The next day at breakfast Jongin tells Soojung about the rumor and instead of acting shocked, she just gives him a knowing smile.

“Why are you looking at me like that? It’s creeping me out.” He grumbles.

Soojung smirks, “I didn’t think it could get more obvious.”

“What?” Really, Jongin thinks, it’s amazing how long Soojung and he have stayed friends considering he never has any idea what she’s talking about.

“He did it for you silly!”

“Who did what?”

“Sehun.” Soojung leans in closer, “Don’t you get it? Sehun asked Zitao to give up the field so your team could play. There’s no other reason why Sehun would stop his own house from practicing.”

Jongin sighs, pitying the person who ends up with Soojung and has to deal with all her fantasies. “Soojung, there are so many other reasons, like maybe Sehun didn’t want Zitao to fight with Jongdae again so he was just looking out for his friend.”

Soojung scoffs, “Aren’t you the life of the party Kim Jongin. Stop being so sensible, maybe Sehun actually did it for you.”

 “Hey Kyungsoo.” Soojung nudges the boy to her left, “Do you think Oh Sehun has it hot for Jongin?”

“Soojung!” Jongin gasps and she gives him a wink.

Kyungsoo nods, “Yeah, seeing as he’s been watching Jongin this whole time.”

“What?” They both exclaim and Jongin looks behind Soojung to get a glance at the Slytherin table. His eyes land on the dark orbs of Sehun. Kyungsoo is right, Sehun is staring directly at him. When Sehun catches Jongin looking he blinks and looks back at his friends. Jongin stares at the dark headed boy for a minute longer but Sehun doesn’t look at him again. He doesn’t know if he is disappointed or calmed.

Soojung whistles under her breath, “Steamy.”

Jongin shoves a piece of egg in and she starts coughing. Kyungsoo laughs.

- 

Over the next few of weeks Jongin pushes his quidditch team hard. He wants to win the first game of the year and he’ll stop at nothing to do it. They have practice almost every other day and by the first week of October he thinks that his quidditch socks are permanently stained with mud.

There are still two weeks until the match against Ravenclaw but one weekend when he has an uncharacteristically small amount of homework he decides to go to Hogsmeade for a new pair of socks. Jongin doesn’t ask anyone to go with him mainly because Soojung has been M.I.A as of late and whenever he sees her she seems five seconds away from bursting. He thinks there’s something going on with her but he has to wait until she’s ready to tell him herself. If he tried she would probably ignore him for the rest of the month or curse him with one of her hexes, something he has been on the receiving end too many times. He doesn’t ask Jongdae either because he’s been busy devising a revenge plan for Zitao and pulled both Kyungsoo and Joonmyeon into it; Jongin’s just happy not to be involved.

The wind bites his cheeks despite the scarf he brought and by the time he reaches the small village he heads into the Three Broomsticks for something warm. He doesn’t expect to see Sehun sitting on one of the stools drinking butter beer from a tumbler.

Over the last three weeks no progress had been made between the two and Jongin was starting to doubt his friends’ predictions. Whenever they had crossed each other’s paths in the hallways Sehun would give him a small nod and that was it. No more, no less. And maybe if Jongin was still a sixth year he would see this as a big improvement, but after three weeks he wanted more.

He can hear Soojung’s voice cheering him on inside his head as he makes his way over to the bar where Sehun’s sitting. He sits beside Sehun and orders a butterbeer, Sehun looks up in shock but he doesn’t make Jongin feel unwelcome so he sits down.

“Hey.”

“Hi.” Sehun looks him over as he takes a sip of his drink, making Jongin nervous.

“Are you alone?”

“Yeah. I had to get another quill.” Sehun says, gesturing to the bag from Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop.

Jongin nods and takes a sip of his butterbeer.

“Why are you here?”

Jongin looks wide eyed at Sehun, “Oh, um for butterbeer.”

“No I mean in Hogsmeade.” Sehun says, his mouth is expressionless but the quirk of his lips betray him.

“Oh…I have to get some new socks. You know, for quidditch.”

“Right, I heard that the match is in two weeks, good luck. I’m sure you’ll win.”

“Thank you.”

Sehun places a galleon down on the table and stands up, “So should we go?”

-

They make their way to Galdrags Wizardwear and laugh at all the different types of socks available to buy, most of them are normal but there are types that scream when they get too smelly. Jongin realizes he really enjoys being around Sehun at that moment; he had never realized how funny Sehun was until he tells a joke that causes Jongin to laugh so hard he almost chokes. When Sehun snorts Jongin releases a whole new set of giggles and the Wizard behind the desk glares at them until Jongin purchases a pair of thick wool socks.

They leave the shop and start walking down the path back to school. The wind has picked up and they find themselves huddled together to conserve body heat.

When they walk into Hogwarts Jongin is still shivering, his teeth violently chattering against each other with every step he takes.

“Jesus you’re cold.” Sehun says grabbing a hold of Jongin’s hand. “Do you want to try a spell I’ve been working on?”

Jongin looks at him in confusion, “W-w-what?”

“It makes people warmer, I created it because sometimes the dungeons can be really chilly.”

“I-I-is it s-s-safe?”

Sehun nods, “I’ve done it loads of times.”

Jongin nods, “O-Okay.”

Sehun points his wand at Jongin’s chest, “Manere caldorius.” He murmurs.

Suddenly it’s as if he drank a tall glass of hot chocolate—that’s how quick it takes for his whole body to become warm again. He closes his eyes and sighs, when he opens his eyes he sees Sehun looking at him so intently that it almost makes him blush. “That was way better than any heating pad my mom’s ever given me.”

Sehun’s eyebrows furrow, “What the hell is a heating pad?”

“It’s a thing—oh never mind just something muggles use.”

Sehun nods, “So…” He runs his fingers through his hair and side eyes Jongin, “Do you want to see the Slytherin common room?”

Jongin smiles, “Yeah definitely.”

-

“Jongin wake up.” Someone whispers lowly in his ear. He feels a blanket being pulled off of him and Jongin makes an irritated sound, huddling closer to the body of warmth that seems to be all around him.

“Wake up.” He feels someone shaking his arm slightly and he props an eye open. Sehun’s face is centimeters away from his face, so close that Jongin can feel the other’s warm breathe on his cheek.

His sleepiness turns into shock and he shifts his body up, quickly sitting away from Sehun, ‘W-What happened?” He asks, still slightly groggy.

“We fell asleep.” Sehun murmurs, his voice low. Jongin looks around the room and takes in the dark walls, the renaissance-styled furniture and the fire burning in the fireplace. He squints his eyes, the only light being the fire and takes in Sehun’s form. Sehun’s hai