo!"

The spark flew and Chanyeol ducked it in extremis, hearing it explode against the statue behind him.

When the others finally understood what was going on, Baekhyun started sprinting across the room, escaping straight towards the door at the end of the chamber.

"What the – since when was he there?" Sehun gaped. "I thought he was..."

"Blimey, he wasn't in front of us..." Chanyeol smacked a hand over his forehead, "he was following us all along! Jongin, you okay?"

"Kind of..." the younger boy rubbed his cheek painfully.

"We need to get him before he runs into Slytherin's barrier," Kyungsoo screamed, pulling Jongin to his feet. "That barrier is-"

"-probably the worst of the four, we know," Chanyeol grunted and sprinted in Baekhyun's pursuit while roaring out in anger: "Baek, you come back here immediately!"

The concerned Slytherin did not even look back, opening the gates at the end of the lions' chamber, and running into the next hallway without sparing them a single glance.

"Baekhyun!"

"He's really been Imperiused," Kyungsoo remarked between two huffs.

"How did we not see him all along if he was following us?" Tao puffed out behind him.

"Disillusionment Charm, probably," Chanyeol groaned. "Fuck, we've been so stupid."

"So, uh...what is Slytherin's barrier?" Sehun enquired breathlessly as they arrived in front of the new set of metallic doors, "Anyone knows?"

"Not a clue," Chanyeol tugged at the door unsuccessfully. "Merlin, he managed to lock it as well."

Kyungsoo swirled his wand at it: "Alohomora."

"Doesn't work. He must have physically blocked it with something." the eldest Gryffindor grunted. "Move back."

The others retreated obediently, and he aimed for the lock with his own wand:

"Bombarda."

The gates exploded with a deafening thunder, and they hid their faces with their sleeves, momentarily shutting their eyes as the dust settled and a new hall appeared behind the destroyed doors. The gaping hole led onto a staircase, which descended into greenish fog. The chamber below the steps seemed massive, they could feel the caress of a cold breeze, and hear the filtering sound of water again.

Baekhyun was nowhere in view.

"Come on, let's go," Chanyeol beckoned with his hand, and they all followed with a nod.

The staircase was long, sinuous and dreary, but they soon pierced through the green fog and came onto a humongous gallery, one almost as big as the Great Hall itself, the ceiling of which was supported by rows and rows of rough pillars. There were also numerous caverns in the walls, out of which water poured out like miniature cascades that pooled into little lakes around the hall. The centre of the room seemed to be a pile of titanic rocks that formed an enormous archway, through which a tiny black door could be seen. The Chamber of the Veil. Baekhyun was now running towards it at full speed.

"There he is," Chanyeol pointed as he tumbled down the last stairs. "Baek. Baek! Stay right where you are, don't you dare move!"

The Slytherin turned around, halted, and slashed out his wand at once:

"Stupefy," he exclaimed.

"Crap," Chanyeol dodged, bending down momentarily.

Baekhyun seized the occasion to turn around and run, but Jongin had made use of his brief pause to sprint up to him.

"Incarcerous," the Gryffindor chanted.

But the ropes which appeared from his wand missed their aim, wrapping themselves around nothing but an arm, and Baekhyun wriggled himself free of them in no time. The Slytherin's eyes were glowing with a strange kind of light, both cold and unfocused, unmistakable sign of the Imperius curse. He faced Jongin with a merciless scowl, now.

Kyungsoo took his aim: "Petrificus Totalus."

Baekhyun bashed the hex away with a shielding spell. He then twirled his wand at Jongin, who was now blocking his path: "Stupefy!"

The red light hit Jongin in the chest, sending him onto the ground.

"Holy shit," Sehun muttered as he stopped running.

But Tao snarled at once:

"You don't do that to my friends, Byun Baekhyun!" he shouted in outrage and pulled out his hazel wand at last: "Stupefy!"

The flash of scarlet light flew from Tao's wand like an arrow and punched its target right in the stomach. Baekhyun fell with a gasp, dropping his wand as he collapsed onto the ground, and Chanyeol and Kyungsoo caught up with him at last.

"Baek." the Gryffindor bent down at once, shaking the elder boy gently. "Baek, are you-"

"Stay away," Kyungsoo warned in between two breaths, "if he wakes up, he might still act under the Imperius Curse's influence. We don't know how powerful that curse was. It's better to bring him back to the teachers first."

Chanyeol breathed in deeply and looked down at the unconscious boy at his feet. With his eyelids closed, the Slytherin looked peaceful and juvenile again, his features softer and closer to the playful prefect he used to know. Cogitating with mitigated feelings, Chanyeol stood up again and glanced back at Jongin, who was unconscious a few metres away, and besides whom Kyungsoo was now kneeling down.

"We should go back right away," the boy declared, "Jongin needs to be cared for in the Hospital Wing as well, and we need to warn the teachers about all of this. We've been acting on our own for long enough, now."

"You're right," Chanyeol murmured, still panting. "But what about..."

"We should tie him up in case he wakes up and is still violent," Kyungsoo said while nodding in Baekhyun's direction. Chanyeol swallowed, watching Baekhyun's twitching eyelids, and nodded slowly.

"Alright. Incarcerous," he muttered, and the ropes flew out of his wand, wrapping themselves around Baekhyun's unconscious body.

Tao stared at the Slytherin, and then winced to himself.

"Sorry for stunning you," he apologized to an insentient Baekhyun.

"No, I think you did the right thing, to be honest," Kyungsoo sighed, still struggling to get Jongin up. "Someone help me carry him," he then said, "we should seriously get out of here. I don't like this place."

"Me neither," Sehun scrunched his nose, leaning down to give Kyungsoo a hand, "it's full of dead rats."

"You guys don't want to look at the Chamber of the Veil?" Chanyeol blinked.

"Uuhhh, no. It's because of that thing that all of this happened."

"And this place seriously freaks me out," Sehun continued, "talking about this, we didn't see Slytherin's barrier anywhere, did we."

"That's...true."

"Do you think it was the green fog before?"

Both Kyungsoo and Chanyeol wanted to reply, but they couldn't. The words could not get out of their throats in time. They had been swallowed back in fear, when the rocks behind them had abruptly began to groan and rumble, when the entire hall had seemed to resonate with the sound of taunting hisses, and a colossal shadow had slowly begun to wake up from behind the archway made of boulders. The monumental shadow soon rose above their heads, towering above them with its nine monstrous heads.

Sehun turned around, and almost dropped Jongin back onto the floor as he gaped.

"Oh... my...fucking God..."

Right there with them, in the subterranean great hall, rose the titanic Hydra; its nine pairs of golden eyes ogling them with a predatory light and its black jaws opened avidly, horrifyingly real and menacing.

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"Okay," Joonmyun crossed his arms while they stood in front of the small house numbered '235'. "So...it's got 'Browning family' written on the door: we got the right one. Now, what?"

Behind him and Yifan, Jongdae was busying himself in the bushes across the streets. He emerged with his bag over his shoulder a few minutes later.

"Sorry, I'm late."

"Did you hide your Nimbus?" Yifan asked him.

"Yeah, I don't want it to be harmed in the process. Now, what?"

"Now, we ring the bell." A pause. "Right?"

Joonmyun glanced at the Slytherin as he said that, and Yifan nodded.

"Um, yeah. We do."

He then paced towards the porch without hesitation and rang like it was the most natural thing in the world. Joonmyun immediately shut his eyes tightly and covered his face as if the house would explode.

However, nothing happened.

Instead, a muffled voice soon came through the door and called in a sincere and convivial tone:

"Coming, just a second!"

The three students threw confused glances at each other, and before long, Bobby's mother had appeared at the door, smiling at them with a welcoming air, coupled with an equally muddled look.

"He...llo?" the brunette asked, slightly puzzled as she tried to identify them.

"Um. Hello, Mrs Browning," Yifan immediately stammered, "we're... prefects from Hogwarts. Been sent here by the school to check, uh, to check on Bobby's condition."

"And give him his homework," Jongdae nodded.

"Oh, I see," she blinked, brightening up and opening the door a little more to let them in, "I see! Well, that's surprising. Please come in, then. It's cold outside, isn't it? You guys had to travel far...!"

"We had special means of transport, all catered for by the teachers," Jongdae lied easily as he stepped in.

Joonmyun threw him a look, but Mrs Browning softened automatically:

"I see, I see! Well, you're welcome in any case," she chuckled, then called her husband, "darling, come here. We have guests from Hogwarts! Bobby's friends are here."

"Oh, that's a first," the bearded man soon came out of the kitchen, round glasses perched on a fat, stout nose. "Hello, boys. How come they allowed you out of school so late?"

"We're a special squad of prefects gathered by the teachers to check on students who had to go home like Bobby," Jongdae kept up the fibbing with the apparent innocence of a vicar. "So we got special permission to come outside of curfew hours."

"And it's just you three?" the father seemed puzzled.

"They came to give Bobby his homework," Mrs Browning explained to her husband.

Jongdae and Yifan nodded convincingly. Joonmyun simply offered a constipated smile.

"Well, Bobby's upstairs," Mrs Browning smiled warmly, "he's been very lonely, I think, hasn't come out of his room much... but we didn't have a choice. With all the bad things that have been happening at school, we got very worried for him. I'm sure he'll be glad to know that his fellow students care about him, at least..."

"Can we go upstairs to visit him?"

"Oh. Of course," Mr Browning nodded, momentarily putting down his newspapers. "It's up that staircase. First on the left."

"I'll bring some tea up, boys," Bobby's mother assured. "You can go first."

"Th-thank you."

Yifan, Jongdae and Joonmyun left the kitchen's doorstep and climbed up the stairs in silence, sharing an identical, flummoxed stare.

"They are really warm people," Jongdae commented after a while. "It's hard to believe that their son's a Death Eater, mate."

"Their son isn't a Death Eater, the Death Eater simply took their son's appearance." Joonmyun clarified in a whisper. "Now, what do we do?"

"We don't have a plan."

"I was kind of relying on brute luck and the surprise factor," Yifan cleared his throat, trying to sound in control. "Basically, we go up there, slam the door open, stun the guy and then, the ministry is going to come flying in because we used magic outside of school grounds. The parents won't like it, but we'll explain the situation later."

"You sure this is going to work?" Joonmyun frowned.

"You have a better plan?"

"No."

"Then it's going to work."

They advanced towards the first room on the left of the corridor. There was a light shining through the slit under the door, an orange glow belonging most likely to a desk lamp. Jongdae pointed at it vehemently and Yifan nodded with a finger over his mouth.

"At three..." he murmured. "One, two..."

At two, shadows suddenly appeared from behind them, and before they could turn around to see who it was, something hard had knocked them violently on the back of the head. The three students collapsed onto the carpet one over the other. Feeling his head spin hazily with pain and confusion, Yifan had just enough time to notice Mr and Mrs Browning's sombre faces leaning over him, unsmiling, before he slipped into foggy unconsciousness.

[Joonmyun]

[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 EIGHTEEN: SLYTHERIN'S BARRIER. ❞

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"So you were sent here as a teacher by the ministry itself?" Minseok asked incredulously.

"That's exactly it, yes," Jung confirmed.

The teacher was now pacing down the corridors with his wand in his pocket, escorting Markus, Luhan and Minseok back to their respective dormitories. The four of them travelled across silent hallways and headed for the Slytherin Dungeons first, their steps resonating vibrantly in the general desertedness.

"The Auror office came across rumours that a dangerous Death Eater, who's been on the run since the last war, had found a way to bring Voldemort back within Hogwarts walls..." Jung explained quietly, his face serious, "A veil similar to the one in the Department of Mysteries, that is. It sounded like a catastrophe in the making, and the news came to us during summer..." he paused, frowning at the memories. "His name is Andrew Denholm. He's a fanatic and he would do absolutely anything just to revive the Dark Lord, even if it means infiltrating Hogwarts under the nose of a dozen teachers and a hundred prying eyes... We needed to catch Denholm as soon as we could, knowing that he was going to try and sneak into the school as soon as the academic year started, if not before. So the best way for us to do that was for an auror to penetrate the school with him. That way, the auror would be able to narrow down suspects without wrecking chaos amongst the children. I was sent by my office to do just that."

"Is that why you gave Yixing the camemoire?" Minseok asked.

The young man looked surprised.

"How did you know about that?"

"I just... found it strange that you would have heard of Yixing's memory problems so soon after coming into the school as a teacher."

"Ah, well..." Jung smiled embarrassedly, "Yes, well. The truth is, I've investigated everyone's files in advance and kept my eyes on some people whom I thought could be useful...When I saw Zhang Yixing who had a weak memory, I thought it'd be a good occasion to plant a camemoire on him, so he could capture bits and pieces of student life that would be inaccessible to teachers."

"So the Death Eater is amongst the students?" Luhan squinted in scepticism. "For real?"

"The Auror office had an inkling that Denholm would try to take the appearance of a student, yeah. Polyjuice potion, keeping the real person captive...It's been done before, back in the days. I wanted to keep my eyes on students in particular."

"It didn't work, though," the Gryffindor mumbled.

"What didn't?"

"Well, the camemoire."

"Only because Denholm must have deleted all the compromising memories before I could check on them," the auror sighed as they arrived towards the staircase, "which means the culprit was around Zhang all along... and that was something I didn't think of. I had my suspicions on the wrong people all this time."

"Such as-"

"Well, uh."

He momentarily snorted, as if remembering something ridiculous.

"Started off with Byun Baekhyun," he finally said, before heaving another sigh. "His parents were powerful but not often present at home; it would have allowed him enough freedom to act as he wished...But then Baekhyun kept getting into detentions all the time – not discreet enough to be Denholm. So I went on investigating Wu Yifan's family as well as Nadeem Jhaveri."

"And did that bring anything?" Markus looked anxious.

"Nope," Jung shook his head as they approached the Slytherin common room, "Wu Yifan was too unconcerned about everything, and Jhaveri spent too much time organising random social events for people from every year...No Death Eater material there. I also wondered about Park Chanyeol, but the boy looked much too clumsy, getting caught in the middle of the night by a prefect and all...I patrolled the castle every night but didn't manage to catch the culprit either. Haven't had a good night's sleep in ages, and still didn't have a clue."

"Until Zhang Yixing's case, right?" the Ravenclaw prefect probed carefully. "To be able to delete any compromising memory from Yixing's camemoire without him noticing, Denholm must have taken the appearance of a Hufflepuff."

"Unless Zhang has other close friends from different houses," Jung retorted, then narrowed his eyes, "does he?"

Luhan and Minseok exchanged a questioning glance.

"He's close with Yifan."

"But that wasn't before they started their Care of Magical Creatures project," Markus interjected softly.

"I am also curious about Do Kyungsoo," the auror said firmly. "the boy can hear the whispers coming from the veil Denholm is looking for. But I have no idea why he can. He himself seems to know nothing...and yet, he could lead us straight to the veil if he tried."

"Then why did you never ask him?"

"Well, the plan was to not involve students directly," Jung sighed, rubbing his brow, "those were the orders I had from the Auror office."

"Too late now." Minseok smiled sympathetically. "Right?"

"I suppose so." Jung smirked in defeat, stopping in front of the Slytherin common room's wall and waiting for Markus to utter the password. Luhan scratched his chin:

"You never suspected this guy?" he pointed at Markus, who jumped and opened his mouth to protest.

But the young teacher simply shook his head while laughing out loud:

"Judging by how easily you caught him tonight, I don't think that'd be necessary. No offence, Hargraves."

"N-none taken," Markus murmured red-facedly while the entrance opened, and they all blinked at the odd gathering which suddenly appeared in front of their bleary eyes. Behind the door to the Slytherin Dungeons, three boys in pajamas stared back at them in shock, their wands held tightly in hand.

Jung, Luhan and Minseok all widened their eyes at the incongruous sight.

"What the..."

"Jhaveri!" Markus gawped in incredulity, "François, Taylor...!"

"Markus!" the French boy exclaimed back, putting his glasses back on in a hurry. "You're alive!"

"What's the meaning of this?" Jung placed his hands on his hips while staring sternly at all of them. "Were you all going to sneak out at this hour of the night?"

"Markus was gone from his dormitory," Jhaveri explained in a leisured drawl, unhappy at being fustigated. "We thought he'd been eaten alive with Wu, Byun and Do."

"What do you mean, with Wu, Byun and...?"

"They were all gone from the dorms," Taylor said grimly, "Wu Yifan, Byun Baekhyun, Do Kyungsoo..."

"Gone from the dorms?" Luhan sounded outraged. "Yifan...Kyungsoo and..."

"Baekhyun, yes, that's what we said, little do-a-deer."

"I saw Kyungsoo leave," Putieux provided in a helpful tone while Luhan waved his fist at an amused Jhaveri. "He said he was going to look for Baekhyun and that he'd be back in an hour at most, but then he never returned."

"Same for Wu," Taylor nodded furiously, "he never made it back for curfew."

"Sweet Merlin, what kind of trouble is this-" Jung's pallid face faltered under the torch light. "Where on earth could they even go?"

"Kyungsoo could have gone to the veil already," Minseok frowned perplexedly.

"But Yifan? And Baekhyun?" Luhan squinted.

"We separated from Yifan barely a few hours ago," Minseok said. "Joonmyun was there. He wouldn't have allowed Yifan to do anything dangerous on his own. Definitely not."

"Is Joonmyun back in his dorm?"

"Well, of course!" the Ravenclaw looked up as if it was a stupid thing to say, then suddenly hesitated, "he would be... right?"

The two prefects glanced at each other. Then, on a mutual flash of foreboding, their expression faltered and they immediately turned around, breaking into a sprint.

⚜

⚜

⚜

Joonmyun opened his eyes to the sound of dripping water and drilling gnomes running in his dizzy head, clear signs that he was not back in his duvet like he should by now on an usual day. Letting out a groan of pain, he scrunched his nose and coughed, flexing his fingers. Why did his hands feel so numb? The prefect blinked a few times, and at last remembered what had happened.

Instantly he bolted, but his hands were bound, and the chair on which he was attached only made a tiny jump forward. Joonmyun panicked. On either side of him, Yifan and Jongdae sat on similar chairs and slowly started to stir as well.

"Oh my god..." he moaned, and an adult voice immediately replied:

"Awake, children?"

Joonmyun turned his head, and saw a man he had never seen before, standing next to the kitchen's sink. The wizard was drinking from a cup decorated with cow patterns, had a scar under his right eye, and an unsettling smirk.

A glance at the man's forearm revealed the presence of the Dark Mark, black skull shining with a snake coiled through it.

The prefect leaned back and hesitated.

"Bob...by?" he frowned.

"Not quite," the man scoffed, putting the cup down. "That cry-baby is down in the basement. His parents kindly locked him up for me at the start of the year."

"Then you're the Death Eater who..."

"...took his appearance?" the man had a mocking smirk. "Bingo."

Joonmyun widened his eyes and the door opened, letting Mr and Mrs Browning walk in, their faces an unreadable mask.

"They haven't brought any back-up," Mr Browning said.

"Good, then go and stand watch," the Death Eater ordered curtly, "if any reinforcements come from the ministry later on, I need you guys to hold them back while I run."

"Alright."

The parents then nodded and retreated from the kitchen, leaving Joonmyun flabbergasted.

"Did you put them under an Imperius curse?" he murmured.

"What do you think?" the Death Eater laughed. "Of course, I did. What kind of parents would lock their own son down in a basement out of their own free will?"

The Ravenclaw prefect suddenly felt very stupid. Next to him, Jongdae let out another groan and shook his head, cracking one eye open. Yifan raised his head at last.

"The name is Denholm, my little guests," the Death Eater finally said. "Andrew Denholm. And I'm congratulating you three because you're the only ones to have made it back to me so far. So, well done."

"You're the fake Bobby Browning?" Jongdae raised an eyebrow.

"Exactly." Denholm seemed thoroughly entertained, "Why do you little mice look surprised? He was the ideal victim, of course. Sick little boy who has to drink a lot of medicine all the time and doesn't speak a lot... Replace the medicine by Polyjuice potion, and there you have it. The perfect disguise."

"I don't understand, though. I mean, the hair..."

"That's why I had the parents under a long-term Imperius curse, of course. The real Bobby is alive and kicking. Every so often, his parents just have to go down to the basement, cut a few tufts of hair, then send it to me with their owl. This way, I had nothing to fear."

"Then...Yixing," Yifan started.

"Oh yes, Yixing," Denholm chuckled, "Wonderful and adorable Yixing. A pure stroke of luck, seriously."

He pulled out his wand and caressed it with an unsettling leer.

"I'd found the first door to the veil by luck on the night of the Sorting Ceremony," he explained disdainfully, "but that didn't help me much. And sure, I could use my poor health as an excuse to skip classes when I wanted, but that still wasn't enough. I needed a sidekick. And there he was, sleeping in my dorm, going to classes with me all the time, helping me to take my medicine all over the place. Nice little Yixing, so forgetful and gentle..."

"Yixing would have never helped you willingly."

"Exactly, but with an Imperius Curse, I could have that mudblood do anything."

"Fucking bastard..." Yifan growled, and Joonmyun kicked him in the shin, warning him to stay quiet.

"I got scared once, when he really forgot my Polyjuice Potion in the common room during the Christmas ball. But you," he looked at Yifan, "so kindly helped me back to it when I faked being sick. Other than that time, Yixing never made mistakes. It was devastating for me when he got caught by those two students," the Death Eater sighed, his expression darkened. "that auror, Jung, began to tighten his claws around Yixing's surroundings since then. For my own safety, I needed to get out of school."

"Is that why McGonagall got attacked?" Joonmyun frowned.

"Never thought that gargoyle would try to go against me, to be honest," Denholm snorted, "I was just asking her permission to leave the school like the nice little student I was..."

He smiled.

"Anyways, this is not important. My new sidekick should be nearing the Veil any second now...The Dark Lord will be back, and terror will be the new order, whether you want it or not."

Yifan simply scowled as he squirmed on his chair:

"What Veil are you talking about?"

"Nothing you'd need to know."

"Then, what second sidekick?" Jongdae scrunched his nose, "who did you attack this time?"

"Oh, just someone who had the misfortune of catching me twice in an inconvenient moment – once in Knockturn Alley when I was buying a book, and once in the bathroom earlier today, just before I could leave school."

"What?"

But Joonmyun shook his head:

"How could you go to Knockturn Alley if you were disguised as Bobby...that is..."

"I just didn't go to Hogsmeade, you fools," Denholm yawned, "used the opportunity to get to the old Vanishing Cabinet in the school and repair the connection between Hogwarts and Knockturn Alley; it wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be – looks like someone's used it in recent years, whether it's been by accident or otherwise. But then I got caught by a small weasel and prefect from Slytherin while I was at the Coffin house...I thought he wouldn't recognize me since it was only a glimpse. But then today, he actually did."

"Wait. A small weasel and prefect from Slytherin – oh...fuck," Yifan's expression turned from confusion to pure dismay, "don't tell me."

"So, um, it's Byun Baekhyun, isn't it." Jongdae stared.

"He's a friend, then?" Denholm snickered. "Oh, dear."

"I fucking knew it," Yifan rolled his eyes backwards.

"You'll find me sorry to hear that," the scarred man mocked as he unhurriedly pulled his wand out of his pocket, "but perhaps it'll console you to know that I got him under an Imperius curse as well, so it's not like he's dead. Got him to search the dungeons for me, without leaving any corner out. It's the last place I haven't combed in detail."

"The teachers will be making rounds at this hour of the day," Joonmyun snapped spitefully, "you'll be discovered."

"Oh, that's none of your concern anyhow," the wizard finally left the sink and pointed his wand at them, "now let me think. I can either kill you off right now and sweep your corpses under the carpet, or use you as additional puppets after sending you back to school. Which of the two seems more attractive an option?"

Jongdae, Yifan and Joonmyun exchanged dubious looks.

"There's no third option, which involves us saving the day?" Jongdae smiled tentatively.

Denholm simply rolled his eyes.

"This is not a game for you to play, brat."

"How about this deal," the Gryffindor sniffled shamelessly, "you release one of us, we duel fair and square, and the winner gets to continue whatever he's doing. In our case, we'll be going home."

"You're a funny one," Denholm mocked openly now, "your wands are safely with me, here." he patted his pocket. "I don't intend on letting you have them anytime soon."

"What time is it, by the way?" Jongdae inquired.

"Now?" the Death Eater cocked an eyebrow, "half past one, if you need to know."

"Ah, cool. Thanks."

"Don't see the importance of it," the older man scoffed, "unless you want to know your time of death."

"Can I go to the bathroom first," the Gryffindor suddenly pleaded, "I've been experiencing some massive indigestion since earlier tonight, and all this stress really isn't helping."

"What the fuck."

Joonmyun was going to kick him in the knee, when he saw the younger boy wink fleetingly at him. A second later, the playful expression was gone under the Ravenclaw's perplexed eyes and Jongdae was back to pleading:

"Please, I don't want to die while shitting my pants. If I have to die, I want to do it with dignity."

"I don't think you realise that he doesn't actually care, Jongdae." Yifan stressed.

"I don't think you realise that I can't hold it in very much longer."

As soon as he said those words, the room started to fill up with the dreadful stench of dung, so pungent and strong Joonmyun had to let out a brutal scream of protest, struggling to move his chair away. Denholm himself had to cover his nose, raising his wand menacingly:

"Stop it," he raged, "stop that immediately!"

"Uh, have you ever tried stopping your colon mid-way through diarrhea?" Jongdae said insolently as the whiffs grew sturdier and Joonmyun thought he would faint, "doesn't work that way, mate. When the torrent comes, you have to let it go."

"Fucking hell, Jongdae," Yifan coughed, yelling, "this is not the right moment!"

"It's my last warning, you little skank," Denholm swished his wand threateningly. "Cut the crap immediately!"

"Like, literally?" Jongdae cackled.

"Jongdae, what on earth are you ..."

"That's it," Denholm exploded, "you're all going to die right now! Avada-!"

At the same time, a sharp whistling sound was heard from outside and the window shattered with an ear-splintering blast, glass flying everywhere as they shut their eyes and the room abruptly filled with a thousand flowering sparks. The explosions did not stop there. Soon, glitter and flashes of lights started to bounce all over the kitchen, ricocheting off the sink with brutal whistling sounds, as the fireworks – real, humongous fireworks – detonated everywhere and wrecked the entire place. Denholm fell back, knocking his head against a wall, and dropped his wand in the havoc caused by the incoming rocket.

When Joonmyun finally dared to open his eyes, Jongdae had thrown himself side-ways, grabbing a shard of glass with his hands behind his back, and cut his ropes open. The Gryffindor then threw himself onto Denholm's fallen wand and screamed out loud:

"Stupefy!"

The red light struck Denholm in the chest and immediately knocked him out. Jongdae then grabbed their wands in the Death Eater's pocket, hurried back to Joonmyun and Yifan, and untied their ropes in a hurry.

"Here's your wand," Jongdae shoved the willow wand into the dazed Joonmyun's hand, just before the door slammed open and the Brownings barged in.

"Crucio," Mrs Browning uttered as she aimed at Jongdae's head.

The Gryffindor threw himself down just in time to avoid the curse, and that was the last straw. Joonmyun exploded immediately, jumping off his chair:

"Fuck!" he howled at last, shaking the rest of his ropes away: "Fuck you all! I'm done with all of you – Flipendo Tria!"

The spell swept the parents off into a lurching tornado and violently knocked their heads against the nearest shelves in its momentum. The two adults soon collapsed against each other like marionettes, losing consciousness on the spot; and Joonmyun instantly covered his mouth with both hands.

"Oh, no," he moaned as Jongdae watched him with astonished hilarity. "I didn't mean...I said...I didn't..."

"You swore like a sailor, that's what you did," the Gryffindor guffawed. "I knew you had it in you."

"I didn't want to," Joonmyun yelped in despair.

Yifan stood up, grabbed his wand and finished the job by summoning ropes to attach Denholm and the Brownings together, panting. His hair, usually combed back with care, was now a sweltering mess.

"Was that the Thestral Thrasher you had in your bag, earlier?" the Slytherin interrogated once he was certain that their aggressors were tightly bound.

The younger boy smiled and rubbed a stain of grease off his kneecap.

"Yeah, it was. A Thestral Thrasher and a Spectrum Splasher...Two rockets of fireworks combined – I knew they would come in handy in one way or another."

"When did you set them up?" Joonmyun wiped the sweat and dust off his brow. "When you were hiding your broomstick in the bushes earlier?"

"Got me there."

"And that deadly stench?" Yifan grimaced at the memory.

"Dungbombs," the Ravenclaw gritted his teeth while Jongdae opened his mouth, and the Gryffindor immediately started cackling.

"So you got that right too."

"Hard not to, after that wink you gave me," Joonmyun flushed, then rapidly looked around them. "Now, what are we supposed to do?"

"The kitchen's a fucking mess," Jongdae glanced at the broken tap which was now spraying water all over Denholm and the Brownings. "And we've got broken windows."

"You're worried about the state of the kitchen? We have three unconscious adults in this room, including one Death Eater who just tried to kill us."

"And we used magic outside of school," the Ravenclaw held his face with dawning horror.

"We were bound to do that anyways."

"Isn't the Ministry supposed to trace it down to us if we use magic outside Hogwarts?"

Jongdae had barely finished speaking that a dozen deafening cracks detonated across the room and more than ten wizards apparated into the destroyed kitchen, their wands raised at them:

"Nobody moves! What's gone on in here?" a man bearing the uniform of a ministry officer barked, and Yifan glanced at Jongdae shrewdly:

"There you go."

⚜

⚜

⚜

Meanwhile, down the subterranean Great Hall and facing a titanic Hydra, Chanyeol backpedalled towards Kyungsoo and Sehun as slowly as he could.

"Um, what do we do?" he asked uneasily, feeling the monster's multiple heads turning towards him, jaws opening and closing to flaunt sharp, drooling teeth, "Kyungsoo, say something..."

"Don't run," the Slytherin stammered, limbs trembling as he held onto Jongin's unconscious body, "d-don't break eye contact."

"Fucking shit, we're dead..." Sehun dropped, glancing back and forth between the beast's golden eyes and Kyungsoo.

Tao was shaking like a leaf, wand clasped in both hands. He stood above Baekhyun's tied up body protectively.

"N-n-now what?" the Gryffindor squeaked.

A menacing hiss from the Hydra made them all jump, but the nine heads were still observing them curiously, as if wondering what to do with them. Chanyeol gulped, looked at Baekhyun, then back up at the creature.

"Okay, Tao."

"Yes?"

"Levitate Baekhyun now."

"Now?" Tao stuttered, legs quaking.

"Do it."

The younger boy obeyed and swished his wand, uttering the spell as quietly as possible. As soon as Baekhyun's body left the ground, however, three of the Hydra's heads seemed to focus on it hungrily.

"Oh my God..." Tao moaned.

"Sehun, Kyungsoo," Chanyeol stammered while grabbing his wand more tightly, "b-be ready to run with Jongin when I say 'now'."

"Run where?" Kyungsoo spat in a panic.

"The Chamber," Chanyeol responded flatly, breathing deeply. "It wouldn't attack that place, Baekhyun and Jongin would be safe there. Tao, I need you to take care of Baek for now."

"Okay," the younger boy squealed.

"T-thanks."

They barely dared to exchange nods, too scared that a fleeting moment of inattention would have them end up in one of the reptilian monster's poisonous jaws.

"On the count of three," Chanyeol blustered, keeping his eyes on both the Hydra and a huge pillar right in front of it.

"Okay. One," Kyungsoo inhaled. "Two..."

The monster let out a menacing hiss.

"...Three!" Chanyeol screamed. "Run, now! Bombarda Maxima!"

The pillar which he aimed at exploded in a thunderous bang; at the same time, Kyungsoo and Sehun set off like rockets, carrying Jongin with impressive coordination – as if pushing a chariot between them. The Hydra immediately let out a wondrous sound of anger and rose in all its splendour. Chanyeol avoided the rain of debris and took off as well. Tao was now sprinting towards the Chamber at full speed while holding his wand in front of his face and driving Baekhyun's levitating body over his head.

The reptile instantly coiled its necks and glided out of its lair for good, monstrously fast as it slid towards them. One pair of heads dived towards Tao with open jaws and Chanyeol waved his wand in agitation:

"Expulso!" he howled, and the nearest boulder exploded against the Hydra's heads.

Tao bent over, dodging the flying rocks, and dashed forward. For someone who was screaming his head off, the boy was running exceptionally fast.

"Chanyeol!" he heard Kyungsoo's alarmed voice from his left, and turned his head just in time to see one of the nine heads plunging towards him.

"Duck!" the Slytherin screamed.

Chanyeol obeyed. A deafening sound resounded behind him as he rolled sideways, and he scrambled to his feet, only to notice that the Hydra had just lunged into the earth, biting a huge piece of stone off the flooring. Chanyeol jumped back onto his two legs:

"Fuck," he muttered and spun around.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Tao make it into the archway of rock above the Chamber's door. With one hand still controlling Baekhyun, the Gryffindor was now pulling the handle of the door as violently as he could, with no positive result. The younger boy punched it. It remained desperately closed.

"Use fucking magic!" Chanyeol hurled from a distance.

Tao seemed to hear him, because he jumped in a frenzy and momentarily dropped Baekhyun to point at the door knob: "Alohomora!"

The entrance buckled in, and in a second, Tao and Baekhyun disappeared through it. Chanyeol was fast enough to see Kyungsoo and Sehun catch up with them a second later, then, the Hydra's heads were onto him again.

"Protego Maxima!" he yelled out of pure panic.

And though the spell was nowhere strong enough to disintegrate the Hydra's head as he had hoped, it was surprisingly powerful enough to make its jaw bounce against the shield he had created, and make two of its front teeth fall off. Redoubling in anger, the monster hissed and attacked again, but this time Chanyeol had enough time to throw himself behind a deformed boulder near a pool of water. The crash behind him was enough to tell him that the reptile had bitten into hard rock once again.

"Chanyeol!" he suddenly heard Tao screaming at him from the opening of the Chamber, "Quick, hurry up!"

The elder boy fumbled for his wand and took off once again. This time he barely dared to look back. The Hydra's necks were just behind him.

"Quickly, please!" Tao screeched.

And behind Chanyeol, the huge whistling sound of the water snake growled. He closed his eyes, cursing his ancestors.

It was going to get him. It was going to eat him alive...

"Chanyeol, hurry!"

The monster hissed right behind him.

"Chanyeol...!"

"Fuuuu-ck!" Chanyeol roared at the top of his lungs.

And Tao's eyes widened in horror.

"Now!"

He rolled into the Chamber right before Tao could slam the door shut – and outside a huge thumping sound reverberated, as the Hydra knocked its heads against the closed room, hissing with fury as it found itself incapable of smashing through the door.

Chanyeol finally dared to fall, heaving against the floor with his heart thrashing in his chest, sweat rustling all over his forehead. He limply lied onto his back and let out a deep groan of pain.

"Bae...Baekhyun..."

"He's here," Kyungsoo spluttered, rising from his spot on the floor to kneel down next to him, "are you alright? Did you get bitten?"

"No," Chanyeol shook his head, still panting. "You?"

"No, nothing."

"Jongin's safe too?"

"Very," Sehun nodded, sat on the ground with his blond hair sticking to his face. He pointed at his friend next to him: "He's sleeping like a log, that lucky pig..."

The eldest Gryffindor remained on the floor and closed his eyes, simply struggling to catch his breath.

"Good."

"We should put them somewhere – ugh," Kyungsoo held his head, losing his balance.

He stumbled and paused, as if incapable of standing straight anymore.

Chanyeol immediately frowned, slowly recovering.

"Are you okay...?"

"It's the..." he winced, raising his eyes to look around him, "the whispers again...they've become so," he shut his eyes in pain, "so loud."

"Loud?"

Chanyeol looked in the direction Kyungsoo was tilting towards, and finally saw it – the Veil. The Second Veil. Black, grim and haunting; the archway stood contemptuously on its pedestal, erected in the centre of the obscured room. Its curtains dithered at the bottom, as if touched by an invisible hand. When he leaned his head, Chanyeol himself could hear them now. The voices.

The tiny, susurrating voices.

"Blimey," he shook his head brutally, covering his ears, "don't let them get to you, guys. Kyungsoo, stay away from it."

"What's going on?" Tao asked from near the entrance.

"That Veil speaks," Chanyeol winced and stepped back, ruffling his own hair to get rid of the cold feeling numbing his head, "I don't know how it does it and what it says, but blimey, it gets straight into your mind. Stay away, or it'll try to drag you to the other side."

"What's on the other side?" Sehun inquired.

The youngest boy was touching his ears too, as if disturbed by some irritating chit-chat. Meanwhile, Kyungsoo looked almost nauseous.

"I can't get them out of my head," he muttered.

"Don't go there," Chanyeol pushed him back. "Ignore them, Kyungsoo. They're not real."

"We need to do something," Tao suddenly said, "guys, the Hydra is still out there and we don't have a way out."

"We need to confront it," Sehun blinked slowly before glancing at Chanyeol, "don't we?"

The eldest Gryffindor stared at Baekhyun's unconscious form on the floor, and then back at his expectant friends.

"I guess so."

"But we can't win against a Hydra," Tao murmured, "it has nine heads. We're six, including two sleeping ones."

"We've got to give it a try anyhow. Jongin and Baekhyun are both unconscious. We'll never make it out of here alive if we try to lift them up the stairs and back into the room with Gryffindor's barrier."

"According to Greek mythology," Kyungsoo contributed, his face still slightly green, "for each cut off head that the Hydra has, it grows two more back."

"Thanks for the encouraging piece of information."

"Look, at least we're four," Sehun said serenely, "we can make it so that its heads get distracted and don't know where to attack."

"Also," Chanyeol murmured, "one of the Hydra's heads is supposedly an 'immortal' one. If we cut that one off, we can kill it for good."

The other three all stared at him.

"How do you know that?"

"I just remembered that essay I had to rewrite for Jung."

"Huh," Kyungsoo scoffed, "looks like that auror is at least useful for something."

"Okay, let's do our best," Tao mumbled with a determined look, grip tightening around his wand, "if we die, at least we'll die together."

"I would have liked to see my mum one more time," Sehun mused.

"Don't think like that, we can't die here, I still have O.W.Ls to pass," Chanyeol sneered, walking decisively towards the door. "Okay, as soon as I open this, we need to make a dash in different directions, alright? It doesn't matter where you run, as long as you don't get eaten. Hide behind boulders whenever you can... Use them as projectiles... Break pillars if you need."

"Cool."

"And don't cut off heads if you don't need to," Kyungsoo added sternly.

"Yeah, and while you're running, remember: we're looking for one head that's different from all the others. We need to find that 'immortal head' to cut it off once and for all. Yes?"

"Yes." Tao and Sehun nodded docilely.

"Good, then..." Chanyeol swallowed, "let's go."

He placed his hand over the handle and stopped there momentarily, physically unable to bring himself to open it. His fingers were shaking. The other three students simply glanced at him, waiting anxiously.

"What are you waiting for?" Tao was the first to say.

"I'm going," Chanyeol muttered, shutting his eyes before letting out a deep breath. "Okay, here we go."

"Do you need a countdown?" Kyungsoo asked.

"No, it's fine. I'm good. Let's do this."

At last, he tightened his clutch around the door knob and pushed it open, ready to run for his life. But nothing appeared. The hall was completely empty when they walked out into the open air. The Hydra was gone.

"What the hell?" Chanyeol murmured as the four of them wandered out timidly.

"Did it...um," Sehun frowned, "vanish because we got to the Veil?"

"No way, it's a living creature," Kyungsoo winced. "It must be waiting somewhere."

"Maybe it's gone back to sleep."

They took another few tentative steps, but heard nothing apart from the rustling sound of water around them.

"It's really gone," Chanyeol lifted his chin.

At the same time, a pebble rolled down from the archway above his head. Terrified, he turned, and immediately froze as he saw the nine heads of the Hydra surface behind him, lurking closer than ever from behind the Chamber of the Veil. Their golden eyes were almost scornful as they loomed over him.

Tao and Sehun began to recoil straightaway.

"Guys, run," Chanyeol stammered slowly, transfixed against his will by the monster's chilling gaze.

No one did. Suddenly, the middle head of the Hydra opened its mouth and darted its forked tongue out, letting a guttural sound escape. Its neck seemed to swell for a second, burning red at the bottom, before the orange glow travelled up its throat, rising towards its mouth at an alarming speed. Bright alarms began to ring in Chanyeol's head. Finally he found the usage of his limbs.

"Guys, run!" he screamed out loud before it was too late.

And simultaneously, the Hydra jutted its middle head forward. The flames flew out – brutal and scorching – blinding him as they burned and engulfed the entire place.

[Jongdae]

[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."

⚜

⚜

⚜

"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.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"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."

[Minseok]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER TWENTY: KISS US GOODBYE. ❞

---

Weeks swept along Hogwarts' hallways until O.W.Ls had passed and the last flowers of spring had turned into dewy green leaves. The wizarding examinations had come and gone like a tornado, shaking the concerned students' world for two weeks straight before finishing as a dot in the distance, surreal, faint and barely noticeable.

Baekhyun received a letter from his brother a few days later. His parents had heard about his relationship with Chanyeol, and would apparently be 'happy to meet the young man during the summer if Baekhyun decided to invite him over'.

'They have never given two knuts about anything we ever did...Did you honestly think they'd care whether you were dating a girl or a troll?' his brother, Baekbom, had flatly said in his cursive handwriting.

Baekhyun folded the letter without a word and slipped it into his night desk's drawer. He then let out a deep breath of relief and tackled Kyungsoo onto his bed, cuddling the younger boy in his arms and earning himself an elbow on the nose.

For the final week before the end of term feast, classes were lax. Minseok fluttered across corridors like a fairy, full of little spins and gracious jumps because – the N.E.W.Ts are over! Let's have a normal life again! Luhan would follow him through the halls with a lovesick smile on his lips, while Yifan, Yixing and Joonmyun walked behind them, the eldest of the three looking vaguely appalled, while Joonmyun rambled to a clueless Yixing about his endless dreads for the upcoming year.

The lake suddenly became a hot spot for students to spend their free periods. Baekhyun and Kyungsoo sat beneath a winding tree and lazed around the grass, the younger boy sometimes dragging a Potions manual with him, sometimes not.

"You know, I've realised why I was the only one who could hear the spirits' voices from the Veil," Kyungsoo declared one day as they sat next to the grassy shore.

And Baekhyun turned curious eyes towards him.

"Why?"

"It's because of your necklace, the one you gave me at Christmas."

"The Seventh Sense?"

"Yes, you said the store where you found it was called the Coffin House, didn't you? That's a shop about necromancy. Every imaginable item concerning the otherworld would be found in that store, including the book that Denholm used to learn about the Veil...That necklace of yours had the ability to enhance my senses and make me receptive to things that are not even part of this world. That's why I could hear what the spirits were saying to me from miles away. And that's why I was able to see passageways that other people couldn't see..."

"Geez," Baekhyun blinked, his arms folded behind his head as he lied down. "So you mean...I'm the one who turned you into a psychic freak?"

Kyungsoo nodded and slapped his book across his friend's head.

"Long story short, yes."

"It was meant to be a protective charm," the elder boy frowned, as if disappointed. "I feel swindled out of my money."

"Well, depending on the use of that necklace, I guess it could be protective in nature..." Kyungsoo shrugged and scratched his ear. "Just not in our case though."

"Where did you put it then?"

"Hmm?" the younger Slytherin looked up, "in a box, on top of my wardrobe. As long as I'm not wearing it, it should be fine."

"Oh, okay."

They both turned at the sound of someone falling in the water, and saw Tao crawling back onto the shore, with Sehun rolling on the grass out of laughter behind him. The next second, their field of vision was blocked by a tall shadow towering above them.

"Hey," Jongin said with a bashful smile, and Kyungsoo opened his mouth like a carp. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Seeing his best friend's surprise, Baekhyun turned back to Jongin and offered a frisky grin:

"Me? Of course you can. Should we go somewhere private-"

Kyungsoo shoved a hand out and covered his mouth.

"What is it?"

"Well, if you have five minutes," Jongin chuckled.

"You could say it in front of me, I don't mind," Baekhyun mumbled through Kyunsoo's palm.

Without further ado, the younger Slytherin pushed his best friend into the lake, turning back towards Jongin when he heard the loud splash resounding behind them.

"Yes, let's go somewhere private," he said and brought the Gryffindor aside.

Jongin waited until they were installed on a boulder near the lake, feet dangling over the water, before finally clearing his throat.

"So, uh...we have less than a week before the end of term feast."

"Yes," Kyungsoo said.

"...and that means only a few days before we need to leave Hogwarts for the summer."

"Uhuh."

"I...I don't know about you, but the atmosphere at home isn't all that joyful for me," Jongin murmured. "Usually, it's all just dull, cold, not very friendly – which is why I stayed at school over Christmas anyways."

"Same here," Kyungsoo replied.

"Right," the Gryffindor scratched his head, "I'm going to miss you during summer holidays, so, uh, I asked Luhan to help me with this."

He delicately pulled something out of his pocket, a small music box in glossy, blue paint, which he placed into Kyungsoo's open palms. The Slytherin looked at it, and blinked at his boyfriend in puzzlement.

"What's this for?"

"It's for easy communication during the summer," Jongin clarified with a smile, "I mean, letters and owls are nice... but it's not very convenient to have a conversation with them, right? So, uh, with these music boxes," he reached into his other pocket and produced an identical case, of a crimson shade this time, "we can have a conversation anytime. If you whisper your message to your open box and then close the cover, it will be connected to mine and I'll be able to hear it when I open it."

"You did this yourself?" Kyungsoo was vaguely flabbergasted.

"No, I asked Luhan to help," the younger boy precipitately said, "the Charms were way too complicated for me, I wouldn't have been able to connect the two boxes together. Even Luhan had trouble with it. Minseok had to give us a hand in the end."

"It's amazing," the Slytherin eventually remarked, contemplating the small box in his palm with a smile, "thanks."

"You could serenade me to sleep with this," Jongin smirked.

"Or scare you senseless first thing in the morning," Kyungsoo muttered pensively, "you could record screams with this, couldn't you?"

"Kyungsoo."

"I'm just joking," the fifth year sneered slightly, pocketing the music box with care, "thank you very much for the present."

Jongin simply beamed another one of his warm smiles, and Kyungsoo found himself diverting his gaze. He needed to learn how to get used to Jongin's natural charms, truly – getting flustered like this all the time was bad for his scary image. He hazily realised that the younger boy was staring at him intensely now, and the thought made him fidget uneasily.

Maybe he could go for meditation classes over the summer. Learn how to channel his inner peace at all times.

"You know..." Kyungsoo started, "I stopped reading about Dark Magic altogether," he said to change the subject.

Jongin momentarily paused in his staring to give the elder boy a surprised smile.

"Really? Completely?"

"Completely."

"Whoa."

"Haven't gone to that secret section in the library since we came out of the Hydra's den."

"That's amazing."

"It was getting overwhelming," Kyungsoo mumbled inarticulately, observing a ladybug climbing over a twig, "I don't think I'm cut out for that kind of stuff. Not for real, at least..."

"Hmm, well, as much as I could see you as a world dominator," Jongin drawled with a comfortable expression, "I'm glad you're not going to head for that path after all."

"It's going to be boring, though," the Slytherin mused, "not going to the secret section anymore."

"We can find other distractions," Jongin wriggled one eyebrow and then laughed at himself, making Kyungsoo grin affectionately, "I'm sorry, that sounded so corny."

"No, I...kind of agree with that suggestion."

And before Jongin could reply anything, he pushed himself forward, and landed a small peck on the younger boy's lips. Too surprised by the move, the Gryffindor simply yelped as his cheeks flushed, blooming through a pretty shade of pink.

Kyungsoo snickered, probably more proud of himself than he should be.

"Taking the offensive is surprisingly enjoyable."

Jongin simply floundered, looking both entertained and stunned. And the Slytherin took this occasion to stand up and pat the dirt off his trousers.

"Want to go?" he smiled. "I left my useless friend in the lake. Need to fetch him before he catches a cold."

⚜

"Want a hand?" was what Baekhyun heard first once he had resurfaced from the water and shaken the liquid out of his ears.

He turned his head, half-blinded by the sun, only to see Chanyeol beaming down at him with an amused expression on his face.

A pout reached his lips before he knew it.

"Wow, you watched that happen and didn't help me?" the Slytherin picked up in a fake affected tone. "I'm truly disappointed."

"What did you expect me to do? I just arrived – was looking for you and found you swimming like a mermaid with algae on your face," Chanyeol snorted, extending a hand to pull some waterweed out of the elder boy's hair. "Hey, you could keep this look, actually. Start a summer 'medusa' trend, or something..."

"Ha bloody ha," Baekhyun sniffled, wallowing with his waterlogged sleeves, "don't just stand there like a bloody stick, for Merlin's sake. Help me out of here."

"Is that a way to ask someone for help?"

"Yes," the prefect deadpanned.

"Well...I'll do it for a kiss," Chanyeol puckered his lips.

"You'll get that kiss if you pull me out of here first, my dear pig-headed Gryffindor."

Chanyeol considered the option for a second, then finally reached out with his hand, waiting for Baekhyun to grab it. The other boy immediately smirked. He clutched Chanyeol's wrist, hauled, and yanked the younger boy into the lake with him in one sharp move. The Gryffindor splashed into the waters with an outraged gurgle.

"Ha! Ha!" Baekhyun exclaimed loudly, "never trust a Slytherin with his words, you moron. That'll teach you to ask for kisses while I'm soaked."

"Asshole," Chanyeol spluttered, giving him a consternated look, "and to think I was actually here to give you a surprise."

"Well, too b – hold on, what?" Baekhyun blinked, "what surprise?"

"Huh," the Gryffindor leaned back, backstroking towards deeper waters, "do I even want to tell you, now?"

"Of course you do," the other boy frowned. "Tell me. Please."

"Well, let's just say that...my dad's gotten himself a summer project about dragons in the Fiji Islans," Chanyeol began, unable to hide his growing grin, "and since Yura and I need to spend at least one vacation a year with him but Yura has plans with her boyfriend, he told me to bring in a friend with me to the islands this year."

Baekhyun blinked, not too sure he understood well.

"A friend."

"Well, yeah, a 'friend' to come with me to the Fiji Islands. For four weeks, starting end of July."

"Who are you going to take?"

"Idiot," Chanyeol rolled his eyes, water dripping from his hair as he swam back towards the other boy, "you, of course."

Baekhyun opened his mouth, finding himself quite out of words for once.

"Seriously?" he spat after a while.

"I'm telling you, yes!" the Gryffindor scoffed, "didn't you tell me your parents were rarely at home? This way you could spend four weeks away from England's dreadful weather, come with me on a trip, and then we could spend days doing whatever the hell we want for four full..."

Baekhyun emitted a brutal sound, wavering between war cry and shriek of excitement, before lunging at the other boy and splashing water all over themselves. Chanyeol caught him before getting toppled over, and laughed with genuine joy, stepping back towards clearer waters in order to hold Baekhyun up in his arms.

"My dad's usually so obsessed with dragons that he doesn't know what I'm doing with my life half the time," Chanyeol chuckled. "We could go to the beach and do whatever we want. Swim to our heart's content, explore the rain forests and the blue lagoons, disguise ourselves as muggles and do crazy things..."

"Blimey, Chanyeol..."

"How does that sound?" the Gryffindor smiled, "Good? Bad?"

"What does it look like?" Baekhyun exulted, "I never do anything in the Byun household apart from finding new forgotten uncles and aunts, and growing nettles. A trip to the Fiji Islands would be amazing."

"I have to let you know that Jongdae is very jealous of the fact that I chose you over him," the younger boy said amusingly, "I had to make it up to him by promising that we'd go see the next Quidditch World Cup finals together."

"That's like...in ages."

"Yeah, but Jongdae's patient. So it's okay."

"I just need to request one thing," Baekhyun suddenly grinned, wet hair still stuck to his face, hiding his eyes and making him look like an excessively hairy dog.

"Shoot."

"While we're on the Fiji Islands, I need to send loads of postcards to Kiki; I think she'll appreciate it."

"Oh, yeah, sure. Just take Scooter with you."

"Perfect," Baekhyun declared, and Chanyeol dropped him back into the water with a grin. The heavy splash of water finally alerted Professor Sinistra who was passing nearby, and the witch swiftly ordered them both to come out of the lake immediately, lest they chose to catch a cold right before the end of term feast. Baekhyun and Chanyeol were too euphoric to care.

Neither of them could quite wait for summer now.



At the bottom of the hill, near the gamekeeper's hut, Yixing was carrying a wooden case full of fluxweed towards the back of Hagrid's yard, where a bunch of giant caterpillars were munching their way through a stack of lettuce leaves. The half-giant offered him a grateful grin as he threw an oily piece of meat at his oversized dog.

"That's really helpful, Yixin', just pu' em over the fence – yeh, they'll kno' where to go."

Yifan arrived at the hut a few minutes later.

"Is Yixing here?" the prefect asked hesitantly, and the Hufflepuff rapidly waved at him:

"I'm here," he called out. "Behind the wall."

The elder boy veered around the corner, smiling widely at his view, before catching a glimpse of the giant caterpillars in Hagrid's pen and abrutply stopping in his tracks.

"Merlin, what's that."

"Caterpillars," Yixing answered matter-of-factedly.

"I suppose that was a stupid question," Yifan said, then grimaced, "they're huge."

"I thought you liked magical creatures, Yifan," the Hufflepuff chuckled, before opening his palms towards the sky, "lies, Yifan. You told me lies."

"I like creatures that look cute," the Slytherin specified as he reached for the box of fluxweed to carry it in Yixing's stead. "Leave that here. I'll help you."

"Oh, no, I'm almost done."

Yifan ignored him and simply moved the chest of fluxweed into the pen of caterpillars, gritting his teeth when the faster ones indolently began to crawl their way towards him, emitting gruesome squishy noises.

"Oh, Merlin. This is seriously gross," he declared.

"You didn't have to help me if you didn't like it," Yixing smiled.

"I barely saw you at all, today. No one knew where you'd gone, I was getting worried."

The Hufflepuff seemed rather amused.

"Worried for what? It's not like I have a hundred Death Eaters in my friend circle. Besides, you know what?" his eyes glistened with a liveliness that Yifan rarely saw. "I think my memory has improved a lot, recently."

"Really?" he softened.

"Yes, Hagrid has given each of those caterpillars names, and lo and behold...I remember all of them."

Yifan simply laughed.

"Really."

"Why are you laughing? Look, that one's called Betty... This one is Bean, next to her. That other one over there is Jonathan. And this one throwing up lettuce leaves, here, is Maximus..."

"Impressive," Yifan smiled tenderly.

"I'm doing well, right?" Yixing grinned, "doing all that without my camemoire... Here, that one is called Caroline."

"I knew your defective memory had to do with Dark Magic," Yifan declared with a sigh while leaning against the fence, "every time I think about it, I still want to kick Denholm in the ass."

Yixing simply shook his head.

"You don't have to feel bad for me all the time."

At the same time, muffled shouting came to their ears and they saw Jhaveri passing by with Taylor behind him, the two hoisting a guffawing Markus Hargraves above their heads:

"Who's the most benevolent wizard of the year? You are! Who's the most benevolent wizard of the year? You are!"

Putieux was running behind them, throwing confetti.

Yifan stared at them for a moment before exhaling another sigh.

"I remember about their names too, now," Yixing smiled.

"Really?" Yifan cocked an eyebrow, "Ouh. Maybe that's not worth remembering."

"No, I think it actually is," the younger boy said, looking at Maximus, who was now rolling on the grass with a squeaking sound, "you know, I didn't always think this way, but I've come to discover that they're nice people. Just...very different, true. But nice all the same. There are many nice people around the school, and I've never had the chance to truly talk to them before. Maybe I was being narrow-minded without realizing it, living in my own little bubble without trying to look for something new. It's a kind of bigotry, really."

The Slytherin prefect gazed at him pensively, wondering how to respond to that, when the younger boy continued with a sigh:

"It's the same about my future," he murmured as he sat down next to Yifan on the creaking fence, "Maybe. Probably."

The elder boy bit his lips.

"If you want to stay with your parents, in their restaurant..." he began, "I don't mind helping them too. I can come over whenever you want. As soon as I'm free, I...I don't have to take over just yet anyways, my father is still working just fine..."

"It's fine," Yixing murmured, shaking his head, "Yifan, don't worry. We have time to think about these things. It's still too early for me to decide."

Their thighs fluttered against one another. Yifan soon glanced down at their legs, and diffidently looked back up into Yixing's eyes. The Hufflepuff was watching him attentively, as if expecting him to make the first move. As if expecting him to lean in and close the distance.

Eventually, he did.

Ignoring the squirming sounds of crawling caterpillars behind them and the gross chewing sound of fluxweed being eaten, Yifan leaned in to his side and touched Yixing's lips very gently with his own. He pressed lightly, keeping it chaste and soft, and the younger boy soon smiled into the kiss.

Yes.

Everything was just fine as it was.

They still had a lot of time before either of them had to decide.

⚜

⚜

⚜

A week later came the end of term feast, and the announcement of the House Cup winner. Luhan had not checked the hourglasses in the entrance hall for a number of weeks now, too preoccupied by the stress of the N.E.W.T exams and depressing thoughts on his upcoming departure from Hogwarts. But according to Jongdae, at least, Gryffindor was ahead of the other houses by a heap, if only because of their entire chaos with the Second Veil and the perils which had ensued.

That evening, in the midst of the festivities, McGonagall stood up at the teachers' table, lifted her glass and proclaimed very serenely:

"The winner of the House Cup this year is leading by an amount of more than sixty points." She smiled. "A fairly impressive feat considering that the runner-up house already had a total of five hundred and fifty-seven points to start with. Truly, our students seem to have been particularly zealous, this year."

"Five hundred and fifty-seven points," Tao whispered to Sehun and Jongdae next to him, "how did anyone top that to start with?"

Jongdae shrugged, shoving a spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth.

"The winner of the House Cup this year," the headmistress declared, "with a total of six hundred and twenty-two points..."

Jongdae swallowed his potatoes.

"...is Ravenclaw," came the final words.

And the table in question exploded with cheers, while Luhan spat his pumpkin juice at Sehun's face and Tao shrieked next to him.

"What the hell?" the seventh year prefect stared at Jongdae's blank face. "I thought you said we were leading!"

"That's what I thought."

"You looked at the hourglass and checked that we were winning?"

"What? No, I didn't, I just assumed we were leading because we won five hundred points after saving the school from a world-scale calamity, remember?"

"But then..." Luhan frowned. "How?"

"I might have lost a couple of points when I was caught by Filch last week, though," Jongdae mused, munching again, "I mean, a couple of dozens."

"A couple of what?" the prefect yelled.

"Oh, and I lost some points too, when Baek and I went on dates," Chanyeol noted.

"Same," Sehun piped up, "but for me it was because I sucked at Divination."

"I tried to help you," Tao gave him a judgmental look, "I truly did."

"Seriously, guys," Luhan slammed one flabbergasted fist over the table, "did you just win all those fucking points...just to lose them again?!"

At the Ravenclaw table, Minseok was just as surprised by the news, but his astonishment was soon attenuated by the sound of muffled laughs next to him, and a sly Joonmyun smirking satisfyingly into his éclair.

"Why are you laughing?" Minseok inquired curiously.

"I've been working extra hard these past few months, just to overcome the gap between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw," Joonmyun smiled with a burning glint in his eye, "earned a total of two hundred and fifty-seven points in the span of five weeks, and then fifty more before the end of year exam. Looks like my hard work paid off."

Minseok looked at him, nodded appreciatively and clapped in approval.

"Bravo."



That evening, the moon shone bright and the school drifted into peaceful slumber, devoid of fear. Instead of going straight to bed, Minseok slipped out of the Ravenclaw dorm alone and headed out noiselessly for the clock tower. Wrapped in his warmest cardigan, he wandered through the hallways and climbed up the stairs leading to the tower's top, his slippers shuffling quietly against the floor. There, behind the giant gears and under the seeping moonlight, the prefect sat down. He waited in silence, watching the schoolyard beneath him with a wordless touch of melancholy, watching the fields of trees below... watching the familiar little paths and the acquainted structures.

Tomorrow, the Hogwarts Express would be bringing all the students back home. A funny feeling crept within him at the thought, speaking of longing and nostalgia. Slow steps resounded behind him and he turned around to Luhan's pale face under the moonlight.

"You came," Minseok smiled.

"Well, I wasn't going to refuse anything you ask of me," the Gryffindor beamed back.

The elder boy slowly patted the floor next to him, and Luhan sat down, bringing his knees up to his chest as they both stared at the school grounds below, inundated by the blue glow of the moon and freshened by the breezy summer night.

Luhan pursed his lips and took a deep breath.

"So...this is it," he murmured.

Minseok didn't reply.

"Seven years go by really fast, don't they?" Luhan whispered again. "This is the last night."

The elder boy simply nodded in silence.

"I feel like yesterday I was still on that boat, floating towards the school for the first time, wondering in what house I'd end up," Luhan mused, "And now, here we are, done with the N.E.W.Ts, leaving Hogwarts for good to go on auror training and for bar exams. Damn."

"What a ride it has been," Minseok said with a sad smile. "Huh?"

"I'm going to miss this place," Luhan breathed, chin against his knees.

"You can come back here and teach for a year or two, like Jung."

"Come back here as a fully-fledged adult?" the Gryffindor smirked softly, "Hmm. Not the same feeling."

"I know, but sometimes, things just have to come to an end," Minseok sighed, "life moves on. What can we do about it?"

Silence stretched on between them, before Luhan glanced at him and pinched his cheek.

"Don't cry."

"I'm not crying," Minseok replied easily, "I never cry. You've known me for five years, now, did you ever see me cry?"

"No, you're right," Luhan chuckled lovingly, "I've never seen you shed a tear, not even once."

"I'm glad you're here with me tonight," the Ravenclaw suddenly said, very quietly, as he gazed at the sky.

Luhan caught a glimpse of his dreamy profile, then slowly brought the elder boy's head close to his shoulder, keeping him near.

"I'm glad you're here, too."

Tomorrow, they would be leaving Hogwarts for the final time.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"No running on the Hogwarts Express!" Joonmyun shouted from the door of his compartment as a line of excited first years stumbled across the corridor of the wagon, pushing each other with happy shrieks.

From behind him, Yasmine Abott laughed and passed him by, walking out of their compartment.

"It's okay, relax," she said, "it's the last day and we're almost in London, let them do whatever they want."

"They could injure themselves," Joonmyun frowned. "Do you imagine what the parents would say if they injured themselves?"

"Oohh, Joonmyun. You're being too serious again," Yasmine smiled, then disappeared around the corner.

Joonmyun simply puckered his lips when Yifan slipped out of the prefect's compartment too. "Alright, I'm going to check out what Yixing's doing. See you later at the station, okay?"

"You're not coming back later on?"

"Well, I'll get my stuff."

"Oh, okay..."

"We're arriving soon, anyways," the Slytherin waved without turning around.

Joonmyun blinked, before sitting back down on his seat with a muddled look, confused by the emptiness around him – when suddenly the door slid open and Jongdae tumbled in before shutting it close once again.

He produced a shocked yelp.

"J-j-j-ong...!"

The younger boy silenced him at once by pushing a hasty ice mouse into his mouth.

"Shhh," Jongdae whispered, leaning dangerously close his face as Joonmyun flattened himself against the window. "Surprise visit, Joonmyun...Thought you'd seen the last of me? You were terribly mistaken."

The prefect simply coughed, spluttering out the words with difficulty: "Why...Why are you...?"

"Here? I asked Yifan and the other prefects to leave the compartment for a while and give us some time alone, of course," Jongdae pretended to look innocent, "Did you miss me?"

"Oh my God," the prefect cried out in outrage, and the younger boy caught the falling ice mouse for him:

"Oops, careful. We wouldn't want a repeat of the Christmas ball incident, would we."

"I'm going to kill Yifan as soon as we arrive at the station," the Ravenclaw muttered, before sucking on the iced candy once again.

Jongdae simply cackled.

"Listen, I'm here to talk about serious business," he picked a falsely severe tone that made Joonmyun look at him with vague worry, "you know we haven't been meeting much because of the whole O.W.Ls business and the end of year exams which turned you into a bigger book worm than you already were. As much as I find your love for books endearing, we have in fact barely seen each other more than once every two weeks, and it's rather distressing."

"I helped you revise."

"Yes, but the point is, we still haven't made you produce a patronus, right? And here comes two months away from each other. Really, I am in great distress. We need to find ourselves a new arrangement."

The Ravenclaw looked sideways, then back at the other boy.

"What kind of arrangement?"

"Arrangements, for us," Jongdae simply said, his face still terribly close. "New meetings, you know. In private. Just the two of us. Over the summer. Dates."

"Dates!" Joonmyun squeaked.

"Yes. D. A. T. E. S..."

"J-Jongdae, this is not funny-"

"Do I look like I'm joking?" he smirked. "Look, Joonmyun. You live in London," the Gryffindor wriggled his eyebrows, "I live in Greater London. It's just a tube ride away..."

"B-b-b-but I-I-I-I m-m-m-might be b-b-busy, you can't-"

"I'll let you choose the time and place," Jongdae shrugged, still grinning, "what do you say?"

"We...we could go watch a musical," Joonmyun eventually croaked, too embarrassed to think.

Intensely distracted by the younger boy's hand in his hair, he barely realised it when Jongdae leaned in and popped the ice mouse back into his mouth:

"Sounds perfect to me," came the Gryffindor's husky tone.

And before Joonmyun could reply, he felt a pair of hot, smoky lips over his own, cupping the candy between them before the Gryffindor bit down and broke it into two. The younger boy then drew back with a satisfied look, chewing on his half of the candy seductively while Joonmyun offered a dumbfounded expression, frozen in place, feeling like hot pancakes were burning over his cheeks.

"Not bad," Jongdae finally pointed at the ice mouse in his mouth.

Joonmyun gurgled an incoherent reply.

"We'll continue our patronus lessons next year, if you don't mind."

"Uh...Y-Yeah."

For some reason, though, he was certain that producing a patronus wouldn't prove to be so daunting a task now. Ever since he had met Jongdae, perhaps, that item should have been erased from his list of worries. There were many memories that he could invoke now, when he thought of the word 'Happiness'. It had simply taken him a while to know what happiness truly looked like.

⚜

"Baek, I'll see you later, we want to say goodbye to Luhan and Minseok," Chanyeol informed the Slytherin as they stood on the platform, suitcases on chariots before them.

Baekhyun bent his neck and saw a sniffling Tao from the corner of his eye, the fourth year wiping his eyes repeatedly while wailing something for Luhan's benefit. Sehun and Jongdae were there too, patting their friend on the shoulder soothingly while Luhan himself was biting on his lower lip. Was it him, or the seventh year's eyes were red too?

"Go ahead," Baekhyun said, then smiled a little, "I'll see you this summer anyways."

"Yes. Of course," Chanyeol grinned, about to turn around when the prefect added:

"Tell them that I send them my best wishes too."

Chanyeol paused, then blinked at him:

"Why don't you tell them yourself?"

The Slytherin mused.

"Well, I don't-"

"You've been prefects together," Chanyeol shrugged. "You know them both very well, and I'm sure they'd appreciate it. We're all...friends."

"Oh."

Baekhyun pursed his lips and remained quiet then, not quite sure what to say to that. It was an odd, yet refreshing idea; that they had come such a long way since the beginning of the year. From archenemies trying to drive each other up the wall and strangers who barely acknowledged each other, they had somehow tumbled through weeks and months, and come to this...

Friends.

He smiled to himself.

The word did not even sound so disagreeable in his ears.

"I, uh," he murmured, "I suppose you're right."

Chanyeol saw the emotion in his eyes and sneered a little.

"A lot of things have happened, this year."

"It's been a funny year," Baekhyun nodded. He allowed Chanyeol to take his hand and lead him through the crowd for a bit, then eventually let out a sigh. "You know, part of me is going to miss slipping farting parchments into your belongings and making your cauldrons smell like rotten eggs."

"You can still do that occasionally, if you want," Chanyeol snickered, "but expect a revenge, if you start again."

"Ouh, sounds exciting," Baekhyun grinned.

"You like that idea?"

"I do like that idea very much, actually, I'm already starting to get inspired."

"Well, I suppose it'd be as your French friend says," the Gryffindor scrunched his nose, "those who love you will also hit you hard-"

"Why do you even have to bring Putieux into this affair?"

"I don't, sorry. Anyways, let's go say goodbye to Luhan and Minseok."

They both nodded and pushed their chariots towards the congregation which was now cluttered around the two seventh years - a gathering made of warm embraces and friendly pats on the shoulder, accompanied by well-wishes and 'write-me-soon's. Even Yifan and Yixing had arrived now. Joonmyun was trying his best not to shed tears.

That day, on platform nine-and-three-quarters, the wind was kind and the weather was fair. Before they parted to go their own separate ways, Chanyeol and Baekhyun gave each other a small kiss on the lips, short and simple, to make the London sky seem just that much brighter. A kiss to send away the distasteful memories of the past.

A kiss to bid the year goodbye.

⸺⸺⸺⸺ ⋆*・　⚜　・　⚜　・　⚜　・　⚜　・　⚜　・*⋆ ⸺⸺⸺⸺

[size=20pt][font=edwardian script itc]Fin. [size=14pt]・ End. ・ конец. ・  結束。・  終わり。・ 끝.[/size]

[Arielle]

[align=center][div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"]@Jinhong, Nat, Hayato, and Ayumi (though she's not here on BB [I'll send this to her later]), thank you all so much. Everyone worked really hard, and it most certainly paid off. This collaborative fic stands at a grand total of 151,146 WORDS ([MINUS TITLES AND AUTHOR NOTES] 100,731 WORDS OF SET-UP, FORESHADOWING, AND SIDE PLOTS; 50,415 WORDS OF MAIN PLOT; WHICH MEANS EACH OF US CONTRIBUTED WITH AROUND 30,229.2 WORDS) - and is longer than anything I've ever managed to write on my own. This was a massive project; I'm incredibly grateful for all of the time and effort you guys put in to help complete this!

As for all the people who contributed to the creation of this - we couldn't have done it without them offering plot ideas, headcanons, and suggestions as to how to write certain parts; a good number of them helped to beta everything, and that was also a huge help. I'll be sure to send everyone a 'thank-you' message by pm, email, or text tomorrow!

THERE WILL BE AN EPILOGUE, AND IT WILL GO UP BY TOMORROW AFTERNOON. After that, we'll prepare one last thing - perhaps something to patch up any loose ends in the fic and to clarify all the confusing bits. :^)

[sultan]

thank you all for this masterpiece oh . my god

[Seliane]

"tomorrow afternoon"....it's a bit late, isn't it ?? lmaooo
should i put it up ?? ?

[Arielle]

[align=center][div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"]Ah, yes, I did put that. cx I'll definitely have time to get it up later today though; I just happened to be really busy last week!

[Mayumi]

[align=center][div style="width:490px;text-align:justify;font-size:10px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:100%"][member=8090]Arielle[/member], don't make promises you can't keep. x3
Since I just got here, I can post the epilogue.

Oh and consider this a tentative track.

[Jongin]

[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 SIXTEEN: THE GATE OPENS. ❞

---

On their way to the Ravenclaw tower, Minseok abruptly pulled Luhan to one corner and slammed him against the wall without a single explanation. The Gryffindor opened wide, flabbergasted eyes:

"Minseok, wha-"

"Hush," the other prefect quickly shushed him, sharp eyes staring at a point somewhere down the corridor. "It's him."

Luhan peeked tentatively over the wall and saw Markus Hargraves scurrying down the hall unaccompanied, a few dozen of feet away from them. The student looked as if he was in a hurry, nervous of running into people on his way. Sneaky. Luhan's eyes immediately narrowed into two slits of suspicion.

"He's not heading towards the Slytherin Dungeons at all."

"No, on the contrary, it looks like he's heading for the floor below." Minseok murmured, then nudged him forward: "We should follow him."

The younger boy shot him a wild look.

"What?"

"We. Should. Follow. Hi-"

"No, I got that part."

"Then, what are we waiting for?" Minseok urged, blinking with his feline eyes, "go, sergeant, or we'll lose track of him!"

They quickly darted out of their vantage point and zigzagged from pillar to pillar, wall to wall, following Markus as swiftly as they could without being heard. The other seventh year looked so concentrated on whatever he was doing that he did not seem to even notice their presence. Only once did he turn around furtively, as if hearing something behind his back, but by the time he had spun around, Minseok had already dragged Luhan below the bannister of a staircase and hidden themselves from view.

They tailed the boy wordlessly until he bifurcated into a vaguely familiar corridor on the fourth floor of the castle, and Luhan let out a brutal cry:

"He's going to the place where Yixing was found!"

Markus spun around with terrorized eyes, and Luhan lunged out without a second thought, tackling the Slytherin to the ground with a loud grunt before Minseok could even pull out his wand.

"Don't move!" Luhan blared out loud, having no consideration for secrecy anymore, "don't move or we'll resort to violence!"

"Hgfshngnn?!" Markus choked against the other boy's arm.

Minseok watched with a vaguely consternated expression, wondering if it was even necessary to throw a Disarming Charm at the poor Slytherin now.

"What were you doing here after curfew hours?" Luhan interrogated, still pinning the other boy to the floor while holding his neck: "Speak!"

"Luhan."

"Are you a Death Eater, Markus?!"

"Luhan, you're choking him, he can't speak."

"Oh," the Gryffindor mumbled and released his clutch, just enough to let the other boy gasp for air: "Speak...!"

"I was just investigating like you, what the hell is wrong with you guys?!" Markus cried out with a rasping voice.

The two prefects stared at each other, suddenly feeling very confused.

"You were investigating?"

"Uhuh?" Markus said, still glaring at them like they were insane.

Luhan started: "I don't believe you," he hissed, "Show me your arm!"

And before Markus could react, he had snatched the Slytherin's wrist and jerked his sleeves up with one sharp tug, revealing on the boy's forearm...absolutely nothing at all, apart from silky white and almost hairless skin.

Minseok and Luhan exchanged another glance, and considered him once more. The Gryffindor then furiously rubbed his thumb against the Slytherin's forearm, but still, no Death Eater's mark surfaced and soon Markus yelled out in pain:

"Are you guys crazy?" he snapped, pulling his arm back from a Luhan who was nothing short of flabbergasted now.

"He really isn't a Death Eater."

"No." Minseok sighed, looking troubled, "Ugh. It's as I feared..."

"You're not the one who did all those things to Yixing?"

"Of course I'm not! That should've been obvious," the concerned seventh year groaned, massaging his arm. "What's the matter with you two anyways? I thought I was going to get attacked."

Luhan sat on the floor and shook his head:

"Look, the truth is, we've been suspecting you for a little while because of what happened during that Quidditch match and stuff..."

At that, Markus turned distressed eyes at him: "Did Baekhyun tell you?"

"Ahah," the prefect jumped, "so you did hex that bludger!"

"Alright, alright, I did do that..." the Slytherin sighed as he looked away, red-faced, and pursed his lips, "You don't have to scold me anymore. Baekhyun's already confronted me about it today when I saw him in the bathroom and it's not like I don't know that it was a lame move," he exhaled, "I just really liked him, and seeing him fall for Park Chanyeol out of everyone...it made me bitter."

"So it was just a case of love story gone sour?" Minseok asked with a touch of compassion.

"Of course."

The brunet looked despondently at the floor and scratched his head.

"Anyways, I already apologized to Baekhyun before leaving the bathroom. He stayed there longer than me, so I don't know what he did after that, I thought maybe he'd told you everything..."

"We haven't seen him all day."

"Anyhow, I admit that I fucked up for the bludger's case," Markus cringed, "but honestly, Zhang Yixing and the headmistress's cases are a total mystery to me too and I'm just as curious about them as you guys are. So I can't believe you thought that I was the one behind that."

"You kept on appearing on Zhang Yixing's memories, asking him about tutoring class and what not..."

"So what? Is it really wrong to want to build a good reputation for yourself?" the boy scoffed. "Besides, that's heavy Dark Magic we're talking about, here... How would a student even be capable of that?"

He stopped, because a dark shadow had abruptly started to hover over them, casting the outline of a raised wand on the floor next to their feet. Minseok raised his head first, and immediately drew his wand out in self-defence; but a well-placed "Expelliarmus!" and a jet of red light later, it flew out of his fist through a whistle of cold air and landed into the menacing silhouette's expectant hand.

They swiftly retreated towards the wall and shuddered as they recognized the features of the new arrival. It was Jung's unsmiling face which greeted them under the torch lights.

"Evening, boys." Jung said sombrely. He had never looked so serious before, "what are the three of you doing here?"

⚜

"How are we going to get to London, mate? I still think that's pretty insane," Jongdae inquired as they tumbled down the stairs towards the covered bridge linking the clock courtyard to Hagrid's hut.

Yifan stopped two steps ahead of him and darted his head around the corner, checking that Filch was nowhere close by. He turned around and placed a finger over his mouth.

"Shut up, or you'll get us discovered."

"We're going to be discovered anyways, this is the stupidest idea!" Joonmyun moaned, voice cracking as he squeaked. "Yifan, why do you have to act like a stubborn chi-"

"Shhhhh." Yifan hushed him anyways, making sure that the path was cleared before darting out of their hiding place. "Come on, there's no one on the bridge. Let's go."

Jongdae gave Joonmyun an excited grin before following the Slytherin's footsteps and running wildly into the night. The Ravenclaw prefect remained alone behind the wall for another second, looking about to burst with exasperation, then eventually dashed out in their pursuit.

"We can't do this, Yifan, you'll get us expelled!" he whispered loudly once they were sprinting under the moonlight.

The Slytherin peered back at him and retorted: "Not if we get the Death Eater's ass back to the castle and save everyone."

"As if that was going to happen!"

"Why are we running towards the Quidditch pitch?" Jongdae noted as they arrived at the end of the wooden bridge and marched down the stairs towards the bottom of the hill, where the stone circle was erected.

"Can't apparate while we are on school grounds." Yifan said, looking up behind them to check that no one was behind. "We need another way to get out of Hogwarts."

"Which is?" Joonmyun asked anxiously.

The Slytherin stared at him.

"Oh, no." Joonmyun gaped.

"Uuh."

"No, no. I refuse."

"Not an option," Yifan said. "unless you want to go back to the castle now and get caught by Filch..."

"Wu Yifan, stop. You can't do this to me."

"'Kim Joonmyun's first detention ever, experiencing the cleaning of dirty cauldrons in Filch's company' – nice story that will make for everyone in the morning..."

"Yifan, I am not going to London on a broomstick." Joonmyun stated flatly.

The exclamation left them upon a brief pause, in which Jongdae had time to chortle into his fist and Joonmyun gave him a hard hit of the elbow. The eldest student shook his head:

"We're not doing the whole trip like that...just far enough to catch the Knightbus, or else we'll be flying all night."

"Still..."

"It's the broom, or you come with my ride." Yifan then replied on the beat. "And that is going to be even less stable than a broomstick, so I will take no responsibility whatsoever if you die."

"Are you not using one of the school's Cleansweeps?" Jongdae blinked at him.

"I tried flying one in first year." the Slytherin said. "It sucked."

"Then what are you-"

"Look. I know the trip is going to be long and risky. But we might get traced if I apparate at this hour of the day in Hogsmeade, and I don't have a license to apparate yet. I'd be in trouble if the ministry traced it back to me."

"I didn't even know you were an illegal apparator," Joonmyun muttered, somewhat vexed.

"So what's your ride, then?" Jongdae folded his arms.

Yifan looked pensive.

"I'll try to bring it over now," he declared. "You guys go to the broom cellar first. If it doesn't work out, I'll see you at the pitch and get a broom for myself."

"And if it works?"

The Slytherin shrugged.

"I'll join you guys, and we go."



"Why does he have to act so mysterious all the time?" Joonmyun complained as Jongdae unlocked the broom cellar with a well-executed Alohomora, and entered it wordlessly. "As if it wasn't enough that we've all been embroiled into this madness. We are all going to lose a thousand house points." he looked down at himself, "Why am I still here?"

"Hey," the younger boy smiled as he pulled out his own Nimbus out of his locker. "Listen, if you don't want to risk it, we can share my broom, man. Just sit behind me and I'll do the work."

"I'm sorry?" the Ravenclaw jumped, then rapidly shook his head. "Out of the question. We wouldn't fit."

"Why not? It'll be tight, but I think we'd be fine," Jongdae shrugged, throwing a leg over the Nimbus. "It's not like you're obese, mate. God knows why you aren't with the amount of ice mice you consume per day, but... you're small. I'm small. It would work and I don't mind."

"I...I need to think about it," he spluttered unconvincingly. Sitting behind Jongdae, sharing one broomstick with him and having to hold onto the boy's midriff for at least an hour was not exactly what Joonmyun called an attractive option. "That time during the Valentine Olympics was traumatizing enough for me," he said, "I don't know if I'm ready to repeat that."

"Yeah, but I was carrying you in my arms at that time, it was different."

"Still, Yifan did say he had a ride so, who knows, I might just go for his."

Jongdae shrugged: "If you're sure of it."

"I'm pretty sure. But thank you for suggesting." he smiled politely.

But he had barely finished his sentence that a loud gush of wind made him cower, shoulders up, and he turned around to the sound of batting wings and horse hooves hitting the floor, only to feel his jaw drop of its own accord.

Riding on the back of a jet-black hippogriff with piercing gold eyes, Yifan looked at them with a shaken air on his face and a pallid complexion, as he finally let go of the creature's neck with trembling hands.

"It worked," he simply clarified after swallowing hard.

And Joonmyun spun around towards Jongdae, who was now staring at him with half-mocking, half-compassionate eyes.

"I'm coming with you," the Ravenclaw piped in at once, and immediately hopped onto the Nimbus to grab onto the cackling younger boy's waist.

⚜

⚜

⚜

For Chanyeol, the beginning of the night was restless, haunting dreams keeping him stirring and twitchy in his sleep. There were flames everywhere, and Baekhyun was running away from him, plunging straight into the fire without listening when Chanyeol tried to draw near. With the force of desperation, he tried to catch the elder boy before it was too late... but someone else held him back. He screamed. Suddenly, a shadow overcame him, hiding all lights from his eyes. He opened his eyes.

A pair of huge owl eyes on a panicked face stared down at him.

"AAAGHHH-!" he yelled for real, this time.

And before the person leaning over his bed could react, he seized the boy's waist and threw the intruder over the mattress, rolling with him onto the floor. A huge crashing sound followed their fall. The lights turned on and his roommates sleepily crawled out of their beds to scowl at him with scruffy faces.

"What the fuck, Chanyeol? The Olympics are over since a month ago. Why are you still wrestling?"

"I...I captured someone," he looked down at his arms and blinked as he found himself face to face with Do Kyungsoo's astonished eyes. "Wait," he frowned in recognition. "...Huh?"

"Hey, he's a Slytherin," one of his dorm mates exclaimed. "How did he get in?"

"I don't know." Chanyeol glowered.

He wavered and scrunched his nose at the boy in his lap: "Uh...What are you doing here?"

"B-Baek is in danger," Kyungsoo stammered quickly, and the Gryffindor widened his eyes.

"We should report him to the teachers, man," his roommate Meredith said, rubbing his nose with a yawn, and Chanyeol interrupted him quickly:

"No, don't do that."

"Why?"

"Hey, look!" his other dorm mate exclaimed violently: "Jongdae fled!"

"What?" Chanyeol blinked, momentarily letting go of Kyungsoo to rush towards his best friend's empty bed. There was a small note on a piece of parchment on the mattress.

Hey,

if you're reading this, then I got caught sneaking out. Ha ha.

Anyways will probably be back before midnight. Curfew is for losers.

Peace out.

- Jongdae

"What the fuck..."

He braked, thinking fast. First things first. He would have plenty of time to worry about Jongdae's antics later on, but if Baekhyun was truly in danger, then there was no time to lose there. The urgency here was on Baekhyun. He turned towards Kyungsoo:

"What happened to Baek?"

"He..." Kyungsoo looked at him, lips shaking, then glanced at the other Gryffindors in the room. Chanyeol noticed his hesitation and rapidly clutched him by the arm, leading him out of the dorm:

"We're going out for a while. Will be in the common room," he said to his friends, "don't report us alright?"

"What about Jongdae?"

"He said he'll be back, don't mind him!" Chanyeol snapped, opening the door and driving Kyungsoo through the exit.

"But... the Slytherin, mate!" his other roommate, Sergey, shouted.

Chanyeol slammed the door shut behind him and turned the younger boy around.

"What happened?"

"I don't know, I'm not sure, but Baekhyun has not been back to the Slytherin dorms since dinner...No – no one's seen him. I think he's been had," he stuttered all at once, "I think..."

"Slow down. First... why did you come here?"

"Jongin gave me the password..."

"But why come to me first?" Chanyeol frowned suspiciously.

"I thought you'd care..." Kyungsoo spat, a glow of uncertainty in his eyes.

The Gryffindor automatically regretted his question. Kyungsoo was genuinely scared. He would be a real bastard if he continued to doubt the younger boy any longer: the Slytherin was telling the truth and he sincerely needed help.

Which meant that Baekhyun was really in danger.

"Fuck. We need to get Jongin, Tao and Sehun," Chanyeol stumbled over his words, and the other boy's face lifted up with a filament of hope. "Come on, let's wake them up."

It took them a good ten minutes to drag Sehun out of bed, the youngest boy still holding his pillow when they finally gathered in the common room, which was completely abandoned at this hour of the day, but once they were all awake and at least vaguely alert, Kyungsoo described the situation again to each of them, including his discoveries with Jongin in the library this time, and they all sat down to listen attentively, eyes serious and interested.

"I think he's been found by the Death Eater," the Slytherin finally declared, his face colourless under the chimney fire.

Chanyeol shook his head in denial.

"Fuck, no."

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Jongin advised steadily. "Baekhyun is someone who's pretty rebellious by nature. He could be out roaming on his own like Jongdae is-"

"But Kim Jongdae left a note. Baek left nothing..."

"I think...if Minseok's theory is right," Tao started tentatively with a hand in his hair, "the Death Eater is going to need a second scout now that the situation is completely out of control. And he can't have another Yixing...because the teachers would know about it straightaway. So he needs someone to be searching for the Veil day and night."

"Basically, he's trying to get that Veil tonight, isn't he?" Chanyeol scoffed, pacing across the room. "And Merlin knows what he'll do with Baek once he's done his job."

"We need to get to the Veil before Baek, then" Kyungsoo blurted out quickly. "It's the only way."

"Do you know how?" the elder boy turned around.

The Slytherin hesitated, and then eventually shrugged:

"I know where."

⚜

"Can you explain what's going on, here?" Jung asked very calmly, blocking the only exit to the corridor.

He still had his wand raised.

Luhan glanced at Minseok and put an arm out, instinctively trying to keep the Ravenclaw behind him. The teacher did not seem about to lower his wand any second soon. Luhan quickly considered their options and kept his mouth shut. If Jung was the culprit they were looking for, he would only have a few seconds to act, nothing more. The thought was nerve-racking.

He inhaled deeply.

"I'd like an answer," Jung narrowed his eyes. "Boys. Speak, now."

Minseok opened his mouth, but Luhan signalled for him to remain quiet. He stared carefully into Jung's eyes, breath held in, and then abruptly flung himself to the ground without a warning, taking the teacher aback and forcing him to retake his aim. Before Jung could utter a spell, however, Luhan had rolled side-ways and snatched his own wand out of his back pocket:

"Expelliarmus!" he shouted.

The wand jumped out of Jung's hand under the teacher's astounded eyes.

Minseok let out a shout: "Wait, Luhan!"

But the Gryffindor had scrambled back to his feet and sprang forward, toppling the teacher over and dragging him down to the ground.

"Minseok, run!" he then screamed, "Alert the teachers!"

The other prefect blinked: "But Luhan-"

"Go! Quickly, go, go, go!"

"Mr. Lu–" Jung struggled. "Please let go of me."

"Run, Minseo– "

"Luhan. He's not the Death Eater," the other boy shouted with exasperation.

"What?" Luhan blinked, suddenly releasing his grasp, and stared at the dishevelled teacher underneath him with horrified eyes.

Jung was now looking up at him with an almost amused expression on his face. The young man did not attempt to free himself anymore. He just lied defencelessly beneath him, waiting for the Gryffindor to loosen his iron clasp.

Luhan felt his face flush as his mistake dawned on him.

"Uhhh."

"Yunho, is everything fine?" came Slughorn's breathless voice, and soon the Potions teacher appeared around the corner, with Flitwick at his tail.

"Did you find something?" the Charms teacher twittered fretfully. "The Death Eater?"

"No, not the Death Eater," Jung explained with a chuckle as Luhan rapidly struggled to stand back up, covering his face in embarrassment and looking mortified.

The young teacher smiled and laughed benevolently at him: "I just found three very curious detectives, and one good potential auror trainee."

⚜

They had been flying in the dark over endless patches of forests and fields when Yifan finally turned around over Shackleplum's back and shouted through the wind:

"We're pulling over!" he called as they passed over a small village out of the countryside.

From behind Jongdae's back, Joonmyun dared to open one eye and glanced down at the landscape beneath them, retaining a whimper at the last moment. He tightened his grip around Jongdae's waist while Yifan checked that no one was on the road beneath. The Slytherin then whispered something to Shackleplum's ear and the hippogriff made an immediate beeline for the ground, large wings flapping threateningly through the starry night. Jongdae followed a second later.

They landed on the deserted road and Joonmyun immediately fell, his legs refusing to hold him up.

Jongdae pulled him back up with an amused laugh:

"Whoa. Careful, there. Don't faint."

"I'm so done," Joonmyun simply emitted weakly, holding onto the younger boy's shoulder as the Gryffindor lifted his broomstick up and placed it over his shoulder.

"Don't say that. It's an adventure," the Quidditch player said, then looked over at Yifan, who was now passing a hand over Shackleplum's dark plumage. "Are we taking the Knightbus here?"

"Yeah, we are," Yifan glanced around them, "we've been flying for over an hour...Should be far enough."

"Two hours," Joonmyun spat, eyes full of rancour, "two hours, I counted. We've been flying for two flipping hours."

"I need to send Shackleplum back," Yifan said without hearing him. He gazed at the hippogriff's glazing eyes as seriously as possible.

"Cheers for coming along until now," he uttered, wondering what to say, "Go back home now, yes? Don't follow us."

The creature simply scrutinized him sternly, as if refusing to leave.

Jongdae and Joonmyun glanced at him.

"Is it me or he wants to stay?"

"He can't," Yifan frowned softly, "we can't take the Knightbus with an hippogriff, that'd be fucking ridiculous. Come on, Shackleplum, you need to go back home. Hagrid will be sad otherwise."

The hippogriff unfolded his wings, letting out a shrill protest.

"He really likes you, doesn't he?" the Ravenclaw prefect sighed.

"Maybe we could get him to carry a message back to Hogwarts for us," Jongdae suggested with a grin.

"Hippogriffs aren't owls."

"Yeah, but this one really likes you."

"This is not the point. And anyways, if people discover I've been using him for transport, I'll be in trouble. It's illegal," Yifan sighed.

At last, Shackleplum seemed to understand him. He took a few steps backwards, hooves hitting the concrete methodically before opening his wings again. Then at last, with a final shriek, he raised his head high and took off.

Yifan watched him go with a grateful smile, and then turned back towards Jongdae and Joonmyun once again.

"We're good?"

"Yeah, we're good." Yifan nodded. "Let's call the damn bus."



"You know you still haven't been telling us who we're looking for exactly." Jongdae noted as the Slytherin raised his wand up in the air and waited.

"I have an idea, now," Joonmyun sat by the corner of the road, holding his robes tight and shivering a bit. The Gryffindor looked down at him.

"Seriously?"

The prefect sniffled a little. He paused.

"It's Bobby Browning, isn't it?"

Yifan smirked as he turned his head. "I'm impressed,"

"I knew it," the Ravenclaw moaned, shutting his eyes under Jongdae's astonished expression, "oh, I should have guessed it earlier."

"Wait. What," the youngest blinked, completely lost. "I don't get it. Why the hell is it Bobby Browning?"

"I had an inkling when you said London," Joonmyun groaned, "I heard that Browning left school this evening before dinner. Also, Browning is Yixing's best friend."

"Yeah, he's always been sick, but Yixing told me that his illness got especially worse this year," the Slytherin muttered, "which obliges him to drink his medicine every hour. Now, what do you drink every hour if you want to maintain a disguise perpetually?"

"Polyjuice potion," Joonmyun sighed. "Of course."

"Holy shit..." Jongdae murmured, slowly realising what all of this signified, "So you mean..."

"The Bobby Browning we saw this year was not Bobby Browning. It was a Death Eater in disguise who took Browning's appearance in order to infiltrate the school and find whatever it is that can bring Voldemort back."

"Fucking shit," Jongdae whispered.

"Language," the Ravenclaw moaned for the umpteenth time.

"Anyways. Now we just have to knock on his door, beat the crap out of him, and bring him back to Hogwarts so the teachers can call the ministry and send the bastard to Azkaban."

"Wait, but if it's Bobby Browning we're looking for, how did you know where he lives?"

Instead of answering, Yifan simply squinted at a spot far away in the distance, and then lowered his arm.

"It's here."

With a loud bang! the purple triple-decker suddenly appeared in front of them, purring loudly as the conductor of the Knightbus leaned his yellowed face towards them, teeth uneven and grin unsettling: "How many passengers?" the man shouted.

"Three," Joonmyun chirped as he rapidly stood up and Jongdae helped him to get into the bus.

"Get onto the car, kids. Any luggage?"

"One Nimbus and that's it," Jongdae said, then his eyes sparkled, "By the way, you have hot chocolate here, don't you?"

"Jongdae..."

"It's thirteen sickles for the hot chocolate, boy."

"Did you really have to ask for that now?" the Ravenclaw glared at him.

Yifan waited while Jongdae forked out the money under Joonmyun's fustigating scrutiny, and leaned towards the driver:

"How long does it take to Little Blackbird?"

"The village in Enfield?" the elderly driver barely looked at him, "another two hours if we go through the main streets, boy. It's Greater London – we're nowhere close to that."

Yifan looked down at his watch:

"What if we don't have two hours?"

"Then it's an hour, but seventy-seven more percent chance of gettin' an accident," the conductor drawled carelessly.

"Seventy-seven more out of how much initially?"

"I don' know, boy, you do the math," the man spat with a heavy Cockney accent. "We're leaving now. Get your scrawny asses seated somewhere...Busy day, the top floor's still free."

"The top floor?" Joonmyun's voice cracked as he looked at the ceiling of the triple-decker.

Jongdae gave him a sheepish grin, sipping on his hot chocolate happily while Yifan only offered a shrug.

"Hey. It's okay," the Gryffindor said in a tone which seemed hopeful, "an hour is only sixty minutes."

And that was why, Joonmyun thought sternly, breaking rules was a terrible idea.

⚜

"Are you sure we're heading in the right direction?" Chanyeol's voice asked from behind him as Kyungsoo led them through the darkest corridors of the dungeons. There was a touch of anxiety in the Gryffindor's voice that Kyungsoo could recognize without doubt as a sign of mistrust. But Jongin was next to him as they moved forward, his illuminated wand raised next to his warm features, and the Slytherin soon relaxed his shoulders.

"Yes," he whispered. "It's the only place Baekhyun could have gone if he's been Imperiused...or at least, it's the only place he would be looking for."

"Are you hearing any whispers again?" Jongin inquired softly.

"Not yet," Kyungsoo shook his head.

He was trying to memorize everything from the top of his head, all the crooks and turns of the dark hallways. Behind him, Sehun and Tao were holding onto each other's arm, the elder of the two shivering every time a drop of water fell on top of his nose.

"It's already the fifth time!" the elder boy soon yelped, his wand raised, and Sehun let out a nasal cackle.

"Shut up, you guys are going to get us found, for Merlin's sake," Chanyeol placed a finger over his lips.

Tao whimpered and pulled a dissatisfied face.

"This is why I hate dungeons."

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes.

"When did you realise that Baekhyun was in danger?" Chanyeol soon breathed, his eyebrows furrowed as frustration left place for worry.

"When my dorm mate said he didn't come for dinner. I barely saw him today, too..." Kyungsoo pursed his lips. "The Death Eater could have gotten to him anytime and no one would have known. So I waited in the dorms for an hour but Baek still didn't come back."

"Fuck." Chanyeol swore under his breath.

"I thought the Death Eater got to him and used him just like Yixing..."

"Why would he choose Baekhyun out of everyone, though?" Sehun sniffled.

"I don't know," Kyungsoo frowned, "but then again, he's got the face of someone who looks for trouble, doesn't he?"

He turned around to look at Chanyeol's reaction, and to his surprise, the Gryffindor's expression relaxed marginally, seeming like he completely agreed with him for once. Sure enough, the elder boy soon nodded and opened his mouth again:

"You're right. He does look for trouble."

Kyungsoo turned back towards the front and lifted his wand to have a glimpse of their surroundings. He stopped in his tracks and raised his head. Around them, just barren walls. The tunnel he had seen after Christmas eve which had led him straight to the Alpha door back then, was now nowhere in sight. But he was certain that he had taken the right path, so why was the opening gone tonight?

His eardrums were slowly starting to buzz again.

"What?" Jongin enquired worriedly as he covered his ears.

"That's it," he closed his eyes and opened them again a few times. "This should be the place."

The Gryffindors all glanced at each other.

"Uhhh," Sehun droned. "I don't know about you guys but I only see walls."

"No, this should be it," the Slytherin interrupted curtly.

"Okay."

Gradually, the whispers were drifting back.

'Kyungsoo...Kyungsoo... Come and play.'

"This wall isn't real," he blinked a few times, staring hard at the right side of the corridor they were walking in.

Then, as he took a few timid steps towards the wall, it seemed like the bricks disappeared one by one, evaporating into oblivion. The wall was an illusion. Under his wavering eyes, it vanished stone by stone, to be replaced by the same round tunnel that he had found on Christmas morning, the same murky and ominous passageway he had been expecting.

Kyungsoo retained his breath and pointed at the opening:

"Do you still see the wall?" he asked.

"Uhhh, yeah." Sehun answered flatly. His arm still locked with the younger boy's, Tao nodded frenetically.

"Okay, then that means I'm the only one who can see this passageway for some reason." the Slytherin mused.

"You're the only one who can hear the whispers, too." Chanyeol scrunched his nose. "Is this supposed to mean something?"

"I don't know," the concerned boy shook his head. "But the fact that I'm the only one who sees it doesn't mean that it's not real..."

He hesitatingly reached out and climbed into the tunnel, and immediately, the others jumped:

"Kyungsoo?!"

"It's okay, come in. There's just a spell around here to hide the tunnel, but it won't stop you from climbing in. This is just a charm like platform nine and three-quarters, where the wall's only a façade. Try it."

When the others seemed to hesitate, Jongin was the first to fumble blindly with his hands, reaching into the darkness.

"Holy shit," he was saying, eyes unfocused, "it's like my hands are being eaten by the wall."

"Step up," Kyungsoo said. "Take my hand."

At last, Jongin pushed himself upwards and entered the passageway, squatting next to Kyungsoo as the Slytherin helped everyone in, one by one. Tao walked in last, but not before hitting his knee twice on the edge of the opening. Once they were all together again, Sehun dusted his trousers and looked around them anxiously.

"What now?"

"This way," Kyungsoo pointed his wand further into the burrow.

They walked in silence for a little while, until the Slytherin slowed down the pace and they reached the circular room with the Alpha sign on the wall and the hydra constellation on the floor. At last, he stopped, and waited for the others as they cautiously stepped into the narrow area.

The whispers were starting to echo noisily in his head now, but Kyungsoo forcefully ignored them and cleared his throat.

"This is it," he explained to the baffled Gryffindors. "This is the door to the Veil, which the Death Eater will have Baekhyun search for under an Imperius Curse."

The four other boys stared grimly back at him.

"You think there's a chance he's already in there?"

"Maybe...I don't know. But what you guys need to remember," he scowled, "is that there's going to be a passageway behind the door – Merlin knows how long – and three so-called 'barriers' before anyone can reach the Veil at the end. That's what the books say. I don't know what kind of hindrances those are going to be...but it'll be stuff made by Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin themselves," Kyungsoo looked upwards, "so I don't think it's going to be bangs-and-smells magic."

"What about Ravenclaw?"

"Ravenclaw's barrier is all this stuff we already went through," Jongin hurriedly explained, "the doors and all that."

"Honestly, this is going to be extremely dangerous," Kyungsoo insisted sternly, "I...I'm grateful that you guys accepted to come all the way here. But if you want to go back before it's too late, it's now or never."

"Well, I'm staying," Chanyeol grunted. "I'm not leaving until we get Baek back."

"I'm staying too," Jongin replied very simply.

"Staying," Sehun dropped.

"Staying," Tao attempted a smile, before shrieking as a drop of water fell on his head, making him jump.

Kyungsoo watched them wordlessly and closed his mouth, wondering what to think.

"Okay...then..."

"Then let's open the door," Sehun finished, sniffling again. "How do we do that?"

There was a moment of silence. They exchanged vacant stares.

"There...uh...there should be a password," Kyungsoo mumbled, looking at the sign on the wall.

"Open." Tao tried, thumping against the wall, his lit wand in his vacant hand. "Open. Wall, open."

"I don't think it's going to work that way..."

"Open..." Sehun started to say to nothing in particular as well. "Walls, open. Open. Walls..."

"Guys."

"Open. Walls...How do you say Open in Latin?"

"I don't know." Sehun knocked against the wall again: "Doorus, Openus?"

"Chamber of the Veil," Chanyeol whispered to the Alpha sign, "open, open."

Kyungsoo covered his eyes in consternation.

"Open. Chamber of the Veil...Open-"

"Stop," he gritted his teeth. "Stop. Stop. Stop. You all sound fucking stupid, stop."

Sehun paused in his knocking at once, shooting him an expressionless stare. The fifth year Slytherin coughed into his fist and planted himself right in front of the Alpha sign, facing it determinedly.

"Ianuam Aperi," he tried.

Nothing happened.

"Doesn't work." Sehun noted.

"Maybe it has to do with Hydra and the constellation," Jongin advocated, stepping forward. "After all, Ravenclaw did build her door around that theme..."

"It could be," Kyungsoo mused, eyebrows furrowed as he faced the Alpha sign again. "Hydra?" he probed. "Alphard? Alpha Hydra? Epsilon?"

Nothing.

Frustration was starting to build up within him. Somewhere behind him, Tao sounded a little troubled, shaking his wand repeatedly:

"What's wrong with this..."

"What happened?" Chanyeol leaned towards him.

"It's starting to go all weird again," Tao sighed, holding his hand as the hazel wand quivered violently in his grip, the light waning and flickering as the seconds passed by. "My wand. It was fine during the year, but now it's being annoying all of a sudden."

"Maybe it's not the password that's wrong," Jongin said, one hand on Tao's shoulder and the other on Kyungsoo's wrist. "Maybe we're saying it to the wrong place."

"But this is the only place I've seen this sign before," the elder boy faced the carving on the wall once more. "Where else..."

"Ah, I hate it," Tao whined, tapping his wand against his hand a few times. The light at the tip of it flashed bright for a second, then extinguished completely only to be replaced by tiny silver huffs of smoke, shaped like tears, which puffed out repeatedly from the end of the wand under the Gryffindor's dismayed gaze.

"What on...?"

"It's detecting water," Sehun suddenly declaimed, blinking at his friend's wand, "Hazel wands have the special ability to detect underground sources of water, like subterranean springs or fountains... I read it when I was looking for your Christmas present."

"Which means that there must be water beneath us, right now."

"The passage is not through the wall," Kyungsoo understood with a jolt: "It's beneath the ground!"

"Tao, you're a genius!" Chanyeol slapped his friend on the shoulder.

But the younger boy simply grabbed onto his wand, nose scrunching as the stick continued to quake uncontrollably: "I didn't do anything."

"Alright, so the hydra constellation should be what we say the password to," Kyungsoo positioned himself in front of the fissure on the floor, as the Gryffindors all stepped back to leave the centre of the room uncovered.

He took a breath.

"Hydra?"

The crack did not budge. He swallowed again and clenched his fists:

"Lernaean Hydra."

As soon as he uttered the words, a deafening crash resounded through the room and the fissure on the ground started to open as a circle of light moulded itself around the constellation. The rock seemed to split into two, gradually shifting to unveil a deep hole beneath it, leading to a subterranean passageway which was filled with smoothly flowing water, the liquid glowing in wavy shades of translucent green, as if lit by subaquatic lamps.

One quick evaluation told them that they would be submerged up to the chest once inside, but there would be room to breathe. The five students looked at each other with mutual understanding and kept their lips tightly clasped.

"Anyone wants to pull back?"

Shaking of heads from every direction welcomed his words. Kyungsoo and Chanyeol nodded to themselves.

"Well, then we're going."