“But why isn’t it feasible-“

“It’s just too broad. You’d have to spend a lot of time outlining the effects and considering the effects overlap the realms of physical, mental, and emotional and we only have ten minutes for our presentation there’s no way we’re going to be able to cover everything satisfactorily.”

“We don’t have to cover everything!“

“Woohyun, he’s right,” Sungjong cut in curtly.

Woohyun scratched again at his itching right arm, frowning to find Sunggyu’s narrow-eyed stare on him. They were in the middle of yet another fruitless project discussion in one of the empty fourth-floor classrooms, and Sunggyu had shot down all his suggestions with honestly reasonable objections, not that Woohyun would ever admit it. They’d already been here more than an hour and the lack of progress had everyone on edge; Sunggyu’s displeased face wasn’t helping the fact that Woohyun could be fooling around with Sungyeol in Gryffindor Tower pulling pranks on someone or just doing anything else in the world that didn’t involve schoolwork right now.

“Do you have to glare at me like that? I mean, why are your eyes so small? You’re quite good-looking, I can see that, but your entire face would be helped along tremendously if only your eyes were maybe a centimeter or so bigger.”

The others turned to Woohyun in almost comic sync, all discussion having ground to a halt the moment Woohyun had spoken. Woohyun clapped a hand to his mouth, gobsmacked. He’d only meant to think it, not say it out loud – maybe only to Sungyeol, later, privately, when he could to his heart’s content about dumb Sunggyu and his reasonable objections making him look stupid in front of Sungjong, whose omniscience Woohyun worshipped – but he’d heard the words as they’d left his mouth as if from outside his own body and he was powerless to stop himself.

“There’s nothing I can do about the size of my eyes,” Sunggyu ground out, tone icy as Howon pursed his lips together in a blatant attempt not to burst out laughing. “And if I’m glaring, it’s because your stupidity is shining a little bit too brightly in here.” Sungjong turned away, smirk on his face, while Dongwoo looked lost at this sudden turn of events.

“Guys, please-“

“Stupidity?” Woohyun repeated in indignation, shock at what he’d just unintentionally blurted out be damned. “At least I’m trying to come up with something here. All you’re doing is just sitting there shooting down our suggestions with your small eyes!”

“There needs to be quality control, or else we’ll end up having to start again halfway when we all realize how undoable the project is. And stop talking about my eyes!” Howon epically lost the battle of the giggles with a loud guffaw, and Woohyun him, annoyance filling him to the roots of his hair and determined to spread it around.

“And you! All you do is stare at Sungjong while you’re pretending to talk to Dongwoo!”

Sungjong turned back with eyebrows raised in interest while Dongwoo and Sunggyu’s jaws both dropped. Howon’s laughter had turned abruptly into choking.

“What? When did I-”

Woohyun clapped both hands over his mouth this time. He hadn’t even meant to say that – he was going to say something about how Howon’s teeth looked like fangs or whatever even if he knew that wasn’t even near insulting, but he was frustrated and his damn arm wouldn’t stop itching and it all made him want to act like a five-year old and things kept coming out of his mouth that he had been thinking but didn’t even want to say –

Why was his right arm itching? The knut dropped, depositing itself neatly in Woohyun’s mind, and he stood up without preamble.

“I have to go. I’m sorry – I’m sorry.”

Woohyun grabbed his things and bolted, leaving the four other boys behind; two confused, one smug, and one extremely embarrassed.

*

Sungyeol rolled over onto his side in bed, reliving the soaring emotions of the day before in the sleepy warm of post-waking; Myungsoo’s sheer joy at being in the air bonding with his own, adrenaline heightened by the adrenaline of another – something only someone who truly loved flying would understand or feel. Sungyeol still could not explain it, and was tempted to dismiss it as just another one of the inexplicable things that happened daily at Hogwarts. Maybe a spell had been cast on the pitch earlier that had something to do with the sharing of emotion and he had been experiencing the dregs of it – whatever it was, it had been thrilling to feel the exhilaration of another. It was like distilled emotion, concentrated so that it filled his body with the simple and true delight of it, just like the boy’s – Myungsoo’s – shock at being knocked off his broom had kickstarted Sungyeol into his nosedive because it had felt like a bodyslam. The intensity of it was addictive.

He rubbed his right arm against the comforter, too lazy to scratch the itching skin with his fingers, as he became aware of a feeling of alarm that was not his own building in intensity – but before he could question that train of thought Woohyun burst in on him.

“Sungyeol! Dr Ubbly’s Oblivious Unction!”

Sungyeol wasn’t paying attention, because he was amazed at the fact that he could still feel someone else’s emotions. He’d come home yesterday with Woohyun, had a quick supper and then went to bed; no-one else had really been about in their Tower, and he’d attributed the general buoyancy at dinner he felt to his usual after-flying endorphins, not the contentedness of the people around him enjoying a good meal. This was amazing!

“I can feel what you’re feeling, Woohyun,” he said excitedly, sitting up in bed.

“What?” Woohyun asked, brought up short.

“I’m serious. You’re scared for some reason, right? Am I right?”

Woohyun ignored him and made his way over to grab Sungyeol’s right arm. “Does your arm itch?”

“Yeah, a little, woke up that way. Why?”

“I just had the weirdest project meeting of my life,” Woohyun climbed onto Sungyeol’s bed, forcing Sungyeol to make space. “My arm just wouldn’t stop itching, and I started saying all these crazy things that I guess were in my head but I never ever intended to say out loud. Like, I told you I kind of suspected Howon had an eye for Sungjong, which is understandable because Sungjong’s gorgeous, but I would never in my right mind have blurted it out in front of the entire project group. And I did. Oh gods, Howon could have decked me. And it was like I could almost feel myself going to do it but there was no way I could have stopped it. And I said even more stuff about Sunggyu’s small eyes, and totally confronted him in front of everyone telling him his eyes were keeping him back from being really handsome. What the absolute hell! I didn’t even know I thought he was handsome until I said it.”

“My power is totally cooler,” Sungyeol said, after Woohyun was done, taking everything in stride. “I can feel what other people near me are feeling.”

“What?” Woohyun asked, raising his head from where he’d dropped it into his hands in frustration. “Seriously?”

“That has to be the only explanation, since you’re suddenly Honesty Guy and both our right arms are itching where we put on the potion to test it. Yesterday, when I was flying? I could feel Myungsoo’s emotions. How happy he was to be flying, then his panic when he was falling, and his embarrassment after that when we were teasing him. I didn’t really think much of it at the time ‘cos his feelings more or less mirrored my own, but then I could feel your alarm as you came in here. I’m psychic!” Sungyeol finished happily, the realization dawning on him. “Oh, Merlin! I’m psychic! I could make a fortune out of this!”

“You don’t know things, stupid, you can just feel what people are feeling. How is that going to make you any money?” Woohyun retorted, distracted for a moment. “We don’t even know if this is going to last. Wait, I need to be sure. Ask me something and I’ll try to lie about it.”

Sungyeol contemplated Woohyun as he sat at the foot of Sungyeol’s bed, small grin blooming on his face. “A part of you finds Snape really, really hot.” Sungyeol was expecting the kick Woohyun immediately aimed at his crotch, and defended his family jewels with a pillow just in time. Hey, nobody could say those Chaser reflexes never came in handy in real life.

“I said that when I was young and impressionable!” Woohyun near-yelled, cheeks flushing pink. “You aren't supposed to be using this against me and I can’t help it if I like to be dominated! – Oh, gods,” he dropped his head into his hands again in mortification, Sungyeol almost falling off the bed in glee.

Sungyeol crowed non-verbally in delight. “Oh, this is too much. What would you like Snape to do to you?”

Woohyun’s head snapped up. “You bastard!”

“No, waitwaitwait, don’t tell me, I don’t need those mental images in my life-”

“I kissed Matilda Highfoot,” Woohyun said suddenly, and then quickly covered his mouth. I seem to be doing a lot of that lately, he thought wryly. Sungyeol gasped, looking scandalized.

“Matilda? When? Why are you only saying this now?”

“Who knows why this stupid potion is making me tell people all my private-st thoughts? It was two months ago during summer vacation. We live near each other, you know that. We were invited to some party and we’d both been drinking – you know I’ve always thought she was pretty! I walked her home and kissed her.”

Sungyeol got to his knees, trying to tower over Woohyun intimidatingly. “And why was I never told this?”

“I was ashamed, okay? It never should have happened. Plus the fact that if you ever opened your big fat mouth about it and Darius found out it would mean the end of me.”

“You have put me in a very difficult position, Nam,” Sungyeol said, pretending to muse. “My best friend on one hand, and my Quidditch captain’s future happiness with his girlfriend on the other. Who to betray? Who to protect?”

Woohyun hit him. “Shut up, Lee. It never went further than that and she avoided me for a full month after. This is exactly why I never told you!”

“I’m actually hurt,” Sungyeol said, after a moment’s contemplation. “You know I wouldn’t have told anyone else.”

“Yeah, well,” Woohyun looked down at Sungyeol’s comforter. “I guess I was just too ashamed I’d done something like that. I just wanted to forget it.”

“The waves of shame and regret coming off you now are making my stomach heavy. Stop it, I still love you,” Sungyeol said, rubbing his tummy.

“You’re not mad?” Woohyun asked, brightening a little. He put out his fist, and Sungyeol bumped it twice in their not-so-secret handshake.

“Okay, so down to business. How to get rid of this? And, come to think of it, why are we experiencing different things?”

“To know that we’d need to know exactly what went wrong with the potion, which is the exact reason why we hate potions,” Sungyeol deadpanned. “It’s the weekend. Let’s just hope it wears off, and I’ll tell your project group I hexed you or something, to cover up you being weird. Any future weirdness will be on your own head and out of my control, however.”

Woohyun shrugged. It sounded good to him.

“Speaking of potions, start researching what new thing we can remake,” Sungyeol said, heaving himself out of bed. “We still need to hand in something. Or maybe you want Snape to get mad? All intense and y dark eyes and intimidating stare?”

“Maybe you want to die?” Woohyun asked, comfortably taking Sungyeol’s place in bed and not intending to begin researching anything at all. “Where are you going?”

“Quidditch!” Sungyeol threw over his shoulder, heading to the showers.

*

Sungyeol adored the first training of the season – getting together with the whole team again and getting to know the new players, watching everyone feel their way into their positions, feeling the sky-high morale and excitement; and this year was even better, because they’ll be trying out for a new seeker.

As a chaser he’d sometimes felt a bit jealous of the seeker – hardly anyone remembered all the chasers or the beaters’ names, but everyone knew who the seeker was. The rest of them did the hard work, but the seeker just needed to find the snitch and all the glory and hero-worship was theirs.

Sungyeol knew he wasn’t being fair, since the seeker usually had to contend with horrible fouling as a result of their importance to the game. Still wouldn’t hurt to have a fanclub in my name like our previous seeker, though, he grinned to himself. Hooking his broom from its bolts he got to his feet, stamping them a few times to adjust the fit of his boots. The first uniformed training of each year always made him want to puff up like a balloon with pride.

He made his way out of the locker room, and came face to face with Kim Myungsoo.

“Hi,” Myungsoo said easily, smiling. “Surprised?” Sungyeol looked round, eyebrows raised. Surely not?

Darius, the Gryffindor captain clapped his hands for attention.

“As you can see, we’re not alone today. I understand some of you may not like this, but seeing as we’re without a seeker and public trials will not be held for at least a week yet, Hufflepuff have graciously allowed us to borrow theirs – obviously, they’re the only house who would. He will be training with us for two or three days before we choose a seeker. What I want to do today is try out the chasers on the team for the position before we hold public trials – in case we can’t find anybody, at least one of us who knows the team and the game well will be a good-enough stand-in. The rest of us will start on drills. Kyung, take over.”

Darius brought the three chasers and Myungsoo to the far side of the pitch, and gave very simple instructions – keep up with Myungsoo. Myungsoo coughed self-consciously, and Sungyeol could feel slight pulses of embarrassment coming from him, as well as apprehension mixed with confidence from his other two teammates. Even though Hufflepuff wasn’t as instinctively competitive as Slytherin, or coldly calculating as Ravenclaw, Myungsoo still had his house pride riding on his shoulders, as did the Gryffindors – all four of them were thinking the exact same thing; don’t be left behind.

Myungsoo kicked off into the air and sped away, Sungyeol and the others at his heels. They were all using their own brooms, and at the back of his mind Sungyeol noticed the extra-neat twigs of Myungsoo’s broom; he had clearly taken great care to groom it before today’s training. The almost-familiar white-hot exhilaration emanating from Myungsoo engulfed Sungyeol like a second skin, frission running up and down his veins as the adrenaline from his teammates urged him on even faster.

Myungsoo dipped and soared and rolled, turning quickly into dives that became wide spins; Sungyeol had to admire his skill. Myungsoo’s athleticism was deceptive – you wouldn’t think it if you saw him on the ground, but he moved like lightning in the air. Gryffindor will have a hard time matching this, Sungyeol thought. Try as he might, he was always just a few metres and a second behind Myungsoo.

Darius yelled them down a few minutes later, not giving away what he was thinking from their display. They dropped to the grass, all panting with the exertion; Sungyeol was glowing in the rush – his own, and that of Myungsoo who happened to be sitting the closest to him. His other chasers got up after they’d caught their breath to rejoin their team, but Sungyeol lingered.

“You’re amazing,” he said simply. “That’s a real gift.”

Myungsoo grinned. “If I manage to stay on my broom, it will be.” He used the hand Sungyeol was holding out to him to pull himself up, and they walked back to the others together.

They spent the rest of the afternoon doing drills, looping around one another and passing the quaffle to get back in the swing of things, Myungsoo darting in between and over and under them in order to tune their reflexes. Sungyeol stole snatches of excitement and alarm, joy and fatigue as his teammates passed him, but exhilaration, always exhilaration from Myungsoo. It was utterly endearing.

“You’ve got moony eyes,” Woohyun told him suspiciously when he got back from training an hour later, throwing himself into an armchair in the common room before working up the energy to go have a bath.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sungyeol said, tipping his head back to rest it on the back of his chair, the smile Myungsoo had given him as he’d waved goodbye still fresh in his mind.

Woohyun snorted. “As if you can fool me. Nevermind, I can wait. You’ve never been able to keep something like this to yourself, anyway.”

Sungyeol hummed non-commitally, enjoying the first few warm rays of having a crush seep into him. The thought that he had another training on Tuesday filled him with ridiculous goodwill towards all men.

“Stop smiling to yourself, idiot, it’s creepy,” Woohyun told him, kicking him in the shin.

*

And finally, just in case you were wondering about my choices for the houses for the boys - this is a post from LJ when I was conceptualising this fic.

sungjong - ravenclaw. this seems a no-brainer for me; i know most people would put him in slytherin but i don't really see that in him. he seems really intelligent and observant about the world; his 'adult ceremony' performance suggests to me that he not only understands very well the image of himself that he puts forward but also gender performance within the idol industry and that is a level of intelligence and clarity of thought i've never come across in an idol before. he's also fearless, which seems to stem from him being really secure in himself and where he stands. 

dongwoo and myungsoo - hufflepuff. another no-brainer. they're both so incredibly cuddly and have so much love and loyalty for the people around them, and are clearly 'unafraid of toil' [it's scary how well i know the sorting hat's song ok without having to look it up] since they're both so hardworking - dongwoo with his dancing and myungsoo with working so hard at his singing and acting both of which still need work ahem and both just generally with the whole crazy idol thing. i feel like myungsoo and dongwoo are the easiest to relate to because they both wear their hearts on their sleeves and seem like the kind to give of themselves very selflessly. it's also worth noting that in the books hufflepuff was the only house where every student stayed to fight in the battle of hogwarts - just because they're cuddly doesn't mean they're soft, which i think is true for these two as well.

sunggyu and howon - slytherin. very obviously ambitious, and they both live to perform. they're willing to endure anything to get what they want, even to the point of leaving home and family under negative circumstances to achieve their dreams. they both also are capable of being harsh and sharp with the others [sunggyu more so in this i think] though i don't believe that slytherins are necessarily 'bad'. it just means that they're willing to do unconventional things to get what they want and that may not be what straightforward and impulsive gryffindors [since it seems to be always gryffindor pitted against slytherin as polar opposites] would choose to do. this is one thing i disagreed heavily with the books and movies on, because it seemed like they needed to make one house the 'villain' and instead of making the slytherin character more rounded [read: interesting and complex] they settled for mainly bigoted, rich and immoral. 

sungyeol and woohyun - gryffindor. impulsive, larger-than-life bundles of energy that will, i think, do anything to protect the ones they love. i also get the feeling that they are very bad at lying - or don't see the point of it - and it's very important to them to be true and loyal to their goals and loved ones, which is why they work so hard for themselves and one another. this is more a gut feeling than something i reasoned out at length, i have to admit, but they seem to fit the category of 'lionheart' so well.