A/N: Hahaha I forgot. also I can't write until I get my new computer in another week or so
maybe i should get a poster for this too idk
 

Part II: Of Warming Charms and?

“Where were you all day? You missed Quidditch practice,” Jongin complains loudly, throwing down a card.

“Hogsmeade,” Sehun grins with a suggestive lift of his eyebrows. “You’ll never guess who I was with.”

When Jongin doesn’t rise to the bait, Sehun’s grin drops a bit. “Come on, guess.”

“Is this really actually necess—”

“Guess who I was with at Hogsmeade, Jongin. Guess.”

The tanned Slytherin groans and runs a hand through his dark fringe. “I’m so done with you, Sehun. You’re lucky we’re friends and I’m obligated not to kick you off the team.”

But much to the ire of the Slytherin Quidditch captain, Sehun just hums, lost in his usual fantasy world; one filled with Gryffindor colours, the odd unicorn, and, obviously, Lu Han (possibly riding the unicorn, depending on Sehun’s mood).

After a few moments of silence, Jongin frowns and pokes Sehun on the forehead. “Okay, this is beyond weird. You’re... You’re smiling. Are you feeling alright?”

Sehun’s smile now is truthfully borderline creepy (probably from disuse), and Jongin has to lean away in fear of catching whatever he has. “Okay, obviously not—”

“I accidentally set Lu Han on fire the other day.”

It takes a moment, but Jongin finally looks up from their rather intense game of Exploding Snap.

“... What.”

--

Jongdae’s laughter is very unattractive, Sehun decides.

“Can you, like... stop.”

“B-But... I can’t believe you,” Jongdae gasps out between obnoxious chortles. “You set... him on fire! Ow, my stomach, ow...”

“It’s not as bad as it sounds!” Sehun cries defensively.

“Oh, yeah?” Jongdae has to pause to wipe tears of laughter from the corners of his eyes. “How could setting your crush on fire not be bad? And how does something like that even happen?” He breaks out into another bout of annoying giggles. He’s lucky Sehun can’t be arsed right now to stop him.  

Anyway, he likes to think that his glare is sufficient enough of an impending death sentence. “I was trying to cast a Warming Charm, okay? I just... got the incantation wrong.”

Jongdae stops laughing for a good 26 seconds.

Sehun continues in a highly superior tone:

“And in my defence, Incendio can, in fact, increase temperature levels.”

... And when Jongdae promptly starts up again; louder; Sehun hexes his skin blue.

“Yah, Oh Sehun, you brat!”

--

In retrospect, it might have been a better idea not to use this particular curse, possibly because Sehun might have forgotten the counter curse, and maybe Madame Pomfrey wouldn’t be too happy with cleaning up another one of his messes.

Maybe.

(He might have also been saddled with writing Jongdae’s next three Potions reports.)

One thing that Slytherins are good at, Sehun decides bitterly—besides running away from trouble—is holding grudges.

--

“Stop sulking about and just talk to him, Oh Sehun,” Tao snaps during breakfast one morning.

“I can’t—”

“I agree with panda-eyes. I don’t think I can handle all your whinging for another minute,” Jongin, the bloody king of whinging himself if Sehun might point out, adds.

“You said it was just a small flame, right?” Jongdae pipes up. His tongue is still a little blue, but no one dares to say anything about it. “And he’s not even mad at you, so just go already.”

“But...” Sehun glances helplessly over at the Gryffindor table where Lu Han is chattering with a bunch of faceless red-scarves (Sehun feels that they are entirely irrelevant in the big picture), and sighs deeply. It’s a truly soul-deep sigh.

“Wow,” Jongdae comments. “That was very forlorn.”

“I am very forlorn, Jongdae. Very forlorn.”

Sehun sighs yet again when he sees a smudge of cranberry sauce at the corner of Lu Han’s lips. How he wishes he could just kiss it away... Wait... Sehun wrinkles his nose in horror. This whole “Fancying-Lu Han” thing has turned him into a sodding, love-struck Hufflepuff.

(“Well, you are a sod, and you are love-struck...” “ you, Kim Jongin. No one ing asked you.” “How the bloody hell did someone like you become a Prefect, anyway, you complete arse?”)

Sehun blinks when a wand is shoved in his face and nearly goes cross-eyed trying to keep it in focus.

“Go talk to him.”

“... Yes, Tao,” he squeaks, scrambling out of his seat and tripping gracefully.

--

As he nears the Gryffindor table, the Great Hall goes silent for a moment before breaking out into shocked whispers. Sehun’s Slytherin instincts of self-preservation almost have him back-peddling, but he’s trapped as Lu Han turns to face him, large eyes widening in surprise.

“Sehun?”

Sehun winces, because he said ‘Sehun’ and not, ‘Sehunnie’. Then he berates himself for it, because that’s just pathetic. (He should be glad that Lu Han is finally treating him like the sixth year that he is.)

He glances down at his polished and very expensive shoes. “I, uh... Hi. Can we talk?”

Lu Han furrows his fair brows but nods nonetheless, much to Sehun’s relief.

“Outside?” he adds in a murmur, acutely aware of all the stares (especially from the Slytherin table—he stubbornly ignores Jongin’s wink and pelvic ing motions out of the corner of his eye and fervently hopes that Lu Han doesn’t notice).

“Alright.” Lu Han turns to Kris and Baekhyun with a quick reassuring smile as he gets up and smoothes down his robes.

But as soon as Lu Han turns his back, Kris grabs an unsuspecting Sehun by his tie and yanks him down. “Look, kid. I know what you’re up to, and frankly, I don’t really mind. But if you set him on fire again...” he pauses meaningfully, his deep gaze drifting down to Sehun’s nether regions.

Shielding his family jewels, Sehun mutters, “Yeah... Got it,” before hurrying to catch up with Lu Han.

Gryffindors (minus Lu Han), he thinks, making a quick mental note to stay out of Kris’ way. Are all completely mad.

--

They’re both silent as they walk side by side down the empty hall with a respectable distance between them, sleeves a hair’s breadth away from brushing.

When Lu Han finally breaks the silence, the Slytherin thinks he sounds a little... hurt. “... Are... Are you angry about something?"

Sehun churns with guilt as he tries to drop his trademark scowl and shakes his head fervently. “No... No! Of course not..."

“Are you sure?” Lu Han bites his lip. “I feel like you’re angry with me. You've not been speaking to me since that day at Hogsmeade...”

“I’m not angry with you!” Sehun says too quickly, startling the Gryffindor. I could never be angry with you. “Okay, well,” he amends. “I am kind of angry... but only with myself.”

“Yourself?” Lu Han tugs on his sleeve to make Sehun stop and face him.

“Yeah. I really messed up that day, with the... the fire incident.” He says the last part in a whisper. “I’m still really sorry about that, by the way.”

To his surprise, the small blonde lets out a startled laugh. “Is that it?”

“... Huh?”

“I told you, it’s alright! You barely just singed my sleeve. And besides, you were very heroic in putting it out,” he giggles, nudging Sehun with an elbow. “Very Gryffindor.”

Sehun groans at the reminder and feels heat creep into his cheeks as he recalls the over-zealous water charm that drenched Lu Han from head to toe. Oh Sehun does not perform well under panic.

He covers his face with his hands. “I’m really sorry.”

Sehun’s stony demeanour drops like a stone when he feels a small, soft hand curl around his own to pull it away from his face. Are those angels singing? His heart is pounding so loud, much too loud, and Merlin, he can’t find his lungs—

And Sehun wants to fist-pump the air because he is now holding hands with Lu Han.

The Lu Han.

The elation quickly turns to panic because Sehun’s palm is suddenly clammy against Lu Han’s and , he hopes the other doesn’t notice—

“Sehun-ah, you’re so cute,” Lu Han chirps.

Sehun struggles to stay coherent. “I’m... not...”

“You are! To be honest, at first I thought you were kind of scary and mean and stuff ‘cause you’d always glare at everything, and you looked really hard to approach—” Sehun deflates. “—but! You’re just a big softie on the inside, aren’t you?” He isn’t really sure what to make of this, but when Lu Han’s eyes crinkles into half moons as he smiles, Sehun stares a little longer than socially acceptable. (And he might be clinging a little too tightly to Lu Han’s fingers...)

“I’m not cute. If anything, you’re the cute one.”

, did he really just say that?

“Everyone always says that. I’m manly,” Lu Han pouts.

“You’re both.”

Sehun does a little victory dance in his head, because he just delivered his first smooth line, and Lu Han is staring up at him with what Sehun deciphers as adoration.

One point to Oh Sehun. yeah.

“A-Anyway,” (Does Lu Han look... nervous?) the blonde looks down for a moment, a hint of a blush on his cheeks, before squaring thin shoulders. “The Gryffindor-Ravenclaw game is tomorrow... Are you coming to watch?” he asks hopefully.

Sehun’s breath catches in his throat.

This is your chance, Oh Sehun, don’t ing screw this up, don’t you dare ing screw this up...!

“... Guh-huh.”

Mother .

--
TBC