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

[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 SIX: DANGEROUS SIGHTINGS. ❞

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For the umpteenth time that day, Joonmyun sighed.

To avoid the suffocating crowd which usually gathered at the Three Broomsticks, he had chosen one of the most secluded tables, sitting next to a window which gave him a view of the students roaming outside and allowed him to keep an eye on them despite being in the pub. The snow had been hasty, this year; Hogsmeade's alleys were completely white.

A bell tolled at the entrance, and Yifan walked in, leaning his head to shake the snow off his hair, his face buried in his scarf. Joonmyun waved at him, and the Slytherin headed towards his table, nodding towards the cup in his hands.

"What are you having?"

"Cherry syrup." Joonmyun answered with a smile.

Yifan gave him a look, but otherwise said nothing. He went to the counter and asked for a warm butterbeer.

"How is it going outside?" Joonmyun asked when he returned.

"Nothing much, the kids are looking for Christmas presents, mostly... I've seen Minseok walking up the street near The Magic Neep. He'll take care of that area."

"Alright."

"So...what's up with your life?"

Joonmyun watched the ceiling, fishing for memories, and frowned.

"It's nothing big, but...remember when I said I caught Chanyeol in the middle of my patrolling duties, last time?"

"Uh, yeah...?" the Slytherin nodded.

"He got detention."

Yifan cocked an eyebrow, but did not look surprised.

"What did he do this time?"

"I don't know, to be honest..." Joonmyun said frankly. "And it's worrying me."

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

"I mean I genuinely don't know what he was doing that night."

"But he got detention."

Joonmyun shrugged. Chanyeol had been punished, yes, but for what? He sincerely didn't know. The situation had been odd enough, and he had interrogated Chanyeol right there and then that night, when he found him. But the younger wizard had insisted that he was only walking around the castle because he had trouble sleeping. Now, that had obviously been a lie, but Joonmyun had never been very good at grilling people on the spot. So the conversation had gone on for a long time with Chanyeol just blabbering and refusing to give way.



"I heard you speaking to someone." Joonmyun had said very seriously, still using his wand to look for anyone else's shadow in the hallway. "Is there another student here with you?"

"No," Chanyeol had raised both hands. "I swear...! There wasn't anyone here with me, I was just...talking to myself."

"Do you really expect me to believe that?"

"Yes. It's the truth." the Gryffindor smiled sheepishly. "Come on, Joonmyun. You wouldn't punish an innocent student."

"Innocent students don't wander around the castle at one in the morning. That's against the rules, and you know it."

"I...I had an indigestion," Chanyeol said, holding his stomach. "It's the mushrooms during dinner...they didn't go through very well."

"So, you were trying to walk it off?"

"Exactly!"

Joonmyun bit his lips, not knowing what to say. On one hand, he was virtually certain that he had heard Chanyeol talk to somebody right before he had used the lighting spell on that corridor, and was also positive that there had been more than one set of footsteps coming down from that staircase to the sixth floor earlier on. On the other hand, whoever that mystery person was, he or she was now completely invisible...and Chanyeol had nothing in his hands which could even remotely be used against him. The Gryffindor offered another guiltless smile, and Joonmyun hesitated, then lowered his arm, ready to let the younger boy go.

Chanyeol's face immediately brightened up.

"Thanks, Joonmyun."

The prefect tried to reply something, but before he could, a third voice spoke up in the darkness:

"Evening, boys."

They both raised their eyes to look for the source of the voice and Joonmyun jolted, noticing Professor Jung's face glowing by the light of his wand as he ambled towards them with a disconcerting smile. At first surprised to see a teacher up so late, the Ravenclaw blinked and tried to look for a proper greeting. But then he glanced at Chanyeol, and saw the Gryffindor's face slowly turn green – a bit too green for someone who was supposedly innocent. Professor Jung stopped at their level and looked at Joonmyun for an explanation.

"So, what's all this happy gathering about?"

"Chanyeol was simply telling me that he had trouble falling asleep, professor."

"Oh, isn't that unfortunate?" Jung nodded, then observed Chanyeol very carefully. "You do look a bit sick, Chanyeol. You're a little pale. Very pale, actually. And it's very late. You should go back to bed."

"I...I will, professor. Thanks."

"Before you do that, though...What's that in your pocket?"

Joonmyun saw Chanyeol's expression turn from apprehension to pure panic. The Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher smiled and extended one hand.

"Give it to me," he said softly.

Chanyeol hesitated, eyes darting around to look for help. But Professor Jung simply opened his palm again.

"Come on, now. Give it to me," he repeated very slowly.

Chanyeol dug his hand into his robe's pocket, pulling out a heavy pair of round, bronze keys that he handed over to the professor with much reluctance. Professor Jung carefully studied the object for a while, then showed a little smirk.

"They look familiar."

"They're the keys to my trunk." Chanyeol stammered, slightly defiant. "I need them to get to my books."

"Right." Jung cocked an eyebrow, "I'm sure you wouldn't mind if we tried that together, then? Opening your trunk with this?"

Joonmyun saw the Gryffindor struggle to keep his calm, closing his eyes tightly as he backtracked.

"Alright, alright...You win. I lied."

"Lying in front of a teacher is really not a smart thing to do, Chanyeol," Jung said severely this time, about to turn around, "I'll keep these keys until their use's been identified, if you don't mind."

"I do mind," Chanyeol suddenly retorted, eyes brightening up. "They...they're important to me. Uh... I got them from a friend!"

Professor Jung narrowed his eyes, .

"A friend?"

"It's an antique!" the other boy exclaimed, holding his hand out. "Since I couldn't go to Hogsmeade last time, my friend kindly bought it for me in this tiny antique shop by the Shrieking Shack, as a souvenir. I swear it's the truth, you can go there yourself and check the shop if you want, t-they have tons of useless, ancient, shiny stuff, totally meaningless but very pretty to look at...ha ha."

Joonmyun raised an eyebrow this time, not too sure where the conversation was going anymore. But Professor Jung seemed slightly skeptical, still holding the keys in his left hand, his grip loosening imperceptibly. Chanyeol clasped his hands together, looking ostensibly depressed.

"Please, professor Jung...It's a romantic gift."

With a chuckle, the teacher tilted his head and dropped the keys into Chanyeol's open palms.

"It's a bit of a wobbly story, if you ask me," he said eventually. "But I'll give you the benefice of the doubt - I don't want to be accused of breaking young students' love stories, after all."

Chanyeol beamed brightly.

"Thank you so much, Professor Jung. You're a saint."

"Tut. Don't thank me so fast. You lied to a professor and were caught wandering around the castle grounds outside permitted hours." Jung smiled, almost a little smugly. "I think that deserves at least a detention."

Chanyeol opened his mouth, the keys still in his opened hands.

"What?"

"I think you mean 'I beg your pardon'." Joonmyun frowned.

"Thank you, Mr Kim." Jung laughed softly. "And yes, you heard me, Chanyeol. I'll schedule something fun for you and get back to you about the terms of your detention. I missed having you around, this is a perfect occasion."

"B-but...professor!"

"See you in class on Monday." Jung smiled and turned around.



"And he never asked what the hell Chanyeol was doing, in the end?" Yifan queried, incredulous, using his glass of butterbeer to warm up his hands.

"No," Joonmyun sighed. "I tried to make Chanyeol talk after that, but he kept his mouth tightly shut and claimed that he needed to go back to bed right away."

"Smells fishy."

"I know..." the Ravenclaw put his cup down, reaching into his pocket. "Want an ice mouse?"

"In this weather?" Yifan replied on the beat.

Joonmyun shrugged and pulled the candy out anyways. Honeyduke's ice mice were always his favourite treats.

"So, anyways. That is my worry of the week," the prefect said, biting into the crispy sweet, before chewing with chattering teeth. "You?"

"Err...I don't know. My term seems pretty damn swell for now."

"What about Baekhyun, then?"

"Oh, yes, right." Yifan mumbled. "That's something to talk about..."

⚜

⚜

⚜

"Bloody hell, no. Take it off me."

Chanyeol stared at his horrified reflection in the mirror, while Jongdae still held the crimson-coloured party gown up in front of him with a dubious pout:

"I think it looks fine."

"Fine? I look like a damn monkey!"

Behind them, Sehun, Tao and Jongin were flicking through the different shelves of Gladrags Wizardwear, distractedly looking for a frock that their friend could wear.

"Go for something dark." Sehun was saying, "Darker than that. Like, really, really dark; dusky colours suit him best."

"You think so?" Tao scrunched his nose, unconvinced, "I would have thought a white suit..."

In all honesty, Jongin did not care. He pulled out a greenish frock with cream-coloured frills and tossed it towards his friends:

"What about this one?"

"Hell no, that's bloody revolting," Sehun hit the garments off himself, as if scared that they might contaminate him with their hideousness. "If you wear something like this to the ball I refuse to be associated with you."

Jongin cackled and put the outfit back into place.

"Alright, I'll stop contributing."

"Yes, I think that would be best," Sehun sniffled through a blocked nose, lifting his head up to look at the streets outside. "And why is it snowing so hard outside? It's barely December."

"Early winter," Tao smiled, eyes twinkling with excitement. "The sky is getting ready for Christmas!"

"Someone's way too excited..."

"Talking about Christmas," Sehun suddenly jumped, "what are your plans for the holidays?"

Tao blinked. "Me? I'm just going back home. The usual."

"Same here," Sehun mused, staring at Jongin. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Did you figure out if you're coming with us this year or not?" the younger boy asked, "You know my mum said she already prepared the bed for you. You're welcome to stay."

"Oh." Jongin murmured, feeling a little uncertain. "Uh, I'm not sure yet."

The younger Gryffindor's eyes widened slightly.

"Are you going home?"

"No. I mean, I don't know." Jongin faltered, then rolled his eyes. "I doubt it, though. Going back means facing all of my relatives' disapproving looks during Christmas dinner, and I don't think my parents really want me there anyways... I might as well stay in Hogwarts."

"Or, you could come to mine," Sehun frowned.

"I already spent Christmas at yours for three years straight, I can't keep doing that."

"Yes, you can."

"Can't."

"You can." the other boy insisted. "You just don't want to."

"Guys...Don't start fighting over that," Tao sighed and lifted his eyes up to the sky.

But Jongin shook his head and held Sehun by the shoulders, trying hard to maintain a straight face.

"Look. You're still my special snowflake," he said as solemnly as he could, trying not to chortle. "It's not because I'm declining your offer for a bed this year that you mean anything less to me."

Sehun stared at him, the shadow of a smile ticking at the corner of his lips.

"Really?"

"Of course. Actually, you know what? I love you so much that you and I should go to the Christmas ball together, that is, if neither of us finds another partner."

"What?" Tao yelled, but Sehun clasped his hands together with exaggerated glee.

"Oh, Jongin!"

"Deal?"

"Deal." Sehun nodded, sealing the pact with a pinkie promise.

Back to delving through the different gowns of the shop, Tao rolled his eyes and shook his head at the two of them.

"You guys are crazy."

Jongin laughed softly and threw an arm over Sehun's shoulder, swaying on his feet. Then, as he looked outside the window, a familiar figure struggling through the snow made him drop said arm right back to his side, and prance instantly towards the door.

"Hold on, I'm coming back." he called distractedly.

"Wait, what?"

Sehun blinked.

"Oi, Jong-!"

Jongin did not turn back and gambolled out of the shop, running to catch up to the small figure who had breezed past Gladrags Wizardwear, his hair covered by snow and green scarf flying in the wind. Stopping a few steps behind the lone traveller, he took a breath and called out as loudly as he could:

"Do Kyungsoo!"

The Slytherin froze, turning around with huge round eyes, and stared at him in genuine astonishment. It had been a while since Jongin had seen the elder boy face to face like this, but he still remembered how oddly comfortable he had felt last time they had stayed with each other in the dungeons, brewing that Girding Potion together. He immediately tried to smile, but then, noticed that Kyungsoo looked nervous, his red lips trembling in the harsh winter wind. The Gryffindor felt his smile vanish as fast as it came.

"What's wrong?"

"Um," Kyungsoo hesitated, swallowed the words back, as if ready to turn around and leave Jongin behind without any explanation. Then he glanced at the younger boy's honest concern, and eventually gave in with a dismayed expression. "I just... lost Baekhyun."

⚜

Baekhyun sauntered off into the snow, jumping and paddling with his feet, cackling quietly to himself. Fifteen minutes ago, he had been with Kyungsoo at the book shop near the main street, asking the younger boy if he was 'ready to go'. To his surprise, Kyungsoo had countered his question with a simple 'go where?', at which point Baekhyun had made a scowl.

"To Knockturn Alley, of course." he had said.

"Are you seriously still thinking of that?" Kyungsoo glowered. "Right after your detention?"

"That was weeks ago. Now it's time to have fun!"

"Count me out of it." Kyungsoo shook his head. "Also, you shouldn't do it either, if people discover that you've been in Knockturn Alley, it's not a simple detention that you're gonna get this time."

"No one is going to discover anything."

"Are you really this pig-headed?" the other boy said. "Baek, you might get suspended!"

"Am I to understand that you're pulling out of my brilliant plan just because you don't trust me enough?"

"Baek, now is not the time to be vexed-"

"I'm not vexed, I'm disappointed, there's a difference!" Baekhyun cried histrionically, internally laughing at the younger boy's worried expression. He then pretended to be mad, and suddenly pointed at a spot behind the other Slytherin's shoulder. "What's that, by the way?"

"What's what?"

Kyungsoo turned to look behind him, and Baekhyun seized the occasion to slip through the student crowd, and out of the shop. When Kyungsoo looked back at him, he was already way out of his sight.

"B...Baekhyun?" he heard the other boy shout nervously. "Baekhyun!"

Springing through the snow, the Slytherin prefect faced forward and rapidly made his way to the edge of the village, looking for a spot where no one would see him disapparate. If Kyungsoo did not want to come along, that was not a problem. After all, as far as he could remember, the other boy had always been a lot more subtle and prudent than him when it came to breaking school rules, and Baekhyun himself often wondered if the younger boy had ever broken any to be honest. He did not mind going to Knockturn Alley alone. But he needed to do it somewhere discreet, and at the moment, there were too many students around Hogsmeade, too many prying eyes giving him fleeting looks, as if expecting to tell them off for some unknown reason. Why were they all looking at him anyways? Then, Baekhyun realized with a slight jolt that he was still wearing his prefect's badge.

That wouldn't do.

He needed to get rid of it.

From an adjacent alley, François Putieux appeared with one of his seventh year friend that Baekhyun knew to be in Slytherin too – a Markus Hargraves, if he remembered well.

This was just what he needed.

"Hi, François!" he blared loudly, blocking their path and making both of them jump, "Nice day, isn't it? Hi to you too, Hargraves. I'm Baekhyun by the way, François's roommate."

"H-hi..."

"Let me decorate the front of your robe for you." Baekhyun snatched his prefect badge and clipped it forcefully to the front of Markus's robes. He then patted the student's shoulder and offered him a radiant smile. "Keep that safe for me, would you?"

"What are you doing?" François frowned.

"Just doing some shopping." Baekhyun simply called and scampered off. "I'll see you guys later!"

He finally came to a stop once he reached the Shrieking Shack, certain that there, at least, there wouldn't be anyone to spy on him. Out of breath, he retreated behind a yew tree and went through the different steps of apparition in his mind, one by one, with closed eyes.

"Three D's," he recited his brother's words under his breath. "Destination. Determination. Deliberation."

He needed to go to Knockturn Alley for his Christmas shopping. He needed to apparate there, he was determined to do it, and he was going to do it deliberately, with no haste.

Alright.

Baekhyun took a breath.

He could do it.

He could definitely do it.



With a loud cracking sound, he closed his eyes and let the twisting sensation snatch him away.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"-and the bathtub just overflowed. Everywhere. The prefects' bathroom, can you imagine?" Yifan sighed, finishing his last swig of butterbeer. "Sometimes, I wonder if Baekhyun's not just trying to do everything he can to get his prefect badge revoked."

"Speaking of which, did you see him at all today?" Joonmyun lifted his eyes. "I don't think I saw him in the prefects' ranks, when we left Hogwarts this morning."

"No. Me neither. But I assume he's either pigging out on candies or buying something at Zonko's, instead of watching the streets...Slacking off, as usual."

"Well, I guess we're not any better at the moment."

"No, I suppose you're right."

They looked at their empty glasses and heaved another bottomless sigh. Yifan plopped down from his stool. "Want me to get you another one?"

"Hmm. Cheers."

The bell tolled again, and this time, Luhan walked in, cheeks battered by the wind, tiny reddened nose popping out from behind his crimson scarf.

"Hey," the seventh year lifted one hand in salute. "Are you guys having a prefects' meeting on your own?"

Joonmyun smiled: "You can join in if you want."

"What drink?" Yifan simply questioned.

Luhan wriggled his nose, smiling.

"Firewhisky please."

Joonmyun's eyebrows twitched a little. Yifan came back with their drinks without any comments.

"Yifan was just updating me on Baekhyun's antics." The Ravenclaw drawled when he took a swig.

"Such as?"

"Remember that time when the prefect's bathroom taps wouldn't stop running no matter what spell we used on them, and the entire place got flooded?" Yifan said, eyebrows raised.

Luhan's eyes widened in outrage.

"That was him?!"

"You learn new things everyday..."

"The problem with Byun Baekhyun is that he is out of control. If that kid continues like this, one day he is going to run into big trouble." Yifan declared, glancing anxiously at his butterbeer. "Very big trouble."

"He knows what he's doing. You don't have to worry for him," the Gryffindor mused, swirling the drink in his glass thoughtfully. "His father's got very influential connections at the Ministry, doesn't he? That kid has a whole network of important people backing him up no matter where he goes. He can't crash too badly, even if he doesn't land on his feet each time."

"He also has a fortune behind him." Joonmyun nodded. "The Byun are very rich."

"Richer than your family?" Yifan snickered.

"I could say the same thing to you," the Ravenclaw puckered his lips. "Also, my family is not rich, we're just-"

"Loaded."

"Tycoons."

"-comfortably off," Joonmyun declared peacefully. Yifan thought that was probably the biggest understatement of the year, but otherwise said nothing. He leaned backwards, balancing precariously on his stool for a second before nodding at the two of them.

"Any plans for the Christmas ball?"

This change of subject was very much welcomed on Joonmyun's part.

"I don't think I'll try to find a partner." he said placidly. "As prefects, we'll probably be expected to keep an eye on the youngsters during the party, so it will be much easier for us to move around if we are not accompanied. I think I'll be going alone."

"Same, that's what I was thinking of doing." Yifan agreed, nodding pensively. "Luhan?"

They turned towards the Gryffindor expectantly, and almost slipped off their stools, startled by the utter despair on the other boy's face. The seventh year looked about to cry.

⚜

⚜

⚜

Jongin stared, lost in the seriousness of Kyungsoo's face, wondering what to say.

"What do you mean, you lost him?" he finally asked after a while.

The other boy just gave him a sort of helpless look, and Jongin suddenly realised the question might have been a little unfair. He rectified:

"Do you have any idea about where he could have gone? Maybe he finished his shopping early and went back to the castle."

"No." Kyungsoo's answer was categorical.

"Um...are you sure? Then...what about the main shops? Do you want to alert the other prefects about this?"

"No, don't." the Slytherin said curtly again, looking sombre. "He'll come back by himself."

"Oh."

From his eyes, Jongin had a feeling that the other boy knew exactly where Baekhyun had disappeared to, but if he did, he definitely had no intention of sharing that information with him. Vaguely hurt without knowing why, the Gryffindor kicked the snow around him and gazed at the fifth year's huge, globular eyes. Kyungsoo looked tense, today. Jongin much preferred when the two of them were chatting about potions in the dungeons. He cleared his throat:

"Have you finished your Christmas shopping? We could do it together."

Kyungsoo frowned gently.

"Why don't you do it with-"

"They're choosing a gown for Chanyeol to wear at the Christmas ball. It's way over my head." Jongin smiled.

But the Slytherin did not smile back.

"Look, it's not because Baek's not here that I need-"

"I didn't ask because of Byun Baekhyun, I just thought we could..." he paused, wincing. "never mind."

"I finished my Christmas shopping already."

"Right. Good for you."

Kyungsoo cocked an eyebrow, and Jongin blushed. Sometimes he wished he could express his disappointment without looking like a five years old brat. He was about to turn around and leave, when Kyungsoo called him back:

"Wait." the Slytherin said softly. "I don't mind helping you choose your presents, if you want."

Jongin looked back, smiling too widely.

"Really?"

Dignity, Kim Jongin. For God's sake, dignity.

Kyungsoo glanced at him then repressed a small smirk. "Yeah," he said. "I don't mind. It'll change me from having to bear Baekhyun's endless blabber all the time."

"I don't have a lot to buy. Just a present for Tao, that's all."

"That shouldn't take very long."

They walked down the main street together, and the elder boy pursed his lips apologetically at the mention of Tao's name.

"By the way, I'm sorry about what we did last time with Baek...It...it was a bit silly, I admit."

"That wasn't your fault," Jongin firmly reassured, shaking his head. "It was Baekhyun's idea."

"I was also talking about the fight that ensued."

"Oh, right."

"Anyways," Kyungsoo sighed, shielding his face from the freezing wind, "do you have any idea on what to get Tao, or are we just searching blindly?"

"Uhhh, Tao likes Divination...So I guess anything like a good luck charm would be good."

"A good luck charm?" the Slytherin pondered. "I know where to get that."

"Really?"

"Come with me."

Jongin followed as Kyungsoo took him down a sinewy alley behind Dervish & Banges, the two of them occasionally shaking their feet to kick the snow out of their boots. Very little students seemed to wander around that area, which was much quieter and emptier than the other parts of the cosy village. The shops here were more modest, nestled against each other like crooked puzzle pieces. The store that Kyungsoo picked was next to a fancy little apothecary that smelled of ginseng even from outside. It had a huge purple sheet draped over the window glass, and the name "Delina's Delusions" written over the front wall in huge golden letters.

Jongin stared at the shop with the hint of a doubt.

"Go on," the Slytherin held the door for him to enter, and the younger boy obeyed after a second of hesitation.

The shop was much larger on the inside than it appeared on the outside. Tapestries hung over floral walls, thick and colourful, irremediably reminding Jongin of Trelawney's lair in the Divination Tower, and dozens of woven baskets were levitating in mid-air around the room, some containing flowers and magical plants, others containing precious stones of various sizes and shades. At the centre of the room rested a small round table with a single crystal ball on it. An owl was perched on a bar behind it, cocking its black head at them indifferently, with a sign hanging around its neck:

Let your stars choose for you.

Jongin looked for a shop owner, but somehow found no one.

"What-"

"You use the crystal ball," Kyungsoo explained, "it will show you the different items that might suit your needs, depending on what or who you are thinking of."

The Gryffindor scrunched his nose.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. Just put your hand on the crystal ball and think of a good luck charm. Go on."

Slightly suspicious, Jongin placed his palm against the cool crystal and diverted his gaze to avoid the owl's judging stare. When he glanced down at the crystal ball again, he almost let out a yell. The floating image of a pair of dirigible plum earrings had just appeared out of nowhere, suspended under his palm, with a small "item 869" written underneath it. Jongin was half-amazed, half-alarmed.

"That's incredible!" he let out.

"See?" Kyungsoo smiled a little clumsily. "Told you it'd show you the item that you need."

"Well, I wouldn't say it made a very accurate guess..." the Gryffindor frowned at the earrings, blinking doubtfully. "I can't possibly give that Tao. He's feminine, sure, but there are limits."

"Most customers who come here are girls, actually." Kyungsoo confessed in a breath.

"Seriously?" Jongin turned to look at him. "Then, how did you come to discover this shop?"

"I usually go to the apothecary next door," the Slytherin said with a touch of defensiveness. "I came here just to try out, one time. I was looking for a present for my mother."

"Right."

"We can find another shop, if you want, I was just suggesting this for fun..."

"No, no. Let me try this again. Um...I can change the item, can I not?"

Kyungsoo watched him silently for a while, then nodded at the crystal ball: "Just think of something different, like who you want to offer it to."

Jongin did his best to picture Tao's face in his mind, Tao's feline smile, Tao's yawning figure in the dorm, Tao's gleeful shrieking face every time they won a Quidditch match. Soon enough, the image underneath his palm changed and a different item appeared, numbered 536 this time, making Jongin smile amusedly.

"That's more like it."

"Are you satisfied?" the elder boy asked.

"Yeah, I think so. How do I buy it?"

He had barely finished his sentence that the owl on the bar cooed, flapping its wings and taking flight towards the back of the shop, disappearing behind one of the hanging tapestries. When it came back a few moments later, it was carrying a wand-sized box in its claws along with a small basket made of straw that it forcefully pushed into the student's grasp. "For the money," Kyungsoo explained.

Jongin looked at the price tag at the bottom of the basket, cringed, and dropped four galleons and seven sickles into it. The owl took flight and disappeared into the back of the shop again, leaving Jongin with his newly bought present in hand, and much less money in his purse. He turned towards Kyungsoo as they walked out of the shop.

"Damn, you didn't tell me it was expensive. I'm broke."

"Sorry," the Slytherin blinked, embarrassed. "The price range is quite broad in here, I forgot to mention."

Jongin sighed: "At least, I guess it's something that Tao is sure to like."

"Did you like it?"

"The place?" Jongin stared, realizing that Kyungsoo looked slightly anxious. "Yeah, I did. Thanks a lot for showing it to me."

The other boy smiled, he seemed genuinely relieved.

"You're welcome."

Jongin grinned and nodded towards the apothecary.

"Do you want to have a look in there?"

"Do you?" the elder boy asked.

"I'm curious as to the type of shop you usually like to frequent."

"It's an ordinary shop...I go there to buy aconite roots for a..."

He waned, making Jongin frown.

"A what?"

"Draught of Living Fire."

The Gryffindor stopped, he had never heard of that kind of potion before, and wondered if Kyungsoo had come up with the recipe himself. With a name like that, it probably wasn't a love potion. This made Jongin curious against his will. Kyungsoo certainly seemed ambitious enough and capable of inventing concoctions of his own, not for the sake of contributing to society, but for the sake of self-improvement. Yet, at the same time, the Slytherin constantly seemed self-conscious about his own talent, as if it was something that he needed to hide. Jongin found it fascinating. He studied the elder boy quietly for a while and then smiled happily.

"Teach me."

Kyungsoo widened his eyes, genuinely dumbfounded.

"What?"

"Teach me how to brew that potion. I want to learn."

"I...you...I..."

"Come on, I learn fast and I'm an obedient student...tutor me."

Kyungsoo finally blinked his surprise away, finding a semblance of composure.

"T-tutor me, please," he muttered feebly.

When Jongin finally understood, he smiled again and nodded.

"Yes. Tutor me please, Do Kyungsoo."

"I have two conditions," the Slytherin said seriously, his gaze turning stern. "Without them, I am not teaching you anything."

"Sure. What are they?"

"Firstly, I will only teach you about that potion in theory, I refuse to do it for you or to go through it with you in practice at any stage, and I forbid you to try it out on your own in the castle grounds."

"Why not?"

"Secondly," Kyungsoo continued without listening. "You won't tell anyone about this. I want this to stay a secret between you and me. Our little secret. Our own thing."

Jongin blinked, and watched as a blush slowly crept its way onto Kyungsoo's cheeks. Was it the embarrassment, or the cold? He couldn't quite tell. In the end, he smiled and nodded with finality.

"I promise."

⚜

⚜

⚜

Baekhyun opened his eyes when the pulling sensation stopped, blinking a few times worriedly, not daring to move his limbs. Was he still in one piece? He touched his arms, his nose, his buttocks... Everything seemed to be where they were supposed to be. When he looked up at his surroundings, he saw a crooked sign, decrepit and old, hanging on a wall above his head. 'Knockturn Alley', it said.

Baekhyun slowly smiled at himself. "I made it...!" he whispered out of excitement.

Around him, the warped alley was mostly deserted, with just one or two old hags waiting on the doorsteps with a daunting vitreous look. A dangerous-looking man walked past him, overtaking him without sparing him a single glance. He had an arm missing. Baekhyun swallowed hard and straightened his back, trying to look as unfazed as he could.

The alley was a little bit darker than he had thought. But now that he was finally here, he could not let himself be deterred by anything so petty, could he? It was time to explore. With a deep breath, Baekhyun readjusted his scarf and plunged into the murky alley. The first shop he entered was a small store full of shrunken heads named Noggin & Bonce, but he did not stay for very long. He doubted Kyungsoo would have been very happy to receive such a thing as a Christmas present anyways, as funny as the other boy's consternated face would be when he opened up his gifts. Shrunken heads also lacked aesthetic appeal, and Baekhyun did not think that he would like to have one hanging by his bedpost. Therefore, there was no point in dwelling there. He walked out without delay.

Next, the prefect stopped at a book shop, marveling for a long time at the content of the works you could purchase there. One or two volumes made him dither, and he held them open for a very long time wondering whether he should buy them or not, until the shop owner suddenly hissed at him not to linger if he did not intend to pay – this was not a library for snotty brats, he said. Irked, Baekhyun stuck his chin up and paced out of the shop.

He bought Yifan's present at the third store, Borgin and Burkes, where he somehow managed to acquire an encased dragon eye for only six galleons and ten knuts. The artefact was supposedly used as a magnet for power and wealth, guaranteeing immeasurable affluence and booming business for its owner for years to come. Baekhyun highly doubted that the thing would work. But if it didn't, at least, it would look pretty damn rad on Yifan's bookshelf.

The final shop he walked in was simply named The Coffin House, a very weakly lit place with a black exterior and a door that seemed to have been squeezed in between two other shops by sheer physical force. Inside, the store owner was sleeping behind the counter, snoring softly with a candle burning eerily next to his face.

The Slytherin closed the door behind him as he entered.

"Hello?" he said.

The vendor snorted, barely stirring. There was only one other customer at the back of the shop, holding up a book with his back facing him. The shelves were also filled with odd articles, necklaces made of bones, amulets, fluids designed for mummification...a dead, stuffed ferret was pinned to the wall. Baekhyun looked up. A sign was hanging from the ceiling on rusty old chains.

Everything you need on the dead and the otherworld.

Buy at your own risk.

Funny.

Baekhyun strolled to the back of the shop, picking up a small bracelet made of human teeth. Definitely not decent Christmas present material, no...but there was a necklace hanging on a stand next to it, which looked much more acceptable. The small metallic pendant had the shape of a thick arc, with elongated ears that looked like wings at the top, and small teeth-shaped dents at the bottom. A jet-black stone was encrusted in the middle, glowing dimly in the dark. Baekhyun picked it up. It was pretty.

He looked at the caped customer standing only a few steps away from him now, a hood over his head, and frowned slightly. The book in the stranger's hands was glistening under the candle light, and Baekhyun made out a word: 'Necromancy'.

Then, the customer turned his head towards him abruptly, as if alerted that he was being watched, and Baekhyun jolted. He blinked, feeling like he had seen that person before, but not quite knowing who it was, unable to distinguish the other's features very clearly in the darkness. Was that another student?

"Sorry, I..." he started. "I didn't mean to stare..."

But the customer violently turned around, taking the book with him, then threw his money on the counter and left the shop without uttering a single word. Baekhyun blinked, oddly shaken. He suddenly did not feel like staying here any longer.

The shop owner finally awoke from his nap at the sound of the tinkling money, and he sat up to gather the coins left on the counter into his own cash box. At his sight, Baekhyun cleared his throat, picked up the pretty pendant on the stand, and brought it to the counter.

"I'd like to have this, please." he said quickly.

The old wizard gazed at him.

Then, with a small nod, he delicately took the necklace into his hands and studied it closely.

"Wise choice," he smiled, looking friendlier from up close. "You picked a nice article, my boy. This necklace is the Seventh Sense."

"The Seventh what?"

"Sense. It's a useful artefact, this... Gives the wearer a complete sense of awareness over his surroundings, more complete than is normally imaginable, enabling him to be warned about everything that could possibly harm him within a range of a fifty metres, at least."

"I was thinking of buying it for a friend."

"Well, that's a beautiful present." the wizard said. "This necklace will protect your friend from the most unpredictable of dangers. It will ward him off against the unexpected and the invisible."

Baekhyun grinned.

"Kind of like a sneakoscope?"

"Much better than a sneakoscope," the shop owner chuckled. "But there's a resemblance, I suppose."

"How much is it?"

"Seven galleons and five sickles, if you please."

Baekhyun forked out the money without hesitation, and the old wizard looked at him.

"You're very young," he noted with a hint of suspicion. "You wouldn't be a student, would you?"

"Me? Oh uh..." the Slytherin stuttered. "No, I just look young. All Asians look younger than their age, you should know, ha ha."

"I recognize that scarf, though." the vendor said, squinting hard under the dim candle lights, trying to see the colour of the emerald Slytherin scarf. "Yes...Isn't this the scarf from Hogw-"

"I need to go," Baekhyun interrupted hurriedly. "Bye bye!"

He stuffed Kyungsoo's present into his bag and immediately flew out of the shop, almost slamming the door behind him in his haste to get away. He had wandered around for long enough. It was more than time to go back home already.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"Luhan, you alright?" Joonmyun blinked, vaguely horrified, impelling Yifan to tell him what to do with his gaze. "Is this like, a sensitive topic, uh...?"

The Slytherin waved his hand: "No, it's just-"

"It's nothing," the Gryffindor replied and stared into his glass despondently with a bottomless sigh. "It just reminded me of Minseok... and the fact that it's our last year... and the fact that I'm a cowardly chicken...and that my last chance is going to slip away from my hands just like that, without me doing anything to grab it... and just..." he sighed dramatically and covered his eyes. "Don't mind me."

"We can talk about something else," Yifan said with badly dissimulated hurry. "Like...err, how about the weather."

Joonmyun placed a helpful hand on Luhan's shoulder.

"Do you need to get it out, though?"

Yifan opened wide eyes at him from across the table, silently mouthing angry warnings.

"Nah, it's okay," Luhan stared glassily at his firewhisky, though he did not look okay at all. "Maybe it was bound to be like this anyways? Maybe Minseok and I were just not meant to be."

"Or maybe not."

"Yeah," Joonmyun patted his back, "how can you be sure until you try?"

Yifan's eyes were blaring alarm horns, his hand desperately motioning for Joonmyun to stop from underneath the table.

Don't you get him started on this! the Slytherin glared.

Joonmyun simply frowned back: How else is he going to get over it? We need to help him!

"It's okay...guys," Luhan suddenly seemed taken by resolve. "I need to get over it sooner or later. Might as well do it now before it's too late...I don't need to talk about it."

Joonmyun and Yifan exchanged a hesitant glance.

"Alright, if you're certain."

Luhan paused, his face suddenly turning sour.

"Okay, no. Actually..."

"Hey, guys."

They all jerked, surprised by the sudden call, and Joonmyun almost fell off his chair when the hand of a new arrival suddenly came clamping down on his shoulder, turning him around on his stool. It was Yasmine Abott, his prefect counterpart.

"Yasmine...?" Joonmyun blinked, then looked down at the rounds of empty drinks left on the table. "Oh, uh, sorry about this. We were going to continue patrolling straight away, ha ha."

"No, no, that's not what I'm here for," she said with an amused smile. "I just wanted to ask if you knew where Byun Baekhyun is."

"Baekhyun?" Yifan jumped up, sliding off his stool. "Why? Is he gone?"

"Uh...None of the other prefects has seen him for something like, two hours at least."

Luhan and Joonmyun looked at each other with worry, and the Gryffindor swiftly jumped to his feet, Minseok pushed to the back of his mind.

"Have you looked in all the shops already?"

"Yeah." Yasmine nodded. "I met Minseok on the way, too. Asked him to search in Zonko's and the Shrieking Shack. But nothing so far. We've been asking everyone we met, and yet... It's really odd."

"Where the hell did he go this time?" Yifan growled, rearranging his scarf and heading towards the door with the others behind him. "Someone should get the teachers. Where's Kyungsoo? He should know where that idiot has gone, they're always stuck together..."

Yasmine glanced at him and halted by the doorway.

"Well, strangely enough," she said with a frown, "we found Kyungsoo hanging around with Gryffindor student Kim Jongin near Dervish & Banges, earlier on. There was no one else with them."

"With Kim Jongin?" now it was Luhan's turn to be surprised.

"Yeah, just him." Yasmine shrugged. "Baekhyun wasn't anywhere around."

"Merlin..." Yifan barged out of the pub, his cape flapping behind him. The others ran out after him immediately, four figures braving the snow together as they hurried behind Yifan towards the main street. By now a lot of the students had started to take the route back to the castle already. Tired of the cold, or satisfied with their shopping, they gathered in small groups and left Hogsmeade warmly dressed, their heavy bags hanging on their shoulders and chatter filling the air. Amongst them, no sign of Baekhyun. Joonmyun dropped his arms to his sides and let out an anguished sound.

"Where the hell could he possibly go?"

A cold shiver ran down Yifan's spine as doubt tainted him. He suddenly had an idea about the other Slytherin's whereabouts right now, and desperately hoped that he would be wrong about it – though he subconsciously knew that he couldn't be. If that was the case, he needed to get to Baekhyun before everyone else. Turning on his heels, he tried to take a step ahead and ran, but bumped by accident into a student who was trying to walk past him in the opposite direction. The other boy fell on his into the snow with a muffled sound, his bag plopping onto his knees, his large eyes blinking serenely.

Yifan recognized him. It was that Hufflepuff called Zhang Yixing.

"Sorry," Yifan murmured, hesitating for a second, then quickly extending a hand. "I-I'm really sorry, did I hurt you? I was just..."

"No, no, I'm fine." Yixing smiled dazedly, and took his hand. "Sorry I was in your way. It's my fault."

The Slytherin pulled him upwards, realizing first that the other boy was quite heavy for his slender face, and secondly that the boy's hand was very warm. Before he could say anything else, Luhan's voice came shouting after him:

"Yifan! Minseok found him!"

The prefect jolted, quickly dragging Yixing to his feet, then looking back and forth a few times between Luhan's direction and the Hufflepuff boy. Yixing looked ever so dreamy and calm, unscarred by the elder boy's panic.

"I...I'll see you around," Yifan stammered for good manners, before taking off.

Yixing blinked curiously at him and smiled. He might have replied, he might have not, but Yifan was already dashing towards the neighbouring alley, shouting out of rage when he saw Baekhyun standing there, against the wall, with Minseok questioning him.

The Ravenclaw prefect looked absolutely irate.

"What's going on?" Yifan asked, panting. "Where was-"

"I caught him coming back from the Shrieking Shack's direction," Minseok said, glancing at Joonmyun, then at him, "but he definitely wasn't coming from inside. I was the one inside the shack when I saw him appear out of nowhere outside. There is no way he was in there. He wouldn't tell me where he went."

Against the brick wall, Baekhyun looked paler than usual, still defiant and unyielding, but definitely frightened. Yifan gazed into the younger boy's pupils, scanning for answers, then glanced at the boy's clothes and saw that his bag was missing – probably thrown away somewhere, to avoid being searched. This confirmed his last doubts. Baekhyun had definitely gone to Knockturn Alley – he wouldn't have feared them for anything less.

Luhan soon noticed Yifan's trailing gaze and asked Baekhyun out loud:

"Where's your bag?"

"Uhh...Lost it on the way here...?" Baekhyun tried with a sheepish smile.

"We looked for you everywhere. You were nowhere in Hogsmeade, Baekhyun, we were worried."

"You just didn't search hard enough."

"We've alerted the teachers and they should be here any moment now." Minseok scolded, "If you've gone anywhere inappropriate..."

"I swear I didn't."

"Your prefect badge's gone, too."

"That, I..."

"Lost it too?" Minseok raised an eyebrow. "Baekhyun, I'm afraid we'll have to pop a visit to the headmistress."

"What?!" Baekhyun jumped. "No! Not McGonagall, she's gonna rip me to shreds with her hairpins!"

"I'm sure she'd be delighted to hear you said that about her, too," Luhan opened unimpressed eyes.

"Wait, wait, no. Come on. Let's be reasonable about this...alright? Let's be calm."

"Look, Baekhyun, the only one here who is unreasonable about anything is yourself!"

"Maybe a visit to the headmistress won't be necessary," Yifan tried to say, but Minseok's gaze shot him down. For a five foot seven tall steamed dumpling, the Ravenclaw sure was terrifying when he was mad.

"Baekhyun. Unless you tell us right now where you've been sneaking off to, McGonagall's office is where you'll be!"

"Wait!" a voice came shouting at them from behind.

Baekhyun raised his eyes as if electrocuted, and when they all turned around, they saw Kyungsoo rushing towards them, breathless, pulling Jongin behind him.

"I know where he went," Kyungsoo explained. "He wanted me to come along with him since months ago, but I refused because I thought it was a stupid thing to do. But I can tell you now..."

"Kyungsoo...don't," Baekhyun opened wide eyes.

"Where was he?" Minseok squinted.

The Slytherin student took a breath, eyes wavering a fraction of a second, before he spilled out the words in a gasping jumble: "Diagon Alley."

Baekhyun opened his mouth silently, and all other prefects stared at each other.

"Really?"

"Yes," Kyungsoo's expression darkened, he was not looking at Baekhyun in the eye. "He kept on saying that Hogsmeade was becoming too boring for him and he wanted to do his Christmas shopping somewhere bigger. He didn't want anyone to know that he'd found a secret passage to Diagon Alley. So..."

"Hold on, I'm not buying this," Minseok said, narrowing his eyes. "You two are best friends. Who says you're not just telling me lies to cover up for him?"

"I...I'm not-"

"He's saying the truth," Jongin suddenly stepped in, keeping Kyungsoo behind him. "I was with them when Baekhyun told us he was leaving. He left before we could stop him."

By now, Baekhyun himself was outright astonished. Luhan looked at Jongin in genuine surprise – not mad, not disappointed – simply speechless. After a long moment of hesitation, Minseok glanced at Baekhyun's mute figure, then studied Jongin's earnest expression and pursed his lips. Before the Ravenclaw could harden his heart again, Yifan walked forward with a pacifying hand.

"Listen," he said. "Baek, sneaking out without telling any of us is against the school's rules – important school rules. That was no ordinary mistake...Had you gone to the wrong place, you could have been suspended. Maybe even expelled. This better never happen again."

"I...I know."

"I can't guarantee that you'll be able to keep your prefect's status, either. This will depend on what the teachers say." he paused, taking a breath. "Baek, do you understand?"

"Yes." Baekhyun said, uncharacteristically diffident.

"Good." Yifan breathed in, secretly relieved that they could at least conclude the matter with just a few harsh words and a light punishment. "You're a prefect too, so we can't take points off you now. But you'll definitely find yourself in detention again."

"Right."

"You can say thanks to your friend, too." Yasmine smiled from the side.

Baekhyun glanced at Kyungsoo, the two of them exchanging a heavy stare, charged with silent understanding. Baekhyun lowered his gaze first, for once.

"Yes, thanks."

"You're welcome," Kyungsoo whispered, still shaking a little.

"Let's go," Joonmyun sighed, placing a hand on his forehead. "The teachers will be looking for us, by now."

"Yeah, let's."

Yifan threw one last glance at Baekhyun and Kyungsoo's silhouettes behind him before leaving with the rest. Jongin tried to linger around, but he saw Kyungsoo hold his wrist, give him a nod, and motioning for the Gryffindor to go ahead first. Jongin obeyed, and soon, the Gryffindor overtook him as he caught up with Luhan. Before turning around for good, Yifan saw Kyungsoo and Baekhyun peek at each other self-consciously.

What he did not see, however, was Kyungsoo opening up his bag without a word, pulling out Baekhyun's usual leather bag from it - the material still soaked from having been tossed into the snow - and handing it to the elder boy with only a small understanding nod.

Baekhyun looked at the bag, then looked at Kyungsoo's expressionless face, and took it silently, keeping his eyes low.

For the first time since they'd met each other, Baekhyun was completely out of words.

[Minseok]

[size=9pt]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER SEVEN: THE ONE WHO WAS TOO SMOOTH, TOO SLOW, AND TOO MANLY. ❞ [PART ONE] [PART TWO]

---

"I can't believe this..." Chanyeol let out in an appalled tone, holding his hoary mop in one hand and his bucket of water in the other, his sleeves rolled up to the elbows. Standing in front of him in one of the hallways of the castle's seventh floor, Baekhyun looked blankly back at him without saying a word.

The Slytherin was equipped with a similar mop and bucket, his robes discarded for a simple white shirt and green tie, his forearms uncovered, turning towards him and simply lifting his arms up.

"Surprise," he said.

"Why are you here?" Chanyeol blinked, dropping his bucket to look around at the empty hallway. "You got detention as well?"

Baekhyun barely looked at him: "Yep."

"And you were asked to clean the entire seventh floor."

Baekhyun nodded, plunging his mop into soapy water and sloshing it against the dusty floor. What were the odds? Even when they weren't stirring trouble together, they ended up in detention at the same time...Chanyeol let out a sigh.

"If you're already cleaning this corridor, I'll be taking another one." he said calmly, ready to pick up his pail and leave. "There's no use in having two of us clean the same area."

"Could you be any more obvious?" Baekhyun scoffed and rolled his eyes.

Chanyeol turned.

"What?"

"I'm not going to bite you or overturn a bucket on you if we clean the same corridor, you know," the other boy said, somewhat dryly.

Chanyeol paused, his eyebrows furrowing into a single line of confusion. The Slytherin looked uncharacteristically snappy today. It was slightly disconcerting.

"Are you okay?" he frowned after observing him for a while.

Baekhyun peeked at him evanescently, vigorously mopping away: "Why? Why do you ask?"

"You're not as cocky today as you usually are."

"Hmm. Charming thing to say."

"How did you get into detention?" Chanyeol squinted.

Against his expectations, Baekhyun abruptly dropped the mop against the wall, the handle knocking against an ugly tapestry of a wizard trying to teach eight trolls to dance ballet. The elder boy wasn't smiling.

"Don't act as though you didn't know already." he said with a hint of irritation. "Kim Jongin must have told you everything about it as soon as we came back from Hogsmeade."

"Um. Not really, no."

Jongin had never been the type to babble about things, in fact. He had not said a single word. Now, Baekhyun was examining him with uncertain eyes.

"No?"

"No, he didn't say a thing," Chanyeol reaffirmed, picking a place to start wiping away. He felt the elder boy's gaze linger on his profile and rolled his shoulders. "If you don't want to talk about it, it's not any of my business."

"I'm suspended from my prefect's privileges until after Christmas."

"Ah?"

The Gryffindor raised his eyes, staring at Baekhyun's uneasy expression.

"What did you do for that to happen?"

"You just said you wouldn't force me to talk about it."

"You started talking by yourself, I assumed-"

"I sneaked out of Hogsmeade and got caught on the way back." Baekhyun blabbered quickly, still standing awkwardly in the empty corridor. "If it wasn't for your friend Kim Jongin and Kyungsoo, I would have been in much deeper trouble than I am now."

"So what, you mean to say that Jongin actually bothered to save your sorry ass? That's very surprising."

"Is that all you have to say?"

"What else am I supposed to say?" Chanyeol frowned.

Baekhyun simply stared at him for a while, and then shook his head, covering his eyes with a weary groan:

"Man...I don't know. I don't know either, to be honest," he sighed. "I'm just...starting to question things, sometimes."

"Things about what?"

"...Me?"

"Oh. You mean you finally realized that you're a massive dick."

"Can you be serious for once?" Baekhyun snapped, fist clenched. "I'm actually trying to have a conversation with you and you're just..."

"Wow, hey. Have you seen the way our relationship's worked so far?" Chanyeol paused in his cleaning to stare at him. "You prank me. I prank you. You can't blame me if I'm not used to talking with you like a normal human being after all that. Why are you suddenly questioning yourself anyways? It's not like you killed a man."

"I sneaked into Knockturn Alley, and Kyungsoo covered for me. That's why I'm here, and not expelled."

"Huh." Chanyeol emitted.

He blinked, astounded, his mop still in hand with water dripping onto the floor. Then, the word escaped him in a completely disbelieving sound:

"How?"

Baekhyun gaped.

"How– Merlin...How? Is that all you've got to ask?"

It then occurred to Chanyeol that indeed, Knockturn Alley was a place reputed for dark magic, and that the fact that Baekhyun had tried – and managed – to sneak his way into such a despicable hole was both suspicious as it was astonishing. For a second, he reeled, torn between his sense of justice which judged Baekhyun like a criminal, and his hungry curiosity which demanded to know exactly how the other boy had succeeded in pulling such a feat.

Then, he wondered why Baekhyun was telling him out of all people, and shook his head.

"What were you doing there?" he ended up asking, frowning deeply. "That place is known to be infested with dark wizards. Were you..."

"No. I have no interest for dark magic anyways... I was just buying Christmas presents that looked fun," Baekhyun sat down on the floor, still looking guilty, "though now, I wonder if it was really worth it, in the end."

Chanyeol studied him carefully, slightly puzzled.

"It's unlike you to start doubting yourself like this."

Baekhyun produced a muffled sound, downhearted, and Chanyeol gently frowned again, discarding his tool to sit down next to the other boy. Surprisingly enough, Baekhyun simply shifted to make him some space. The Slytherin was staring at his hands with his brows furrowed.

The younger boy soon cleared his throat:

"If you're feeling this guilty, just go and tell McGonagall."

"Are you crazy?" Baekhyun exclaimed, turning towards him in indignation. "She'd rip me apart and I'd get expelled!"

"Well, then, stop feeling guilty, geez. Either confess or digest."

"What?"

"Nothing...That's just my motto."

"Pfft," Baekhyun looked down despondently, "if I tell McGonagall, then I might as well say adios to my career."

"And what would that be?" Chanyeol scoffed, bringing one of his legs up as an armrest. "Loan shark?"

"No, Auror."

"Whoa." the Gryffindor's eyes widened. "Seriously?"

"What. Are you going to give me that 'Slytherins-can-never-be-Aurors-because-only-Gryffindors-fight-for-justice' crap..."

"No, no...no. I was just surprised that you wanted a job like that, really." he paused, lying. "It's a difficult vocation. And I thought your family was loaded anyways."

"It's not because I'm well off that I can't try to aim for a respectable job."

Chanyeol supposed he was right. Still the information surprised him. He shrugged:

"I guess that chasing after dark wizards does have a charming point," he said as he thought of Luhan, who had always blared his aspiration for Auror training to whomever wanted to listen since his very first day at Hogwarts. "It's pretty decent...not really what I aspire to do personally, but..."

"What do you want to do then?"

"I don't know. Music, if I can?"

Baekhyun giggled, a hand covering his face. "I'll see you in ten years when you end up like one of those homeless bohemians on the streets, then."

"-or I'll be a famous rock star and you'll be begging for my autograph, thank you very much," Chanyeol scorned smiling in spite of the pique. "Anyways, I might not go into music after all...Who knows? I might just find myself a little job in the Ministry like my mother and see how it goes."

"Do both your parents work in the Ministry?"

"No, my dad's a dragonologist." Chanyeol explained, turning a little morose against his will. "I don't see him very often though."

"Because he's busy?" the Slytherin frowned.

"There's that," he pursed his lips, hesitating before continuing: "But he doesn't live at home anymore. My parents are divorcing."

Baekhyun looked at him in silent surprise, searching for words to say, when suddenly two buckets of cold water came violently splashing onto their heads, the containers overturning over their vision and the water drenching them from head to toe – freezing against their sensitive skin. A strident laugh immediately resonated against the walls, and Chanyeol threw the pail off himself with an angry roar:

"Peeves!"

The ghost lingered in the corridor to pull a grimace at him, then cackled loudly and flew away, vanishing around the corner with another shrilling scream. Chanyeol stood up with difficulty as the icy water rustled down his body, chilling him to the bones. He rubbed his eyes to wipe the soap off, and painfully blinked the stinging sensation away. Damn it, if only he had his wand with him...As he turned around, he saw Baekhyun struggling to throw his own bucket off, shirt completely soaked, the boy's teeth chattering furiously as his face finally appeared from beneath the wooden container, his hair sticking to his forehead in thick, black patches.

The Slytherin was shaking violently from the cold.

"Fuck," he muttered, scrambling to his feet, terribly haggard and lost. "That is the worst timing possible...I don't even have a sweater on."

Chanyeol looked at their discarded mops and the overturned buckets on the floor.

"That," he said dejectedly, "and we won't even be able to finish our cleaning at this rate."

"I don't give a damn about the cleaning right now, I need a fire and a warm duvet, that's all I need."

The Slytherin was still shivering pitifully as he spoke, bracing himself in a desperate attempt to keep warm, while the fabric of his shirt stuck to his skin – wet, soggy, and inopportunely transparent. Chanyeol thought that Baekhyun was probably more sensitive to the cold than he was letting on. His lips were slowly starting to turn purple.

"I don't have a sweater either," Chanyeol said apprehensively, passing by the tapestry once, then changing his mind and pacing towards the other end of the corridor. "Maybe we should call Filch first and see what he says."

"As if Filch would offer us some hot chocolate and a duvet!"

"What else do you want to do?" Chanyeol blinked, turning around and making his way towards Baekhyun again. "A room with a duvet, chocolate and a warm chimney fire is not going to appear for us out of nowhere!"

He stopped, because Baekhyun's eyes had suddenly widened, the Slytherin student abruptly turning silent, his mouth dropping open in mute bewilderment. Chanyeol turned his head, then let out a dumbfounded cry as he jumped a step back.

A thin black door had suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the wall facing the tapestry.

They both retreated back towards the wall at once, eyeing each other with undisguised fear.

"The fuck...?" Chanyeol then murmured, shifting towards the unidentified door by an inch. "That door definitely wasn't there before, right?"

"N-no."

They stared at each other. Then, Baekhyun trembled again, letting out a tiny sneeze, and Chanyeol made up his mind.

"Alright," he swallowed hard, taking a valiant step towards the doorknob, "l-let's open it."

As he pushed forcefully, the door clicked and ceded without any resistance, opening with a quiet creak to reveal the mysterious room behind it. A warm living room appeared in front of their eyes, with a comfy red sofa in the centre, a table with a teapot and mugs, and to Chanyeol's greatest shock and amazement, a burning, beautiful fire crackling in the cosy-looking fireplace.

His jaw dropped before he knew. Next to him, Baekhyun was just as flabbergasted.

"How on earth...did you do that...?" the Slytherin murmured.

Chanyeol had no idea.

Too amazed to talk, they walked into the room and closed the door behind them. The fire cracked, inviting them to sit down and warm their freezing bodies. Baekhyun let out an audible moan when he saw the heavy, warm duvet lying on the sofa, just waiting to be used.

"I can't believe this...that's exactly what we needed..." he said weakly. "How?"

"No idea..." Chanyeol shook his head, ruffling his hair to shake the water out. He then stopped in front of the pots on the table and glanced inside the first. "The tea's been made too."

"This room is too good to be true. It must be a dream."

"A simultaneous dream?" Chanyeol cocked an eyebrow. "With you and me, out of all people?"

"But how else do you explain this place?"

The Gryffindor shrugged, pulling an empty mug out of the drawer under the table.

"It must be a secret room," he said, "made for moments like these."

"Moments like what?"

"Moments where...you require something?" Chanyeol frowned uncertainly. "A room of requirements?"

"Huh," Baekhyun smirked softly, completely buried in the fluffy duvet, with only his tiny face popping out from underneath the covers. "And it would appear, just like that? Without a special method or a magic word?"

With his face flushed, his hair wet and his body completely curled up in front of the chimney fire, Chanyeol realised for the first time how small Baekhyun really was compared to him. He looked almost pocket-sized. Shaking the thought out of his mind, he absent-mindedly filled up a cup of steaming hot tea and handed it to the Slytherin student.

"Here."

"Thanks," Baekhyun said softly, slightly surprised as he raised his eyes. "You're not sitting down?"

"There's only one sofa."

"So?" Baekhyun cocked an eyebrow. "I'm not that fat to take up the entire thing by myself."

Chanyeol hesitated for a moment, then eventually shrugged and lifted the comforter, sliding underneath it to sit next to Baekhyun, instantaneously getting goose bumps from the heavenly warmth of the place.

"Good gracious," he breathed shakily, "this feels amazing."

"Err, try not to have an orgasm right next to me, that'd be awkward."

"Merlin – do you have to say stuff like that?"

"Sorry," Baekhyun smiled maliciously, sliding downwards a bit to find a comfortable position, his feet knocking against Chanyeol's legs as he did so. "I'm not the one making sex noises from sitting down on a sofa, though."

"Pfft. I don't understand why it gave us a single sofa instead of two armchairs, if this is truly a room based on our requirements."

"Maybe it knows that you have a subconscious need to get me under the same covers as you," Baekhyun wriggled his eyebrows.

"Dream on," Chanyeol snapped, "I probably wasn't specific enough with my requirements so the room thought I was alone. I'll keep that in mind for next time."

"Ooh, because there's supposed to be a next time?"

"Not with you." Chanyeol pulled the comforter up, dimly realising that there was barely enough space on the sofa to fit both their legs without them having to tangle their limbs together. Baekhyun's feet were fluttering against his calves when he tried to find a comfy position. Though there was close to no personal space left, Baekhyun did not complain, simply drinking his tea with a pensive face.

"This would actually be a nice place to bring a date." he noted after a while.

Chanyeol snorted, and offered an unimpressed look.

"Are you being serious?"

"Why not?" Baekhyun shrugged. "It's true."

"Make sure to bring in your wonderful little Christmas date, then. Sure she'd be swooned."

"Very funny."

"Did you not find anyone yet?" Chanyeol sneered.

"As much as it pains me to admit it, no." the other boy sniffled. "You?"

"No one either."

"Oh."

They looked at each other and suddenly, Chanyeol felt a little odd, eyebrows creasing subconsciously. Baekhyun seemed to realise this too, because the Slytherin abruptly diverted his gaze towards the fire and pulled his legs back towards himself. He cleared his throat:

"If I bring my date here, it'd be kind of a shame though," Baekhyun remarked distractedly. "The secret might spread, and then the room would lose its charm."

"I think you've forgotten that I already know about this room too."

"Of course. How could I?" the other boy rolled his eyes. "You're going to tell everything to your Gryffindor friends, aren't you?"

"Um...no."

Baekhyun blinked. A drop of water fell from his hair.

"No?"

"To be frank," Chanyeol smirked, "I kind of like the idea of keeping this room a secret...for if I need it one day, you know, for personal business."

"Now you're the one forgetting that I know about this place already."

"So what?" Chanyeol fleetingly glanced at him, eyelids drooping, "What would be the odds of us wanting to use this room at the same time?"

Baekhyun did not reply at once. Instead, he watched the fire sizzle for a while and brought the mug of tea to his lips once again.

"Well," he then murmured. "We are doing it now."

He was not looking at him. And Chanyeol could not find anything appropriate to say in return, too disturbed by that very weird and inappropriate caper in his own heartbeat.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"Once you've added the aconite, cover the cauldron tightly and let it brew."

Jongin scribbled the instructions down on his parchment, then glanced up at Kyungsoo, who was sitting by the window of the quiet study room with his books piled up on the table in front of him.

"For how long?" he asked.

"Five months."

"Five months?!"

"Shhh," Kyungsoo hushed him, looking at the few scattered students studying in the room who had raised their heads to frown at them before going back to their homework in silence. The Gryffindor blinked in disbelief, then stared back at him.

"Seriously...five months? Without moving it?"

"Actually, do move it to make sure it has access to moonlight every night, that's very important."

"My God."

"I warned you that it would be a complex potion," Kyungsoo pursed his lips, idly playing with his quill, before observing the other boy carefully. "Do you want to stop learning now?"

"No." the younger boy retorted straightaway, writing more directions down as he shook his head. "It's already our third meeting on this, I'd be a fool to give up now."

Kyungsoo smiled a little, caressing the quill's feather with his slender fingers.

"That's the spirit," he said.

"How did you learn to brew such a complicated potion anyway?" Jongin soon frowned, looking at the extensive notes he had already taken down, making Kyungsoo shudder. "It has so many obscure ingredients...and the brewing time is so...long."

That was a question that Kyungsoo had hoped to avoid. He shifted on his seat.

"I got it from a book," he whispered dimly, then put his quill down. "It was one of the many recipes that I learned and improved a bit, just for fun."

"What kind of book would that be?"

The Slytherin closed his mouth, and he saw Jongin's expression falter a little.

"You don't want to tell?"

"Um...Sorry."

The Gryffindor looked slightly disappointed, but did not complain. Kyungsoo liked Jongin a lot, genuinely so – he was much more fond of him than he had ever expected to be, considering how badly their relationship had started off... But even so, there were things that Kyungsoo preferred to keep to himself for safety measures; things that even Baekhyun was not entitled to know. This entire tutoring programme was probably a mistake, when he thought about it seriously. But he enjoyed the younger boy's company too much to pull back now.

He resolved to tell Jongin everything about this someday, maybe, in a faraway future.

"You know, you never taught me about the potion's effects." Jongin soon said distractedly, and Kyungsoo raised his head.

"Hmm?"

"The Draught of Living Fire." the fourth year cocked his eyebrow. "That's the potion's name. But you never said what it was used for...I wouldn't be too stupid to suggest that it has to do with fire, would I?"

"Well," the Slytherin started, choosing his words prudently. "It does have to do with flames, you're right. Essentially, this draught allows the drinker to...put simply, avoid being burned to death. Fire can't kill him."

"Seriously? That's amazing."

"It ...doesn't do anything to alleviate the pain though."

"Oh." Jongin shuddered at the thought. "Blimey. What kind of person would want to use a potion like that, then?"

Kyungsoo fell into silence.

"Another thing you don't want to tell?"

The fifth year student offered a smile.

"You're learning fast."

"You never say anything...Always acting mysterious, keeping secrets from everyone."

"That's not true," the elder boy frowned. "I can tell you a lot of things."

Jongin raised an eyebrow. "Like?"

"Like why I learn about all these things, for example."

"And why is that?"

"Because I'm bored," Kyungsoo answered honestly, the shadow of a smile playing on his lips as he started to fiddle with his plume once more. "Because I'm very, very bored...and because these things distract me a bit. That's all."

Jongin frowned softly in a perplexed fashion, when suddenly, the sound of a chair being moved made them both raise their heads. They turned just in time to see a girl rush out of the room, her face red from disappointment, closing the door behind her with more force than was necessary. At the table she had just left, a Slytherin boy was sitting alone, looking slightly awkward and helpless. Jongin stared at the scene and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Did she just..."

"Probably." Kyungsoo nodded quietly. "Rejected by the guy she likes."

"Huh, what a bastard."

"Or not," the fifth year huffed, rubbing his temple with a sigh, "I know that guy, he's a seventh year, Markus. Perfectly decent... He probably just wasn't interested."

"Well, she certainly didn't take his disinterest very well."

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes.

"Christmas balls make people emotional."

"Did you find a partner yet?" Jongin murmured.

"Me? No."

"Me neither." Jongin stared. "Should...we go together?"

The quill fell from Kyungsoo's hands.

"What?"

"What?"

"What?" the Slytherin blurted out, mind whirling, blinking furiously. "You...just...I'm...d...did you just-?"

"I might have." Jongin stammered with all colours leaving his face. "Why?"

"B-because I-I-I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say yes," the Gryffindor looked down, flushing. "I...I know we haven't started to know each other since very long. And you might have someone else in mind already. A girl, maybe..."

"No, I don't."

Jongin cautiously lifted his eyes. "R...right."

Kyungsoo simply stared, vaguely knowing that it was somewhat rude of him to look so openly flabbergasted when someone had just invited him to the ball as a date – a date? Wait, him, with Jongin, on a date? The Slytherin felt the room around him starting to spin, while the last surviving brain cells in his head screamed at him to answer something intelligent.

He mentally slapped himself, and focused his gaze on the younger boy, who was looking at him with genuine worry now.

"Um...Kyungsoo, you're alright?"

"Yes." he wheezed, then let the words tumble out in a mess: "Andtheanswerisyes."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Your question. The answer to it is yes." he repeated, still wide-eyed, not too sure that he was taking the right decision, but too overwhelmed to think it through properly. "I...I would quite like to go to the ball with you, if you'd have me, that is."

"R-right." Jongin said.

Then, as the information sank in, a slow but wide grin started to form on his face.

"Right," he reiterated, properly grinning now. "That's great!"

"Is it?" Kyungsoo asked, slowly beginning to smile too. A hazy feeling of excitement was emerging within his chest, as he saw Jongin squirm on his seat, his face radiating with joy.

"Of course it is!" the younger boy chimed. Kyungsoo had never seen him grin like that before. "I thought you'd never accept."

"I was just shocked that you asked...I didn't..." he breathed in, "I didn't think you felt that way."

Jongin blushed a little, lowering his gaze and starting to twiddle with the bottom of his parchment. "Well...uh, now you know."

"Right," Kyungsoo said blankly. "Ha ha."

The boy turned to study him, smiling a little as he saw his expression.

"You're smiling."

"Well, um, so are you."

"Are you...happy?"

Kyungsoo thought it through very seriously, and then repressed a silly giggle which would have destroyed what was left of his menacing image forever; pushing his books aside in order to pick up his quill.

"Stop saying silly things," he said with feigned solemnity, taking Jongin's notes to start checking them, "let's get back to work."

Jongin spend another minute or so just grinning stupidly. Then, Kyungsoo gave him his parchment back, and he focused on his notes again.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"Whoa! Hold it! Hold it! Hold it!"

"It said three spoonful," Chanyeol insisted, his ladle of crushed lovage hovering over the fuming cauldron between him and Jongdae. "That's what the instructions said!"

"You sure?" Jongdae glanced at their shared manual, then opened his mouth, "oh, right."

"Told you."

"I thought that was scurvy grass," the elder boy scratched his nose, his second hand holding the wooden spoon.

"Didn't we add that in already?"

"Uh, no?"

"Oooh shit, we need to do that first!" Chanyeol threw himself on the can and quickly shook its content onto his hand, grabbing a handful and throwing it into the boiling solution. As soon as the scurvy grass fell into the cauldron, a loud poof resounded and the liquid turned an alarming red. He almost burned himself, pulling back just in time to avoid the fumes.

Chanyeol and Jongdae stared at the mixture, then looked at each other disconcertedly.

"Stir it. Stir it."

Jongdae enthused unconvincingly, and to their greatest relief, the concoction soon settled into a peaceful green once again. They fell onto their butts with a sigh of release.

"Merlin..." the elder Gryffindor passed a hand over his face to wipe off the sweat accumulating on his forehead. "The stuff we go through just for Luhan's love woes, I swear..."

"See, I told you that we should have called Jongin to come along."

"It's not like he'd come, that kid's been a busy bee with God knows what," Jongdae cocked an eyebrow, still stirring. "Or God knows who. Maybe he's looking for a partner too."

"Him? No way."

"Everyone else in this school is doing that apart from you."

"I do search," Chanyeol sighed, juggling with the bottles of lovage and flobberworm mucus distractedly, before glancing at his friend. "I asked Samantha Corbell yesterday."

"And she said?"

"In your dreams, Park. Go dance with your own ears."

The elder boy nodded knowingly.

"We did use her hair tie once to blow up Byun's potion, back in third year."

"Only because Baekhyun found it funny to drop dungbombs into ours, if you remember well."

"Yeah, but I doubt Samantha cares about that part, mate," the other boy laughed erratically into his sleeves, "but hey, that's always an option."

"What is?"

"Asking Byun Baekhyun out as your dance partner."

"Uh?" Chanyeol shouted at first, then scoffed, feigning indignation as he lifted his chin contemptuously. "That is outrageous. Byun Baekhyun's not even worth an ounce of my hotness – to think that you would want to pair us together..."

"Wouldn't change much if I do, to be honest, you two are already having so many detention dates together..."

"As if I wanted to spend so much time with him." the younger boy narrowed his eyes.

"What do you guys do in there, anyways?" Jongdae smiled. "Disfigure each other while cleaning dirty cauldrons for Filch?"

"Not really."

Chanyeol thought of his last detention with Baekhyun, and the secret room on the seventh floor with the chimney fire and the bizarre atmosphere. Ten days ago, if someone had told him that he would be sharing one comforter with Byun Baekhyun and tangling legs with the other boy while drinking hot tea on a tiny sofa, he would have knocked that person's nose deep into his face. Now that the situation had actually happened for real, the idea did not shock him as much as he thought it should.

He shrugged after a while and returned to his unfocused juggling.

"You'd be surprised by how bearable he is when there's no one around, actually."

"No way," Jongdae smiled wider. "Are you telling me that Byun has a secret sweet side that he shows only to you?"

"Calling him 'sweet' is pushing it too far."

"You're the one saying he's different when you're alone. I'm just drawing observations."

"Yeah, right," the Gryffindor sneered, poking his friend in the ribs with a mischievous cackle, "I know the truth; you're just a hungry little voyeur waiting for juicy news on me to satisfy your perverted needs. Yasmine Abott is too soft for your decadent mind. You want racy, kinky unadulterated man-on-man action."

"Oh, Chanyeol..." Jongdae sighed, pausing in his stirring to look at him lustily. "I just can't hide anything from you."

"You depraved bastard."

"To be frank with you, I kind of feel bad that you had to take that detention for me, when we both ran into Kim Joonmyun that other night." Jongdae said sheepishly after a while. "You know what? I should have stayed with you."

Chanyeol opened surprised eyes at him.

"What we did was the normal thing to do," he answered blankly. "Besides, if it wasn't for that nocturnal fox Professor Jung, we would've gotten away without a hitch."

"Yeah, I know, but if I'd taken care of Joonmyun instead of you, you wouldn't have had to show Jung the office keys, right?"

"If you'd stayed instead of me, we would have lost the flobberworm mucus."

The elder boy mused for a while, then tilted his head.

"That's true too."

"And he would have immediately known that we'd gotten into Slughorn's office." Chanyeol scorned with a waving gesture. "Bye bye Luhan's potion, then."

"Okay, you're right." Jongdae laughed, putting three drops of salamander blood into the cauldron and watching it boil for a long time before leaning over it. "Hey, look at this. Doesn't this look like the right texture and colour to you?"

"Uhhh."

Chanyeol picked up their potions manual and passed a hand over the illustration of the proper Befuddlement Draught on the yellowed page. It definitely looked similar.

"Should we stop?"

"Um...Yeah. Maybe leave it overnight, just in case."

"Okay, cool." Jongdae covered the cauldron, then let out a sigh of relief. "Blimey, I'm starving. Brewing potions whets the appetite."

"Luhan won't see what hit him tomorrow," Chanyeol grinned.

"We need to get him at breakfast," the other boy declared seriously. "You serve him his morning oatmeal, I take care of the pumpkin juice. He needs to drink either one of those on an empty stomach for better results. We'll fill up two flasks tomorrow morning at dawn, before breakfast starts."

"Roger that."

"Man," Jongdae exclaimed, eyes glimmering cheerfully. "Luhan is going to be so happy once Minseok accepts to go to the ball with him!"

"Yeah, he is," Chanyeol beamed brightly, then slowly tilted his head in contemplation. "But what if Minseok doesn't accept?"

Jongdae's smile stalled for a second, then blinked and bugged:

"Ehhh..."

"Let's think about that later."

"Yeah." Jongdae nodded. "I think that'd be best."

"Okay, I need to go," Chanyeol smiled, jumping to his feet and flicking the dust off his trousers. "We have an hour before History of Magic. Time for me to go partner hunting."

"Seriously?"

"Not everyone gets to date Ravenclaw prefects." he rolled his eyes, and Jongdae let out a compassionate chuckle.

"You'll be fine. Remember, if all fails, there's always Byun Baekhyun."



Surprisingly enough, Chanyeol found himself thinking about it after walking all the way up to the third floor, before giving himself a good mental slap. A few staircases, ten or so corridors, and there he was, considering asking his nemesis out for the Christmas ball – just how pathetic could he get? The Gryffindor silently laughed at himself and shook his head, erasing the ridiculous idea from his mind. Internally, he went through the girls in their year who might have an interest in him, and had not yet been invited by other guys. Girls from years below were worth considering as well...Chanyeol knew that Sehun had a very pretty friend who was his partner in Divination, a Hufflepuff named Millie Hannigan. Maybe she wouldn't mind his company, if Sehun had not already gotten to her first...



He was approaching the library's location, when an open door to a study room caught his attention, making him turn his head and look inside. Across the hall, seated next to the grand window, with his face inundated by warm sunlight, Baekhyun was dozing off alone on his Astronomy homework, his quill's tip forming a huge black stain on the paper in front of him as he held it slackly in his floppy hand. With his head tipped slightly, propped up on his other hand and his mouth hanging wide open, the Slytherin looked rather absurd – downright silly, as a matter of fact. And yet, Chanyeol stopped in his tracks and stared at the sight, dazed, wondering stupidly whether he should go in or not as a slow and inane digest of his conversation with Jongdae came back floating to his mind.

If all fails, there's always Byun Baekhyun, the other boy's voice trumpeted mischievously in his ears.

He was one step away from walking into the study room, when suddenly, a tall Slytherin boy bumped into him from behind and strolled in before him, turning back towards him with a handsome smile:

"Sorry," the stranger said apologetically.

Chanyeol blinked, staggered, but before he could recover, he saw the Slytherin head straight for Baekhyun's table, and place a hand on the other boy's shoulder.

"Baekhyun?" the stranger murmured very gently.

Chanyeol's eyes grew round as Baekhyun opened his eyes.

⚜

"Wha..." Baekhyun woke up groggily, then jolted and wiped his mouth. "Shit." God damn it, had he been drooling while sleeping? That was why he hated studying alone. In front of him, a vaguely familiar Slytherin boy was smiling at him while waving a hand reassuringly.

"Don't worry," the boy said in a deep but pleasant voice, "you weren't drooling or anything. There's nothing on your face."

"Right," Baekhyun blinked dazedly, then realised with surprise that he knew that guy. "Hey, you're François's friend, aren't you?" he squinted. "Hargraves?"

"Hargraves, yeah," the other boy smiled again, handsome in his calmness. "But call me Markus, I'd prefer that."

The younger boy slumped against his chair's backrest, nodding nonchalantly.

"Cool. Uh...So, how can I help you, Markus?"

"More like how can I help you, Baekhyun.," Markus chortled without mockery and placed a wrapped handkerchief on the table. He opened it up, revealing a perfectly clean and well-preserved prefect's badge resting on the fabric, that Baekhyun recognized with wide, round eyes.

"Hey! That's mine!"

"You never asked for it after that time in Hogsmeade," the brunet smirked. "So I wasn't sure if you really wanted it anymore."

"Thanks, I completely forgot," Baekhyun picked the badge up, then faltered a little bit. "Well, not that I'm going to need until next term, but...yeah. Still, good to have it with me."

"I was waiting for you to come and get it yourself, but you never came."

"I've been rather busy," the younger boy scrunched his face and laughed. "It completely slipped my mind...Thanks for the effort, man."

"You're welcome."

"You could've just left it with the French, to be honest. I would have gotten it from his territory."

"Oh, the truth is that there was something I wanted to talk to you about in person," the seventh year boy lowered his chin whilst maintaining eye contact, "I know it's kind of weird, coming from me, whom you barely met before today. But I've been thinking about it a long time, and I thought I should ask anyways."

"Ask what?"

"Whether you'd like to come to the ball with me?"

Baekhyun turned just in time to see a shadow disappearing in the doorway, accompanied by loud and coarse footsteps, as if someone had just left the place in a hurry. He looked back at Markus in genuine surprise, not quite knowing what to say.

"Uh...well..." he racked his brain for some ready formulas, in vain, and ended up sputtering a silly: "It's flattering."

Markus chuckled, raising a pacifying hand:

"Look, I totally understand if you're not into guys..."

"That's not it," Baekhyun replied, then tilted. It wasn't? He forced himself to think: "I just...as you said, I wasn't expecting it coming from you."

"Of course..." the other boy softened, leaning back. "Were you expecting an invitation from someone else?"

"Err...I don't know."

Baekhyun had a few things he needed to figure out about his life, these days. He figured his sexual orientation was probably going to be one of them, now. With an apologetic smile, he shook his head.

"Sorry, I don't think I can take up the offer right now."

"That's alright," Markus nodded understandingly. "I'll wait until you're ready."

"Don't waste your time on me," he said casually, "with a face like yours, it'd be a shame for the other bachelors if you ended up going alone."

"I don't think I'm wasting time. But if you think about it and eventually decide that you'd like to go with someone else, I completely understand too."

"What an understanding guy." Baekhyun commented mockingly.

But the seventh year simply shook his head.

"I'm making an exception, here." he smiled.

⚜

⚜

⚜

Chanyeol sat at the Gryffindor table bleary-eyed, having had the worst sleep he'd gotten in a few months at the very least. The flask of Befuddlement Draught sat in his chest pocket, discreet behind his robes and refreshing against his chest. Luhan was nowhere in sight.

Jongdae sat across of him, reserving a spot for the Gryffindor prefect. When Tao tried to sit down next to him, he shook his head:

"Nope, nope, nope. Sorry, just not today, Tao."

"Why not?" Tao pouted, but complied either way and sat one place away, reaching for a goblet to pour pumpkin juice in.

Chanyeol blinked groggily and yawned into his hand. He should be excited, but was only exhausted instead, his brain a puddle of misty thoughts and bizarre ideas – remains of the weird dream he had had the previous night, about going to the Christmas ball with Jongdae, and watching Baekhyun dance the cha-cha-cha with that Slytherin brunet; then McGonagall had abruptly jumped out of a gigantic cake and pointed a fustigating finger at him: The world belongs to those who wake early, she had thundered. And Chanyeol had cowered in fear; she was humongous.

Shaking his head furiously, he passed his hands over his face and stared at the plate in front of him. Seeing that Slytherin brunet ask Baekhyun out yesterday had shocked him, more than he thought was appropriate. It had been so smooth. So quick. He had left the room without even listening to Baekhyun's reply, because damn, the boy would have been crazy to turn down an invitation as natural as that one. By now, the two of them were probably staring at each other lovingly somewhere in the Slytherin common room. Oh God...Chanyeol rubbed his eyes. He needed to find himself a partner, quick.

"Ally," he turned to the first Gryffindor girl on his right, who glanced back at him.

"What?"

"Do you uh, want to go to the Christmas ball with me next week?"

"Oh, sorry, Chanyeol," she said with a contrite expression. "I'm already going with another boy from Hufflepuff, sorry."

His fault for asking too late. On the seat in front of him, Jongdae smiled and cackled at him.

"Still no luck?"

"No," Chanyeol shook his head, wincing. "How the hell do you guys manage to be so smooth?"

"What 'you guys', I'm the only one who got a partner."

Chanyeol closed his mouth carefully, mind still reeling with images of the good-looking Slytherin brunet pulling an intricate foxtrot move on the dance floor. Suddenly, Sehun spoke up from beside him:

"You're not the only one anymore, Jongdae... Now, Jongin found someone too."

"Who?!" Chanyeol and Jongdae both yelled out at once.

And Jongin groaned into his hand.

"Sehun. That was not supposed to be announced like a news report."

"What?" the purple-haired boy bit into his croissant. "Not like you would've managed to hide him in your pocket for the entire ball anyways."

"It's a him?!" Chanyeol shouted.

"Hey, no need to be conventionalist," Jongdae cocked an eyebrow.

"No, that's not what I...I mean - who is it?"

"Do Kyungsoo, from Slytherin."

"Oh my God!" Chanyeol said in a sort of distressed moan.

"Why?" Jongin frowned defensively. "Because he's a Slytherin? Yifan is a Slytherin too!"

"No...Simply-" the other boy tried to clarify, except there was nothing to explain. "I'm surprised that you guys clicked, that's all."

Jongin did not look convinced, but Chanyeol could not really care. Why did everything he thought of somehow have to connect back to Byun Baekhyun, this morning? He was so confused. Was he just making connections where there were none? Rubbing his eyes, he ended up looking down at the letter Bartoc had left him this morning and sighed. It came from his elder sister, Yura, who was working as a newscaster on the Wizarding Wireless Network. Maybe he should simply open it now, and get his mind off the ball together.

"Who is it from?" Jongdae asked with a mouthful of madeleine.

"My sister," Chanyeol opened it and pulled out the letter, scanning it quickly before gaping automatically. "Oh."

"What?"

Chanyeol shook his head. The letter was fairly short and straightforward:

Chanyeollie,

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

As mum probably mentioned to you, the divorce proceedings are still going on and dad's not been very available, let's just say. We're suspecting the action to go on until after New Year's...which is fine, really, but the Ministry is also organising this conference in Munich, that mum is forced to go to over Christmas.

Since dad is somewhere in northern Europe looking after Norwegian Ridgebacks, it's going to be just you and me, and the boyfriend at Christmas, I'm afraid.

Hope you won't mind that too much... Tell me if you have other plans!

[align=center][div style="width:250px;text-align:right;font-size:12px;color:#000;line-height:120%"]Kisses,

Yura.

Jongdae stood up, glancing at the letter quickly, before sitting back down.

"No sweat," he simply said. "Just come to mine."

"What?" Chanyeol blinked. "Oh...no. I don't want to impose. I mean, her boyfriend isn't so bad. He's just an unrefined twat and a complete imbecile, but apart from that..."

"You're not imposing, mate – I'm the one inviting you."

He halted, not knowing what to say.

"But..."

"Why so stubborn?" Jongdae laughed, leaning forward. "Come to mine! My mum loves you anyways, and Yura probably wants to have a romantic Christmas alone with her boyfriend without having you acting as the third wheel during dinner. I'll just tell my mum that we'll have a friend coming over the holidays, and boom, you can consider the matter settled."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah! My family loves guests."

Chanyeol smiled, both relieved and thankful.

"That'd be great... I love your family too." he paused, beaming genuinely. "Cheers, mate."

Jongdae opened his mouth at first, then suddenly widened his eyes and furiously motioned towards the entrance of the Great Hall, where Luhan had leisurely walked in, his clothes tidy and clean, hair combed back with care. Chanyeol instantly looked for the pot of oatmeal. When the prefect sat down, he picked an empty bowl, placed it on his knees where he poured a base of Befuddlement Draught, then lifted it up again and filled it with milk.

"Morning, Luhan!" Jongdae chimed happily at the same moment, patting the seat next to him. "I saved a spot for you, look."

The prefect blinked, slightly taken aback by the special treatment, but cheerful all the same. "Thanks. Do we have oatmeal today? I'm seriously starving..."

"Here you go," Chanyeol replied, handing him his bowl with a gratuitous smile.

"And here, your pumpkin juice." Jongdae concurred.

Next to Luhan, Tao frowned and looked at Sehun: "Why are they treating him like a princess?"

Luhan looked down at his spoon, wiped it with his napkin and frowned at his bowl. Jongdae and Chanyeol watched expectantly.

"Problem?"

"No, simply...Is there any sugar?"

"Err-"

"Never mind," the prefect then shook his head. "Minseok said that putting sugar in your oatmeal isn't good anyways. Staying natural is always the best option."

"What a wise man, that Kim Minseok," Jongdae said loudly, and Chanyeol threw him a look to shut him up. Luhan simply smiled dreamily, then paled off once again.

"I need to stop thinking about him," he grunted despondently, placing his spoon into his bowl and scooping up a good portion under Chanyeol's attentive gaze. "It only makes me depressed."

He was about to bring the spoonful to his lips, when Jongin rubbed his nose and sniffled.

"Did you ask him whether he wanted to go to the ball with you?"

Luhan placed the spoon down, with both Chanyeol and Jongdae internally moaning into their hands.

"I didn't, no," Luhan sighed, looking up. "But I bet he has a partner already."

"No, he doesn't," Sehun said quickly, putting his croissant on his plate, "I asked Yifan, who asked Joonmyun, who heard it from Minseok directly, that he rejected a fifth year girl from Ravenclaw, and another one from Gryffindor no later than last week."

The prefect raised his head.

"Really?"

"Yeah, and also," Sehun continued in a quieter voice, "he told those girls that he couldn't accept their invitations because he was waiting for someone else's."

"Someone else's–" Luhan reared. "Who?"

"Don't know, but apparently, he said it was a friend. A good friend. Someone from another house, whom he's known for quite a long time, now."

Luhan stared, his spoon hanging in his hand for a very long time as both Chanyeol and Jongdae scrutinized his every move. At last, the seventh year shook his head, then looked back down at his breakfast with a dejected air.

"It's probably too good to be true."

Sehun looked slightly bothered by this reply. Luhan scooped another spoonful and lifted it towards his mouth, then suddenly dropped it into his bowl and let out a roar. Everyone jolted, while the seventh year prefect abruptly jumped to his feet and pushed his bowl away from him.

"That's it!" he cried, "I can't take it anymore."

"W-what?" Jongdae said in alarm.

"I need to ask him myself!"

Chanyeol and Jongdae glanced at each other.

"Huh?"

"I'm going!"

"Wait...Lu-Luhan?!"

Chanyeol and Jongdae gaped at each other, whilst their friend left the table in a hurry and ran off towards the Ravenclaw's side of the hall. The prefect had not even touched his food...They gawked at Sehun, who was now biting into his old croissant with the beginning of a smile appearing on his face. Chanyeol opened his palms in consternation.

"How the hell did you do that?"

"He just needed a push," Sehun replied calmly, then shrugged. "So I lied a little bit."

"What," Jongin opened wide eyes. "You mean, Minseok never rejected those girls like you said?"

"No, no. That part was true, I heard it from Yifan," the younger boy nodded. "But I have no idea if he is really waiting for anyone's confession and if Luhan's the one he's hoping to go to the ball with, to be honest."

"Oh."

"It shouldn't be too far from the truth, right?" Sehun slurred with a touch of worry.

"Yeah..." Chanyeol chortled and passed a hand through his hair. "Besides...what matters is that he gives it a try anyways. So who cares if it's the truth?"

"I guess so." Jongdae sighed in despair. "But ugh...So much effort for nothing!"

Chanyeol nodded shrewdly. "I know."

"What effort?"

"We didn't even need the potion in the end!"

Sehun blinked.

"What potion?"

A slam on the table, and Tao was towering over the bench with his foot on his plate, his fists clenched into two tight balls, screaming:

"WOOOHH. I FEEL LIKE I CAN DO ANYTHING IN THE WORLD!"

On the table, next to his foot, lied the toppled shape of Luhan's goblet of pumpkin juice, completely emptied in an unfortunately mistaken one-shot. Chanyeol and Jongdae looked at each other in horror while the other boy hurdled off the bench and dashed off with a powerful war cry.

"Merlin! No..." they screamed, running off after him. "Tao, COME BACK!"

⚜

---

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

[Minseok]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center][size=9pt]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER SEVEN: THE ONE WHO WAS TOO SMOOTH, TOO SLOW, AND TOO MANLY. ❞ [PART ONE] [PART TWO]

---

⚜

Luhan dashed to the Ravenclaw table first, then made a beeline for the exit of the Great Hall as soon as he realised that the Ravenclaw prefect had finished eating , and had already left the room. He noticed the elder boy heading towards the grand staircase, and immediately ran up to his level, waving frantically with his arms before the other boy could start climbing.

"Minseok!" he called, making the other prefect turn around with a surprised blink.

"Hey," the Ravenclaw smiled, still stunned. "Luhan. Hi."

"Hi..."

"So, what's the rush about?"

"I...uh..." Luhan stalled, his resolve sinking back into his socks. "I...I heard."

"Heard? You heard what?"

"About...the girls from Ravenclaw and uh, Gryffindor."

"Oh," Minseok looked slightly troubled. "Right. I feel bad about that too, I genuinely don't like to turn people down... Did they say something about it to you? Is that why you're here?"

"Uh...no."

Luhan vaguely realized that this conversation wasn't going anywhere in particular. Now Minseok was openly studying him, eyebrows furrowed, not quite sure what to think.

"No? Then, what is it?"

"I wanted to ask you..." Luhan started, summoning all his Gryffindor bravery, the manliness of the Lu's, the determination of a future Auror, "I wanted to ask you, because I never could...if you...you know. If you would...Hang on," he breathed in, knowing that he sounded completely moronic. "W-w-would you...?"

Minseok simply smiled.

"Would you..." Luhan gazed at him helplessly. "W-would you..."

"Yeah, I would quite like that."

"Huh?"

The Gryffindor prefect stared at him, and to his greatest astonishment, Minseok started to laugh.

"Yes, I would quite like to go to the ball with you." he reiterated, clearly this time. "Isn't that what you're trying to ask?"

"Uhhh-"

"No?" Minseok opened white, terrified eyes.

"Yes, it is!" Luhan all but yelled. "Yes...Oh my God, yes, that is exactly what it is!"

"Oh Merlin," the Ravenclaw exhaled, covering his face. "My God, you seriously scared me right there...I thought I'd gotten carried away all by myself-"

"I'm sorry. You... you knew?"

"I guessed. I just wasn't sure whether I was the one who should make the first step or not...but I thought, you know, Gryffindors...You guys tend to be the proactive ones, don't you?"

"You mean you really want to?" Luhan said, though it sounded slightly like an uncharacteristically pathetic whimper. "With me?"

"With who else?" Minseok retorted softly and chuckled. "I thought you'd never ask, seriously."

Luhan gaped, and before the other boy could say anything else, threw himself forward and hugged him tightly in his arms, lifting him up to spin him around the hall.

Once he finally deigned to put him down again, Minseok lifted an authoritative finger and pointed at Luhan's chest.

"But," he said very firmly, "I refuse to dance with a log, so you better brush up your dance moves as finely as you do your Quidditch, young man."

Luhan grinned, placed his hand on his torso and bowed.

"Your wish is my command, Minseok."





Back in the Slytherin dorms, Baekhyun lied on his stomach, sprawled over his bed, his cushion in his arms. On the neighbouring bed, Kyungsoo was reading a levitating book, sitting in a sea of pillows that had been propped up neatly against the bedpost. The wizard turned the pages with his wand, lazily, looking utterly bored. The prefect soon groaned, biting the corner of his cushion.

"Kyungsoo," he moaned.

"What?" the other boy spat.

"If you had the choice between waiting for something which is kind of nice, but you don't really know what it is, and then not waiting and going head first into something else. What would you choose?"

"What the fuck is that about?"

Kyungsoo lifted his head from his book to stare at his friend, incomprehension plastered all over his face.

"What's wrong with you, these days?"

"Just answer my question, geez." Baekhyun whined. "I'm asking for advice."

"I don't even know what the advice is about!"

"Just say it...Waiting or not waiting. What would you do?"

Kyungsoo scrutinized him with dismay, crossing his arms and leaning backwards against the plump pillows.

"Well, between waiting or not waiting, if it were me, I'd wait."

"Would you?" Baekhyun grinned.

"Yeah, but..."

Kyungsoo paused, frowning deeply, so much that the other boy faltered a bit.

"But what?"

"That's not what you would usually do."

Baekhyun thought about it, then rolled onto his back, stared at the ceiling, puckered his lips.

"That's true," he mused and folded his arms pensively. "I wouldn't wait..."

"So...why are you asking me this, all of a sudden?"

"Nothing." he shook his head and beamed. "Say, do you think Leila Sturdivant would accept to come with me to the party?"



There were many types of suitors at an event such as Hogwarts' Christmas ball: Those who smoothly sailed over all troubles and got their partner before anyone else, those who acted systematically, on impulse, and confessed without thinking too much about the consequences, those who were so manly that they overcame their deepest fears, without the need for any love potion, and those who came in last, arriving only a step too slow and missed their chance by just a tiny hair.

---

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

[Annika]

!!! oh my god track ing

[Keito]

[sup]wow we really made sehun that cute i'm in tears i can hardly process the fact that this exists now[/sup]

[Zitao]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center][size=9pt]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER EIGHT: OH, WHAT A NIGHT! ❞
[PART ONE] [PART TWO]

---

The night of the Christmas ball saw Hogwarts dressed up in red and white, the decorations for the festivities extending to the furthest staircase and the highest tower, with enchanted snow falling in every corridor. In the somewhat empty dormitory of the Gryffindor tower, Chanyeol rearranged his bow tie in front of the mirror and turned to look at Jongdae, who had just emerged from the bathroom with a questioning air on his face.

"Mate, do I look okay?" the Gryffindor asked, and Chanyeol tilted his head to examine him.

The elder boy was sporting a blue suit over an immaculate shirt – very vividly blue but very stylish – brown curls resting neatly over his head and bow tie as white as Luhan's snowy owl. Chanyeol turned back to his closet's mirror with an appreciative nod.

"You look like a fucking chump," he said.

"Thanks," Jongdae replied with a bright grin and glanced at his pocket watch. "Cool. I knew that blue was a good idea."

"Are you going to pick Yasmine up at the Ravenclaw tower?"

"Of course. I'm leaving now."

"Already?" Chanyeol spun around with too much haste.

But Jongdae headed for the door and blew him a kiss:

"Relax, I won't forget you even when I'm dancing with her. Don't you worry, buttercup."

"Ugh, sod off." the younger boy rolled his eyes and returned to his struggle with the clip of his bow. "I hope you choke on fruit punch and never come back."

"Thanks, and you, enjoy yourself with the other bachelors," the elder boy snickered, and Chanyeol tossed a pair of dirty boxers at him. The door of the dormitory slammed shut just in time, leaving him alone in the room as the loud hubbub of the common room cut off once more, and the dirty underwear fell onto the carpet with a pathetic plop. He watched the door with a slight twinge of discomfort in his chest, feeling lonely against his will. But almost instantaneously, it opened again and Sehun stepped in carelessly, lifting his arms and shutting the door behind him as he gave Chanyeol a questioning nod:

"Hey. How do I look?"

Chanyeol had to do a double-take.

"Uhhh."

In front of him, Sehun stared with his palms open, his gown as white as a newly-wed's, but his hair a rainbow nest of red, yellow, orange and turquoise. As if that wasn't enough, the boy also had a bright blue parrot on his shoulder, an animal Chanyeol was sure he had never seen in the younger boy's company before.

"You, uh, you look great," he eventually replied.

"Yeah?" Sehun smiled and tugged at his sleeves. "Thanks. You don't look too shoddy either."

"Where did you get that?"

"Him?" the boy pointed at his parrot, who squawked with a tilt of its funny head, "I asked Jongdae to transfigure it out of Tao's bedside plushie."

"Are you serious?"

"Shhh, he doesn't know."

Chanyeol frowned.

"Where's Jongin?"

"Gone to pick up Do Kyungsoo," the younger boy said with lidded eyes. "Probably in the Great Hall with him by now, I don't know."

"And...Tao?"

"I'm here!" came Tao's voice right afterwards, swinging the door open and entering the room with distress in his eyes. He was still in nothing but a bathrobe, holding three clothe hangers in his hands and shuffling difficultly in his fluffy slippers. Chanyeol and Sehun both stared at him incredulously.

"Why aren't you dressed?"

"Well," Tao sighed, showing the three different suits in his hands, and looking quite exasperated already. "All my gowns look really great on me and I don't know which one I should wear for the ball. I can't choose, this is really too hard."

Chanyeol glanced at the black, navy and crimson gowns critically. He lifted his finger and gestured towards the first one.

"Black."

"Crimson." Sehun said.

"I thought navy..." Tao trailed off.

They stared at one another.

"Okay, navy," Sehun admitted.

"Black." Tao mused.

"Crimson's okay." Chanyeol dropped.

Another silence.

At last, the eldest boy rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"Alright," he exhaled. "Well, I guess this is going to take a while."

"I also have different bow ties." Tao added dejectedly. "Do you think white is better or-"

"Stop." Chanyeol raised both hands angrily, glancing at both of them, one after the other, before sighing and taking the suits from Tao's hands. "Okay," he mumbled, "let's take this step by step..."

⚜

In the Great Hall, Jongin sat at one of the many round tables that had been set up about the room, with his vest constraining him uncomfortably around the waist as he played with his golden cufflinks. Next to him, Kyungsoo was equally quiet, his hair slicked back loosely and his black waistcoat flattering over a clean white shirt. The younger of the two boys glanced at the thriving dance floor in front of him, then at the mountain of fruit cocktails stacked up behind them. He pointed at one of them.

"A drink?" he suggested over the booming music.

But Kyungsoo shook his head calmly. Jongin bit his lower lip as the two of them both gazed at the mob of students dancing around them again.

Well. This was a lot more awkward than he had first anticipated.

McGonagall had not lied when she had said that this would be the biggest ball that the school had ever seen. The entire castle had been decorated by house elves overnight; dressed in crazy garlands and branches of holly hanging not only in the Great Hall itself, but also in every other corridor of the school, leaving no place or corner untouched. The statues were covered with frost and laced with streamers and ribbons. Thousands of candle lights led a non-ending flow of students into the Great Hall, the centre of which had been altered into a glassy dance floor, and huge banners displaying the usual house animals in Christmas colours were hung on every wall. Where the teachers' table ordinarily sat stood a titanic pine tree which stretched all the way to the starry sky of the enchanted ceiling, its branches gesticulating occasionally to drop snow on the ill-timed passer-by, and bursting out into a hearty Santa Claus laugh whenever it hit its target.

Jongin had left the dorms early to pick Kyungsoo up today, eager to meet up with the elder boy for this special occasion; but ironically, neither of them had started to dance even after everyone else had flowed in to celebrate. The two of them had just stayed awkwardly rooted to their seats like penguins, stealing glances and exchanging irregular monosyllables for all conversation. Jongin was slowly starting to get worried.

"It's a bit noisy, isn't it?" he glanced at Kyungsoo after a while, hoping to strike up a conversation.

The elder boy looked back at him, uneasy beneath his calm façade.

"A bit."

"I really like this band, though."

"Oh." Kyungsoo said. "Really?"

"Chanyeol likes them too, he keeps on playing songs by them," Jongin attempted a smile.

Kyungsoo chuckled, but did not say anything in return. If the elder boy usually seemed sullen and a little tetchy, now he was as tense as an elastic band about to snap.

Jongin fiddled with his thumbs.

"You alright?"

"I'm fine."

The Gryffindor bit his lips. He looked at the far-end of the Great Hall, where an ice-skating rink had been set up for younger students to tumble around and laugh at each other's struggles. Amongst the first years, somehow, Tao and Sehun had found a way to join the fun and were now holding each other by the hand as they skated face to face, the elder of the two fighting to stay on his feet while sliding backwards and screaming like a madman.

Jongin watched them for a very long time in utter dismay.

"They look like they're having fun," Kyungsoo soon noted as he leaned closer to his ear, and Jongin jerked slightly.

"Uh," he stared in the direction of the skating rink. "You mean, those two idiots?"

The Slytherin nodded soundlessly.

Jongin stared at Sehun and Tao, who had just fallen over each other on the ice and were now laughing madly at each other while the younger boy's parrot flapped its wings furiously over his head. He pursed his lips and glanced at Kyungsoo.

"Do...Do you want to join them?"

"No, I'm okay. I'd just make a fool out of myself on the ice."

"Oh." Jongin nodded uncomfortably, "Well, me too."

"I'm sorry," Kyungsoo suddenly shook his head, looking shamefacedly towards the floor. "You're probably thinking that I'm hellishly boring right now. I'm really sorry."

"No, no, no," Jongin protested, though he wasn't sure whether he was really honest with himself. "I'm not a party person either, it's fine. Don't worry."

"I just don't know what to do with myself in settings like this."

"You don't have to do anything."

"Yeah, but I don't want you to be here," Kyungsoo cut wryly, "sitting around doing nothing, just because we have to stay together."

The Gryffindor realized that Kyungsoo was gradually starting to regret coming to the ball as his partner, and Jongin wanted him to think anything but that. He hurriedly grabbed the other boy's hand and jumped to his feet.

"That's nonsense," he said confidently, with an encouraging smile. "Come, let's dance."

Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes.

"I can't dance for two knuts."

"That's okay," Jongin replied. "I've got enough skills for two, my mum made me do ballet when I was young."

The Slytherin still hesitated for a while, but eventually relented and stood up, letting the younger boy drag him onto the dance floor. Jongin parted his way through the crowd. As he did, he saw Jongdae and his partner from the corner of his eye, the Gryffindor dancing the swing – or at least attempting to – over a rock song, making Yasmine Abott laugh her head off in her high heels. Shuddering, Jongin pulled Kyungsoo closer to him in a spot that was not overcrowded. He then turned around to face the elder boy.

"Come on, let's dance," he incited timidly, swaying along with the rhythm.

Kyungsoo stared at him blankly, then vacillated like a penguin and hesitantly bobbed his head to the music, his movements both too small and shy to be noticeable. When at last he started to dance more boldly, Jongin automatically laughed out loud, drawing a startled face out of the other boy, who immediately stopped moving.

"What?" Kyungsoo asked, wide-eyed.

"N-nothing," he shook his head, covering his mouth. "Just..."

Somehow, Kyungsoo danced like a middle-aged man.

"What is it?" the other boy insisted, frowning worriedly now. "Tell me."

"No, it's just cute," the Gryffindor admitted after a while, still smiling. "The way you dance. I'm sorry. I just found it really cute."

"Cute?"

"Well, uh, yeah."

Kyungsoo's eyes widened, then his eyebrows fused into a single line.

"That's it, I'm sitting back down."

"Wait, wait, wait," Jongin chuckled helplessly, "I'm really sorry. Don't go."

The Slytherin did not struggle when he caught him and dragged him back to their original position, almost falling backwards and making him tumble against his chest in the process. Kyungsoo gave him a judgmental look and he embarrassedly drew back.

"Sorry. Let's dance properly this time," he suggested with a bashful smile. "Here, when I was small, my mother used to teach me how to waltz."

As he spoke, he reached down for Kyungsoo's hands and placed one of it around his neck, stepping forward so that they stood chest-to-chest, nose touching, while the Slytherin blinked and tried to step away.

"What are you doing?"

"Um, we're waltzing." Jongin tried.

"That's definitely not a waltz they're playing."

"I know, but the waltz is the only kind of ballroom dancing I know."

Kyungsoo gazed at him cautiously.

"Right."

"I can teach you," Jongin murmured, pulse pumping loudly against his eardrums. "Here, hold my hand."

Kyungsoo complied, though his face still looked a little constipated. In fact, he seemed extremely green and constipated.

"Jongin, look, I really don't think dancing's a good idea after all."

"Don't say that," the Gryffindor closed his eyes and smiled softly, "we barely tried."

"But-"

"Shhh, just...give it a chance. Please."

The other boy simply frowned as he followed, eyes wavering when the younger student leaned his forehead against his, slightly dazed. Kyungsoo seemed to hesitate.

"Did your mother teach you all the dances you know?"

"Hmm," Jongin said through closed eyelids. "She used to be very sweet about these kind of things."

"Used to." Kyungsoo raised his eyes.

"Yeah," the other boy smiled. "Used to, as in, not anymore."

"What happened?"

"I don't know."

Jongin opened his eyes indolently, fixing a sluggish gaze on the elder boy who opened his mouth subconsciously. He could feel Kyungsoo's breath flutter against his skin, his warmth only centimetres away. Foreheads still connecting, Jongin sighed.

"I guess I'm kind of the black sheep of the family, that's all."

⚜

Finding his way towards the largest buffet table, Chanyeol squeezed through the crowd, and knocked a glass over in his haste to pour himself a good goblet of fruit punch, desperate for a cold, refreshing drink. He downed the glass in one gulp, ignoring the couple of seventh years staring disapprovingly at him, and slammed it back down, vaguely disappointed that the refreshments here were non-alcoholic... Yes, underage drinking was not glorious, true, but he could definitely do with not being conscious right now.

The night had barely started, and yet, he was already prepared to go back to bed.

The Gryffindor was about to pour himself a second goblet when he noticed Professor Jung's eyes smiling at him from the other end of the table, the teacher chaperoning the ball with his usual destabilizing nonchalance. Sheepish, Chanyeol glanced down at the jug of punch in his hand, then discarded the goblet, opting to leave with the entire pitcher after all.

He was comfortably installed against a pillar at the end of the hall when Yifan appeared in his field of vision, blinking at him in mild surprise and glancing at the half-empty carafe in his hand.

"Hi."

"Hey," Yifan greeted calmly, nodding with a cocked eyebrow. "Feeling thirsty?"

"Err...you could say that," Chanyeol replied with a blush.

The Slytherin peacefully shifted to lean on the pillar next to him.

"Why are you alone?"

Chanyeol sulked immediately: "Way to remind me that I couldn't find anyone to come to the ball with me, mate."

"No, what I meant was..." Yifan corrected himself, "where are Sehun and the other youngsters?"

"Ice skating, I think? Man, I don't know, I saw them leave a while ago," the fifth year sighed, taking a gulp from his pitcher of punch. "Jongdae's having the time of his life with his Ravenclaw date...Luhan is in Minseok paradise...Ugh, just kill me already."

"You look jealous," the Slytherin suddenly smiled.

"Mm'not."

"You know a lot of people here are still single, right? If you try, I'm sure you'd end the night with someone at your arm..."

Chanyeol grumbled something incomprehensible. That was not the point; that wasn't what he was miffed about...but what was he miffed about, exactly? Chanyeol himself wasn't sure of it. The words escaped him before he could even stop himself:

"You know that even Byun Baekhyun found himself a partner?"

Yifan looked at him in a 'Oh-so-that-is-what-it-was-all-about' kind of way and Chanyeol suddenly felt like pouring the whole carafe of punch at his face.

"Yes, right. He certainly did, I saw." Yifan simply said.

"Not that I care. I'm just mentioning it."

"Yes, yes, of course." Yifan cleared his throat, while the Gryffindor took another sip, "I saw them leave the Slytherin common room together, earlier on. Leila Sturdivant, right? She's very pretty."

Chanyeol scrunched his nose as his fruit punch got stuck mid-way down the wrong pipe, causing him to snort and choke into his palm.

"Wait," he spat between two violent gurgles and looked up incredulously, "What?"

"His partner," Yifan cocked an eyebrow, patting his back distractedly. "Leila Sturdivant, she's his partner."

"Um..." Chanyeol jammed. "No, she isn't?"

"Yes, she is?" the prefect seemed openly unimpressed now, "look over there, they're dancing under the Christmas tree."

Chanyeol turned so fast his neck almost snapped, and his mouth dropped in astonishment as he saw, sure enough, that his Slytherin nemesis was chatting away with a pretty blond girl at his arm, dancing without a single care in the world. He rubbed his eyes, not believing it. But that was Baekhyun alright. It was Baekhyun and a girl, not Baekhyun and the handsome stranger from last time... which meant...

He reeled.

Baekhyun had rejected the smooth Slytherin brunet.

"I can't believe this," Chanyeol cried out.

"Why? You were the one who were talking about his partner in the first place."

"Yeah, but not that one!"

"Just what on earth are you on about?"

But suddenly, Yifan's vision seemed to have been distracted by someone 's sight in the crowd, and he tapped Chanyeol's shoulder absent-mindedly before leaving him behind.

"Hang on a second, I'll see you later."

Chanyeol was barely listening; his eyes were still transfixed on Baekhyun's laughing figure in the crowd, the Slytherin looking ever so skinny and short in his dark suit, but neat and dashing with his hair combed back and his forehead exposed... Hold up, dashing? Had he actually used the word dashing? Bloody hell, he was going insane; the lights of the room were getting to his head.

Was this punch really non-alcoholic?

He shook his head violently and fell back against the pillar, haggard and dazed. There were so many thoughts running through his mind at once that he barely noticed the presence of the other student next to him now, and only jumped in astonishment a good five minutes later when he finally recognized the person's side-view, shouting a bewildered "Merlin" out loud.

The tall silhouette next to him then turned around, revealing the fetching features of the handsome Slytherin brunet he had just been ruminating about a second ago. The seventh year blinked, then simply offered a hesitant smile.

"Um, hi."

"H-hi..." Chanyeol spluttered, feeling outright silly now. The Slytherin frowned slightly.

"You are...?"

"Park Chanyeol."

"Right," the Slytherin seemed to have heard his name before. "I'm Markus. Markus Hargraves."

They nodded at each other. Chanyeol had never felt this awkward in his entire life.

"Um...Enjoying the party?" Hargraves eventually broke the silence, holding his glass up with a helpful smile.

"It's alright," he responded. "But I'm not a very good dancer, so..."

"Oh, me neither." the seventh year chuckled softly, looking at the mob on the dance floor. "I am as clumsy as a new-born duckling when it comes to dancing, I have two left feet."

Chanyeol blinked, not wanting to say that he had spent a good number of restless nights with the unshakable conviction that the Slytherin brunet was a master of the cha-cha-cha. Then it occurred to him that if Hargraves had asked Baekhyun out, knowing full well that he couldn't even dance, he must have really liked the other boy a hell of a lot. That anyone could like Baekhyun that much was an amazing fact in itself. But somehow, the realization could only make Chanyeol shift uncomfortably on his two feet.

"So, err...you here with someone?" he asked after a heavy silence.

"No," Hargraves smiled and took a sip of his drink. "I got rejected."

"Ah."

So he didn't even try to ask anybody else. Chanyeol looked down at the grapefruit pulp floating in his fruit punch, his stomach doing weird little flips down his belly.

"Sorry for asking," he said after a while.

"No, don't be," Hargraves immediately replied, suddenly narrowing his eyes in recognition, "I hope you don't mind me asking, actually, but you're Baekhyun's friend, aren't you?"

"I'm – what?" Chanyeol spun around. He scoffed. "Me? Baekhyun's friend?"

"Sorry, were you not? I often see you two playing pranks on each other, so I thought..."

"Well, playing pranks and mutual appreciation are two completely different things." the Gryffindor snorted. "Baek and I hate each other's guts."

"Oh, really."

Hargraves seemed pensive, then eventually smiled to himself, making Chanyeol tick.

"And I thought I'd be jealous of you two's relationship."

Chanyeol suddenly wished he hadn't denied anything.

"Well, um, Baek is an annoying tit anyways, so..." he muttered into his jug, "no one would want to be friends with a dickhead like him."

"I'm not sure I can agree with that." Hargraves cocked an eyebrow with an annoying laugh, and Chanyeol suddenly felt a compelling need to use his carafe as a hammer on the other boy's head. He soon mumbled something unintelligible under his breath and the seventh year tilted: "Sorry, you were saying...?"

"Nothing."

"You look very red," Hargraves frowned, "is that alcoholic?"

"No it isn't." the Gryffindor grunted and rolled his eyes, "there's nothing alcoholic here anyways, so I wouldn't be able to get drunk if I wanted to."

"Oh, you could." the seventh year smiled evenly. "All the alcoholic drinks are over there, on the table where Filch is standing. But only students aged seventeen and above can have access to it."

Chanyeol blankly stared in the direction designated by the other student and blinked a few times.

"Oh."

Hargraves soon nodded towards Filch's table and offered a smile.

"Do you want me to get you something?" he suggested.

Well, Chanyeol considered. Maybe the Slytherin brunet wasn't all that bad, after all.

⚜

Joonmyun circled around the various buffet tables, biting anxiously on his newly opened ice mouse, happy to see no trouble ahead. No mischief in sight. This was a good thing , he told himself with a smile. As long as there were no student stirring trouble anywhere within a range of fifty yard in sight, this night would be more than good enough for him. A hand on his shoulder suddenly forced him to turn around, and he saw Yasmine's flushed face grinning wildly at him under the neon lights.

"Hi," she yelled over the music, pulling her dress up as the mob around them pushed them over. "What's up?"

"Oh, hey," Joonmyun said in a batter of eyelashes, pulling his ice mouse out of his mouth to smile properly at her. "I'm great, how is it going?"

"Not bad," she replied, dragging someone out from between two other students and pushing that person in front of the other Ravenclaw's face. "Do you guys know each other already? Meet Jongdae. Jongdae, this is Joonmyun, my prefect counterpart."

Joonmyun blinked disconcertedly at the boy in question with his lopsided bow tie, and Jongdae's eyes took a second before finally focusing on him, his forehead shimmering with sweat and a grin still hovering over his face as he casually extended a hand.

"Hey," Jongdae's voice thundered, loud despite the music, and the Ravenclaw stuttered a bit when he tried to smile back: "H-hi. Nice to meet you."

"You guys know each other, don't you?" Yasmine asked.

Joonmyun firmly shook his head.

"I know his friends, Yifan and Chanyeol, but this is the first time we talk to each other in person.

"Oh, alright."

"Did you two come together?"

"Yeah. Jongdae's my dance partner," she explained, still having to speak over the roar of the music, "but he really can't dance, I've just discovered that."

"Hey, what do you mean?" the Gryffindor pouted. "I just have my own vibe, that's all."

"I've certainly never seen anyone dance like you before, I'll grant you that." Yasmine gave him a look.

"And I've never seen anyone dance like that Christmas tree over there." Jongdae retorted with a cocked eyebrow. "Look at Slughorn."

Both Joonmyun and Yasmine glanced at the Potions teacher currently shaking his hips on the dance floor with Professor Sprout, both of them dressed as giant pine trees with their decorative garlands bobbing all over the place. While Joonmyun smiled uncertainly, the other Ravenclaw covered her face and chortled into her hand: "Do you know that he was actually doing that during one of the Slug Club parties last year?" she then smiled at both of them. "It was traumatizing, I had no idea what to do with myself at that time."

"The best way is to dance along," Joonmyun kindly advocated while taking another bite of candy. "That reminds me, did you already start on the Potions project he gave us for next term?"

"Oh, Joonmyun. Can we not talk about homework during a ball?" Yasmine smiled good-naturedly, then looked up and exhaled deeply: "That makes me think of a few weeks ago, when my keys to Slughorn's office just wouldn't work for some reason. God, I was so scared I thought I was going to have a heart attack."

"Your keys to his office?" Joonmyun repeated calmly, and all of a sudden, Jongdae seemed to freeze at his side. "I didn't know you had keys to Slughorn's office."

"I've got a spare set, to have access to his stock of ingredients when he's not available," she pulled out a pair of bronze keys out of her purse and dangled them in front of the other prefect's eyes. "But a few weeks ago, they suddenly stopped working for a while. I had no idea why, I thought maybe someone had stolen them and replaced them with a fake pair, but as soon as I thought of asking Slughorn, they started working again." she shuddered, "I've been too scared to part with them ever since."

Joonmyun nodded casually at the pair of hefty keys in her hands, slowly processing the information in his head. The keys looked somewhat familiar, for some reason...Then it clicked, and he gasped, so loudly that the girl jolted and almost dropped the keys to the floor; still gasping in his epiphany, he furiously pointed at the keys, then at Jongdae, then back at the keys, only to be gagged by the flustered Gryffindor before he could utter a single word.

"Oh my, what a night!" the fifth year exclaimed with a nervous laugh, speedily stuffing Joonmyun's mouth with the ice mouse, "I'm really thirsty, aren't you? Maybe I'll grab a cherry syrup for you too, Yasmine, shall I? The table's right there ha ha-"

"HESTHMLMMGFFH," Joonmyun moaned into the Gryffindor's hand.

"Is he alright?" Yasmine raised an eyebrow in bewilderment.

"Totally fine," Jongdae firmly reassured. "He's just choking on candy."

"I'm...gmmgfgh!"

"We're coming back asap!"

Joonmyun furiously fought against Jongdae's arms as the younger boy rapidly dragged him out of the mob, but the Gryffindor manhandled him doggedly until they were both in a corner of the entrance hall, then letting go of him only to place a shushing finger over his lips. Joonmyun shook his head violently and the Honeydukes' ice mouse popped out of his mouth, dropping to the floor.

"THIEF," he hurled as soon as he was free from Jongdae's grasp.

"Not so loud, for Merlin's sake, she could come out and hear you!"

"Um, that is rather the point?!" Joonmyun screamed.

But Jongdae rapidly hushed him again with both hands.

"Shhhh," the younger boy hissed, shaking his head. "Look, I know that you saw everything last time with Chanyeol and Professor Jung. But don't tell her, alright? She'll get really pissed at me if you do."

"You...you know about this too?! You were part of it, you...you were both sneaking into Slughorn's office!"

"So what?" the other boy threw his palms out, "as if you've never broken a school rule before."

Joonmyun stared at him with his mouth hanging wide open, and Jongdae speedily scratched his head:

"Alright, maybe that wasn't the smartest thing to say."

"You guys stole Yasmine's keys to break into Professor Slughorn's office..." Joonmyun trembled. "You guys were going to steal his potions ingredients. That's not only against school rules, it's actual theft!"

"Look, it was for a very good cause, I promise you," Jongdae susurrated, "besides, where's the harm? I gave the keys back to her already."

But the Ravenclaw prefect simply wheezed and covered his eyes, feeling more stupid than he ever had in his entire life. He could not believe that he had not guessed all of this before now. Back when Chanyeol had showed up with those keys in the middle of the night, looking guiltier than a Death Eater caught petting puppies...he should have known that something was up. He should have known!

Moaning, he buried his face into his arms:

"I knew it! I just knew that story about mushrooms was a load of crumpets!"

"A load of what?" Jongdae said with the start of a smile, which disappeared as soon as the elder boy pointed an accusing finger at him.

"You have to confess to the teachers, now."

"Oh come on, this is already part of the past," Jongdae pouted. "And it doesn't have anything to do with you anyways!"

"It became personal when you made me drop my ice mouse onto the floor."

"Do you like those?" Jongdae grinned with newfound hope. "I'll buy you ten galleons' worth of Honeydukes ice mice if you don't say anything to the teachers about Chanyeol and me. Ten galleons. Think about it, mate. That's something like twenty boxes' worth."

Joonmyun found himself hesitating and immediately slapped himself internally for it. The Ravenclaw categorically shook his head.

"No."

"Whyyyy," Jongdae said, and the elder boy noticed that he liked to drag the sound of that word out, childishly, as if he was whining. "It's not like it's a bad bargain for you."

Joonmyun watched him attentively for a while, momentarily distracted by the Gryffindor's exaggerated pout, before finally rubbing his eyes tiredly:

"No, I don't take bribes."

"You're missing out, man," the other boy winked playfully. "Especially with me: I'm particularly generous when it comes to giving special benefits."

Joonmyun flushed against his will.

"Tha- that sounds a bit wrong."

"I could give you private tutoring lessons for free."

At this, the elder boy scoffed: "I already have all the best grades you could get. I don't need any help in any subject but-"

He waned, and Jongdae tilted his head with a smile.

"But...?"

"Well, I mean..." he opened his mouth, stuttered, then closed it again, feeling his cheeks heat up involuntarily. "I mean, I can't do a patronus, sure. But it's not like that matters..."

"A patronus? But that's above N.E.W.T level anyways."

"Well, it's not like I can't completely do one either-"

"But it doesn't have a corporeal shape, right? I get it." Jongdae smirked, closing his eyes and bowing dramatically. "No problem, I can help with that too."

Joonmyun pursed his lips.

"I said I didn't take bribes."

"Got to have a first time for everything," the Gryffindor said decisively, hooking his finger on Joonmyun's into a forced pinkie promise. "Let's say that the deal is settled, alright? Come on. Let's get back to Yasmine before she starts worrying."

"Wait. I really don't want your help," the other boy blurted out in a hurry, then he panicked when the Gryffindor did not appear to listen. "Look. Jongdae, you don't have to buy me off to keep my mouth shut about the keys. I won't talk about it."

The fifth year turned around, looking genuinely uncertain.

"You won't?"

"I...I won't." Joonmyun frowned, truly embarrassed. "I won't tell. Just this time, I'll let you guys off."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," the prefect bit his lower lip. "Just this once, though. And you don't have to teach me how to do a patronus or buy me Honeydukes' ice mice, that's... That's not how I do things."

The Gryffindor fell silent, seemingly lost. For a moment, the boy looked much younger and innocent all of a sudden, running out of witty words to say while Joonmyun quickly freed his hand from his grasp and rubbed his wrist with an annoyed expression. Noticing that the Gryffindor's bow tie was still askew after all this time, he let out a sigh and then proceeded to rearrange it for the younger student in silence.

"Alright, we can go back to Yasmine now," he mumbled. "She'll get worried."

"Um," Jongdae said.

And Joonmyun looked back at him anxiously.

"What?"

"No, nothing." the Gryffindor shook his head hastily. "You're right. We should go now."

Joonmyun followed without insisting, but as they set off, he soundlessly wondered what the fifth year had really wanted to say.



Meanwhile, Yifan looked around him in search of Joonmyun's face in the mob, whom he thought he had caught a glimpse only a few minutes ago; but found no signs of the Ravenclaw as far as his eyes could see. Instead, he had run across Luhan and Minseok dancing like there was no tomorrow near the Christmas tree, riding on the music like strippers, the eldest of the two boys twerking his heart out on the dance floor. With his perspective on Minseok changed forever, Yifan headed out of the hall as fast as he could.

A few corridors away from the Great Hall, two Hufflepuff students were huddled together in front of the wall, one of them heaving loudly with a hand against the hard rock and the other one tapping him gently on the back. Yifan frowned and changed his trajectory to check up on them.

"You guys alright?" he asked.

"Ah, yeah," the first one started. "We-"

At the same time, the second Hufflepuff abruptly clutched the front of Yifan's robes and retched the sum of his half-digested dinner onto the surface of the smooth fabric. Instantly, Yifan froze. For a milli-second he thought he felt his consciousness start to slip away from his body as his eyes began to roll backwards. Then he stilled, too traumatized to speak; and the first Hufflepuff groggily apologized on behalf of his nauseous friend:

"I'm sorry, I am really sorry."

"It–it's... fine," the Slytherin uttered with difficulty, feeling the vomit drip down onto his shoes with horrifying lucidity. This had to be karma. Surely. He had always believed that he was an asshole in his past life anyways.

The sober Hufflepuff bent over his friend's back and rubbed his neck soothingly:

"I'm sorry about that. Bobby's just very sick..." he then looked down at the ill student. "Sorry, Bobby, I should've taken your medicine but I forgot it in the dorm."

"Maybe we should take your friend to the infirmary," Yifan muttered, still immobilized by the feeling of stinking substance on his clothes, until he looked at the apologizing Hufflepuff's face and had to blink a few times in recognition. It was that odd kid named Yixing who had worked with him in Divination before Halloween.

"Bobby doesn't really like the infirmary," Yixing continued without noticing, not looking like he recognized him one bit. "Could you help me bring him back to the Hufflepuff common room instead?"

Yifan did not reply, still too surprised to talk. But Yixing frowned hesitantly at him:

"Hello?"

"Um, hi." Yifan said, "it's just...long time no see."

Yixing's uncertainty deepened.

"Did we meet before?"

Well, that was embarrassing.

He was about to reply something considerate for manners' sake, when suddenly, a Gryffindor girl appeared out of nowhere, looking both furious and heartbroken as she ran up to their level.

"Zhang Yixing!" she shrieked in tears.

Yixing turned around in mild surprise and opened his mouth, but the girl shut him up with a violent slap across the face. Yifan timidly retreated against the wall, as the distressed Gryffindor poured out her frustration in a flow of blasphemies and tears:

"Where the Hell were you?" she tempered. "I've been waiting like a fucking idiot on the bench outside the Great Hall for hours, thinking you were going to come and pick me up like we agreed, only to find you here, like nothing happened, doing your own thing like you've completely forgotten about...Merlin, is this what you call being a ball partner?!"

Yixing stared at her with round, somewhat petrified eyes.

"I'm... your partner?" he blurted out in confusion.

She gaped at him then, anger so violent her veins looked about to pop, then clenched her fists and turned her back on him with a snarl.

"You are the absolute worst," she yelled. "I hope you never find yourself a girlfriend, ever!"

"Hold on..." Yixing blinked drowsily, "A-Abby? I'm-"

"It's Ally, you dumbass!"

"Yes, Ally, I'm..."

But at the same moment, the boy named Bobby started to retch once more, and Yixing's attention reverted back to him, his hand automatically going to the boy's back, comfortingly massaging it. With his other hand, he held his own swollen cheek which had just been smacked, the skin there slowly starting to turn red. Yifan stared at him, genuinely appalled, and grimaced uncertainly:

"Did you actually forget that she was your partner?" he questioned, still taken aback by the whole incident.

"I genuinely can't remember," Yixing answered despondently, looking up worriedly in the direction that Ally had taken. The girl had already gone. "God, I hope I didn't hurt her too much."

"She's the one who slapped the stars out of you from what I saw."

"Oh, I deserved it," the Hufflepuff sighed and placed his friend's arm over his shoulder, pulling the scrawny boy up. "Come on, Bobby. Let's get back to the dorm."

"Wait, let me help."

He took a step forward, then momentarily stopped in his tracks because of the squelchy vomit on his robes and groaned in disgust as he pulled his wand out. Murmuring a curt little Scourgify onto his clothes, and then the floor, he finally lifted the sickly Hufflepuff's other arm and threw it over his own shoulders, thus spreading the boy's weight between Yixing and him.

"Alright, let's go." he said at last.

Yixing smiled at him. Then eventually, they quietly left towards the Hospital Wing, holding the sick Hufflepuff up on their shoulders without looking at each other.



A few minutes later, Chanyeol passed by the same spot on his own, with his bladder about to explode and his consciousness flown out of the window.

A few shots of chocolate liqueur and a few cocktails made from red currant rum were all that had been needed to terminate all functions remotely connected to his brainpower. Now he was only two nerves away from crawling on all fours through the corridors, looking for the toilets on the first floor with the urgency – and ineptitude – of a dying man. Good thing Jongdae was busy. Even in his current situation, his brain was self-conscious enough to know that he looked absolutely pitiful in this state. Using the weight of his body to push the bathroom door open, he stumbled inside, doing his best to control himself as he zigzagged towards the nearest cabin and shut himself inside with a muffled groan.

The next five minutes of his life dragged on for an eternity. But after the agonizing migraine and the painful aiming which seemed to last forever, he finally managed to pull his zipper up and stagger out of the stall, only to find a moving black mass hovering over the taps, bent over like a Dementor kissing the soul out of a condemned Azkaban prisoner. Chanyeol squinted. Well. On second inspection, the moving black mass proved itself to be Byun Baekhyun washing his hands at the sink.

Upon noticing him, the Slytherin stared at him with a mix of incredulous contempt and utter consternation.

"Bloody hell," he blinked, "you're as lit as a Christmas tree."

Chanyeol lifted a finger, feeling revoltingly insulted.

"You're the Christmas tree," he retorted in a blur, taking a step towards the taps, and having to take another two backwards to regain his balance.

Baekhyun snorted at him.

"What on Earth did you drink?"

"Chocolate," Chanyeol slurred, shrugging contemptuously, "jus' hot chocolate. With a lil' bit alcohol, maybe – I dunno...brunet jus' gav' me."

"What?" the Slytherin prefect frowned.

"Just chocolate I drank...! Don' you ever listen?"

"You're as pissed as a newt!"

"Brunet." Chanyeol said with finality, index finger up to make a point.

He wondered if it was just the alcohol-imbibed vision's effect, but Baekhyun looked a lot more sensible than usual when he was drunk. The prefect was now shaking his head and scoffing out loud, drying his hands on a towel before giving him another mocking look.

"Alright," he laughed derisively. "No idea what the hell you're on about, but I'll leave you to it anyways. I've still got stuff to do."

"Brunet you rejected," Chanyeol retorted dryly, vitreous eyes not quite focused, but doing their best to concentrate on Baekhyun's stunned face. "Made friends with him. Very nice guy."

The other boy looked genuinely gobsmacked for once.

"How the hell did you know about that?"

"About Slytherin brunet...?" the Gryffindor smiled glassily. Then, he shrugged, offering a mocking pout that made Baekhyun glower.

"Chanyeol, seriously."

"I'm jus' telling you what I think 'bout the whole affair... And you know what I think? I think it's a good thing you rejected him."

"You...What?"

"You guys don' suit each other, t' be honest," he continued, leaning against the cubicle wall to stay on his two feet. "He's a lil' bit too nice to be nice, y'know? A bit dodgy, if you ask me... Wouldn't trust him."

"Bloody Hell," Baekhyun covered his face. "If you only heard yourself talk...you're really smashed."

"I'm fine. I'm very, very fine."

"Look, if you've been saying really odd stuff to Markus just now..."

"Oh, first name basis." Chanyeol nodded. "That's really great...yeah, that's...good."

Baekgyun gaped at him in utter dismay.

"You need to go to the infirmary." he sighed. "I'll take you."

"Nah, you won't."

Baekhyun pulled out his wand, not even smiling.

"Chanyeol, I'm serious."

"Nahhh, you're not."

"I can't believe I'm saying this either, but I am." the other student said. "You say one more word, I'm sending you off to Pomfrey's."

Chanyeol wanted to laugh. And maybe he did, because Baekhyun looked so concerned for him, for once, that he almost realized that there was something wrong with him, indeed. Yet, as far as he was aware, he also felt like they were having the time of their lives, which, on second thought, was a very interesting prospect in itself. Having the time of his life with Baekhyun. Chanyeol wondered what it must feel like, to have fun with Baekhyun, and laugh with each other instead of at each other all the time... Oh, well, chocolate liqueur really made your brain think the strangest things.

Suddenly, Baekhyun pointed his wand at him decisively, and Chanyeol pulled out his own wand before the Slytherin could open his mouth.

"You don't wanna do that," he said, dangerously calm.

Baekhyun pursed his lips carefully and raised his hand. But Chanyeol was much faster:

"Confundo!" he immediately shouted.

And though his numbed tongue might have deformed the spell just a tiny bit, it still seemed to hit Baekhyun just fine because the elder boy shuddered at first, then staggered... However, instead of being confused as he normally should, a purple light wrapped itself around the prefect's body and dispersed into the air immediately afterwards, leaving the boy stunned for a second, wide-eyed, before falling limply onto the floor like a lifeless puppet.

Chanyeol lowered his wand groggily and leaned back against the toilet stall while blinking blearily.

"Uhhhh."

The other boy wasn't moving anymore.

"Baek?" he slurred, then rubbed his eyes, trying to digest the information in his hazy brain. Baekhyun lied still on the floor, his eyes half-open, mouth agape like a dead mouse. Chanyeol held his spinning head, slowly putting two and two together.

Baekhyun was not moving.

Baekhyun. Was on the floor. Not moving.

...Shit.

"Oh shit! I fucked up-" he let out, and crisscrossed his way to the elder boy's side, falling straight on his butt instead, both palms gliding against the dirty bathroom floor. This was bad. Really bad. Too panicked to be revolted by the filth, he slid against the tiles towards Baekhyun's head, leaned over him and tapped the boy's cheeks a few time.

"Yo, Byun Baek..." he stammered dizzily. "Can you hear me?"

"Hnmmg..." came the muffled reply.

"Wake up," Chanyeol mumbled, grabbing the boy's cheeks and shaking him. "Wake up please."

"Where 'm I?" Baekhyun suddenly murmured.

Chanyeol let out a sigh of relief, and tried to stand up, wobbling a little a first, before bending over and pulling Baekhyun by the arm.

"Come on," he said, "stand up."

"Nooooo...Kyungsoo... give me five more minutes..."

He eventually picked the elder boy up and almost fell back down onto his butt. Then, they took one step forward, and Chanyeol saw the room spin ninety degrees sideways, only to realise that both Baekhyun and him had crashed back onto the grimy floor, the elder boy's body sprawled over his with his hair all over his face.

"Fuck. We need t' go to the infirmary." Chanyeol tried to articulate through the start of a sharp headache.

Baekhyun let out a hollow laugh and produced a sort of baby gargle.

"No one needs to go there, you dimwit," the Slytherin cooed.

"Something's seriously wrong wit' you, though..."

"Really? What?"

"I don't know."

Baekhyun abruptly started to giggle like a pigeon. Chanyeol stared at him. The Slytherin stared back. They both began to hoot like idiots, their laughs resonating cavernously in the empty bathroom.

"Did I make you drunk?" Chanyeol said stupidly.

"I don't know, did you? What did you do to me?"

"I don't know..." the Gryffindor scrambled to his feet at the speed of a sloth. "Maybe Pomfrey can help us."

"I want to go to bed."

"Me too."

"Let's go together."

Chanyeol forced himself to stand up, using the sink as a lever to pull himself to his feet, and staring down at Baekhyun's blissful smile once he was finally holding himself up vertically instead of horizontally. The Slytherin only grinned at him, still on the floor, his suit completely wrinkled and spoiled.

"Get up, you tit."

"Noooo..."

Chanyeol squatted down with a grunt, grabbing the other boy's hands and violently tugging him upwards as he jumped. The Slytherin fell into his arms with a huge 'Oompf' and they both staggered backwards into the wall, knocking brand new stars into Chanyeol's brain, as Baekhyun laughed madly into his chest.

"Do that again," he cried between two giggles.

But Chanyeol grumbled and threw the other boy's arm over his neck, putting his hand on the Slytherin's waist as they both stumbled out of the grubby bathroom. Now, a brand new obstacle arose to challenge the very last lucid brain cells he possessed, pushing his chocolate-scented intellect to its furthest limit. Where the hell was the infirmary?

"Okay." Chanyeol mumbled with narrowed eyes. "Where are we?

"I don't know, where's Leila?" Baekhyun whispered back with a lidded gaze.

"Who's Leila...?"

"I don't know..." Baekhyun moaned as they both tripped, collapsing against the wall. "I have no fucking idea."

"But I don't either..." Chanyeol slurred with a laugh, moving both of them forward. "I guess it's not important, then."

"Really...? Cool. I can live with that."

"Let's go to the infirmary – my God, why are you so heavy?"

"I'm not heavy. You're just weak."

But as he talked, the Slytherin continued to put his entire weight onto the other boy's side, dragging both of them towards the wall once again. Chanyeol felt his cheek connect with the chilling cold stone, and had to push himself away with a groan. This was really not going to be easy.

"You're such an ass."

He grabbed the elder boys' waist as he walked forward and held him tighter for support. Baekhyun burst into breathless laughter.

"Stop that, I'm ticklish..."

"That's stupid, I'm not even tickling you..." Chanyeol frowned.

"Yeah, well." Baekhyun snorted. "I think it tickles, okay?"

"That's pretty dumb...Maybe we can ask Pomfrey t' fix that too."

"Ohhh right," the elder boy grinned, throwing both arms around his neck. "You're so smart. You're a smart one, aren't you, Chanyeol – you're so very, very smart..."

"No, I'm not. You're just really stupid." Chanyeol muffled sleepily before suddenly glancing up. "Oh, look."

"What?"

Chanyeol stopped them, turning to look back at their steps, before offering Baekhyun a bleary-eyed grin as he said:

"We moved two metres!"

⚜

---

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

[Zitao]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center][size=9pt]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER EIGHT: OH, WHAT A NIGHT! ❞
[PART ONE] [PART TWO]

---

⚜

"There's a seat over there, come on! Come on! Come on!"

Tao tugged Sehun's arm towards him as he lead him straight to the single stool by the giant chocolate cake, crashing onto it and almost falling over in the process. The younger boy glanced at the single taken space, and pouted with his parrot on his head.

"That's not fair, where do I sit?"

Tao pulled him downwards and made him sit on his legs.

"Are you having fun?" the elder boy asked after a minute of peaceful grinning.

"Yeah," Sehun smiled drowsily. "But I'm really tired now. I just want to go home."

"Me too." Tao yawned, trying to put his head on Sehun's shoulder, only to fail and bury his face in the boy's back instead. "Dancing's tiring. I don't think I've ever been this crazy before..."

"Except when you drank that Befuddlement Draught by accident, last week."

"What did I do?" Tao moaned with a worried frown. "Do I want to know?"

"You ran around screaming you could do anything in the world for something like an hour straight; then, you started to strip in the middle of the courtyard outside, near the viaduct, until we caught up with you. You proposed to Millie Hannigan."

"Oh no!"

"You also gave Hagrid a bear hug when he tried to stop you... And you kissed McGonagall on the cheek."

"Oh my God," Tao covered his face in embarrassment. "That's terrible. Sehun, I want to bury myself in a hole for the rest of my life."

"Why?" Sehun chuckled softly as he looked back at him. "You were really cute."

"Really?"

"Uhuh. You gave all of us hugs when we brought you to the Hospital Wing, too."

"That's because I like you guys a lot," Tao said, smiling drowsily. "I hope we can all just be very happy forever."

Sehun blinked at him silently, then turned around and looked at the people dancing around them. A lot of the students had gone back to their rooms already, especially the younger ones, who were subject to their curfew. He sat back against Tao and joined his hands together.

"We're going back for Christmas tomorrow."

"I know," Tao mumbled groggily. "I can't believe Jongin's staying alone at Hogwarts this year. Won't he be lonely?"

"I'm going to be lonely." Sehun responded in a quiet murmur.

Tao looked up at him.

"Then why don't you come to mine?"

The younger Gryffindor immediately twisted his neck to stare back at him.

"Can I?"

"Of course. I don't have any siblings...so if you come, I'd be super happy." the other boy smiled widely. "I'll ask my parents tomorrow and you ask yours."

"I'd like that," Sehun said softly, "I'd really like that. Thanks."

"You're welcome." Tao smiled again, big feline eyes beaming up at him. "I'm really glad you're coming over."

And as he talked, he slid his arms around Sehun's waist, giving the boy a tight, affectionate hug. With a small smile, the younger boy leaned into him and closed his eyes in newfound peace.

"I'm really glad too," he breathed in a whisper.



By the chocolate fountains, Minseok was catching his breath, a broken garland in one hand and a glass of cherry syrup in the other. Luhan laughed hoarsely, dragging the elder boy along towards the corner of the room in spite of the other prefect's protests. They stopped beside the grand window, in a quiet corner hidden from people's view by a large pillar.

"Stop," Minseok begged, voice rasping, "I'm too old for this...Please, I need a break for my failing heart..."

"Stop pretending. You're the same age as me." Luhan smiled fondly as he took hold of the Ravenclaw's hands.

Above their heads, there was a cut off branch of bobbing mistletoe. Luhan glanced up at it first, then he looked at Minseok, who caught sight of it, and immediately diverted his gaze.

The Gryffindor cleared his throat.

"So..."

"So?" Minseok side-eyed him, but the corner of his mouth was twitching a bit with the start of a smile. Luhan felt his heart flutter. This was the pair of eyes he had been enthralled and enraptured by; the mouth he had seen smile and dreamed to kiss for countless nights in the past. His breath was failing him slowly, leaving him light-headed and dizzy. This was the boy he had fallen in love with... How could he be so perfect?

"Luhan?" Minseok smiled.

The Gryffindor quietly nodded, letting his finger trace the outline of Minseok's lips, very briefly, before leaning in and placing a languid kiss on those enchanting ridges, taking them with their pink sweetness and enchanting splendour. Minseok's mouth was pliable, soft, honeyed – as heavenly as he had imagined and so much more – he slid his hand behind the elder boy's back and drew him closer while the other boy's fingers came fluttering gently against his cheeks. For a moment, the world stopped for them. The music muffled in Luhan's ears and his heart was all he could hear, Minseok's lips were all that he could focus on. When they separated at last and Minseok's eyes looked at him with expectation, bringing him back to Earth with their mesmerizing beauty, he could not utter a single word, and simply melted into a lovesick smile instead.

The Ravenclaw's face was slightly flushed too under the enchanted lights and Luhan sheepishly passed a hand through his hair as he looked out of the window. Meanwhile, a new song had begun on the dance floor, the tune both cheerful and beguiling, causing both of them to glance at the band, who had started to play again:

"Oh, what a night,

Late December back in '63,

What a very special time for me,

As I remember, what a night..."

"Shall we go?" Luhan smiled, eyes sparkling under the floating candles.

Minseok offered his hand with a grin, and they both skipped back into the crowd, blending in within a second and joining the mob in their festive dancing.

In the middle of a horde of students, Joonmyun was struggling to stay on his two feet. Two hands on his shoulder were asking for his attention now, dragging him back to Yasmine and Jongdae's grinning faces next to each other as both of them pulled him closer to them and stared at him excitedly. They were already dancing to their heart's content, offering him a hand to hold onto. As he grabbed onto them, Jongdae winked at him and he felt his heart skip a beat.

"Let it all out, Joonmyun," Yasmine cheered, not bothered one bit, and he felt his cheeks heat up even more.

For a while the three of them continued this strange and mystifying ménage-à-trois, until a group of fourth years suddenly arrived from the side in an Indian line, singing loudly and shaking their hips to the pace of the song.

"Sehun!" Jongdae called out with a grin, and the third person in line turned around, a boy with rainbow hair and a parrot on his shoulder. He tapped the arm of the girl in front of him and directed her to turn towards them. The Indian line soon joined them, and Yasmine put her hands on the back of the last girl in the queue, Jongdae following her and pushing Joonmyun to go in front of him.

"Oh, what a night!" Tao, the first boy in line, blared loudly, and Joonmyun flushed when Jongdae's hands came down on his shoulders, the fifth year's breath close to his neck as he began to sing too. The world was quite wild, today, he thought to himself quietly. But the seven of them started their procession through the Great Hall all the same, with their disorganized line and their loud chanting; and as they moved along, students came to join them naturally as if it was a normal thing to do...




On the first floor, Chanyeol and Baekhyun were still struggling towards the Hospital Wing, the elder of the two burying his face into Chanyeol's neck with a crazy chuckle:

"You know," he said faintly, and it sounded almost gentle, "I've always kind of liked you, Chanyeol – as in, I've always liked to tease you, ever since the first semester we got into Hogwarts. Do you remember the first semester we got into Hogwarts?"

"Man," Chanyeol grunted but chortled all the same. "You were such a dick."

"I placed a farting parchment in your History of Magic book 'cause we were desk mates," Baekhyun wheezed weakly in his laughter. "And it farted so loud Binns sent you to the Hospital Wing thinking you were sick."

"I got called FartPark for a month after that because of your stupid face, do you know that?"

"What else did you want?" the Slytherin mumbled as the two of them stumbled in mid-step and used the wall for support. "You were chubby and shy and awkward, and I was sitting next to you all the time thinking you needed to loosen up." he sniffled, "Well, I did loosen you up, didn't I? From the intestines outwards."

"You fucking pissed me off, that's what you did." The Gryffindor snorted, hopping slightly to adjust Baekhyun's weight on his shoulder.

The Slytherin hiccupped like a child, and let his head roll lightly: "If you had a better sense of humour maybe we could've been friends," he yawned.

Chanyeol smiled softly, because Baekhyun was still hiccuping, and he was still heavy, but his hair was a mess, they were alone, and maybe, like this, Baekhyun was kind of cute.

"Well. You know, it was a pretty good one, actually, now that I think about it."

"Right?" Baekhyun smiled. "Told you so, FartPark."

"I'm going to drop you."

"Pfft, go ahead... Don't need your tall ass to support me. You're the drunk one, here, not me-"

"Do you really want to-"

"Oi, you over there."

They froze, blinking in their hazed confusion as two figures firmly made their way towards them from across the corridor, one very tall and imposing, the other much smaller. A grimace came to Chanyeol's face as he finally recognized the tall one to be Yifan; a very confounded Yifan, who was frowning at them with obvious concern on his features and his tie over his shoulder.

"What are you two doing here?"

"What does it look like?" Baekhyun snapped curtly, as if it was the most stupid question of the century.

The other of the two, a gentle-looking Hufflepuff, furrowed his eyebrows at him lethargically.

"Are you alright?"

"Of course, we're over the moon," Baekhyun smiled dizzily, letting go of Chanyeol's shoulder to prove his point. "Look at me. See? I'm standing! Totally fine, I tell you..."

"You guys look weird," Yifan said with a cocked eyebrow. "What have you two been doing? Have you been around the alcoholic beverages?"

"I think we better go." Chanyeol muttered quietly in Baekhyun's neck.

"Are you two drunk?"

Baekhyun's eyebrows jumped.

"What?"

"I said, are you two-"

"Go. Run!"

Baekhyun took flight the second after, and Chanyeol followed suit without delay, the two of them zooming past Yifan in the blink of an eye, leaving him and the Hufflepuff in shock:

"Oi," Yifan opened astonished eyes, but the two fifth years were already fleeing like thieves and disappearing around the corner: "Oi, both of you! Come back immediately!"



They ran until they were completely out of breath, and at last, Chanyeol collapsed against a statue covered in snow, holding his stomach with one hand as the Slytherin hurtled into his back before falling to his knees, rasping for breaths, his face a pallet of ecstasy and pain.

"Shit," he panted, his voice treading on a thin line as he tried to laugh, "that was...that was so funny; I think my lungs are about to explode..."

Chanyeol did not reply, still feeling like the apocalypse was going down in his stomach as he leaned against the statue and restrained himself from vomiting his dinner against the wall.

"Hey," Baekhyun clasped a hand over his knee to stand back up, still smiling with elation, "you alright?"

Alcohol and running was definitely not a good mix. Chanyeol straightened up slightly and turned onto his back.

"I don't think I'm feeling very well," he finally said.

"Oh, no, let me fix that." Baekhyun replied.

And before he could quite piece the picture together, the Slytherin had already closed in, grabbed his cheeks, and pulled him down for a tiny little smooch on the lips. One that was much too little and much too tiny for his liking, now that Chanyeol thought about it.

He leaned back in before Baekhyun's mouth could move too far away, and drew him in for another one, breath catching when small lips met his in a warm, soft kiss.

Before long, Baekhyun's arms were around his neck, the boy on tip-toe pushing against his mouth, and Chanyeol felt the apocalypse miraculously being revoked, the nausea inexplicably flying into oblivion as the feeling of Baekhyun's mouth against his blew him away. He felt it pulsating through his blood as if he had been lifted off the ground and was floating somewhere between the sea of chocolate liqueur and red currant rum, the stars in the navy sky, and the spark in Baekhyun's lidded eyes. There was nothing else. Just Baekhyun, so small and pliable that he fitted perfectly in Chanyeol's arms...Just Baekhyun, looking stupidly cute in his ruined, expensive suit, and tasting sweeter than the liqueur he had this evening. Maybe the alcohol had to do with it... but this kiss was like the call of thunder, the sound of his guitar on rainy days, and the last day of summer all rolled into one.

"Boy, I'm going to regret this," he mumbled groggily as they separated to catch their breath, and the Slytherin in his arms emitted a needy little moan.

But soon, Baekhyun's mouth was all over his again, consuming him; and as he rested limply against the old, worn-out statue, he locked his hands behind the elder boy's waist and pulled his body close, grabbing him tightly while their kiss deepened, holding him in his arms and feeling much too weak to let go.

---

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

[Jongdae]

[size=9pt][font=georgia]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER NINE: THE TRUTH COMES FROM HOUSE ELVES. ❞

---

"Wait," Chanyeol protested in a pouty moan, "don't go yet..."

In his arms, Baekhyun's small frame struggled, prying his fingers away and causing Chanyeol to let out another groan as he crawled to hug the elder boy tighter.

"Just give me another kiss..."

"Mate," the voice smashed through his dreams like a Bombarda to the head, "if you don't get up we're going to miss the train."

Chanyeol's eyes shot wide open, blinking furiously as he knocked himself straight back to the Gryffindor dormitories, and found himself lying sideways on his own bed with both arms tightly wrapped around Jongdae's waist. The elder boy was looking down at him with an unfazed expression now, an ugly woollen hat stuck over his head. Chanyeol yelled and jumped back in horror.

"ARRRGH!"

The next second, an all-splintering headache crashed down on him and he had to cover his face with the corner of his pillow.

"'Arrrgh'?" Jongdae suddenly declared, indifferent to his agony. "As if I wasn't the hottest thing alive you could get your dirty paws on, you little piece of shit."

"Mate..." the other boy groaned, rubbing his eyes, "what the hell happened today?"

"You mean, yesterday, perhaps? It's already Saturday, you lazy newt."

"Saturday...?" Chanyeol painfully forced his eyelids open.

The entire dormitory looked blindingly white in all that sunlight. Had he gone to heaven?

"Wait, but...what about the ball?"

"Uuhhhhhhh, I don't know how to break it to you, but that was yesterday." Jongdae laughed, shaking his head. "You seriously need to wake up, man, we're going back home in less than an hour."

"Yes...yester – blimey, yesterday-" he rubbed his temples. "Jongdae, what's happening to me, I feel like my brain's dying."

"That's called a hangover." the other boy said as he handed him a small pink bottle. "And this, here, is a hangover potion from Pomfrey to prevent you from crashing again. Congratulations on the wild boozing by the way, you were pretty much a pile of goo when we tucked you in bed yesterday evening."

"What do you mean, a pile of goo?"

"I mean you were a giant larvae when Jongin and I found you after the ball ended. That, and you beat your own record of ugly-faces-that-no-one-would-want-to-kiss on the way back, so I took some pictures. I hope you don't mind."

Chanyeol bent over into foetal position and laughed hollowly, while side-eyeing him from his spot on the mattress:

"That's bollocks... how could I have passed out? I barely did anything during that crappy party anyw-"

But then he froze, reminiscing with horror about the mix of dreams and drunken reality that gradually resurfaced in front of his eyes for a semi-second, drenching him in cold sweat from head to toe; a terrible realisation condensed into one terrifying word.

Baekhyun.

He had kissed Baekhyun.

"Mate, I had to drag you back to the dormitory with Jongin's help and that still took us something like an-"

"Sweet Merlin!" he howled.

"What?" Jongdae cocked an eyebrow, "it's not like we could leave you there, you were barely standing on your two feet."

"No. No, no, no, no, no, no!"

Chanyeol buried his face in his pillow while yowling like a dying whale and hitting his head repeatedly against the headrest, his world exploding into a million panicked pieces. Jongdae stared hard at him.

"Are you alright?"

"Jongdae," Chanyeol grabbed the front of his shirt, utterly distraught, "kill me, end my life right now, oh my God, what on earth have I done?!"

"You just got drunk, man; hey, it's not a crime... I mean, sure, I was with Yasmine most of the night, and when I found you after the ball, you were already passed out alone next to the Hospital Wing," he paused, "smelled like chocolate liqueur from two feet away and looked like you'd been rolling around in the men's bathroom for fun or something..." he shrugged, seeming pensive. "Yeah, that was pretty gross now that I think about it. But apart from that, you were totally fine. As inoffensive as a comatose puppy."

Chanyeol blinked many times.

"Wait, hold on a second, what?"

"What, what?"

"I was, uh...I was alone?"

"Sure you were. Why?"

So Jongdae did not know anything about him and Baekhyun. Good. Very good. He soon found his breath again.

"I...I see."

"Though, of course," the other boy narrowed his eyes, and smirked evilly, "if you have any stories to tell..."

"I need to get ready, don't I?" the Gryffindor scrambled out of his sheets, almost falling off the bed, "the train's leaving in an hour."

Jongdae sniffled with a nod: "You might want to get changed first, you're still in your party gown."

Chanyeol looked down at his wrinkly, wrecked suit and let out a moan. There went the demise of twenty galleons and an additional seven sickles for re-rimming. He looked like processed dragon manure.

"My mum would kill me if she saw this," he sighed.

"Good thing you're coming to mine then, eh?"

"Believe me, that's not going to save me from her on the long run. She'll have my ass." Chanyeol glanced at him.

"Don't think like that." Jongdae chuckled. "Everything will be fine, you'll see. My mum makes the best jam soufflés with triple doses of chocolate, so that's going to cheer you up even if you still feel like crap after the train ride to London, promise."

Chanyeol sighed and quickly slipped into a clean white shirt. Feeling like crap was definitely the appropriate expression for him, right now. He crumpled the old wrinkled chemise into a ball and tossed it into a basket near his wardrobe. Its collar had suffered a particularly heavy blow, victim of – he believed – Baekhyun's groping hands when they started to deepen their kiss the night before... That bloody kiss. On a scale of one to ten for stupidity, that kiss with Baekhyun was definitely an eleven. Now, it was true that the Park family had never been praised for their intelligence, nor had they ever been known as a bunch who liked to put thoughts before actions...but Baekhyun? There was no planet in the whole wide galaxy in which it would have ever been okay to snog Byun Baekhyun. And yet... He swallowed hard, feeling something stir in his groin as he remembered the sound of Baekhyun's soft moan against his mouth, the elder boy's face flushed as he leaned in, the tip of a pink tongue darting out between needy lips. Oh God. Oh, God. He had always thought, with certain conviction, that he hated Baekhyun's guts. Well, if so, thinking about Baekhyun moaning into his mouth shouldn't be making him feel this hot while he was hungover.

He had always thought that he was straight, too. Memories of Baekhyun's kiss came coiling back through his throbbing head, velvety and warm and altogether delectable, making him blush...

Alright. If he was straight, thinking about Baekhyun's lips on his shouldn't be making him feel this frustrated either.

Best thing to do now was to pretend it never happened. Would it be alright if he pretended that this never happened?

"Hey, don't bother with your trunk. Sehun and Tao already helped you to transport it to the common room."

"What about Bartoc?" Chanyeol sulked.

"Loaded him with Robespierre," the elder boy whistled carelessly, "just get your sorry ass downstairs and you'll be fine."

The door to the dormitory unbolted, revealing Tao's perky little head through the opening.

"Are you guys coming?"

"Getting there." he muttered quickly, throwing his robe over his head.

"Hurry up, we'll miss the last coach to the train station!"

"Yes, yes, I'm coming..."

Still embarrassed, he rapidly grabbed his glasses and put them on, hoping to hide his shame behind the two pieces of glass, short of anything else. If he was already feeling this dazed, like a shaken leaf, he wondered what Baekhyun would think of the whole incident. The Slytherin would probably never even want to look at him again after this; he was probably going to resent him forever... Chanyeol found himself feeling surprisingly sad at the thought.

Blimey, Chanyeol slowly grimaced to himself, feeling his chest torture him from inside as he followed Jongdae out of the dorm and closed the door behind him; really, what did Baekhyun think of this?

⚜

"I'm home," Baekhyun tolled brightly as he entered the dark entrance hall filled by portraits.

On the wall above the shoe cabinet, the canvas of his great-grandfather grumbled bitterly at him, resentful for being waken up so brutally from his painted slumber. Baekhyun excused himself with a sheepish grin and entered deeper into the hallway of the ever so deserted Byun manor, throwing his bag over his shoulder.

"Hello," he chanted, pulling his trunk along, "is anyone home?"

No one answered. At that moment, a loud crack and a violent spark resounded, and a scrawny house elf with gigantic ears apparated into the hallway with him, saluting him with a little curtsy.

"Welcome home, Mr Baekhyun," she croaked, "hope you had a nice journey back."

"Hi Kiki," he replied, then nodded at her with a casual smile. "Glad to see you too. Are my parents here?"

"Not at the moment, Mr Baekhyun. Master and his wife are out of the country until after Christmas."

"Again?"

The house elf simply nodded, solemnly gesturing towards the dining room.

"The dinner is ready for you, Mr Baekhyun."

"Cheers, Kiki, I'm starving," he sighed, dropping his bag on the floor and heading straight for the dining table. "Ah, if I only told you about everything that happened at school, you wouldn't believe me...Ugh, so arduous! So mentally exhausting...!"

"Kiki doesn't want to imagine."

"Do you know when my brother is coming back, by the way?"

"Mr Baekbom is busy with work, it seems. Kiki isn't sure when he'll be back."

"Oh well, it's just you and me, then." Baekhyun smiled, sitting down at the table and placing his napkin over his legs, "like old times. Isn't that nice?"

The house elf simply made a rictus, closest equivalent for a smile that her old elfish face could manage.

"Kiki made you omelette rice."

"Hey, that's my favourite. You know me well."

"Did Mr Baekhyun have a nice term at school?"

"An interesting one, I think. Now, let me see." Baekhyun looked up pensively while chewing on a mouthful. "What's there to tell that wouldn't bore you...? Oh, right. Guess what, you know my best friend, Kyungsoo, yes?"

"Tiny boy with gigantic eyes, Mr Do?"

"Yeah, him. He found himself what you'd call, um, an intimate friend this semester."

Kiki turned globular green eyes at him and stared bewilderedly.

"Young wizards nowadays are doing it at a very early age, Mr Baekhyun, aren't they?"

"Doing i–? Ha ha ha!" Baekhyun laughed, holding his sides, "holy crap, I didn't mean that intimate, Merlin, it's blasted Do Kyungsoo we're talking about. He's a prude!"

"Well, people Mr Baekhyun thinks he knows best might actually surprise him the most, so Kiki wouldn't take chances..."

"Oh, you're hilarious," the wizard chuckled with teary eyes, leaning on his elbow and still shaking with mirth. "Well, now that you mention it, I should ask Kyungsoo where they're at, in their relationship... It's a pretty good question. I've been kind of left out on the details these days, and I don't like being left out. Nor do I like not knowing details..."

"What about Mr Baekhyun? Has Mr Baekhyun found an intimate friend too?"

Baekhyun felt his heart beat weirdly in his chest. Just for a micro-second, nothing more.

"Me?" he quickly said, "Oh well...Not really."

Kiki tilted her chin, eyes upwards:

"But?"

"What makes you think there's a 'but'? There isn't any 'but'."

"Kiki used to work in a magical nursery in Northern Ireland and there was a young elf there who was always into some secret love affairs with the other house elves. When she said 'not really' at the master's interrogations, there was always a 'but'."

"Compelling argument," Baekhyun conceded, "Okay, there's a guy–"

He paused, and wondered how to start from there. It wasn't easy to start a sentence with the phrase 'there is a guy...', especially when his own head had been turned into a mess because of precisely the said guy. He cleared his throat, started again.

"There is this guy...he's not a friend, just saying – with whom I did a few stupid things yesterday, I woke up in the Hospital Wing, Pomfrey said he was the one who brought me there, but I don't know if that's true; I don't remember everything very clearly..."

Kiki cocked an eyebrow at him and he shook his head:

"Anyways, he's a blunt guy. Not very smart – I mean, you can't expect much from Gryffindors anyways – and in general he's very easy to torment for laughs. I swear before yesterday we used to just drive each other up the wall back and forth. Until things started to get a little weird..." he trailed off at this, physically incapable of saying more. But Kiki only frowned:

"How weird?"

"Oh, I don't know. Heck, Kiki, you can't expect me to tell you everything with the details and pictures and all, can you?"

"Well, Mr Baekhyun is the one asking for advice, so he should be the one doing what is necessary for advice to be given."

"Let's just say we did something inappropriate that would have left Great-Aunt Bom completely flabbergasted if she was still alive." Baekhyun stammered very hastily, then took a deep breath and braced himself: "Would you call this intimate enough, Kiki?"

"Um."

"I need your house elf wisdom, Kiki. Answer smartly."

"Well, Kiki would say that it all boils down to one question." she lifted her head. "Does Mr Baekhyun love the pissed off Gryffindor boy?"

Baekhyun sat back, honestly taken aback and a little disturbed.

"Uhhh, I don't know how that works for you in house elves society exactly, Kiki, but in wizard world love's usually a pretty strong word. You can't use it in this context."

"Kiki thinks it's very appropriate, on the contrary. Love can manifest itself in many forms."

"Not when you've spent all the time that you have known someone trying to piss them off and make their life a misery. Especially not when you call that very person your nemesis."

"Well, granted that such a situation would be rarer, but it is not completely impossible, Mr Baekhyun." Kiki advised, unhurried and calm, "Sometimes, nemesis is just another word to hide that you are secretly pulled towards the other person, no matter how much you try not to be."

"Damn, Kiki, you're giving love a whole new meaning."

But the house elf ignored the sarcasm and shook her enormous head.

"I think Mr Baekhyun should probably tell the Gryffindor stupid boy what he thinks inside and have a serious conversation with him about what they did."

"Spare me; anything but that!" Baekhyun grunted histrionically, rolling his eyes, "I don't do 'serious', you know it's not my thing."

"But if you don't have a serious conversation-"

"Waaaay too much of a hassle."

"Then Mr Baekhyun will never be with his intimate friend like Mr Do is with his."

Baekhyun eyed her crabbily.

"Can't I just continue pranking him and pretend nothing ever happened?"

Kiki gave him a disapproving look as she snapped her bony fingers, levitating the jug of juice to pour him a glass.

"The real question," she said, "is whether Mr Baekhyun would like to be able to do the same things with his pissed off Gryffindor boy as Mr Do does with his intimate friend."

"Erm. That asks for too much imagination, I'm sorry; you can't require me to envision that."

"Kiki used to know a house elf named Barney back in camp in Poland. He used to limp very badly when he walked, so was always unhappy with his legs, until one day, he stepped on a muggle land mine by accident."

Baekhyun grimaced, drawing back.

"Moral of the story?"

"Always make the most of what you have while you still can."

"Um, thanks, I'll consider it, Kiki." Baekhyun sighed, putting his cutlery down, having lost most of his appetite as soon as he had started talking. "Thanks for the meal, by the way."

"It's Kiki's pleasure." the house elf said and snapped her fingers again, lifting all the plates from the table at once. "Desserts?"

"Nah, I'll be fine," the boy grinned, "I'm off to write...uh, a few letters."

"As you wish, Mr Baekhyun."

"By the way," the wizard stopped, lifting an index finger and placing it in front of his lips, "not a word about pissed off Gryffindor boy to my mother or my father, alright? They don't like Gryffindors very much."

"Nor do they like their son having a masculine intimate friend, Mr Baekhyun."

"Err, yeah, I haven't started to think about that yet." Baekhyun frowned, clearing his throat. "I'll do that later. Anyhow, until then, not a word about pissed off Gryffindor boy, alright?"

"Of course."

"Do I have your word, Kiki?"

The house elf made another rictus, softer this time, and bowed deeply to the floor.

"You always have Kiki's word, Mr Baekhyun."

⚜

⚜

⚜

Kyungsoo looked around him, nervously trailing his eyes over the dark red curtains of the beds and the crimson duvets lying on the mattresses around him. He then looked down at the bed right underneath him with a worried frown, studying the red silky pillow under his arms. An anxious sigh escaped him; then, almost instantaneously, the door to the dormitory opened and Jongin peeked his head in.

"Hey," the boy smiled bashfully as their eyes locked onto each other.

"H-hi." Kyungsoo replied quietly. The younger boy sauntered into the dormitory and sat on the bed right next to his legs, offering him yet another self-conscious smile as he picked up his hand in his.

"How are you feeling?"

"Uh...fine. ish."

Kyungsoo was already sure that this was as dubious an idea as any. When the other students had all left for Christmas five days ago, Jongin had revealed that his dorm in the Gryffindor Tower was now completely unoccupied apart from him, and had suggested that they meet there for dates for the duration of the holidays.



"It's more comfy," the boy had said, then raised his hands in alarm, face red, "not to do anything weird, I promise...! It's just...quieter there, and there will be no one to bother us, unlike the study rooms where anyone can walk in."

"What if the teachers find out...?" Kyungsoo had responded anxiously.

"It's holidays' time. Nobody bothers to check on us. The Gryffindor dorms will be completely empty."

"The Slytherin dormitories are empty too." Kyungsoo said.

"Is it? That's great," Jongin smiled. "But the dungeons can be a bit cold, can't they?"

"They're alright when the fire's lit."

He knew he was being difficult for no good reason, but he just couldn't help it. Kyungsoo didn't like to venture into foreign territory without any assurance, and the fact that Jongin was a person worthy of his trust made no difference to that fact.

Soon, the younger boy glanced up pensively, then looked back at him again:

"How about we alternate? We could sometimes meet in the Slytherin dormitories, and sometimes in Gryffindor's."

The fifth year student pursed his lips.

"You don't want to?"

"I don't see how this is going to be possible either way..." Kyungsoo murmured. "The Gryffindor common room is protected by the portrait of the Fat Lady, right? She isn't going to let me in."

"You don't have to worry too much about that," the other boy smiled softly. "she isn't always too stringent over students sneaking in from other houses, as long as you know the password and you don't mean harm. I can give you my tie for cover if you want, and we can go together, though I'm sure she won't make a fuss anyways – it's not like you're a dark wizard. Here, the password for this week is 'Hazardous Leprechaun'."

Kyungsoo's eyebrows jumped up immediately.

"I can remember that."

"Yeah?" Jongin grinned. "Great! Let's try it out tomorrow."

Kyungsoo had never done something as openly ridiculous as this. But against all expectations, when he presented himself to the Fat Lady the next day with Jongin at his side and a Gryffindor scarf around his neck, she did not even flinch and simply unbolted the opening for them without a single complaint. Kyungsoo thought that she might even have smirked at him just before the portrait closed. He had been feeling absolutely mortified for a good half an hour afterwards...

Since then the two of them had been hanging out in Jongin's dorm every day, occasionally continuing their tutoring lessons on the Draught of Living Fire, but mostly lazing around the beds, swimming in seas of cushions and holding hands timorously over the pile of feathered pillows. Kyungsoo was ashamed to admit it, but he had been counting days. This was the thirteenth day since Jongin had officially asked him out for the Christmas ball. And with each passing day, he was growing more and more attached to the younger boy.

"So what's your plan for today?" Jongin asked casually, playing with his hand on the duvet. "Library? Promenade? Tutoring me?"

"Um, I was thinking more in the lines of nothing." Kyungsoo dropped, then tried a smile.

"Nothing? That sounds good to me."

"I'm starting to get used to seeing red everywhere, Jongin. This is kind of alarming."

"See?" Jongin leered lazily, lying on his side while beaming at him. "Told you it'd be a good idea to have dorm dates."

"I can't speak about that yet... Also, I just said it was alarming."

"Why is it alarming?" the Gryffindor hummed groggily. "The teachers don't know about it. The Fat Lady doesn't even ask you questions when you come in by yourself anymore, she doesn't even care."

"She does."

"I'm sure she doesn't."

"Last time, I swear, she even winked at me." the Slytherin said, squinting hard, "I am persuaded that she has a hidden agenda. She is going to tell all her friends about us and the entire school will be in the loop by the start of term."

"By her friends, you mean, Violet?" Jongin smirked softly. "That's one lady in a painting, Kyungsoo... Does it really matter to you? If you really mind, we could stop."

As he talked, he took Kyungsoo's hand in his and gently brought it to his lips, kissing the knuckles quietly. The Slytherin stilled, heart skipping a beat. Jongin had subconsciously become bolder over their past few weeks of acquaintance, progressively and instinctively so. One part of Kyungsoo did not know how to deal with that gradual change at all; the other part sent his heartbeat in a flailing mess every time the younger boy did something, or even looked at him in a certain way. This was definitely not good for his mental health, he thought.

"I don't know if my parents would be happy about this if it arrived back to them." he managed after a while through pursed lips, desperately trying not to blush.

"You never talk about your family," Jongin finally sat up, gazing curiously at him. And Kyungsoo looked at his hands.

"There's nothing much to talk about." This wasn't a lie. "So I don't really like mentioning them so much."

"Is that a sensitive topic for you?"

"Not really." the elder boy shrugged, "I don't have secrets to hide. Baekhyun knows this because I told him already, but my dad works at the Department of Mysteries."

"So wha-" Jongin rested, eyes growing wide. "Oh."

"He's an Unspeakable, yeah." Kyungsoo looked upwards. "Which means the conversations are always fairly limited at home...It's kind of heavy for a familial atmosphere."

Jongin mused.

"Not an ideal atmosphere for Christmas, huh?"

Kyungsoo smirked up at him. "Do I look like the type to celebrate Christmas?"

Jongin pulled himself up to look fully at him, dragging himself closer to the elder boy so that their bodies were less than an arm-length away. Kyungsoo retreated automatically beneath the covers, swallowing hard when the younger boy drew a heart shape on the duvet, distractively, with his finger. Jongin could be scary when he did those half-possessed, lidded eyes, Jesus Christ.

"What's wrong?" he heard the Gryffindor ask.

"N-nothing." Was he dreaming or Jongin's voice was huskier than usual? "I'm just overwhelmed by how comfy this bed is."

He stopped breathing, realising dimly that the younger boy's face was only inches away from his own, now, their noses almost touching. This was different from when they were waltzing during the Christmas ball. This time, Jongin's eyes were far too penetrating.

"Jong...in?" he whispered.

The younger boy leaned in; he closed his eyes.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Kyungsoo opened his eyes again, Jongin's lips only centimetres apart from his, as both of them turned towards the window. An owl was perched on the sill outside the window of the dorm, staring fixedly at them with its huge golden eyes, a letter hanging in its beak. Kyungsoo felt his face burn.

"Scooter!" he roared with anger.

The screech owl outside the window jumped in fear, feathers bristling like a poignant replica of its master's usual reactions. Pushing Jongin off him, Kyungsoo immediately hopped off the bed, hurrying to the window and opening the lock. Instantaneously, Baekhyun's owl skipped in with a hooting sound, dropping his letter into the Slytherin's grasp while the mortified wizard passed a weary hand over his eyes.

He was still grumbling as he ripped the envelope apart. Jongin came up behind him while scratching his ear sheepishly.

"Is that your owl?"

"No, it's Baekhyun's," Kyungsoo said through gritted teeth, opening up the parchment to read. "That idiot...What does he want this time?"

"Maybe he just wants to wish you Merry Christmas in advance."

Kyungsoo snorted as they both leaned in to read the Slytherin's messy handwriting:

Dear Kyungsoo, my friend, my love, my one and only black pearl,

How are you?

I hope you're faring better than me, who's missing you truly and painfully from all the way down this lonely hole called the Byun household. Don't misunderstand: home is great. But I'm gradually starting to go insane from talking all day long to the portraits hanging around the house, although they do make very good conversation. Did you know I discovered that I had a fifth great-uncle divorced four times and thrice removed on my father's side? I found his portrait in a cellar behind the secret cupboard where I keep my nest of glumbumbles. His name is Uncle Daeho; I'll introduce you next time.

Anyhow, how is it going with Kim Jongin?

Kiki has suggested to me that you two have already gone past the superior level together. Rest assured, I immediately corrected her on this and reminded her that this was a very precocious idea, though of course, you know that if anything were to happen between you two, I'd be the first one to congratulate you, right? You know I'd be here to listen, right? I'm sure you'd tell your best friend about all this. Right?

Hope you'll have a very nice Christmas eve – with Kim Jongin – and I'll be waiting for your reply – with details on what you do with Kim Jongin.

I love you!

You have my heart!

Please don't send me Aucturus when you write back, he'll have my head.

[align=center][div style="width:250px;text-align:right;font-size:12px;color:#000;line-height:120%"]- Baek

PS: Kiki says hello.

"Oh my God, I'm going to kick his ass," Kyungsoo said, hands trembling.

"He keeps a nest of glumbumbles inside his house?"

"Is that all you care about?"

But as he turned around, he noticed the Gryffindor was blushing hard as well, and the sight made him halt, blinking with embarrassment. Jongin scratched his head awkwardly.

"Well, it's not like there's anything to tell him, right?" he said. "We haven't even kissed yet."

Whose fault? Kyungsoo thought grimly as he glanced at the screech owl waiting patiently on the windowsill.

He swallowed hard and folded the letter into four, then eight.

"Well, I suppose that now that this, um, undesirable interruption is over, we – we could go back to what we were doing." he grumbled.

And Jongin smirked softly.

"Which was...?"

"Whi – which um...which was," he gargled, folding the letter again and again, "nothing."

The Gryffindor was gazing at him amusedly now.

"Are you going to fold that until it disappears?"

Kyungsoo glanced down at the microscopic ball of parchment in his hands, then tossed it into his pocket and cleared his throat. Jongin smiled at him and took a step forward. Sending a chill down Kyungsoo's spine, he reached out and cupped the elder boy's cheek.

"Or," he murmured, eyelids drooping once more, "we could finish what we started, and make some stories to tell Baekhyun."

Kyungsoo widened his eyes, feeling a wave of panic. Last time he checked, the Gryffindor wasn't capable of making corny lines. Who was this and what had they done to his Jongin?

"Uh, Jongin, I..."

"Yes?"

The younger boy gazed at him, wordless, taking his breath away. Then, without a warning, he leaned forward and drew his head in.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Aarrgh, for God's sake!" Kyungsoo raged, opening the window again and ushering the owl, who had started to hit his beak against the nearest wardrobe, out of the room. Scooter screeched a few times, but soon flew into the foggy sky without another protest. The Slytherin watched him go with growling anger before shutting the window at last, shaking his head while Jongin watched him affectionately from beside the bed.

"Do you want to write back to him?"

"Yeah, I'll do that now," Kyungsoo gritted his teeth and sat at the nearest desk, fumbling for something to write on. "Do you have some parchment I could borrow?"

Jongin smiled and opened a drawer next to his legs.

"Here you go."

"Thanks," the Slytherin murmured. As the tip of his quill touched the surface of the parchment, he heard Jongin lie down on the nearest bed with a sleepy moan and roll under the covers, ready to take a nap. Kyungsoo pursed his lips and started writing.

He was definitely going to send Aucturus to Baekhyun's house for vengeance, that was for sure.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"Chanyeollie, can you bring the rice cooker to the living room, please?" Mrs Kim said from underneath the table, where the plug for the hot pot machine was hidden. On all fours beside her, Jongdae was untangling a bunch of electric wires with brash unthinking movements, doing his best to untie the knot between the cable for the hot pot apparatus, and the one for the electric Christmas tree. Chanyeol looked back at her, a pile of empty plates in his hands, and acquiesced at last.

"Uhh, sure, I can!"

"Thank you, sweetie. That'd be really nice of you."

Chanyeol grinned at her, then rapidly shuffled his way into the kitchen after placing all the plates on the dining table. He swiftly evaluated his options, inspecting each of the muggle utensils in the kitchen one by one with unyielding concentration, before internally panicking when he failed to identify the rice cooker from the rest. He had definitely seen that rice cooker before, many times in the past – so which one was it?

Opting for the biggest electrical appliance of the lot, he tried to lift the best candidate in his arm, but was stopped by Jongdae's dad with an amused laugh:

"Not so fast, Chanyeol. That's the microwave."

"Oh," Chanyeol turned pale, "errr, woops, sorry, Mr Kim."

"That's alright. We all make mistakes," Mr Kim smiled widely, brimming with so much overflowing energy that Chanyeol saw where his son had gotten all that buzz from. "Here, let me take care of it. Is this your first time having Chinese hot pot, Chanyeol?"

"Yeah, I... think it is."

"Great! I'm glad we're making you try new non-wizardly things on your first muggle holiday. I hope you'll like it."

"To be completely honest, we do have hot pot in the wizard world too. I just didn't know you were supposed to have Chinese hot pot on Christmas eve."

"You know what? Me neither." Jongdae's father shrugged. "But you can do whatever you want when it comes to Christmas eve, right? Our family has an obsession with Chinese hot pot and we think it's better than turkey."

"Right."

"But we're going to have the Christmas log like we're meant to after dinner, so I don't think it will make a difference either way. Don't you agree?"

Chanyeol only nodded vigorously. And the older man beamed at him:

"By the way, there was a bird – I mean, an owl – who came to our window this morning. It dropped a letter for you."

"An owl for me?" Chanyeol blinked. But Bartoc was in his cage. Unless the owl came from Luhan? "What did it look like? Was it big and white, and really, really hard to deal with?"

"No, it was brownish...with little feathery ears, if you could call them that, and it was fairly small."

"A screech owl?"

"Is it? I don't know what you call any of them."

That really did not ring a bell. But Mr Kim reached into a drawer and pulled out a small sealed envelope for him with his name scribbled on it, in black ink and a very messy handwriting. Although he did not know that scrawl by sight, a sudden inkling emerged in his mind, making him tilt.

"Here you go." Mr Kim beamed. "Hope it's a letter from a secret admirer."

"I...I need to read this right away," Chanyeol stammered. "Can I just go upstairs for a minute?"

"Right now? Sure, but don't be too long, we're eating in five min-"

Chanyeol had barely heard the end of it that he was already rushing upstairs into Jongdae's room. Mr Kim watched him run and nodded amusedly to himself.

"Maybe it really is a secret admirer."

Upstairs in Jongdae's room, Chanyeol threw himself on the floor and shredded the envelope with his hands, pulling out the letter feverishly to read it under the lamp light. Only one phrase had been scratched onto the creased parchment, very simple, and signed with a little letter 'B'.

Let's pretend it never happened.

Before he realised it, Chanyeol felt his heart do a strange little jump against his ribcage before sinking all the way to the bottom of his chest. The next second, Jongdae's steps resounded loudly up the stairs and the door opened with a loud bang, the elder Gryffindor appearing with an overbearing grin:

"It's hot pot time!" he yelled.

Chanyeol thrust the letter down his pants before spinning around to look at his friend's suspicious gaze.

"What were you doing?" the elder boy inquired, eyebrows raised.

Chanyeol looked at the window, and then back at his friend again:

"N-nothing."

"What was that you just tucked into your trousers – were you reading a letter?"

"No," Chanyeol said loudly, waving his arms. "You were dreaming, mate. I put nothing down my trousers, that's just sick!"

"I just saw you put something down your pants, mate. It was a parchment."

"You need glasses, I'm telling you there was nothing."

Jongdae still didn't know anything about the bizarre evolution of things between him and Baekhyun, and as pointless as it was, a part of Chanyeol just couldn't bring himself to tell the elder boy about it.

Jongdae soon frowned at him, then gaped in brutal epiphany:

"I know!" he exclaimed at the top of his lungs, "It's that girl you snogged at the Christmas ball!"

"The girl I snogged?" Chanyeol stalled, mind reeling in his search for any memory that could possibly fit that description. "What on – who? When? Where?"

"Don't lie to me," the other boy was vehement. "I was the one who tucked you in bed after the ball, I saw. You were totally smashed, your hair was a mess as if someone had run their hands all over it, and your top two collar buttons were both undone!"

"You can't deduce I kissed someone just by a few undone buttons!"

"No, but I can deduce that from the hickeys on your neck, and bloody hell, you had more than one."

"Oh."

Chanyeol rubbed his neck embarrassedly, he had totally skipped that part.

"Well, uh, I don't remember." he lied. "I was smashed, you said it, ha ha."

"So, whose letters were you reading, then?"

"No one's, I said!" Chanyeol lifted both arms up. "What are you? My mum?"

"You're hiding secrets!"

"So what if I was?"

"You're hiding secrets," Jongdae rectified, "from me!"

Chanyeol stared at him, slightly dismayed. But Jongdae only offered a battered puppy look, pouting so exaggeratedly that his lower lip could almost touch his nose. He sighed:

"Oh, Jongdae."

"Chanyeoolll..." the other boy whined.

"Jongdaaaaaeeee..."

"Chanyyyeeeeeooolllll..."

"I'm not going to play this game with you," he said. "If you're vexed you'll just have to stick it up your ass, and continue to live with it, my friend."

Jongdae gaped, then narrowed his eyes viciously.

"You sure you wouldn't be the one sticking things up your ass, by any chance?"

"I'm – gargl," Chanyeol choked on his saliva, cheeks flushing at the speed of light, "Jongdae!"

"Ahah! You're blushing!"

"No, I'm not! I-I-I'm just astonished by the absurdities you're insinua..."

"What do you mean, absurdities? Mate, I wouldn't judge," Jongdae spread both palms out and frowned, "It's not like I would like you any less just because you're into...hunky sweaty dudes or something. Look."

He clapped his hands together and started humming under Chanyeol's confused gaze:

"If you were gay, lalala lalala, that'd be okay, lalala lalala..."

Chanyeol shook his head in consternation: "You know I don't get every muggle reference, Jongdae."

"Just tell me who the fuck he is, you tit!"

Chanyeol puffed out his chest and sniffled haughtily:

"There isn't any 'he' to start with. I am straight."

"Yeah," Jongdae lifted his eyes to the ceiling, "so are bananas."

Chanyeol glared at him and narrowed his eyes. Then, before Jongdae could properly react, he lunged forward, tackled the other boy to the floor with a war cry, and started tickling him madly while pinning him to the floor and straddling his waist.

"I'll show you who the real banana is, here!" he growled, and Jongdae howled with laughter:

"That – hahahpuhahahaha – th-that doesn't make haha s-sense – hahahahaha!!"

"Um, guys," a voice from the doorway made them both turn their heads.

Jongdeok was standing by the door whilst offering them a shrewd snigger.

"Not that I enjoy interrupting your lovey-dovey couple rituals," he said, "but mum says dinner is ready."

Jongdae threw him a glance, before crossing gaze with Chanyeol.

"My brother's eavesdropping on us, Chanyeol. I guess we'll have to pick up where we stopped later after dinner."

"Behind closed curtains, thank you." the Gryffindor agreed.

"I'll gladly furnish the curtains; I don't want to see any of the rated things you guys are up to." Jongdeok snorted and disappeared before Jongdae could stick out his tongue at him.

The two Gryffindors soon scrambled to their feet and stumbled down the stairs, gathering around the dining table with unnecessary pushing and shoving. When they finally sat down in front of the steaming pot, Jongdae leaned towards his ear and whispered astutely:

"You'll still have to show me that letter later on. I want to know absolutely everything."

Chanyeol shut him up with a well-placed hit, but glanced down at the unnatural bump in his trousers, where the parchment roll was still hidden, and shifted uncomfortably on his chair. He had originally planned to wait it out until the start of term to set things straight with Baekhyun anyways. But the Slytherin obviously didn't want this misunderstanding to go any further judging by his letter tonight, so Chanyeol figured this turn of events was probably for the best. Maybe Baekhyun was nothing but a one-off accident upon a drunken night and this was just things going back to normal like they should. Maybe he wasn't into the elder boy at all to begin with. Right. Baekhyun was just his nemesis, after all.

He smiled.

Maybe Baekhyun was going to give that Slytherin brunet Hargraves another chance, now that their one-night craziness had dissipated.

At this thought, his smile immediately disappeared; meanwhile Mrs Kim sat down with a satisfied sigh.

"Chanyeol, I know there's no magic involved in the preparation of this food, but I hope you'll enjoy it all the same."

"I'm sure I will," he managed. "Thanks Mrs Kim."

"It's Christmas eve!" Jongdae tolled at the same instant. "Merry Christmas!"

And as the other boy dived straight for the meat, Mr Kim leaned in and handed Chanyeol a bowl of rice.

"Now that we're comfortably installed, Chanyeol, explain to me," the older man said, with a very serious look on his face. "If wizards never use rice cookers, what do they use to cook rice?"

Jongdeok leaned in to whisper in his ear. "You're in for an hour. Good luck." He popped a can of beer open and filled his glass.

⚜

"Rise to Power," Jongin murmured to the stone wall outside the Slytherin Dungeon, and the passageway opened, letting him into the deserted Slytherin common room with its greenish glow and cold leather sofas.

It was really not so bad, he thought to himself as he walked in and heard the opening close behind him. The dungeons were as elegant and majestically beautiful as a common room could ever be, and part of him could kind of understand why Slytherins were so proud of their own quarters, despite the frigid temperature there. With the Christmas log he had managed to get from the kitchens in his arms, Jongin made his way to the seats in front of the chimney where a small, sleeping frame was curled up peacefully in front of the half-burnt logs. In his absence, Kyungsoo had started to read a book and had fallen asleep.

Jongin pulled out his wand and pointed at the dying fire.

"Incendio," he murmured, and the fireplace lit up with a new-born, cheery flame.

On the sofa, Kyungsoo's petite form squirmed slightly, dropping his book on the floor. With a tender smile, Jongin placed the Christmas log on the table, and squatted down to pick up the drapery from the nearest armchair to cover the elder boy with it. The other student shifted, eyelids quivering for a moment, before sighing and burying his face in the leather once more.

Jongin could only smile lovingly as he pulled back, feeling like the luckiest boy in the world. As he sat down on the adjacent armchair to wait for Kyungsoo to wake up, he noticed that the Slytherin's unfinished volume was still half-open on the embroidered rug, a few golden letters shimmering dimly under the firelight, forming one lonely word on the cover: 'Ameliorations'.

Tilting his head, Jongin furrowed his eyebrows and leaned forward to pick it up.

There were a lot of things that Kyungsoo never told him over their few weeks of getting to know each other. Like the Draught of Living Fire's origin; or what the elder boy was up to when he buried himself for hours on end in the library. Jongin had rarely asked questions, since it was not up to him to require answers anyways. But now that he was here, flipping through the small black leather book in his hands with dawning horror, the pictures and the words on the yellowed pages were engraved into his mind forever.

Dark spells modified to leave disastrous effects. Inoffensive potions turned to toxins, or hallucinogenic draughts. Tons and tons of dark enhancements to jinxes and infusions to make them better in the worse way possible. Jongin flicked through the pages as fast as he could, breath catching, until he suddenly arrived at a page with a familiar name:

Draught of Living Fire

He paused, reading the description with a racing heart. Underneath, a diagram had been drawn, of a man's body and the effects of the potion on it, notably the endowed ability to survive any fire, and the inability to ignore the pain. Jongin gasped before he could stop himself as he finally realised what the potion's main purpose had always been. This was Dark Magic. The Draught of Living Fire was a potion used for torture.

At the sound of his sharp breath, Kyungsoo stirred on the sofa and groggily opened one eye, causing Jongin to toss the book back onto the carpet and sit back down on the armchair just before the Slytherin glanced back at him with sleepy eyes.

"Jongin...?" Kyungsoo mumbled.

He sketched a smile, still shaken, but already more in control of himself.

"Slept well?"

Kyungsoo blinked at him, then looked down at the fallen book beneath the sofa and bent down to pick it up. He dusted it a few times before putting it back into his bag without even sparing him a glance. Jongin bit his lips.

"I brought a Christmas log," he said and smiled, showing the cake to the elder boy, whose eyes widened in genuine astonishment.

"How?"

"Talked with the house elves for a while," he grinned, kneeling down in front of the Slytherin.

"And they just made it for you?" Kyungsoo frowned. "You never told me you could be a diplomat."

"I'm not a diplomat, the house elves are just nice," Jongin laughed. "I mean, it's Christmas eve, and we both skipped dinner. I thought you might be hungry."

"What a considerate soul," the Slytherin sneered. "You have me touched."

Without replying, Jongin simply took the other boy's hands in his and looked up at him. He did not know what to say.

"What's wrong?" Kyungsoo cocked an eyebrow after a while.

"N-nothing, it's just...um. I was just wondering if you'd ever thought about...about... you know..."

"About what?"

"Like...um, world domination and stuff."

"World domination."

Jongin nodded hesitantly.

"Why, yes," Kyungsoo suddenly said, shooting an arrow straight through the younger boy's heart, "that's always been my childhood dream. I'm glad you asked."

"Seriously...?"

"Why would I lie to you? Just ask Baekhyun. He knows all about my plans already."

Jongin searched the elder boy's eyes desperately, lips quivering, until Kyungsoo stared at him and abruptly let out a deep, amused snort.

"You should see your face. I'm just kidding, you know."

Jongin felt a huge weight being lifted from his shoulders at once. He smiled in disbelief.

"R-really?"

"Of course, what, did you seriously believe that?" Kyungsoo raised his eyebrow, starting to smile against his will. "World domination? Me? Do I even look like I could be the next Voldemort?"

"Well, you look pretty scary when you want to be."

"You'll find me flattered, but no, world domination through dark magic is not part of my agenda." the other boy shook his head, playing with Jongin's hands on his lap. "I might be really bored and I might be curious about a lot of things. But actually going into Dark Magic just sounds like a lot of silly trouble for nothing."

Jongin's cheeks were starting to hurt, taught by the wideness of his grin. He was exalted. Too relieved to speak, he simply tightened his grip on the elder boy's hands and planted a soft kiss on them, causing Kyungsoo to blush.

"Stop that. What's wrong with you?"

Jongin smiled without looking at him, and gently kissed the Slytherin's left thumb this time. Kyungsoo shivered, muttering something incoherent, while Jongin closed his eyes and kissed the other boy's palm, then his wrist. He had never imagined himself to be the bold or teasing type, anything but that. However, Kyungsoo made him discover new sides of himself every day.

"Jongin, I said stop that." the elder boy's voice soon came in a hushed whisper.

The Gryffindor straightened his back, still on his knees, so that his eyes were on the same level as the other boy's face. Kyungsoo observed him soundlessly for a moment, then pursed his lips anxiously and let out a quiet sigh of invitation. Jongin felt the blood in his veins pump just a tiny bit faster. Before anything could come between them to interrupt them again, he pushed himself upwards and captured Kyungsoo's lips with his own as lightly and tenderly as he could.

"Hmm," came Kyungsoo soft whimper, but soon he closed his eyes and responded uncertainly. With an equally timid sigh, Jongin lifted his hand and ran it through the elder boy's hair, bringing their faces closer than they already were, gradually feeling his temperature rise as the feeling of Kyungsoo's sweltering lips danced against his mouth. His heart was running wilder than a cattle stampede.

They separated when Jongin almost knocked the Christmas log off the table, in a skimpy attempt to sit down by the Slytherin's side. And though the elder boy protested with an annoyed grunt, they were both too shaken to attempt another one right away.

Jongin threw a glance at the cake and gestured towards it.

"Want a slice?"

"Later," Kyungsoo said.

The Gryffindor chuckled and lied down on the sofa, resting his head on the armrest and diffidently inviting the Slytherin to come down with him. The other boy only granted him an unimpressed look at first, but soon, shifted on the sofa and lied down with him.

"This sofa is obviously not meant to be used like this by two people," he cringed as he tried to find a comfortable spot against Jongin's head.

"No, you're right. It's way too narrow." the younger boy hummed and shrugged. "Ah, you Slytherins...All looks, and no comfort."

"I'd never imagined myself do anything like this. This position is plain ridiculous."

The Gryffindor did not reply immediately, suddenly feeling drowsy in their current posture.

"It's just a little chilly down here, if you ask me."

"We are under the lake, what do you expect?" Kyungsoo scoffed without heat, before stifling a yawn himself. "I've always wondered what would happen if we had a leak in the dungeons, somewhere."

"You'd get flooded." Jongin droned, "don't you guys ever freeze, down here?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

"On how far you sit from the chimney fire," Kyungsoo smirked, and closed his eyes against Jongin's chest.

⚜

"Merry Christmas, Mr. Baekhyun."

"Merry Christmas, Kiki." Baekhyun responded with a cardboard crown over his head, and a plate of Christmas cake still in his left hand. "It's midnight already. Who would have thought?"

"Master and his wife sent an owl this morning," Kiki said. "It's a Christmas card for you."

"Oh, how nice. What does it say?"

"It says, 'Merry Christmas'."

"I would never have guessed."

"Mr. Baekbom also said he would return tomorrow morning to give you your present."

Baekhyun lifted up the card sent by his parents and gently placed it over the fireplace. His grandparents' portrait, hanging over his head, gazed down at him wordlessly as he did so. He gave them both a wink.

"Kiki, is there any more turkey? I'm starving again."

"There's plenty." she snapped her fingers. "Any gravy?"

"Yes, please."

She indulged and he swung over the chair, letting his head hang in mid-air, the room overturning in his eyes.

"Ah, tell me, Kiki...What would I do here, without you?"

"You'd be just fine, Mr. Baekhyun."

"Oh, the house can be a little boring, sometimes."

"Then next time, Mr. Baekhyun could invite his Gryffindor friend home."

But Baekhyun simply sighed and picked up the napkin from the dining table, distractedly folding a new crown with it, that he delicately placed over the house elf's head.

"What is this, Mr. Baekhyun?

"You're a queen, tonight, Kiki." he smiled. "Merry Christmas."

[sultan]

tracking...all of you are legends

[Kyungsoo]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center][size=9pt][font=georgia]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER FIVE: LOVE POTIONS ARE OUT OF FASHION. ❞

---

The next day after Quidditch practice, Jongdae and Chanyeol lingered in the Gryffindor changing room after Luhan and the others had gone, too sore to use the showers immediately. Their captain was depressed these days, and the effects of his bad mood spilled onto their training agenda, which had rapidly become the work-out programme of Hell. Chanyeol knew that the seventh year's despair was in part related to Minseok and the Christmas ball, but knowing that did not mean there was much that he could do about it. The day McGonagall had announced the Ball during dinner, he and Jongdae had immediately tried to convince Luhan to ask the Ravenclaw prefect out as his partner. But Luhan had made his point fairly clear.



"Never." the prefect spat in their faces.

"What do you mean, never?" Jongdae retorted, his mouth full of baked beans. "Luhan. This is the opportunity you've been dreaming of all along, you idiot, if you don't seize it, it's never gonna come back!"

"Ask him," Chanyeol agreed zealously. "You said it yourself, it's your last year at Hogwarts."

"Exactly. It's now or never."

"I know," Luhan cringed, "but-"

"And you're best friends, too."

"Exactly."

"Yes, but..."

"What could go possibly wrong?"

"Exactly!"

"It's because we're best friends that-"

"You're a manly man!"

"Can you let me finish?" the prefect glared, his knife threateningly clutched. The two younger Gryffindors obediently kept their mouths shut. Luhan took a deep breath:

"It's because we're best friends that I cannot ask Minseok to go to the ball with me. Don't you see? There is too much at stake, here. I don't want him to feel uncomfortable with me in case I do ask him and he says no. It would ruin the beautiful friendship we have right now."

Chanyeol and Jongdae exchanged a glance and shook their heads simultaneously.

"Naaaaah."

"Stop giving me that face, you tits!" the prefect angrily pointed at Chanyeol after slamming his cutlery down. "Look. What would you do if Jongdae suddenly asked you to be his partner for the Christmas ball out of the blue, huh?"

"I'd say: I'm flattered, mate, but I don't think I swing the other way."

"Yeah. Then we'd make up with each other with a kiss on the forehead." Jongdae nodded very seriously with his arms folded. "Not that it's going to happen, though, because I'm totally finding a partner before any of you guys do."

Chanyeol chortled into his cup and Luhan rolled his eyes:

"Is that your overinflated ego speaking?"

"It's a prophecy!" Jongdae said with a sudden Trelawney voice: "I see in my stars...that I shall meet the hottest girl in the year very soon, and that she and I will go to the ball together..."

"In your delusions, yes."

"...she will fall for my dashing good looks..."

"Your dashing good looks, ha ha ha ha!" Chanyeol held his sides, dying of laughter, earning himself a painful slap between the shoulder blades. Even Luhan, who was still struggling to look angry, was biting the inside of his cheek not to show mirth.

"Anyways, my point is..." Jongdae picked up after a while. "You should ask Minseok out before it's too late. Because if you don't, the two of you will never end up together and you are going to regret it forever. That's what I think."

Luhan shot them a deadly glare, then put his knife and fork down before slowly standing up, declaring that he did not feel hungry anymore.



To be honest, Chanyeol felt a little sorry for him. But hey, what else were they going to do if Luhan himself couldn't find the courage to take the risk?

"The thing is: there isn't that much of a risk to start with." Jongdae yawned, playing loosely with the handle of his broomstick, "Have you seen how Minseok sits in the tribunes to watch almost every single one of our Quidditch sessions? He totally isn't there for the fresh air, mate. His eyes are on Luhan from beginning to end."

Chanyeol stared. "You think Minseok likes him too?"

"Don't know... But damn, he isn't completely indifferent, at least."

"Well, if that's the case," Chanyeol said, struggling to take his sweaty Quidditch uniform off and shaking his humid hair with a frown, "Luhan certainly doesn't know anything about it."

"Exactly. Which is why we should do something about them."

"What? Like, ask Minseok out for him?"

Jongdae stared at him like he had grown a second head.

"No, silly. If someone confesses, it has to be Luhan. And guess what, I have the perfect plan to make it happen."

Chanyeol squinted in suspicion. Usually, when Jongdae said he had a perfect plan, it was either bloody brilliant, or outright disastrous.

"The perfect plan like...what?"

"Hang on, let me show you-"

"Wait, no. Hold up. Don't tell me that you want to use a potion on them."

Jongdae's eyes shot open.

"How did you guess?"

"Because that is the dumbest idea ever," he laughed out loud and jumped to his feet, "Minseok is never going to end up with Luhan under the influence of Amortentia, mate, that's ridiculous. Also, Luhan would definitely kill us both for it."

"Amortentia is so out of fashion, man; besides we don't even need that," Jongdae pulled out a bottle of sneezewort from his chest pocket – and Chanyeol did not even want to know where he had gotten it. "Befuddlement Draught...That will do the trick. It makes the drinker completely reckless and crazy, doing things he would never even think of doing in normal circumstances. Also, we can put in some salamander blood in order to improve the recipe and add a boost of bravado to the potion's effect. We slip that into our favourite prefect's breakfast oatmeal, and boom. He's going to go straight up to Minseok to confess in less than two minutes, I'm ready to bet my money on it."

"Isn't that a little risky?"

"How is it risky? It's not even as dangerous as a love potion! And at least it's not banned," Jongdae said as he put the bottle back into his pocket and made a frown. "Besides, love potions make the drinker fall in love with the one who has given the potion to him, so..."

Chanyeol pictured the thought, and shuddered in aversion.

"Merlin."

"Yeah. I don't know about you, but having Luhan fall in love with me isn't exactly what I call an appealing prospect."

"No, you're right." Chanyeol agreed wholeheartedly. "Okay, Befuddlement Draught it is."

"Perfect! Now, we just need to find a way to brew it somewhere quiet..."

"Yeah...A spot that people won't think of," the other boy smiled, feeling the excitement build up against his better judgment, "that, and a cauldron, and a time where we can meet up discreetly without the others knowing. Do we have a free period in common?"

"After Charms, on Tuesday."

"Perfect," Chanyeol yelled. "Let's meet up in the dungeons."

"Okay, there's just one thing, though."

"What?"

Jongdae stretched his legs, glancing to one side before offering a wide-eyed look.

"We need flobberworm mucus for the potion. And the apothecaries ran out."

⚜

⚜

⚜

For their last detention, Professor Jung had decided to take Baekhyun and Chanyeol to the Forbidden Forest, preparing an empty basket for each of them and a pair of leather gloves. Chanyeol had to give the teacher props for being creative with punishments, at least. They were supposed to pick up leaping toadstools in the forest as an ingredient for Slughorn's personal stock.

"I promised Professor Slughorn that I'd help him collect some for his demonstration potion for first years." Jung explained with a smile. "But I never found the time to do it."

Chanyeol thought maybe Professor Jung should just stop promising people to do anything at all.

"Where do we go to pick them?" Baekhyun asked.

"Just take the path over there," Jung hummed, "follow it for about...thirty minutes? You should come to a particularly dense canopy with lots of different mushrooms growing underneath. I'd like to have at least two baskets full."

"Alright."

"And if you pick up the wrong mushroom, you'll have to start over from the beginning."

"Al- wait, what?"

"Don't be so surprised...There'd be no point to this detention otherwise." the teacher smiled deviously.

Chanyeol had pursed his lips, defeated, and entered the Forbidden Forest with Baekhyun and his basket hanging at the elbow. Now deeply buried in the murky forestry and completely outnumbered by mushrooms of all kinds, he picked up a giant toadstool and peeked at Baekhyun's bent silhouette next to him. Over the past few days, the Slytherin had made pretty decent company, Chanyeol had to admit – something which he had never expected to be even possible. When alone and with no audience, Baekhyun was perfectly capable of behaving like a decent human being; still somewhat aggravating on certain levels and definitely still a peacock, but at least a tolerable one.

It had been a week that Chanyeol did not feel any violent urge to strangle the other boy, and he considered that a miracle in itself.

"I can't believe he made us go in here by ourselves." the Slytherin whined now, stepping over a slimy root blocking his path to a particularly big toadstool, which jumped out of his grasp as soon as he tried to touch it. A hand-sized shadow scurried past their feet. Chanyeol wondered if it was a bowtruckle.

"Are you scared?" he sniggered for Baekhyun's benefit and the prefect sniffled, lunging forwards to catch the mushroom before it could hop away.

"You underestimate me, my dear pig-headed Gryffindor."

"I'm not judging. Jongdae and I ran into a pack of angry centaurs once, back in second year... But it wasn't here, so you don't have to worry."

Chanyeol snickered again, because Baekhyun's face turned slightly grey at the thought.

"How long do we have to stay here?"

"As long as we need to, he said."

"Ugh, I'm glad we're doing this by daylight..." Baekhyun groaned, then suddenly tripped on a wet rock, catching himself before he could fall. The fungi by his feet immediately started to leap around in alarm and he stifled a moan. "To think we could have been shopping for gowns in Hogsmeade, right now..."

"Do you ever stop complaining?"

"Noooooo," the Slytherin tolled with a shit-eating grin.

"If you don't think that I would rather be in Hogsmeade instead of here with you..."

"What's your favourite Hogsmeade shop?"

The unexpectedness of the question made Chanyeol tilt a bit.

"What does it mean to you?"

"Relax, I'm just chatting," Baekhyun snorted, slowly returning to his usual, blabbering self as he forgot about his eerie surroundings. "Since we're stuck here for God knows how long without anything else to do, might as well start a conversation."

Chanyeol snuffled.

"Well, my favourite shop is Dominic Maestro's, if you really want to know."

"That's a music shop, isn't it?" Baekhyun looked genuinely surprised, before letting another mushroom escape. "So you like music?"

"I play the guitar."

"Piss off," the Slytherin said, smiling. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing, just...curious to hear you play sometime."

Chanyeol turned the sentence once in his head and frowned immediately at the oddness of it. Coming from Baekhyun's mouth, the statement was just incongruous and downright weird. Baekhyun himself suddenly scrunched his nose in confusion at his own words, and quickly shook his head:

"Anyways. My favourite place in Hogsmeade is this little antiques shop by the corner of the Shrieking Shack, where you can find lots of useless, ancient, shiny stuff...Totally meaningless, but very pretty to look at, ha ha."

"...That's thrilling."

"Yeah. Tell me about it," Baekhyun said, bending down as another fleet of mushrooms tried to jump away from his grasp. "There's nothing exciting in Hogsmeade anymore. That's why I was telling Kyungsoo that we should..."

He paused, silent. Chanyeol halted in his fungus picking and furrowed his eyebrows.

"That's why you were telling Kyungsoo what?"

"Never mind." the Slytherin shrugged carelessly. Then his eyes slowly widened and he pulled out his wand. "Merlin, my back is sore. You know what? This is just plain stupid... Immobulus!"

The leaping toadstools immediately came to a stop, some freezing in mid-air, immobilized in their jump by the force of the spell. Baekhyun looked at them with a proud little smirk, and tucked his wand back into his pocket.

"Not bad, eh?"

"Not bad," Chanyeol admitted. But as soon as he said those words, he noticed a crawling thing slithering next to the twisted tree that Baekhyun was standing against. A slimy shape, boneless and gross, which immediately made his eyes grow round.

A flobberworm.

His breath stopped in his throat, and he waited for Baekhyun to turn around before slowly taking a step towards it.

"I just need to cast a counter-spell once we finish collecting," the Slytherin now spoke to no one in particular. "I bet he'd be capable of making us start again if he discovered that I used a freezing spell, that sadist..."

Chanyeol wasn't even listening. His eyes fixed on the crawling flobberworm, he extended an arm, tongue sticking out in concentration, reaching out as slowly as he could for the slimy creature...the missing ingredient for the Befuddlement Draught... He was only a finger-length away now. Just a few centimetres more...

"Hey, watch out!" Baekhyun said, and a flash of red light blasted the flobberworm away, leaving a burning mass on the floor in front of Chanyeol's horrified eyes. The fire crackled, then dissolved into a calcified pile of ash on the ground.

Chanyeol let out an undignified moan.

"Why the hell did you do that?!" he span around, howling.

"Blimey, calm your tits," Baekhyun frowned, slightly indignant, "I actually saved you from that worm, shouldn't you be thankful?"

"You just... killed the darned thing!"

"Don't you know that these things could bite?"

"Bite?" Chanyeol seethed in complete consternation. "Flobberworms have no teeth!"

"Errr... well. My point is, I did that for your own good," the Slytherin prefect furrowed his eyebrows, looking half-vexed, half-embarrassed. "Besides, what's the big deal about flobberworms anyways?"

Chanyeol took his glasses off and rubbed a hand over his tired eyes.

"I needed it for a potion."

"Huh... What kind of potion?"

"A Befuddlement Draught..."

"That's not even part of our curriculum," the other boy cocked an eyebrow, and Chanyeol pursed his lips.

"We were just trying to give a little push to this friend of mine who has been in love with a Ravenclaw prefect for ages," Chanyeol finally said with some reluctance. He wondered why he was telling Baekhyun all of this. "Since he refuses to ask that other friend out to the Christmas ball, we thought a little potion..."

"A little potion would cause him to get his shit together and confess?" Baekhyun caught the drift and let out a snort. "Not bad...You Gryffindors and your herd spirit will always manage to surprise me."

"You can mock all you want..."

"I'm not mocking." Baekhyun smirked. "Why would I mock? There's no discrimination when it comes to pranks– and that prank definitely isn't a bad one."

Chanyeol wanted to precise that it wasn't supposed to be a prank anyways, but he decided to keep his mouth shut, too pleasantly surprised that the Slytherin did not intend on telling the teachers about the Befuddlement Draught. A little less tense, he shrugged and bent down to collect an immobilized toadstool at his feet.

"Anyways, now that I lost that flobberworm thanks to someone, I guess that we'll just have to flush our plan down the drain."

"Alright, alright, I get it. All you need is the worm's mucus anyways, why don't you just buy it?" he cocked an eyebrow.

"Apothecary's run out..."

"Losers."

"Oh, just shut up, will you."

"What about you, then, Mr Park?" Baekhyun suddenly sneered, straightening up as he crossed his arms. "Anyone in mind to invite to the Christmas ball, hmm?"

"Uhhh. I don't remember this being any of your business."

"Should I just assume that you're still single, then?"

Chanyeol rolled his eyes. "You?"

"I have my views on some girls. Natalie Alderman from Ravenclaw for one."

"Ugh, you'll regret it: She's way too clingy."

"Lydia Silverwood."

"Pureblood elitist."

"Or Glinda Foster."

"That girl's face looks like a razor blade and so does her personality."

Baekhyun gave him a look.

"Are you my mum, or what?"

Chanyeol offered a devious smile: "I'm just saying that 'for your own good', Baekhyun. I mean, Glinda Foster? Have fun cutting yourself on those lethal cheekbones, man. They're terrific."

"Fair enough, Glinda Foster is a little scary, I'll grant you that. But Lydia Silverwood is definitely hot."

"If you can get past her boyfriend."

"She has a boyfriend?" Baekhyun's eyes narrowed.

Chanyeol simply snorted and went back to his toadstools; his basket was almost full. After a minute of silence, Baekhyun frowned at him and put his hands on his hips.

"Actually, I've just thought of the perfect partner for you, Chanyeol. You know who you should ask out?"

"Who?"

"Wu Yifan."

"Fucking hell," Chanyeol turned around with dismay. "No!"

He stared at the elder boy in aversion, but the Slytherin was laughing now, eyes twinkling happily beneath his messy fringe. For once, there was no trace of disdain in the prefect's gaze, no sign of contemptuous mockery - just playful, childish joy. Chanyeol froze, taken aback. He had never seen Baekhyun laughing like this before, and to be honest, wasn't too sure what to think of it.



When they separated after returning the baskets of leaping toadstools to Professor Jung, Baekhyun gave him one more judging look and turned towards him, his hands in his robe's pockets.

"Look," he said, "about the flobberworm mucus, I can ask Kyungsoo if he doesn't have any extra in his personal stock."

"What..." Chanyeol blinked, genuinely shocked. "No, listen, you don't have to do that."

"It's fine," the Slytherin shrugged. "that kid loves potions, I'm sure he has some extra flasks in his trunk, somewhere... or at least might."

"That's...nice, but..."

"What?"

"Aren't you going to ask me to give something fishy in exchange?" Chanyeol squinted suspiciously.

"You think so lowly of me." Baekhyun's brows creased. "Fine, if you don't want it, I won't ask."

"No, alright. I mean, I do need it, and it'll be nice of you to ask." he hesitated. "Thanks."

Baekhyun smiled, backlit by the waning sun.

"Think of it as celebration for finishing our last detention together."

That was true. They would not have to suffer each other's presence again after today, at least not for such an extended period of time and not solely in each other's presence. Chanyeol thought about it with surprise. He smiled before realizing it.

"That's right... I'm finally free from your insufferable presence, now."

"Don't act like that, I know you'll miss me." Baekhyun scoffed, leaving towards the castle with the sun still shining over his head, illuminating the back of his hair. "I'll see you around, Chanyeol."

Chanyeol gestured with his hand. It wasn't as if he had actually enjoyed Baekhyun's company over the last few days, but the Slytherin had certainly showed him a different side of himself, one that he had never seen before and which had been pleasantly surprising, if not actually likeable.

He dimly wondered if it was possible that he would truly miss the Slytherin prefect's company, after all.





The next morning at breakfast, however, he realized just how wrong and naive he had been to think such a thing. Tao, Sehun and Luhan sat across of him at the Gryffindor's table, the youngest of the three immediately reaching for the bowl of porridge to bring it closer to himself. Chanyeol had settled down for a pumpkin pasty and cornflakes, as per usual, and was biting into his second pastry when Jongdae finally came down to sit by his side, grinning widely at him before throwing a meaningful glance at Luhan.

The prefect cocked an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Nothing." Jongdae said with a face which did not make it seem like nothing at all. He then beamed extensively at Chanyeol, who offered him a confused look and tried to ask him what the matter was – only to let out the longest and most guttural burp that he had ever remembered producing since the day of his birth.

Tao gawked at him with unadulterated horror, and Luhan raised an eyebrow with an appalled hand propping his cheek.

"Now, seriously?" the prefect said in utter consternation.

Chanyeol shrugged at first, sheepish, but then a second burp escaped him before he could stop it, this time even longer than the first and causing the entire table to look at him in sickened disapproval. Then a third one came out, and Luhan seriously frowned this time, eyes narrowing very slowly. Now, this was a little weird. Chanyeol tried to speak, but just kept burping again, and again, the sound resonating cavernously across the hall.

"That's disgusting! Stop!" Tao finally wailed, covering his ears.

Suddenly, Luhan jumped onto the pasty Chanyeol was holding, looking at it in suspicion, before glancing back at Chanyeol who was covering his own mouth now, belching loudly into his hands.

"Did you hoax his pumpkin pasty, Jongdae?!" Luhan shouted, shaking the pastry at Jongdae's face, who raised both arms in the air, genuinely shocked.

"Whoa, I did nothing. Seriously!"

"Then who?"

Chanyeol looked up at the Slytherin table, where people were already ogling their table with curiosity, and where Yifan was staring at him like he was re-discovering him for the first time, completely bewildered. Behind the sixth year prefect sat Baekhyun, gazing straight into his eyes without any surprise, laughing maliciously at him like a little scamp. Chanyeol felt the rage consuming him at once.

It was Byun fucking Baekhyun's fault.

He immediately pointed at the Slytherin table with uninhibited fury, wanting to shout his accusations at the top of his lungs, but only letting out a deep reverberating belch instead. Sehun was laughing his ass off at the table, almost falling off the bench.

"Wow, wow, wow mate." Jongdae said slowly, restraining him by the arms and making him sit down. "Let's have this fixed first before you do anything, okay?"

"Who the hell did this...?" Tao asked.

Chanyeol eructed miserably.

"Why is he doing that?" a girl next to them asked with honest dismay.

At the Slytherin table, Baekhyun was still giggling into his hand, saying something to Kyungsoo, who was sitting by his side with an utterly unimpressed expression. Then suddenly, Baekhyun dipped his spoon into his bowl of soup – and the broth exploded at his face, splashing him and Kyungsoo with overcooked vegetables and chopped potatoes, and making all of the students at their table burst into a concert of alarmed shrieks.

Chanyeol blinked, slightly puzzled, but Jongdae burst out laughing with a triumphant air, burying his head in Chanyeol's shoulder to hide his hilarity.

"What was that about?" Luhan blurted out, flabbergasted.

At the Slytherin table, Yifan was standing with remains of carrots in his hair, giving Baekhyun a dressing-down while the other boy held his hands out helplessly.

"My little payback to Byun and company for that night of the Sorting Ceremony." Jongdae whispered into Chanyeol's ear. "Hope you don't mind the delay, mate."

Chanyeol smiled emotionally at him, thinking that was probably the most romantic thing anyone had ever done for him in this lifetime.

"By the way," Jongdae then murmured again, verifying that Luhan was still too concentrated on the commotion at the Slytherin table to listen to them, "I discovered where we can find the flobberworm mucus for the Befuddlement Draught. Someone told me that Slughorn keeps a whole box of flasks in his office, so we just need to sneak in someday and grab one incognito – he has so much that he won't even notice, apparently."

Chanyeol's eyes widened, scared that he would start burping again if he tried to talk, so he simply lifted one thumb up and nodded furiously. Jongdae gave him a slap on the shoulder and a grin.

"Let's talk this out when you've gotten yourself fixed, alright?"

Chanyeol nodded. He did not protest when Luhan came around the table to take him to the infirmary.

⚜

⚜

⚜

The good thing about dungeons was that their eeriness and depth always provided one with a tranquil spot for clandestine activities – or not so clandestine activities, for that matter. No one ever thought of going down into those cavernous tunnels to find someone, which made it the perfect spot for unaccompanied studying, as long as you did not mind the cold and humidity.

Kyungsoo set up his cauldron in the most reclosed corner that he could find, always a quiet nest, far away from the Potions classroom and Slughorn's old office, far down a series of maze-like corridors where no one would dare to come and disturb him. He then reached into his pockets for ingredients; dragonflies, fairy wings, doxy eggs...and pulled his Advanced Potion-Making manual out, turning it to the right page - everything he needed to start working.

Then, he realized that he had forgotten his personal notes up in the Slytherin dormitory.

Kyungsoo covered his face with both hands.

If Baekhyun had had the decency to come along, he could have asked the prefect to make the trip for him, but in the boy's absence, he would just have to remember his notes from the top of his head. Sometimes, Kyungsoo thought that he was being way too lenient with the other boy. After all, this was a homework they had in common, Slughorn had asked both of them to come up with a phial of Girding Potion to show the class next week, but as usual, Baekhyun had decided to slack off, knowing that Kyungsoo would have been able to pull it off for them both anyways. The arse. And what was that whole thing about wanting to borrow some of his flobberworm mucus stock, the other day? As if Kyungsoo gave out potion ingredients for free...Blimey, he wasn't a Hufflepuff.

The Slytherin took out his knife and started cutting out the thorax of his dead dragonflies, shaking his head. He supposed that at least, if he worked alone, he could safely try to improve the recipe by using the copy of Ameliorations which he had secretly borrowed the other day, ho ho ho.

A sound echoed down the corridors, like a door closing with finality.

Kyungsoo raised his head. At this hour of the day, there shouldn't be anyone wandering alone in the darkness of the dungeons, so it was probably nothing. And yet, as he was about to reach down to pull Ameliorations out of his bag, steps resounded around the corner and a fourth year student appeared, holding his illuminated wand up and pointing it straight at Kyungsoo's face.

⚜

Jongin did not like huge commotions. Playful rampaging with the other Gryffindor students were all nice and fun while it lasted, but he also needed time alone to reflect, to nap in the library, or simply to take a stroll around the castle grounds, by himself, without anyone else trying to disturb him. The dungeons were always a nice spot to take such walks, despite their chilling temperature and unfortunately damp walls. In there, the silence was always complete. No one talked. No one shouted. It was pure, simple, refreshing peace.

That week-end, Jongin left the Great Hall early and took some time to explore new corridors that he had not seen in the past. People had been talking too much about the upcoming Christmas ball, these days, a topic which daunted him more than he would like to admit and from which he definitely needed a break. He did not expect to find himself a partner - his introverted personality would probably bar him from doing so - but then again, Sehun did not seem very successful in his quest either, having spent the past few weeks looking at fashion magazines, taking more care in picking a satisfactory attire for himself than a dance partner. The younger boy had also asked him what his plans were for Christmas...but Jongin did not want to think about vacations just yet.

The subject always gave him a headache.

Lost in his thoughts, he did not expect anyone else to be in the dungeons with him this morning. When he suddenly heard the sharp rustling noise around the dark corner of a hallway and saw the light of a lit torch on the wall, he jumped in alarm, drew his wand out instinctively, and pointed it at the first moving thing he saw around the corner, freezing with wide surprised eyes when he recognized the petrified figure of the Slytherin student sitting there, by the torch light - a familiar figure he had tried to hex in a not so faraway past...

Do Kyungsoo.

Jongin blinked a few times with his heart still racing, and Kyungsoo stared back at him, huge owl eyes round with fear. For a second, memories of their last duel swirled vividly in their minds, vicious spells and angry swearing resurfacing blurrily. Then, at last, the Gryffindor lowered his wand.

"Merlin..." he stuttered. "Sorry, I just thought it was something...I mean...I thought, but...It was just you."

"Just?" Kyungsoo asked rather dryly.

Jongin glanced at the cauldron in front of the fifth year student, and then the small black leather book that the other boy was holding tightly in his hands. As soon as Kyungsoo caught him staring, he tucked the book back into his bag suspiciously.

Jongin's eyes narrowed.

"What are you doing here, all by yourself?"

"Not breaking any school rules, if that's what you're worried about." the Slytherin muttered quietly. "Also, I could ask you the exact same question."

"I just like walking." Jongin said, then thought that might have sounded a little silly, so he rectified. "I mean, I like taking strolls in the castle in my free time."

"Not doing that with your Gryffindor friends?"

"Well, I can't stay with them all the time, can I? People need to have their own moments of privacy."

And because Kyungsoo only stared at him without a word, Jongin nodded towards the dead dragonflies on the floor and put his hands into his pockets.

"Brewing a potion?"

"If the cauldron didn't make it obvious enough..." Kyungsoo sighed, but did not protest when the Gryffindor came down to squat next to him, looking at his ingredients. "Slughorn gave Baekhyun and me some extra homework, so I'm trying to get rid of it."

"Why are you doing it alone, if Byun was supposed to do it with you?"

"Because Baekhyun is good at Transfigurations and Charms, so he writes up my Transfiguration notes and Charms essays for me."

Jongin gave him a slightly muddled look, visibly not understanding their logic.

"Is this a Girding Potion?" he suddenly said.

And Kyungsoo looked at him with genuine surprise.

"Yes. But how did you know?"

"Just looked at the ingredients..." Jongin explained, a little sheepish. "I mean, the portions you cut for the doxy eggs, and the dragonfly thoraxes...It was just a shot in the dark."

"Girding Potions aren't usually taught until the sixth year."

"You're doing one now, and you're in fifth." the Gryffindor seeker countered.

"Yes, but I am what people call a Potions enthusiast."

"So am I." Jongin smiled, feeling a little self-conscious when the Slytherin observed him insistently, big eyes glowing warmly under the torch light. "I know what you're going to say. Gryffindors and Potions don't usually go together. Chanyeol and Jongdae keep on hammering it down already, telling me how I have very bad tastes considering that Potions is taught in the dungeons, and Slughorn is partial towards Slytherins anyways..."

"I didn't say anything."

"Well, just in case you did." Jongin pursed his lips, picking up a dead dragonfly with his fingers. "A lot of people say that I should have been in Slytherin, so it's not like I'm not used to it."

"I don't see you in Slytherin." Kyungsoo plainly said.

And Jongin smiled again, faintly.

"Me neither, to be honest."

He watched silently as Kyungsoo finished with the dragonflies and threw one set of fairy wings into the heated cauldron, adjusting the fire before looking at the colour of his mixture. As the potion slowly turned turquoise, he glanced at the fifth year student and nodded towards the brew.

"Why did you decide to make this here? You could have done this in any other study room."

"It's quieter here," the Slytherin responded, adding in one spoonful of doxy eggs very carefully, his eyes concentrated on the potion. "Also, when I'm here, there's no one to stop me from making my own enhancements to the infusion...so I prefer this atmosphere by far."

"Enhancements..." Jongin repeated absent-mindedly. "Did you know that if you add in fluxweed at the very end, you can tone down the soreness that usually comes with the effect of a Girding Potion?"

"Yes," Kyungsoo nodded. "And if you add in a touch of peppermint, it will decrease the foul odour of the potion and make it easier to drink."

"Seriously?" the Gryffindor smiled. "I didn't know that..."

"It's a personal touch."

"I only knew that adding peppermint helped to prevent the excessive singing effects in Elixirs to induce Euphoria."

"That's not bad, either." Kyungsoo smiled too.

Jongin felt strangely at ease. He sat down more comfortably and pointed at the fire of the cauldron.

"Shouldn't you increase the heat by now?"

"No, if you do that too quickly, the potion won't reach the right shade of turquoise. You have to wait until it does, then augment the heat."

"Then...should you add the dragonfly thoraxes in the meantime?"

Kyungsoo nodded at Jongin, motioning for him to do it. The Gryffindor obeyed instinctively and dropped the ingredients into the fuming cauldron. Kyungsoo waited for another minute or so before finally turning the fire up, watching as his mixture turned into a pretty shade of baby pink.

"You're a much better assistant than Baekhyun," he admitted after a while. "I should keep you instead of him."

Jongin laughed softly and folded his legs. The dungeons suddenly felt like much warmer and comfortable a place than he remembered them to be.

⚜

⚜

⚜

If there was one spell that Chanyeol and Jongdae had mastered over the years, it was that of the Disillusionment Charm. Had they not casted the spell on each other's head over and over again in the past few years, they would never have accomplished even half of the wild shenanigans they had tumbled through together. No prank could be complete without a Disillusionment Charm, and no nocturnal escapade could be accomplished without the usual hand-in-hand scuttling which ensued.

This time too, they casted the charm over each other's head after tip-toeing out of the dorm, waited until they were completely invisible, before grabbing each other's hand and scurrying out of the Gryffindor's common room. In the dead silence of the night, they hurried through the corridors and headed for Slughorn's office, as quiet as the thieves they were about to become.

Chanyeol stopped once they arrived at the staircase, suddenly hearing Filch's keys ringing in the distance. He tightly clutched Jongdae's hand and pulled the other boy behind the nearest statue, flattening himself against the wall. If Filch was on the fifth floor, Mrs Norris wouldn't be far either, and they couldn't let the cat smell their scent.

"Slughorn's office is on the sixth floor," Jongdae's voice murmured somewhere close to his ear. "We should go now before he decides to patrol over here."

Chanyeol agreed through a tiny squeeze, then lifted his eyes as a silhouette descended from the sixth floor, looking unhurried and ostensibly bored. Yifan was on prefect duties tonight, he was about to go back to bed.

Chanyeol and Jongdae held their breaths, watching attentively as the sixth year prefect slowly walked past them and continued his path down the adjacent corridor. As soon as their friend disappeared around the corner, they speedily dashed up the stairs and vanished into the dimly lit corridors of the sixth floor.



Now that they had safely arrived in front of Slughorn's office, a new problem presented itself to them:

How the hell were they going to get their hands on the flobberworm stock?

"I stayed after class to squeeze the information out of him one day," Jongdae now said in barely a whisper. "The stuff is in his personal cupboard, which – good news – is located far away from his sleeping quarters and is right next to the door."

"That's an amazing stroke of luck," Chanyeol murmured in disbelief.

"Wait for the bad news," Jongdae snorted. "It's kept under lock and key."

"So what? We just alohomora the shit out of it."

"Nah ah. He's got spells to counter that. We'd get caught by the door knob itself and there would be alarms alerting everyone, everywhere."

Chanyeol frowned.

"Then how the bloody hell are we supposed to..."

"Wait, but I have good news again...!" Jongdae whispered, and Chanyeol could almost hear the triumphant smile in his voice. "See, while you were serving detention in the Forbidden Forest with charming Byun Baekhyun, I was in Hogsmeade looking for a Christmas Ball partner, and...I happened to find one. She's called Yasmine Abott and is in sixth year, a Ravenclaw student. Also a prefect."

"Are you digressing?"

"Let me finish. So I got Yasmine chatting while we were in Hogsmeade, and then mid-way through the conversation, I discovered that she is not only a prefect, but also an outstanding student in class, and is therefore a member of Slughorn's "Slug Club"... which means that she gets to go to all these private little student parties organised by Slughorn in his office. So far so good, but that's not all. In fact, Slughorn holds her in such high esteem that he lets her have access to his private stock of ingredients whenever she wants, with a spare set of keys."

Chanyeol felt Jongdae let go of his hand and his eyes widened.

"Are you telling me..."

"Yeah, hold on."

Then, out of thin air, a pair of hefty bronze keys appeared, and Chanyeol stifled a gasp.

"She gave them to you...!"

"Err, no. I stole them." Chanyeol could almost sense Jongdae scratching his head sheepishly in the dark. "But in my defence, I'll return them to her as soon as we get our flobberworm mucus from Slughorn, so..."

"Mate, that's not very nice..."

"I know. But I left her a fake copy of it so she won't even realise that she lost it."

"I can't believe it, you actually managed to find a partner before any of us, and that's what you do to her...?"

"Hey. Our Luhan's happiness depends on this operation, okay?"

"Yeah, you're right." Chanyeol sighed. "Okay, pass the keys to me."

He used the first one to unlock the door to the office, cringing when the deep metallic click of the lock resonated in the stillness of the night. For a second, he hesitated, listening for any sign of movement coming from inside; then, when nothing stirred, pushed the door open and penetrated into the obscure office, waiting for Jongdae to come after him before slowly closing the door behind them.

Slughorn's office was much larger than he had originally thought, much larger than any teacher's office he had ever seen, in fact. Having parties in such an atmosphere made perfect sense, now. The place looked more like a cosy, yet lavish living room than a teacher's office.

"This way," Jongdae said, grabbing his hand after a few tries.

They scurried towards a large cubbyhole with one huge lock, and Chanyeol immediately stuck the second bronze key into it. When he turned, a click resounded. The cupboard opened, revealing shelves after shelves of different ingredients, from bezoars to bat wings (including a whole pile of leaping toadstools collected through Chanyeol and Baekhyun's sweat and blood), neatly aligned in nice little boxes with handwritten labels stuck on each of them. Chanyeol scanned the rows of ingredients for a while, then jumped and reached out for a large container at the bottom of the cupboard, gently picking up the greenish flask with the gooey, bubbly liquid in it. At last in their hands, the flobberworm mucus shone spookily in the pale moonlight.

"That's it...!" he whispered, then inspected the phial more carefully.

The label on the cap indicated that they had indeed taken the right ingredient. Chanyeol held the bottle to the sky and watched the moonlight swim eerily through the uninviting fluid. It looked absolutely revolting.

"Damn, I can't believe we did all this just for a flabby worm's snot."

"We'll talk about that later, moron. Close the damn closet."

They quickly shut the cupboard's door and scampered outside, taking care in locking the office door behind them before running away as fast as they could, giggling hand in hand, the flobberworm mucus safely tucked into Jongdae's pocket. The effects of the Disillusionment Charm were slowly starting to wear off by now, and if they did not top up quickly, they would become visible again before reaching the Gryffindor tower.

The best solution would be to pause behind a statue somewhere, and cast the charm on each other again before it was too late. Stumbling down a flight of steps to the fifth floor, they turned around the corner, ready to stop behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy in order to cast their spells, but as soon as they entered into the shadowy hallway, Chanyeol collided against a heavy, moving mass and collapsed onto the floor, the cupboard keys tingling loudly in the obscurity of the corridor. He stifled a groan, then covered his mouth, but it was too late.

"Who's there?" a voice spoke authoritatively in the darkness.

Chanyeol felt Jongdae's hand grab his own in alarm, urging him to stand up. The mass he had collided against was a person. A prefect badge shone in the darkness.

"Don't try to run away." the voice then said. "I can see you already."

Chanyeol looked down at himself, noticing the outline of his body starting to take form in the obscurity around him, his hands slowly appearing against the cold hard floor. He glanced at Jongdae but failed to distinguish the elder boy's silhouette in the darkness, which meant that his spell was probably wearing off much faster than the other boy's. They would both end up caught, if this continued.

"Go," he whispered to the other Gryffindor. "I'll catch you later."

"What? No...!" Jongdae murmured.

"Who is there?" the prefect asked again, louder this time. "Show yourself."

Chanyeol stood up, pushing Jongdae away from himself, and murmured the counter-spell to repeal the effects of his own disillusionment, right when the prefect pulled out his wand and uttered the word: "Lumos."

The corridor brightened up, making Chanyeol cover his face with a weary hand, momentarily blinded by the bright light coming from the stranger's wand. Once his eyes had readjusted to the luminosity, he blinked a few times and raised both hands in the air to signal his innocence, opening his mouth in silent surprise when he finally recognized the prefect standing in front of him with his wand raised.

It was Kim Joonmyun.