Chanyeol was sure Jongdae was avoiding him. Or at least, something was up with him. He didn’t act like he normally did.

He was not very sneaky about it, really. Whenever Jongdae spotted Chanyeol walking in the same corridor as him, he would immediately turn around and steer his steps another way. He would arrive to the lessons they shared just as they were about to start, instead of being there in advance like he usually was, probably to avoid seeing Chanyeol more than he had to. He never even seemed to look at Chanyeol anymore, just ignoring him as though he didn’t exist.

Normally, Jongdae interacted with him a lot. Of course, there were the pranks they would play on each other, but Jongdae would also make fun of him or simply just send resentful expressions his way. The pranks were all in good fun, Chanyeol quite liked messing around with Jongdae, but the somewhat mean comments and glares were something he could do without. At least, that was what he thought.

This complete silence was actually worse. To be treated like air. Chanyeol could think of lots of things he would give to hear Jongdae lower his voice an octave, pull his ears, and say something along the lines of “My name is Chanyeol Park and I think I’m hot just because I’m tall and have the face of a house-elf”.

Chanyeol guessed he could confront Jongdae about it, but there was no need. He was pretty sure he knew why Jongdae was avoiding him. And he supposed he could understand.

His friends had told him about the Love Potion Incident that had happened a couple of days ago. Chanyeol himself had no memories of it at all, supposedly because Jongdae had made sure to use a memory charm on him. All he could recall was Jongdae sitting on the floor, looking completely destroyed, not being able to say a word. Chanyeol had been a little confused to why he was there with him in the first place, and he was honestly shocked when Jongdae finally managed to speak up and yelled at Chanyeol to leave him alone. Chanyeol did as he was told, actually, and returned to his common room where his friends had told him what they knew. But they did not know what really had happened during the day.

Since Chanyeol had been, well, head-over-heels for Jongdae he had been following him around, but he didn’t know what Jongdae did about it. If he tried to avoid him, or if he perhaps managed to put up with him. It still did not explain why Jongdae had seemed so distressed that evening. Chanyeol did not do anything, right…? It was not like he could control what he was doing at the time, so he didn’t know. The only one who knew was Jongdae, but there was no way Chanyeol was going to ask him.

It must’ve been quite hard to have Chanyeol being in love with him, after all he knew Jongdae wasn’t very fond of him. But Chanyeol did not feel a lot of sympathy for Jongdae, though. He had brought it onto himself. Had he really planned to make Chanyeol fall for their Charms teacher? That’s an excessively mean prank. Humiliating. Chanyeol wouldn’t even think of doing such a thing to Jongdae.

He felt angry about the prank - which was bad since it took a lot to make Chanyeol angry - even though Jongdae had failed. The failure did not make things any better, either. Worse, probably. Chanyeol wasn’t sure if he wanted to find out what had happened during those twenty-four hours.

To look at things in a positive way, nobody seemed to know about the incident. The only ones who did were him, his friends, Jongdae, and possibly some of Jongdae’s friends as well. No one else in their year knew anything, and Chanyeol hadn’t heard a sound from the rest of the students, either. It was a bit strange, as something like that would usually spread like wildfire across the school in no time at all. Somehow, Jongdae had managed to cover it up. Chanyeol supposed he should at least feel a bit thankful for that.

 

It was the second to last week of the term, and Christmas was closing in on them. There were Christmas decorations around every corner, and the Great Hall had seemingly been invaded by Christmas trees. It had snowed once a couple of days ago, but unfortunately the snow soon melted away. However, the temperature outside today was well below zero and it looked like a snowstorm was on its way towards them.

Therefore Chanyeol, a fan of snowy weather, was in a rather happy mood, almost skipping along the corridor to his first lesson that day: Transfiguration. As he had woken up early the corridor was completely empty of people, the only thing to be heard were his footsteps against the stone floor.

However, he soon heard voices breaking the silence. They seemed to be whispering, and Chanyeol, being a bit too curious, took a turn to the right to follow the direction of said voices.

Around the corner, he spotted Jongdae and his friend and housemate Hyuna Kim. They were walking slowly with their backs turned to Chanyeol’s direction (thankfully) and they looked rather suspicious. Of course, it was not uncommon for them to look like they were up to something, but right now they were almost more suspicious-looking than ever.

Even though Chanyeol felt a small flame of anger inside of him at the sight of Jongdae, his curiosity was too strong and he subtly tried to follow their steps, staying at an arbitrary distance behind the two. What if they were planning another prank, an even worse one than what Jongdae had attempted to do before? Chanyeol had to keep an eye on them if they acted like this, for his and everyone else’s wellbeing.

They rounded a corner and Chanyeol lost sight of them, however he could still hear their voices. Creeping closer to the wall, Chanyeol realised that they had stopped. Perfect.

“Really, Dae. You have to tell me. Why are you acting like this?” Hyuna’s voice said. There was then a pause for a couple of seconds.

“Why do you care?” uttered Jongdae finally. It was a rather rude thing to say, but his tone didn’t sound too rude, Chanyeol noted.

“Why shouldn’t I? I’m not completely heartless, if you thought that. Also, you’re no fun when you’re being like this all the time. Down. And such.”

“I’m alright, really-”

Chanyeol considered leaving, this did not seem like it had any relevance to him at all. However, he was a bit excited to know that Hyuna thought that Jongdae was acting strangely, too. And he kind of wanted to know-

“Does this have to do with what happened with Park?”

Okay, yes, he was staying a bit longer.

“What even happened?” Hyuna added.

“Nothing, really.”

“Are you speaking the truth?”

“Yeah. I mean, you saw us, he followed me around and stuff, being bothersome… He wasn’t too touchy though so it was endurable. And I managed to get him to leave me alone during our lessons together. So it was alright… Although I didn’t enjoy it. Try having someone you hate deeply in love with you for a day, it’s not fun.”

“Aw, so nothing happened? No funny details or anything? Nothing I can tease you about?” Hyuna sounded almost disappointed.

“Uh, no”, Jongdae answered shortly and Chanyeol was hit by relief. The things Jongdae said seemed completely honest. Nothing had happened. Nothing bad. Nothing that permanently traumatised Jongdae and left him trying his best to ignore Chanyeol’s existence- wait. Why did he do that, then?

Hyuna thought something similar to Chanyeol.

“But how come you were so… low when you came back to the common room that day? You still kinda are, y'know.”

“Ah, well, I’m… I don’t know, it was the whole experience overall. It was too much. I told you to imagine your biggest enemy fancying you for a day, that’s really uncomfortable. And…”

“And?” Hyuna pressed on.

“I’m… Er… Yeah, something happened at the end. I mean, it wasn’t anything big, but that’s kinda the reason to why I wasn’t feeling well afterwards. Partly.”

There was then a complete silence. Chanyeol waited, his heart beating impatiently. So something had happened, after all.

“So…?” Hyuna asked after a couple of seconds, clearly as impatient as Chanyeol.

“Um…”

“Did he show you his ?”

Chanyeol choked on his breath.

“I’m- what!? No!!” Jongdae almost shouted while Hyuna laughed loudly, thankfully covering up the sound of Chanyeol coughing to clear his throat.

“Why would you- I don’t- Why-” sputtered Jongdae, and Hyuna answered him when her laughter had died down.

“I know, I know, I was only joking, geez. Just trying to lighten the mood a bit.”

“I don’t see what’s so funny about that”, Jongdae said and Chanyeol could agree. She had almost given him a heart attack.

“But, tell me what happened then! It wasn’t worse than that, right?”

“No, of course not! He just… t-tried to kiss me. I mean, he tried, I managed to push him off, and then the potion stopped working. I managed to use a memory charm on him. But still, it was, uh, a bit traumatising.”

Chanyeol got the feeling there was something Jongdae chose not to tell, but he couldn’t come up with what. He decided it was probably some useless suspicion, and told himself to take Jongdae’s word on this. It seemed like nothing had happened between them after all, and he needed to stay optimistic. This was just some one-time mistake they could leave behind by now. And never talk about again, hopefully.

“I still don’t want to see that jerk again. I hate him. I really can’t stand the sight of him, he’s like… a bad nightmare.”

Chanyeol decided to leave, and unquietly steered his footsteps back to the corridor which he came from; he didn’t care if they heard him. What Jongdae had said last made the anger boil inside of him again. Chanyeol did not like being angry, and as he was a generally optimistic person it took a lot to set him off. This seemed to have touched a nerve, or something.

He did not know why Jongdae hated him so much. What had he ever done to him? Of course, there was the accident in their first year that started the whole rival-like relationship they had, but it wasn’t something huge. Really, it was a pretty small thing. Not something that would make Jongdae hate him five years later.

And sure, they played pranks on each other and at times they could be a bit mean. But it was all in good fun. Chanyeol definitely did not detest Jongdae for it. He obviously wasn’t that fond of Jongdae either, but he didn’t hate him. What in the world could he have done to make Jongdae “not being able to stand the sight of him”?!

Besides, it was Jongdae’s own fault that the whole Love Potion Incident happened in the first place, he couldn’t blame his screwup on Chanyeol. That was incredibly unfair.

Chanyeol wanted revenge. To do something just as bad. Jongdae’s prank had backfired, but it was still a terrifyingly mean prank. Chanyeol did not know what to do yet, but it would be something mean, too.

 

His opportunity to do something just as bad came as soon as the next week. Their final week. Perfect, he would have a chance to do it before the holidays.

It was their very last Potions lesson that term, so their professor had prepared something special.

“This is something some of you have been asking me to let you do for a long time”, he sent a glance to a couple of excited-looking girls in the corner, “so think of it as a Christmas treat.”

Their teacher then proceeded to take off the lid of a cauldron that was waiting on his desk. Chanyeol was standing too far back to see the contents, but he could spot the steam forming spirals, and suddenly he was met with a very pleasant scent. Glancing at Jongdae, he could see that the latter looked quite alarmed. Chanyeol couldn’t understand why, why worry about a thing when there was such a nice smell filling up the room…

“Does anyone know what this is?”

The girls in the corner burst out in giggles, and the professor pointed to one of them.

“Er, yes, it’s an Amortentia”, said the girl and her friends giggled again.

“Very well”, said their professor, “the strongest love potion there is. It is identifiable by its spiral-like steam, and its ability to change its scent depending on what each person finds the most appealing.”

Ah, so that was why Chanyeol enjoyed the smell so much. It reminded him of the pasta his mother made, and he could also distinguish the smell of Chocoballs, and… something else, something he couldn’t identify. He was sure he had smelled it before, but he couldn’t remember from where…

Once again he threw a glance at Jongdae, who looked like he was about to be sick. His face was unusually pale and had the expression of someone who would rather be anywhere else than here. Chanyeol could not hold back a somewhat malicious smile, the words “that’s what you get” repeating in his head.

“The instructions are on your desks, and you have the entire lesson to make it. Remember that it’s a very advanced potion to create, so read the instructions carefully and do exactly as they say. And don’t be nervous, I don’t expect you to succeed on your first attempt, but do try your best!” The teacher clasped his hands, but then seemed to remember something.

“Oh, and a very important thing! It’s not mentioned in the instructions, but make sure to put in the fairybug eggs in the order of size, from smallest to largest! And remember to stir slowly and carefully. The potion is supposed to have a pearl-like colour, if it turns grey you have to put the lid on immediately!”

Everyone instantly went to their desks and started to work. Well, everyone except one. Jongdae was still standing where he had been before, looking at nothing in particular, seemingly lost in thoughts. Chanyeol noted that he was still very pale-faced.

“What are you doing, Kim? Why don’t you start making your potion?” the teacher asked, and Jongdae twitched at being spoken to.

“Oh? Ah, yes, sorry, I’ll begin!” he said and rushed to his desk.

The classroom was soon filled with various scents. Looking around, Chanyeol could spot that the contents of the cauldron varied from person to person. A lot of them were white, one was lime green, a couple were purple-ish, another was brown… Chanyeol forced himself to look at his own again, concentrating. His was the white, pale pink-ish colour it was supposed to be at this stage, to his relief.

He was determined to do well this lesson, to actually manage to produce a perfect Amortentia. If he did, he could use it as a way to get revenge on Jongdae. To let him have a taste of his own medicine. That’d teach him.

When more than half of the time had gone by, Chanyeol allowed himself to look around the classroom again. At this time, the potion was supposed to have turned a pale blue colour, which Chanyeol’s had done. He seemed to be the only one who had succeeded with this so far, he noticed happily. There were now several green ones, a couple of browns and a potion in an unfortunate bright shade of yellow. Jongdae looked like he was stuck at the white stage, a frustrated expression on his face while he stirred intensely. You were supposed to stir slowly and carefully, Chanyeol reminded him in his head, but he wasn’t saying it out loud. The sight of Jongdae failing to make his potion kind of amused him.

The fact that he seemed to be the only one who did well so far boosted Chanyeol’s confidence, he was sure he would succeed at this rate. Actually, he had believed so since the start. He was pretty good at Potions, probably the best in his year. Most of times, he didn’t even have to make a big effort to produce great potions, it was mostly the theoretical stuff that could be a bother. Reading and memorising ingredients to various antidotes, and such. That was what he was bad at. He did not enjoy reading about potion making.

The truth was that he didn’t really like the subject at all. Or, well, he did not hate it, but he just didn’t find it interesting. There were other subjects he liked more, like Transfiguration and Muggle Studies, for example. Yet, Potions was no doubt the subject he was the best at. Maybe it wasn’t that strange, his mother was not only an excellent chef but also a very skilled potion maker. Chanyeol supposed he inherited her skills, as it came naturally to him. And he knew that was one of the reasons to why Jongdae disliked him. Jongdae was interested in Potions, yet he was far from as good as Chanyeol. Funny, because Chanyeol sometimes wished he had Jongdae’s skills in Transfiguration and Charms.

When the lesson was about to end, Chanyeol spotted several frustrated faces around him. He was perfectly happy, though, his potion had turned into that pearl-like hue it was supposed to.

“Park! You’re exceeding the expectations I had on all of you, as always! I am deeply impressed. Now, let’s try and see if the potion works as it’s supposed to…” rambled their teacher. Chanyeol was sure it would work, the steam was forming spirals and the potion had the appealing scent he had smelled at the beginning of class.

The professor opened a locker filled with glass jars and brought one of them to Chanyeol’s desk. It contained one single beetle, and Chanyeol watched curiously as the teacher carefully opened the lid to release a drop of Chanyeol’s Amortentia inside of the jar, and then closed it again. After the beetle seemed to have devoured some of the liquid, the professor completely took off the lid to set the beetle free, and it immediately steered its wings towards Chanyeol.

He watched in amazement as the beetle flew in circles around his face, being a lot braver than the ordinary insect, until their teacher caught it in the jar again. The beetle desperately pressed itself against the glass, trying to escape its prison and come flying towards Chanyeol again, but with no success. Most of the class watched as their teacher put the glass jar back into the locker again.

“Wonderful! A perfectly produced Amortentia, if I’ve ever seen one. Twenty points to Gryffindor!”

Chanyeol felt his chest swell with pride; he had succeeded. When the professor walked off to inspect the other, less successful potions he reached under his desk to pull out a tiny bottle, like the ones his mum used when she was taking samples of different potions. Checking that no one was looking his way, Chanyeol quickly filled the bottle with Amortentia, so that he had some to use on Jongdae for his revenge. He still didn’t know how he would get Jongdae to drink it, though, but he’d come up with something.

At the thought of him, Chanyeol threw a glance at Jongdae, who seemed to be panicking. He stirred hastily, then stopped to look down at his potion. Chanyeol did the same, and noticed that Jongdae’s potion had turned into a grey colour. Wait. Wasn’t there something you were supposed to do if it turned grey…?

Chanyeol looked over to the professor, who was talking to a Ravenclaw girl with a marine blue solution in her cauldron. He seemed to be very occupied with the conversation, but maybe Chanyeol could still ask him-

Chanyeol’s thought process was left unfinished when he heard a loud thud. He immediately turned to the direction of the sound, just like the rest of the inhabitants of the room. His stomach dropped when he saw what had caused the noise.

Jongdae was lying on the floor, seemingly unconscious. His head looked like it had hit the ground very hard, as a pool of red blood slowly grew larger under it. Before Chanyeol knew it he was rushing towards him, making his way through the rows of tables.

The teacher instantly seemed to know what had happened; he raised his wand to cover Jongdae’s cauldron with the lid, and sprinted up to the unconscious student as well.

“He must’ve forgotten to put in the fairybug eggs in order of size, foolish boy, I told him it was important…” the professor mumbled while kneeling down beside Jongdae’s body, carefully lifting his head.

“Is he going to be alright?” asked a voice from behind them, and the teacher nodded to Chanyeol’s relief.

“Yes, it’s nothing dangerous, the steam from his mistake of a potion just rendered him unconscious, but his head hit the floor a little too hard… I’ll use a blood-stopping charm on him for now, but I think it’ll be best to bring him to the hospital wing to get him fully healed.”

The teacher directed his wand to Jongdae’s head, and within a second the wound seemed to have stopped bleeding.

“Does anybody want to bring him to the hospital wing? Or do I have to pick someone?”

Before he could think over what he was doing, Chanyeol raised his hand.

“I’ll do it!”

“That’s incredibly nice of you, Park. Make sure to tell Madam Pomfrey what has happened, and let her inspect the wound on his head. He’ll wake up by himself in a short time, the steam is not deadly or anything, it just knocks you out for a while.”

Chanyeol nodded, understanding what to do, but then… He was not completely sure how to get Jongdae there when he wasn’t in a state to walk. Or do any movements at all, really. Kneeling down beside him, Chanyeol realised there was probably only one thing he could do. He internally thanked the fact that none of Jongdae’s friends seemed to have chosen to take this class, and carefully moved his arms to under Jongdae’s back and knees, securing his grip around the other before pulling him tightly against his own body. Then, he straightened his legs, standing up. Taking a couple of wobbly steps, Chanyeol left the classroom with Jongdae in his arms.

It was a rather long walk, the Potions classroom was in the dungeons, and the hospital wing in the tower on the opposite side of the castle. However, Chanyeol found it easier to carry Jongdae after walking a bit, getting used to it. Jongdae was both tiny and thin, he therefore wasn’t too heavy, and Chanyeol at least hoped that his Quidditch training had improved his strength.

It was unusual of him to help Jongdae like this, but Jongdae was really in a vulnerable situation. Completely defenceless. It was just Chanyeol acting like any normal human being would, helping an injured and unconscious person.

Looking down at his face, Chanyeol noted that Jongdae was still pale in a sickly sort of way. It must have been a very stressful experience for him, the Potions lesson. At least he looked more peaceful now. His eyes were closed, the long eyelashes keeping them shut, dark against his current complexion. There was no crease between his eyebrows, all signs of worry absent from his face.

Chanyeol forced himself to look away, keeping his eyes on the corridor in front of him instead.

When he reached the hospital wing Chanyeol did as he was told and started telling Madam Pomfrey about what had happened. She inspected the wound on the back of Jongdae’s head, then healed it by applying some sort of ointment. Chanyeol was then told that Jongdae would regain consciousness by himself in a matter of minutes, since the amount of steam he had inhaled from the potion had been very small.

Chanyeol decided to wait for Jongdae to recover, mainly since Madam Pomfrey was busy taking care of a student in a much more severe condition (a third-year who had accidentally frozen her arms together during Charms) and couldn’t tend to him. She had put a glass of water next to the bed Jongdae had been placed on, though, and told Chanyeol it was important for Jongdae to drink after waking up.

Chanyeol was left sitting in a chair next to the bed, simply observing Jongdae in his state of unconsciousness. It was strange, but a whole lot easier to look at Jongdae when he wasn’t looking so… contemptuous. The fact that the only time Jongdae was alright to deal with was when he wasn’t even awake made Chanyeol feel rather bad. But it was not his fault that Jongdae seemed to hate him. Again, he had not really done anything to deserve it. Not that much, anyway.

He kind of wished they hadn’t started off in such a bad way. That they could have a more civil relationship. Jongdae did actually seem both smart and funny at times, and pretty nice to everyone who wasn’t Chanyeol, so it was almost frustrating that they had such a bad relation to each other.

Looking at Jongdae, Chanyeol suddenly felt that anger from before reappear inside of him. The prank Jongdae had done, or had at least planned to do, was hard to forgive. Really. If Chanyeol could just find a good moment for revenge…

Wait. Chanyeol glanced to his side, at the bedside table. The glass of water. An idea.

He still had the small bottle of Amortentia in his pocket, and taking it out without anyone seeing him was not a difficult task at his current place. Emptying the contents in the glass of water, Chanyeol felt a grin spread across his face. Revenge. Revenge! This was such a perfect moment for it. Maybe that was the reason to why he had taken Jongdae to the hospital wing, and sat here waiting for him… Not at all because he felt like helping him, and definitely not because he was worried for him!

In a minute or so, Jongdae shifted slightly on the bed, then opened his eyes slowly. Looking around, said eyes widened when he spotted Chanyeol.

“Um… Ah, Cha- Park!” Jongdae made a sound and scrambled to a sitting position on the bed. Chanyeol raised an eyebrow. It had sounded suspiciously like Jongdae had been about to say his given name… That was a bit strange, since Jongdae insisted to call him by his family name, just because he disliked him so much. It was a well known fact. How come he almost said it now?

“What’s, er, going on…? What happened?!”

Chanyeol brushed his thoughts aside, he had probably misheard Jongdae, anyway. Instead he put his focus on answering the question.

“You’re in the hospital wing-”

“Thank you, I’ve noticed”, Jongdae interrupted, his usual hostility back.

“Let me continue”, Chanyeol sighed, “you’re in the hospital wing because your potion turned grey and you breathed in some of the steam and fainted.”

“That’s- that’s… Really? Why would I faint from something like that?!” Jongdae seemed a bit worked up at the fact that he had lost consciousness in front of everyone. Embarrassed, even. It was a little satisfying.

“I don’t know, I think the steam from the grey potion is poisonous, or something. Our professor told us that we had to cover the cauldron with its lid if it turned grey, don’t you remember?

“H-he didn’t say that!”

“He did. Maybe you weren’t listening”, Chanyeol said in a superior manner, feeling a bit content with Jongdae’s troubled face. “You probably didn’t add the fairybug eggs in order of size, either. And you stirred quickly and sloppily instead of being careful.”

“…Why are you here, anyway?” asked Jongdae then, rather rudely, most likely because he wanted to talk about something else than his failure during Potions.

“I was the one who brought you here. You should be more thankful.” Chanyeol didn’t know why he did it, but he smiled at Jongdae who looked a bit taken aback.

“You… you… what? Why?” he said, stumbling over his words.

“You needed assistance and nobody else wanted. I was just doing what a normal human being would do if they saw someone faint and injure themselves like you did. Wouldn’t you do the same?”

“I’m… uh. Wait. Do you have any hidden motives?!” Jongdae uttered defensively. Chanyeol shook his head.

“None at all?”

Chanyeol shook his head a second time and Jongdae eyed him.

“How am I supposed to believe you?”

“I don’t have any motives. Why do you think people always have a secret plan behind every nice action? Is this a Slytherin thing, that you believe people shouldn’t do anything unless they gain something from it themselves?”

Jongdae looked a bit irritated.

“I just don’t see the use in doing something nice to someone you hate. Unless this is part of a prank, or something”, he muttered harshly, looking down.

“I don’t hate you, though”, Chanyeol said truthfully. He could see Jongdae’s eyes widen, but he still did not look up from his lap. Did Jongdae seriously believe that Chanyeol hated him?

There was an awkward silence, none of them dared say anything for a while, but when he was glancing to the side Chanyeol spotted the glass of water again. Oh, right.

“Hey, drink some water. Madam Pomfrey put it there for you”, he said and pointed to the water. Jongdae shrugged and reached for the glass, still avoiding looking Chanyeol in the eyes.

This was it. The moment Chanyeol would get his revenge. The moment when Jongdae would get to know how it felt to be utterly humiliated. Chanyeol observed Jongdae as the latter lifted the glass to his lips, taking a sip. He intently watched Jongdae’s hand around the glass, the way his adam’s apple moved as he gulped down the water. When Jongdae was done, putting back the empty glass on the bedside table, Chanyeol was still looking at him, checking for any sign that the potion had started to work.

Nothing really seemed to happen. Chanyeol did not know if the change would be visible though, it was a change of feelings after all. But he still thought Jongdae would be paying him more attention than this. At the moment he was just looking down at his hands.

After a while, Jongdae lifted his gaze. Chanyeol prepared himself for, he did not know, something.

“What the hell are you staring at?”

…Not the kind of reaction Chanyeol had expected. Feeling embarrassed, he immediately tore his gaze from Jongdae’s face. Did the potion need a bit of time to start working… or? No, it had worked instantly on the beetle; it was supposed to do that. Even on someone like Jongdae, who was significantly larger than the bug.

“How… are you feeling?” Chanyeol asked, just to get something more out of Jongdae. Something to prove that the love potion had worked, after all.

“Why do you care?” Jongdae replied rudely, nope, not a trace of affection lining his voice. How did this not work? Chanyeol looked at the empty glass, Jongdae had downed all of it, he should be affected. Unless… maybe, Amortentia was not to be mixed with water. That could be it. He had to look it up, somehow.

“Don’t you have class soon, anyway? Why don’t you go there instead of sitting around here?” Jongdae then said and Chanyeol flinched. Of course he had class. How could he forget that?

“Aren’t you going as well?” he asked Jongdae who shook his head.

“I need to rest some more, I think”, he said even though he looked perfectly fine to Chanyeol.

“Right”, Chanyeol shrugged indifferently, even though his brain was filled with questions, mainly: Why didn’t the love potion work?!

Maybe he should just wait it out a bit. See if anything would change after a while. He could not stay in the hospital wing forever, though, he had Muggle Studies and the lesson had started ten minutes ago. Perhaps he should get going.

Waving goodbye to Jongdae, who did not seem to acknowledge him, Chanyeol sprinted towards his next lesson.

 

By lunchtime, Jongdae had returned from the hospital wing, healthy and (most importantly) not unconscious. Chanyeol spotted him sitting on his usual seat at the usual Slytherin table with his usual pals. Even though Jongdae was not the most popular person in school, far from it, some of his friends surprisingly were.

Hyuna was sitting on Jongdae’s left side, and she was considered one of the most attractive girls in school. Hell, even Amber seemed to have a small crush on her, even though she mostly preferred guys. It was of course a bit sad that pretty much the only way girls were made popular was if they were good-looking; Hyuna seemed like an alright person, smart and confident and all, her good looks not being her only strong point.

On Jongdae’s other side sat Kris Wu. He was in year seven, but was actually two years older than Chanyeol, Jongdae, and the others. He had apparently started school a year too late for reasons that were unknown to Chanyeol.

Chanyeol didn’t particularly like Kris, but that was only based on the fact that he was the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team, Gryffindor’s biggest rivals. Kris was also fairly popular, so Chanyeol supposed he was probably a nice person once you’d get to know him. He had a rather cool demeanour and did not seem like the brightest kid in the sandbox but he was a hell of a good Quidditch player. He played Keeper, and had (unfortunately) kept Chanyeol from scoring numerous times.

Jongdae looked kind of small in between the two. Of course, Kris was a lot taller, he was even taller than Chanyeol. Hyuna, on the other hand, was about the same height as Jongdae. A tiny bit shorter, even. Somehow, she still made Jongdae look a little small. Perhaps it was the different confidence levels. Hyuna held herself up with great confidence while Jongdae, who was usually pretty sure of himself, seemed to have lost all of his lately. Maybe it was because of the thing… that happened. That. Chanyeol did not feel guilty or anything, though, since it had been Jongdae’s own fault.

While he was looking, Jongdae lifted his gaze and for less than a second glanced right into Chanyeol’s eyes. Chanyeol tried as fast as he could to tear his gaze away, as did Jongdae, both of them looking somewhere completely else, acting as if it had never happened.

During the rest of the lunch Jongdae avoided looking in Chanyeol’s direction, instead seemingly being in deep conversation with his friends. Once in a while he smiled widely at something that had been said, and it almost felt strange, seeing him form a genuinely happy expression like that. It was actually really pretty. His mouth, with the way its corners cutely turned upwards, opened wide to expose neat rows of teeth and Chanyeol could swear his eyes shone. Jongdae was like a completely different person from how he was with Chanyeol. Why couldn’t he smile like that at him? Would Chanyeol ever get to see that smile coming his way at all?

Chanyeol observed them as they left, noticing Hyuna not-so-subtly slapping Jongdae’s in a casual manner when they walked out of the door. They were gone from Chanyeol’s sight before he could witness Jongdae’s reaction, but he did not seem very shaken as it happened. Was this something they normally did? A friendly gesture? Chanyeol and his friends sure did not do that. It was something he had seen girls do to each other jokingly, but Hyuna and Jongdae were a girl and a boy. What was their relationship, even?

Chanyeol felt a weird tugging feeling in his stomach, but decided to ignore it.

 

After a lesson in Transfiguration without any signs of affection from Jongdae at all, Chanyeol realised something.

He was actually pretty relieved that his prank with the Amortentia didn’t work. A bit irritated, sure, he really wondered what he did wrong, but still relieved. It was, to be quite honest, a really stupid prank. Chanyeol had been too focused on the thought of revenge to think of the consequences. If the prank had worked he would have Jongdae all over him for the whole day…! Even though the thought of Jongdae admiring his existence was rather appealing, Chanyeol was sure it would be very bothersome as well. And it would not only be embarrassing for Jongdae, it would be embarrassing for him too!

At that moment, he supposed he could understand Jongdae a bit more. How he must have felt, having Chanyeol obsessed with him for 24 hours. He was probably humiliated. More than Chanyeol was. Hell, Chanyeol did not even have any memories of it, Jongdae had been nice enough to erase them for him to spare him the embarrassment (even though part of Chanyeol wanted to know what had happened).

Also, Jongdae had done a good job covering it up. Close to no one seemed to know, after all. It was probably because he didn’t want anyone to hear about his slip-up. He must have felt horrible. Chanyeol was almost sorry for him. Almost.

 

When all his lessons for the day were over, Chanyeol decided to head for the library to find out what went wrong with the Amortentia. Of course, he could have asked his mother, she knew about everything there is to be known about potions, but if he wrote her a letter he wouldn’t get a reply until after a couple of days. Chanyeol could not wait for that long. Besides, his mum might get suspicious if he asked something strange like that.

Chanyeol knew he wouldn’t find the answer to his question in any normal library book, so he had managed to get a letter of approval from his Potions teacher to borrow a book from the restricted section. It had been easy. All he had to say was that he wanted to study some more about love potions and the effects of them. The teacher had been delighted that his most talented sixth year student finally showed some interest in the subject he was so good at in practice, but not in theory.

Chanyeol slipped the letter to Madam Pince, who read the title out loud and eyed him suspiciously, but said nothing more and went to get him the book.

 

Chanyeol soon found himself on a library chair, holding the school’s only copy of Love Potions: A Guide to Some of the Most Dangerous Elixirs Known to Mankind in his hands. It was rather old, but not very worn-looking, like it never had been read before. The top of the book was covered with a thick layer of dust.

Chanyeol immediately opened the book at the index, and found that the different love potions were listed in alphabetical order. A as in Amortentia was at the very beginning of the book, just after the foreword and introduction. He began to read.

“Amortentia is the most powerful love potion in the world. It is distinctive for its mother-of-pearl sheen-”

Wait, he knew this already. It wasn’t important. Chanyeol skimmed through the page, trying to find something relevant to his research. There was a description on how to make it, several warnings, and finally a headline that said “Uses”. In the block of text below that, Chanyeol finally found something that caught his interest.

“To trick the unsuspecting victim to consume the Amortentia, many witches and wizards have slipped some into the victim’s food or drink. Of course, the Amortentia can be mixed with anything, which makes it more convenient-”

So it could be mixed with water, then. Chanyeol felt a bit disappointed, he had thought he was onto something with that idea. But what could have gone wrong, if that wasn’t the case? It could not be the potion itself, it had after all worked when they tested it. It was just that it didn’t work on Jongdae… Was he immune? Could people even be immune to love potions? Chanyeol leaned back in his chair, tilting it backwards, deep in thought.

Eyeing through the rest of the page, Chanyeol spotted the headline “Sources of Error” at the very bottom. He suddenly felt excited; this was what he had been looking for from the start. Leaning his chair back even more than before, trying to make himself comfortable, Chanyeol tensely started to read.

“Being the most powerful of all love potions, if you have managed to successfully produce the Amortentia it should work in any instance. However, if it does fail to achieve its desired effects, there is only one reason known to be the possible source of failure.”

This was it, this must be why the prank went wrong, he was about to find out now… Chanyeol felt so excited he couldn’t sit still, balancing the chair on its back legs, he turned his gaze to the page again-

“The Amortentia has no effect on the victim if they are already in love with the potion maker.”

Chanyeol overturned his chair, falling backwards onto the floor.

 

After being chased out of the library for causing a ruckus, Chanyeol wandered back to his common room. However, he stopped when he was almost there, realising that people would be in there. His friends. It was very unlike him, but he would rather be alone with his thoughts at the moment. Chanyeol therefore settled for an empty classroom, sitting down at one of the desks.

It had to be wrong. Or, more specifically, there had to be more reasons to failure than the one listed in the book. It even said that there was only one known source of error, maybe there were more that were still unknown. That book seemed rather old, after all. Perhaps more had been discovered…

But really, what else could it be? The idea of Jongdae being immune to love potions was ridiculous, it was not even possible. And it had been a perfectly produced Amortentia, the most powerful love potion of all, so it couldn’t just have stopped working. So perhaps the only believable explanation was the one in the book… That Jongdae was in love with him.

No. That was even more ridiculous. It could not be true. Jongdae hated him. He had even stated it himself. Additionally, what kind of person does horrible pranks on the guy they have a crush on?

It was unthinkable. They were both boys, too. And Jongdae was really close with Hyuna, one of the most gorgeous girls in school. Why in the world would he even like Chanyeol, someone he had despised ever since that accident in their first year?

Seriously, the mere idea of Jongdae liking him was… laughable. And, if he liked him…

Chanyeol felt very hot all of a sudden. This was kind of uncomfortable to think about. It must be that, since the room was actually quite cold. His stomach felt a bit weird, too… What if he was getting sick? Directing one hand to his forehead to check his temperature, Chanyeol found that it was a little bit hotter than normal. So were his cheeks. Perhaps he should go back to the dormitories. Get some rest. Try not to think about… this.

 

So, Chanyeol told himself not to think about what he’d read, plenty of times during the rest of the week. It was easy to tell himself that, but on the other hand very difficult to actually do what he was told. It was as though the idea had planted itself in his head, and was growing like a beanstalk; he couldn’t get rid of it.

Every time he saw someone with short black hair in Slytherin coloured robes he immediately started thinking of Jongdae, even if it wasn’t him. The times it did turn out to be Jongdae, though, Chanyeol did not let his warm cheeks and quickly increasing heartbeat stop him from observing the other’s every little move. He found that Jongdae seemed to like to observe him too, he often moved his gaze to Chanyeol’s direction only to rapidly remove it when noticing that Chanyeol was looking at him as well. Chanyeol’s belly usually did a flip whenever it happened, but he also felt a bit worried as it only seemed to confirm what the book had told him.

While watching Jongdae, Chanyeol also noticed a bunch of small things he had never thought of before. Things like the fact that Jongdae smiled slightly to himself every time he answered a question right in class. Or that he had a tendency to his lips a lot when he was nervous. And that he would make this cute whiny sound when his friends weren’t paying him any attention. Jongdae also seemed to like sweet stuff, doing things like spreading a thick layer of jam on his toast during breakfast, and even bringing Sugarquills to class (Chanyeol had been concerned at first when he spotted Jongdae his quill, before realising it was a fake one from Honeydukes).

After a day or two Jongdae probably noticed that Chanyeol was watching him more than before, and his solution to that problem was to avoid Chanyeol more fervently than ever, to Chanyeol’s disappointment. Obviously, none of them pranked the other during the last couple of days, it was evident that something had happened between them. Even Chanyeol’s friends seemed to notice.

When the two of them were on their own, Amber straightforwardly asked Chanyeol why he was so obsessed with watching Jongdae. Chanyeol did not know what to answer at first.

“I, um, he’s been acting really suspiciously lately and I think he might be up to something…” he said, but Amber looked sceptical.

“Yeah, sure”, she replied, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “Why don’t you tell me what’s up?”

Chanyeol sighed, already giving in. He did sometimes find it hard to keep things to himself. It was kind of relieving to get to talk to someone about what was bothering him. Someone who would probably be understanding.

He told Amber about everything that had happened these last couple of days, from the Potions lesson to reading that book in the library, while Amber listened with interest. Chanyeol tried to tell it in such a way so that the whole The-book-suggested-Jongdae-liked-him revelation came as a big surprise, but Amber did not seem too shocked. Instead, she smiled amusedly.

“Ah, Chanyeol, you’ve really made things complicated for yourself”, she said, and Chanyeol frowned.

“Me? Jongdae was the one who started all this, blame him instead! If he hadn’t come up with that brilliant prank our relationship would still be like the usual”, he argued, then added sadly, “… Now he won’t even acknowledge my existence.”

“Well, maybe something did happen during the time you were affected by the love potion”, Amber suggested, “something that made him realise his feelings for you.”

Chanyeol shook his head in disbelief.

“Do you think so too?! You think he likes me? That is so ridiculous! It can’t be true! He hates me!”

“I’m not saying I think he likes you, y'know. But it’s very possible. Why don’t you think so?”

“I’m… He…” Chanyeol struggled, it was after all the only plausible explanation for his failure to make the Amortentia work on Jongdae… “He hates me. He’s said so himself like a thousand times. And he plays pranks on me. Kind of horrible ones, too.”

Chanyeol thought that could be solid proof enough, but Amber just chuckled.

“Don’t you think he’s rather obsessed with you, though? Always going out of his way to plan those pranks, following you around unsneakily, constantly talking about you behind your back… for more than five years? Isn’t that a little of an overreaction to some silly accident when you two were kids? Maybe he has a huge crush on you but hasn’t realised it until now. Thought he just disliked you.”

Chanyeol swallowed; Amber’s theory made sense. Yet, it still felt so… unlikely.

“Yeah, but…” he started carefully, “he’s a boy and I am a boy, too. Isn’t that pretty unusual? Do you really think Jongdae is… like that?”

“What do you mean, like that? That he’s gay?”

Chanyeol felt his face heat up, but tried to ignore it. The whole… boys who liked other boys thing was of course something he had heard of, there was a Hufflepuff boy who dated a boy from Chanyeol’s house when Chanyeol was in his second year. The two boys were seventh years, so it was not like Chanyeol saw them a lot, and… that was all. He hadn’t ever really thought of the fact that there had to be more boys like that, especially not people he knew. Or, people he thought he knew.

“Uh, yes… that.”

“Well, there’s nothing wrong with that, is there? You shouldn’t be so unused to it by now, I like both boys and girls and I told you that years ago.”

Yes, of course, but she was Amber. She was different. Chanyeol had known that for a really long time. Jongdae being like that was a complete surprise. If it was true, that is.

Chanyeol was kind of used to girls liking him. It was not like a lot of them did, but it had happened a few times. He had even dated one for two months in his fourth year. It felt really flattering whenever a girl liked him, it was nice. Having a boy liking him, however, was… strange, for lack of a better word. Different. It probably shouldn’t be, he was being silly, but still. He was unsure of how he felt about that. Especially when said boy was Jongdae.

“Okay, but… I still don’t understand why he’d like me. Like, he’s friends with both Hyuna Kim and Kris Wu and I don’t get why he’d like me, someone who just likes to do pranks on him, instead of any of them.”

“Um, I can’t tell you that”, Amber shrugged, “I also have no idea. I mean, Hyuna is gorgeous but if he doesn’t like girls at all it’s obvious he wouldn’t like her that way. And that Kris Wu guy seems a little bit like a nutter, even if he’s good at Quidditch. I don’t really see why he would go for a dork like you, though.”

Chanyeol made an offended expression and Amber snorted, patting him consolingly on the shoulder.

“Maybe he’s had strong feelings for you all along, but expressed them as hate. I don’t know. I at this kind of love and relationship stuff, you know. I think you should go confront him about it, instead of the two of you just going around like this, being hopeless, trying to watch each other while simultaneously trying to ignore each other’s existence. You’re acting like five-year-olds.”

“Confront him? Like, tell him what I’ve read?” asked Chanyeol, pretending not to have heard the last thing Amber had said.

“What you think”, Amber said, “ask him how he feels. Try to seem understanding and not like you want to force the answer out of him. This is probably even harder for him than it is for you.”

“But… What if… What if he actually does like me? What do I do then?”

“How should I know? Do what you feel like. If you figure you like him back, then go for it. It might be a bit strange at first to date the guy who used to be your archenemy, but… yeah. It’ll probably work out.”

“I’m, he, I mean, I don’t like him, I just-” Chanyeol stammered, feeling somewhat humiliated. Amber snorted.

“You could probably fry an egg on your face, man. Calm down. I wasn’t suggesting anything.”

“I just want to find out if it’s true, okay? The thought of him… possibly liking me is really, er, I don’t know, bothersome. I don’t know how to feel about that. It’s weird.”

Amber nodded.

“Ask him, then. Don’t overcomplicate things.”

“Yeah… Yes, I should do that.”

 

The next day it finally happened. The snowstorm Chanyeol had predicted came at last. It was later than he had thought, sure, but its size made up for it. When everyone woke up in the morning the height of the layer of snow reached a metre or so over the ground. A drastic change from the previous evening, when there had been no signs of snow whatsoever.

After quickly finishing breakfast, Chanyeol and his friends went outside to get a closer look on the snow, but mainly to throw as much as they could on each other in one of the funnest snowball fights Chanyeol’d ever had. It was difficult to move around, since the layer of snow reached up to their stomachs and sometimes even above that, so it was pretty much impossible to avoid getting hit by snowballs. Additionally, the air was still thick with snowflakes falling from the sky. This meant that Chanyeol and his friends arrived to their first lesson in a very wet and cold state, water from the melting snow on their clothes dripping all over the floor before their teacher felt the need to perform drying charms on them.

It was after that lesson that Chanyeol decided to confront Jongdae. He had time, there were about thirty minutes until their next classes started. Chanyeol was going to have Care of Magical Creatures outside in the snowy weather, which he greatly looked forward to, while Jongdae had Divination (Chanyeol had always wondered how a clever person like Jongdae could believe in that kind of rubbish, but okay).

Chanyeol found Jongdae on his walk to the Divination classroom, probably aiming to arrive early as usual. He was lucky, because Jongdae was still by himself, not having met up with Hyuna (who also had Divination).

“Jongdae”, Chanyeol uttered as he reached the other. The mentioned boy didn’t even look at him, continuing his walk as if he hadn’t heard him (but Chanyeol was sure he did, judging by the way he twitched when Chanyeol said his name).

“Jongdae”, Chanyeol said again, and when Jongdae continued ignoring him Chanyeol grabbed his arm lightly.

“What are you-”

“Jongdae, I know you’re not deaf.”

The shorter boy looked up at him with a venomous expression, one that would normally get Chanyeol to back off, but this time Chanyeol was too determined. He was going to talk it out with Jongdae. Now.

“Alright, what do you want?” Jongdae asked with irritation lining his voice.

“I want to talk to you.”

“You’re talking right now. Go on.”

Chanyeol sighed.

“I’d like to do it somewhere more private”, he said, looking around. There were students walking the corridors, plenty of them passing by, and Chanyeol did not want anyone to overhear. This was a quite sensitive matter, after all.

“…Why?” Jongdae eyed him suspiciously.

“Well, it’s just… Trust me, you don’t want anyone to hear what I’m going to ask you.”

“That sounds really shady, you know. Do you actually think I’ll agree to be alone with you somewhere? Is this another stupid prank?”

Are you really the right person to call my pranks stupid, Chanyeol immediately thought but decided not to say it out loud. He needed to be nice and sincere with Jongdae to make this work.

“Just… I’ll make it quick! It’s just one question! If you’re really suspicious I can put my wand away, I won’t have any use for it, anyway.”

Jongdae’s eyes widened a tiny bit, but he still did not say anything.

“Please…?” Chanyeol persisted. Jongdae looked him in the eyes, then looked away, sighing resignedly.

“Okay then. But give me your wand first.”

Chanyeol happily gave Jongdae his wand, almost celebrating internally. He then pointed to a door on their right.

“I think that classroom’s empty, we can talk in there.”

When they had situated themselves inside the room, Jongdae leaning against the desk he had put Chanyeol’s wand on, Chanyeol felt a bit sweaty. Wiping the palms of his hands on his robes, Chanyeol cleared his throat, ready to start saying what he had brought them there to say.

Except… he didn’t. It felt like something was blocking his throat. His tongue remained still in his mouth. His lips did not move at all, either.

“Well? What did you want?” Jongdae asked, clearly impatient; it was obvious he wanted this done and over with.

“Er…” Chanyeol finally uttered, at least it was something. He didn’t know what to say next, though. It felt like an easy thing to walk up to Jongdae, ask him if he fancied him, talk it out like two grown-up human beings. But it was a lot more difficult to do it for real. Jongdae’s presence just made things so much harder.

Wiping his sweaty palms a second time, Chanyeol decided he had to at least say something.

“Er, yes, I wanted to know… are you, you know, like that?”

…That was not what he was supposed to say.

“Like what? What do you mean?”

“Well, like, uh… I mean, are you… gay?” Chanyeol said before he could stop himself. His brain caught up half a second later, but that was too late. He couldn’t take it back now.

Jongdae very visibly twitched, his whole body seemed to go tense. After the initial shock Jongdae looked enraged, judging by the way his brows furrowed and his mouth formed a straight, narrow line.

“What makes you ask me that?! If you brought me here to make fun of me, I might as well leave”, he almost growled, looking flustered, tripping over his own step as he tried to make his way out of the room.

“No, no, wait, that was not what I was supposed to-” Chanyeol rushed forward, attempting to stop Jongdae from leaving.

“I- I’m sorry, but you have to listen-”

“Why should I? I was just about to take you seriously for once but then you…”

Jongdae struggled to get to the door, but Chanyeol was blocking it.

“No! Please. Listen. I didn’t mean to ask you that. Sorry. But there is something that I really need to talk to you about.”

Chanyeol looked Jongdae in the eyes again, trying to look as sincere as possible. Jongdae looked away, seemingly by instinct, but stopped in his tracks. He even took a couple of steps backwards.

“Okay. Just say whatever rude things you want about me, I don’t care. Although I wish you could treat me like you treat everyone else, sometimes.”

Jongdae blushed bright red after that, that last part was probably not intended to be said out loud. Chanyeol almost felt bad for him at first, but then he realised it had to be Jongdae’s plan to make him feel like the villain. Even though Jongdae was the one who despised him, not the other way around; Chanyeol just did fun pranks on him once in a while, without any hard feelings involved…

“I’m… I’m not going to say rude things. And, um, just so you know, I don’t have anything against gay people.”

Jongdae snorted.

“Terrific, approval from Chanyeol Park, I feel honoured”, he said sarcastically.

“No, I just meant- Wait, does that mean you are gay?” Chanyeol’s eyes widened, not even thinking about the fact that he had said the word he couldn’t even speak of yesterday, plenty of times in this conversation.

Jongdae nervously his lips, a pretty shade of red still apparent on his cheekbones, then did not look up as he mumbled,

“What’s it to you?”

“It’s… actually… What I wanted to ask from the beginning was if, um, if…” Chanyeol trailed off. There was a big lump in his throat that made it difficult to convey what he wanted to say. Why was this so hard to ask?!

“If… if you like me”, he finally uttered, and the silence that followed was one of the worst things Chanyeol had ever experienced.

Jongdae had not answered him yet, but judging from how the he reacted to the question Chanyeol could probably guess the answer. Yes. Chanyeol swallowed down the lump in his throat, almost physically feeling it hit the bottom of his stomach.

When he had heard Chanyeol’s words, Jongdae’s face was drained of all the red that had prettily decorated his cheeks, instead turning white. Persistently looking down, biting his lip, he stayed like that for a while. Without saying anything. It pretty much confirmed Chanyeol’s suspicions. If the answer had been no, Jongdae would’ve just laughed it off, not just stood there looking like his best friend just had been run over by the Hogwarts Express.

Finally, Jongdae actually did laugh a little. It sounded kind of high-pitched and unnatural, however, making it less believable.

“D-don’t flatter yourself, Park. What is- What is wrong with you… What makes you think I would ever find your stupid face attractive?” Jongdae managed to say, looking at Chanyeol briefly before letting his gaze sink to the floor again.

“In fact… I have my reasons. A few days ago, during Potions… I successfully made the Amortentia, remember?”

“Have you come here to brag?” asked Jongdae sourly.

“No, I’ll just… I’ll get to the point. I wanted revenge for your love potion prank, so I decided to make you drink the Amortentia I made. I poured some into your water while you were unconscious in the hospital wing… and yeah, you drank it.”

“Okay, wait”, Jongdae interrupted, “I don’t believe you. I can’t recall being affected by that love potion during the whole day, can you? If that was your prank, you failed. Also, why are you accusing me of liking you when you’re the one who deliberately tried to make me fall for you?”

Chanyeol sighed. Jongdae seemed very keen on proving him wrong.

“No, I know, it did not work, I’ll get to that. And I didn’t think the prank through, okay? Right, call me stupid or whatever, but I didn’t think of the consequences. I just wanted revenge. Kinda realised afterwards that it was a pretty dumb prank. Can I continue?”

Jongdae did not answer, but Chanyeol continued talking nonetheless.

“I watched you the whole day and the love potion didn’t affect you. So I looked it up in the library, in a book about love potions, and found that… Er, well, the book said that the only reason the Amortentia wouldn’t work is if the person is in lo- I mean, likes you already.”

There was a couple of seconds of that unsettling silence again.

“No”, Jongdae said quietly after a while. Chanyeol noticed that his fingers were trembling.

“No what?”

“You’re wrong”, Jongdae continued, his voice a little louder than before. “This is just something you’ve come up with to humiliate me, why do you have to be such a horrible person, what have I done to-”

Jongdae stopped talking to release a shaky sigh. He still refused to look at Chanyeol.

Chanyeol did feel kind of horrible. He had not meant to hurt Jongdae’s feelings or anything, and it was obvious how humiliated Jongdae was. It was like… Chanyeol had exposed his deepest, most shameful secret. Chanyeol needed to reassure Jongdae that it was okay, he was alright with Jongdae’s feelings for him, he wouldn’t tell anyone…

Taking a step closer to Jongdae, Chanyeol put his thumb under Jongdae’s chin, lifting his face gently. Glancing at his mouth, his pretty lips, Chanyeol could think of something else he could do to soothe Jongdae… wait. Chanyeol managed to cancel his process of thought in the right moment, instead turning his gaze to Jongdae’s eyes. When Jongdae was finally looking at him, although in a hesitant manner, Chanyeol gathered the courage to speak again. Though, for some reason, his voice was merely a whisper.

“Look, I don’t-”

What Chanyeol was about to say was left unfinished when a voice spoke up. A new voice.

“I couldn’t help but listen in on what you two were talking about, and it seems like I was lucky to overhear something really embarrassing! How would you feel if the whole school got to know?”

A loud, malicious laughter was heard and Chanyeol and Jongdae both turned to spot the colourful figure of Peeves the poltergeist, who was floating in the direction of the door. Chanyeol barely had the time to react until Peeves opened his wide mouth again.

“I’ll just open this door, and…”

“No!” Chanyeol finally managed to exclaim, understanding what Peeves was about to do. He knew Peeves loved annoying the students, but sometimes it felt like the poltergeist had something against him personally.

“Sorry, I didn’t hear you… Actually, no, I’m not sorry. Revenge for that time you blamed one of your stupid pranks on me, Parky”, Peeves said and opened the door. Chanyeol’s entire body went ice cold.

“Everyone! Do you know what I just heard?!” Peeves shouted on the top of his lungs, “Kim, the small, skinny Slytherin kid, likes Park, the Gryffindor who looks like a tall house-elf!”

Peeves floated out of the classroom and continued to move along the corridor outside, smiling maliciously as though he had received the best treat imaginable.

“Kim likes Pa-ark! Kim fancies Pa-aaark! Kim has an itty bitty teenie weenie crush on Park!” he chanted, loud enough for all the students in the corridor to hear. Chanyeol rushed out of the door, panicking.

“Shut up!” he shouted at Peeves’s direction, at the same time turning to the students and telling them, “Don’t listen to him, he’s talking rubbish!”

He could do nothing to stop Peeves, as his eyes followed the poltergeist’s figure rounding the corner at the end of the corridor, still chanting loudly. Feeling like the stares from all the pupils in the corridor were tearing his (hopefully) cool-looking façade apart, Chanyeol turned to face Jongdae, who was quickly making his way towards him.

“J-Jongdae, I-” Chanyeol started but Jongdae passed him by in the doorway, running off to the opposite direction to Peeves. He was moving so fast that Chanyeol couldn’t see his facial expression. Chanyeol could imagine what it looked like, though.

Right now, he felt like the worst person in the world.

 

Chanyeol did not see a trace of Jongdae during the rest of the day. After Chanyeol’s lesson in Care of Magical Creatures they were supposed to have Charms together, but Jongdae did not show up. He was absent from all the meals, too; Chanyeol couldn’t spot him eating with his friends at the Slytherin table. After sneaking into the hospital wing to check if he was there (which he was not), Chanyeol concluded that Jongdae most likely was in his common room or dormitory. He probably didn’t want to face people after what had happened. Chanyeol could understand him.

However, Chanyeol felt more brave (he was a Gryffindor after all). Then again, it might be because he wasn’t the one who was rumoured to fancy his school-life-long archenemy. He was just on the receiving end of the affections. Of course, that still made people stop and stare at him in corridors, and whisper unsubtly behind his back during class. Peeves seemed to have made the rumours spread fast.

Most students in the school at least recognised him and Jongdae, mainly because of their so-called rivalry of a relationship, with the way the played obnoxious pranks on each other. So what Peeves had said must have come as a bit of a shock to the majority of them. To Chanyeol’s relief, a lot of the students didn’t believe in the rumours, finding them too bizarre to be true. Chanyeol would have thought so too, if he didn’t know how it really was. That Jongdae actually was in lo-, or, liked him.

Because, even though he hadn’t directly said it, Jongdae had still confirmed Chanyeol’s suspicions earlier that day. Chanyeol was no super investigator, but it had been pretty obvious. With how shaky Jongdae had been, and his horrified reaction when Chanyeol had uncovered his secret.

It was weird how things could change. Chanyeol heard people whisper about Jongdae at least five times behind his back, and instead of thinking something along the lines of that’s what you get, Chanyeol felt the need to protect him. After all, Jongdae could not help how he felt. One time he had even heard someone say something rude about the fact that Jongdae fancied boys, and Chanyeol had to hold himself back from not confronting the guy about it. He would only make things worse by creating drama. The best thing he could do was pretty much to ignore the rumour as much as possible, then laugh it off if someone mentioned it to his face.

 

As Chanyeol went to bed that evening, it was hard to think about something else than what had happened with Jongdae. One thought in particular kept bothering him, and would not stop. It was about how he felt. Because he knew about Jongdae’s feelings, but he was not sure… how he felt himself. About Jongdae.

Jongdae was good-looking, he had to admit. Jongdae was smart, good at most subjects, and clever enough to come up with all those pranks. Jongdae was funny, he definitely had humour. Jongdae was nice, not to him, but to pretty much everyone else. Jongdae was hardworking. Jongdae was creative. Jongdae was ambitious. Jongdae was confident, but still rather modest. Jongdae was…

He was not just good-looking, now that Chanyeol thought about it. Of course, he had never thought that Jongdae was ugly, but… he had not considered the opposite either. The sharp features of his face, his cheekbones, his neat eyebrows. Jongdae’s cute round ears, the eyes that practically shone with mischief, the long eyelashes. The way his short, black hair was always in a mess, but rather handsomely so. Why did Chanyeol suddenly notice all this stuff when he had found out that Jongdae liked him? And it was not exactly in an envious way either, Chanyeol was content with how he looked, it was more… Well. It couldn’t be attraction, could it? He was not, um, like that, was he?

Jongdae’s lips. Chanyeol had been close to doing something he shouldn’t be doing when he was trying to assure Jongdae everything was okay. Something that he wouldn’t even think of if he wasn’t at all attracted to Jongdae. But Chanyeol liked girls. He had even dated one before. And his crushes when he was little had always been girls. Well, of course, that did not have to mean he couldn’t like boys too, but… the thought of it had just never crossed his mind. That he could be… like that. Not straight.

Chanyeol felt a bit silly. Why hadn’t he ever seen that possibility before? It was like… it hadn’t existed. He knew about gay and bi people, of course, but the thought of being like that himself was just never present in his mind. But, if Jongdae could like boys, why couldn’t he?

Chanyeol went to sleep at last, still unsure about his own feelings, but at least he has something to consider. He could do that the next day.

 

The dream Chanyeol had that night was not really a dream, more like a memory.

It was from his third year, he believed, before he had joined the Quidditch team (he had done that in his fourth year, when most of their best players had graduated and the team needed some “fresh meat”).

The first game of the Quidditch season was traditionally the Gryffindor versus Slytherin match, and like almost all of the students Chanyeol had gone to watch the game with his friends. On his way there Chanyeol had spotted Jongdae, which was rare since Jongdae wasn’t too interested in Quidditch (Chanyeol supposed he was there to show his support for Kris and his housemates).

When they had both seen each other, Chanyeol and Jongdae, being rather childish thirteen-year-olds, immediately started arguing about which house would win the match. It had turned out Chanyeol was right, and he could not resist rubbing it in when he bumped into Jongdae after the game. It had been quite fun to like that, Chanyeol recalled.

The next day, however, Jongdae made Chanyeol’s porridge explode during breakfast. As a revenge. It had also been a bit humorous, Chanyeol had to admit, and pretty harmless too. One of his friends removed the porridge that had splattered all over Chanyeol with the use of a simple charm, and Chanyeol had had a good laugh, too, in spite of being the victim of the prank. In all, it was a nice memory.

 

When Chanyeol woke up, it was early in the morning. All of the other boys in his dormitory seemed to be asleep. Wishing he was still asleep as well, Chanyeol involuntarily started thinking about the memory.

It was by no means unique; things like that had happened very often, all the way from his first year until, well, a week or so ago. It was a fun time, Chanyeol realised. He had enjoyed pranking Jongdae and he knew Jongdae had fun pranking him too. There were no hard feelings, or, well. At least not on his side. He did not hate Jongdae, he was just having fun messing around with him.

Chanyeol found himself missing the kind of relationship they’d had. What he had ruined yesterday, when he confronted Jongdae. He had not meant to do that. Chanyeol just wanted to, he didn’t know, clear things up between them so they could return to normal. It was not his intention to hurt Jongdae and make things worse. Was there a way for him to fix this? To make everything better again?

Chanyeol really had to do something.

 

 

a/n: he ed up