Kibum had no idea what he was doing or what he should be saying. Taemin was standing in front of him, waiting for him to say something. He could see very well the surprise on his face when he had so suddenly called his name - they really had never talked to each other for more than a minute, Kibum highly doubted he even knew what his name was - and his expression had not changed at all. He probably was wondering why he had stopped him like that while they both had classes to attend to. But Kibum was unable to find the good words or anything that did not sound too strange to begin with. After a moment, he understood there was no way to make it sound logical, so he just asked away. He really thought that Taemin would see him as a crazy and left without even answering. That was the only logical reaction to a “would you like to brew a potion to take off this cursed ring? By the way, teachers are not aware that we are doing it and you will probably be breaking tons of the school rules, but I heard you were good at potions?”. But he smiled brightly and agreed, promising to meet him again and talk more about it during dinner, when they would be done with the day classes. He then waved him goodbye, and left him, surprised, but satisfied.

*
 

“You don’t do Quidditch, do you?” Jinki asked suspiciously while glancing toward Minho and Jonghyun, who were both pretending to focus on the food in their plate and not on what the Ravenclaw was saying.

“I don’t,” Taemin answered, a bit confused.

Jinki smiled, “Then I think we’re good.” He pushed away his, now empty, plate and took out of his bag a feather and a piece of parchment. He then started to write, quietly.

Knowing he would not like to be disturb, Kibum started to focus his attention on something else. They were all sitting at the Slytherin’s table. If his housemates had been at first a bit surprised to see Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor students sitting there, but they had kept quiet. Then, he had introduced Taemin to everyone and had let Jinki explain the entire situation to him -his friend was better than him for these kind of things, whether it was explaining or just leading something.- When it had been done, and when Taemin had agreed joyfully to everything, Jinki had started to ask him about his late afternoon activities, and, obviously, about Quidditch. The Ravenclaw seemed satisfied and so was he. He had found apparently the right person and they will finally be able to start that potion.Or maybe he was trying to convince himself that he was happy that it was starting. But the feeling he had had in the morning was stronger, he seriously did not want to take off the ring. He was too afraid to lose Jonghyun with it. He let his look fall on the latter, who was now discussing with Minho about the best Quidditch strategies to win a game -how much Kibum would have give right now to understand what they were saying so he could participate into their conversation and just talk to him.-

“It’s done.” Jinki voice suddenly made him realize he was staring at the Gryffindor. He quickly turned his head away before the other one could notice anything. The Ravenclaw was holding four pieces of parchment in his hands. He gave one of each to all of them. “I enchanted those parchment so that it will show you that it is your turn to check on the potion, I organized everything so that we will be at least two before dinner and two after, but don’t worry not for too long, you’ll be all able to have decent nights of sleep, and do your homeworks!"

“How will we know that it’s our turn?” carefully asked Jonghyun. “You’ll feel it, just keep it near to you, you’ll understand quickly,” Jinki answered, putting all his stuffs away and then taking his empty plate to fill it with food, “shall we start tonight?” he finally added, and they all nodded.

*

Jonghyun was concerned. Also, his finger was hurting him terribly. It has been an entire day since the last time he had seen Kibum and he could not understand why. He knew the castle was a big place, and, after all, before the ring incident he had never really noticed the Slytherin, but now, things had changed, hadn’t them? They were not anymore classmates sometimes during potion classes, in which they barely ever showed up, they became friends. That was why he could not find a reason for Kibum’s absence. He did not even came to the potion classes they both had that afternoon, and he did not even saw him in the Great Hall during lunch and dinner. And, somehow, he did not only feel pain on his finger.

The young man was sitting on the couch in his common room, mechanically playing with the ring. The inching was unpleasant but it was nothing compare to what was going on into his mind. He was wondering if he had said or done something wrong that would explain why Kibum had not showed up. But he could not find anything, and it was bothering him so much that he almost did not felt the burning sensation on his pocket. Surprised and also a bit scared, he took out the piece of parchment that Jinki had gave him the day before during dinner. Instead of the blank parchment he had received, it was now shining and the words “YOUR TURN” were brightly written in the middle of it. The more he hold the parchment, starting at it without doing anything, the more it was burning his hand. Or at least, he had the sensation that it was burning, because there was no flame, no smell, and when he finally let go of it, no burn on his hand. The moment he got up from the couch, the parchment became blank again.

It did not took him too long to understand that it was his turn to check on the potion, so Jonghyun discretely left his common room. It was not too late yet and, as a student over his fifth year at Hogwarts, it was still allowed for him to wander in the castle at that time, he could not help but walk quickly until the seventh floor. On the way he started to wonder if he was more impressed at the magic Jinki was able to do or more upset because the parchment had burnt him -especially that he was thinking he had been burnt way too much these days,- and that he could have explain how it worked earlier. He was still not decided on the matter when he eventually reach the Room of Requirement, without meeting any trouble, not even a painting character asking him what he was doing alone at night.

“I can’t believe you made those to burn us! You’re completely insane!” A voice shouted from behind a shelf full of potion’s books, immediately after he had entered the room. A bit lost, the Gryffindor recognized Kibum’s voice, and, for a second, he tried to remember when he had burnt him and if it was the reason why the Slytherin had avoided him all day. But before he could realize that it made no sense, Kibum was standing in front of him and he added, “Oh… I’m so sorry I really thought it was Jinki.”
 

“W..Why?” He managed to say, totally confused. “I never imagined he would left me with a potion without him watching over my shoulder, that’s why,” the other one simply answer, “now I’m really concerned about what was happening in his head to put us together.”

Jonghyun frowned. His heartbeat suddenly raised as he felt some kind of weird fear growing inside him, “what’s wrong with the two of us together?” He asked. His tone probably was too sharp because he saw the surprise in Kibum’s eyes, “we just both at potion… Are you okay? You seem weird.”

He hesitated for about a second, usually he would have more been the type to let go of everything, even if it was bothering him but this time he could not. Almost without realizing it, the words escaped from his mouth, “and you? I haven’t seen you all day, did I do something wrong?”

The Slytherin opened his mouth but nothing came out of it. Jonghyun could feel his heart bouncing on his chest, maybe he had overreacted. He stayed silent for what seemed to be an eternity before finally muttering : “I just… thought you should get used to it.”

“To what?” he questioned, lost. “The ring, it got us together, so I thought, once it’ll be out of our fingers, it’d be over, won’t it?”

Jonghyun let out a laugh. At first he tried to contain it but then he just burst into laughter, under the confuse eyes of Kibum, “what’s going on, why are you laughing at me??” The latter asked, annoyed.

But it was only when tears threaten to fall from his eyes that the Gryffindor managed to say, “I was worried all day that I had done something wrong to you but it was just you being a drama queen, I can’t believe that.”

Kibum frowned, “what do you mean drama queen??”

“You really thought we would act like total stranger once we got the ring out? That’s being dramatic.”

“What? I’m not! Stop making fun of me, I was just worried!”

Suddenly, he totally stopped laughing. A warm feeling settled in his body, “You were afraid that we might not be close anymore?” The Slytherin simply shrugged. “I won’t ever do that. Act like we never met. I like the way that we met. I really like being with you,” Jonghyun added.

He had no idea why he had said that but once again he had totally lost the control of his own brain and the words had just got out of his mouth. He firstly regretted it. Then Kibum smiled and he felt lighter right away. That bright and beautiful, like the rest of his being when he was thinking about it, smile that was making even his eye smile. That sweet smile that Jonghyun had really started to love, probably a bit too much.

“I do too,” Kibum whispered. The Gryffindor had not realized it before, but they had got closer to each other a lot since he got into the Room. For a second he thought that maybe he could get even closer to the other one. And maybe do something that he had been craving for and had just tried to hide it somewhere in his mind because he was too afraid that Kibum would not like him the way he did and to ruin their so precious friendship. Maybe kiss him. He was staring at his lips when, suddenly, the potion made a weird noise. He abruptly tried to look away.

“I think they might kill us if we don’t take care of this,” he said, pointing at the cauldron. He got away from the Slytherin and walked to the table in which they had put the potion, that was now bubbling weirdly, or maybe it was normal, he did not really care. His heartbeat was going totally crazy, so loud that he was wondering if Kibum could heard it. He hoped that he could not.

“They left instructions,” the other one stated softly, he was probably waiting for Jonghyun to look at those but he was feeling so embarrassed because of his own thought to dare look at him. Taking a deep breathe, he answered, “just recite the instructions to me, I’ll try to do my best.”

Hello !! I'm so so sorry for the delay oh my god! I just could not find the time to write, uni has been killing me lately! Thank you for still reading it after all this time (haha), I hope you enjoyed it :)