Jonghyun fixed the brownish texture that was sticking on the bottom of his cauldron. He did not understand. He had followed every single step, in the right order – he checked twice – using the good ingredients at the right time, but he was far away from the pink and fluid liquid that was supposed to be. He sighed. No matter how hard he tried, the young man never was able to do a correct potion. Today was even worse since he was feeling a constant itching on his finger, so he was more focused on the pain. He slowly raised his head, glancing around to see if the others were successful. They were four people on his table and the three others, one Slytherin and two other Gryffindor, and their potion seemed to be more pink than brown, like his own, which was probably meaning that they were doing great. He could not contain another sigh. He tried to stir the brown texture but it did not move at all. He decided that there was nothing he could do and was preparing himself to be scold by his teacher which will probably make Gryffindor lose some points. Jonghyun let his eyes wander, as he was thinking how he could win those points back, discretely inspecting every other students in the room. Unlike him, they were all staring at their cauldron, he felt a bit better seeing some of them struggling, but everyone seemed to find the potion quite easy to make. He noticed an empty seat. Checking each student, starting first with the Gryffindor that he knew better, he eventually understood that the missing one was this Slytherin, Kim Kibum. He knew, this guy was known as a constant skipper of potion classes, things that he was able to relate fully to, but it was the first time that he felt like he was really missing. These days he had the feeling that this guy had been everywhere he went, sometimes in places he had no reason to be – unlike a potion class that was supposed to be mandatory for every student – like in front of his common room or his transfiguration classes, a course that he was sharing with Hufflepuff and not Slytherin. At first, he really thought that it only was a coincidence, after all, the castle was big, everyone was allowed to go everywhere and maybe Kibum had his own reasons too but then, when his best friend Minho, a Hufflepuff, started to notice it too, he had to admit it was too much for simple coincidences, even if he could not explain why.

“Time is over!” his teacher's voice made Jonghyun come back to reality, and the fact that his potion was brown and sticky. He looked down as he felt his teacher was coming closer to him, embarrassed of his work.

Jonghyun sat on Gryffindor's table in the Great Hall, his hands full of parchments. Of course, after failing his potion earlier his teacher gave him extra work to do and since he had a bit of free time before dinner he thought that maybe it could be a good thing to start it now, even if it was for next week. Mostly, his hope was that maybe Minho would be there and that maybe he would be able to help him with that work. Not that the Hufflepuff was a potion enthusiast but nobody could be worse than he was. Unfortunately, the Great Hall was almost empty, and Minho was nowhere to be seen. The young man sighed, he really needed help for this. Mechanically he rubbed his finger that was hurting him. The pain had been constant all day and he was really starting to get tired of it. He had already figured out that it was due to the ring that he had around his finger, so he tried to take it off but it was stuck. The Gyrffindor had thought about asking for help, but with his classes and his homework and, above all, the Quidditch season that was starting again, he totally forgot. Especially that, weirdly, during his Quidditch training yesterday, the pain was gone. Plus, it was not too bad, more like a little itching than a real pain. It was annoying but did not seemed dangerous, even if at this point it was more a hope than a fact.

“I really have to do something about you, right.” he said out loud, looking at the ring, “Magic objects can be very dangerous but you won't do anything to me, will you? Like, my hand won't burn, or disappear, or something like that? You're so thin, no way you could hurt me...”

“Hey, did you fall from your broom and hit your head during your Quidditch practice and is that why you're talking alone?”

Immediately, the young man hide his hand under the table as Minho sat next to him.

“You're hilarious...” he mumbled faking to be upset by this joke but when his friend laughed he could not help but smile.

“Anyway, what's up? Why are you here so early? What's all this?” he asked with a sign of the head toward all the parchments.

“Nothing much. I was hoping to see you. Potion extra homework.” he answered.

“Does the fact that you wanted to see me has any correlation with your extra work?”

“It might be so.”

The Hufflepuff sighed but he still took the parchments. Jonghyun let him read in silence, a satisfied smile on his face.

“Can't your secret admirer help you with this?”

“What are you talking about?”

“That Slytherin guy who follows you everywhere.”

Jonghyun rolled his eyes.

“He is not following me” he said, insisting on the verb, “he's just sometimes at the same place as I am.”

“Exactly what I'm saying.”

“I haven't seen him all day so, you're wrong.”

Minho put down the parchments.

“Maybe he saw that you saw him so he's just being more discreet.”

“You're really talking nonsense.” the young man was seriously starting to be embarrassed by this conversation “Can you help me with the potion paper or not?”

“Probably, but Slytherin are known to be good at this, no?”

The Gryffindor stood up and got all his parchments together.

“Not this one! He always skips Potion. Also, stop annoying me with this, I never talked to him, how could he be interested or anything, you're really dumb and annoying.”

His friend started to laugh which made him even more upset.

“That's the point of stalking you! You guys never talked so he's just shy and don't know what to do to be close to you, and am I the dumb one?”

“I just asked for your help not for your love advices or I don't know what this is, I'm leaving.”

Minho added nothing but had that victorious look and damn, Jonghyun really loved and cherished his best friend but right now he really wanted to petrify him so he will stop with his little theory. He took the last parchments and begun to walk away.

“Hey, Jonghyun!” yelled the Hufflepuff. The latter stopped, hesitated a second but then turned around “Do you know you're blushing?” the other one added before laughing even more, and Jonghyun really thought ending all this with a simple spell, but, luckily for Minho who was really not as good at charms as he was, his hands were full. Thankfully, the Great Hall was still empty and only a few students had stopped minding their own business to look at the Hufflepuff, who was currently dying of laughter. He wondered a moment if it was worthy to answer something, he finally choose that it was not and then turned away. Plus, the pain on his finger was constant right now and it was really time for him to see the nurse about it. The last meters to the door seemed endless but he eventually got out and sighed of relief. He leaned a moment against the wall and closed his eyes, thinking, against his will, about what Minho had just told him. He shrugged. It was stupid. His friend saw romance where it probably just was simple coincidences. He had no idea what was going on the Hufflepuff's brain but there was something he was sure about: it will not get to his brain. He opened his eyes, he really needed to go to the nurse, but first, he had to stop by Gryffindor's common room to put all these parchments on his bed. The young man was about to leave when suddenly the pain stopped. He frowned.

“What's this again...” he whispered to himself.

He wanted to take a look at his finger but with all the papers he could not, some of it fell on the ground but he did not mind.

“Hey!”

The voice, that came from nowhere to him, made him jump and he dropped everything.

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you.” said the voice.

He could not recognized who it was, he turned back. The Slytherin guy, Kim Kibum, was standing in front of him. His heart skipped a beat, he opened his mouth but no sound came out.

“Can we talk for a moment? It's important.”

Confused, Jonghyun just nodded, was Minho right?

Hello! Thanks for reading, for leaving comments and for everything, I'm very grateful ! To be honest this fic was supposed to be an OS or a Two Shot maybe but it's getting longer and longer in my mind so I hope it's fine with you too haha I hope it's not too slow and that you still find it interesting, I'm sorry I just love when things go a bit slow and that there is a bit of suspense too!! See you soon for Fifth Part (maybe I should named my chapters).