a/n: Written for the first round of exolliarmus on livejournal! I am a silly person and didn't post this until two years later T__T Enjoy the fluff!

 

 

Potions, Prodigies, and Peeves

“Junmyeon! Wait for me!”

Junmyeon paused, one hand resting on the edge of the stair railing as he craned his neck around. “Hurry up!”

Luhan jogged up the steps to meet him, his cheeks glowing bright red with exertion. “Am I late?”

“No, we’ll be right on time.” They started going up the stairs together. “I don’t even see why we have to have these weekly meetings if the patrol schedules never change,” Junmyeon huffed when they finally reached the landing.

Luhan shrugged. “I don’t know. Sometimes they like to switch Eunkwang and Hyunsik around with Kyungsoo and Luna.”

“Well, we never get switched,” Junmyeon grumbled as they walked down the corridor. He blushed when Luhan surreptitiously grabbed his hand and squeezed firmly, their hands hidden in the sleeves of their robes. “Not that I’m complaining.”

Luhan smirked at him, and Junmyeon blushed an even brighter red. “Luhan!”

“What? I didn’t even say anything!” Luhan let go of Junmyeon’s hand with a final squeeze when they arrived in front of the classroom.

“You were looking at me!”

Luhan rolled his eyes, the smirk on his face broadening as they slipped inside of the classroom. “Of course I was.”

“You—!” Junmyeon poked Luhan’s cheek in retaliation. “That was underhanded!”

“Boys.” Professor Jung cleared expectantly, and the two prefects instantly quieted down, bowing their heads in chastisement. Jung gave them a warning look and then started speaking again.

“Today will just be a short meeting to announce patrol schedules for the upcoming three weeks. Things have been going very well so far, so keep up the good work. You’ve all been doing very well as Prefects for the school year so far. Now, Amber from Ravenclaw and Zico from Hufflepuff will take Monday nights…”

Junmyeon zoned out for a few seconds as Professor Jung continued to list out the names of the prefects.

“…And Luhan from Slytherin and Junmyeon from Ravenclaw will patrol on Saturday nights. Remember boys, the curfew on Saturday is at 10:00 instead of 9:00.”

“Yes Professor,” Junmyeon and Luhan chorused obediently. Professor Jung nodded in acknowledgement and then dismissed the meeting. All of the fifth and sixth year students scrambled out of their seats and quickly dispersed, everyone branching off to either head back to their respective common rooms to study, or down to the library.

“It’s a month before midterms and people are already immersed in studying for NEWTs along with exams,” Junmyeon sighed softly.

“You’re a Ravenclaw, aren’t you supposed to like studying?” Luhan bumped their shoulders affectionately as they headed downstairs together.

Junmyeon smiled. “I’m a Ravenclaw, which means that I’m intelligent. Not necessarily the equivalent of a bookworm.”

“Slytherins are intelligent too! We’re cunning!” Luhan protested.

“Could’ve fooled me,” Junmyeon said dryly, and then burst out laughing when Luhan punched him lightly in the shoulder. “I’m just kidding!”

“Whatever,” Luhan huffed, his expression softening as they continued down the stairwell in silence.

When they finally reached the bottom Junmyeon let out a small sigh of discontent. “I can’t believe that we have to wait until Saturday to patrol.”

“It could be worse, they could’ve had us patrolling for two days a week instead of just one.” Luhan patted Junmyeon’s elbow soothingly. “Besides, it’ll be Saturday in three days. You can wait until then, can’t you?”

Junmyeon pursed his lips. “I don’t know…”

Luhan leaned forward and kissed the pout off of Junmyeon’s face. “Yes you can. We’ve had to wait longer.”

“There’s no way we could meet for a little bit before then?” Junmyeon worried his bottom lip between his teeth.

Luhan shook his head. “I’m sorry, I have too much work to do before then.”

“It’s ok, I get it. Besides, we’ll see each other around anyways,” Junmyeon sighed.

“But it just won’t be the same.” Luhan reached up and cupped Junmyeon’s face with his palm.

“Now who’s being reluctant?” Junmyeon chuckled softly as he leaned in to Luhan’s soft touch. “Good luck with all of your homework. I’ll see you at dinner.”

Luhan the pad of his thumb over the soft skin of Junmyeon’s lips and then let go. “See you later.”

Junmyeon gave him a small smile and then left the staircase to go to the Ravenclaw common room. Luhan watched him go, and then stuffed his hands in his pockets and started walking towards the library. It was tough, trying to maintain a secret relationship with Junmyeon. They’d started out secretly because they’d been afraid that their friends would react badly to it as their best friends, Sehun of Slytherin and Minseok of Ravenclaw, were archrivals in potions class. But over time, Sehun and Minseok’s rivalry had softened into them finally becoming friends. It had been a rather odd and mildly terrifying period of time (Junmyeon had actually passed out when Minseok and Sehun spent more than ten seconds without trying to hex each other). However, now that Sehun and Minseok were friends, Luhan didn’t see a reason why they should keep hiding from them—but he could understand that to Junmyeon, after three years of carefully keeping things under wraps, it would be terrifying to suddenly put such an important secret out in the open.

But he would keep pressing the issue with Junmyeon. He felt bad, not letting Minseok and Sehun in on their relationship. It just wasn’t something that best friends kept from each other. But perhaps, with a little time, he would be able to talk Junmyeon in to it.

 

 

 

 

“Junmyeon! You need to get up now if you want to eat anything before Arithmancy.” A gentle hand gently shook Junmyeon’s shoulder, and he rolled over and groaned into his pillow.

“Go ‘way Min.”

Minseok laughed and yanked Junmyeon’s pillow out from beneath his head. “Rise and shine sleeping beauty. You’ll thank me later.”

“Noooo,” Junmyeon whined. “Give it back Minseok!”

“Get up,” Minseok said firmly. “Then you can have it back.”

“I still don’t know how you can do that. Every time I see Junmyeon sleeping I just don’t want to disturb him.”

Junmyeon opened one eyelid to shoot his other dorm mate a bleary look. “Why?”

“You look so pitiful,” Jongdae said with brutal honesty. “I just want to keep you safe and warm and—“

“Okay Jongdae, that’s enough,” Minseok interjected quickly. “Come on Junmyeon, get up.”

“Fiiine,” Junmyeon whined sadly. “Okay, I’m up.” He sat up and rubbed at his eyes blearily. He thought he heard Jongdae mumble something that sounded like “asdfasjdfkl” and a faint thumping noise but he ignored it. “Minseok give my pillow back.”

Minseok sighed and handed it back to him. “Hurry up, I’m starving.”

Junmyeon rolled his eyes as he settled the pillow back on to its spot on the bed and reluctantly crawled out from beneath his covers. “Alright, alright I’m hurrying.”

Within five minutes, Junmyeon had dressed and used the bathroom, and he and Minseok stumbled down the steps of Ravenclaw Tower to go down to the Great Hall.

“We have a preliminary examination in potions next week don’t we?” Junmyeon tugged the strap of his bag more securely over his shoulder just as a fourth-year Ravenclaw brushed past him on her way down the steps.

“We do!” Minseok’s unconsciously puffed out his chest as they hurried through the maze of corridors and staircases to get to the Great Hall. “I’m going to really show Sehun this time. Especially since whoever brews the best potion gets an automatic Outstanding for the term and doesn’t have to take the midterm.”

“Hmmm.” Junmyeon had long since learned not to take sides on Sehun and Minseok’s rivalry over potions. He knew that his strong suit was in charms, especially given the nature of his wand made of aspen with a dragon heartstring core, and he was satisfied with the way he was.

Minseok and Sehun though…they had a rather interesting relationship. While they were friends, they were absolute archrivals in academics, particularly when it came to potions. Junmyeon remembered that back when they were third years, he was scared of hanging out with Luhan because he was afraid that Sehun would hex him. Minseok and Sehun could barely hold out through their classes together without attempting to sabotage each other at least five times a day.

It had been very, very strange when Sehun and Minseok had suddenly started to get along towards the end of fourth year. (Luhan loves to about how he fainted when he saw them talking to each other calmly for more than ten seconds. Junmyeon likes to pretend that this never happened.) None of the four of them are sure what prompted it, but it made Luhan and Junmyeon more than a little relieved that the two were getting along, and there was nothing really barring their relationship any more.

Junmyeon had actually been thinking about that for a while. He and Luhan had been dating for nearly two years, having gotten together a quarter of the way through fourth year. At first, they had been very nervous to come out about their relationship because Sehun and Minseok had been on rather rocky ground. But now that they had come to consider each other best friends, he felt bad about continuing to hide their relationship. Maybe it was time to start considering coming out…

“Junmyeon? Junmyeon?”

Junmyeon winced and nearly fell over as he tried to get away from Minseok harsh poke to his rib. “Ouch!”

“Sorry. You just looked kind of out of it.” Minseok’s eyebrows furrowed with concern as they entered the Great Hall and headed over to the Ravenclaw table. “Are you alright?”

Junmyeon nodded quickly. “I’m fine. Just fine.” He caught Luhan’s eye over at the Slytherin table and gave him a small smile when Minseok turned his back. It might be time to consider coming out, but Junmyeon was in no mood for drastic action.

 

 

 

 

 

A week later, Minseok, Junmyeon, Sehun and Luhan were standing in the potions corridor with the rest of the sixth years from Slytherin and Ravenclaw.

“Are you guys ready for the exam?” Minseok bounced lightly on the balls of his feet as they waited for their professor to open the classroom.

Junmyeon didn’t respond as his nose was buried in his copy of Advanced Potion-Making.

“He’s going to pass,” Luhan answered for him. “I think.”

Junmyeon stomped on Luhan’s foot as hard as he could without looking up from the book. Luhan howled in pain and hopped away, his pretty features twisted with agony. “Junmyeon!”

“You deserved it,” Sehun said straight-faced. “You know how panicked Junmyeon gets whenever we have potion exams.”

“Yes,” Luhan wheezed, “But did he have to break my toes?”

Sehun ignored him and turned to Minseok. “I bet I’ll get the Best Potion in class today,” he smirked at him. “I could ace this exam in my sleep.”

Minseok rolled his eyes. “Don’t count your eggs before they hatch,” he snapped back. “I have a few tricks up my sleeve!”

At that, Junmyeon poked his head out of his textbook. “I thought you guys stopped trying to sabotage each other last year.” He frowned at the pair of them. “I swear to Rowena, if either of you put anything in my potion…”

“Don’t worry, we learned our lesson the last time,” Minseok said hastily. In third year, when his attempt to sabotage Sehun’s potion had backfired and he’d changed Junmyeon’s instead, Junmyeon had responded by charming all of his homework and textbooks to turn invisible for two entire days, and he had been swamped with homework from his unsympathetic teachers when he tried to explain the situation to them.

“Good.” With that Junmyeon disappeared behind his book again. Minseok turned back to Sehun and began rattling off a mixture of threats and accomplishments; no one noticed when Luhan came to stand beside Junmyeon again.

Luhan gently rubbed Junmyeon’s back. “You’ll be fine. You can pass this,” he murmured softly.

Junmyeon looked up from his textbook and gave Luhan a small smile. “Thanks.” He leaned into Luhan’s side and relished the warmth of Luhan’s body. “I’m just worried that Professor Wu will ask us to make something unexpected.”

“You’ll be fine,” Luhan repeated, his palm resting firmly between Junmyeon’s shoulder blades. “Professor Wu isn’t cruel like that. It’ll definitely be something that we’ve studied recently.”

“Yeah.” Junmyeon bit his lip anxiously. “At least, I hope so.”

Luhan sighed through his nose and gave Junmyeon’s back a final pat before drawing away. There was nothing more that he wanted to do than give Junmyeon a kiss on the cheek to reassure him, but they couldn’t.

Junmyeon’s lips twitched into a small pout for a moment after Luhan stepped away, but then his expression smoothed out as he dove back into his book.

A few moments later, the stone doors to the dungeon flew open to reveal Professor Wu glowering at them from behind his reading glasses. Despite his rather eccentric appearance with a blue and gold leaf pattern at the ends of his rolled-up sleeves, long hair tied up in a tiny ponytail on the top of his head and a string of kelp weed tied around his throat like a necklace, none of the students dared to laugh. Even though he had questionable fashion taste, Professor Wu was renowned throughout the school for having the most difficult midterms and the highest standards for his classes. Although he was a hard teacher, he still got along well with a majority of his students (although his Hufflepuff students had noticed a harsh increase in the way he graded their assignments after their head of house, Professor Do, had set fire to a particularly hideous set of robes covered in pink polka dots and dizzying purple spirals in the middle of the Great Hall last month) and people did like him.

Luhan reached over and gently squeezed Junmyeon’s hand when he saw that Junmyeon had gone paler than he already was. “You’ll be fine,” he reassured him softly as Minseok and Sehun flounced past them while throwing insults at each other. “You’ve worked so hard at this, you’ll pass this for sure.”

Junmyeon sighed quietly through his nose. “I don’t know…I’m not horrible at potions, but for some reason I always get so nervous whenever we have an exam.” They shuffled into the classroom along with the rest of their classmates as Professor Wu walked up to the lectern at the end of the room. They settled down at the table they shared with Minseok and Sehun, Minseok reaching out to pat Junmyeon’s shoulder when he saw how pale Junmyeon’s face was. The movement seemed to catch Professor Wu’s eyes and he turned their attention towards their table.

“Mr. Kim!”

“Yes Professor?” Minseok asked politely, trying to hide a wince when Sehun stomped on his foot beneath the table.

“No, not you the other Mr. Kim,” Professor Wu said impatiently. “Mr. Kim are you feeling well? You seem rather pale.”

“No Professor,” Junmyeon said quickly. “I’m alright.”

“I can send you to the hospital wing and have you make up the exam another time if you wish,” Professor Wu offered kindly.

“No, I’m alright Professor. Thank you.” Junmyeon blushed a little under the attention of the class and stared down at the table.

“Very well.” Professor Wu turned away from their table and Junmyeon glanced over at Luhan, unsurprised to see a stormy expression on Luhan’s face.

“Luhan, please,” Junmyeon whispered softly. “It’s not—”

“Shut up Junmyeon, he’s explaining the exam,” Minseok snapped, and Junmyeon instantly quieted.

“I was going to have you all make batches of calming draught, but it seems that some pepper-up potion might be in order instead!” Professor Wu beamed out across the classroom, and the corners of Junmyeon’s mouth twitched downwards when Luhan’s expression grew even stormier than before. “You will have an hour and a half to make the potion from memory. Ingredients are in store room—you may begin!”

There was a great clamor as everyone scraped back from their tables and raced towards the storeroom. Junmyeon followed the crowd, his thoughts drifting away from Luhan towards the potion he had to make. Pepper-up potion wasn’t horribly difficult to remember, although some of the ingredients were unusual. The only thing he couldn’t remember was how he was supposed to slice up the mandrake root; was it meant to be cubed, or crushed with his mortar and pestle? Mortar and pestle would release more juice, but…

Junmyeon reached the racks and began swiftly collecting his ingredients. Luhan showed up at his elbow and pressed a packet of dried bicorn horn into his hand before vanishing out the door before Junmyeon could say anything.

Junmyeon rolled his eyes. Honestly, sometimes Luhan was so childish—ever since Junmyeon had mentioned that he’d had a tiny crush on Professor Wu back in fourth year, Luhan had a tendency to get jealous every time Professor Wu so much as glanced his way. It didn’t make sense to Junmyeon at all because Luhan was perfectly fine with him hanging out with Jongdae, who had an obvious interest him, while he had an issue when Professor Wu treated him with the friendly professional respect that he treated all of the other students with.

Junmyeon hurried to his cauldron and hastily lit a fire under his cauldron with a flick of his wand before turning to his ingredients. He started off the basic steps and then stared at the mandrake root indecisively; he was going to have to make a decision soon, the mandrake had to be added to the potion relatively early—

The potion turned an alarming shade of yellow and Junmyeon cursed softly. He grabbed the mandrake root, hastily chopped it up into haphazard cubes and threw it into the cauldron and hoped for the best. Thankfully, the potion subsided with a defiant little bubble and turned back to a warm shade of orange and Junmyeon breathed a sigh of relief as he turned back to the rest of his ingredients.

An hour and a half seemed to fly by as Junmyeon watched his potion with hawkish eyes, determined not to let it try and explode on him. At last, Professor Wu called time and Junmyeon dolloped some of his warm potion into a flask (it wasn’t quite the shade of chili red that the book had suggested it be, but Junmyeon knew that he was close enough) and brought it up to Mr. Wu’s desk.

“Alright, alright, hurry along and wash your hands now. Then I’ll announce whose potion is the best.” Professor Wu settled down at his desk as students scurried over to the stone gargoyle sinks and then back to their desks. Once the last person was seated he got up and began to sort through the bottles.

“Now, someone clearly made a grievous mistake here,” Professor Wu said calmly as he held up a bottle with what seemed to be a green, pulsating solid within. “What do you think that Mr. Bang made a mistake on?”

Yongguk Bang hung his head in shame at his table as the class stared contemplatively at his bottle of potion.

“Yes, Mr. Oh?” Professor Wu pointed at Sehun, whose hand had shot up at the sight of the bottle.

“Yongguk probably crushed his mandrake root instead of cubing it, which released too much mandrake juice into the solution,” Sehun said, his chest puffed out as he glared over at Minseok from the corner of his eye. No one noticed Junmyeon sag down in his seat and let out a quiet sigh of relief.

“I would agree with that analysis,” Professor Wu said thoughtfully. “I suggest that you spend some extra time studying for the midterm, Mr. Bang.” Professor Wu set the bottle down on the desk with an ominous clank. He then reached out and picked up a bottle from the middle of the desk. “Ah, this one is very close. Very, very close—the coloring of the potion is just a shade too orange for it to be completely correct. What do you suppose Mr. Junmyeon did wrong with his potion?”

Minseok’s hand shot up before Sehun’s. “He most likely didn’t stir his potion exactly eight times counterclockwise,” Minseok said, and smirked smugly over at Sehun when Professor Wu turned his back.

“Again, I would agree with that analysis. You were very close, Mr. Kim. I would suggest that you too spend a little more time memorizing the steps for this potion.” Professor Wu set the bottle of potion down, his eyes searching sharply over the bottles of potion.

Everyone held their breaths as Professor Wu looked out over his desk; they knew his methods. He would chose the worst in the class, a middling potion, and then he would choose the best one. This was it—who would be the lucky student who was excused from the potions final?

“Aha!” Professor Wu pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with one finger and reached out to a potion sitting at the edge of the cluster. “Oh my, this one really is gorgeous.” He lifted the bottle to the light, and Junmyeon felt a brief flash of envy when he saw the fiery red shade of the potion, the exact color that the book had suggested.

Sehun and Minseok were sitting at the edges of their seats, their attention totally focused on Professor Wu.

Professor Wu turned back to the classroom and looked at their table with a broad grin. “Mr. Xiao, congratulations! You are excused from the midterm and have earned an outstanding on your exam.”

The entire room went into an uproar as Luhan sat in his seat looking thoroughly confused. “Me?” He repeated, pointing to himself. “Me?”

“SILENCE!” Mr. Wu roared across the room, and the shouting, muttering and whispers among the students came to an abrupt halt. “Class is dismissed. Those potions which can be tweaked to the correct proportions will be sent to the hospital wing. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

The entire class slowly got to their feet, still in shock that Luhan of all people had brewed the best potion. It wasn’t that Luhan was bad at potions—it was just that everyone had literally been putting their money on either Sehun or Minseok to take the prize.

“Wow Luhan! How did you even manage it?” Junmyeon beamed at and tugged at Luhan’s elbow, the two of them momentarily forgetting their argument.

“I made some on the sly last week when I got a cold.” Luhan grinned broadly. “I guess it just helped me to remember all of the steps.”

“That’s amazing.” Junmyeon smiled warmly at him. “Now you have one less final to worry about.”

Their moment was broken when Sehun and Minseok caught up with them outside of the classroom.

“Luhan!”

“What?” Luhan reflexively reached for his wand before he remembered that neither Sehun nor Minseok would try and curse him in the corridor.

“Congratulations. Your potion must’ve been really good.” Minseok gave him a forced smile and Luhan stared back at him.

“Are you alright?”

“Oh yes we’re fine. Just fine.” Sehun grimaced over at him. “You must’ve studied really hard.”

“Um…yeah,” Luhan said cautiously. “Yeah, I did.”

“Luhan and I were just going to head off to practice for charms class,” Junmyeon said suddenly. “Weren’t we, Luhan?”

“Yeah,” Luhan agreed hastily, eager to get away from the weird, oppressive atmosphere that Minseok and Sehun were creating. “We’ll see you two later.”

Minseok and Sehun stared after their hastily retreating backs.

“That little bugger,” Sehun muttered violently. “How did he do better than us?”

“I don’t know. You help Luhan out with potions, shouldn’t you have seen this one coming?” Minseok snapped back at him as they began to head out of the dungeons.

“I never went over the pepper-up potion with him though!” Sehun sighed in frustration. “I was looking forward to not having to worry about the potions final this term!”

Minseok paused, surprised by the sincere ruefulness in Sehun’s tone. “Well, it’s not like you were going to worry about it anyways.”

“There’s a big difference between not studying and not worrying,” Sehun said quietly.

Minseok hesitantly reached out and patted Sehun’s shoulder. “Hey, it’ll be ok. Seriously, we could both ace the potions final in our sleep. Luhan just got lucky today.”

“I guess.” Sehun sighed heavily, and the pair fell silently save for the sound of their shoes against the stone floor.

Minseok desperately cast his mind around for something to cheer Sehun up; honestly, this was more of Luhan’s forte, not his. “Uh…oh yeah! There was a cool potion that I found the other day.”

“That you ‘found’?” Sehun gave Minseok a skeptical look. “And where did you find it, exactly?”

“I found it in an advanced potions book.” Minseok huffed slightly as they rounded the corner that would take them up to the Great Hall. “Don’t worry, I learned my lesson after the last time we tried out a potion scrawled out in the margins of an old textbook.”

“I think that Kibum still hasn’t forgiven us for accidentally testing it on his rat,” Sehun said thoughtfully.

“Well how were we supposed to know that it was his rat anyways? It was just running around in the dungeons.” Minseok rolled his eyes at the memory; the rat in question had turned a rather nauseating shade of electric blue, as opposed to farting sparkles as the potion was purportedly supposed to have done.

“But anyways, you were saying that it looked cool?” Sehun and Minseok turned away from the entrance of the Great Hall and started going up the staircase that lead to the library.

“Oh yeah. It makes the person who drinks it lose their voice for a few hours.” Minseok paused for a moment. “Or, at least, it’s supposed to.”

“Remind me where you got this recipe from again,” Sehun said dryly. “The amount of faith you have in it astonishes me.”

Despite Sehun’s blatant skepticism, Minseok felt a flutter of hope that Sehun was no longer thinking about potions class.   “I told you, I got it from a textbook!” He pouted slightly. “C’mon, make it with me, it’ll be fun!”

Sehun was silent for a few moments before he finally gave in. “Alright, let’s make the damn thing.”

Minseok cheered as they turned the corner. “You’re the best Sehun!”

Sehun rolled his eyes in response, but a contradictory smile tugged at the edge of his lips.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, while Minseok was attempting to cheer Sehun up, Junmyeon and Luhan were having a very different conversation.

“They were acting so weird,” Junmyeon muttered as he and Luhan headed up from the dungeons towards the Charms corridor. “They both must have been pretty upset.”

“Yeah,” Luhan said ruefully. “I hope Sehun doesn’t get too mad about it, he was really banking on succeeding today. He’s been stressing out about exams lately.”

“I don’t think he’ll be upset. But you should probably watch your step, our potions class is bound to try and pull something on you for destroying the entire betting pool.” Junmyeon’s eyebrows creased with worry as he glanced over at Luhan.

 “Should I watch my back around you? I know that you lost five sickles for betting on both Sehun and Minseok getting chosen,” Luhan said teasingly as they entered the classroom and shut the door.                                                                                                                                

Junmyeon laughed. “I guess I’ll just have to keep you on your toes then.” He walked over to perch on the edge of a desk. Luhan followed him and leaned forward to press a soft kiss to Junnmyeon’s mouth.

Junmyeon responded in kind, eagerly leaning in to the warmth of Luhan’s touch. He and Luhan hadn’t been able to snag some time alone together for nearly a week, and he’d found himself missing his boyfriend’s soothing touch.

The kiss heated up fairly quickly as Luhan crowded Junmyeon against the edge of the desk and Junmyeon wrapped his legs around Luhan’s hips in response. Junmyeon let out a soft gasp into Luhan’s mouth when one of Luhan’s hands slipped underneath his sweater. “Luhan,” he murmured softly.

“What?” Luhan mumbled against Junmyeon’s mouth as he slipped his hand farther up the smooth skin over Junmyeon’s waist.

“We can’t—not here,” Junmyeon said softly, drawing away from Luhan’s mouth. He gently put a hand over Luhan’s, stopping Luhan from going any further under his clothes. “Anyone could walk in on us.”

Luhan pouted slightly, but withdrew his hand from beneath Junmyeon’s sweater and rested his hands over Junmyeon’s hips instead, his thumbs rubbing gentle circles into Junmyeon’s skin. “You’re right. But I miss you so much,” Luhan said softly, his warm brown eyes staring intensely into Junmyeon’s.

Junmyeon blushed lightly, but leaned forward to press a short kiss to Luhan’s mouth. “I’ve missed you too.”

They both froze when they heard sound of the lock on the classroom door clicking open. Junmyeon instantly unwrapped his legs from Luhan’s waist and cast a charm that covered the entire classroom floor with water. On the other hand, Luhan flinched backwards away from Junmyeon, pulled out his wand and promptly proceeded to cause an explosion of flower petals to burst over their heads. Junmyeon opened his mouth in shock and promptly choked on a mouth full of flower petals. Luhan stared at Junmyeon in surprise and then started to move forward, only to slip on the wet floor and land on his elbows in front of the desk Junmyeon was sitting on.

By the time the door had finally opened, the charms professor, Professor Zhang, met the scene of chaos before him with a raised eyebrow. “…Boys?”

“Professor Zhang!” Luhan gasped and tried to get to his feet, only to slip on the floor again. “We’re so sorry—we made an absolute mess—”

Junmyeon spat out a mouth full of flower petals. “We’re so sorry, professor. We were just practicing for the exam, but obviously…a few things went wrong.” Junmyeon screwed his face up in distaste as the bitter flavor of the flower petals clung to his tongue.

“Clearly,” Professor Zhang repeated, his eyes roving around the classroom. “How did you even manage to flood the classroom floor?”

“It was an accident.” Junmyeon coughed and smiled weakly, desperately searching for his composure. “I was trying to clean up the flower petals that Luhan got everywhere, and then it turned into a bit of a mess…”

To their relief, Professor Zhang simply chuckled and rolled up his sleeves. “Well, it’s not something that a simple spell can fix.” He wordlessly flicked his wand, and the water from the floor evaporated into a cloud of steam that gushed out of the open doorway. Junmyeon coughed and shielded his face from the wave of hot air with the edge of his robes while Luhan cautiously picked himself up off of the ground. Professor Zhang then proceeded to gather up all of the shredded flower petals in midair and then guided the clump to gracefully dump itself into the wastebasket by his podium at the other end of the classroom.

“Thank you Professor,” Junmyeon said as he hopped off of the edge of his desk and bowed his head.

“It’s no trouble boys. Although, I would suggest that you two spend more time practicing; especially you, Mr. Xiao. I can assure you that the flower charm will be on your midterm exams.”

Luhan blushed in embarrassment and nodded quickly. “I will. Thank you, Professor.”

“Yes, yes. Well, I have a class to teach in an hour. I’m sure that there are other classrooms open in the corridor if you two wish to consider…practicing.”

Both Luhan and Junmyeon blinked at the way Professor Zhang had phrased his statement. Could it be that…?

But nevertheless, Junmyeon was grateful for the exit that Professor Zhang had granted them, and he dragged Luhan out of the classroom without further ado.

“That was close,” Junmyeon sighed softly once they were well out of the Charms Corridor. “That was too close.”

“Well, I mean…what would’ve happened if Professor Zhang found out? It’s not like he was going to tell his next class of third years that we were making out in his classroom,” Luhan pointed out.

“I just—I guess I’m just nervous about anyone finding out about us,” Junmyeon sighed. “We’ve been hiding it for so long. Although what possessed you to try the flower charm of all things to make a mess? We were just fine when I flooded the classroom floor!”

“I panicked!” Luhan snapped back defensively. “And I know that I’m horrible at the flower charm, which is why I did it to try and give us a reason to close the door to the classroom!”

Junmyeon sighed and let the matter drop; after all, they’d done stupider things when they were panicked about getting caught in the past. “We really do have to practice that charm though,” Junmyeon mused. “I wasn’t aware that you were that terrible at it.”

“Shut up,” Luhan muttered, his cheeks stained da dark red. “It wasn’t that bad.”

Junmyeon gave him a disbelieving look but otherwise held his peace. They continued walking in silence for a few minutes until they paused in the Great Hall.

“Do you want to go outside?” Luhan cast a speculative glance at the entrance.

“It’s probably snowing outside, and we’re not properly dressed for that,” Junmyeon said dismissively. “Let’s stay in.”

“That sounds like a good idea.” Luhan agreed instantly. He hadn’t really wanted to go outside anyways. “Actually…” Luhan glanced around, and when he didn’t see anyone. “Could we talk? Here?”

Junmyeon’s expression instantly shuttered with annoyance as he turned to face Luhan. “If this is about Professor Wu…”

“What?” Luhan blinked in confusion. “No, it’s not about that at all.”

“Although going down that track, you need to get better at controlling yourself.” Junmyeon crossed his arms and scowled up at Luhan. “Professor Wu is a teacher, and he has never singled me out from the other students.”

“I’m sorry, okay? You know that I get jealous,” Luhan snapped back. After a few seconds, he forced himself to relax his shoulders and take a deep breath. “I—look, I’m sorry. I was childish, and I should’ve known better.”

Junmyeon sniffed dismissively, but uncrossed his arms. “I’d better not hear anything about Professor Wu for the next month.”

“You have my word,” Luhan said drily. “Now, can we get back to what I was saying?”

“Of course.” Junmyeon folded his arms again, but Luhan knew that he wasn’t really annoyed any more.

“I wanted to say that…well…we’ve been together for a while now.” Luhan looked down at his hands nervously. This was a lot harder to say than he’d been anticipating.

“Yes,” Junmyeon agreed, an apprehensive look settling in his eyes. “And?”

“And I know that we started out as a secret because of Sehun and Minseok.” Luhan looked up from his hands to meet Junmyeon’s eyes. “And now that Sehun and Minseok are friends, I don’t see the point of us hiding anymore.”

“Oh.” Junmyeon blinked in surprise. “I…”

“We don’t have to announce it right away or anything like that,” Luhan said hurriedly. “Just—I feel bad, about not letting them know. It’s not what best friends do to each other.”

“Okay.” Junmyeon clenched his hands in nervous fists, relaxed them, and then dug them into the cloth of his sleeves. “I…I actually think you’re right. It feels wrong to keep hiding this from them.”

Luhan nodded slowly. He hadn’t expected it to be this easy to convince Junmyeon, but then again, he wasn’t complaining. “So…how should we do this?”

“I don’t think we should just throw it at them. I—I wouldn’t want to do that,” Junmyeon said quickly.

Luhan reached out and grabbed Junmyeon’s hand, gently running his thumb over Junmyeon’s knuckles when Junmyeon flinched in surprise. “Fine. So you think that we should do it…slowly?”

“Maybe we could start by being a bit more affectionate to each other,” Junmyeon suggested hesitantly. “And…I don’t know, up the dose as time goes on?”

“That sounds like a great idea,” Luhan said gently. Somehow, he had a feeling that this was being paced out for both Junmyeon and their friends’ sakes.

Junmyeon blushed and squeezed Luhan’s hand. “When should we start?”

“I don’t see why we can’t start tomorrow. The sooner we get started, the sooner they find out.” Luhan watched Junmyeon’s face for any sign of discomfort.

Junmyeon’s face went blank for a moment, but then he gave Luhan a hesitant smile. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Luhan squeezed Junmyeon’s hand.

“Okay,” Junmyeon said firmly, squeezing back. “Now, if we’re done here, can we go someplace warmer? A draft is coming in from somewhere.”

“Of course,” Luhan said quickly, slinging an arm around Junmyeon’s shoulders as they hurried out of the Great Hall. A warm feeling built up in his chest, and he absently-mindedly rubbed at his shirt as he and Junmyeon ascended the steps of the castle to go to the library. He had the feeling that he was on the edge of something good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minseok let out an enormous yawn that showed the backs of his molars. Sehun wrinkled his nose at him and held back to the urge to do the same thing. They’d been up since eight o’clock last night, and finishing off the potion had lasted well into the morning hours.

“Do you think that they’re serving breakfast in the Great Hall by now?” Despite his fatigue, Minseok’s eyes were sharp and his hands steady as he corked the vial of the voice-loss potion that he and Sehun had spent all night on.

“Undoubtedly, judging by the light coming through the windows.” Sehun gave into the temptation and yawned into his elbow. “The Great Hall is probably in full swing at this point.”

“Well, we’d better go get some breakfast.” Minseok carefully stowed the bottle in his robes and began to clear away the make-shift potions station that they’d set up in the corner of the fifth floor men’s bathroom. Sehun automatically began to help him, carefully storing potions ingredients in their respective bottles and putting out the waterproof flame they’d lit under the cauldron.

It hadn’t taken too much work to procure the ingredients they’d needed; luckily, they had everything that the potion called for in the illicit stock of potions ingredients that they’d built up over time. However, the potion had required their attentive monitoring while they kept it at a low boil for five hours.

Once everything was cleared away, Sehun and Xiumin tiredly dragged themselves out of the bathroom (while ignoring the judging look a passing ghost gave them) and went downstairs to the Great Hall.

“Did you think about how we’re going to test this potion out?” Sehun asked as he stumbled down the stairs.

“…No, I didn’t actually.” Minseok sighed and leaned against the railing. “The effects are only supposed to last for a few hours so…we could try it on a songbird? On the grounds?”

“Minseok, it’s probably snowing outside. I don’t want to try and catch a bird in the snow,” Sehun whined.

“Well, I don’t know! Who’s someone you want to shut up—oh.” Minseok paused on the steps.

Sehun glanced over his shoulder impatiently. “Minseok hurry up, you literally have five steps left until you get down to the ground.”

Minseok rolled his eyes and finished going down the stairs. “I have someone that I want to shut up. We could test it on him.”

“Minseok, we can’t test it on another student, what if he starts farting sparkles or some ?” Sehun hissed at him.

“There’s nothing toxic in the blend of ingredients that we used. At worst, he might have to go to the hospital wing if the effects last for too long.” Minseok the bottle in his pocket as Sehun and he entered the Great Hall. “Good lord, he’s already making a move.”

Sehun’s face was pinched with bewilderment as he followed Minseok’s line of sight to the Ravenclaw table. He looked up and down the table; nothing seemed out of the ordinary other than Jongdae, who seemed to be trying to force feed Junmyeon a piece of toast. “…Minseok, what are you talking about?”

“Jongdae! Look at him, he’s already oozing all over Junmyeon. Merlin’s beard, it makes me so annoyed sometimes,” Minseok huffed as he starting walking towards the Ravenclaw table.

Sehun frowned. He knew that Minseok usually got irritable if he didn’t sleep enough, but this was getting out of hand. “Minseok, give me that bottle before you regret doing something—”

“Sehun!” A warm hand landed on Sehun’s shoulder, preventing Sehun from chasing after Minseok. “Where were you last night? I waited up for you but you never came to the dorms.”

“Never mind that Luhan, we have to stop Minseok.” Sehun hastily brushed Luhan’s hand off of his shoulder and darted off after his friend.

“Minseok?” Luhan hurried after Sehun, his lips twisting in confusion. “What’s Minseok up to?”

“He’s going to spike Jongdae’s drink with the potion we made last night which is a really bad idea because we don’t even know if it works,” Sehun whispered out as they hastened over to the Ravenclaw table. Minseok was already sitting at the table beside Junmyeon and Jongdae. Sehun saw a glint of glass as Minseok upended the vial of potion over a goblet of pumpkin juice. “Minseok, don’t—”

To Sehun’s surprise, Luhan swept forward and put a firm hand on Jongdae’s shoulder. “He doesn’t want to eat it, stop trying to choke him to death Jongdae.”

Jongdae flinched backwards at the sudden intrusion, and Junmyeon twisted around in surprise. “Luhan! What are you doing here?”

“Saving you from entirely too-well-meaning classmates,” Luhan said calmly. “Good morning, Junmyeon.”

“Good morning,” Junmyeon automatically replied. Neither of them noticed Sehun start speaking to Minseok in a low voice and tug at his hair in exasperation when Minseok gestured innocently towards the two goblets of pumpkin juice in front of him. “But Luhan…shouldn’t you be, you know, monitoring your own house? I assure you, the Ravenclaw table is doing just fine with two prefects in charge.” Junmyeon gave him a pointed look, and Jongdae watched in confusion as Luhan blushed.

“Right,” Luhan coughed awkwardly. “Well…um. Just make sure you take care of yourself, yes?”

Junmyeon’s eyes softened as he looked up at Luhan. “Yes. Now go back to your own table, everyone is staring at us.”

“Right.” Luhan coughed again and looked down the table at Sehun and Minseok. “Minseok, you aren’t going to drink both of those are you? You won’t mind if I just take one then.” Luhan gave Minseok and easy smile as he picked up one of the goblets in front of Minseok and gave a one-handed wave to his friends. “See you all later!” With that, Luhan scurried off away into the hall leaving Junmyeon, Jongdae, Minseok, and Sehun staring after him with their mouths hanging open.

“…What on earth was that?” Jongdae asked after a moment.

“I have no idea,” Junmyeon shrugged. “Although I would really appreciate it if you stopped trying to shove that piece of bread down my throat.”

“You look peaky!” Jongdae instantly protested. “You need to eat more!”

“I can feed myself, thank you,” Junmyeon said coolly.

Meanwhile, Minseok was still staring after Luhan with an odd expression on his face. “Sehun…”

“What?” Sehun was also staring after Luhan, but for a completely different reason. Why had Luhan intervened between Junmyeon and Jongdae? Minseok, he could understand because Minseok had to put up with it 24/7. On the other hand, Luhan usually just laughed off any incidents that he heard about.

“Luhan just drank the potion.”

“Luhan just drank the—wait what?!” Sehun turned and stared down at Minseok in horror.

“Sehun,” Junmyeon called calmly, “You should go sit down at your table too. And make sure that Luhan’s alright, will you?”

“Make sure that Luhan’s alright—oh, you bet I will,” Sehun muttered as he hurried away to make sure that Luhan was, indeed alright.

“Why was Sehun so worried about Luhan?” Junmyeon gazed after Sehun’s hastily retreating back with a hint of worry in his eyes.

“Oh you know, Sehun and Luhan are so close,” Minseok stuttered and let out a nervous giggle. “It’s nothing for you to worry about, I’m sure.”

Junmyeon shrugged and turned back to his breakfast. Minseok and Sehun had probably spent all of last night brewing up some mischief in one of the boys’ restrooms last night. It would explain the odd behavior and the bruises underneath Minseok’s eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

“Sehun!” Minseok waved at Sehun from one of the study tables near the back of the library. Sehun waved back and hastily slipped into the empty seat beside him. “How’s Luhan?”

“Alright, as far as I can tell. Are you sure that he drank the one with potion in it? He hasn’t lost his voice yet.” Sehun began rummaging around in his book bag for a quill and parchment.

“Yet? What do you mean, ‘yet’, isn’t he with you? And yes, he definitely drank the potion, I remember which goblet it was in,” Minseok whispered sharply.

“He said that he was going to go get Junmyeon so that the four of us could study together. I thought that it would be fine to leave him alone, considering that he hasn’t shown any effects in the past five hours,” Sehun shrugged. “Anyways, how long could it possibly take him to fetch Junmyeon?”

“You say that now,” Minseok grumbled.

As a matter of fact, Luhan began to experience the effects of the potion right when Junmyeon came to meet him in the Great Hall.

“Luhan!” Junmyeon beamed at his boyfriend as he hurried down the steps. “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting long.”

Luhan grinned and opened his mouth to respond, only for no sound to come out. Luhan blinked in surprise and tried again, but his vocal chords refused to cooperate. A tingling sensation started to spread down his throat, and Luhan clutched at his throat in surprise.

“Luhan?” Junmyeon frowned. “What’s wrong?”

Luhan rubbed at his throat as the sensation spread. He had been speaking fine to Sehun a few minutes ago; what had happened? And why was his throat burning?

“You can’t talk?” Junmyeon reached up and gently pressed his hand over Luhan’s throat for a moment.

Luhan nodded slowly, his eyes wide with confusion. What had happened? Had someone hexed him in the hallway without him noticing? Had someone slipped a silencing potion in his food earlier?

“Well…I guess we’d better go to the hospital wing,” Junmyeon said after a few moments of silence. “It shouldn’t be something too difficult to fix.”

Luhan coughed lightly, and all of sudden the tingling sensation vanished. Luhan coughed again and tried talking. “What the hell was that?”

Junmyeon looked even more confused. “I could ask the same of you!”

“No, I mean—my throat started burning and I couldn’t talk, but all of a sudden it was gone,” Luhan muttered, rubbing at his throat again.

“Are you sure that it actually happened, and that this wasn’t one of your weird jokes?” Junmyeon gave Luhan a skeptical look.

“I’m positive!” Luhan said defensively. “And I only tried that on you once.”

“Well, it was pretty funny,” Junmyeon admitted. “But anyways, since it’s gone, do you still want to go to the hospital wing?”

“I’d rather not, to be honest. I’ll go if it happens again, but…that was really weird. That only lasted for like, ten seconds.” Luhan rubbed at his throat again and then let his hand fall. “Well, shall we go meet Minseok and Sehun in the library?”

“Yes, let’s go.” Junmyeon grabbed Luhan’s hands and entwined their fingers together as they set off. They walked in silence for a while until Luhan spoke again.

“Junmyeon?”

“Yes?” Junmyeon glanced over at Luhan from the corner of his eye.

“You remember what we were talking about yesterday? About being more affectionate in front of Sehun and Minseok?”

“Oh.” Junmyeon unconsciously tightened his grip on Luhan’s hand. “Yeah, I remember.”

“Do you think we could start by—I dunno. Holding hands when we go into the library?”

“Isn’t that a bit strong to start off?” Junmyeon paled at the thought of walking into the library hand in hand, where everyone would see them; not just Sehun and Minseok. “Maybe an arm around my shoulders or something would be better.”

“Like this?” Luhan suddenly let go of Junmyeon’s hand and wrapped an arm around Junmyeon’s shoulders, bringing them closer together.

Junmyeon blushed bright red, but didn’t protest. “Sure,” he agreed quietly. “This is nice.”

Luhan chuckled softly and Junmyeon opened his mouth to retort, but by then they’d arrived at the threshold of the library and Junmyeon didn’t want to attract the wrath of the librarian onto their heads.

“Do you see them anywhere?” Junmyeon murmured softly, his eyes scanning across the scatterings of dimly lit study tables.

“Yeah, they’re in the back. Come on,” Luhan muttered, gently tugging on Junmyeon’s shoulders to guide him through the maze of chairs and students’ feet. At last, they reached the back table, and Junmyeon smiled uneasily at Sehun and Minseok’s incredulous looks.

“Well, aren’t you two feeling cozy.” Minseok raised an eyebrow at Junmyeon. He expected Junmyeon to hiss at him to shut up or to brush it off; what he didn’t expect was for Junmyeon to blush and fiddle with the strap of his book bag.

Luckily, Luhan came to his rescue. “We’ve always been cuddly,” Luhan mumbled as the librarian stalked past their table, wand at the ready to throw any troublemakers out.

“If you say so.” Minseok cast a curious look at Junmyeon, but said nothing more.

“Did any of you guys finish the herbology essay due tomorrow?” Sehun asked, absent-mindedly scratching at his nose with the tip of his quill. “Can I look at it?”

“I finished mine, just let me get it out for you,” Luhan answered quickly. The four friends quickly lost themselves in a haze of studying for finals and finishing any last-minute assignments that were due tomorrow. It wasn’t until later that night that Sehun remembered to ask Luhan if anything had happened while he’d gone to go fetch Junmyeon. Unfortunately, Luhan was half asleep and had forgotten the strange incident with his voice, and denied anything happening.

Sehun couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed that the potion hadn’t worked. It would’ve been worth the all-nighter if Luhan had at least lost his voice for a few seconds.

 

 

 

 

The next morning, things seemed back to normal. Sehun didn’t get to see Minseok until they had potions class, and when he told Minseok that nothing had happened to Luhan, Minseok had given him a disappointed little shrug. “We’ll have to figure out what went wrong,” Minseok sighed. “We did everything right, I’m sure of it!”

“Yeah.” Sehun frowned and sighed. “We’ll have to check out that textbook from the library again.

Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Junmyeon and Luhan to the table. Sehun raised an eyebrow when he saw that Luhan had his arm around Junmyeon’s shoulders again, but didn’t say anything. He did feel mildly offended though; was he just not good enough of a cuddle buddy anymore? Luhan used to snuggle with him all the time, but it seemed like he was getting more touchy-feely with Junmyeon these days. Oh well.

“Hey guys!” Junmyeon smiled brightly at them.

“Hey.” Sehun smiled back. It was a little weird for Junmyeon to be this chipper during potions, but hey—he wasn’t going to complain if his best friend was happy.

“You and Luhan being…cuddly…again?” Minseok raised an eyebrow at them. Sehun felt a pang of satisfaction at the realization that he wasn’t the only abandoned snuggle buddy sitting at the table.

Junmyeon didn’t say anything and just sat down at the table quietly, an embarrassed flush running high on his cheeks. Sehun blinked when he noticed Luhan slid his arm from Junmyeon’s shoulders down to his waist.

“Junmyeon?”

“Yes?” Junmyeon turned to face Sehun, and Sehun struggled to mask his confusion. Junmyeon was usually only clingy when he was sad or stressed; finals were around the corner, but Junmyeon usually spread himself out over all of them—not just Luhan.

“Is everything alright?”

“Of course it is, why do you ask?” Junmyeon frowned in confusion at Sehun.

Sehun opened and closed his mouth silently as he struggled for the right words to say, but then let the matter drop. “Never mind.”

Junmyeon opened his mouth to respond, but Professor swept into the classroom and silence fell except for the shuffling of parchment and quills as the students prepared themselves for a lecture on the properties of bowtruckle legs. Sehun shook his head and began to copy down the notes on the board as Professor Wu strode towards the lectern at the head of the classroom. Something was up with Junmyeon and Luhan; but if Junmyeon wasn’t willing to open up, he wasn’t quite sure that he would ever be able to figure out what it was.

At the end of the lecture Sehun stared out of the corner of his eye when Luhan grabbed Junmyeon’s hand and Junmyeon glanced around before squeezing back. Something weird was going on—Luhan hated it when anyone touched his hands. He always bowed and apologized every time he accidentally brushed hands with Minseok or himself in the hallways, or if he accidentally touched someone’s hand when he was passing trays or serving himself during dinner. But here he was, holding Junmyeon’s hand and looking happy as can be.

“Minseok,” Sehun murmured softly.

“What?” Minseok was rustling through his bag trying to find his quill pouch.

“Look at Luhan and Junmyeon.” Sehun grabbed Minseok’s elbow and pointed at Luhan and Junmyeon as they started to leave the classroom together.

“What about them?” Minseok frowned and squinted at the couple as they passed through the dungeon doors.

“Minseok, they were holding hands. Luhan hates touching anyone’s hands.”

“So? Maybe Luhan’s trying to get over himself.” Minseok shrugged and made a sound of triumph when he found the pouch at the bottom of his book bag.

Sehun rolled his eyes as Minseok hastily packed up his bag and got to his feet. “Did Luhan say anything about it?”

“No, but sometimes he does weird stuff for no reason.” Minseok shrugged the strap of his bag over his shoulder and began to walk away from the table, leaving Sehun to hurry after him.

“No, Minseok, there’s something weird going on,” Sehun insisted. “I don’t know what it is, but they’re both acting really weird. Junmyeon only cuddles when he’s stressed and Luhan is being super indulgent.”

“Well, what do you think is up? Do you think Junmyeon’s hiding something? Do you think Luhan’s hiding something? I can’t really think of anything plausible that could have happened.” Minseok looked over at Sehun and then down at the hall at Luhan and Junmyeon’s steadily retreating backs.

Sehun stared after them as well, and then an idea began to form in his head. “Hey Minseok…yesterday, Luhan and Junmyeon were also being really clingy, right?”

“Yes, they were.” Minseok frowned. “I don’t see where you’re going with this.”

“Luhan also drank the potion yesterday. What if—what if, Luhan did portray the symptoms of the potion?” Sehun lowered his voice dramatically.

“So Luhan did lose his voice yesterday?” Minseok looked utterly mystified. “Sehun, I don’t get it.”

“No, you idiot. What I’m saying is—what if we flubbed up the voice-loss potion and accidentally turned it into some kind of love potion?” Sehun’s face grew flushed with excitement. “It makes sense! Yesterday, Luhan kept sighing off into the distance and then he went off to get Junmyeon. So Junmyeon got all clingy with him because he started freaking out about midterms and stuff, and Luhan just indulged him because he thinks he’s in love!”

“Luhan always goes to get Junmyeon to come study with us in the library. This is hardly grounds for thinking that we managed to do something that could get us expelled and in trouble with the Ministry itself,” Minseok scoffed.

“But look at how clingy they are! I don’t think we made a horribly strong love potion, but it’s the only thing that makes sense—come on, think about what Luhan did to Jessica when Jessica held his hand last year.”

Minseok winced at the memory; Luhan had flinched backward and cast a hex that transformed Jessica’s hand into a slimy green tentacle. No one tried to touch his hand again after that. “True…”

“But he didn’t do anything to Junmyeon! I actually saw Junmyeon squeeze Luhan’s hand, like he didn’t want him to let go. It’s too weird.” Sehun shivered and hiked the strap of his book bag further up on to his shoulder. “A love potion is the only thing that makes sense.”

“Alright. Suppose that we did accidentally make a love potion. What should we do now?” Minseok couldn’t help but admit that what Sehun was saying did make a little sense; it was incredibly unusual for Luhan to allow anyone to touch his hands.

“We have to make an antidote,” Sehun said simply. “It’s the only way. And we have to make it fast, before Junmyeon gets hurt.”

“Sehun, the only thing we know about making antidotes is what we read from that moldy textbook in the back of the herbology section three weeks ago,” Minseok argued. “We won’t be able to come up with an antidote fast enough.”

“We have to try! We can’t just stand by and watch this happen.” Sehun scowled over at Minseok. “That’s not what best friends do to each other.”

“I think it’s arguable that best friends don’t usually consume a potion that doesn’t produce the expected effects,” Minseok mumbled under his breath, “But don’t mind me.”

Sehun ignored him and grabbed Minseok’s elbow to redirect their path towards the library. “Let’s get that book on antidotes and the one with the potion in it, and we can start working on an antidote right away.”

“Alright,” Minseok sighed softly. “Although I’m still having trouble believing that we brewed a love potion…”

“Can you think of a better explanation of what’s going on?” Sehun challenged him with a raised eyebrow.

Minseok hesitated for a moment, and then reluctantly shook his head.

“That’s what I thought,” Sehun said archly. “Come on, then.”

Minseok sighed and dragged his feet after Sehun, his mind racing over the potions recipe they’d followed. True, some of the ingredients they’d used were common to love potions, such as valerian, Heart’s Ease petals, mistletoe berries and crushed marigold, but dried nettles and peppermint were not. If anything, the dried nettles should’ve counteracted the romantic effects of the other ingredients…

Minseok shook his head and hurried after Sehun. Maybe Sehun was right, and they had managed to accidentally brew a love potion…in which case, he wanted to make a cure before anything else could happen. He knew that Junmyeon had always had a bit of a soft spot for Luhan; sometimes, Minseok would catch him staring at the back of Luhan’s head in the Great Hall, or he would mumble Luhan’s name in his sleep. But whenever Minseok asked him about it, Junmyeon would always brush it off and would hurry off to do something else.

Minseok sighed through his nose. Hopefully, Junmyeon would have the presence of mind to realize how weird it was for Luhan to be that affectionate.

While Sehun and Minseok had been jumping to conclusions, Junmyeon and Luhan were discussing the effect of their affections on their friends.

“Do you think that that was a bit too much?” Junmyeon looked apprehensively up at Luhan as they strolled down the corridor away from potions class. “Sehun looked a little concerned.”

“He was probably just remembering the time that I transformed Jessica Jung’s hand into a tentacle. I wouldn’t worry about it,” Luhan said dismissively.

“Oh yes, I remember that,” Junmyeon said, his eyes glistening with nostalgia. “If only I had the gall to do that to Jongdae.”

“I didn’t know that you minded Jongdae so much.” Luhan tightened his grip on Junmyeon’s hand as they exited the corridor and wove through a throng of students on their way up a staircase.

“I don’t. He just gets a little over excited sometimes.” Junmyeon smiled fondly and hurried to catch up with Luhan, his robes flapping around his ankles. “You know how it is.”

“That, I do.” Luhan smiled back at Junmyeon, and then pulled the two of them into an empty classroom.

“Luhan? What are we doing here?” Junmyeon let go of Luhan’s hand and leaned against a desk to catch his breath.

Luhan wrapped his arms around Junmyeon from behind, smiling at the soft noise of surprise that Junmyeon let out. “I missed you,” Luhan murmured into Junmyeon’s ear.

“We spent some time together after patrol yesterday,” Junmyeon reminded him. “You miss me already?”

“Yeah,” Luhan mumbled softly, his cheeks heating with embarrassment. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Junmyeon said instantly, lifting his hands to rest of Luhan’s. “I missed you too.”

“We’re disgusting,” Luhan muttered, laughing self-consciously. Junmyeon snickered and turned around in his arms so that they were toe to toe.

“Would you have it any other way?” Junmyeon smiled brightly up at Luhan, and Luhan grinned.

“No,” he murmured, his eyes drifting down Junmyeon’s face to settle on his lips. Before either of them quite realized what they were doing, they were already leaning forward to meet halfway.

A bucket of cold water upended itself over their heads, and Junmyeon and Luhan leapt away from each other with a shriek of surprise.

“Peeves!” Junmyeon gasped, his face paling from a combination of shock and the ice water. “We didn’t see you at all!”

The poltergeist floated above their heads, a maniac grin spreading across his translucent face. “That you didn’t~” he sing-songed, waving the bucket over their heads to sprinkle the last few drops over them. “I’m not sure that I wanted to see all that just now.”

Luhan swore and brushed a chunk of ice out of his hair. “Peeves you little—”

“What Luhan means,” Junmyeon hastily interjected, “is that we’re very sorry that we didn’t see you there and that we would really appreciate it if you could keep this quiet.”

Peeves cackled with glee and dropped the bucket on to the ground. “Keep it quiet? Why should I?”

“Because,” Junmyeon said desperately, “Um—um, um…”

At that moment, Luhan looked up with a furious expression on his face and fired a jet of fire at Peeves from the tip of his wand.

Peeves jumped into action and escaped the blast, heading straight for the classroom door. “LUHAN AND JUNMYEON WERE KISSING!” He bellowed, zooming out of the classroom door. “LUHAN AND JUNMYEON SITTING IN A TREE. K-I-S-S-I-N-G…”

Junmyeon stared at the classroom door as Peeves voice faded off into the distance. “Luhan,” he said slowly.

“What?” Luhan still looked furious as he turned his wand towards Junmyeon and began emitting hot air out of the tip of his wand.

“Why couldn’t you wait?!” Junmyeon hissed at him, anger evident on his face. “I was about to say that I was going to tell the Headmaster that I knew that Peeves was the one shuffling the suits of armor around the seventh floor!”

“I’m sorry!” Luhan snapped back, moving his wand to direct the warm air at Junmyeon’s hair. “I was just—so ugh!”

“I’m surprised that we didn’t notice Peeves in here.” Junmyeon turned his head so that his nose started defrosting under the warmth from Luhan’s charm. “I guess we’ve been pretty lucky to have avoided him so far.”

“I guess,” Luhan grumbled. “…I’m really sorry Junmyeon.”

“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now.” Junmyeon’s shoulders slumped in quiet resignation. “Besides, I don’t think that our plan was going to work very well anyways. Sehun and Minseok are a little…dense for that kind of thing.”

“Well, Peeves will have crowed out our relationship to the entire castle within the next two minutes,” Luhan sighed quietly. “…Do you think that we’ll be separated on patrol duty?”

Junmyeon gave Luhan a look. “Our best friends possibly just found out about our relationship and all you can think of is our patrol schedule?”

Luhan pouted at him. “I’m just saying!” He turned his wrist so that his wand was pointing at Junmyeon’s robes. The couple watched the steam rise off of Junmyeon’s clothing in silence for a few moments until Junmyeon realized that Luhan was also dripping wet.

“Here, stop that. Take off your robes, I know a charm that will dry our clothes off much more efficiently,” Junmyeon said softly. He was still pretty mad at Luhan for egging Peeves on, but there wasn’t anything they could do about it now, and there was no point in letting the both of them get sick.

Luhan hastily shrugged his sodden robes off and turned to help Junmyeon out of his. “How do you know all of these charms?”

“Mother has all kinds of household charm books lying around,” Junmyeon muttered. “I got bored over break.”

“Well, I’m not complaining.” Luhan shivered and rubbed at his arms. “How do you do it? Do you want me to help?”

“No, you’re awful at charms,” Junmyeon said instantly. “Just let me handle it.” Junmyeon drew out his wand and silently cast a charm over the two sets of robes. He then turned his wand on Luhan, and then on himself.

Both boys let out a sigh of relief when they felt their clothes dry off instantly. Junmyeon pointed his wand at the slippery classroom floor, and the water evaporated into a fine mist.

“You’re amazing,” Luhan said gratefully, reaching out to pull Junmyeon into a hug. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Junmyeon mumbled into Luhan’s neck. “Now let go, I want to put my robes back on.”

“Sorry.” Luhan instantly let go of Junmyeon. Once they were both appropriately clothed, Junmyeon took a deep breath.

“So…what happens now?” Junmyeon glanced nervously towards the classroom door.

“Now, we face the music,” Luhan said quietly. “But don’t worry, Junmyeon. We’ll face it together. I think that Sehun and Minseok will be able to accept us with a little time.”

“But it’s not just about Sehun and Minseok.” Junmyeon bit his lip anxiously. “What about the rest of the school—what if they…”

“They what? Look down on us because I’m a Slytherin and you’re a Ravenclaw?” Luhan folded his arms. “Some people probably will. But their opinion isn’t worth anything. It’s the people who are happy for us that count.”

“Do you really think so?” Junmyeon looked over at Luhan anxiously. “I…I’m not so sure.”

“Junmyeon.” Luhan reached out and grabbed Junmyeon’s hand, intertwining their fingers and squeezing tightly. “Our houses don’t matter to the two of us. If they matter to other people, then those people can go play with Devil’s Snare. I don’t care about them. All I care about is you.”

Junmyeon blinked, and then squeezed Luhan’s hand. “I trust you.”

Luhan smiled gently at him. “Then let’s go face the masses, shall we?”

Junmyeon smiled back at him softly. “…Let’s go.”

And they walked out of the classroom, hand-in-hand.

 

 

 

Now, unfortunately, Minseok and Sehun decided that the quickest way to get Luhan the antidote would be to skip their classes for the rest of the day and hunker down in one of the bathrooms to try and work out the antidote. They never heard Peeves race around the school corridors screaming about Luhan and Junmyeon, and they certainly didn’t see Luhan and Junmyeon walk into the Great Hall for dinner, hand in hand, and the roar of whispers that swept across the hall at the sight. They weren’t there to ask the pair why they had been summoned to Professor Jung’s office, and Luhan and Junmyeon never had a chance to tell them that Professor Jung was kind enough to let them continue to on their patrol schedule as long as they behaved appropriately.

“Do you think that they’re brewing up another potion again?” Luhan whispered to Junmyeon as they rounded the corner, their eyes alert for any unruly underclassmen wandering the halls past curfew.

“Or they could be so angry with us that they won’t see us,” Junmyeon murmured back.

“…I don’t think that they would be that angry.” Luhan flicked his wand so that a small bubble of light floated down the corridor ahead of them, rather than light emanating from the tip of his wand.

“Well, think about it. How would you feel if you found out that they had been dating for two years in secret?” Junmyeon stowed his wand away as the light lit the hallway before them.

“I would be more surprised than anything. I don’t see the whole love-hate relationship working out very well between them.”

Junmyeon burst into laughter, and a suit of armor clanked remonstratively at him from the shadows. Junmyeon quieted down, but a small smile played around the corners of his mouth. It had been a rough evening for them; people had stared and whispered behind their hands, teachers had given them odd looks, and their talk with Professor Jung had been absolutely terrifying. But everyone had been kind; no one had said anything about their different houses, or made comments about them being two boys. Jongdae had been rather distraught, but hadn’t said anything untoward and had kept to himself during dinner, and Junmyeon knew that he would have to talk to him eventually, but it had gone much better than he expected.

At that same instant, Minseok and Sehun had finished concocting an antidote to the potion. Sehun’s hair was a frazzled mess flying over the top of his head while Minseok rubbed at his eyes wearily.

“We did it!” Sehun cheered as he scooped up a ladleful of frothing lavender liquid into a small flask. “Now all we have to do is get Luhan to drink it.”

Minseok let out a weary grumble. “It shouldn’t be too hard. We’ll tell him that it’ll make him taller. He’ll like that.”

“Oh that’s a good idea,” Sehun said appreciatively. “I’ll give it to him tomorrow morning then? He’s probably sleeping back in our dorm already.”

“Sounds good to me. Let’s clean this mess up and go to sleep.” Minseok rubbed at his eyes and waved his wand haphazardly at the cauldron. The potion vanished and the cauldron collapsed in on itself and turned into a small black box that fit securely in his palm. “Did you pack away our ingredients?”

“They’re all stored properly.” Sehun slipped the vial into his pocket and ran a hand through his hair. “Let’s go.”

Minseok looked at Sehun for a moment, and then pointed his wand at his head. Sehun squawked and dove out of the way, but Minseok just pocketed his wand looking rather pleased with himself.

“What did you do?!” Sehun lunged out of the bathroom stall and rushed over to the mirror.

“I just fixed your hair. You should’ve seen it a moment ago, I thought that it was going to jump off of your head and attack me,” Minseok chuckled. He pocketed the cauldron and followed Sehun at a much statelier pace. “Shall we go back to our dorms?”

Sehun glanced suspiciously at Minseok through the mirror and checked his hair one last time; it seemed normal, falling against his forehead as it usually did after he ran a comb through it in the mornings. “Alright let’s go.”

It was far past the time prefects or teachers patrolled the halls, and Sehun confidently pushed the door open. Minseok was right behind him and rammed straight into Sehun’s back when Sehun abruptly paused midstep.

“Sehun? What’s wrong?” Minseok moved out from behind his friend and rubbed at his nose in annoyance. “What—oh.” Minseok stared at the scene before them. “Crap.”

At the other end of the hall, Luhan and Junmyeon were kissing underneath a small bauble of light. Minseok opened his mouth to ask Sehun what they should do, but the collapsible cauldron fell out of his pocket and hit the floor with a resounding thunk.

Luhan and Junmyeon broke apart. Junmyeon peered into the darkness of the corridor and pulled his wand from his sleeve. “Who’s there?”

Minseok shrank back into the shadows of the corridor. “What do we do?” he whispered softly. “Sehun?”

Sehun took a quiet step back. “I don’t know,” he murmured softly. “Crap, we were too late—”

The bauble of light zoomed down towards them, faster than they had time to react, and Sehun and Minseok gaped awkwardly at Junmyeon and Luhan as the pair approached them.

“Sehun? Minseok?” Junmyeon looked shocked, and then a curiously awkward expression flitted across his features. “You two were…”

“We were brewing a potion,” Minseok blurted out, his voice hoarse with surprise. “Just—just brewing a potion.”

Luhan raised an eyebrow. “So…you two weren’t avoiding us?”

“Avoiding you?” Sehun spoke up in bewilderment. “Of course not. Why would we be?”

“It’s just well—you know. Peeves, and all that excitement,” Junmyeon said hesitantly. “We thought you would be angry?”

“Angry?” Minseok repeated back. “I think we’re missing something here. Sehun and I have been locked up in the boy’s restroom all evening long brewing a potion. We didn’t even hear Peeves pass down the corridor.”

“Oh!” Junmyeon and Luhan shared a look of surprise. “So—you don’t know then.”

“I guess not. Although it would be nice if you, you know, told us what we’re supposed to know,” Sehun said impatiently.

“Um, well.” Junmyeon looked down at the ground, and Minseok stared at the blush running high on his cheeks, visible even under the pale lavender luminescence from Luhan’s spell. “We…uh.”

“We’re dating,” Luhan interjected quickly.

Sehun rounded on Minseok in an instant. “I told you so!”

Minseok stared back at him with an expression of horror. “We have to get him to drink it. We have to get him to drink it right away, hurry up, which pocket did you keep the antidote in?”

“I don’t know!” Sehun wailed, his hands digging through his pockets. “I know I’ve got it somewhere!”

“You told him so?” Junmyeon repeated, a look of utter bewilderment settling in his eyes. “So you two did know?”

“What? We didn’t know anything—look, this is going to sound crazy, okay. But basically, last night Sehun and I made this potion that would make the drinker lose their voice for a few hours. Or at least, that’s what the textbook said,” Minseok quickly amended, taking a step forward so that he was standing closer to Junmyeon and Luhan, who were staring at him with twin expressions of confusion. “Anyways, so we made the potion. I was all set to test the potion on Jongdae at breakfast, but then Luhan grabbed the goblet that I’d poured the potion in.”

“The goblet…” A look of understanding dawned on Luhan’s face. “So that’s why you had two goblets of pumpkin juice in front of you.”

“Yes. Well, anyways, you accidentally grabbed the one that I was going to give to Jongdae.”

“Okay, so what?” Luhan looked more confused than ever. “Minseok, I—”

Minseok plowed through whatever Luhan was going to say. “As it turns out, Sehun and I messed the potion up and made it into a love potion!” Minseok laughed nervously. “Um, so—you should really drink this antidote that Sehun and I made just now.”

Right on cue, Sehun pulled the small flask out of his pocket.

Sehun and Minseok stared when Junmyeon started smiling and Luhan burst into laughter.

“Oh you guys,” Luhan gasped, “Oh man, I knew you guys were dense, but not—this is too much!” Luhan collapsed on the ground and started rolling around, his entire body shaking with the force of his laughter.

“…Is it worse than we thought?” Sehun stared at Luhan in concern.

“No, no, it’s not that,” Junmyeon said quickly, a soft smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “Um, it’s just that well—you didn’t let Luhan and I finish what we were going to say. It’s true that we’re dating, but we’ve also been dating for a few years now.”

Sehun dropped the flask of potion. “What?!”

“That’s what we were talking about earlier; Peeves outed us to the whole school earlier this evening.” Junmyeon blushed in embarrassment at the memory. “We thought that you two were avoiding us because you were angry that we’d hidden our relationship from you for so long.”

“Wait,” Minseok said, his voice strained. “So—you’ve been dating Luhan for a few years? When did this even happen?”

“Well, really only about two years now,” Junmyeon said thoughtfully. “We got together in fourth year. We didn’t say anything at first because you two were really, well…you two still weren’t getting along. But this year, we thought that it was time that we opened up to you guys, and well…here we are.”

Luhan had finally recovered himself to get to his feet, even though his face was still red and his eyes were wide with mirth. “Honestly, you two. You’re the best potion brewers in our entire year; you managed to make an antidote for a potion in what, seven hours? Most seventh years wouldn’t be able to do that. And you thought that you managed to turn a voice loss potion into a love potion?” Luhan snorted (rather unattractively) and turned to Junmyeon. “They’re idiots.”

“I’m going to have agree,” Junmyeon said, his smile evident in his voice. “You two are really something.”

“You were trying to give us a hint, when you two were holding hands earlier today,” Minseok said slowly, a mixture of horror and relief settling over him. “How could I not have seen it?”

“Because Sehun got carried away, and you let yourself get caught up with it.” Junmyeon shook his head at his friend.

“Alright, alright. So I was wrong, and that was a really stupid idea. But…you two are dating.” Sehun looked hesitantly at his friends. “Does that…does that change things for us?”

“It doesn’t have to.” Luhan’s face settled into a solemn expression, despite his mussed hair and clothing. “We were hoping it wouldn’t. I mean, obviously some things will change, but—I’m hoping that our friendship will stay the same.”

“Of course it will,” Minseok said instantly. “Don’t be stupid. I’m a little weirded out by the fact that you two are dating, but I’m not upset by it. I can see why you kept it a secret.”

“Me too. I don’t—you guys must be pretty dumb, if you thought that we would hold this against you,” Sehun said quietly, his eyes searching Junmyeon’s and Luhan’s faces for any sign of emotion.

Relief bloomed across their faces, and all four friends relaxed their stances when they realized that they all really understood each other.

“By the way,” Luhan said suddenly. “The voice loss potion sort of worked. I lost my voice for about five seconds when I went to get Junmyeon yesterday afternoon.”

“Well, it was worth some of the effort then,” Minseok grumbled quietly.

There was another soft silence for a few moments, until Junmyeon broke it.

“We should all get to bed,” Junmyeon said quietly. “It’s far too late for any of us to be out. We should go before a ghost or a teacher catches us.”

“Yes, let’s. Come on, Sehun.” Luhan reached out and grabbed Sehun’s hand to drag him down to the Slytherin common room while Minseok and Junmyeon hurried off towards the Ravenclaw dormitories.

Things definitely wouldn’t be the same for them come morning. It was probably going to get a little awkward for a while as they figured out how to interact with each other again. But all four friends couldn’t help but feel that no matter what awkwardness tomorrow would bring, at least they were all on the same page.

The End

a/n: Comments are always appreciated! Thanks for reading~