“I really think we should start again,” Woohyun protested, looking disconsolately at the consistency of their own version of Dr. Ubbly’s Oblivious Unction. “I told you we should have let it stand longer before adding the arrowroot.” They both peered into their cauldron, sitting rather unimpressively in the middle of the stone bathroom floor. A tiny sound of water dripping could be heard in the silence as Woohyun sadly imagined his F in Potions stomping inevitably towards him. Remake a commercial potion currently on the market – didn’t sound too hard, but once you added Woohyun’s complete inability to do anything potions-related as well as Sungyeol the human jinx to the mix, everything became just that bit more complicated. He’d always thought that Gryffindors were hard-put to do well in Potions, which needed exact measurements; they just weren’t the type to be slow and steady or meticulous. He and Sungyeol were magnificent at classes like Transfiguration, Charms and DADA, where instinct and reflexes were paramount. Put them in a room with a pair of scales and a cauldron and they started to panic.

“It’s not that far off,” Sungyeol said brightly, looking over at the original potion they’d gotten from the infirmary. “Just a bit thicker, that’s all. It’ll be fine.”

“Spending my Saturday afternoon with you in a damp bathroom. My idea of fun.” Woohyun grumbled to himself, transfiguring Sungyeol’s cast-off robe into a stool he could perch on. “Tomorrow, too.”

Sungyeol gave the cauldron a vigorous stir in hopes that the potion would start to loosen up and resemble more the light-purple medicine Madam Pomfrey had given them. He knew it didn’t look much like the intended result, but they’d already spent close to three hours in this sixth-floor boys’ bathroom – for easy cleanup if anything exploded (they’d learnt this the hard way after years of Potions projects gone wrong; one may very well wonder why they hadn’t learnt it sooner) – and his pride was weary of trying hard at something he knew he wasn’t going to score well on anyway. He hated Potions, but not nearly as much as Potions hated the both of them. “A lot of people would pay a lot of money to spend three hours in a deserted bathroom with me. Why tomorrow too?” he asked absentmindedly.

“Because we’ve done this wrong and we’ll need to redo it again tomorrow!” Woohyun nearly yelled. “And beg for more ingredients from Snape. Your turn this time.”

“Someone needs to try this. I’ll scissors-paper-stone you for it.” Sungyeol, ignoring Woohyun, scooped up a mouthful with his ladle and turned confidently to his project partner – who quickly hopped off his stool so full of indignance it looked like he was about to take flight with the force of it.

“We both agreed to try it together so don’t even think about weaseling out of this,” Woohyun scolded, jabbing him in the arm with a stubby finger. “Don’t. Even.”

“Fine, fine, fine,” Sungyeol muttered, quickly Banishing the leftover contents of a nearby cup so that he could ladle some of the potion into it. He pushed it over to Woohyun and ladled out another mouthful for himself, raising it to his lips, and then stood there expectantly. Woohyun stared.

“What are you doing?”

“What? We have to try it!” Sungyeol said impatiently.

“This isn’t a potion you drink, idiot!” Woohyun sunk his head into his hands in despair. “Why did I pair with you? Why did Dongwoo betray me for that lovely Ravenclaw – okay so I understand why he betrayed me but why wasn’t I fast enough to ask someone else before you sank your clutches into me? Why?”

Sungyeol glared, unimpressed. “Are you done?”

“No, but if I drink that I will be,” Woohyun shot back. “We’re supposed to apply it topically. You haven’t done any of your research at all, have you?”

“Yes, I have!” Sungyeol retorted. “For example, I know that this potion is supposed to cure psychological trauma, right? So how are we supposed to know if it works if neither of us has any psychological trauma? Didn’t think of that, did you?”

Woohyun blinked. “You’re right,” he said in a tone of awe. “Why the hell didn’t you say anything earlier?”

“Hah!” Sungyeol crowed.

“But I’m sure I have to have at least some kind of trauma from being your best friend for the last five years of my life,” Woohyun continued.

“Good, then we can test it on you,” Sungyeol said smoothly, grabbing his chance. “Come here.”

They ended up smearing it on both their right arms and stubbornly waiting ten minutes in expectation for something to happen before Woohyun gave up and admitted that they really hadn’t thought this through.

“I’ll just go see if I can find a homemade recipe for one of the Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes’ joke potions,” he said wearily, changing his stool back into Sungyeol’s robe. Sungyeol rolled his eyes and Banished the rest of the potion as Woohyun tidied up the rest of their things. “Good riddance,” he grumbled, adding making him waste three hours in a damp bathroom to the list of Things He Would Never Let Nam Woohyun Forget.

*

“I want only one student from each House in each project group. Except Slytherin – two groups will have to have two Slytherins because there’s an uneven number in this class. Part of your final grade will come from the assessments your groupmates give you, so remember why we started having combined-House DADA lessons in the first place – teamwork,” Professor Lupin said, light warning tone unmistakable.

Woohyun immediately grabbed Dongwoo’s arm and slid closer to him on their shared bench, leaving a wide space between him and Sungyeol.

“I will kill you!” Sungyeol hissed at him. “Dongwoo! Don’t leave me! Woohyun’s useless, take me instead!”

“Only one student from each House in each group,” Woohyun repeated back at him, smiling beatifically. “My prayers to Merlin to finally be rid of you have been answered.” Dongwoo shrugged sympathetically, and then turned his attention to getting his lovely Ravenclaw into their group – only to see Sungyeol scramble frantically out of his seat in order to reach her first, where she sat a row over.

“Hi,” Sungyeol said, slightly breathless as he screeched to a halt in front of her, her surprised friends bursting into giggles. “I see you pretty ladies are in need of a Gryffindor.” He beamed as she rolled her eyes, scooting over anyway so that he could sit down next to her. Sungyeol sent a wink over Dongwoo’s way, making himself comfortable in a group that eventually turned out, to his delight, to be all-female.

Dongwoo glared. “Remind me never to cross Sungyeol in future,” he muttered to Woohyun. “Let’s just get Sungjong for our Ravenclaw then, looks like we’re going to need him.”

They ended up with all their required houses when two Slytherins standing awkwardly by were added into their group by Professor Lupin, noting how reluctant they were to actively ask the others if they could join them.

“Hello. I’m Kim Sunggyu, and he’s Lee Howon,” one of them said, his lack of familiarity with the others making him unintentionally formal as they gathered round in a cluster. He looked like he didn’t know whether to stick out his hand for them to shake or not, while Howon just nodded and gave them a short wave in greeting. “Aren’t you both Gryffindors?”

“Us?” Woohyun asked, looking at Dongwoo when he realized the question was aimed at them. “No, actually, he’s a Huff. We just hang out together a lot. We’ve got all the houses here, don’t worry.”

“It was easier to recognize people when everyone was required to wear house colours everywhere,” Howon offered in the awkward silences that attended the initial forming of every randomly-selected project group, ever. The others nodded readily in agreement, even as Sungjong gave the expected reply they all already knew that it was better for whole-school solidarity, so on and so forth. They all nodded readily at that, too.

“O-kay, so,” Woohyun said after another minute of silence and fidgeting. Sungjong already looked bored. “Research on a category of curses of our choosing. Anyone got any ideas yet?”

The others gratefully began to talk shop, glad that the semblance of small talk was over.

Dongwoo looked sadly over to where Sungyeol was seated as a wave of feminine laughter broke out, and sighed. He really, really hated group projects, and sixth year was turning out to be full of them.

**

“So what are you doing for your project?” Woohyun asked Sungyeol as they jogged down the steps from their third-floor DADA classroom, knowing that Sungyeol wouldn’t be mad over a trivial thing like having to choose a new group because Woohyun’d already claimed Dongwoo. This was probably why they got along so well; they got each other into so much trouble all the time that if either one of them was easily offended they’d have hexed each other to the moon by now.

“We’re thinking about curses that affect reality perception,” Sungyeol answered easily, proving Woohyun right about him not being mad about their project groups. “My girls” – he paused to preen a little – “are ridiculously intelligent. They were throwing terms around I’ve never heard before in my life. Why do girls still waste their time with boys when they’re so smart and we’re so dumb?”

“Because we’re cute?” Woohyun offered.

“Maybe in my case. Yours, not so much. What about your group?”

“We couldn’t decide,” Woohyun groaned, letting the jab at his looks slide as one of the thousand daily exchanged insults that were the hallmark of their mutually supportive friendship. “We just couldn’t come up with something that everyone was interested in or thought was feasible enough to do. And those two Snakes are seriously intense. One of them has eyes so small I couldn’t tell if he was glaring at me or if he just didn’t agree with whatever was being discussed. Halfway through Dongwoo and the friendlier one, or at least the one with bigger eyes, discovered they both like Muggle music and so we lost them for the rest of the period. Basically the only thing we managed to do was find out everyone’s names, and thoroughly annoy Sungjong. I think he may be going to ask Lupin if he can change groups.”

“Hah, you better pray he doesn’t because he’s your only hope,” Sungyeol said, inhaling deep as they finally emerged out into the sun from the cool dark of the castle. “Plus, you’re not stealing my Ravenclaw, even if I’d get Sungjong in return. Dongwoo has amazing taste in girls.”

This was their routine after every Friday DADA lesson – Woohyun walked Sungyeol down to the Quidditch grounds to spend an hour or two watching him zoom around on his broom as Woohyun relaxed on the bleachers; they treasured this time even more now that they were in their sixth year, because everything academic had been pushed up a notch or three million. More and more homework and tests seemed to fall from the sky the moment they finished studying for one exam or finished writing foot after foot of parchment about everything from the Uprising of Elfric the Eager (“What even,” Woohyun had complained) to the exact effect Jobberknoll feathers had on memory potions (“You put them in. The potion works. The end.” Sungyeol had contemplated writing, and then decided that Snape’s scathing derision would be too hard to bear). Sungyeol cherished dearly the time he had to play Quidditch, especially because the knowledge that his time at Hogwarts was soon coming to an end was starting to weigh on him. Barely two more years, and they’d be out on their own in the world.

Woohyun let his bookbag drop onto the grass and propped his head up on the bleacher next to him, digging through his bag for the sandwich he’d saved from lunch to munch on as he flipped through a comic one of his Muggle-born housemates had lent him. Sungyeol headed off to the Gryffindor locker rooms to fetch his broom and a bludger to get in some practice before the season’s trainings actually started and work off steam from the school week. He let go the bludger once he was ready and kicked off into the sky, Woohyun watching him until he was nothing but a tiny speck. Some people, like Sungyeol, liked sports; Woohyun preferred the sport of Looking Handsome While Doing Nothing.

Sungyeol was a chaser on the Gryffindor team – he wasn’t a Quidditch prodigy, but he worked hard and worked well with his other two chasers such that they were a force to be reckoned with. This season was unpredictable, though, because all four houses had had integral team players who’d graduated last year and so there wasn’t any team that could be said to be the clear frontrunner; seasons like these where anything could happen were the ones Sungyeol loved the best.

He ducked and soared to escape the bludger; feinting and working on hairpin turns to avoid the bludger’s own unwieldy cannonball accuracy. It wouldn’t do to get my ribs bashed in just before the first few games of the year, he thought belatedly. Maybe I should have enchanted it to go slower. He grunted as he wrenched his broom into a roll, already sweating from the effort and unreservedly enjoying the feeling of being one with his broom, it following his lead a fraction of a second after he’d decided what to do. He could never understand why Woohyun chose to stay on the ground when sheer exhilaration like this awaited him in the sky.

A strange feeling overcame him so subtly he couldn’t have pinpointed, later, when it had started – slowly, he became aware of not being alone. He turned his head to the right to find another player about thirty metres away and behind him mimicking his moves; feinting when he feinted, accelerating when he did, all a split-second after him.

When the other boy realized that Sungyeol had noticed him, he raised an acknowledging hand to wave mid-flight; and that one moment of inattention was enough for the bludger to seize its chance. The boy moved quickly once he saw the bludger hurtling his way, but while it missed his body it clipped his broom and Sungyeol didn’t have time to register the secondhand shock and panic that crashed over Sungyeol as the boy began to fall; shock and panic that intensified his own.

Sungyeol dove immediately, urging his broom on to catch the boy before he hit the ground, but Woohyun beat him to it. He caught the boy and the bludger in an expertly-cast Immobulus charm; Sungyeol felt a glow of pride for his best friend’s skill – and lowered them both gently to the ground, the boy’s broom only belatedly following a few minutes later.

Sungyeol jumped off his broom and crouched down next to Woohyun and the boy, now sitting up. He felt echoes of concern that melded with his own, mixed with confusion and heart-thumping adrenaline – shaking his head to try and clear it, he focused on the boy.

“You’re the Hufflepuff seeker,” he said, surprised at the waves of gratitude tinged with embarrassment he could feel washing off the boy. “You’re in our year, aren’t you?”

“Some seeker, getting un-broomed before the first game is even played,” the Huff nodded shakily, cheeks tinged with pink at having to be saved. “Thank you, though. I mean it. I was just trying to see how fast I could follow you – I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have butted in without asking you first.”

“At least you’re okay,” Woohyun said, sitting back onto the grass. “But, you know, now that you owe us Gryffindors a favour for saving your life...”

“You know you’re going to have to throw the first game you have against us, right?” Sungyeol said solemnly.

“What?” the boy asked, sudden uncertainty flowing off him as he looked from Woohyun to Sungyeol, who was trying his best to look menacing.

“I mean, if you don’t let us win, we could tell everyone how Hufflepuff’s seeker had to be rescued by a Gryffindor because he was too slow to get out of the way of a bludger,” Woohyun continued, evil twinkle in his eye as he whistled. “I mean, damn. That’s got to be bad for house confidence, right?”

The boy looked in disbelief between the two of them a few more times before it clicked, and then his annoyance all but hit Sungyeol in the face. “s!” he complained, but without any real rancour as Woohyun helped him to his feet, laughing.

“Sorry,” Sungyeol offered, grinning. The boy rolled his eyes and picked up his broom.

“I’m going to look forward to crushing you when the season starts,” he said, leaning cockily against his broom.

“Not if we crush you first,” Sungyeol retorted, eyebrows raised challengingly.

“I’m Myungsoo,” the boy smiled. “Remember the name.” He kicked off, and his thrill as he took to the air engulfed Sungyeol for an exhilarating minute before he realized the emotion he was feeling was not his own.

Sungyeol frowned. That was strange.

*