A.N.: Thank you to the lovely turnip graphics for the new bg and poster ^^

“Christmas! It’s freaking Christmas!” Seokmin squeals, pouncing on Minghao’s bed. The Chinese boy whines and rolls away, bundling up into a giant blanket burrito.

“Five more minutes.”

“Myungho, Christmas waits for nobody!”

“Please... no call me Myungho… tha’s weird.”

“You’re a total meanie,” Seokmin whines, and then crouches, leaping onto Jisoo’s bed. The older boy mumbles something.

“What was that?”

“Mmm… coo...kies? Chocolate cook..ies…”

“Aww,” Seokmin coos. “Myungho, look how cute Jisoo-hyung is!”

The younger boy is fully awake now, and pouting at Seokmin. “Told you, no call me Myungho. Is Ming. Hao.”

“Sorry, Myunghao. Anyways, help me wake up Jisoo-hyung; we have to open presents!”

Minghao giggles and pounces on Jisoo’s bed like an overgrown kitten. The two younger Hufflepuff poke at Jisoo’s cheeks and arms.

“Wake up!”

“No~,” Jisoo protests sleepily, batting at their hands. “Jeonghan stoppppp.”

“It’s me, Seokmin! And Myunghao!”

“I’m sleeping, you two.”

“Mommmm,” Seokmin complains. “It’s Christmas morning. That means presents!”

“Presents!” Minghao squeals, apparently just realizing the excitement of the day. “We gotta open presents; we gotta!”

Jisoo groans and burrows further under the covers. “Go ask your dad.”

“Mommmmm,” Seokmin and Minghao whine together.

“Dad not here, though!” Minghao protests.

“Wait, the Slytherin one or the Hufflepuff one?”

“Doesn’t matter, they are both no here!” Minghao rolls his eyes at Seokmin.

“Well, it does matter, because-”

“Kids,” Jisoo says warningly, effectively stopping the quarrel. “If you’re going to fight, we’re never going to open those presents.”

Minghao huffs and sits down sulkily. “Seokmin started it.”

Seokmin sticks his tongue out.

“Now, now, kids,” Jisoo cuts in, trying to prevent a fight from starting up. “Why don’t we go ahead and open our presents?”

“Yay!” Seokmin practically jumps into the pile of presents, swimming in flashes of red and gold wrapping paper. “This is like the best day ever oh my gosh.”

The boys settle down as they start to open their presents. Soon, the room is filled with the sounds of wrapping paper being torn apart- and occasionally, soft giggles.

Jisoo carefully unwraps his own three gifts; a box of chocolate from his roommates, and a photo of all thirteen of them; waving, laughing, and fooling around. It’s signed ‘To: Jisoo-eomma. From: your kids and husband.’ Jisoo rolls his eyes but there’s a lump in his throat anyways.

The third gift is from Jeonghan. It’s the same thing that he gave Jeonghan: an enchanted paper crane, except it’s very noticeable that it’s been charmed by Jeonghan because the crane heaves itself up and flops around shakily before giving up and nestling into Jisoo’s shoulder. Ahh, Jeonghan was never good at Charms.

Giggling, Jisoo sits back and watches the two younger boys tear into their gifts. Even though Jisoo himself has only two gifts, watching Seokmin and Minghao joyfully dig into theirs gives him a contented emotion that he can’t quite place.

Family. My family.

It’s breakfast time and owls are arriving like crazy. Jisoo watches curiously as one lands in front of Seokmin and drops-

“Oh my god, is that a Howler?”

“Don’t say oh my God, Minghao,” Jisoo reprimands, but even his eyes grow wide as the red envelope begins to tremble in front of Seokmin.

“Open it, ya doofus!” Taehyung says, the remaining entirety of the Hufflepuff table giving Seokmin sympathetic looks. “Else it’ll explode. I got one from Seokjin- no, not Seokmin, Seokjin-hyung once and it called me a butthead before exploding in my face.”

Blanching, Seokmin carefully opens it. As soon as he does, it springs to life, snarling and snipping at his hands.

“LEE SEOKMIN I THINK YOU’RE REALLY CUTE AND YOUR SMILE IS REALLY BEAUTIFUL!”

The entire Great Hall turns to stare.

“Wait, what?” Seokmin blurts out.

“YOUR LIPS ARE REALLY BEAUTIFUL AND I ESPECIALLY LIKE THE WAY YOUR EYES DO THE CRINKLEY-THING WHEN YOU LAUGH. I COULD STARE AT YOU ALL DAY, EXCEPT I WON’T BECAUSE THAT’S CREEPY. ANYWAYS, I REALLY LIKE YOU. AND PANCAKES. BUT MOSTLY YOU.”

“But-” Seokmin stammers, only to be interrupted again by the passionately raging Howler.

“I REALLY LIKE YOU AND I HOPE YOU LIKE ME TOO. LOVE, S.”

“Who is S?” Seokmin cries out.

The Howler explodes into a million bits, raining down on Seokmin’s mashed potatoes.

Everyone stares at Seokmin for a few seconds.

“Oh my godddddddd.”

“Is nobody going to talk about the elephant in the room?”

“That’s the point of the ‘elephant in the room’, Jihoon,” Junhui explains. “Nobody discusses it.”

Soonyoung cranes his neck to look around the garden. “I don’t see an elephant. And we’re not in a room, we’re outside.”

“No, Soonyoung, the elephant in the room means like, an awkward topic that everyone is thinking about but nobody wants to talk about.”

“What’s an el-eph-ant?” Minghao asks.

“Doesn’t matter. The point is, there’s something that we’re not talking about. And we need to talk about it.”

“So what is it?” Soonyoung asks innocently. Jihoon groans and slams his head into his book.

“Oh my god, Soonyoung. It’s the Howler. The freaking Howler.”

“Oh.” Soonyoung turns red, and Seokmin turns to stare at him curiously.

Seokmin knows that Soonyoung probably sent it. The problem now is to get him to confess it. Not that difficult.

“Your secret admirer’s name starts with an ‘S’,” Junhui says to Seokmin, idly picking white cat hair off of his black robes. “So it’s obviously S-”

“Seungcheol!” Soonyoung screams, then turns purple with embarrassment as everybody turns to stare at him. “U-um, it must be Seungcheol.”

Junhui raises an eyebrow at him, and Soonyoung hurries to explain himself.

“B-because, um. Seungcheol-hyung must have thought that Howlers could also give nice messages. Because how was he supposed to know that Howlers are so angry?”

“Pretty much everyone knows that, Soonyoung,” Jihoon says boredly. “Too bad you’re so stupid. You sure screwed up your confession to Seokmin.”

Soonyoung glares at Jihoon, who raises his hands in defence. “Hey, somebody was gonna say it.”

“It’s not me. I swear. It’s Seungcheol-hyung. Or, or!” Soonyoung points accusingly at a group of friends nearby. “It’s that shady Oh Sehun dude! Sehun starts with ‘S’!”

“The Slytherin sixth-year?” Jihoon laughs. “He’s straight as all hell.”

“Isn’t hell gay, because mean people say that gay people go to hell?” Soonyoung scratches his head for a moment. “Wow, hell must be super fun. Anyways. Whatever. It’s probably Min Yoongi.”

“Who?”

“He’s a Ravenclaw seventh-year.” Jihoon rolls his eyes. “The one that looks like me.”

“He’s practically your father,” Junhui snorts. “You look the same, you’re Ravenclaws, you’re both super grumpy all the time-”

“But ‘Yoongi’ doesn’t start with ‘S’,” Seokmin protests.

“Aha!” Soonyoung snaps his fingers. “Min Yoongi’s friends call him ‘Suga’.”

“Oh, that’s right!” Jisoo exclaims, eyes widening. “Min Yoongi is dating my friend, Hoseok.”

“Well,” Soonyoung huffs. “I suppose it’s Seungkwan, then.”

“Seungkwannie?” Seokmin laughs. “That’s real funny.”

“Think about it.” Soonyoung looks absolutely serious. “Really.”

“Honestly, why can’t you just admit that it’s you, Kwon-”

“Yukwon!”

“No, I was gonna say you, Kwon Soonyoung.” Jihoon rolls his eyes so hard that Junhui winces.

“Nope. You said Yukwon. As in Kim Yukwon. As in U-Kwon.” Soonyoung raises a hand imperatively, silencing the group. “Did you hear that?”

“Oh my god, Yukwon doesn’t even start with ‘S’!” Seokmin shouts. “Just please say that it’s-”

“Seungcheol.” Soonyoung’s voice is getting higher in pitch. “It’s Seungcheol. Or Seungkwan.”

“You know what? Fine.” Seokmin facepalms. “Fine. It’s Seungcheol or Seungkwan. Sure.”

Soonyoung beams and sits down. “Thank you. See, Seungkwan is in Gryffindor, and I’m also in Gryffindor, and I saw Seungkwan in our common room. Writing the note. Last week.”

“Sure.” Seokmin flops onto the frost-dusted ground, huffing as the coldness seeps through his robes. “Sure. Whatever. Okay.”

“Soonyoung.” Jihoon gives him a pointed glare. “If you’d really seen Seungkwan writing the note, you would have mentioned it first, and not accused Seungcheol.”

“Just drop it.” Seokmin is lying on the ground, Jisoo’s fingers brushing through his hair. “It’s not important.”

“It’s so important!” Seokmin wails, falling backwards onto his bed. “Why can’t he just admit to me, personally, that he likes me?”

“Why don’t you?”

Seokmin blinks confusedly and sits up. “Why don’t I what?”

“Why don’t you confess to him?” Jisoo clarifies, pulling the blankets over a sleepy Minghao. “Why are you waiting for him to confess to you?”

“W-well.” Seokmin looks down nervously. “I, uhh. I don’t want him to reject me.”

“I thought you knew that he likes you,” Jisoo points out, smoothing out the pillows around Minghao’s head.

“Internalized homophobia,” Seokmin says, puffing out his chest proudly. See, he’s smart.

“Like, half of us are gay, Seokmin. Jeonghan and I do cheesy stuff all the time. Hansol and Minghao cuddle.”

“Grossly, too,” Seokmin snorts. “Well, maybe I don’t want to confess because I want Soonyoung to admit it, first.”

“Okay, fine.” Jisoo shrugs and brushes Minghao’s hair away from his face. “But if you confess now, you can start being a gross PDA-loving couple as soon as possible.”

“Whatever. He’s the pants in this not-yet-relationship; he has to confess.”

“That’s sort of outdated. As in, older-than-Albus-Dumbledore outdated.”

“Who’s Albus Dumbledore?”

“Last Headmaster. Harry Potter’s time and all.”

“Who’s Harry Potter?”

“Oh my gosh, Seokmin.”

“What?”

“Do you even pay attention in History of Magic class?”

“Well, no, because that’s the only class we share with the Gryffindors, and I get to stare at Soonyoung’s face for two hours while Professor Binns drones on about goblins stabbing each other.”

Minghao lifts his head groggily to stare at Seokmin. “You and Soonyoung are gross.”