Snape finished the spell and watched as the blood he had given as sacrifice in the ceremonial glass bowl bubbled itself into nothingness. He realized he was gritting his teeth and tried to relax – the entities he was dealing with weren’t known for their trustworthiness. Or, if he was being truly honest with himself, anything positive. The boy was still lying dead on the table next to his – what should he call the other boy? His boyfriend? Lover? It seemed ludicrous, for a sixteen year-old. They were still only children, really.

The seconds ticked by – had he not given them enough blood? He mopped at his brow with his sleeve. He hadn’t expected the whole process to take this long. If the boy’s tissues had started to degenerate –

“Whenever you’re ready,” Snape muttered into the silent room, impatience setting in heightened by frustration. “Any time you’re ready…”

Myungsoo’s chest heaved as his heart finally began to beat once more. The sound of breath being drawn into Myungsoo’s body was music to Snape’s ears, though if asked he wouldn’t have admitted it to anybody. He wouldn’t have thought that bringing someone back from the dead only halfway to Limbo would be so much more difficult than all the way back to Life, but he supposed there was a profound lesson in there somewhere. All he hoped now was that he had been forceful enough and his binding spells would hold – they weren’t above petty trickery. He’ll just have to see later if it was truly Myungsoo – and only Myungsoo – that had come back in his body. He couldn’t help, however, the hard, bright glow of pride burning fiercely within him. How many wizards could say they’d done this successfully?

He picked up Myungsoo’s bowl of blood and dipped the tip of his wand in it carefully, speaking the words of finding and holding on.

*

Myungsoo opened his eyes slowly. The place he was lying in was dark, and his eyes had to take some time to adjust before he could see anything at all. He pushed himself slowly to a sitting position feeling rather on the wrong side of right. It was as if his blood was flowing too quickly through his veins, or his lungs not keeping up with the gulps of air he breathed in; his skin didn’t feel like it fit him very well. Was this what coming back to life felt like?

He became aware of the whispering at the edges of his field of vision – he could make out shadows, and rock, and some places that shone more brightly in the half-light had to be puddles of water – yes, there was a dripping that echoed around the place and bounced off the walls so that he couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Where was the light from? It seemed no darker at one end than another, like normal caves. Myungsoo blinked. He was in a cave. Was this really what Limbo was, or was this only for him?

There was a faint thundering in his head that had been getting steadily louder and louder, and only then did Myungsoo realize that it was a voice; not only was it a voice, but it was a very familiar one.

Boy!

“I know your voice,” Myungsoo said, the strangeness of his body beginning to fade. “But I’m not sure I know you.”

Oh, for Merlin’s sake. It’s Professor Snape. Surely dying hasn’t flummoxed you that much?

“Well,” Myungsoo answered, feeling oddly calm and uncaring. “The next time you die, tell me how you get on.”

Impertinent brat! I have half a mind to leave you there on your own, and good riddance to the both of you. Now stop all your nonsense and listen. Put a hand in your pocket and bring out what you find there.

Myungsoo did as he was told, the weight of the smooth stone in his palm feeling weird. It felt much larger than it was.

Have you found it?

“No need to be so impatient,” Myungsoo murmured, looking at the stone.

Don’t test me, boy.

“Yes, I have it.”

Good. Now put it down on the ground.

Myungsoo let it roll off his palm and onto the damp rock floor, where it immediately started to glow red, casting a small umbrella of warm light around itself.

Is it glowing?

“Yes, it is,” Myungsoo answered, smiling to look at it. He knew he was here for something, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember what. He could think about it later. Right now it was just nice, watching the glowing red stone.

Right. That’s your touchstone out of here – think of it as your portkey. You do know what a portkey is, don’t you?

“I may be Muggleborn but I’m not stupid,” Myungsoo grumbled, tempted to pout.

Yes, well, I won’t hold it against you. You have to make it back here to come home. Leave the touchstone here next to where you are now – you came in this way and you have to go back the same way. Don’t worry, nothing will happen to it. Hopefully, anyway. Now-

“What do you mean ‘hopefully’?” Myungsoo asked, playfully suspicious. “Tsk, tsk.”

For gods’ sake! Do you think I make weekend trips to Limbo? Do you think I know every single thing that happens in the Afterlife? Am I Merlin reincarnated?

“Well, there’s no need to get angry,” Myungsoo scolded, trying not to giggle. He had a nagging feeling that this wasn’t how he spoke to this Professor Snape, but right then he had such a great ading sense of wellbeing that he was determined to enjoy himself. There was silence from the voice in his head for a while, as if the person was doing deep breathing exercises.

Mr Kim, how are you feeling?

“Very good, actually, thank you,” Myungsoo answered cheerfully.

I want you to get up and start walking away from where you’re sitting. Do it now. Get up. If you’re already up, just start walking. Once you start feeling a change, tell me. Now, go.

Myungsoo shrugged good-naturedly and got to his feet, choosing a random direction and walking off carefully in case he tread on loose rock. Step by step he felt the fluffy contentedness drain from his body not into unhappiness but more into sobriety – it felt like his head had been stuffed full of cotton wool and cobwebs and bit by bit someone was doing spring cleaning.

He shook his head and blinked, turning back to look at the glowing touchstone where he’d left it – and alongside the small red light were two more red pinpricks trained on him unwaveringly.

“Professor Snape?” Myungsoo asked uncertainly.

Yes? What are you feeling now?

“Normal. And there’s eyes watching me, Professor,” Myungsoo swallowed.

Remember, Mr Kim. I never said Limbo was safe. There are things there that will try to trick you into staying, into getting lost, and once you’ve found Mr Lee – if you find Mr Lee – into separating the two of you forever. Describe to me what you felt just now.

Myungsoo couldn’t tear his eyes away from the ones watching him from the shadows. “I felt like – like I was happy. I couldn’t really remember why I was here or who you were. I didn’t care about anything.”

Sounds like a lesser Siren. Take note of what you felt so you can avoid it if it happens again. The things down there have no power over you, not really – but they will do their best. They are masters of trickery so keep watch. Lose your head and you are, literally, lost. Do you understand me?

“So they can’t hurt me?” Myungsoo belatedly began to look about him for darker shadows or more eyes reflecting in the darkness.

In a manner of speaking. They have no interest in harming you, only trapping you. Now get a move on for Merlin’s sake! Start thinking, really hard, about your Eurydice-

“My Eury-who?”

Don’t you wretched students read? Don’t you know the legend of Eurydice and Orpheus?

“No,” Myungsoo frowned. “What the hells does this have to do with anything?”

Nothing, since you would make a poor Orpheus and you wouldn’t know what to do about a pillar of salt. Anyway. Start thinking about Mr Lee. Choose a really strong memory, and you will be led to him. Call out to me if you need to but don’t take your own sweet time.

Myungsoo breathed deeply. A strong memory of Sungyeol – right. Myungsoo chose the most obvious one of Sungyeol kissing him, but immediately abandoned it; his mind kept slipping into the bloody aftermath and he didn’t want to be led to anything at the end of that memory.

Images of Sungyeol sped through his mind; emotions and feelings and his unique scent, the feel of his soft hair under Myungsoo’s fingers, the touch of his skin – Myungsoo squeezed his eyes shut and tried to focus on the latest image. It was at the end of their first date when Sungyeol had abruptly taken his hand, fumbling in the darkness on the way back from Hogsmeade to get all their fingers aligned properly. Myungsoo had had a shock when Sungyeol grabbed his hand and had thanked his lucky stars that it was dark so that Sungyeol couldn’t see how awfully he had blushed – it was crazy, but he could have sworn that he had felt chills and fire at the same time run up and down his arm. Myungsoo took a moment in the present to roll his eyes at himself – chills and fire indeed. It really was a good thing it had been so dark, because he had also grinned like an idiot all the way back to the gates of Hogwarts.

There. That memory. Sungyeol’s hand holding his firmly, their arms bumping as they walked back quietly together, and how Myungsoo had nearly burst out in a squee-dance when Sungyeol hesitantly his index finger with his thumb.

Myungsoo opened his eyes, holding his breath, and there before him lay a twinkling line starting from his feet and leading off into the darkness.

“There’s a line,” Myungsoo told Snape. “From my feet. It just appeared.”

Follow it then! came the impatient reply.

Myungsoo set his shoulders, and set off.

*

“Come on, we have to tell someone,” Woohyun got to his feet, helping Sungjong roll up the map between them. Dongwoo stayed kneeling, even when the other two started to walk off.

“Dongwoo? What are you doing?” Dongwoo looked up to see Woohyun frowning at him, Sungjong tactfully turning away.

“He’s dead, Woohyun. Or did you miss that part?” Dongwoo asked hollowly. “You heard Sungjong and the Baron. Only his body’s lying in Snape’s apartment. He’s gone.”

“No, there has to be some mistake. We’ll get into Snape’s quarters somehow, and-,” Woohyun shook his head and made to pull Dongwoo to his feet, but Dongwoo shook off his hand.

“Will you just stop?” Dongwoo cried, getting shakily up. “He’s died. That’s why he’s not in the infirmary anymore. They’re probably trying to find out the cause of death somewhere private so they took him-”

Woohyun strode over and grabbed Dongwoo by the front of his shirt, shaking him to emphasise his words. “No. No. Sungyeol is not dead.”

Dongwoo stared into Woohyun’s hard eyes, noticing how heavy Woohyun’s breathing was coming. “He is not dead, Dongwoo. We can still save him.”

“Will you listen to yourself?” Dongwoo asked thickly, choking up. “You don’t want to face it but it doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

“I thought you were his friend,” Woohyun said, releasing Dongwoo with an ungentle push, voice just as hard as his eyes. “I’m going to get McGonagall. You can go back to bed if you want.”

Woohyun stalked off, leaving Sungjong looking helplessly back at Dongwoo who was standing with the heels of his palms pressed firmly into the sockets of his eyes.

“We can’t leave him on his own, Dongwoo,” Sungjong said resolutely. “You know we can’t.”

Dongwoo took a steadying breath, letting his hands fall to reveal bloodshot eyes. Sungjong took him by the hand and they hurried after Woohyun.

*

Myungsoo followed the path laid by the twinkling thread, climbing carefully over boulders and slippery rock deeper and deeper into the cave. It disappeared as he walked, winking out underneath his feet. Myungsoo supposed that was a very good thing – he didn’t want anything else following him to Sungyeol even though it begged the question of how he was going to find his way back later. The whispering was still there, all around him; he tried very hard to ignore it and concentrate on not twisting an ankle on the loose shale or missing a step to plant himself face-first into a nest of sharp rock. He didn’t want to think about what was in the darkness.

He was starting to sweat – there was a curious absence of temperature here but the journey wasn’t easy to begin with and the low light made it even harder. He slipped then, the slide backwards accompanied by the sickening feeling of the ground losing traction underneath one’s feet and he made the mistake of grabbing onto the first thing that he could lay hands on to steady himself. He hissed instantly, cradling his left hand close to his body – the sharp rock had finally gotten him. Holding his hand up to see the damage better, he made out a small but deep cut seeping blood. The whispering around him swelled in density as he examined the wound; quickly pressing it to his side to hopefully stem the bleeding, Myungsoo hurried on, trying his best to keep to the middle of the cave and as far from the walls as he could. Blood clearly excited the things in the shadows, and Myungsoo wasn’t sticking around for that.

It was almost ten minutes later that the thread supposedly leading him to Sungyeol unexpectedly, and quite suddenly, stopped. Myungsoo stumbled to a halt, looking around him in confusion. He didn’t know how far he’d come through the twists and turns, and he tried desperately to see if he could remember how to get back if he had to – above all, he couldn’t see Sungyeol anywhere.

“Sungyeol?” he tried, calling out. “Sungyeol, it’s me, Myungsoo. I’ve come to take you back.”

There was nothing but the insistent whispering and the sound of his own slight panting in the gloom of the cave, and the ever-present dripping of water. “Sungyeol, are you here?”

Feeling helpless, Myungsoo couldn’t help the doubt that assailed him that Snape’s plan hadn’t worked but that way only madness lay. If Snape’s plan hadn’t worked, then what else had gone wrong? It didn’t bear thinking about.

“Professor,” Myungsoo said urgently. “Professor, the line’s stopped but Sungyeol’s not here.”

Be careful.

“Thanks a lot,” Myungsoo muttered, walking carefully forward a few more steps. “Sungyeol?”

“Myungsoo?”

Myungsoo whipped around, almost losing his balance in shock to see Sungyeol emerge out from behind a large rock uncertainly, wariness written in the way he moved and looked. Myungsoo stared, frozen to the spot. Sungyeol was wearing the robes from that first day – the ones covered in blood – and his face was deathly pale. Myungsoo’s gaze raked over Sungyeol, drinking in the expressiveness of his face that had been so still the past few days and losing himself in the sight of Sungyeol’s open eyes staring straight back at him.

“Is it really you?” Sungyeol asked tentatively, voice small, and in an instant it was like a dam broke inside of Myungsoo.

“Sungyeol!” Myungsoo scrambled over to him and grabbed him, refusing to care about getting blood all over himself as long as it meant he’d finally found Sungyeol. Overwhelming relief coursed through him in wave after wave of electricity making him weak, helping to slowly chip away at the guilt he’d been burdened with for what seemed now like years.

“Sungyeol,” Myungsoo repeated, as if saying his name over and over would confirm that this wasn’t a dream, that the solid body he was holding in his arms was indeed the same one that had been lying unconscious in the infirmary for nearly a week. Sungyeol’s arms came up to hold him too, slowly tightening around Myungsoo such that Myungsoo let out a sob into Sungyeol’s shoulder, trying to get his breathing under control. He fisted Sungyeol’s school robes in his hands, his face buried in Sungyeol’s neck – he didn’t want to let go.

“I’m so sorry, Sungyeol, I never meant to,” Myungsoo had to say it, pressed against the warmth of Sungyeol.

“Never meant to what?” Sungyeol murmured, pressing kisses onto Myungsoo’s temple. “Kill me?”

Myungsoo’s breath hitched in his chest and he pulled back slightly. “Kill you? – Sungyeol, you’re not – you’re not dead. I’m going to bring you back.”

“But you can’t,” Sungyeol told him, his hair. “I can never go back. You did this to me, and now I’m stuck here.”

Myungsoo frowned through b eyes, trying to pull away by pushing on Sungyeol’s chest with his hands so that he could explain. Sungyeol’s fingers running through his hair were getting a bit too rough.

“You’re not stuck here, Snape is helping me. We’re going to bring you back,” Myungsoo insisted. “Sungyeol, let go-”

“But look what you did,” Sungyeol said, and Myungsoo only had time to open his mouth in protest before fresh blood ran over his fingers from the wounds in Sungyeol’s chest. Myungsoo’s eyes widened in mute horror, watching the blood stain his hands anew.

Sungyeol kissed him then, his arms a vice around Myungsoo so that Myungsoo couldn’t escape no matter how hard he struggled. Sungyeol’s lips were cold against his in a kiss that had nothing of love or tenderness in it – Myungsoo wrenched his face away so that Sungyeol’s now-cold breath chilled his cheek. He could feel Sungyeol laughing lowly at him, his arms around Myungsoo finally loosening. Myungsoo threw himself away from Sungyeol – no. This wasn’t Sungyeol.

“Sungyeol is gone,” the thing whispered. “You’re never going to find him.”

Myungsoo’s legs failed him then, and he crumpled to the ground in a heap still unable to look away from the thing that had Sungyeol’s face.

The whispering ebbed back louder than before – Myungsoo hadn’t noticed it had stopped, and slowly as reality shifted back around him he realized that he was looking at the bare cave wall. Whatever it was had gone, and he was alone. He let his head fall into his hands and in the darkness, Myungsoo wept.

*

“Finite incantatem,” McGonagall cast imperiously over Madam Pomfrey, and Madam Pomfrey blinked, looking rather put-out.

“Can I help you with something, Headmistress?”

“Where is the boy?” McGonagall pointed to Sungyeol’s empty bed where Dongwoo, Woohyun and Sungjong were standing. Madam Pomfrey turned to follow her finger and gasped, a hand flying to her chest in shock. “Oh my – Minerva, I swear, I had no idea – he hasn’t-”

McGonagall caught her by the shoulders. “Poppy, listen to me. Who was the last person you remember seeing?”

“Severus, I suppose, but he was only here for a sleeping draught,” Madam Pomfrey answered, casting worried looks over to Sungyeol’s empty bed. Woohyun caught Sungjong’s arm urgently at the mention of Snape. “Oh Merlin, you don’t think-?”

“Yes, I do think,” McGonagall answered grimly. “Get Filius, will you? Meet me outside Snape’s private quarters.”

*

Get up.

Myungsoo lifted his head a little, wiping away his tears on instinct even though there was no one nearby to see him.

I’ve let you have six minutes exactly to get over it. I told you it wouldn’t be easy.

“Six minutes, huh?” Myungsoo replied, throat uncooperative. He coughed quietly to clear it, blinking away the remaining tears and waiting for his breathing go back to normal. “How generous of you.”

By all means, stay there. Cry some more. Take all the time you want.

“You didn’t tell me they could do that.”

I’m guessing from what I heard that they appeared to you in Mr Lee’s form. It was always possible, I suppose.

“Thanks for warning me, you know, for telling me before it made his wounds open again and his blood run out over my hands once more that what I was seeing wasn’t real. That really helped.”

I think you’re forgetting that I can only hear you, not see what you’re seeing. I thought you’d found the real Mr Lee, too. Seeing as you have not, once again, will you stop feeling sorry for yourself and get going?

“Sorry for – sorry for myself?” Myungsoo shouted into the shadows. His anger was impotent, however, and it deflated as soon as it surged through him. Snape was right.

He got up feeling utterly defeated. There was no twinkling light to lead him now, so he trudged on blindly into the cave as before not even knowing what he was doing. The cave seemed endless – probably was endless – what were the reaches of Limbo? He’d read that the souls of dead wizards and witches, and Muggles too, he supposed, came to Limbo to be sorted before passing finally into the Afterlife, but the cave was utterly deserted apart from the whispering in the shadows. Myungsoo preferred the solitude if the inhabitants of Limbo were anything like the one he had just encountered.

“It really is you,” a soft voice said, and Myungsoo reeled. It couldn’t be happening again, not so soon?

A woman stepped out of the shadows to his right and Myungsoo backed away quickly, giving her a wide berth. She stopped, giving him a strange crooked smile. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. The guardians here are quite… eager to accept new inmates.”

“What do you mean, inmates?” Myungsoo asked nervously, watching her for any sudden moves. He wished fervently he had his wand to hold in defence, for as much good as that would have done. She was dressed like him, in robes, only hers looked like an outdated fashion similar to those worn almost twenty years ago. Her smile turned sad and despite himself there was something in her face Myungsoo couldn’t stop looking at.

“Some of us never leave here to go on to a better place.”

Myungsoo contemplated turning and running, insofar as running was possible in a place like this; it was insanity to stay here with what was probably yet another trap the things here had set for him. And yet he didn’t sense any danger from her – though not like he had sensed danger earlier with the thing that looked like Sungyeol. His instincts couldn’t be trusted.

“I’m not trying to hurt you,” she told him, keeping her distance. “I just wanted to have a look at you. To see how you’d grown up.”

“Why?” Myungsoo snapped, heart pounding. He should go, and go fast.

“I heard them whispering about you, and I just had to come,” she smiled again, searching his face. “You’re so handsome, my poor boy.”

Myungsoo stared in disbelief. “Who are you?”

“You’ll figure it out,” she said, and her smile this time was true. “I know where he is, Myungsoo. I can take you to him. But I have to warn you, he might take some convincing.”

“No, I don’t trust you.” Myungsoo backed away further, and stepped right into a shadow. At the woman’s gasp he looked down, fascinated in his fear; a solid shade of opaque darker light encased his foot.

“Step out of it, now!” the woman grabbed his arm and pulled him towards her, the shadow not giving up his foot without a fight. It released him reluctantly, hanging on for as long as it could until he jerked his leg free.

“Get lost!” the woman ordered it, and the shadow slinked back into itself, billowing up and backwards into further darker shadow. It looked angry, insofar as a patch of solid light could look angry.

Myungsoo looked down at her then, her worried face furrowed into a slight frown as she bent to inspect his leg. Her hand was still on his arm, and Myungsoo was confused to find the weight of it reassuring.

What is it, Mr Kim?

“I think it’s okay,” he answered slowly, watching her, and prayed that he was right. The woman thought he was speaking to her and straightened, giving him the same true smile. What about it was so familiar?

“Myungsoo. Not the name I gave you at first, of course, but it’s a good name. Will you come with me?”

Myungsoo nodded, giving her his hand. Her face broke out into a beaming smile as she pressed and held it tight with both hands, and then turned to go back the way he had come. “We have to go back a little. He’s not on the main path. Don’t worry, nothing will come near if you’re with me.”

Myungsoo and his mother walked back into the darkness.

*

McGonagall, Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey stood outside Snape’s quarters with the three boys, looking at the bare rock of the dungeon wall in consternation.

“I could try to talk to the stone for you,” Sungjong offered. “It probably won’t help, like the last time, but it’s worth a try.”

“No,” McGonagall scowled. “I highly doubt Slytherin dungeon stone is going to give up the password to Snape’s apartment. Filius, we’ll have to use the Alohomora Amendment with a little persuasion from me as Headmistress of Hogwarts.”

“Would be better if it wasn’t nearly five in the morning,” Flitwick muttered to himself, coming over to join McGonagall in front of the wall. “And if you were a Slytherin.”

“You’re right,” McGonagall hesitated. “Do you think a student-?”

“More students?” Madam Pomfrey interrupted sarcastically. “That’s going to be a lot of memory charms to be performed later, I’m sure.”

“Nobody’s doing a memory charm on me!” Woohyun hotly protested.

“Will you be quiet, Mr Nam!” McGonagall hissed. “Just go and get me someone – one of your Slytherin friends you can trust. If I perform the magic through him there’s a better chance the stone will cooperate.”

“I’ll go,” Sungjong offered. “But I don’t have the Slytherin dorm password.”

“It’s ‘Machiavelli’,” McGonagall told him, going back to surveying the smooth dungeon wall.

“Why am I not surprised?” Flitwick said under his breath.

*

Myungsoo found the path back with the woman much easier, surprisingly – the ground was more stable and there was hardly any climbing to be done at all. She held his hand tightly as if afraid to lose him, sometimes looking back up at him just to look. They finally came to a small fork in the path, a smaller tunnel shooting off the main one leading downwards, so dark Myungsoo could hardly see further than a metre into it.

“This is where I leave you,” she said, reluctance in her voice. “He’s down that way. Don’t be surprised if he fights you. He’s had a bad time.”

Myungsoo squeezed her hand before letting go of it. He couldn’t really be sure of anything, here, but at least with her he didn’t feel afraid. “Where are you going?”

She let out a short laugh. “Everywhere, I suppose. Eternity is long and Limbo is longer. It’s payment for my sins, I’ve heard.”

“You can’t have committed many,” Myungsoo said, wanting her to smile again so he could marvel at how he felt as if he saw that smile every day, but she only looked at him, face somber, and straightened his robes for a moment or two before answering. “You’d be wrong, there. But meeting you has helped me bear it here. It will help for a long time to come.”

Myungsoo nodded though not really understanding. He turned around once to look at her as she saw him off down the tunnel, and there it was – that smile. He smiled back, feeling peculiarly uplifted as if he carried something small and bright within him.

He followed the tunnel as it sloped downwards, the dark swallowing him up until he couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face. He had to put both arms out to steady himself against the tunnel walls, moving his feet carefully and taking effort to ensure he didn’t rush. If Sungyeol was really down here as the woman had said Myungsoo didn’t want to accidentally walk into him and give either of them a heart attack.

The tunnel began to slope upwards once more, the darkness lifting somewhat after a while. He could now see a lot better and it finally opened into a small circular cul-de-sac at the top of the ascent.

And there was Sungyeol.

Sungyeol was sitting crouched against the wall, his knees drawn up to his chest. He was dressed as the previous impostor was in the bloody robes of that fateful day, and what Myungsoo could see of his face and hands were dirty. His forehead was pressed into his arms as he hugged his knees, the frailness of the picture he made making Myungsoo’s heart ache. This couldn’t be another trick.

“Sungyeol?”

The effect was electric. Sungyeol jumped to his feet, stumbling a little, and he quickly put as much distance between himself and Myungsoo as he could. “Stay away from me,” he warned, putting out both hands as if to fend Myungsoo off.

“Sungyeol, it’s me, it’s really me,” Myungsoo took a step forward, only to see Sungyeol’s face crumble.

“It’s not you,” he moaned, “Why do you keep doing this to me?”

“A lady – a lady led me to you, and I’m here to bring you back,” Myungsoo told him, trying to keep his voice calm as his heart broke at how hysterical Sungyeol looked.

Sungyeol just shook his head, feeling his way against the wall to keep moving away from Myungsoo. “You’re not real.”

“Snape is helping me. I’m cursed, Sungyeol, that’s true. When you kissed me the curse attacked you. But Snape is helping me break it, and helping me bring you back. You have to come with me.”

“Shut up!” Sungyeol screamed, his hands shaking. “Get away from me!”

Myungsoo stopped, at a complete loss. All he wanted to do was run to Sungyeol and hold him until he stopped shaking but that would be the worst thing to do right now – he could only imagine what Sungyeol had had to go through here the past five days. Did Sungyeol even know it had only been five days?

“Sungyeol,” Myungsoo tried desperately. “Remember – remember when Woohyun got jealous of me? And I got mad at you for wanting me to tell my friends about us even though I wasn’t sure they would approve – I did tell them, by the way, and they’re fine with it. Stupid of me, wasn’t it? And – and how we went to Hogsmeade for our first date and I tried to flirt with you by eating that toffee right out of your hand like an idiot. I probably just made a huge fool out of myself, didn’t I. And… the times I felt so awkward around you because I wanted so badly to touch you and then you finally told me it was okay and then I couldn’t stop touching you. And I was so embarrassed when you held my hand for the first time. I was blushing so hard but I was so happy because it was you. And the first time I saw you fly I wondered to myself why you weren’t a seeker because you fly so beautifully – you embrace the wind, you don’t fight it, and even if you’re not graceful you’re powerful. I’m fast, of course, but I could never fly like you-”

“You were the most wonderful flier I’d ever seen,” Sungyeol whispered softly as if he was speaking to himself even as his eyes bored holes in Myungsoo. Myungsoo noted his use of past tense, heart twisting further. “I think that’s why I fell in love with you.”

“You’re in love with me?” Myungsoo swallowed weakly. “Well. Well done me, attacking you with a curse and landing you in Limbo. What a catch I am.” Myungsoo deliberated a moment and then took one cautious step towards Sungyeol, and another until he was standing tentatively in front of Sungyeol.

“It really is me,” Myungsoo pleaded. “I’ve come to take you home.”

Sungyeol hesitated still, eyes darting over Myungsoo in order to be sure.

“Come on, Sungyeol,” Myungsoo joked helplessly, wanting to laugh at the absurdity of the thought that struck him. Things could hardly get worse, after all. “You still owe Snape your ten-foot essay for not doing his Potions project.”

Sungyeol’s eyes widened, and then suddenly Myungsoo was holding an armful of Sungyeol collapsed against him, holding on fervently as if to a lifeline. The weight of Sungyeol in his arms shaking as he sobbed overcome with emotion was the best thing Myungsoo’d felt in recent memory – he couldn’t help letting out a short ecstatic laugh into Sungyeol’s shoulder, wrapping his arms around Sungyeol even tighter. “We’re going home,” he told Sungyeol over and over, feeling Sungyeol finally begin to get a grip on himself and the shakes turn into trembling and then into sure and steady. Sungyeol took a deep breath and pulled away, rubbing his face to get rid of the tears.

I take it you’ve found him? Snape’s voice chimed in, heavily sardonic.

“Oh yes,” Myungsoo grinned, and Sungyeol smiled uncertainly back.

“What?”

“Oh, I’m talking to Snape in my head,” Myungsoo told him, then immediately considered how that sounded. “I mean, Snape’s voice is in my head. He’s guiding me – um. Just trust me.”

“Why is Snape helping?” Sungyeol asked as Myungsoo led him out of the dead-end and back into the tunnel.

Are you holding hands? Hold hands!

“Yes, Professor.” Myungsoo tightened his grasp on Sungyeol’s hand. “We’re holding hands. Oh, sorry – he’s just telling me to hold your hand. It’s important for some reason-”

It’s not just important for some reason, it’s a psychic act that translates into reality here. Holding on to something or someone alive makes a barrier against everything dead.

“-And well as far as I could tell he’s doing this for some kind of strange hobby. He says the Headmistress would never let him do it otherwise.”

Sungyeol looked at him, eyebrows raised in the half-light.

I wouldn’t exactly call the Dark Arts a hobby, Mr Kim.

“Sorry, Professor. How are we going to get back?”

A twinkling line of light appeared at their feet, identical to the one that had led Myungsoo to the fake Sungyeol.

“Professor…” Myungsoo began, highly skeptical.

This one is mine, I tracked you. Follow it quickly back to the touchstone and don’t let go of each other. Hurry now. The time you’ve spent there is more than enough to draw unwanted attention to yourselves.

“Too late for that,” Myungsoo muttered.

The two of them stumbled on, Myungsoo helping Sungyeol over the more difficult rocks and feeling more and more like he was walking on air the more ground they covered. His heart still pounded with adrenaline, however; until they were awake in Snape’s study with Sungyeol next to him he couldn’t relax. Sungyeol tightened his grip on Myungsoo’s hand, his name running like a guiding litany in Myungsoo’s head.

*

“What’s this? I asked for one student only!”

McGonagall pinned sleep-rumpled Howon and Sunggyu with a steely glare, the two of them wilting slightly underneath it. Sungjong tried to explain.

“I was only going to get Howon but Sunggyu woke up and insisted on coming too.”

“I find it hard to believe a student of your calibre wasn’t able to dissuade him,” McGonagall snapped, nevertheless taking both Sunggyu and Howon by the hand and leading them to the wall that hid the entrance to Snape’s private apartment; two Slytherins, after all, were probably better than one. She made them both stand in a semi-circle with her and Flitwick in the middle, hands linked and the two Snakes’ free hands placed firmly on the stone wall. The spell began – the Alohomora Amendment was devised to specifically open magically-shut doors and would have worked well enough on any other door not made of near-sentient Hogwarts stone. As it is, the stone had had centuries in order to build its loyalties and it needn’t be said that Slytherin rock didn’t take too kindly to other houses. Snape was its only master for now; Headmistress of Hogwarts be damned.

“Wait – why are we trying to break into Professor Snape’s apartment?” Sunggyu asked, drawing back his hand from the wall slightly. Howon also couldn’t hide his guilty look, eyes darting between the wall that hid their housemaster and the Headmistress.

“You will do as you’re told or I will find a Slytherin who isn’t ignorant of the benefits that come from being able to lend assistance to the Headmistress of your school,” McGonagall told them in no uncertain terms. Let it never be said she didn’t understand the psychology of the different houses, she thought triumphantly as she saw the two boys exchange a look and place their hands back firmly on the wall.

*

Inside the apartment and as yet oblivious to what was going on outside, Snape massaged his temples that were beginning to ache from the intense concentration needed to keep the tracking spell going between Myungsoo and the touchstone. Snape was exhausted by that point – dark magic wasn’t like your run-of-the-mill bland charms and spells. It took great force of will and focus and not a little emotional stability; he struggled to keep his mind calm and free, pouring his energy into keeping the path between the boy and his key home open and strong. The two proxies were nothing more than a wooden block to represent the boy and an actual key to one of his trunks, but the form didn’t matter. Something more personal would have worked better, of course, but Snape was a better wizard than that.

There was something not quite right, like the infinitesimal shifting of air molecules.

Snape looked up, trying to compartmentalize his focus on Myungsoo so that he could seek out the cause of the change; it was magic, no doubt about that, but magic coming from where?

His apartment shuddered abruptly, Snape throwing out his hands to grab on to the two unconscious boys to prevent them from slipping off the table at the wrenching of the floor – the very stone underneath his feet was under pressure and trying to resist. Snape lashed out a few words of revelation and the outline of his door was highlighted in clear relief. Narrowing his eyes, Snape set to work.

*

“What-”

They stopped in dismay as the lightline at their feet disappeared suddenly. Myungsoo had the most horrible feeling of déjà vu, instantly looking around for some new devilry intent on terrorizing them – the whispering again crescendoed, breaking in waves around them as the shadows somehow grew darker.

“Professor? Professor!”

The voice in his head was silent, and Sungyeol stepped closer to Myungsoo, his fingers digging into Myungsoo’s arm in an emotion he didn’t have to name for Myungsoo to understand. It was the first time that Myungsoo had truly been alone in here, his connection to the land of the living cut off so fully – he could feel it in the strange emptiness he felt within him, like a sound you only notice once it has stopped.

Myungsoo swallowed and pulled Sungyeol along, deciding that blind movement was better than standing around defenceless.

“We could be going the wrong way!” Sungyeol protested as Myungsoo tugged him down another passageway. “What happened to the line?”

“I don’t know,” Myungsoo answered evenly, trying to appear calmer than he felt. “Whatever it is we have to keep moving.”

An icy chill was gathering at their backs, and as long as they could ignore it, they tried their best; but it was the special kind of cold every magical child was taught to fear that got into your bones and your thoughts until you couldn’t think or hope any longer – Sungyeol stumbled as Myungsoo let out a whimper. He tried to get angry – it wasn’t real, there couldn’t be Dementors down here, it was a trick as usual – but the cold sliced through him and froze the heat of anything he tried to feel.

Myungsoo felt and heard Sungyeol look back over his shoulder and cry out at whatever he saw was chasing them. Sungyeol put another hand on Myungsoo’s back to help push him along faster, but Myungsoo didn’t feel like running anymore. There wasn’t any point. They didn’t have their wands, they couldn’t perform the Patronus charm without them –

It was Myungsoo who stumbled this time, going down hard and bringing Sungyeol along with him in a tangle of hard knocks against jagged rock. Sungyeol mindlessly tried to pull him up, to scramble to his feet before the Dementors caught them, but Myungsoo’s legs had ceased to comply. There just wasn’t any point.

There was a break in the tunnel before them, leading into two different paths – Sungyeol somehow heaved Myungsoo to his feet with a superhuman effort, his breath coming harshly in Myungsoo’s ear, and pulled him towards one at random. A Dementor swooped in close, passing them and blocking off their escape so that they were now surrounded.

Myungsoo and Sungyeol stared in numbed panic at the Dementors advancing on them, all ability to reason that nothing they were seeing was real lost along with any warmth in the tunnel. Sungyeol felt Myungsoo’s body begin to tremble with the cold as they tried to back away from the leering and swooping Dementors, but any movement to the right was cut off the instant Sungyeol tried to pull Myungsoo along with him that way. They were being herded slowly further and further towards the left passageway, the dreadful thought that the Dementors were moving them in a purposeful direction registering faintly at the back of Myungsoo’s mind.

A Dementor broke away from the pack and hovered in closer and closer until they could see the rotting flesh clinging to its bones and the gaping maw that opened above them –

Sungyeol broke and ran in a blind panic, dragging Myungsoo along with him.

*

His door groaned till Snape felt like the sound of the tortured stone was scratching along his very soul. It was valiantly resisting the magic trying to open it, but Snape couldn’t trust it to hold up for very long alone under the attack. It had to be the Headmistress – nobody else could put up such an assault on his own spells and the dungeon’s own defences. That meant that the boy had been discovered missing from the infirmary already, and everyone was predictably expecting the worst of him – as usual. Lessen their suspicion of him by being nicer to everyone? Snape thought not. He wondered, however, how they had discovered that the boy – or boys – were with him; was it just usual blame-it-all-on-Snape, or did they know?

He fortified the stone with a few more enchantments, adding his own version of Protego Horribilis into the magic. It wouldn’t hold forever, not if the Headmistress was determined – and she did seem very determined – but it was good enough for now. Snape hurried back to the table, picking up the wooden block and key from the floor where they’d fallen. His best and only defence now against accusation was to bring these two back safely, so all the more reason for him to concentrate.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, pushing everything else out of his mind.

*

Sungyeol yanked Myungsoo forward by his robes, not letting up for a single moment even as Myungsoo shouted at him to stop. His legs were on automatic now, no matter how tired he was becoming. He wasn’t going to stay and let Dementors take his soul.

“Sungyeol! Stop!”

Myungsoo dug his heels in and wrested his robes backwards, making Sungyeol lose his balance and his grip on Myungsoo’s hand. There was a split second as they both steadied themselves without touching, and then threw themselves together as the realization hit; Myungsoo seized on to Sungyeol’s hands frantically, expecting any moment something else to happen as a result of disobeying Snape’s direct orders. Sungyeol tried to catch his breath and come back to himself as they stood together in the dark, Myungsoo letting his head fall onto Sungyeol’s shoulder as his heart slammed in his chest. The Dementors weren’t real. The Dementors weren’t real.

The tunnel wasn’t cold any longer, but that was poor comfort – the Dementor-things had deliberately pushed them down this passageway, and neither of them wanted to contemplate why.

“We should try to make our way back,” Myungsoo pressed his nose into Sungyeol’s clammy skin to try to sift out Sungyeol’s own comforting scent underneath the sweat and dirt to calm his own skittering pulse. Sungyeol looked around carefully, his chin brushing Myungsoo’s forehead.

“They could be waiting for us,” Sungyeol disagreed. “Myungsoo, without Snape’s path we’re lost. There’s no way we’re going to be able to get back on our own.”

Myungsoo entwined their fingers together, stealing contentment out of the darkness for a moment to just not think and enjoy the touch of Sungyeol’s skin on his. What was it Snape had told him? This wasn’t a spell that could be done twice. Snape was still silent – did that mean they were lost forever down here? His thoughts turned hopelessly to the woman who had helped him so kindly, and wished hard with all his heart she was there to guide him once more.

Where on earth have you two gone?

Sungyeol was the first to notice the path winking into life once more, leading backwards the way they came, and he jiggled Myungsoo excitedly.

“Professor?” Myungsoo’s head shot up, realizing at once that the shadows also seemed less dark now. “Where did you go?”

Let’s just say unwelcome visitors are forcing themselves upon me. I would appreciate it very much if you stopped dawdling and getting yourselves lost and came home now, please.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Myungsoo breathed, unbelievably relieved. “Sungyeol, come on!”

They’d gone almost double the distance down the wrong passages and taken wrong turns, and making up for lost time was their only thought. Myungsoo was sure that their hands and knees were worn ragged by now, scraping their way along the tunnels for stability and stumbling ever so often upon the slippery rocks and loose stone, but that only served as further motivation. They had to get back so that Madam Pomfrey in the infirmary could bind up their cuts and bruises till they were brand new again. They needed to get back so that they could fly once more and compete for the House Cup. They needed to get back so that he could see Luna and Junghwan again, and so that Woohyun could fly into hysterics at the thought of what he’d done to get Sungyeol back – he knew Gryffindors could never trust a Slytherin, much less Snape who was chief Slytherin. They needed to get back so that he could see his parents again and Sungyeol’s mother and father and brother could breathe easy once more. They needed to get back so that he could thank Snape – how he was going to do that, he’d work out later. Maybe he’d study extra hard for his Potions final. They had to get back so that they could go to classes; yes, even Potions. At this point he’d be happy if his only class was Potions and he had to see Professor Snape eight hours a day every day of the week.

Things were starting to look familiar, inasmuch as dark wet stone could look familiar – if he wasn’t wrong, just up ahead was –

*

The door burst open with a scream of stone, fragments flying inwards at the final destructive blast and shaking the very floor. Professor McGonagall stood in the gaping hole like an avenging angel, the words of incarceration leaving her lips before she even stepped into the room.

Dust settled like a ghostly white blanket on the two boys lying on the table, surrounded by Snape’s books of dark magic he had used to create his magic to put Myungsoo in Limbo and the bowl of Myungsoo’s blood sitting by Myungsoo’s unconscious head. Snape had been knocked off his feet by McGonagall’s Petrificus Totalus and Incarcerous and was lying stiff behind the table where he’d fallen.

The others stumbled into the room, identical gasps at the sight that lay before them. Snape’s wand that he had dipped in Myungsoo’s blood lay forgotten on the table, the blood staining the centuries-old wood, and the pallor of Sungyeol’s skin next to Myungsoo’s lifeless body only added to the ghastly picture.

“You er, what have you done-” Woohyun rushed Snape only to be seized and yanked backwards by Dongwoo and Sunggyu. Howon surveyed the room from under furrowed brows, turning back to exchange an unreadable look with Sunggyu. Madam Pomfrey rushed over to Sungyeol and Myungsoo to take their pulses –

“They’re alive,” she announced, looking back at McGonagall and Flitwick anxiously as the other two teachers converged on the two unconscious boys. Sungjong, forgotten amidst the chaos and Woohyun’s furious struggling, peered into one of Snape’s books where it was lying open and then the other, slow frown forming on his face.

“We have to get them out of here now. St Mungo’s might know what to do with them,” Madam Pomfrey suggested insistently. “You can interrogate him in the meanwhile, find out what he’s done with them.”

Everything happened in a few moments that seemed to stretch into eternity. Woohyun pretended to stop fighting, and then while Dongwoo was beginning to let his guard down he s a hand into Dongwoo’s robes and grabbed his wand. Sungjong looked up from Snape’s book, urgent words already forming on his lips when he saw Woohyun’s arm coming up. It took only one panicked cry from him for Howon to reach over and knock Woohyun’s aim at Snape off-course, the spell ricocheting off a shelf high near the ceiling. Sunggyu wrestled Woohyun down to the ground and Sungjong was then free to tell Howon what was in Snape’s book – they both darted over to Snape the same instant Myungsoo and Sungyeol opened their eyes and sat up in a panic. Madam Pomfrey cried out in shock as Sungyeol and Myungsoo scrabbled to find each other’s hand, still seeing dark shadows and feeling cold stone under their hands as they’d run unthinkingly for the touchkey, diving for it as the whispering closed in on them.

There was absolute silence as everyone stared at the two of them, Myungsoo gasping in gratitude when he began to realize where he was. He took Sungyeol’s face in his hands and his hair, his clothes, his chest – reassuring himself that Sungyeol was indeed truly here with him and finally pulling Sungyeol to him and hugging him tight, the two of them half-laughing and half-crying in relief as the others looked on in total shock.

Woohyun had gone limp in Sunggyu’s restraining arms, disbelief etched on his face as he stared at his best friend sitting up and awake for the first time in almost a week. Sunggyu let him get slowly to his feet, and passed him to Dongwoo, the fight clearly gone out of him and Snape now the last thing on Woohyun’s mind. Sunggyu turned his attention to his housemaster, Sungjong and Howon taking the liberty of quietly ending McGonagall’s enchantments on him where Snape lay and helping him to sit up.

“You were helping them, weren’t you, Professor?” Sungjong asked in a low voice as Sunggyu joined them behind the large wooden table. “Your books – those spells are of searching and binding. I don’t recognize them all, of course, but your notes in the margin on Limbo and resuscitation-”

Snape pushed Howon’s hands off him, but not unkindly. “I’m sure your dear Professor Flitwick will have something very cutting to say about one of his innocent students looking into books of dark magic,” Snape drawled, fixing Sungjong with a hard look. “The least said the better.”

“I never took you for a softie,” Sungjong said then, small grin forming at the look of absolute horror on Snape’s face at what was probably the first time anyone in their right mind had ever called him a softie.

“We tried to stop them, sir,” Sunggyu told him nervously. “We tried our best, but the Headmistress is very strong.”

“I expect you didn’t let her know you were working against her?”

“Of course not,” Howon said, as if offended. “She was using us as a conduit, so we tried to block the magic from going through us to the stone of your quarters. I’m sorry we didn’t succeed, sir.”

Snape let his gaze linger on Sunggyu and Howon for a few moments and then nodded, the two Slytherins beaming as if they had just received the highest of praise. Sungjong smiled secretly to see them, wondering if the Headmistress would ever figure out why it had taken them so long to break into Snape’s apartment. Slytherins were a strange lot, to be sure, but you could never say they weren’t loyal.

“Isn’t someone going to tell me what’s been going on here?” McGonagall demanded, utterly incredulous.

“Professor Snape helped us, Headmistress,” Myungsoo said quickly, looking around for him. “He found a way for me to go and get Sungyeol back. Professor?”

Snape grunted from the floor, Myungsoo’s brows knitting at why he was there as he peered over the edge of the massive table. Snape merely waved a not-a-little-annoyed hand at him.

“I don’t understand, the curse-”

“They need rest now, Minerva,” Madam Pomfrey interrupted firmly. “All explanations can be had in the morning. They’re both alive and fine. That’s enough for now.”

Myungsoo finally let Sungyeol go as he noticed Woohyun hovering nearby, wondering if he was in for a shouting match. Madam Pomfrey was fussing over the two of them, checking them for injuries apart from their obvious cuts and scrapes, and the other two teachers had gone over to Snape, serious faces still at the sight of the obvious paraphernalia of the darkest of magics sitting in broad daylight all around them. Myungsoo met Woohyun’s eyes hesitantly.

“Is that true? You got him back from – wherever he was?”

Myungsoo nodded, opening his mouth to say that he hadn’t done it alone, he had Snape’s help all along, but unexpectedly was grabbed in the tightest of hugs.

Sungyeol looked a little put-out that he wasn’t the first one Woohyun hugged, but the look of utmost surprise on Myungsoo’s face was enough to make him laugh and Myungsoo never wanted to stop hearing Sungyeol laugh. Sungyeol was soon enough covered in a puppy-pile of Dongwoo and Woohyun, both fighting to get a piece of him.

“Sleep. Now.” Madam Pomfrey ordered, Flitwick helping her to drive the students firmly out of the room.

Myungsoo looked back once before Flitwick began to repair Snape’s door behind them, letting himself be herded out. He managed to catch Snape’s eye as Snape lowered himself into a chair to start his explanations to a sombre-faced McGonagall. Myungsoo halted, Sungyeol looking round to see why Myungsoo had stopped.

“Thank you, Professor.”

Snape and McGonagall both looked up at Myungsoo’s raised voice, his gaze trained on Snape’s face that only now began to show signs of great weariness. “Thank you for helping us.”

“Be off with you,” Snape grumbled, turning his head away.

Myungsoo turned back, taking Sungyeol’s hand, and walked all the way to the infirmary together before collapsing into an empty bed, asleep before his head touched the pillow.

* 

Life went back to normal – life has a funny way of doing that.

Woohyun stood up in the middle of Potions and apologized in front of everyone for calling Snape a er and not trusting Myungsoo (which was news to Myungsoo, though not very surprising), the most Woohyun thing he could have done. Sungyeol tried to explain to Myungsoo about Woohyun’s sense of honour and making amends for his pride and impulsiveness, but Myungsoo just put it down secretly to general Gryffindor strangeness. Professor Snape was actually dumbfounded for a moment after Woohyun’s declaration, and resorted to the one thing he knew how to do – Woohyun now had another twenty feet of parchment on ‘an essay of his choice’ though Myungsoo would have given good money to have known which choice curse words had run through Snape’s mind when Woohyun then thanked him for the punishment.

He’d gone back to Snape’s apartment a day later to try to thank Snape properly and was shooed out a minute later, Snape saying he had no time for sniveling students; Myungsoo let himself be chased out, big smile playing on his lips he didn’t try to hide. The door had opened again a second later, Snape throwing him a small object that he barely caught. It was a small key that Snape didn’t bother explaining. Myungsoo asked Junghwan to make him a little loop out of yarn and hung the key from the canopy of his four-poster, feeling comforted every time he looked at it. He didn’t understand what it was, or why Snape had given it to him, but so many inexplicable things had happened to him that he felt one more couldn’t hurt. He was beginning to think of it as his lucky charm.

The next few days passed in a flurry of parents’ visits, long talks and revelations. Myungsoo saw his parents off at Hogsmeade, mind laden with all he had learned about who he really was and who the lady who’d helped him in Limbo had to be – he had no definite answers, but there couldn’t be any other explanation. How do you begin to piece together a past that you’d only found out about now? Why his mother was stuck in Limbo – he had an inkling, but he didn’t want to think about that. How different his life could have been, he thought. It was surreal.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Sungyeol said, nudging Myungsoo’s shoulder with his.

The weather was turning ever colder now that winter was well and truly upon them, and they were walking bundled up in their coats along one of the many towers Hogwarts had to offer. Myungsoo had never really gotten over the fact that he went to school in a castle – so much better than his normal Muggle primary school where the swings didn’t fly and the stairs always stayed in the same place. So whenever he could he dragged Sungyeol up and down the towers and around the dungeons to be stared at by Slytherins, around the Black Lake to catch a glimpse of the giant squid and marvel at his very own magical castle. The fact that he got to do it with Sungyeol who was content to let him look and sneakily hold his hand as he did it was the very best bonus he could think of.

“Nothing. Everything,” he turned to Sungyeol with a smile. “I still can’t believe how close we came to losing you.”

“You have no idea how much it pains me that Snape was the one I have to owe part of my life to,” Sungyeol told him wryly. “I can’t even not pay attention in classes anymore. He just has to give me this look and I know exactly what he’s thinking.”

“I’d go for a million Potions classes in order for Snape to save you all over again. And Divination.” Myungsoo told him, bumping Sungyeol’s shoulder back. “Yeol, can I ask you something?”

Sungyeol waited, expression open as always as Myungsoo fidgeted. Finally he took pity on Myungsoo and answered the question he knew Myungsoo was dying to ask him for days but hadn’t worked up the courage to verbalise yet.

“No, Myungsoo, I don’t blame you for what happened. ‘Really, Yeol?’ Yes, really. ‘Not at all?’ No, not at all.”

Myungsoo batted at him sheepishly, knowing it was silly but needing to hear the words. “My voice isn’t that high-pitched,” he complained, thankful that with every day that passed the memories of what had happened in Limbo and the sight of Sungyeol bleeding out his life onto the floor of that classroom became less and less emblazoned in his mind.

“’And you know what, Yeol?’ What, Myungsoo? ‘I would really like you to kiss me now.’ Okay, Myungsoo!” Sungyeol continued, ending by puckering up his lips and lowering his head conveniently so that Myungsoo could reach him easily.

Myungsoo hesitated – he couldn’t help it. It would be the first time they’d kissed since they’d made the record books for the most terrible first kiss in history, and Myungsoo really didn’t want to feature once more for the most terrible second kiss in history as well. He knew the curse had been broken, knew that even if he didn’t trust himself he trusted Snape – what a strange feeling that was – and so if Snape said that everything was alright, then everything was alright. And yet –

Sungyeol stepped forward and kissed him, looping his arms loosely around Myungsoo to allow for the puffiness of their winter coats. Myungsoo’s nose and lips were cold, as were Sungyeol’s, but as they kissed their warm breath clouding out between them slowly warmed their skin. Sungyeol felt Myungsoo slowly relax against and into him, hands wriggling their way into Sungyeol’s open coat and away from the cold air. Sungyeol made an involuntary noise at the feel of Myungsoo’s icy fingers holding his sides, and Myungsoo laughed softly against his mouth.

“See, I’m fine,” Sungyeol whispered, drawing back to rest his forehead against Myungsoo’s. “We could stand here kissing until we both turned into oak trees and I’d still be fine.”

“You have a strange standard of fine if you think being an oak tree is fine,” Myungsoo bantered, not caring about the nonsense he was saying as long as Sungyeol kept kissing him. They sipped from each other as they laughed and bickered back and forth, little kisses and nips both chaste and suggestive as they made up for a little bit more of lost time.

There was still a lot more to think about yet, a lot more to talk through as they both healed in their own ways, but kissing – kissing was definitely helping.

*