“First trip to Hogsmeade!” Luhan squeals as he scuttles around Lay and Suho with childlike aegyo. 

“Yay. This is so exciting. My life has become unbearable with this much excitement,” Lays says, staring ahead while watching the four green-clad Slytherin sixth years make their way down the steps of the castle and onto the road that leads to the small fairytale-like village. 

“Don’t rain on his parade, Lay. It’s his first time,” Suho says while pulling on a pair of yellow and black gloves, his breath fogging slightly in the frigid air. It seems like winter has arrived overnight, leaving fall behind.

Luhan pokes Lay in the side. “Yeah, don’t rain on my parade,” he mimics, earning a glare from Lay and a laugh from Suho. 

Luhan smiles sweetly at Lay and bats his eyelashes. “Can we go to Honeydukes first?” he asks. He’s heard that you can get the best candy there, and he needs to stock up on sugar quills and chocolate frogs before finals. 

He can already see himself sitting in the common room by the fire late at night, munching fiercely on a licorice wand with his books strewn out all around him. 

Lay mutters something about Honeydukes and Luhan and children, and begins to walk towards the road. Suho and Luhan scramble after him.

Along the way, while Suho is busy talking to Lay, Luhan spots Chanyeol and Baekhyun, the two Gryffindors, walking ahead of them.

Baekhyun is wrapped in so many coats and scarves and hats that he looks like if he fell down, he wouldn’t be able to stand back up. Chanyeol keeps picking up handfuls of snow and shoving them down the back of Baekhyun’s coat, earning startled yelps and angry shouts from the shorter guy. 

Luhan watches them for a second longer before an ingenious plan begins to form in his mind. 

He eyes his two friends walking ahead of him, still chatting away about something Luhan hasn’t been following. 

Quietly, Luhan picks up a handful of snow and packs it into a snowball. Then he’s tiptoeing forward, raising his hand above Lay’s head, and bringing the snowball down with a wild battle cry. 

Lay shouts out in surprise as snow cascades down his head and into his jacket.

And then there’s two seconds of silence in which Lay and Luhan stare at each other, while Suho takes a few steps back. 

“You did not just-” Lay begins, and Luhan giggles. 

That giggle is what does it for Lay. 

He throws himself at Luhan, knocking him to the ground, before grabbing a fistful of snow and shoving it down the front of his jacket. Luhan shrieks in surprise, and from the cold that is now seeping down his stomach, and struggles to push Lay off of him. 

And then Suho is there, his snowball catching Lay in the side of the head. 

“Mwahahaha,” Suho laughs maniacally. “I strike again!” 

Lay and Luhan freeze and stare up at Suho, who has clamped a hand over his mouth in surprise. 

"I don’t know where that came from,” he says, and there’s silence before all three of them burst into crazy laughter. 

Luhan uses the distraction to shove Lay off of him and grab more snow off the ground. 

And then the three of them are engaged into a fierce snowball fight. 

Which is why they don’t reach Hogsmeade until half an hour later than everyone else. 

Luhan, his nose red from the cold, presses his hands against the window of Honeydukes, peering inside eagerly. 

He can’t see much, but Lay grabs his arm and drags him inside.

And Luhan’s eyes are so big Suho is afraid they boy is going to pass out from the excitement.

“There.Is.So.Much.Candy!” Luhan shouts, startling everyone within a three-foot radius. 

Luhan stares dreamily at everything.

There are bunches of Acid Pops, piles of Peppermint Toads, stacks of Chocolate Frogs and Ice Mice, buckets of Pepper Imps and Jelly Slugs, Chocoballs, Licorice Wands, Sugar Quills, and oh... Fizzing Whizbees. 

Luhan rushes over to his most favorite candy of all time. 

He loves the massive sherbet balls in all of their different colors because not only are they delicious, they make him levitate. 

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Suho begins, realizing what Luhan is drooling over. “Maybe you should stick to the cauldron cakes, or the- Lay! You’re going to drop those!” 

Luhan watches as Suho rushes away to avert a crisis, before he grabs as much candy as he can possibly carry, and teeters over to the cashier. 

The owner of the shop looks at him warily, but Luhan shrugs. 

“I told my friends I would get their stuff for them. They’re busy over there,” he lies, pointing towards where Suho is trying to wrestle a stack of chocolate frogs from Lay. 

The owner still looks alarmed at the amount of Fizzing Whizbees on the counter, but soon Luhan is happily carrying a box of all of his candy out of Honeydukes. 

A short while later, all three Hufflepuffs are sitting in the Three Broomsticks, peering through their bags and boxes, and ordering three Butterbeers. 

Luhan sits back contentedly, his jacket and scarf hanging off of his chair. 

Their Butterbeers have just arrived, and Suho is talking about how could have sworn he saw Chanyeol and Baekhyun going into Madam Puddifoot’s tea shop, when the bell above the door jingles, and in walks Kai, Sehun, Kris, and Tao. 

Luhan chokes a little on his drink, remembering pink icing and death threats, but luckily Lay chose a table that is partially hidden by a huge Christmas tree covered in fairy lights, so Sehun doesn’t see any of them when he walks in.

“Oh look, it’s your boyfriend,” Lay smirks, sipping his Butterbeer. 

Luhan blushes. “He is not my boyfriend,” he snaps back. 

Lay leans forward. “Your face is red,” he observes, which makes Luhan blush even more, and Suho hides a smile behind his hand. “And if I remember correctly,” Lay continues, “Sehun seems to have some feelings for you. Remember Halloween?”

Luhan groans and drops his head onto his arms. 

He hears Lay order three more Butterbeers, which is good, because Luhan already finished his and he really wants another.

The three of them continue talking, and Luhan tries to keep from glancing over to see if Sehun is still in the room. 

By the fifth Butterbeer though, he’s having a little trouble not letting his gaze stray towards the Slytherin who is sitting a few tables away. 

Sehun looks so calm, drinking his own Butterbeer, and chatting with his friends. He doesn’t look frazzled or nervous like Luhan feels. 

It wasn’t Luhan’s fault Sehun had cupcakes smashed into his face. Sehun had been the one running down the hall, screaming like a lunatic about pixies. 

Luhan scowls. 

He shouldn’t be afraid of Sehun. Sehun has no right to push him around just because he feels like it. Sehun doesn’t own Hogwarts.

And Luhan hadn’t been the one to go completely crazy on the haunted trail either. That had been Sehun again. 

Luhan has been trying to stay out of Sehun’s way ever since the Quidditch tryouts. It’s Sehun’s fault they keep having embarrassing, awkward, and crazy meetings. Luhan’s even been extra careful about avoiding Sehun since Halloween because he’s still not sure if Sehun saw his pixie ears or not.

Luhan stands up, wobbling a little on his feet. 

He’s had enough of dodging Sehun in the halls and avoiding his gaze in class. 

Lay and Suho look up at him, but don’t make any move to stop him when he moves away from their table. 

“Where is he going?” Suho asks, watching Luhan walk away from their table with determined strides. Suho has only had three Butterbeers, so he doesn’t feel as light-headed as Lay does. 

Lay looks away from Luhan and back at Suho, and stares at him. 

“Lay, it looks like he’s going over to Sehun’s table,” Suho begins, still watching Luhan. “Should we stop him?” Suho glances back over at Lay and blinks. “Why are you looking at me like that?” he asks warily. 

Meanwhile, Luhan has now reached Sehun’s table and is glaring down at the four boys sitting there.

The chatter at the table dies down when Kai notices him standing there and nudges Kris in the side to get him to shut up. 

There’s an awkward silence as the four stare at the angry Hufflepuff in front of them.

Sehun looks half-murderous, half-alarmed.

And then Luhan does something none of them expected.

He reaches out and grabs Sehun by the arm, hauling him out of his seat.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Sehun splutters, but he doesn’t have time to pull away before Luhan is dragging him away from the table and out the front doors. 

“Let go of me!” Sehun says angrily, pulling his arm free once they’re both standing outdoors in the freezing cold.

Luhan stumbles a littl