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

[basorexia]

traack!! if that’s ok! if not i’ll delete

[Baekhyun]

[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 TWO: THE SORTING CEREMONY. ❞

---

"Come on, admit it: it was funny..."

"No, it wasn't."

"But he fell flat on his face!"

"Damn right, he did, and he was about to hex you for it."

"Nah, he can't do anything against me anymore..." Baekhyun beamed. "I'm a prefect!"

Kyungsoo looked genuinely appalled.

"Yes, you are, and he and his friends got prefect friends – a lot, in case you didn't realize."

"I know they've got prefect friends." Baekhyun puffed, still looking delectably smug despite Kyungsoo's unimpressed face. "They've had those friends for years, and that didn't stop me from pranking them all I wanted."

Kyungsoo snorted and shook his head, looking back at the centre-front of the great hall, where a skinny first year student was sitting down on the sorting stool, with professor Flitwick gently dropping the sorting hat onto her tiny head.

"You're a moron."

"But you don't meeeeaan that...."

"Oh, shut up, will you."

Sometimes, Kyungsoo just failed to appreciate the touch of humour behind every slice of life, Baekhyun thought with a sigh. Could the boy not see, that pranks were a piece of art? And what was so wrong with picking a laugh or two out of the Gryffindors' misfortunes when there were no major consequences at stake anyways? It was only a matter of a few house points at most, nothing that a few outstanding grades would not amend in the eyes of a professor.

After rationalizing the question over and over again through every angle, Baekhyun had come to the simple conclusion that Do Kyungsoo just didn't know how to relax about life.

"Look at him," he leaned over his friend's shoulder and pointed at the Gryffindor's table, where Park Chanyeol was now conjuring tissue after tissue, pressing them against his bleeding lip, which was starting to dribble all over the table surface. "Just look at his face, and tell me you don't find that even a tiny little bit funny."

Kyungsoo stared at the Gryffindor table where the struggle was taking place, and let a small smile curl up the corner of his lips.

"Okay, it is a tiny little bit funny."

"Right?" Baekhyun guffawed. "He's literally just a running tap!"

"That doesn't mean you're not a moron."

The prefect pouted, glancing up when the Sorting Hat screamed: "Ravenclaw!" and the little girl popped down from her stool to join her designated table under her housemates' cheers. He nuzzled Kyungsoo's neck forcefully and earned a violent slap in return.

"You're so dull, sometimes, Kyungsoo... Why am I even your friend?"

"Stop doing that!" the other fifth year student hissed.

"Why? I'm just showing you friendly affection."

"Hmm, yeah right – You know Yifan is going to be talking to you about today?"

Baekhyun dismissed the thought with a dramatic eye-roll: "Ugh, let him...He's just been 'Muggle-born-washed'."

"Muggle-born-washed?"

"You know, when you hang out with too many Mudbloods and Half-bloods, and you start to think like them...? He's been staying with that muggle-born Kim Jongdae and his friends too much. It softened his brain; hence, Muggle-born-washed."

"I'm pretty sure you just made that term up."

Another cheer from the Hufflepuff table, and a chubby little boy came down from the stool, trotting along the table to be welcomed by his new family.

Kyungsoo gave Baekhyun another glance.

"Have you already thought about the O.W.Ls you need to pass this year?"

"Mmmyes, Potions, Herbology, Transfigurations, Charms, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Why do you ask?"

"Nothing, I was just wondering if you knew what you wanted to do later. So what is it?"

Baekhyun looked down at him.

"Not telling you."

"Why do I bother?"

"Hufflepuff!" the hat shouted once again and the same cheers erupted, while Baekhyun smiled mockingly at him.

"And you, my dear Kyungsoo, what do you want to do with your life?"

"You know my plans." the Slytherin said without looking at him. "World domination all the way. Simple, easy, and straight to the point..."

"Seriously, though."

"I am serious. It's either that, or the next Minister of Magic. I only dream big."

Baekhyun chuckled willingly, though he did not believe a word of it. Just like he himself would never tell Kyungsoo that he needed to pass five N.E.W.Ts with outstanding grades to go into Auror training, Kyungsoo in return would never truly tell him the plans he had for his own future. Something in Baekhyun told him that it was because Kyungsoo simply did not know, but he wasn't entirely sure. The prefect knew that his friend excelled in Potions, but that he would never become a potioneer. So what were his ambitions, then? The topic was simply part of their own little forbidden zone, he guessed. Slytherins had to have Slytherin secrets.

At the sorting stool, a short freckled boy tried to sit on the chair, but fumbled and tripped on his robes in the process, initiating the start of a few chuckles across the hall.

"That one won't be one of ours for sure," he whispered into Kyungsoo's ear, who repressed a smile.

But as the first year finally sat down on the stool and Flitwick placed the hat onto his head, a huge flash of lightning slashed through the room, running straight from the enchanted sky above their heads down to the centre of the hall, drawing a terrified shriek out of all the different houses, who fell back against each other, covering their heads in fear. Flitwick jumped, letting a tiny "Blimey!" escape through his bushy beard.

The students raised their eyes, whispering amongst them in confusion.

Above their heads, the enchanted ceiling seemed to struggle for a while, growling gently with the remains of a storm cloud on the edge. Then, as fast as the defect had come, it calmed down and settled into peaceful silence, the darkness above them dissipating into a serene shade of navy with twinkling stars, leaving Baekhyun and Kyungsoo huddled against one another on their bench, throwing each other a confused and mildly petrified look.

"Well, that was weird..." the prefect then remarked through a high-pitched laugh.

With the hat still on his head, the freckled first year boy looked at the hundreds of terrified eyes staring back at him, absolutely mortified.

"Gryffindor!" the hat then bellowed in the stillness of the room.

And that was all it took for merriment to return. The Gryffindor table burst into happy laughter, welcoming their new arrival with whooping cheers as the horrified first year dashed towards his table with uninhibited haste. Even Baekhyun chortled when the kid flew back to his seat, ducking his head to hide from the burning embarrassment. His ears were red from humiliation.

"Merlin, he probably thinks he caused it..." he snorted. "The poor bastard."

At the professors' table, one young teacher was laughing particularly hard, clapping his hands and leaning over the table with both elbows forward. Kyungsoo soon peeked at him and bent towards Baekhyun's ear:

"Is that the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor?"

Baekhyun looked too and opened his mouth into a silent 'O' of realization.

"Well." he cleared his throat. "That's Professor Jung, yes, apparently he's an Auror – one of the youngest of his office – half-blood, really talented, but extremely authoritative and severe, despite his outgoing appearance."

"How the hell do you know that?"

Baekhyun batted his eyelashes as prettily as he could.

"My father told me."

"Ah."

"It helps to have a member of the family who has influence over the Ministry." he said and smiled, still studying the new teacher distractedly. "You get to be in and out of it at the same time, and there is always an interesting story to tell."

Kyungsoo did not reply, but simply remained in his seat, impassive, as a new student got sorted and was sent to Slytherin. Baekhyun did not need to ask the reason behind his friend's sudden silence. He knew why already.

Unexpectedly, while everyone else was clapping around his table to welcome their new arrival, he suddenly noticed Professor Jung's eyes flickering towards him, locking straight onto his own gaze with a slight glint of amusement. Baekhyun jumped, not sure whether the professor was truly looking at him or at Kyungsoo, or rather staring at something behind them... But when he turned around, there was nothing but an empty armour propped up against the wall behind him. The next time he glanced at the teachers' table, Professor Jung was already conversing with his neighbour again, smiling pleasantly and making the other man laugh.

That was strange, he frowned.

But it was against his nature to be concerned about things that were still over someone else's head; thus, he decided not to take the matter too much at heart. Why worry when no one was scolding you yet? There was no reason to.

Looking at Park Chanyeol struggle with his swollen lip was so much more entertaining.

⚜

⚜

⚜

The first few weeks of classes went by peacefully, more peacefully than Luhan had expected them to.

That Monday morning found him and Minseok working together in the library, seated in a quiet spot behind the History of Muggles section, their respective homework spread in front of them in an array of parchment and open textbooks. Minseok looked particularly beautiful, today. Luhan found it painfully unfair: It was unfair that the Ravenclaw should be so extraordinarily beautiful every day and yet be so completely unaware of his own beauty. Every time he looked at Minseok, he felt like an ant in comparison, a mere speck of dust prostrated at the other wizard's feet.

He wondered faintly if there was any hope for cure for people in his situation.

Minseok looked up from his Divination homework and sketched a hesitant smile at him.

"What?"

"Nothing." Luhan replied too fast, his cheeks already shaded with undesirable pink. He sat upright and cracked his knuckles, looking back down at the Muggle Studies essay he had to finish for this Thursday. The empty parchment taunted him, his essay's instructions written in black ink staring him back in the face.

"Critically analyse the evolution of cinematographic renaissance in the muggle world and its effect on the social moeurs of the wizarding community in the 1950s."

Hum.

There was going to be a lot of research ahead.

"Start by picking a few muggle movies, and evaluate each of them chronologically," Minseok kindly suggested, noticing his troubled expression. "That's what I do when I have to consider the evolution of some movement or another. You can try Smiles of a Summer Nigh; that's one of my dad's favourite movies."

And he offered Luhan a smile brighter than ten thousand summer nights combined. The Gryffindor prefect melted and grinned in return.

"Thanks."

"No problem," Minseok replied. "I have a muggle father, so it's only natural that I should give a few tips where I can."

"It must be easier to write this when you have a member of family who is a Muggle..." Luhan agreed absentmindedly. "I find Muggle Studies rather hard...One of my friends – you know, Sehun – absolutely loves it, but I have more trouble with the subject than he does."

"You can't be a natural at everything. You're already amazing at Defense Against the Dark Arts and Ancient Runes. It's normal to be less talented at certain subjects than at others."

"Well, you're good at everything."

"I just like learning," Minseok smiled, shrugging carelessly. "I can't play Quidditch like you do, for example."

Luhan mumbled something incoherent, burying his head in the parchment. What he didn't want to say to Minseok, was that he only excelled at Ancient Runes because it was the very first elective they had shared together back in third year, and he had worked hard at it ever since. Before then, Luhan had never even paid attention to the quiet and discreet Ravenclaw; knowing him only as the 'smart student who gets all the best grades, yet never tries to answer anything in class'. It had taken a presentation in pairs on the magical properties of hieroglyphics for them to discover that they had, in fact, a lot more to talk about than they first thought they would.

"How's your Quidditch training going, actually?" the Ravenclaw prefect soon said, abandoning his Divination homework once again to peer at him. "Did you find your missing member at last, or are you still...?"

"Still looking. It's been quite hard on us. We're thinking of making Sehun try sometime before October ends, but...he's been very elusive about it."

"Do you think he has potential?"

"He certainly has..." Luhan frowned, trying to think. "Then again, with Sehun, it's always a bit hard to tell. He's weird like that."

Minseok grinned and lowered his head again.

"I like him, Sehun. He's a funny kid."

"Everyone likes him, it seems."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Maybe it's the eccentric hair, I don't know. I keep telling him that he'll end up having a magical accident if he keeps trying random colour spells on his hair like that, but he never listens."

"Cut him some slack, he probably knows what he does..." Minseok laughed. "I'm surprised McGonagall hasn't said anything to him about it, yet."

"Maybe she likes him too," Luhan snickered, softening when he saw the genuine hilarity that this idea seemed to bring to Minseok. "I mean, he makes friends very easily. Did I tell you how Yifan got to know us to begin with?"

"No..."

"That was thanks to Sehun too."

"Huh? But they are two years apart! How?"

"They wouldn't tell us," Luhan snorted, propping his chin with one hand. "I suppose they weren't up to anything good when they met each other, otherwise they wouldn't have kept their mouths shut this tightly. Yifan has a childish side...he just refuses to show it to the other prefects, that goon..."

The Quidditch captain paused, blinking when he noticed that Minseok was now staring at him with an openly amused expression, his eyes twinkling brightly under the sunlight.

"What...?"

"I like it when you talk about your friends, Luhan. You're always so energetic about it, it sounds so...lively."

In an instant, everything that Luhan had ever wanted to say to Minseok gathered at his throat, clogging his breath and causing his heart to skip a beat. He thought he was about to burst, the desire to confess so strong and violent in him that his entire body seemed to burn like a sizzling kettle. This was it, this was the signal, his inner conscience screamed. Four years! How much longer was he going to wait?

"Minseok..." he finally began through his bunged up throat.

The other prefect's eyebrows twitched, then relaxed into a genuinely interested stance.

"What?"

"Can I just say something that I should have said to you since um... forever?"

"Ooh, damn." Minseok grimaced, "that sounds terrible."

"No, no. You don't have to do anything about it." Luhan assured, eyes fixed on the Ravenclaw, his mouth suddenly parched. "It's just me."

"O...kay?" the other boy laughed. "Then, shoot."

"Well, you know that..." He blocked. Oh God, he was a loser, he was useless. He hated himself. "You know, uh..."

Minseok cocked an eyebrow at him:

"What?"

"Y-you know... that you're my best friend, right?"

For a moment, Minseok simply stared at him, and Luhan watched back blankly, trying his uttermost best to get the remaining part out. Did you ever want us to be more than just best friends? The question repeated in his head like a broken phonograph, over and over, making him reel; it was such a simple question, too - straightforward grammar, one verb...Who would have thought that the English language could fail him for such a basic sentence? Or maybe he could change the query into something more fun, more casual like: 'Hey, let's go to Madam Puddifoot's Teashop together next time we go to Hogsmeade!' – maybe then he would sound less stupid, and not so much like a bloody dumbass, maybe then, Minseok would say yes...

But why couldn't he just say something?!

Once Minseok understood that there wouldn't be anything else to it, he burst into a splash of fresh, candid laughter to Luhan's despair, shaking his head in disbelief.

"You just wanted to say that?"

"Err, you don't think it's very important to let each other know that we're friends?" Luhan tried, slightly green.

"Of course, you're right. It is important." The Ravenclaw nodded, still shaken by mirth. "I totally agree that we should confirm our friendship more often...and err, of course, you are my best friend too."

"Really." Luhan smiled, though his entrails were still tied in a tight knot. He felt strangely stuffed. "I'm reassured then."

"What? Were you scared that I wouldn't feel the same?"

"Of course not! W-we're inseparable, aren't we? Four years of companionship have got to stand for something, ha ha."

"Blimey, four years, you're right...! Time flies." Minseok's eyes grew round. "It's our last year at Hogwarts already."

"You don't feel ready for it, do you?"

"Well, do you?"

"No."

He did not like thinking about leaving at all, to be honest. Most of the time, he kept the idea at the back of his head.

Minseok sighed.

"Me neither. But then again, there's already way too much to think about...The coursework, the N.E.W.Ts, and the exams for the Wizengamot...It's going to be so much pressure, and I don't know what I'm going to do if I miss it."

Luhan smirked. "If I didn't know how much you loved to study for the sake of studying, I would say your career choices make you a Slytherin."

"Oh, bollocks," Minseok chuckled again, picking up his quill again after all this time, "lots of Ravenclaws aim for highly paid jobs. Ambition isn't exclusively reserved to Slytherins, you know. That'd be ridiculous."

"Either way, I see that your Divination homework's going well."

"I'm starting, I'm starting!"

"Not much ambition in that area, eh?"

"You know I hate Divination...It's the only subject I despise."

"And you're not even bad at it. Lucky you, Mr Can-do-all."

The Ravenclaw prefect chuckled again, and the sound alone was enough to make Luhan break into a brand new grin, replenished and healed by the other boy's joy. At least he could praise himself in knowing how to keep Minseok cheerful, he thought to himself with childish pride... Short of anything better, he would happily live with that.

Or would he?

Discouraged once again, Luhan let out a bottomless sigh.

⚜

⚜

⚜

Chanyeol stumbled down the stairs from the Gryffindor Tower in a mess, his Divination textbook under his arm and his shirt very unevenly buttoned.

Trelawney was going to be vexed; this was a fact. He was late, very late, for his class and there was no way that she would be happy about this level of tardiness, but he had had a very good reason for not waking up in time. Jongdae and him had discovered a secret passageway behind the one-eyed witch statue on the third floor last week; and they had finally decided to experiment it in secret last night. Initially, neither of them were successful in getting past Filch, having to run up and down the different floors of the castle for hours on end, but eventually they managed to squeeze safely into the secret passage after throwing Jongdae's stock of exploding whizz poppers at Mrs Norris as a diversion. By then it was already nearing two o'clock. It turned out the tunnel led to Hogsmeade in the end, so it had been worth all the trouble; but waking up the next morning had been absolutely painful.

Jongdae was lucky that Divination wasn't part of his electives.

Chanyeol rushed down the spiral staircase leading to the north tower when Byun Baekhyun suddenly appeared at the bottom of the steps, the prefect looking up in his direction and blinking a few times in surprise as they recognized each other. Feathers hung onto the Slytherin's jumper and his hair was a complete mess, as if the boy had just come back from a scuffle outside...Maybe someone had just exploded a cushion at his face for meddling with other people's business, Chanyeol thought with a twinge of hope. Either way, he had no time to deal with the annoying brat just yet.

He tried shifting to the left, but Baekhyun stepped side-ways too and obstructed his path. When he stepped back towards the right, the elder boy followed his move and blocked him again, smiling like an immensely satisfied imp. Chanyeol glared into his eyes, using all his willpower just to retain himself from slamming his Divination textbook right across the prefect's nose.

He had still not forgotten the incident of the fended lip on the night of the sorting ceremony, and if there was a chance, he was definitely willing to make the Slytherin pay.

"Listen, Byun..." he started.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." the other one intercepted brightly, still looking a bit funny with his tousled hairdo. "Fancy seeing you here. With a textbook nonetheless...It's always nice to remind myself that Gryffindors do read, sometimes."

"Ha ha. That's hilarious."

"Mm, really?" Baekhyun shrugged, looking uncertain. "It wasn't meant to be a joke."

"Aren't you supposed to be in class instead of clowning around?"

"I have a free period."

He paused, eyes twinkling.

"You?"

Chanyeol grunted.

"Honestly, I'm a bit short on time, right now. If you could just sod off before I decide to kick you down the stairs,..."

"Resorting to violence won't get you far in life, brute," Baekhyun said and suddenly choked on a fake sob. "Gee, would it cut your tongue to speak to me like a normal wizard with a decent upbringing, for once? I go through all sorts of emotional trauma every time I talk to you, you coarse and unrefined man."

Chanyeol watched with horror as Baekhyun continued with his pitiful crying act.

"Stop this." he groaned. "Stop the whining. I am not in the mood for talking with you."

"What, are you in the mood for breaking my nose, then?"

This guy had to be suicidal.

"Are you asking for it?"

He pleaded God that Baekhyun would say yes. Just a nod would suffice, at least then he would have an excuse for knocking the bastard's teeth off. But the other boy simply scrunched his nose and gave him an innocent look.

"Nah...I'm okay."

"...Alright, then." Chanyeol clenched his teeth. "Off you pop."

"Ah, but you sound disappointed. You were really hoping that I'd say 'yes', weren't you?" Baekhyun teased.

Sweet Merlin.

"Byun, for the last time..."

"I guess you are in a mood for beating me up, and I understand." Baekhyun nodded emotionally, "I mean, I grant you, last time when you fell down the stairs was definitely a hilarious sight."

"Okay, that's it."

With this, Chanyeol grabbed Baekhyun from the back, one hand on his nape and the other on his collar, brutally pulling the elder boy to one side and slamming him against the wall. The prefect's eyes shot wide open, fear shining for a fraction of a second in his dark pupils, before his body slacked off against the cold hard rock. For a second, the temptation to toss Baekhyun onto the ground and stomp violently on his head until he disintegrated flashed brightly in Chanyeol's head. Then, he eventually released the boy, stepping back by a few inches as the Slytherin let off an icy chortle.

"What the Hell was -"

"Don't mess with me when I'm already pissed, Baekhyun. " Chanyeol snarled. "I told you that I will get mad, and if I do, you can be sure that you will regret it."

He turned around and picked up his fallen book, feeling slightly guilty as he thought of Luhan's admonishments if the prefect learned about this. He half-expected Baekhyun to shout after him, to yell a silly "ten points off Gryffindor for battery!", which would have been anything but surprising... But the Slytherin remained miraculously quiet while he walked off, and Chanyeol almost peeked over his shoulder with remorse, containing himself only at the last moment. Blimey, it wasn't as if Baekhyun deserved his care anyways.

He was nearing the end of the helix already when the stairs suddenly turned into a ramp, sending his book flying above his head as he slid all the way to the bottom, landing on his butt with a loud "FUCK."

He scrambled to his feet with a strangled sound, and at once, Baekhyun's evil cackles resounded against the castle walls, accompanied by quick escaping steps and the sound of squeaking shoes over the hard floor. Chanyeol finally recovered his balance and drew out his wand for revenge, but the Slytherin was out of sight already.

"You coward!" he roared. "Byun Baekhyun, come back here immediately!"

Unsurprisingly, there was no reply, and he heaved, gripping his wand so tight he thought it might break.

Then a creaking door was heard. Followed by stomping sounds and the croaky, dry voice of Filch resonating from the top of the staircase:

"What's the meaning of this ruckus, you filthy little devils? Who am I going to catch this time?!"

Chanyeol's mouth dropped open.

Oh, shit.

⚜

⚜

⚜

Kyungsoo had three types of roommates in his dormitory. The first kind, "Dumb and Proud" – Robert Archer and Florian Maddux, two brave souls with not an ounce of muggle blood in them (and not an ounce of intelligence in their bull brains either, regrettably). The second type, "The French Plague": this was the fifth year student more commonly known as François Putieux, prone to extreme grooming that involved a complete siege of the bathroom on a daily basis and entertaining solely for his coffer of French proverbs and maxims that never quite seemed to apply to the right situation. Lastly, the third type was the "Very Hazardous Leprechaun", otherwise known as specimen Byun Baekhyun. Not truly a leprechaun by height actually, considering that this roommate was actually slightly taller than himself (by a deplorable difference of a centimetre that Kyungsoo still denied every so often), but sharing many qualities with the mischief-causing creatures all the same. Secretly, the Very Hazardous Leprechaun was also called the "Tolerable One". Because no matter what terrible things could be said about Byun Baekhyun's eccentric person, 'boring company' certainly wasn't one of them. And God knows, Kyungsoo needed distraction in his life...



On that fine morning, the Slytherin spent his free period by one of the windows in Slytherin's Common Room, when Baekhyun walked in, looking slightly ruffled but unquestionably pleased with himself as he sauntered in and passed a hand over his tangled hair. Kyungsoo looked up at the sound of the wall opening and caught sight of him from the corner of his eyes.

Alert. Alert. Type three idiot approaching from the left. Take cover.

He buried his head into his book and pretended to read, but soon heard the dipping of the cushions on the sofa next to him and a second later, Baekhyun's hand pulled down his book to reveal two glinting, predatory eyes.

"Hello there." the prefect said suggestively.

Kyungsoo sighed deeply, giving up his cover to cock an eyebrow at him.

"Hey...What's up with the hair? Were you outside?"

"Yeah, I went to send a letter and came back. Your family owl," Baekhyun pointed at the scattered feathers all over his jumper, "very kindly said hi to me."

A rictus came over Kyungsoo's face.

"Did Aucturus kick your ass again?"

"You need to educate your bird better..." Baekhyun sniffed and dusted himself off. "He is an uncontainable mass of brown feathers that pecks, claws, and hates my guts. That's just a sign of bad behaviour and bad training."

"Oh, who says I didn't train him to beat you to a pulp each time he sees your face?"

Baekhyun feigned being shocked.

"You wouldn't do that to your best friend!"

"You're not my best friend."

"No, you're right. I'm your only friend."

Kyungsoo mimicked hitting him with his book, and Baekhyun simply darted out his tongue at him, which he ignored. The prefect soon leaned over his shoulder.

"So what are you reading?"

"Hmm, something boring...about...trees...and the Alps."

"If it's boring, why are you reading it?"

"To pass the time," Kyungsoo sighed genuinely, placing the book down on his legs. "Sometimes it's just so difficult to entertain yourself."

"Let's think about Christmas." the other boy grinned, a hand on his cheek.

Kyungsoo stared dejectedly at him.

"It's October."

"I know that, thank you very much. But it's never too early to think about Christmas, so what kind of present do you want this year, dear friend?"

"I don't know. I don't care... Bloody Hell, it's not even Halloween yet, how do you want me to think about Christmas gifts?"

"It's never too early to-"

"You're an embarrassment to your house, shut up."

No respectable Slytherin should be that giddy about Christmas. It was ridiculous. But suddenly, Baekhyun let out a chuckle as he sprawled himself over the sofa:

"Look. Going out to buy Christmas presents means going to Hogsmeade."

Kyungsoo turned the sentence once in his head.

"I would think it is rather the oppos-"

"Just listen to me, you little twat. Our first week-end to Hogsmeade comes right after Halloween, and our second outing, a few weeks after that...I want to buy my presents at a much more interesting place than Hogsmeade this year. We've had two years to go through all the shops in that village and we know everything that it has to offer – which is really nice, but a little short on strong emotions, don't you think? We should try something new."

"Something new, as in...?"

"As in sneaking into Knockturn Alley for example."

Kyungsoo snorted before he could stop himself. He closed the book for good and stared deeply into the elder boy's eyes.

"You'll get caught before you can put a single foot out of the village, you idiot."

"Ouch. So little faith..."

"Let's be realistic. The only two ways to go to Knockturn Alley are by floo powder or by apparating. But you are a prefect. If you parade into the Three Broomsticks and ask for floo powder to get to Knockturn Alley, you can be sure that Yifan and the other prefects will be onto you within two seconds and you'll be suspended from Hogwarts indefinitely. Secondly, apparating..."

He stopped, as an incongruous and slightly unpleasant thought crossed his mind, making him frown at the other boy with newfound interest.

"Did you study apparition without a license?"

"Err...I may or may not have."

"Seriously?"

"Shhh." Baekhyun held a finger to his lips, smiling deviously as he peeked behind him. "See what I'm saying now? A trip to Knockturn Alley is totally feasible once we get out of Hogwarts grounds, and if we're discreet, we won't even get caught. Think of all the cool stuff we could get there. The books there wouldn't be about the Alps, for one..."

Kyungsoo had to admit that he was highly tempted. On the other hand, relying on Baekhyun's untested and somewhat doubtful apparating skills did not seem like a very smart thing to do, no matter how confident the other boy seemed to be about his own talent. Plus, what would be the benefit of the effort? Buying a few innovative Christmas presents? The profits did not seem to outweigh the risks.

"Are you sure you can safely apparate into Knockturn Alley without losing a limb or leaving us in some wretched place in the middle of nowhere?"

"Hey, I mastered that theory all the way through summer vacation; even got practical advice from my brother..." Baekhyun sat up straight. "Don't you trust me?"

"Sorry. You can't blame me if some of us aren't reckless."

"That's not being reckless, that's having fun."

"I'll consider it."

"I bet you're going to chicken out at the last minute..."

"Don't be silly." Kyungsoo smirked. "If I don't take part in the plan in the first place, it can't be considered as 'chickening out' anyways."

Baekhyun was about to retort something dry, when suddenly a white ball of fur jumped at him from behind the sofa, dragging an astounded yell out of him before softly landing on the floor with an intimidating hiss. The initial surprise gone, Kyungsoo widened his eyes at the source of the commotion.

"Hydra!"

"That stupid cat of yours again!" Baekhyun tempered, holding his arm. Three angry scratch marks were now visible on his pale skin, glaring tenderly under the dim emerald lights. Unaffected by his fury, the white cat simply looked at him with disdain and mewled, hopping onto Kyungsoo's armrest to nestle herself under her laughing master's arm.

"Why are you laughing?" Baekhyun protested. "Your cat just mutilated my arm!"

"Calm down, it's just a scrape." he said. "I'll give you some of my murtlap essence later to soothe it if you want."

"That's not the point...Why do all of your stupid animals hate me?"

Under Kyungsoo's caresses, Hydra mewled again and closed her eyes, as if immensely pleased with herself.

"Hydra's a clever girl. She knows what kind of person I should hang out with and what kind I shouldn't even bother talking to."

"Clever, my ass." Baekhyun rolled his eyes. "She's just vicious."

"Be grateful she didn't scratch your face, you prick. Anyways, is the Knockturn Alley invitation still on?"

"For sure that it's still on...you're the one who doesn't want to take part in it."

"I said I'll think about it."

The prefect shrugged. "We all know what that means."

As he distractedly passed a hand over Hydra's hoary fur, the Slytherin student contemplated his options and concluded that he would go with the proposal, but only if he could be sure that Baekhyun's skills were reliable and if their backs were properly covered during the escapade. If that second part proved to be too hard to pull off, he would rather give up the plan and discourage Baekhyun from executing it altogether. It wasn't that Kyungsoo was scared of dangerous ventures in general. But he would certainly not be stupid enough to jump into them without a prudent evaluation beforehand.

He should take things slowly, he thought. As of now, the date of the first Hogsmeade outing was still far and there were already too many concerns to cogitate.



He, certainly, did not want to find himself with too much on his plate.

[Seliane]

it....only just occurred to me that it'd probably be smart for me to track this on my main account hhngh.

[Kohaku]

oh my god it's the thinggg

BBH U ASSHOLE...HECK IF I CO-AUTHORED WITH U ALL I'D WRITE MYSELF IN SO I CAN sTRANGL E...U DON'T JUST HURT PCY AND GET AWAY WITH IT I

also ksoo is such a Mood

[Natsuki]

ohoho tracking

LMAO SORRY I MADE LUHAN'S CONFESSION SO TRAGIC
....come to think of it, why are...luhan's relationships so unfortunate in all of arielle's fics?? [member=8090]Arielle[/member] do u have a grudge against him or something...?

i...that's going on my to-do list. make a compilation of just... all the tragic(ally BAD) confessions in arielle's fics asdhfjklsdjk.... i mean technically this one's my fault but... all those other times smh

[Yifan]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center][size=9pt][font=georgia]❝ EXOLLIARMUS ― CHAPTER THREE: FLYING OVERTIME. ❞

---

The Gryffindor common room was tranquil at this time of the day, conveniently sheltered from the wind outside. To safeguard against potential colds, the chimney fire had already been lit.

"They say some Death Eaters from the Second Wizarding War are still hiding from the Ministry and are trying to cause some sort of trouble close to Wales, claiming they want Voldemort back...Ten years, man! That's mad dedication, right there."

His pet lizard flattened over his head, Jongdae put down his copy of the Daily Prophet to look at Sehun and Jongin, who were playing a game of wizard's chess at the common room's round table. Next to them, Tao was curled up on a sofa, like a kitten ready to go to sleep.

"Are you guys listening?"

At this moment, the stack of exploding snap cards next to Jongin erupted at his face, causing the boy to yelp with shock, and Sehun to shoot both arms up in triumph:

"I won!"

"No fair", Jongin moped and checked his face for any burns. "That was totally not thirty seconds."

"Totally was."

"Not."

"Was."

"Not!"

"You guys still don't know how to play chess the normal way, do you?" Jongdae hummed from his couch, but the two younger wizards did not hear him, busy trying to dowse the burning cards with their sleeves. Only Sehun and Jongin could find it entertaining to use exploding snap cards as timers for chess moves. Tao suppressed a yawn.

A moment later, the hole behind the Fat Lady's portrait opened and Chanyeol dragged his feet into the common room, looking considerably drowsy and exhausted. Jongdae craned his neck to look at him while his pet diligently grabbed onto his hair.

"Hey. Ready to go for lunch?"

"Bring it on." Chanyeol yawned and stretched his arms, still depressed. "I need food to console me from this crappy day..."

"Why, what happened?"

"Oh...Trelawney gave me extra homework for being late to her class again. Now I have to read up on freaking xylomancy and tell her the different lengths and variety of twigs that I should use if I want to predict someone's love life... in a fifteen inches essay. That, and I ran into huge trouble with Filch before her class. One hair away from ending up in detention this week-end, I swear."

Jongdae pulled a mildly worried face: "Did he discover what we did to his cat yesterday?"

"No." Chanyeol shook his head. "I just had a scuffle with Byun on the staircase to the north tower earlier on and he heard us...Go figure why, he only got me, though."

"Seriously, Byun again?"

"I know." Chanyeol rolled his eyes. "It's slowly becoming a one-way bullying relationship between us, right now." he frowned. "Kind of alarming, now that I think about it..."

"You can't just let him get away with his bullshit all the time, mate. Give him back what he deserves!"

"How?"

"I see no other choice," Jongdae declared melodramatically, tossing his newspapers as he sat up straight and opened his arms, clearing his throat like the guru of a sect. "Let us revive the Destroy Byun Baekhyun club."

Immediately, Chanyeol repressed a stupid smile, but Tao simply blinked and sleepily uncurled his toes.

"What's that...?"

"Something we did when we were in second year," Jongdae let out an evil laugh, looking effortlessly silly with his lizard still on his head, "kept a notebook with prank ideas to pull on Byun Baekhyun, containing contributions from every student whom Byun has ever played a bad joke on – Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws...everyone was allowed to give contributions, even some Slytherins who had a personal grudge against him and wanted to see him bite the dust. Then Chanyeol and I would put the best ideas into action and make Byun's life a misery."

"Of course, he replied...with his own share."

"Yeah, which is why it quickly escalated and our notebook ended up confiscated by the teachers, but oh well," Jongdae grinned up at Chanyeol. "Second year was really our most productive year, I think."

"Did you all get into trouble?"

"Nah, there were too many of us. You'd be surprised by the amount of people who secretly hate Byun Baekhyun's guts." he pondered. "He's usually crazily popular amongst Slytherins and Ravenclaws. But he just..."

"...can't stop putting his dirty paws into other people's business."

"Exactly." Jongdae concluded, taking out a parchment and a quill. "So who has any contribution to make?"

"We can put in anything?"

"Sure, shoot. Anything feasible."

"Hoaxing his quill so it starts writing on his face with inerasable ink whenever he tries to use it," Jongin suggested.

"Soft, but okay." Jongdae wrote it down. "Next?"

"Light up a rocket during the next Quidditch match and set it off right beneath his seat?" Tao smiled sheepishly.

"I like!" he hollered, then looked at Sehun. "Anything from you?"

"Uhh...I don't know, man." the Gryffindor scratched his nose emotionlessly. "Fix the prefects' bathroom so that when he tries to take a bath, the water gets sucked down and leaves him naked in the middle of an empty tub." he paused. "Then tell Moaning Myrtle to go check up on him."

They all hissed, as if experiencing a heavy burn, and held their sides in hilarity when the door opened again to let Luhan in, profoundly morose and utterly defeated. In silence, the seventh year towed himself to where they sat, plopping down next to Jongin with a discouraged sound, and buried his face into his arms under their matching expressions of incomprehension.

"Um, you alright?"

"No." Luhan moaned into his arms. "Nothing's alright. Nothing's fine. Life is a misery, we were all born to die."

"Whoa, whoa, hold up there. What happened to you?" Jongdae laughed, letting his pet crawl back down onto his arm. "Are you suddenly feeling old, or did you just fail a test?"

"Hnnghneither..."

"Is this about our Quidditch team, then?" Chanyeol sat down and patted his back.

"Well, that's one thing," Luhan's head shot up, suddenly alert. "Sehun, you're definitely going to try for us next week, aren't you?"

"Uh, well..."

"Please, I'm begging you."

"Sure. If that makes you happy."

"Thank you," Luhan smiled brightly, then faltered again at the thought of his initial woes, collapsing in defeat onto the stack of snap cards left by Jongin and Sehun earlier on. The pile exploded with a loud bang and they spent the next five minutes trying to put down the fire on Luhan's eyebrows.

"Great, now, I'll have to pop a visit to the Hospital Wing..." he mumbled in front of a hand mirror.

"You're really not okay, friend...What on Earth is this about?" Chanyeol snorted softly. "Is this about Kim Minseok?"

"Hmm?"

"Is this about Kim Minseok?"

"Hmm?"

"Is this. About. Kim. Min-?"

"What are we having for lunch today?"

"So it is Kim Minseok." Chanyeol settled. "Okay, good, now at least we're heading somewhere."

"No, we aren't," Luhan broke down, staring at him with exorbitant eyes. "Don't you see? That is the problem. It's the final year I am spending here at Hogwarts and we're not heading anywhere."

Jongin, Chanyeol and Tao exchanged a sorry gaze, but Jongdae simply puckered his lip into a pout and crossed his arms.

"Your fault for not telling him."

"What do you mean it's my fault?"

"If you want to have a chance, you should simply go up to him and tell him how you feel. It's not that hard-"

"Not that hard?! Are you kidding? A huge lot of things could go wrong!"

"If you can't even man up to tell him about your feelings, how do you expect him to reciprocate?"

"Uh, excuse you, I am extremely manly!"

"Can I just say something," Tao said with an unusually small voice. "I know this is supposed to be a conversation about you and Minseok, but...I just wanted to say that I'm going to miss you when you leave Hogwarts at the end of the year."

They fell into an awkward silence, suddenly feeling amazingly stupid as Tao sat against the sofa with his legs folded and a dejected expression on his face. Luhan bit onto his lips, fiddling with his thumbs while Jongin and Sehun swapped another look between themselves. Jongdae soon cleared his throat embarrassedly.

"Maybe we should go for lunch."

"Yeah, I agree." Luhan murmured, slightly wobbly as he stood up on his feet. "I didn't get to eat breakfast, so..."

"I'll put Robespierre upstairs first."

While Jongdae walked back up to his room, his lizard in hand, Chanyeol watched the ceiling and let out a sigh. He then gave Tao a light squeeze on the back of the neck before standing up with the rest of them. Jongdae came back down very fast, and Sehun threw an arm around his shoulder as they made their way together through the opening behind the portrait of the Fat Lady. For once, the trip to the Great Hall was a quiet one.

⚜

⚜

⚜

There was only one magical thing about lessons of History of Magic with Binns: It sucked the soul out of you like a Dementor's kiss. Yifan walked out of the ghost's classroom having lost the will to live, his mind vacuumed clean of the ability to think as he threw one glance at his timetable. Muting an undignified sound at the sight of the word Divination marked upon the parchment, he rapidly tucked it into his bag again. Just one more class to go before the end of the day.

He wondered how on bloody earth he would manage not to fall asleep onto his tea leaves.

Coming out right after him, Joonmyun offered him a tired smile before yawning deeply into his hand.

"So do you have anything after this?" the Ravenclaw prefect queried into his fist.

"Um. Divination with the Hufflepuffs."

"Oh," the other boy tried a comforting expression, failing miserably at it. "t-that's not too bad."

Yifan did not bother commenting on the other boy's poor lying skills. He nodded.

"You?"

"Just Charms...I'm lucky."

"I should let you go, then." Yifan responded calmly, "we'll both be late."

"Right, I'll see you around?"

Yifan smiled.

"And good luck."

"Cheers."

He dragged himself up the Divination Stairwell whilst fighting the urge to sleep, silently hoping that the lushness of Trelawney's lair would somehow manage to wake him up from this walking slumber. But as it turned out, the incongruous tearoom did nothing to help. The chintz armchairs were too comfy. The lights too pink and intimate, and the incense too stifling. He sat down and pulled his books out with the beginning of a yawn, which he sucked back into his chest through sheer willpower – he did not look handsome when he yawned. It was not stylish.

The professor closed the classroom door with her skeletal fingers and peered intensely at them.

"Today, we shall revise the beauty of tessomancy and read your tea leaves in conjunction with your star signs and moon signs... Please find yourself a partner and sit with them."

Yifan looked around him. Bad luck, Lara Sullivan, his usual partner, was sick today.

"Are you having trouble finding someone, Mr Wu?" she approached him with her nebulous insect eyes. "Hum, I see in your stars that your partner is absent today, oh... this was fated. You shall make a life-changing encounter very soon, Mr Wu, Venus is on your side."

"Much appreciated," Yifan said sparsely, doing his best to overlook the quiet giggles around the room. "Since Miss Sullivan is absent today, maybe I should join someone else's group?"

"That won't be necessary," the professor retreated and touched her lip, still scrutinizing him through her giant glasses. "Mr Zhang," she said. "You and Mr Wu will be partners today, since Mr Browning happens to be ill too. Please take your things and move over."

Yifan cocked an eyebrow as a dazed Hufflepuff student groggily lifted his head from his book before crossing the room to sit next to him, dropping his quill, parchment and notebooks next to their tea set with a faraway look. Their gaze met and the boy gave him a hazy smile, eyes not quite focused on him. This kid looked high on knotgrass. Yifan internally contemplated whether he should be alarmed already.

"Please predict your partner's future for the upcoming week and write it down." Trelawney exclaimed suddenly, as if overtaken by an epiphany. "Neptune's axis is telling me that you should at least have eight inches of predictions written down by the end of this hour...You may begin."

"Okay, so..." Yifan started with a light cough. "Do you want to start?"

"Me?" the Hufflepuff directed a muddled yet peaceful gaze at him.

"Well yeah, you."

"Sure," the boy scratched the back of his head and poured a cup of tea for Yifan to drink, handing it to him with both hands.

Yifan took it with a quiet 'thank you' before glancing up into the boy's placid eyes.

"I'm Wu Yifan, by the way."

"Oh, right." a flash of realization crossed the Hufflepuff's eyes. "I'm Yixing. Zhang Yixing. Nice to meet you."

"My pleasure."

"Do you want any milk?"

Yifan shook his head, then downed the first cup as graciously as he could, leaving the leaves at the bottom. He swirled it just a little before handing it back to Yixing who bent over it with squinting eyes.

"Alright, erm," the Hufflepuff stared at the leaves, batting his eyelashes slowly and drowsily, making Yifan wonder whether he would doze off into his cup. "So your...your leaves look like grinning algae, which...uhhh... which means great change and felicity...And if I look this way, I see a little house, so...it has to do with your family, or erm.. marriage, I suppose. Or maybe someone in your family will get married...next week..."

Yifan felt his brows crease deeper by the minute. He emptied his second cup and handed it back to Yixing, who first looked up as if he was trying hard to remember something, then peered into the cup again and muttered some inaudible words.

"Oh and umm..." he then picked up once more. "I see a toad... so that's your third cousin."

Yifan narrowed his eyes.

"What?"

"And err... if I turn it, there's a spear-shaped thing, meaning it'll end in blood... So next week something great is going to happen to your third cousin and there's going to be a marriage, but it will end in blood...You're...a Virgo?"

"A Scorpion, actually."

"So your third cousin's marriage will end in blood...and you will be happy about it."

By now Yifan's eyebrows had fused into one single line, uncertainty plastered all over his face. He wondered first if he should feel insulted by the enormities Yixing had just managed to pull out of thin air, but then, too discouraged to pick a fight, simply picked up his quill and noted down the atrocious prediction for them both.

"Fair enough."

"Phew," Yixing sighed, putting the teacup down, before frowning softly. "I feel like I forgot something."

"No, you didn't." Yifan hurriedly said and filled a new one for them both. "Here, have it. It's your turn."

Yixing drank the tea with an equable smile and handed it back to Yifan, who closed one eye and studied the leaves carefully. The squelchy black mass stared slushily back at him from the bottom of the cup. Unappetizing.

"Alright," he began, "so there's a...a sort of moon, here..." he flipped through his copy of Unfogging the Future and looked back at Yixing apprehensively, "which means a...a drastic change in the weather next week."

The Hufflepuff across the table watched him blankly, as if staring at the wall behind him rather than him. With an uncertain cough, Yifan swirled the leaves and tried again.

"Then I also see a..." he paused, then frowned. "A club."

"Hmm?"

"A...club...which means...an attack." Yifan bit his lip, feeling slightly awkward, then handed the cup back to the Hufflepuff, who lifted his teapot for a second filling.

Once he spun the new serving, the Slytherin prefect cleared his throat. Yixing only sat there, waiting serenely with dazed and somewhat indifferent eyes. Yifan wondered if he was even listening, but he talked anyways.

"So, there is a club, which means you'll suffer an attack from something, though I don't know what...but there's also a skull, so that is danger and darkness ahead...and uh...you're a..."

"Libra."

"Meaning, you'll be dead." he paused. "Err...yeah, sorry. Rough week."

"Oh, I knew it!" Yixing suddenly cried out.

"Huh?"

"Shhh." Trelawney shot them a disapproving glare, and Yixing and Yifan approached their faces over the table.

"What do you mean, you knew it?"

"I knew I'd forgotten something," the Hufflepuff clarified slowly, covering his eyes. "God, I was sure there was something wrong, man...I forgot to take my remembrall with me...That's really stupid."

"You use a remembrall?" Yifan leaned back in his armchair with a raised eyebrow.

But Yixing only seemed deeply troubled now.

"Where did I leave it? The common room...? I can't remember..."

"Try your dormitory."

"Maybe...maybe I left it in my trunk."

"You should try to look for it after this class," Yifan said emphatically, opening his book and picking up his quill again. "We should start to look at our moon signs before she comes hovering us like an owl."

"Huh?"

"Moon signs. Trelawney. Divination class."

"Oh, yeah. Right."

"Where's your book?"

"Uhh..." Yixing glanced up, deeply concentrated.

"Never mind. Let's share...but first, write down what you've got for your prediction next week."

"Oh, right." Yixing quickly picked up his quill and dipped it into ink, placing the tip against the parchment. Then, he frowned. "What did you say was my prediction again?"

Yifan wondered when the class would end.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"This is not good. Really not good at all." Luhan murmured under his breath.

Chanyeol, who was flying on his broom right next to the chaser, glanced up to where Luhan was looking and pursed his lips. Though he agreed, he refrained from making any remark and simply tucked his bat underneath his arm in order to observe the situation. A dozen metres above them, Sehun was holding his club over his shoulder and nervously darting edgy eyes around him.

"Behind you!" Luhan shouted.

Sehun turned, and avoided the charging bludger by just a hair instead of batting it away. The Quidditch captain shook his head and flew towards him.

"You need to hit it!"

"It's hard..." Sehun muttered through tight lips.

From the other end of the Quidditch pitch, Jongdae swerved on his nimbus and slowly came to a stop at their level. "Maybe we should try a different tactic." he said.

Luhan looked at him and sighed.

"Like what?"

"We should lead him into the appropriate mind-set...create a situation. Luhan, you try to score against me. Chanyeol, you'll pretend to be the beater from my team, so you'll be trying to beat the bludger against Luhan."

"Right."

"Then, what do I do?" Sehun asked morosely.

"Protect Luhan." Jongdae said. "Does that make sense?"

Above their heads, Jongin was having his own training session in solo, pursuing the snitch at full speed with hawk-eyed focus. Sehun caught a glimpse of him from the corner of his eyes, and faced Jongdae again.

"Alright..."

"Cool, let's try it out," Luhan said, veering downwards to fetch the quaffle and recapture the bludger.

Chanyeol used the occasion to sway to Sehun's side, giving the younger boy a slap on the back and a huge grin.

"Don't be so nervous, man. It's just a try-out...We're not here to-"

"Yes, you are." Sehun said quickly. "You are here to test me."

"Um...ok, fair enough." Chanyeol scratched his nose. "But we're not here to disgust you from Quidditch forever, that's for sure."

Sehun gave him an unguarded look, briefly, and for the most fleeting instant, Chanyeol saw straight into his soul, realising that the Gryffindor was actually scared. Being a beater was daunting, Chanyeol knew that; he himself had had to take time to adjust back in third year before feeling completely at ease with the position. But for Sehun it was different – and worse, in a sense. Chanyeol was used to plough head first into things, to act before he thinks and to get hurt without thinking about consequences. Sehun was more delicate, more prudent by nature. Chanyeol knew that from when they were small, when their families would spend Christmas holidays together, as used to be their tradition, and Sehun would always be the weird kid hidden behind the Christmas turkey, morbidly silent and unimpressed by everything surrounding him.



Suddenly, Chanyeol remembered that one time when he was nine years old, and Sehun came to his house, tiny little mushroom with a bowl haircut, while he was fiddling with his guitar at home. The younger boy had pushed the door of his bedroom open, darting half a head in, looking at him soundlessly.

"Come in," Chanyeol had chimed, patting his bed. "Wanna listen? I discovered this super cool jam, the other day."

"Jam?"

"Music." Chanyeol said, smiling widely. "Come!"

Sehun came in hesitantly, still uncertain.

"You mum said we should go down for dinner."

"That's okay! It'll only take a minute! Now, where was I..."

"I've seen this kind of instrument before..." Sehun said. "Mum showed it to me when we went to the muggle market."

"It's a muggle guitar," Chanyeol grinned, tapping his treasured instrument with pride. "It does super cool music and I can do all sorts of awesome things with it without any magic. You don't even need a wand, it's crazy. I love muggle music!"

"I can see that," Sehun noted despondently, with suspicious emphasis.

Chanyeol looked around his room. There was a muggle drum set in the corner, a trumpet on the wardrobe, a recorder on his bed and posters of a muggle band called The Beatles, which Chanyeol did not know very well, but had asked his mum to buy for him because he thought they had cool haircuts.

"Just listen to this," he propped the guitar up on his legs and tried to find the tune he had been composing an hour ago, before Sehun's arrival. The younger boy listened intently for a while, but somehow, the melody did not come back to him this time, no matter how hard he tried. Chanyeol frowned, plucking the chords, but failing to produce the sounds he wanted.

"Heh? That's strange..."

"You forgot how to play?"

"Uhh...I think so."

"Stupid."

"Oi-"

"Maybe if this wasn't a muggle guitar, it would remember the tune for you." Sehun remarked distractedly, using his finger to poke at the chords.

"Maybe..." Chanyeol furrowed his eyebrows, then realised it was a good idea. "Maybe! Hey, that's actually very smart!"

"Right?" Sehun smiled a bit. "But daddy says that it's forbidden to throw magic spells on muggle objects to make them better. He says there's a whole office that works on that at the Ministry and they don't like it."

"That's okay," Chanyeol grinned. "They don't need to know, right? When I go to Hogwarts and I get my own wand in two years' time, I'll find a way to make my guitar remember what I play."

Sehun had looked amused, then he looked thoughtful.

"I wonder what house we would be in when we go to Hogwarts... Maybe we won't be together."

And his face had seemed a bit sad when he thought of this.



Back then, Chanyeol had not known that they would both be sorted into Gryffindor in the end. To tell the truth, he had almost been surprised when they really did end up in the same house. Most of their relatives who first heard of Sehun's sorting tended to be sceptical about its accuracy, seeing as the boy presented none of the brashness and bravado of a typical Gryffindor. Yet, whenever they thought of sorting him into another house, there was always something that did not quite seem to fit. Jongdae sometimes joked that Sehun was simply a Gryffindor by order of elimination.

Chanyeol, somehow, thought that this was not quite true.

"Just go at it with your guts' feeling." he said to Sehun in the end, grabbing him by the shoulder. "Don't use your head. Don't stop to think. Just hit. Hit. Hit."

"What if I hit Luhan?"

"Uhh...then we probably won't be taking you into the team. Sorry, mate."

"Urgh, if I really hit him..." Sehun turned slightly green at the thought.

"You won't. Remember, forget about stopping to think. Just hit it when you see it. Okay?"

"Are you guys ready?" Jongdae bellowed from the other end of the pitch, in front of the goals.

"Yes!" Chanyeol shouted back.

Sehun nodded uncertainly.

"Then, go!" Luhan yelled, releasing the bludger and immediately swinging off sharply into the air, quaffle under his arm, straight towards Jongdae's goal posts.

Chanyeol instantly followed suit, gaining speed to overtake him. Sehun threw them an indecisive glance, then chased after them as he brought the cleansweep closer to the ground. The bludger deviated sharply behind the goal and charged straight towards Luhan, who avoided it and twirled out of the scoring area. The ball made a full circle around the goal posts and immediately flew in Sehun's direction.

"Get it!" Jongdae shouted.

Chanyeol turned around just in time to see the younger boy take the bludger straight into his stomach, the metallic ball knocking him off his broomstick with a muffled sound. He gasped. Above them, Jongin stopped flying, gazing at them in horror.

Sehun fell towards the floor at full speed, the cleansweep diving right behind him. Luhan whipped out his wand and screamed in a panic:

"Aresto Momentum!"

At once, the boy's body stopped in mid-air, breaking the fall, then slowly descended towards the ground, depositing him onto the grass with his eyes still tightly shut. Luhan and Chanyeol immediately landed next to him to hold him up, throwing their brooms away, checking for injuries while Jongdae and Jongin caught up to bend over them.

"Is he alright?" Jongdae enquired.

"I don't know..." Luhan said, touching the younger boy's cheek. "Sehun...Hey. Sehun, can you hear me?"

"I'm okay," the boy suddenly said with a wheezing sound, as if getting his breath back after losing it for a long time. "It just...knocked the air out of me..."

"We should go to the Hospital Wing."

"No, wait..."

"Sorry, Sehun." Jongdae scratched his head. "It was my bad idea."

"No!" Sehun raised his voice, then lowered it again, looking guilty. "Sorry, just...Let me try again."

Chanyeol watched him with admiring surprise, while Luhan opened big, round eyes.

"Are you serious?"

"I want to try again," Sehun insisted, more firmly now. "Please."

"You should get yourself checked by Pomfrey..."

"After."

"Come on, let's let him." Chanyeol said with a smile. "He looks okay enough."

The younger boy gave him a grateful look, and though Luhan seemed reluctant, he finally relented after giving Sehun one last worried tap.

"Alright..." he said. "but just say so if anything hurts, okay? We're popping by Pomfrey's straight after this."

Sehun nodded and reached for his broomstick with a determined look. He picked up his bat, which had fallen a few feet away from him and dusted the dirt off his clothes, taking a deep breath as he closed his eyes. Chanyeol walked behind him and offered him a smile.

"You alright?"

"Yeah..." Sehun nodded again, without looking at him.

When Jongdae and Luhan flew back into positions, Jongin stepped towards the centre of the pitch and looked up at all of them in turn.

"I'll release the bludger again."

"Go for it!" Luhan bellowed.

The seeker lifted one finger up.

"One..." he counted loudly into the setting sun.

Luhan and Chanyeol closed their grip around their broomsticks.

"Two..."

Sehun clutched his club and lowered his head.

"Three!"

The bludger flew straight into the game, whizzing past Sehun in a jet of cold air, forcing him to close his eyes. Luhan grabbed the quaffle and made a beeline for the scoring area. Chanyeol dived in after them both and swung his club over his head as the bludger soon returned towards him. He aimed, swayed, and hit it with full force. It collided against his bat with a clang, and the bludger plunged. Luhan was straight underneath it.

"Sehun!" Chanyeol yelled.

But the younger boy was already prepared, sharply braking underneath the bludger's trajectory with his bat over his shoulder. He whacked it; the ball deviated with a whistling sound and flew back to Chanyeol, who spun on his broomstick to avoid the collision, laughing loudly as he stared at Sehun with amazement.

"You did it!" he screamed.

Luhan hurled the quaffle through the goal post and scored.

Jongdae was yelling like a shedding owl.

"You did it! You bloody did it, Sehun, that was perfect!"

From the centre of the field, on the ground, Jongin ran towards them as they flew closer to the ground, his face beaming under the crepuscular sun. Sehun still looked pale, his forehead shimmering with sweat, but he was wearing a funny expression now - a face divided between relief and aftershock. Luhan smiled at him when they stopped their brooms next to each other.

"Nice defence, there. Thanks a lot."

"Thanks, but...I- I don't know how I did it."

"At least, now we know that you can bat when you want to." he chuckled.

They gathered at the centre of the pitch, still on their broomsticks.

"We should try a few more rounds to test your offense." Jongdae prompted, now thoroughly gone past the reasonable levels of excitement.

"Are you up for it?" Luhan smiled, patting Sehun's shoulder.

The Gryffindor blinked a few times, then nodded, a small smile curving up his lips.

"Sure. Might as well try."

Chanyeol grinned. They flew up into the air again, circling the pitch to get into position.




A few yards away, from the window of a fourth floor corridor, Baekhyun glanced at the small red frames flying over the Quidditch pitch and snorted into his sleeve.

"Inane."

"What," Kyungsoo raised his head, holding his Potions books against his chest. "What is?"

"Quidditch is."

"Are you sure you're not saying this because you've never dared to try out for the Slytherin team?"

"Quidditch is not my thing," Baekhyun pouted, determinedly facing forward and leaving Kyungsoo behind. The other Slytherin smirked and shook his head.

"Chicken..."

"I heard you!"



The Halloween fest would take place tomorrow. October was finally coming to an end.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"Whoa..." Jongdae said to his plate the next morning, blinking a few times in the hope that he would see better. "Merlin. My muscles really aren't agreeing with me, today."

"Just eat." Chanyeol suggested, grabbing a pumpkin pastry and shoving it into his mouth.

The Gryffindor table, just like the other three houses in the Great Hall, had been particularly garishly decorated in honour of Halloween today. Floating pumpkins travelled leisurely across the hall, snickering and winking at occasional students. The candles had been lit and made to smell like roasted pumpkin, even though it was only eight o'clock in the morning. Travelling amongst the rows of benches, the ghosts of the castle seemed especially merry.

"Where's Tao?" Sehun asked as he plopped down on the bench across of Chanyeol and gave both of them a look, to which they replied with a shrug.

"Dunno, he was already gone when we came down."

"Weird."

"How are you feeling after yesterday's try-outs?" Jongdae grinned.

"Just very sore."

"You'll get used to it." Chanyeol beamed, chewing on a mouthful of pumpkin. "Welcome to the team, mate!"

Sehun repressed a smile and simply reached out for the bowl of porridge, serving himself a huge portion. For such a skinny body, Sehun ate a bloody hell of a lot.

"Has the mail come yet?" he asked between two servings.

At this moment, a characteristic hoot was heard and an army of wings dispersed into the hall, incoming owls flying in masses, separating in a flutter of feathers to drop their respective bundles of letters and packages. Sehun caught the plain-looking periodical dropped by one of them and happily opened it over his legs. Bartoc cooed before releasing a sealed letter into Chanyeol's lap, leaving again with bustling wings.

"Thanks Bartoc," Chanyeol called after him, and the bird barely turned to look at him. He read the letter, coming from his mother, and the regular questions that it contained, half of his pastry still hanging between his lips. Was he eating well? How were his grades? O.W.Ls exams were important ...was the workload heavy and was he keeping up with it like he should? She said hi to Sehun, by the way, and hoped that he was doing fine in fourth year. The divorce proceedings were progressing well, too. But she doubted that they would be done by Christmas.

"Sorry, sweetie." she said in her letter.

But Chanyeol chewed on his lower lip and simply folded the letter back into its envelope.

"My mother says hi," he then said to Sehun.

But the younger boy seemed deeply engrossed in an article concerning some weird, purple drink with black round balls at the bottom. After scrutinizing the layout of the magazine for a long time, Chanyeol suddenly realized that it wasn't a wizard periodical, but an ordinary muggle magazine.

"You managed to get muggle magazines delivered to Hogwarts?" he blurted out automatically.

"Hmm?" Sehun looked up, then down at his reading. "Oh. No. It gets delivered home. But my mum sends it back to me with her owl every two weeks so I can read it."

"Oh, I see."

"It's got loads of interesting stuff...A lot of fashion advice, too. Though with the robes, it's hard for me to be creative, I have to say."

"What the hell is that?" Chanyeol pointed at the editorial with the satanic drink.

"His latest favourite." Jongdae answered for him through a mouthful of croissant.

"Which is...?"

"Bubble tea," Sehun said lightly, as if it was evident that Chanyeol should know about all his recent cravings, "a muggle invention."

"Ah."

He then screamed outright:

"Ahhh! So that is what Bubbles's name is all about!"

"Took you long enough to figure that one out." Jongdae cuckooed.

"You mean to say you knew about bubble tea?"

"Uh, muggle parents, remember? It's an Asian thing."

"And the best thing," Sehun's eyes widened slightly at the thought of the drink, turning a page of his magazine, "Muggles do come up with some brilliant stuff sometimes. I could drink bubble tea forever and not have any complaints. The bubbles are really chewy and sweet, and you can add in grass jelly as well..."

"Sounds really funny," Chanyeol mused, still munching. "But surely, wizards could make it even better by altering it with some magic, right? Think of all the stuff you could do. For example...they could make bubbles that explode in your mouth when you bite into it!"

"They already have it."

"They do?"

"It's called popping boba." Sehun explained. "You bite into it and it pops to let out different flavoured juice."

"Okay, but what if they made it so that it pulverizes your palate-"

"Why the bloody hell would you want it to pulverize your palate?"

"Guys!" Jongin ran in with a dark look on his face. "We've got a problem."

They turned to look at him, Chanyeol swallowing by force before frowning at the younger Gryffindor.

"What?"

"It's Tao," Jongin explained, squeezing their arm and lowering his tone when he saw the other students starting to ogle them. "He asked me to come and get you instead of helping, so at least get up quickly...!"

"Why? What happened...?" Jongdae dropped his croissant and hopped off his bench. At the sound of Tao's name, they had all straightened up, alert, ready to destroy anyone who would have possibly caused harm to the emotional Gryffindor – Tao just had that effect on them, sometimes.

"Did something happen to him?"

Jongin nodded, already spinning around towards the exit of the Great Hall and running towards it.

"It's Byun Baekhyun, again," he called back.



Throwing the rest of his pastry into his pumpkin juice, Chanyeol jumped out of his seat and seized his wand immediately.

He had never run faster in his entire life.

[Luhan]

[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 FOUR: DOWN WITH THE BUBOTUBERS. ❞

---

Chanyeol wasn't quite sure what he had expected when he entered the antechamber connecting the main gates to the Great Hall, but it certainly wasn't this. Tao and Baekhyun were having a calm little chat by the giant hourglasses belonging to each house, with Tao's back turned to them and the Slytherin's hand on his shoulder. Behind the two of them, Kyungsoo stood against the wall, looking quite frankly bored and a tad dismayed. Baekhyun was laughing with smiling eyes, as if trying to get a good look of Tao's face. He seemed perfectly friendly.

And then Chanyeol noticed it. He noticed the fluffy thing dangling down from Tao's trousers, and the two little mounds shaking in his hair.

Tao had cat ears and a tail.

"Fucking hell...!" he shouted.

Baekhyun jumped; Tao jolted and turned around, facing them...and Chanyeol's jaw dropped on its own, not believing what the Slytherin had done. Tao was now a true kitten, his eyes slanted, shining with a golden shade of yellow, long whiskers fluttering with anguish. His fluffy black ears trembled when he tried to speak but only let out a small mewl instead. Jongdae brutally burst into blasphemies and lashed out with his wand at once.

"I'm going to fucking kill you two!"

"Woops," Baekhyun bit his tongue, the hilarity obvious on his face, "here comes trouble!"

"Damn you, Baek, I told you this was stupid." Kyungsoo gritted his teeth. But Jongdae had already directed his wand straight at him, shouting: "Lacarnum Inflamari!"

Kyungsoo bashed the hex away with one shielding spell and immediately fixed his wand back on him:

"Flipendo!"

The bright light hit Jongdae in the chest and knocked him backwards onto the ground. Around them, some Ravenclaw students screamed and ran away.

"Quick, someone call the prefects!" someone shrieked.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Kyungsoo intoned before Jongdae could stand up, and the Gryffindor fell back again, incapable of moving a muscle. Jongin slashed out his wand at him, eyes burning: "Stupefy!" Baekhyun pushed Kyungsoo down to avoid the hit, and they both slid against the cold hard ground, knocking against the Hufflepuff hourglass. Tao threw himself against the wall with a terrified mewl. Chanyeol felt the fury rise to his brain.

"Byun Baekhyun, you wanker!" he raged, but the Slytherin had already stood up and pointed his wand at a small pebble on the ground.

"Waddiwasi," he declaimed and the pebble shot at Chanyeol's forehead, who ducked. Behind him, Sehun cried out in pain. Far from surrendering, Chanyeol aimed for Baekhyun and cursed, but the elder boy blocked his jinx and scurried towards the staircase. He immediately swished the wand again and shadowed the first spell with a second hex. This time, the yellow light hit Baekhyun in the shoulder and the prefect fell to the ground with a gasp, then slowly tried to scramble back to his feet. Before Chanyeol could hit him with a third hex, Kyungsoo stepped in with a murderous glare:

"Silencio!"

For a second, Chanyeol was sure that the spell had hit him and he helplessly gaped, expecting his tongue to have gone completely numb.

But nothing happened.

With a jolt, he suddenly realised that Jongin had deflected the incantation away from him with a spell of his own, making Kyungsoo open wide, astonished eyes at the two of them. The Slytherin backed up. His anger redoubled, Chanyeol threw himself forward with a furious snarl. The struggle continued, hexes flying across the walls and over the air. By now, even Peeves had flown into the entrance hall to jeer at their fighting, screeching stridently through the hallways with unrestrained joy. They were out of control.

"Stop it! Stop this madness, you goons, get off each other at once!"

Luhan's voice was louder and angrier than Chanyeol had ever remembered it to be, but too busy to avoid the enchantments coming from Baekhyun's wand, he barely looked back enough to catch a glimpse of the prefect charging at him with Minseok and Joonmyun at his heels. Ignoring them, he continued to aim at Baekhyun's head while Jongin flung red lights all over the place. If I can just get one hit at this weasel's stupid face... It would be worth at least all the points of Gryffindor and his savings for a month.

"Stop fighting!" Minseok screamed as he came to grab Jongin's arm, deviating one of his tongue-twisting spells towards the sky. "This behaviour is shameful! Stop it!"

Joonmyun was skittering on his toes:

"Park Chanyeol, Byun Baekhyun, if you don't stop I will be taking off points...!"

"Nobody fucking cares!" Chanyeol roared.

He bent forward just in time to avoid the purple light coming from Baekhyun's wand, then aimed for a punch in the good muggle-fashioned way – right in the Slytherin's stomach. Baekhyun buckled, then wrathfully jagged his wand at Chanyeol's chin, only to be stopped by Luhan's arm as the prefect pushed them away from each other through sheer physical force.

"I asked you to stop this idiocy... at once!"

Baekhyun stumbled a few steps backwards, bumping into Kyungsoo, and scoffed disdainfully.

"Hey, back off, princess!"

Luhan whipped out his wand the very next second.

"What did you say?! I'm the manliest of all men!"

"Oh Merlin, Luhan..."

The Gryffindor prefect leaped into the fight before Minseok could move a single finger to stop him.

"For Heaven's sake – LUHAN!" the Ravenclaw cried out in consternation. But the other seventh year's reason had already vanished in the middle of leg-binding curses and tickling charms.

For a good five minutes hexes flew, punctuated by fuming shouts from Minseok and exclamations from Joonmyun as the two prefects endeavoured to pull the fighters away from each other, in vain. Tao tried to claw at them with his little paws, but incapable of uttering any human word, his wand was of no use to him. On the floor, Jongdae barely stirred.

It was only when Yifan flew in with Professor Slughorn and Professor Jung behind him that they stopped, separated by a flash of white light coming from the younger professor's wand.

Chanyeol toppled backwards and hit the wall.

By now, his ears had been enlarged to the size of a Frisbee, and Baekhyun had a bleeding lip coupled with a sticking charm on both legs. Kyungsoo's hair had been reduced to a nest of puffskeins and Sehun had a bruise as big as a fist on his forehead. Jongin was still relatively intact, apart from a deformed left arm ruined by a fungus charm that had initially been thrown at his face, but which he had blocked using his forearm. Luhan and Minseok looked at each other, still breathless, then contemplated the teachers' flabbergasted faces. The Gryffindor prefect finally seemed to realize where he was.

"What's the meaning of this?" Slughorn inquired, too shocked to be properly angry. "Have you lot gone mad? And you, Mr Lu...! Mr Kim...!"

"Professor, we..."

"You're prefects! How can you three be embroiled in a student fight like this...? Thirty points off Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, for each and every single one of you!" then he looked at Baekhyun in resignation and added: "And off Slytherin, too."

"We tried to stop them, though." Joonmyun piped in quietly before staring down at the floor, utterly discouraged. Next to him, Minseok was still fuming into his palms.

Professor Jung took a step forward with his wand still drawn. Unlike Slughorn, he was perfectly calm.

"What happened to you?" he asked gently, nodding towards Tao, who raised bright, horrified cat eyes at him.

A sort of moan-like mewl escaped his lips, and Chanyeol could not take it anymore.

"Byun did this to him."

"Mr Byun?" Slughorn reacted, downright astounded. "This can't be...Mr Byun is such a respectable student habitually, he would never-"

"He did."

"Is this true...?" Jung inquired softly, still studying Tao's whiskers.

Baekhyun explained politely.

"It was a Halloween prank, professor. Nothing harmful."

"Nothing harmful, my ass!" Chanyeol roared.

"Language." Yifan stressed, eyes shut.

"It's easily reversible," Baekhyun countered flatly, raising his wand at Tao to prove it: "Finite Incantatem."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Tao's whiskers began to shrink, his ears and tail disappeared, and his eyes returned to a normal shade of hazel brown. Baekhyun shrugged, smiling lightly. "See?"

"Don't give me that smile, Byun, you transformed him into a freaking cat..."

"It was just an innocent prank."

"But not a very funny one," Professor Jung said pointedly, his hand falling heavily onto the prefect's shoulder. "Mr Byun, as a fifth year and a prefect, you should have known better than to transform one of your underclassmen into a cat. I know it's Halloween, but I'm afraid this is beyond what is acceptable as a playful prank. Mr Do?"

"Yes?" Kyungsoo looked up grimly, his hair still erupting.

"Did you participate in the realization of this trick?"

"No, he didn't." Baekhyun answered before Kyungsoo could open his mouth. "He flatly told me that it was stupid, actually."

"Well, then. Mr Byun, you'll be the only one to find yourself in detention." Professor Jung smiled. "One week of detention under my discretion, starting tomorrow, and ending next week-end after the Hogsmeade outing."

"After the Hogs..." Baekhyun's eyes widened. "Wait-!"

"Who started the fight?"

Chanyeol, Sehun and Jongin considered Jongdae, who was still struggling hopelessly on the floor, then exchanged a doubtful look.

"I did, professor." Chanyeol finally muttered.

"Detention with Mr Byun," Jung declared with finality. "I shall see you two in my office tomorrow at seven sharp."

Without sparing them another glance, he left, and Professor Slughorn soon followed whilst shaking his head, before giving Baekhyun another helpless look, as if sorry that he could not do anything for him. Yifan heaved out a heavy sigh, stopping to exchange a discouraged glance with Minseok and Joonmyun, then suddenly reached out to pet Tao's head out of the blue. He then turned around under the underclassman's stupefied gaze and paced off without any further explanation.

Glued to the ground, Baekhyun was still looking terribly outraged, not so much by the loss of points, but by what Professor Jung had said.

"The Hogsmeade outing!" he cried out, staring at a face-palming Kyungsoo. "I can't believe he decided to put a detention right on that day!"

"Had special plans for Hogsmeade, Byun?"

"None of your business!" Baekhyun snapped back, and Chanyeol restrained himself from strangling him altogether. "God...I can't believe I'm going to be stuck with you in his office for seven days straight, now. What an unlucky day..."

"You've got nerves, to say that after you've transformed Tao into a cat!"

"Hey, I said it was joke. I wasn't going to leave him like that for the whole day," Baekhyun scrunched his nose under Kyungsoo's appalled scrutiny, "maybe just the morning..."

"Baek, I think you better shut up."

"You're not any better," Jongin suddenly stepped forward, glaring at the second Slytherin.

Kyungsoo looked sincerely shocked by the sudden attention.

"What?"

"You raised your wand on Jongdae when he was still on the floor." Jongin stated heatedly. "He was already struggling to stand up, but you threw a hex at him before he could move. That's just cowardly."

"He attacked me first. Not to mention that you're in no position to make a comment like that, you were the worst... What kind of person tries to stun their adversary during a mere student scuffle? I'm not a dark wizard, or something."

Jongin blushed.

"It was a reflex..."

"But stunning? Seriously?"

"Guys," Minseok said, dangerously calm. "Let me remind you that Jongdae is still lying on the floor, here, waiting for you to lift his jinx up, so Do Kyungsoo, you better free him immediately. And you, Jongin, you might want to get those fungi checked by Pomfrey. Byun Baekhyun, do something about Chanyeol's ears."

"If he allows me to lift my shoes off the ground..."

"Don't try me." Minseok warned, and though he looked mostly like a steaming Chinese bun, even Luhan took a step backwards. "I think we've all lost enough points as it is. So do what I say and get lost."

They obeyed in silence and then scampered with a few last complaints, leaving him, Joonmyun, and Luhan alone in the emptied hallway. The eldest prefect then passed a hand through Luhan's messed up hair, letting out a groan.

"You hot-headed idiot."

Luhan thought he might as well be buried six feet underground by now, red as a tomato. In the interim, Joonmyun observed them from the side, silent but attentive. At last, he rolled his shoulders and sketched a helpless smile.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"You troll-brained goon." Kyungsoo cursed violently, and next to him, Baekhyun puckered his lips in what he hoped would be a vexed expression.

"You're so stupid, so damn stupid, I can't believe I'm still bothering with you."

"Alright, alright, I got it already," Baekhyun sighed, rearranging their telescope so that it faced the right direction. He puffed into his scarf, the cloud of hot air dissolving gently into the biting cold...he had always hated the Astronomy Tower. "It was a silly idea," he moped. "I admit it."

"Brainless tit."

"You don't have to be so mad at me, geez, you're not the one who ended up in detention."

Kyungsoo threw him a glare that seemed to say 'shut-the-fuck-up-or-I'll-hex-the-living-shit-out-of-you", and Baekhyun obediently opened their Astronomy textbook, flipping through it to get to the right page. Next to them, some of the Slytherins who had heard of the fighting this morning exchanged a few giggles while peering at them. Baekhyun rolled his eyes and handed the book to Kyungsoo, who was twiddling with the telescope, his eyes focused on the lens.

"Here."

"What?" Kyungsoo spat.

"The constellation, for Christ's sake. Stop being angry."

"I know what the constellation is. Found it already." Kyungsoo responded, though he took the volume from Baekhyun's hand and scanned the page. "Yeah, Cassiopeia. As I thought."

"Already?" Baekhyun beamed.

"Here, have a look."

The prefect did as his friend told and skidded over, staring into the lens. He saw nothing.

"Where is it?"

"On the right, the W shaped one."

"Whoa. It's even bigger than I thought." He blinked. Then smirked: "Heh. That's what she said..."

"You're fucking dumb."

"Are you still mad at me?"

"Yes."

Baekhyun sighed once more, leaving the telescope to lean over the edge of the tower, contemplating the void below as the navy curtains of the night stretched out before them. Behind him, Kyungsoo was flicking rapidly through the pages, taking down notes and drawing diagrams in quick, successive movements. He spoke up when the younger boy stood up again.

"My bad, Kyungsoo. I promise I'll be more careful next time."

"Whatever made you think it was a good idea, anyways?" the other boy replied with a hint of dismay. "If we'd found him in an empty corridor by the dungeons, I'd understand...but right next to the Great Hall, in front of everyone-"

"I like drama, you should know that by now, my friend."

"Oh, so choosing Huang Zitao was only for dramatic effect, was it?"

"Of course! He looked so cute, on his way back from the lakeside...Just like an adorable little kitten. How could I resist?"

"Hmm. Some could swear that you're just picking on their group on purpose."

"Whose group?" Baekhyun's brows jumped, confused.

"Park Chanyeol's."

"Oh. Well." the prefect blinked, smiling a little. "Him and his friends are always so quick to retaliate. It's the funniest thing."

Kyungsoo exhaled.

"That's not what I meant."

"I know what you meant. But you're getting ahead of yourself, friend, that's what I think. What's our next constellation?"

"Hydra."

"Err, your damn cat?" Baekhyun grimaced. And at last, Kyungsoo showed a smile.

"No, idiot. The stars."

"Sometimes, I still wonder why you decided to name your pet after a multi-headed monster that is supposedly impossible to kill."

"Cooler than to name one's owl after some vulgar muggle means of transportation."

Baekhyun gasped with indignation:

"Scooter is a very cool name!"

"Right. Just get up and find me these damn stars already. I found Cassiopeia, now it's your turn."

Baekhyun mumbled some improprieties and positioned himself in front of the telescope, moving it a few steps before adjusting the lens.

"Can you talk to me the while I look for it, then? I'll get lonely otherwise..."

"What the hell."

"Please, Kyungsoo, my friend, my beloved, my one and only..."

"I had scruples before those appellations, but now that you mention it, no."

"Just read me the textbook, then. Come on, make me happy and indulge the brainless fool that I am..."

Kyungsoo picked up the textbook with a sigh while Baekhyun smirked in triumph.

"The constellation Hydra is one of the largest known to wizards and stretches over 1303 square degrees and 100 degrees in length. Shaped like a giant serpent, it is often related to the Greek mythological water monster sharing the same name, Lernaean Hydra, described as the guardian of the entrance to the underworld and possessing multiple heads. The constellation has one bright star named Alphard, or Alpha Hydrae..."

"More enthusiasm, please."

"...and another called Epsilon Hydrae. Do you want me to kill you?"

Baekhyun beamed into his scarf.

"I love you."

Kyungsoo stopped reading altogether, then bit down on his lip and violently smacked his friend on the back of the head.

⚜

⚜

⚜

Baekhyun arrived at the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom at seven sharp, only to find it locked with a note stuck on the door:

Detention students: please find me directly in Greenhouse number four.

Cheers.

- Jung Yunho

Puzzled, he strolled down to the designated greenhouse and found Park Chanyeol already present amidst the squirming roots and sleeping mandrakes, thick leather gloves in hand and goggles hanging on his nose. Professor Jung loomed behind him.

"Ah, Mr Byun," the teacher smiled at him. "Glad to see you found my note, I was starting to get worried. Here, take these. You'll need them."

Baekhyun caught the leather gloves, studying them briefly before looking up at Chanyeol's face. The younger boy looked thoroughly horrified to be here, and when Baekhyun glanced behind him, he caught sight of a whole army of giant bubotubers lined up in enormous pots on the tables behind, their shiny bulbs pulsating disturbingly under the enchanted lights. An overwhelming sense of dread mounted in his chest as realization dawned on him. He gulped.

"Um, professor..."

"Yes, I'm sure you're still familiar with bubotubers from your lessons back in fourth year. Professor Sprout told me that she taught you how to collect bubotuber pus...so this is what you're going to do for today."

"Collect...bubotuber...?"

"Pus. Yes, exactly."

"From all of these?" Baekhyun had tried to say this in an indignant tone, but the noise which somehow emanated from his mouth was a sort of moan sounding pathetic even to himself. Even Chanyeol cocked an eyebrow at him, but hey, Baekhyun thought; he was in no position to talk about dignity.

Professor Jung looked at the whole flotilla of bubotubers lined up behind him – Merlin, there were at least eighty; Baekhyun paled – and laughed openly.

"Well, yes. Your detention ends whenever you finish the entire plot."

"Can we use magic?" Chanyeol asked.

"Of course not," Jung was categorical, "actually, now that you mention it, I shall collect your wands and give them back to you once you're finished."

Baekhyun glared at Chanyeol in consternation as he handed his wand to the professor.

Very smart, you witless chump of a Gryffindor, very smart.

The Gryffindor looked slightly mortified at his own mistake. But Professor Jung was delighted.

"Alright, this is great!" he said, slipping their wands into his pocket. "I'd promised Professor Sprout that I'd help her with this collection to increase her stock, but never got around to doing it...so you two are now going to help me hold my promise, while serving your detention. Perfect. This is what they call 'two birds with one stone'."

"Are we just going to be doing your dirty work for an entire week, professor?" Baekhyun inquired glumly.

"What a nice way to put it," Jung smirked, heading towards the door. "Ring the bell over there when you're done. I'll come back to check on you then...Good luck!"

He shut the door to the greenhouse behind him, and Baekhyun immediately gaped at Chanyeol, his gloves still in hand.

"He is evil...!" he exclaimed in a whisper.

"You're not much better," Chanyeol simply retorted, then turned towards the first bubotuber with his vial pressed below a particularly huge protrusion. "You take over that side of the plot, this way we'll finish faster."

"Oh, are we going for the 'ignoring-each-other-to-work-better' tactic, now?"

"Was there ever another option?" Chanyeol glanced at him.

Baekhyun did not like it. He did not like not having the last word at all.

Sticking out his chin, the prefect grabbed an empty vial and pushed it against the same bubotuber that Chanyeol was working on. The younger boy snarled at him:

"What are you doing?"

"Surely, working together would yield better results; never heard of teamwork, you brute?"

"This isn't teamwork, this is just you being in the way of my work, idiot."

"It's faster this way."

"No, it's not! I can't even move my arms, get your own...!"

Baekhyun pursed his lips when the other boy pushed him away, then reached out, grabbed the biggest bulb from the plant in front of him and squeezed it violently in Chanyeol's face. The pus shot straight at the boy's robes, forming a huge, revolting yellow stain on the front of his shirt that reeked of gasoline. Baekhyun burst out laughing while the Gryffindor exploded:

"Byun Baekhyun, you fucking...!"

"Woops, sorry. You were right, working separately would be a better idea."

"I swear on McGonagall's fitted chignon, if I had my wand with me right now..."

"You talk too much, we'll never finish, at this rate!" Baekhyun snapped quickly, hiding his smile behind one of the plants to shield himself from any potential attack from the angered Gryffindor. He could hear the other boy grumble swearwords under his breath, briefly trying to get the stain off his clothes, but without success. A simple Scourgify would have done the trick in normal times, but without a wand, the smell of petrol would have to haunt him for the rest of the detention.

Baekhyun wished he was sorry, but this was way too funny for him to be.

"You're a fucking nightmare, Byun, I hope you're proud of yourself."

"I am quite proud of myself, thanks for mentioning it."

"How do you even have friends?"

Baekhyun quickly thought about it. In all honesty, he was popular, but his real friends were scarcer than one could expect. People flocked around him, left, then came back again. He did not mind. Pushing the thought aside, he shrugged and started squeezing another bulb, smiling.

"I wonder too...Kyungsoo often says I'm insufferable. Talking about Kyungsoo, I wonder what he's doing right now."

"You're usually stuck together, you should know."

"Meh, he sometimes leaves me in the middle of nowhere and disappears for hours on end. No idea what he's doing."

There was a silence on the other end of the room.

"You sure he's not breaking some school rules or stirring trouble..."

"Urgh, you Gryffindors and your house discrimination." Baekhyun snorted, bending his neck to throw a disdainful look at him from across the table. "As soon as a Slytherin does something, you're like – he must be on his way to become the next Voldemort, what a terrible guy, he's wicked..."

"Alright, alright," Chanyeol backtracked, looking genuinely embarrassed, "I'm sorry."

"As if all the criminals in history were Slytherins..."

"I said I'm sorry, geez. You're right. I shouldn't judge..."

As he said so, he lowered his head and turned his attention to a trickily placed corm, his expression soon shifting from self-consciousness to deep focus. Baekhyun observed him for a while, then retreated back behind his own bubotuber.

One had to admit that Park Chanyeol had been gifted with good looks. The boy had height on his side, large eyes, a small face, and a very sensual mouth that Baekhyun sometimes thought he might even be jealous of. He himself was rather short and sleazy-looking for his age – traits he had to blame his father's side of the family for. He relied on personality and charm, not outward appeal... But Chanyeol was naturally handsome, effortlessly so – something which was not really fair, considering they were both going through the same stages of puberty together.

Then, Baekhyun reminded himself that Chanyeol had not always been like this, really, and that back in first year, the boy had been nothing short of overweight, with glasses awkwardly hanging on his nose. It was only after the start of third year that the boy had begun to grow vertically instead of horizontally...And damn, did he grow vertically. Baekhyun rolled his eyes.

Ah, the wonders of puberty.

"Byun," the other boy suddenly said, making him blink.

"Err...Yes?"

"Do we have a rack to put the vials in?"

"Errr...." Baekhyun hesitated, then looked into the closest drawer, not wanting to say that he did not know. "Ah, yes. Here, take one."

He lifted up the rack and held it towards Chanyeol so that the younger boy could come over and take it. But when the Gryffindor reached out to grab it with his gloved hands, he pulled back his arm.

"Wait," he said with a frown.

And Chanyeol glowered.

"What now?"

"You keep on saying Byun, but that makes me sound old." Baekhyun said. "I don't like it."

"What do you want me to do about that? It's your last name!"

"You could call me Baekhyun," the Slytherin snorted simply. "I don't hear you calling Yifan "Wu"."

"Well, Yifan is my friend." Chanyeol stared at him pointedly. "Yifan doesn't play dirty pranks on Tao. Yifan doesn't make me slip down steep staircases either."

"Alright, alright, do what you want," Baekhyun scoffed, tossing the rack into the air and turning around.

He saw Chanyeol catch it just in time, looking at it in relief before shooting him another glare. Baekhyun was already back at his working desk when he heard the Gryffindor mutter between gritted teeth.

"Thanks, by the way."

Baekhyun smiled with satisfaction.

"You're very welcome... Man, we're never going to be done at this rate. I swear that Professor Jung is just a sadist."

"And it's only our first detention..."

"Ugh, kill me now."

"This is all your fault to begin with, so stop complaining. Seriously, transforming Tao into a cat..."

Baekhyun repressed a smile and shrugged:

"I know right, what's so good about cats anyways."

He had said this in a perfectly casual tone, but suddenly the other boy raised wide, flabbergasted eyes at him:

"Cats are great!" he exclaimed.

"Ugh, no. They scratch, claw, and are picky creatures, not even loyal to their masters."

"They're independent."

"And dogs are loyal. They're obedient." Baekhyun pointed out. "Worth raising."

"Oh, because that's all matters to you, of course. You just need someone to be at your feet, ready to take your every order..."

"Dogs are also affectionate," Baekhyun interrupted, puffing his chest out. "They are playful, gentle and cuddly."

Chanyeol took a step backwards, looking slightly shaken.

"Cuddly."

Baekhyun suddenly realised with horror what he had said.

"I mean..."

"Cuddly, huh." now a shrewd grin split the other boy's face in half.

"I didn't mean..."

"Never thought you'd be that type, Baekhyun. So is that your little secret...? Troublemaker Byun Baekhyun is actually just a big softie who's hungry for warm and snuggly cuddles?"

Baekhyun rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Whatever... Just like your cats for all I care."

"Hmm, I'll keep that in mind." Chanyeol snorted through his nose. "So, how many bubotubers have you done already?"

"Umm...one."

"Are you kidding?"

"You keep on talking, I can't multi-task!" Baekhyun groaned.

"Then what have I been doing all this time?! Blimey..."

"If you think you're so capable, just do the entire plantation, be my guest."

"And let you get away with your incompetence? No way in hell."

Baekhyun glared at him for a moment, then abruptly leaned over the table, grabbed a bulb at random and shot its pus at Chanyeol's back, who yelled and span around with bewilderment.

"For fuck's sake, Baekhyun!"

"Are you guys working well?" Professor Jung suddenly opened the door to the greenhouse with an inquisitive smile.

They immediately jumped back to their respective bubotubers and looked down at their hands, thoroughly engrossed in their work.

"Yes, professor." Baekhyun chimed as seriously as he could.

Professor Jung simply observed the pus on Chanyeol's robes for a long time, then looked at Baekhyun, who hid his face behind the shadow of his pot, and finally left the room without another word. The Slytherin and Gryffindor raised their heads prudently, exchanging a quick glance, then slowly returned to their task in obedient silence.

⚜

⚜

⚜

Kyungsoo put the uninteresting book on dragons back in place, glancing behind him to check that there was no one else in the library watching him. The rows of shelves around him were completely silent. He was alone.

Pulling out his wand, he discreetly flicked it over his own head and murmured the incantation of the disillusionment charm, staying immobile as he waited for the trickling sensation to fall over his shoulders, then down to his legs, and finally his feet. Once he was certain that he had become more or less invisible, he scurried towards the restricted section, lifted the red rope and rapidly slipped underneath it.

The wall he was looking for was all the way at the back of the section, a plain, barren wall with no shelves and no paintings to decorate it. Kyungsoo had discovered it in fourth year, when he realized that from outside, the restricted section had five windows, but when he was asked to fetch a book for his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in said section back in third year, he had only counted four. Since then, Kyungsoo had frequently tried to sneak into the forbidden area, tapping the wall at the back of the section for some sort of secret passage, and had finally found the opening spell after a year of trial and error.

"Ianuam Aperi." he whispered to the wall, his palms spread over it.

The rock slowly disappeared, revealing a whole new room full of bookshelves behind it, obscure, uninviting and eerily cold. Kyungsoo checked the time, he had approximately five minutes if he did not want to be late for dinner. Baekhyun would probably wonder where he had gone but he would manage to invent an excuse – he always did. Swiftly lighting up his wand to scan through the different bookshelves, he rapidly arrived at the last row, picking up a small, pocket-sized book with a black leather cover. At his touch, the front cover illuminated with golden letters, showing him the simple word: "Ameliorations". He tucked it into his bag and scampered out of the secret room, making sure that the rock wall was safely closed behind him.



When he arrived into the Great Hall ten minutes later, Baekhyun immediately raised his head and waved energetically at him.

"Oi, over here!"

Kyungsoo grimaced at the volume of the call and paced towards him, his bag over his shoulder. The tables were already overloaded with food, the students eating and chatting amongst themselves with their plates full. They were having roasted lamb tonight.

"No need to shout," he said as he sat down next to Baekhyun and pulled his plate over. "I saw you already from over there."

"You could say thanks, I saved a place for you." the prefect scoffed, before reaching for the pumpkin juice. "Where were you anyways?"

"None of your business."

"I was looking for you in the dorm, but you weren't there," Baekhyun turned, and for a second, a glint flickered in his eyes, making Kyungsoo shudder. He held his gaze.

"So?"

"So, I asked people where you were, but no one had seen you leave. Guess you really are unnoticeable, friend." the elder boy snorted, returning to his goblet, and Kyungsoo inwardly let out a sigh of relief. He picked up his knife and fork.

"Better be discreet than outright obnoxious."

"Oh, I would beg to differ."

"I know you'd beg to differ, but that's why you're obnoxious. How are detentions going with Park Chanyeol?"

The change of subject seemed to be a success, because Baekhyun instantly shrugged and returned to his plate with an uninterested tone.

"Not bad. If you don't think about the amount of crap we have to put up with...literally."

"Lite...what?" Kyungsoo frowned.

"Repotting geraniums. Dragon manure. What a drag." Baekhyun explained, then suddenly smirked. "Were you doing something naughty in secret; is that why you were late?"

"What? N-no! I was finishing up my essay for Ancient Runes in a study room on the fifth floor."

The prefect nodded in comprehension, then suddenly grinned, lunging side-ways to grab his bag.

Kyungsoo internally panicked.

"Give that back, you moron...!"

Baekhyun cocked an eyebrow, but the headmistress lifted her goblet at the same moment, asking for silence in the hall. Baekhyun immediately turned his attention to her, lowering his arms, and Kyungsoo seized the opportunity to snatch his bag back, sighing in relief before glancing up at the teachers' table too. McGonagall was now towering above them with her goblet and spoon still in hand, waiting calmly as quietness settled down across the hall. She was smiling. Rare sight. Kyungsoo felt his eyebrows crease.

"No need to look so serious," she soon said to everyone, smirking a bit as she saw their confused expressions. "This isn't a drill. As you know, this week-end, your first Hogsmeade outing will take place - for those of you who have the permission to go and are in third year or above. Then, as you also know, your second outing comes four weeks after that, and two weeks after that, your winter vacations."

A few cheers erupted from the Gryffindor table, and Kyungsoo turned to see Luhan smack Kim Jongdae and Park Chanyeol violently on the back of the head. A few people laughed and McGonagall simply chuckled – yet another rare sight...She must have been in a really good mood tonight, Kyungsoo thought.

"You might be laughing carelessly now," she suddenly said, "but ten years ago, at this very moment in time, no one in Hogwarts could think about Christmas. Our school was going through a colossal crisis back then, as you all know from your parents or your elder siblings: Hogwarts was about to go to war. Ten years ago, there were no festivities and no cheers of joy in this Great Hall. There was no peace. And that is why peace is to be celebrated."

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo looked at each other, blinking. She raised her glass:

"Therefore, in honour of these hard-earned years of peace, in honour of all those who have fought for it and in honour of the approaching ten years' anniversary of the end of the Second Wizarding War, I would now like to announce, on the fifteenth of December this year, the greatest Christmas Ball that Hogwarts has ever seen."

And then it seemed to Kyungsoo that the hall had suddenly exploded, shattering his eardrums, because everyone abruptly started to rumble with eagerness, nudging each other with hardly contained excitement and whooping hysterically. Girls immediately leaned towards each other's ears to talk of dresses. Next to him, Kyungsoo heard a guy wondering how he would ask his crush to go with him to the ball.

McGonagall laughed and raised one hand.

"You have more than ample time to start thinking about your outfits and partner – if you so desire. So use it well!"

"Damn it, I am going to have to buy a new suit, now." across of them, François Putieux said dejectedly with his usual accent.

Baekhyun laughed at him, still chewing on a piece of potato.

"What do you mean, François – surely, with the size of your wardrobe you should be able to conjure an acceptable outfit for everyone in this room."

"Are you joking?" the French student looked genuinely aghast. "Don't you know that it's "Dress up a stick and it will not look like a stick"? This is time for some serious shopping, ladies and gentlemen. I will have to go to Hogsmeade and visit Gladrags Wizardwear again."

"Hogsmeade, that's a problem," Baekhyun suddenly frowned, lowering his tone so that only Kyungsoo could hear. "I still have detention on that day..."

"What's the problem? Just use the other outing to go shopping."

"Yeah, but what about Knockturn Alley?" the prefect pouted.

"Uh."

"Well, I suppose I will just have to figure out something."

"Also, we will need a partner," François was still talking, flicking some hair away, not hearing the interruption. "Otherwise, it's just damn, damn sad."

"I bet you five galleons that I can find a partner before Kyungsoo." Baekhyun grinned.

"Why me?" Kyungsoo scowled. "Bet against someone else, I'm not part of this!"

"I will not accept the bet," François said very seriously. "Because Kyungsoo won't find a partner unless it's Moaning Myrtle."

"Thanks for the faith, Putieux." Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. Damn, such supportive dorm mates.

"Don't worry," Baekhyun smiled, sleazily passing a hand behind his shoulder, "in this day and age, going to the ball with a male partner would be perfectly acceptable too, so if you don't mind..."

"I refuse categorically." Kyungsoo cringed.



But inside, he knew that the quest for a partner would be harder than anything he had ever undertaken so far, harder than any potion or any school rule to break. As far as he was concerned, going to the ball alone was probably still the best option...if not the only one.

[Arielle]

[align=center]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — A COLLABORATIVE FIC & WRITING PROJECT. ❞

[justify][size=8pt][font=georgia]Authors: Arielle/Chaeyeon ([member=8090]Arielle[/member]), Ayumi ([member=8309]Ayumi[/member]), Hayato ([member=2951]❄。ハヤト[/member]), Seliane/Jinhong ([member=179]❄。セリアン[/member]), and Natalya/Natsuki ([member=3656]❄。ナツキ[/member]) [⚜] Contributors: Ren (no account), Annika/Linhong ([member=1466]❄。アニカ[/member]), Kohaku/Yanhong ([member=582]❄。コハク[/member]), Keito/Kouji ([member=1903]❄。ケイト[/member]), Ruoyan (no account), Daria (no account), Olga (no account), Minju (no account), and Misato (no account).[/justify]

---

---

INTRODUCTION

[div style="width:400px;text-align:justify;font-size:11px;font-family:georgia;margin-top:5px;color:#000;line-height:120%"]Chanyeol starts his fifth year at Hogwarts off on the wrong foot; Baekhyun is an elitist perfectionist who, for better or for worse, cannot seem to stay out of trouble (mostly for worse, but that is unsurprising); Yifan has one huge Hufflepuff problem, and Kyungsoo is bored out of his mind. Meanwhile, Luhan despairs about Quidditch and life;— so yes, indeed, the year is treating everyone quite well. However, something seems to be a little off, lately. The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is not in its usual state, and it would take a little more than just curiosity for the inquisitive student to find out why.

GENRE(S): OT12, adventure, mystery, some romance, mild suspense, and lots of fluff.
RATING: Around PG-13, I'd say. Nothing that doesn't belong on this site - there's no rated content, aside from perhaps a few less-than-decent jokes (nothing that borders on vulgar, though; just the normal stuff you expect from...teenagers going through puberty, I suppose).

TIMELINE: Also, the events in this fic transpire after the Second Wizarding War and Voldemort's death, somewhere around 2007 - since that's when Baekhyun and Chanyeol should be around fifteen - hence, both Snape and Dumbledore are already dead, and McGonagall is the current headmistress.

EXTRA NOTES:
This is in no way meant to be taken seriously. "Exolliarmus" is just a light-hearted EXO x Hogwarts AU based on the ideas and fantasies of myself and others (it was a massive collaborative fic - it's actually unfinished, but most of it is done and the rest will be written soon), if EXO were to be in the HP universe. The mystery is loose (but pre-planned), the romance light, and hopefully nothing in this fic will be too angsty as to spoil one's mood - I've been told by friends who beta'd this and by my co-authors that the angst in this is extremely "soft" - at least, in comparison to the angst I write on my own (which I've been told was too intense [and tend to contain sensitive and/or mildly rated content] for this site, and therefore, I will not be posting any of those angst fics here, on BB). Everything was written for pure fun and entertainment, rather than for anything else.

---

---

NAVIGATION: (Please note that some chapters have been split into two parts to compensate for the apparent character limit per post; there are not two chapter tens, for instance.)
[⚜] — Character Information [posted on January 23, 2018; 09:26 PM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter One: Old Habits Die Hard [posted: January 23, 2018; 09:52 (PM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter Two: The Sorting Ceremony [posted: January 23, 2018; 11:11 PM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter Three: Flying Overtime [posted: January 25, 2018; 10:40 PM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter Four: Down with the Bubotubers [posted: January 25, 2018; 11:24 PM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter Five: Love Potions are Out of Fashion [posted: January 26, 2018; 02:30 AM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter Six: Dangerous Sightings [posted: January 26, 2018; 12:32 PM, EST]
[⚜][⚜] — Chapter Seven: The One who was too Smooth, too Slow, and too Manly [posted: January 27, 2018; 01:09 AM, EST]
[⚜][⚜] — Chapter Eight: Oh, What a Night! [posted: January 27, 2018; 05:47 PM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter Nine: The Truth Comes from House Elves [posted: January 27, 2018; 09:49 PM, EST]
[⚜][⚜] — Chapter Ten: Talking with Trouble [posted: January 28, 2018; 12:33 AM, EST]
[⚜][⚜] — Chapter Eleven: Camemoire Romance [posted: January 28, 2018; 11:15 AM, EST]
[⚜][⚜] — Chapter Twelve: The Manly Joy of Bathtub Dollies [posted: January 28, 2018; 12:08 PM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter Twelve-and-a-half: Valentine's Day Special [posted: January 30, 2018; 03:40 PM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter Thirteen: The First Victim [posted: January 30, 2018; 09:21 PM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter Fourteen: Zhang Yixing [posted: January 31, 2018; 12:30 AM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter Fifteen: State of Emergency [posted: January 31, 2018; 02:19 AM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter Sixteen: The Gate Opens [posted: January 31, 2018; 01:29 PM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter Seventeen: The Four Founders' Whims and Little Blackbird [posted: January 31, 2018; 02:44 PM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter Eighteen: Slytherin's Barrier [posted: January 31, 2018; 03:35 PM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter Nineteen: Out of the Flames [posted: February 01, 2018; 12:58 AM, EST]
[⚜] — Chapter Twenty (FINAL): Kiss us Goodbye [posted: February 01, 2018; 01:51 AM, EST]

---

---

Tracks and comments are perfectly fine, since I'll be putting links to all the important bits here, on the first post, for the sake of convenience.

[Arielle]

[align=center][div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"]
Here are the MAIN CHARACTERS, listed in order of appearance in the first chapter [information basically copied and pasted from our shared google doc]:

⚜ — 박찬열 / PARK, CHANYEOL : Gryffindor [parts written by [member=2951]❄。ハヤト[/member] / Hayato]
[x] Halfblood. Both of his parents are wizards, but quite a few branches of his family are "diluted" on his father's side, so he is fairly familiar with the Muggle world.
[x] Wand made of holly wood with a dragon heartstring core.
[x] Pet(s): Bartoc, a huge owl with a constantly disheveled look, and "Snapchat".
[x] A beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
[x] Favourite class: Defense Against the Dark Arts.
[x] He is particularly interested in Muggle music, which he takes as an extra-curricular course. His guitar is charmed to remember the tunes he composed, in case he forgets them before writing them down.
[x] He would like to start a career in music someday, or alternatively, work in the Ministry like his mother. His parents are currently divorcing, which leaves him in a morose mood every now and then (especially when holidays draw near).
⚜ — 김종대 / KIM, JONGDAE : Gryffindor [parts written by [member=3656]❄。ナツキ[/member] / Natsuki]
[x] Muggleborn. His parents are both muggles, though they are very open and happy to learn about wizards culture. His elder brother is a wizard too, who is working in the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad at the Ministry.
[x] Wand made of cypress wood with a unicorn hair core.
[x] Pet(s): A lizard named Robespierre.
[x] Keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
[x] Favourite class: Transfiguration, though he is also good at Defense Against the Dark Arts. He takes Muggle Studies as an easy way to get an "O" on his O.W.L exams.
[x] Of an easy-going nature, he worries very little about his studies and takes everything at his own pace, which sometimes leaves Luhan exasperated. He just wants to have a good time with his friends at all times. He is a born prankster, and is the founder (as well as co-head) of the "Destroy Byun Baekhyun" club.
⚜ — 김종인 / KIM, JONGIN : Gryffindor [parts written by [member=8090]Arielle[/member] / Chaeyeon]
[x] Pureblood. His family has maintained a flawless lineage of Slytherins for more than three decades, until he came along and ended up being sorted into Gryffindor. Chanyeol and Jongdae sometimes poke fun at him, playfully saying that he is a Slytherin converted.
[x] Wand made of ebony wood with a phoenix feather core.
[x] Pet(s): Alphaba, a very plain-looking barn owl that he picked himself in first year.
[x] Seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
[x] Favourite class: Potions.
[x] In a way, he's the black sheep of his family, so therefore Jongin is not fond of going home for the holidays: he usually spends Christmas with Sehun's family, or stays at Hogwarts by himself. He doesn't like attention (unless it has to do with Quidditch) and will often spend time alone when he is not with Chanyeol and the others, napping in the library or exploring the castle.
⚜ — 오세훈 / OH, SEHUN : Gryffindor [parts written by [abbr=Has no BB account]Ayumi[/abbr]]
[x] Halfblood. His mother is a pureblood, but his father is a wizard of Muggle descent. Sehun is particularly intrigued by Muggles in general, liking their fashion and some of their inventions such as bubble tea. He would like to work in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office when he graduates.
[x] Wand made of rosewood with a unicorn hair core.
[x] Pet(s): A pedigreed rat, named Bubbles.
[x] Beater of the Gryffindor Quidditch team (from 4th year onwards).
[x] Favourite class: Muggle Studies.
[x] He's known Chanyeol since he was very young, as their families are vaguely related, having a few distant relatives in common. Their two families used to celebrate Christmas together all the time before Chanyeol moved. Despite his taciturn appearance, Sehun makes friends easily and gets along with people from every house.
[x] He throws a different spell on his hair every few months to change the colour, saying that since their robes are always black, he might as well add a splash of colour to his hair. People are amazed that he hasn't had any unfortunate mishaps yet.
⚜ — 黃子韜 / HUANG, ZITAO : Gryffindor [parts written by [member=179]❄。セリアン[/member] / Jinhong]
[x] Halfblood. Both his parents are almost purebloods, but when he was small, everyone believed that he was a Squib as he showed absolutely no sign of magic for the longest of times. His letter for Hogwarts also arrived one year late.
[x] Wand made of hazel wood with a dragon heartstring core.
[x] Pet(s): A tawny owl named Michigo.
[x] Favourite class: Divination and Astronomy.
[x] Very emotional and sensitive; he needs time before opening up to people. However, when courage is needed (such as in crucial times to protect those he loves), Tao is always the first to speak his mind and fight for his cause. Even though he still screams every time he sees a spider in the shower, his friends know that he has the true heart of a Gryffindor.
⚜ — 鹿晗 / LU, HAN : Gryffindor [parts written by [member=3656]❄。ナツキ[/member] / Natsuki]
[x] Pureblood. From an old family of wizards, very much known for their sense of honour and their hot-headed personalities. Despite his delicate appearance, Luhan has inherited this impetuousness and considers himself the "manliest of all men".
[x] Wand made of hornbeam wood with a dragon heartstring core.
[x] Pet(s): A snowy owl, particularly big and choosy, called Diana.
[x] Chaser and captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
[x] Favourite class: Defense Against the Dark Arts (for the action!), Study of Ancient Runes (for Minseok...).
[x] He has been obsessed with the idea of becoming an Auror since his most tender childhood and therefore exerts himself to obtain outstanding grades in all his core subjects, taking three extras as well to compensate any possible failure. He is also a licensed apparator and a prefect.
[x] Despite his obsession with becoming an Auror, Quidditch remains his true passion.
⚜ — 변백현 / BYUN, BAEKHYUN : Slytherin [parts written by [member=179]❄。セリアン[/member] / Jinhong]
[x] Pureblood. His family is leaving him a fortune and a guaranteed future; but secretly, Baekhyun still hopes to become an Auror.
[x] Wand made of spruce wood with a phoenix feather core.
[x] Pet(s): A screech owl that he named Scooter.
[x] Favourite class: Transfiguration and Charms.
[x] As proud as a peacock and witty as a monkey, he mainly uses his intelligence to play silly pranks on people from other houses and also his own. In spite of that, his outstanding grades and natural charm make him the favourite of most teachers and he gets away with a lot of his bad ideas, to Chanyeol's greatest frustration. He picks on Chanyeol because the Gryffindor is the one who gets incensed most easily. However, internally, he doesn't think as lowly of him as he claims he does.
[x] The only Muggle invention that Baekhyun recognises as "cool" are the scooter and the motorbike.
[x] He also claims that Quidditch is a sport for losers without a brain, but that is only because he has never dared to try out himself.
⚜ — 도경수 / DO, KYUNGSOO : Slytherin [parts written by [abbr=Has no BB account]Ayumi[/abbr]]
[x] Pureblood. His father is one of the Unspeakables at the Department of Mysteries, which is why he is not fond of talking about his family.
[x] Wand made of cedar wood with a dragon heartstring core.
[x] Pet(s): Aucturus, his family's scops owl (who likes to stay at the castle) and Hydra, an intelligent snowy cat - both of which seem to hate Baekhyun's guts.
[x] Favourite class: Potions.
[x] He often spends his holidays at Hogwarts because the familial atmosphere at home is never ideal for him. Naturally talented in class, he doesn't need much effort to stay on top of his work, and spends most of his time coldly making fun of Baekhyun or complaining about his friend's compulsive need to look for trouble.
[x] He also has a secret that he has not told anyone - not even Baekhyun.
⚜ — 吴亦凡 / WU, YIFAN : Slytherin [parts written by [member=8090]Arielle[/member] / Chaeyeon]
[x] Pureblood. His family owns a famous business of luxury magical pastries, which he is bound to take over once his father retires.
[x] Wand made of elm wood with a dragon heartstring core.
[x] Pet(s): A svelt, thin and grey cat called Ferdinand.
[x] Favourite class: Arithmancy, and - though he rarely admits it - Care of Magical Creatures.
[x] As a prefect, he takes his duties seriously and tries to maintain a cool and mature image in front of his peers, which makes him look like a rather vain wanker at times. He only shows his childish side to the group of Gryffindor underclassmen, with whom he feels comfortable, having known them through Sehun (whom he has met back in fourth year in peculiar circumstances).
[x] Often tired, he spends a lot of time in front of the chimney in Slytherin's common room with Ferdinand on his knees, a position that attracts Baekhyun's mockery because he looks like an old man.
[x] He feels a huge surge of protectiveness each time he sees Tao, and never knows why.
⚜ — 김민석 / KIM, MINSEOK : Ravenclaw [parts written by [member=179]❄。セリアン[/member] / Jinhong]
[x] Halfblood. His father is a Muggle, his mother a wizard.
[x] Wand made of vine wood with a unicorn hair core.
[x] Pet(s): An extremely hairy cat that looks like a ball of wool. Her name is Nessie.
[x] Favourite class: Charms, History of Magic, Ancient Runes - but dislikes Divination, which he classifies as "too intangible".
[x] Despite his discreet personality and humble exterior, he has a fair amount of ambition and wishes to become a lawyer in the Wizengamot. This said, he loves knowledge for the sake of knowing and lacks the cunningness of a Slytherin.
[x] He is calm, mature, amiable and responsible, but secretly dreams of a bit of adventure sometimes, which renders him responsive to Luhan's brash personality without him realising it. He will never dare to say that to Luhan out loud, but he loves to see him fly across the Quidditch pitch for Quidditch training.
[x] He has a sweet tooth, loving all sorts of candies from peppermint toads to fizzing whizzbees.
⚜ — 김준면 / KIM, JOONMYUN : Ravenclaw [parts written by [abbr=Has no BB account]Ayumi[/abbr]]
[x] Pureblood. Born into an extremely wealthy family with parents working for very high officials in the Ministry.
[x] Wand made of willow wood with a unicorn hair core.
[x] Pet(s): Galleon, his pygmy owl.
[x] Favourite class: Astronomy,  History of Magic, Arithmancy, Muggle Studies, Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology... ("Everything is interesting!")
[x] He is talented in every subject and anything related to academic magical knowledge, including Divination, but has one weakness which he hates talking about: his total incapacity to create a patronus. He also has a lot of complexes, and is lacking in self-confidence.
[x] Knowing Yifan very well, the two of them often meet up to share their woes in life, or simply to talk about the kids youngsters.
[x] Joonmyun has an obsession with Honeydukes' ice mice.
⚜ — 张艺兴 / ZHANG, YIXING : Hufflepuff [parts written by [member=2951]❄。ハヤト[/member] / Hayato]
[x] Muggleborn. His family is extremely encouraging regarding his magical education, but he is constantly worried about them - especially his grandmother, whose health is particularly fragile.
[x] Wand made of oak wood with a unicorn hair core.
[x] Pet(s): None. He uses the school's owls for letters, and often helps Hagrid with his magical creatures during his spare time.
[x] Favourite class: Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures.
[x] He seems very odd and suspicious at first sight, but people rapidly realise that it is only because he has his head in the clouds all the time. Yixing is easily melancholic, sometimes uncertain (especially when it comes to the subject of what he would like to do later in life).
[x] Because of his grandmother's health and his family, Yixing sometimes thinks that he should start a career in the Muggle world instead of settling down in the wizard community. However, part of him also wishes to become a herbologist, leaving him conflicted.

---

OTHER CHARACTERS [AND OUR OCS IN THE FIC]:
Other characters that appear are TVXQ's Yunho (as Professor Jung)! I wrote the majority of his parts/appearances. As for our ocs...the ones we included in this fic were Markus Hargraves [Slytherin] (my OC), Robert Archer [Slytherin] (Natsuki's OC), Florian Maddux [Slytherin] (Hayato's OC), François Putieux [Slytherin] (my OC), Lara Sullivan [Slytherin] (Minju's OC), Natalie Alderman [Ravenclaw] (Daria's OC), Lydia Silverwood [Slytherin] (Jinhong's OC), Glinda Foster [Gryffindor] (Ren's OC; she's a tad scary lol), Yasmine Abott [Ravenclaw] (Jinhong's OC), Jack Caldwell [Gryffindor] (Daria's OC), Leila Sturdivant [Slytherin] (Natsuki's OC), Ally Everhale [Gryffindor] (Natsuki's OC), Bobby Browning [Hufflepuff] (Ayumi's OC), Nadeem Jhaveri [Slytherin] (my OC; if you're one of those I shared my Kingsman AU series with...yes, same guy. He's not as innocent in this though - sorry), and Rufus Taylor [Slytherin] (Daria's OC). I believe there may be some I missed...we used many OCs.

---

NOTES: All signature codes and the avatar gifs © Seliane / [member=179]❄。セリアン[/member]

[Chanyeol]

[div style="width:500px;text-align:justify;font-size:12px;margin-top:10px;color:#000;line-height:120%"][align=center][size=9pt][font=georgia]❝ EXOLLIARMUS — CHAPTER ONE: OLD HABITS DIE HARD. ❞

---

Chanyeol stooped one last time onto the edge of platform nine and three-quarters and gave his mother a quick goodbye hug. While the pipes of the Hogwarts Express wheezed angrily behind him and the students breezed past, she patted his back with motherly insistence, then held onto his cheek to make him look fully at the worried frown on her face.

He tried not to laugh and cracked a smile involuntarily:

"Can we not do the watery-eyed goodbyes, mum? At my age, that's a little embarrassing."

"Promise me that you'll be careful and that you won't do anything stupid." she replied seriously. "Don't be reckless. Don't think that I'm not going to monitor you, because I will send you Howlers if I need to, no matter how old you claim to be."

"Mum, I'm already in fifth year!" the Gryffindor student moaned.

"Yes, I know you are, sweetheart, but you know I can't stop remembering that chubby eleven years old wizard who was crying and crying with snot running all over his face, howling on the platform about how he didn't want to go to Hogwarts yet-"

"That was the first time, alright?" he flushed, mortified. "You don't have to remind me of that every single year. Do you really want this to haunt me until I die?"

"Oh, but Mama, what if they put me into Slytherin? Mama, I don't want to go..."

"And it was the last time too." Chanyeol unwound with rosy cheeks before coughing into his fist and picking up a self-assured tone: "Besides, my fears at the time were perfectly legitimate. I was an eleven years old leaving the warmth of home for the very first time; it was a very intense and traumatic experience for me."

"Yes I know, sweetheart. Just don't forget to put a warming spell on your scarf whenever you go up the Astronomy tower, okay?"

"Mum, the train is going to leave..."

"Right. Okay, you go ahead, sweetie. Your father and I will see you at Christmas."

With a low twinge in his chest, Chanyeol dithered on the platform with his owl cage still in hand, appreciating once again the reality of his father's absence.

"Mum...About you and dad's divorce..."

"Sweetheart. What was that about your train leaving?"

The Gryffindor whipped out his wand, giving his suitcase a gentle tap, and waited as it lifted itself off the ground, docilely levitating towards the doors of the nearest carriage. The whistles shrieked louder now, the smoke thicker and pongier than ever, bidding its passengers to board immediately lest they would be left behind. There wasn't any more time to dwindle on the valedictions, now.

He swiftly jumped onto the wagon and used one hand to give another hearty wave, his other hand still clutching tightly onto Bartoc's owl cage. "See you at Christmas, ma!" he shouted over the screaming pipes.

But his voice was drowned by the smoke and whistles, and he soon had to duck into the carriage, stepping onto the side to let other people through. Students of every age were now shoving at each other through the passageway, young wizards squealing with excitement, prefects calling after them about prohibited running on the Hogwarts Express; friends finding each other after a stimulating summer away and newbies timidly looking for an empty compartment to sit quietly in... A smile eventually came to Chanyeol's lips as the sight started to sink in. This was the familiar chaos leading to more familiar warmth, he realized; his fifth year at Hogwarts.

His home away from home.

Chanyeol beamed, dim excitement slowly bubbling upwards inside his chest. Bartoc flapped his wings in his cage to protest against the rising commotion, but he pacified the owl with a soothing hand and looked at the prefects roaming around the carriage, wondering where Luhan and the others would be at the moment and whether he would have to walk for long before finding any of them. The thought, however, was short-lived, as a punch in the back soon made him stumble forward into the sliding door, and he collapsed straight against the smoky glass before even gathering his thoughts.

"Move your butt, you're blocking the way, dickhead," a brash masculine voice said from behind him.

Chanyeol turned and could not help the grin splitting his face when he saw the short square-jawed boy standing in front of him.

"Jongdaaaae!" he roared.

"Welcome baaaaaaaack!" the other Gryffindor automatically yelled back and violently jumped into his arms, making him drop Bartoc with a wave of fowl squawking. Chanyeol laughed. Looking as energetic as ever, Jongdae sounded as if he was speaking through a megaphone: "How're you, mate? How was the family?"

"Was alright, we just...stuck around." Chanyeol put the other boy down. "You?"

"Great. It was great, we went to the beach – Barbados, man! You should have seen the sand! Even Luhan's skin isn't that white, it's amazing... And Jongdeok and I managed to find a Diricawl in the bushes while we were walking around and we even planned a way to capture it, but my mum freaked out – because she still thinks it is a dodo – which, you know, is supposed to be extinct as far as Muggles are concerned, so...anyways."

"Sounds like you had fun."

"I did, it was great..." Jongdae beamed, then frowned. "And you're late, man! Pretty much everyone is here already; we managed to get a pretty decent compartment over there without you. Come on, follow me."

Ignoring the concert of protesting screeches still coming from his ever dishevelled bird, Chanyeol grinned and levitated his belongings once more, making them follow him as he and Jongdae walked deeper into the moving carriage. He had missed the other Gryffindor's talkativeness and trumpeting voice over the summer. It was great to have it back.

"So...Did you buy all of your stuff already?"

"Merlin, yeah. What the hell was that list?" Jongdae widened his eyes at him, scrunching his nose with disgust. "I don't know if I was buying bricks...but those things definitely aren't books." he shook his head. "Not looking forward to any of the classes at this rate...We're here."

As he spoke, the elder Gryffindor stepped slightly to one side of a compartment in order to pull the door open, and Chanyeol gladly peeked his head in, lighting up as soon as he saw the three other boys who were already sitting inside...or, as it turned out, were not sitting. In fact, only one of the three boys present was "sitting" on the bench in the proper sense of the word; the other two were straddling the first one, struggling over the teenager's head to catch whatever he was hiding in his grip, three bodies pressed together in an absurd jumble of arms and legs.

Jongdae stifled a laugh at the sight, while Chanyeol let out a slow whistle of appreciation:

"Whoa. Guys, I know we're all healthy and vigorous teenagers, but please, in public..."

"Ha ha," Jongin replied spitefully, still trapping Sehun with his thighs, one hand on either side of the younger boy's shoulder. "That stupid thing of his just stole my chocolate frog, and I deserve to have my revenge!"

"Bubbles's not a thing." Sehun snapped on the beat, still hiding a large moving mass in his two hands and keeping it out of his friend's reach. The third boy, Tao, immediately tried to dislodge it from his grip, but Sehun moved his arms away and the thing escaped, running onto the bench with an alarmed squeak before climbing onto the armrest and jumping onto Chanyeol's shoulder. The thing, as it turned out, was a giant rat, almost as big as Chanyeol's head.

"Is that Bubbles?" the fifth year took it into his hand, stepping into the compartment to put it back down. "You got yourself a new rat...?"

"Apparently, yes." Jongin cringed.

"Since when?"

"Since I bought it at the menagerie store." Sehun gently picked it up and placed it onto his lap again, ignoring the murderous looks that Jongin was still throwing it. "Bubbles is a gentle creature who is clean, pedigreed and approachable. The shop owner told me that he is the friendliest and most delicate rat of his batch. He wouldn't hurt a fly, and deserves to be treated with respect."

"He massacred my chocolate frog."

"Your frog jumped into his little paws, not Bubbles' fault."

"The food trolley should come soon enough." Jongdae scratched his nose, "why don't you just wait a little and buy some new treats when it passes by?"

The fourth year Gryffindor grumbled something in return and fell back onto the opposite seat, folding his arms in defeat and straightening his limbs so that his feet rested on the bench, next to Sehun's legs. Though the younger boy wrinkled his nose in disapproval, he said nothing to make him move. Eventually, Tao settled down next to him as well and raised his eyes towards Chanyeol with a candid smile.

"How was your summer?"

"Good. But I think I still prefer this by far." The Gryffindor grinned, plumping down next to Jongin with one hand on his wand, to levitate his luggage onto the storage places above their heads. "I'm bummed that I didn't get to see any of you in Diagon Alley this year, though. With all the mess going on at home..."

"That's okay. I didn't get to do my shopping with any of them either." Jongin said throwing a meaningful look at Sehun, "otherwise I would have stopped that idiot from buying this furry monster."

"Hey."

"I glanced at the reading list yesterday and almost fainted." Tao moaned. "How are we ever going to get through all of that? It's impossible to do all of that in one single academic year."

"Think of us, who have to pass our O.W.Ls then," Jongdae chuckled.

But Tao shook his head:

"At least you guys didn't have to start a year later than everyone else just because people thought you were a Squib..."

The topic was always one that Tao was particularly self-conscious about and it was understandable. Tao's parents – despite both being wizards of a fine lineage – had thought for the longest time that their son had been born a Squib, due to Tao's complete lack of signs for magic until the boy was almost twelve. As a result, his letter for Hogwarts had come one year late as well, which had left him in the same batch as Jongin and Sehun, even though the two were both younger than him by a whole year. Tao had always felt slightly insecure about his magical tardiness, coupled with the many mishaps he had had with his wand during the first three years he spent at Hogwarts – a hazel wand with a dragon heartstrings core that Ollivander had qualified as particularly sensitive to his owner's emotions. Tao was not a bad wizard per se, nor did he lack the courage to fight when his loved ones needed it. He was just terribly shy, and generally self-conscious about everything he tried to do.

"You'll be fine," Chanyeol soon said, in a tone he genuinely hoped to be encouraging. "You may be stressed for now but you always make it in the end; and we all know that despite your daily screaming about mice and beetles and anything else living under the sun, you're actually the fastest to stand back up after a trial out of all of us. So be more confident."

Tao looked up: "Really?"

"Of course! Hey...You're not in Gryffindor for nothing."

"Yeah, and if all else fails," Jongdae added, "you can always ask Luhan to give you the answers to your homework, you know."

Tao rolled his eyes: "He never lets me..."

"You just don't push him enough... He likes to pretend that he's busy."

"He's a prefect and a seventh year. I think he is actually busy."

"Nah, never busy enough. Just promise him a date with Ravenclaw's Kim Minseok." Jongdae cackled. "He'll jump on your essays and do them in no time."

"Hum hum."

They turned like one man towards the open door, where a familiar seventh year prefect with delicate features and huge doe eyes was now towering above them, glaring at them with a judgmental glower on his face.

At once, they all cowered and scooted back against the window, but the frown on the prefect's face actually dropped as fast as it came, and a moment later, Luhan was sitting next to them, smiling and cracking his neck with a relieved sigh as he flicked some dust off his robes.

"So, guys. What was that about me and Ravenclaw's Kim Minseok?"

Jongdae flattened himself against the window: "N-nothing, oh Luhan, manliest man that was ever born from a woman's womb."

"Oh, I like the sound of that." Luhan agreed, eyes upwards, nodding in appreciation. "'Manliest man that was ever born from a woman's womb'...It's got a nice ring to it. You should say that more often."

"Aren't you supposed to be in the prefects' compartment?"

"Yes, but everyone is doing perfectly fine without me over there, so why not say hi to my favourite Gryffindor juniors since I can? Also, Chanyeol, I needed to talk to you so I might as well do it now; you too, Jongin, and you, Jongdae."

"Um...What's up?"

"Have you guys thought about how to resolve our Quidditch problem yet?"

At this, Chanyeol turned to look at Jongdae and Jongin, who in turn returned his sheepish stare.

"Err, no...?"

One of their beaters had completed his seventh year and left Hogwarts for good last summer, causing their team to fall short of one member, and ever since then, they had been on a frantic yet desperately unsuccessful recruiting quest for a replacement. Before the end of the term, Luhan had tried everything to get people interested in trying out for the next academic year, but no one had seemed particularly enthusiastic about it, nor had there been any particularly good candidates out of the ones who had indeed made an attempt... The best they had gotten so far had banged the bludger straight into the Slytherin stands in an attempt to deflect it from himself.

As much as Jongdae and Chanyeol had appreciated the aim, no one else had seemed to find it particularly funny.

"I've been asking around all of my friends already," Luhan elaborated with a pout, "but none of them want to try out – they're all too busy with the upcoming N.E.W.Ts. Plus, Jack was a really good player too, so now that he's gone, people don't want to be compared."

"Not to mention that beater is always the least popular position in the team." Chanyeol snorted, himself being the second beater of the group and knowing the unpopularity of the job. Luhan was a chaser, as well as the captain of the Gryffindor team since his sixth year. Jongin was their seeker, and Jongdae, their keeper.

The prefect soon gave him a look and glanced out of the window, mildly discouraged.

"I guess you're right."

"Look, just make an announcement to the younger years after the first week ends." Chanyeol suggested to him at last. "I'm sure lots of them would be interested now that the term is about to start. They may not have been keen on it when we were asking during exams period last year, but now that they have nothing on their minds..." he paused. "That, or freshmen! Freshmen are always up for anything."

"I don't think it's appropriate to ask an eleven years old to become a beater, Chanyeol."

"It's worth a try...They might be fairly bulky for their age."

"Yeah man, just like you, when you first showed up in first year."

"I was fat, Jongdae; there is a difference."

"Anyways, I was rather hoping we could ask someone we knew." Luhan mused, opening his palms and staring at each of them in turn. "That way, we would already have a vague idea on their potential, you get what I mean? ...Tao, for example! Why don't you try?"

Tao opened wide, incredulous eyes at him.

"I would rather die...!"

"There you go, got your answer."

"No, but seriously. What if he is really good, though?" Luhan insisted, scooting towards the edge of his seat, "Fear shouldn't stop you from giving things a try. Maybe you'll grow to like it the more you do it, you know? I, for a fact, used to be scared of heights until I started flying on the Quidditch pitch."

"Yes, and I used to be fine with heights, until we started our flying lessons in first year." Tao snorted, returning to the unrolling landscape outside. Luhan groaned and covered his face.

Soon, the trolley of the Honeydukes Express passed by their compartment, and they stopped to start picking their candies conscientiously.

"Why doesn't anyone want to give Quidditch a chance?!" Luhan said after the trolley left, sucking on a liquorice wand. "It's the best sports in the world, everyone should be dying to get into the team, and yet everyone refuses to join no matter how much I beg!"

"Probably the way you ask people..."

"What's wrong with the way I ask them?!"

"Nothing."

"Guys, I think you've all forgotten someone, though." Jongdae said, after a while.

There was a silence, after which they all glanced at Sehun, who shook some of his pinkish hair away and rubbed his nose in confusion.

"What?"

"That's right, Sehun," Luhan leaned closer, suddenly full of hope, "would you be interested? I mean, you're a Gryffindor, and now a fourth year student, so you've grown a lot taller... and a lot buffer too."

Sehun looked at all of them, frowned uncertainly, and narrowed his eyes.

"Thanks?"

"That's not what I'm saying this for – I'm asking whether you would want to try out for the Gryffindor beater position, by any chance."

"I haven't flown since first year."

"Doesn't matter! Flying comes back with practice, and it's not something you forget that easily."

"I don't have a broomstick either."

"It's alright." Luhan smiled, eyes still glowing. "the school has plenty of old Cleansweeps that you can borrow...until you get your own."

Sehun paused to ponder, obviously thinking that the idea was way too much of a hassle; and for what seemed like an eternity in his mind, Chanyeol was certain that the younger boy was about to say no. But suddenly, against all expectations, Sehun leaned back against his backrest and looked out of the window again.

"I will give it some thought."

"Really?!" Luhan shrieked.

"Don't be too happy yet," Sehun muttered. "I didn't say I was trying out for sure; and besides, even if I do try out, it's not as if I'm guaranteed to be good or anything."

"That's okay, I'm just glad you're giving it a chance," Luhan beamed, looking at the younger Gryffindor with stars in his eyes. "Thank you so much Sehun, I owe you one."

Sehun smiled and changed the topic to whether anyone knew who their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher would be this year. But Chanyeol had suddenly lost track of where the conversation was going. His mind had unexpectedly dug out an old memory, the old fact that Sehun used to have a baby crush on Luhan for the whole of his second year at Hogwarts, and at least half of the third year too. The feelings had been completely unrequited, however – not surprising when you considered that Sehun was only a twelve years old kid at the time – but the entire school, the concerned prefect excepted, had been aware of the story and everyone had been encouraging the young Gryffindor to do something about it, to no avail. As it turned out, Luhan had already fallen into his own one-sided infatuation with same-year Ravenclaw student Kim Minseok, and had never gotten out of it...so it wasn't as if he had ignored Sehun on purpose.

As far as people were aware, Sehun had completely grown out of his crush and was now perfectly fine with the development of things – or non-development, as Jongdae liked to say –between Luhan and Minseok. Chanyeol wondered if Sehun still harboured any romantic feelings for the hot-headed prefect at all, sometimes, but the young wizard was forever hard to read and there was no way to get into that odd little skull of his when he decided to keep his mouth shut. Maybe he was just reading too much into the situation, Chanyeol thought to himself. He was probably just looking for trouble where there was none.

After all, Sehun, laughing and joking with Bubbles on his knees and a cauldron cake in his hand, looked genuinely happy with their current state; and the joy glowing on his face was everything but faked.

⚜

⚜

⚜

"Guys, you can chat with your friends later, please proceed into the Great Hall first. The Sorting ceremony is about to start!"

Ignoring the droning voice of the Hufflepuff prefect ushering people above them, Jongdae pulled Chanyeol up the stairs to the Great Hall in spite of the other's remonstrance, and offered an animated grin as they made their way upwards.

"Come on. The faster we get the ceremony done, the faster we can eat."

"What's the point? The food won't come 'til they get all the first years sorted, and that's going to take ages to do anyways."

"I know, but I'm really starving."

Chanyeol failed to see how famishment would make the Sorting Hat do his job any quicker, but before he could say anything in return, an inopportunely misplaced leg made him trip in the middle of the staircase and crash face first onto the steps, his teeth hitting the hard rock with a ringing echo in his head. He first heard the general "Oh!" of surprise above him; then the muffled giggles of the passer-bys; the birds singing inside his own woozy head, over Jongdae's worried tone of "Wow, man, are you okay?"... and finally, the familiar sneering voice speaking above the crowd which sent his nerves up in a tangle and made his every hair stand on end:

"Woopsies, looks like someone forgot how to walk today. Hope that fall didn't destroy the last neurons you had in your tiny little head."

Chanyeol raised his head and looked at the source of all his problems, the epitome of a pain in the ass, the spitting image of Hell and the mother of all troubles, standing on top of the staircase he had just toppled down from...

Byun Baekhyun.

"What the bloody hell are you doing here, Byun?" Chanyeol spat, still nursing his throbbing lip, "And why don't you get the fuck out of here before I rip your face into two?"

"Um, the question is rather, why the bloody hell you don't get out of here instead of blocking the way for other students, my dear pig-headed Gryffindor," the Slytherin sighed, faking a pained expression as he pointed at his badge: "For one, I'm a prefect, in case you haven't noticed, so I'm ushering the first years into the Great Hall like a respectable prefect should. Standing here is just a part of my duties."

"You, a prefect?"

"Are you jealous?" Baekhyun twittered, "Very nice of you to put on a show about what it entails to be a complete bird brain, Park, but people still have to pass to get to the Great Hall, so...Off you pop."

Chanyeol felt the blood boil in his veins and the anger getting to his head; his hand subconsciously reaching into his robes to close around his wand. That was exactly why he could not stand Byun Baekhyun; that was exactly why he hated the guy... because Byun Baekhyun was the biggest and most aggravating arsehole that Slytherin had ever had the misfortune to produce; a peacock. A first-class dickhead - always looking for trouble and making people's lives a misery – and as if that was not enough, he also had to be a pro-active student in class, smart and "charming" as far as teachers were concerned, which gave him all sorts of advantages whenever they were fighting each other in a teacher's presence...Why would you two fight each other in a teacher's presence? Luhan always said. But that was beyond the point because Baekhyun was a douchebag either way.

Chanyeol had not been able to stand this Slytherin since their very first semester at Hogwarts together; and now that four years had already passed by, he was still certain that Byun Baekhyun was the very reason why the Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry existed in the first place.

"I swear to God, Byun, if you say one more word I'm going to make you fly like a billywig," he said, "and I don't care that McGonagall is watching, because seeing you spin around the room like a flying spinning-top is going to be worth all the detentions in the world."

"Ooh, I'm scared." Baekhyun whined, his own hand in his pocket, where Chanyeol knew his wand would be hidden. "Why don't you show me then, Mr Park, since you seem to think that you're oh, so talented with your wand?"

"Look, guys," Jongdae started with a grunt, "can we just eat first."

Baekhyun leisurely pulled out his wand.

"Baek," a fourth voice suddenly said, and Chanyeol momentarily diverted his gaze to look at the new arrival, a short and owl-eyed student who had sternly placed a hand on Baekhyun's arm and made him turn around with genuine surprise. Chanyeol knew that boy. It was a Slytherin called Do Kyungsoo; whom in their previous years at Hogwarts, Chanyeol had frequently seen in Baekhyun's company...if not always.

"What?" Baekhyun now blinked at the other student, looking a lot smaller all of a sudden. "Kyungsoo, I said I'd see you at the table."

"So you can stupidly make Slytherin lose some house points while I'm not around? Yeah, right..." Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and cleared his throat: "Look, I don't care what prank you pull on those Gryffindor goons in general, but seriously, now? Choose a better timing."

"Hey," Chanyeol glared at him and pulled his wand out: "If you think you can just get away with calling us goons..."

"Park Chanyeol, that's enough!"

Chanyeol span towards the sound of the fustigating shout and rolled his eyes as he saw Luhan climbing towards them with breathless steps.

"Annnnd...here we go again," he muttered to Jongdae.

A second later Luhan came sweeping in. But instead of stopping at their level, the Gryffindor prefect shoved them forward and forced him and Jongdae to continue their ascension up the stairs, walking straight past Baekhyun - who threw them one last suspicious look - without stopping before leading their path to the Great Hall. Chanyeol tried miserably to fight against his friend's arms, but Luhan did not let go until they were completely out of Baekhyun's reach. Only then did he release the younger boy, but not before letting out a furious hiss in the process.

"What the hell was that for?" the seventh year whispered heatedly. "I know you and Byun have a whole history behind you... but on the first night?! Really?!"

"He started it."

"And you continued it!"

"To be honest, this really was Byun's fault, though." Jongdae agreed. But Luhan shook his head:

"How old are you two, seriously...? He's a prefect now, don't you see that he has an obvious advantage over you? He could even take points off you if he wanted to. You can't just...jump into a fight with him without thinking anymore."

"Then what did you want me to do?"

"Nothing, just act like a normal grown-up! Hey, Yifan."

Next to the double doors of the Great Hall, a tall and well-groomed teenager was waiting for them, his prefect badge on the front of his robes and a worried look on his face.

"Hey." Yifan greeted in return, observing all of them with his dark, drooping eyes. "I saw what happened back there with Baekhyun and the stairs..." he nodded at Chanyeol, a tiny smile on his lips. "How are your teeth feeling?"

"Not too bad... but I had better days."

"Do you need to see Pomfrey?"

"Nah, it's okay," Chanyeol touched his swollen lip and tried to smile at Yifan. "I appreciate the concern, though. You make me feel like there's still good in the world, man."

The other student simply laughed. In sixth year and a prefect, Wu Yifan was one of those rich and pureblood wizard families' son – bound to inherit a fortune without needing to do so much as to move a little finger. As the only child of a famous inventor of magical pastries called the Wu-zzbees, Yifan was fated to inherit the business as soon as his father decided to retire officially. But in the meantime, he was content to pursue his studies at a wizarding school like any other regular student, on top of completing some prefect duties here and there, and spending time with friends just like a normal teenager would. Despite being a Slytherin and a pureblood, Yifan never truly paid heed to the rivalry between the different houses. Chanyeol appreciated him very much for that fact.

"Don't think too much about Baekhyun for now," Yifan said with a light sigh, "I'll handle him when I see him back at the common room, later."

"Well...Anyways, did you have a good summer?"

"Oh...you know. The usual." the Slytherin let out a dry laugh. "I'm sure you'd all have more interesting stories than I do. We'll catch up later."

"Sure, let's do that once term starts."

"You should really get your lip checked, mate. It's starting to bleed."

Chanyeol touched his mouth again, looking down to see the stain of blood that was indeed shining on his fingertip. He cursed under his breath, feeling Jongdae's worried stare and seeing Luhan rub his temple from the corner of his eye. He was going to kill Byun Baekhyun later. He really was.

"Wanna go to Pomfrey's first?" Jongdae asked. "The dinner can wait."

"Nah, let's just sit down first."

Chanyeol then waved his hand and vaguely gestured towards Yifan.

"I'll see you later, alright?"

"Hmm, take care."

Once he sat down at the Gryffindor table with Jongdae, waiting for the others to join them, Chanyeol conjured a cup of water and covered his lip with a wet napkin. The Great Hall was filling up rapidly, most students taking seats with which they were already familiar, too glad to see their friends to spare any attention for them anymore. The majority of the student prefects returned from outside a few minutes later. McGonagall herself rose from her chair and came around the teachers' table, ready to raise her glass and ask for silence any moment now. In the corner of the room, a short but sturdy wizard from Ravenclaw with pretty feline eyes was motioning for first years to come in, his prefect badge glimmering under the glowing lights. Chanyeol studied him. It was Kim Minseok.

Jongdae plopped down next to him and offered him a worried look.

"Umm...Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'll be fine in the morning..." Chanyeol grumbled. "Just a cut."

"You must have bitten through your lip when you knocked your teeth over that step."

"No shit."

"Hey, no need to get snappy. We'll get back to him, don't worry." the other Gryffindor grinned. "Prefect or not, he can't just get away with everything."

Sehun and Jongin stormed into the room a moment later and sat across them, bringing Tao under their arm.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Not much...We met with some old acquaintances on the staircase."

"What happened to you?" Jongin blinked, eyebrows raised when he saw Chanyeol's face. "Dude, that looks pretty bad. Are you okay?"

"It's nothing...just Byun Baekhyun."

"Already?"

"And did you know that he became a prefect?" Jongdae grimaced.

Chanyeol tried to say something about how Baekhyun was just an arse and that the headmistress would soon decide to revoke his prefect status after all, but the first word got lost on a bubble of blood popping from his lower lip, and he splattered a hand against his mouth to stop the gore from dripping onto the table.

Jongin, Sehun, Tao and Jongdae all gave him a dubious look.

"Okay, man. You really need to see Pomfrey after this."

"It'z nothingg."

The blood spluttered onto his plate, staining the white porcelain and making his neighbour stare at it in disgust.

"Yep, visit to infirmary – compulsory." Jongdae concluded.