Pairing(s); none really to speak of much, some light GTOP

Rating/Notes; PG

pt 1/3 of the 'teaser'

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Zhoumi clutched tightly to his wickerwork basket, gazing up avidly at the scarlet train with its billowing steam.

“The Hogwarts Express.” He breathed. He was here. He was really here. He took a few tentative steps forward and promptly tripped over his trunk. Merlin hissed from inside his basket.

************************************

“Errm excuse me…!” Zhoumi carefully slid open a compartment door, “Is there any spare room here? All the other compartments are full…”

“Oh yeah sure! Come on in!” said a cheery-looking girl. Zhoumi murmured a thanks, flashing a small smile, and dragged his trunk in with some effort.

“Here, you need help with that?” A boy who was at least a head shorter than him stood up, and together they managed to haul his trunk into the overhead compartments.

“Th-thanks.” huffed Zhoumi, panting and flopping down onto his seat, his smile stretched a little further.

“I’m Ryeowook.” Said the boy who had helped him, sticking out a hand, “And this is Kibum and Yoona. We’re all first years.” He indicated his friends. Zhoumi shook Ryeowook’s hand.

“Zhoumi. First year.”

“Hey Zhoumi!” said Yoona in a bright tone, smiling. Zhoumi decided that she was very pretty.

He looked up and glanced around, letting his eyes fall on the one person that had not yet spoken at all. But his interest consumed him and didn’t let him linger on the boy for long, instead freeing his eyes to roam around the interior of the compartment, jaw slack. Ryeowook had taken out a magazine entitled ‘The Quibbler’ and was flicking through its pages. Kibum had his entire face buried in a thick book, and if Zhoumi squinted hard, he could make out he faded gold title spelling out ‘The Proper Care and Rearing of Jobberknolls’. And the sight only reignited the spark that had extinguished at the pit of his stomach—it rose again, a strange mixture of curiosity, bewilderment, confusion, excitement and awe.

He was going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Yoona stared at him, grinning in such a warming welcoming manner he found words tumbling out of his mouth, as if she had silently invited him to speak.

“Sooo… do you, um, have…. Family that’s gone to this school…?”

She blinked, and then nodded, as if she really didn’t expect that to be fired at her, staring at Zhoumi in a pleasantly puzzling way. “’Course! Oh, my brother and parents and grandparents and great grandparents and—”

“Oh wow!” Zhoumi breathed, leaning closer, arms propped up on his knees, eyes alight with interest and a smile playing on his lips. “You’re from a wizarding family, eh? What’s it like??” he prompted.

For a moment, Yoona looked puzzled. Then a light of understanding seemed to shine in her eyes. But Zhoumi was already rambling on in hasty ecstasy.

“Oh wow!” he repeated, grinning wider than ever. “You see, I’m from a… Muggle family…? That’s what you call us right? So you’d technically call me muggle-born, or a mudblood, right??”

Yoona looked pleasantly shocked before nodding.

“But we don’t use the word mudblood, it’s actually really offens-“

“This is rubbish,” Ryeowook suddenly declared, throwing down his magazine and looking ruffled.

“It’s the Quibbler, Ryeowook,” Yoona stated. “What did you expect?”

“Um, excuse me,” a quiet voice mumbled from the corner. Swivelling his eyes around, Zhoumi stared as Kibum poked his nose out from his book, the rim of his thick black glasses resting on top. “I quite enjoy the Quibbler, thank you very much.”

“Glumbumble!” Ryeowook huffed angrily, staring right back at his friend. “Since when did they exist?? Both my parents work at the Ministry, the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures,” Zhoumi blinked, the words said so fast he didn’t have enough time to wrap it around his head and set it to memory.

Kibum said no more, though Zhoumi could’ve sworn there was a furrow between his brows when he burrowed his nose back into his aged book. He wondered what Jobberknolls were—they didn’t turn up in his Magical Creatures book. He made a note to ask Ryeowook at a later time.

Yoona, worriedly eying her two friends, hastily chipped in to redirect conversation. “So, out of all those subjects, what do you think you’ll be most rubbish at?? Like I mean Transfiguration would be hard, but apparently History of Magic is like the most boring ever…”

Zhoumi’s ears perked up, and he turned his entire body to face Yoona as a show of attention. “So what subjects are there??”

“Charms, Flying, Potions, Transfiguration, Herbology, Astronomy, History of Magic and Defence Against the Dark Arts.”

Zhoumi gaped. The books he’d got were already interesting enough—he couldn’t wait for lessons.

“I think,” Ryeowook drawled slowly. “Maybe… Astronomy? Actually Flying isn’t really my thing… I don’t particularly want to be a part of the Quidditch team anyways.” He shrugged.

“OH!” Zhoumi almost jumped up from his seat in anticipation. “FLYING! QUIDDITCH! Oh, it sounds amazingly fun… I wonder what it’s like… is it really safe, sitting on a broom fifty feet in the air??”

Yoona began recounting her brother’s Quidditch experiences, being Ravenclaw keeper during his time at Hogwarts.

“DID YOU KNOW,” Ryeowook grinned. “That in the earliest stages of Quidditch, instead of using the Snitch as they do now, they used a small gold bird that they called the Golden Snidget??”

Fields of barren grassland was racing past the window, skies clear and a dazzling blue, sun streaming through the compartment window. Zhoumi had taken advantage of the pool of light on his lap, and fished out ‘Quintessence a Quest’, reading through the last fifty pages, the sun warming his back.

Kibum made no more talk, or any sound in fact, during this whole time. Zhoumi thought he must have fallen asleep. Merlin was let out of his basket, curled up on his lap, and was enjoying the sun on his tabby-ginger coat.

Zhoumi hadn’t noticed Ryeowook and Yoona simultaneously jumping up and emptying their pockets until their compartment door had slid open and the tempting smell of food wafted in.

His stomach growled. He hadn’t had anything since breakfast, which he had eaten extra early, arriving at Kings Cross nearly an hour before the train set off just in case he might have missed it. It seemed so long now… how could have breakfast have only been a few hours ago?

His parents had given him a generous stash of money, which he had converted at what he found was the most fascinating bank ever, and he now fished them out of his pocket.

When the lady at the trolley finally slid the compartment door shut again and moved on, the food was piling on the seats, even dropping on to the floor.

Zhoumi was given all the Chocolate Frog Cards, much to his delight, and poured over them whilst absent-mindedly chewing on a liquorice wand. He wanted to read, but didn’t dare get his book oily with the cauldron cakes he was munching. Ryeowook and Yoona, being lovely friends, ended up forcing him into a Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans game.

Ryeowook, as a supplement, had blown his Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum to just larger than his head. Yoona was muttering to Zhoumi about what would happen if she put an engorgement charm on it—and decided not to squish Kibum out of his seat.

By the afternoon, Zhoumi had finished ‘Quintessence a Quest’, and was onto ‘The Enclopedia of Bat Eyes’, and just finishing off the last of his jelly slugs.

“—so it turns out it was a tiny little branch of the Devil’s Snare, so we had to quickly get it—“Yoona was telling Ryeowook.

“—burned??” Zhoumi chipped in, book lowered just enough to reveal his wide eyes. “I read about it in ‘Flesh Eating Trees of the World’’…”

“Uhh, yes,” Yoona blinked. “So Ryeowook,” she turned back to her friend. “How were your holidays?”

“Oh all right, though mum and dad kept being called in for late shifts at the Ministry, there was a whole deal about Nifflers—”

“—nifflers??” Zhoumi cut in, once more distracted from his reading. “Are they the ones which can detect gold for you??”

Nobody really noticed that Kibum was missing until he came back in, fully dressed in the school robes. Only then did the other three of them line up to go to change.

“We should be pulling up at Hogsmead station fairly quickly… Ah!” Yoona pointed, sticking her head out into the corridor. “We’re here. Come on—take Merlin—we’re getting off…”

Zhoumi could barely see where he was going. There was this one lit torch some fair bit of distance ahead, bobbing above the heads of cowering first-years. He stretched a bit, and easily towered over most of them—thanks to his long legs. Then, he was shoved this way and that… before he found himself staring down at a bunch of rowing boats, perfectly lined up on the shore of… the Great Lake.

Zhoumi gaped. “Oh wow that’s the Great Lake…! It’s where the Giant Squid lives, isn’t it??” there were a few strange glances thrown his way, but he barely cared about them, now engrossed with the rowing boats as he stepped into the one Ryeowook and the others were already in and were beckoning to him from. He frowned—they may be row-boats, but they had no oars. Then he gave an audible gasp, whirling to face Ryeowook with a look of utter awe radiating off his wide eyes and a gaping mouth. “These boats are enchanted, aren’t they?? That’s why they have no oars—“ but he was suddenly cut off with a not-so-well prepared shriek of shock as the boat suddenly darted forwards, surging into the water.

Needless to say, he wasn’t the most completely dry as he shuffled up the seemingly never-ending stone steps (even with his long legs) and into the Entrance Hall.

From outside, with an unusual fog, the many lit windows of the Hogwarts castle weren’t as visible, but upon stepping foot inside, Zhoumi forgot all about the burning of his thighs after all those stairs, and simply stared and stared, jaw dropped.

It was like… ancient, but beautiful, and glowing and teeming with so much life and Zhoumi found the place absolutely gorgeous. He shuffled his feet along the marble floor, letting the wet base of his shoes squeak as he listened to the Professor talk, the initial giddy interest he’d taken melting away and replaced with fascination again as he swept his eyes around the Entrance Hall once more.

But as the huddled group of first years were led into the Great Hall, his stomach gave a jolt of nerves. He had no idea about which house he’d be put in… and to make matters worse, he found the entire school staring right back, already gathered around the four long house tables.

If the Entrance Hall was beautiful, the Great Hall was grand.

Candles were floating all the way down the immensely long tables, silver cutlery placed neatly before each person, and upon looking up, Zhoumi found his eyes instantly attracted to the ceiling—magically bearing the appearance of the current weather outside. It was almost like there was no ceiling. Zhoumi found it absolutely fascinating.

But then, the names were being called… and the butterflies returned.

With a sinking of his heart, he realised that he would be at the very end of the line. Just his luck.

So he watched as Im Yoona was called up, pretty face bearing just a slight smile, the old, tattered hat falling all the way down her eyes, and was sorted into Ravenclaw, where she was welcomed with cheering.

And he continued to watch as Kim Kibum came somewhat later, head bowed as he trudged up the stairs. His thick glasses seem to hold the crumpled hat somewhat off the rest of his face, before he too joined Yoona at the Ravenclaw table. But in contrast, he didn’t so much as smile, only sinking into his seat, eyes trained solely on his intertwined hands on his lap.

And Zhoumi gulped, watching Kim Ryeowook also successfully prance into the arms of welcoming Ravenclaws, after almost tripping on his long robes half way down the stairs.

All his friends ended up in Ravenclaw… he wondered what would become of him.

“And finally…” Zhoumi was the last one left. “Zhou Mi.”

With much too long-anticipated excitement, he forced himself to stride smoothly up to the stage. It felt weird, all those pairs of eyes trained on him, obviously just waiting for him to be sorted so that the feast would start. He plonked himself down on the seat, body jolting as his behind came in contact with the stool sooner than he expected—turned out it was quite a tall stool.

And with trembling fingers, he pulled the hat on.

It barely took a moment, before a voice, loud and clear, rang out from above his head.

“Ravenclaw!”

He immediately yanked the hat off his head, releasing a breath he never realised he was holding, running over to the third table, smile stretched across his face, and warmly caught in the arms of his friends.

Good, he wasn’t going to be a loner. Thank Merlin.

**********************************************************

All the names were making him dizzy.

He could remember all the types of dragons with as much ease as one could on their first try, but an entire table length of faces and his head was spinning.

So seventh year Park Jeongsu was warmly helping him to countless more servings of lamb chop and gravy, after he’d mentioned that he’d liked it. Jeongsu was this constantly smiling, extremely nice guy who seemed fond of just about everything and whom Zhoumi found quite attractive too, with his pretty face-structure, blonde swept hair, crescent eyes and this perfect dimple on his left cheek.

Though the guy sitting next to Jeongsu was… queer. He reminded Zhoumi the vaguest of Kibum, but even Kibum wasn’t so… seemingly insane. Jeongsu had introduced him as Kim Jongwoon, and said that he “tended to have strange ideas”. Though Zhoumi’s account of ‘strange ideas’ did not include grabbing random people by the shoulders and telling them to wear more the next morning, or shrieking at the sight of meat. The guy had black hair, long fringe falling over his dark eyes, and a rather sour look about him.

Yoona seemed to have gotten along well with the other seventh year girl, apparently by the name of Park Sunyoung. She had a pretty smile, though looked really short, even when she was sitting down.

Somewhere down the table, a boy with overly large eyes and thick lips catches Zhoumi’s eye—though he soon began twitching an eyebrow up with that pair of large eyes refused to leave his face.

“That’s Do Kyungsoo, fifth year,” This time, came a voice not from opposite him, as Jeongsu’s would have done, but beside him, the gentle, nice voice floating over to his ears above all the other noise in the Great Hall. Looking up from spooning Zhoumi a massive plate of affettao musto, which to Zhoumi looked just like normal salad though Jongwoon insisted on the full name, the hazel-haired boy sitting next to him flashed him a smile, eyes flickering momentarily towards Do. “Oh, don’t you worry, he’s always like this.” his voice was smooth, gentle and friendly. Likeable. He held out a hand, which Zhoumi took. “Zhoumi?” and when he nodded, the boy’s smile grew. “Jung Yonghwa—“ he indicated to a shiny blue badge pinned to the front of his robes. “Ravenclaw Prefect.”

Then, all of a sudden, a large wad of some bread came flying in the air.

Yonghwa had whipped out his wand and deflected it from Zhoumi’s head, all the while scowling at the giggling boy next to Do. “KIM JONGDAE. FIRST YEAR! NOT FUNNY.” And when the boy apparently named Kim Jongdae turned and started bewitching a bowl of soup to overturn on someone’s head, Yonghwa sighed, and sat back down in his seat, giving Zhoumi a tired smile, all too enhanced with the circles under his eyes. “Kim Jongdae,” he confirmed, nodding in the general direction. “Fifth year. Stay. Away. From. Him. The biggest prankster the school’s got to offer, mate.”

But before Zhoumi could crane his neck and get a proper look, Yonghwa’s voice sounded again.

“Oh, see over there—“Yonghwa pointed, twisting around in his seat, at what Zhoumi could only suspect was the Gryffindor table, with the decking of red. “See that guy with the… rather faded dark pinkish hair…?” Zhoumi almost laughed when his eyes searched out said boy.

He was laughing, delicately placing a spoon of gravy in his mouth, eyes rimmed with dark liner, though he couldn’t help but to stare at how good the boy looked, with his new-looking cloak and the shiny badge glinting off the candle lights from where it perched on his chest.

“Yeah, him. Kwon Jiyong.” Zhoumi let the name repeat itself over and over in his head. “Head Boy.”

Zhoumi’s mouth dropped open. Kwon looked so carefree, so happy and light-weight…

“And that girl a few seats down from him… the one with the mascara, yes the one eating the chicken, Sandara Park. Head Girl.”

So both the heads were in Gryffindor. Yonghwa turned to him.

“If you ever need any help, and neither me or Seohyun—the other Ravenclaw prefect—are around, feel free to approach them.” He flashed him a toothy grin.

Yonghwa told Zhoumi to return to his meal, something about the next course arriving shortly, but just before he swiveled fully back around in his seat, Zhoumi flashed the Gryffindor seventh-year just one more, wide-eyed look from over his shoulder.

*************************************.

“Hey Jiyong!”

The mass of light peach-pink hair wheeled around to face the boy who had called for him, a hum vibrating in his throat in a reply.

His best friend, Kim Heechul, gave a little flick of his head, too-long bangs neatly sweeping to the side. He raised his goblet to his lips, as if he were drinking wine instead of pumpkin juice, fingers delicately curving around it, peering at Jiyong from over the rim of the glass.

“Apparently we have a transfer student.” Kim Heechul stated matter-of-factly.

None of Kim Heechul’s weird ways really affected Kwon Jiyong anymore (at first he thought the guy was particularly queer) — he was much too used to his best friend after seven years of Hogwarts.

Jiyong’s eyebrows went up. “Oh really?” he took a long swig from his own goblet, tongue darting out to at his lips afterward, eyes never leaving Heechul. “From where?”

“Durmstrang, apparently.” Heechul didn’t sound like he cared—but having brought up the topic in the first place, Jiyong knew better than that.

Jiyong’s lips came a little together in a small frown. “Durmstrang? What’s their business here?” despite his tone, he was smiling. Even when he was first Prefect, now Head boy, there wasn’t once he didn’t welcome students personally. “What year?”

“Fifth.” Heechul replied without a beat. Jiyong was just thinking how his best friend really knew his stuff, when the feline curve of Heechul’s lips raised his suspicions, the warning alarm ringing loud and clear in his head. “Slytherin—if you’re going to pay him a visit, he’s that highly attractive one.”

Jiyong sighed, giving a shake of his head, but getting up from the table anyway. He took his goblet, purposefully striding across the length of the Great Hall—down toward the table littered with green-clad students welcoming the new kids in their ranks. His thumb and first two fingers was gently spinning his goblet as he swept his eyes over all those faces, giving a smile here and there when a Slytherin raised their eyebrows at him. The relationship between the houses weren’t exactly the friendliest.

Fifth year, Jiyong thought, passing a few smiling first years, mischievous second-years leading the first years down the wrong path (which Jiyong reminded himself to reprimand them later), excited chattering of third years and finally fourth years, where he slowed his pace down at where he thought the fifth years should be seated.

There was Key Kim, inspecting his face in his little hand-held mirror, fingers poking a few disobedient strands of hair here and there; and then Jessica Jung, looking as disapproving as usual, with her lips pursed and chin sticking up high; Chanyeol was really the tall, cute elf—it was quite hard to ignore him, let alone mistake him, when his loud laughter seemed to be echoing around every corridor in the castle; Seungri? Well Jiyong thought he was very attractive, but then again he wasn’t exactly new; or maybe Heechul got it wrong, because Kris Wu here was quite the specimen… it was then that Jiyong’s eyes landed on the one new addition to the table, looking on quietly with what could only be a sly smile as Seungri and Jessica argued hotly over the table, Kris making feeble attempts to pacify them (and Key just not caring at all). Chanyeol, of course, was stuffing himself with too much food—he tried telling his friends something, but ended up splattering gravy all over the table.

And then BINGO went off in Jiyong’s head.

“Whatever seems to be the problem here?” he sauntered over, hovering just behind the new boy, who was sitting beside Kris, offering a small smile as they all turned to him.

“Oh!” Jessica grinned. “Jiyong oppa!”

He ignored her, and turned to Seungri.

“Aye, Seungri, mate, how’s it going?” he grinned broadly, watching the Slytherin seeker return it. Seungri raised a fist, which Jiyong gave a lazy pump of.

“Jiyong oppa!” He squealed mockingly.

There went the friendly atmosphere.

Jessica had begun glaring burning holes into Seungri’s face from across the table with his imitation. Jiyong just smacked him upside the head.

“Hey Kris,” Jiyong nodded, ignoring Seungri’s pouting complaints. “Key.”

Just noticing Jiyong’s arrival, Key looked up from his mirror. “Oh. Jiyong.” He gave him a quick quirk of the lips, and went back to his mirror.

“Gee-yong,” came a muffled gurgle from somewhere to Jiyong’s left. Looking around, Jiyong merely blinked and suffocated his urge to grab a napkin and wipe Park Chanyeol’s face. Instead all he did was wave a finger in a mildly disgusted manner at the assortment of food on Chanyeol’s face, and Kris was doing the dirty work for him.

“Chanyeol-ah, please swallow next time.” Jiyong smiled politely. Then, “oh!” Jiyong said in mild surprise, looking down at the boy in his chair as if he only just saw him sitting there. “You’re… new?”

The boy nodded, and when he turns around to face Jiyong, a real wave of surprise hit him—Heechul was right, as always. The kid was hella attractive.

“Choi Seunghyun,” Kris was introducing with a lazy wave of the hand as he shoved a spoonful of gravy in his mouth.

Seunghyun, like Kris, was quite a handsome species—sitting next to the blonde, Jiyong really didn’t want to determine who was more attractive.

Seunghyun glanced up, eyebrows instantly going up and flicking his black strings of hair across his forehead to the side to better inspect the boy hovering over the back of his chair.

The boy that had just arrived had a bright, toothy grin, crinkling his eyes, which his faded light maroon hair almost covered up. His eyes, Seunghyun decided, were very pretty. All of a sudden, he wanted to reach up and flick the hair falling over the boy’s face, to see his pretty features better. His fingers gave a twitch, but of course he didn’t do that.

“Hey Seunghyun,” the pretty boy grinned. “Kwon Jiyong,” he held out a hand, which Seunghyun stared at—the couple of silver rings glinted off the candle light. His fingers were pretty too, Seunghyun noted to himself. “Head Boy.” He gestured to the shiny red badge pinned on the front of his robes.

Seunghyun’s eyes widened the slightest, a little rounding that wouldn’t be obvious. But he just nodded, and takes Jiyong’s hand.

It was only when Seungri poked him in the side with a fork long after Jiyong had returned to the Gryffindor table (no Seunghyun did not stare the whole way, not at all) did he return to his food. Though now he was looking at, rather, the few rings Kris was wearing beside him.

He thought he was fine with being sorted into Slytherin.

Seunghyun glanced behind him, from relatively the front of the mob of Slytherins heading down to the common room lead by none other than the Seungri-Jessica pair. He was much too tall—he stuck up at the front of the group like a pole in the middle of the street you’re about to walk into. His only reassurance for his height, Kris, was hanging further back, busy trying to avoid Chanyeol’s wild hand-gestures he flailed when he spoke.

Seunghyun looked up, not needing to crane his neck to seek out Seungri hoarding a bunch of shorties in front of him forward. He wanted to talk to him—but had to wait until everyone else was settled in.

“Hey Seungri?” he whispered into the darkness, in the direction he hoped was Seungri’s bed up in the dorm.

From the startled, sleepy hum Seungri gave, he could tell the latter was probably intercepted half-way to dreamland. He didn’t really feel too sorry. True Slytherin at heart right here.

“You know Jiyong…?” he ventured quietly. Apparently, Kris would glower and be in a horrible mood if ever not getting his ten hours of beauty sleep. Or Key, on that matter, but Kris looked so much more intimidating.

“No ,” Seungri mumbled.

“Guys, if we’re talking about hot boys can we do that tomorrow please?” Chanyeol belted out from half-way across the room.

Seunghyun gulped. If he were the type to flush, his face would be boiling.

Key hissed venomously. There was a low growl, and absolute utter silence fell instantly because no one wanted Kris to murder them with that glare of his the next morning.

************************************************************************

“So—“Chanyeol paused mid-sentence, not bothering to cover up his highly attractive large yawn. “Hot boys?”

Seunghyun almost got a heart attack—he’d thought everyone else were half-asleep. Well, at least he learnt that Chanyeol had a surprising knack of remembering things when you least expected it.

“Wait what,” Kris blinked uninterestedly, though his voice gave him away. “Park Chanyeol how many times have I told you, your crazy eyes will get you no guys—“

“No, no, it wasn’t me!” Chanyeol cried defiantly, eyes going wide. Seunghyun started, totally unprepared for that. Now, he saw what Kris meant.

Seungri, head almost hitting the table, sat up straight at this moment, blinking eyes weighed with sleep. “Oh yeah,” he said around a yawn not unlike Chanyeol’s. “Seunghyun, my friends from Hufflepuff—“

“OH, let’s go,” Seunghyun said quickly, tripping over his own feet in his haste to get up, and dragged Seungri up by the arm and away from the table. Not before shooting a murderous glare at Chanyeol. But of course, he was too busy trying to fit an extra piece of bacon in with his mouthful of scrambled eggs to notice.

“Hey Seungri!” Seunghyun looked around, then at Seungri, who was desperately trying to come off as awake as he can, coolly ruffling the hair at the top of his head. It had never really occurred to him how popular Seungri was, but seeing multiple turns of heads as Seungri strode past the Ravenclaw table opened his eyes to the social hierarchy in Hogwarts. A number of students, too, belted out loud greetings and ‘good morning’s and it wasn’t just a few times Seunghyun saw a group of girls giggling as Seungri passes.

Or maybe it was him.

Because once reaching the Hufflepuff table, the guy Seungri’s greeted as ‘Youngbae’ turned, and having caught sight of Seunghyun, grinned wide, making his eyes disappear. “If it isn’t the new Slytherin!” he said cheerfully.

The boy sitting beside Youngbae turned, and Seunghyun was greeted by a second pair of non-existent eyes.

“Aye Seungri,” the second boy was saying. “Quite in the hurry to make friends, eh? Only the boy’s second day…”

Seungri was pouting. “Ya, am I your friend or not? At least a ‘hi Seungri’ would be nice.”

But the boy beside Youngbae was busy shaking Seunghyun’s hand and introducing himself as ‘Daesung’.

“Dong Youngbae,” Youngbae smiled up at Seunghyun, inviting him for a fist-pump. “Unfortunately labelled ‘Lee Seungri’s friend’ since first-year.”

Seunghyun only stayed at the Hufflepuff table until he had peered back to the Slytherin table, and deemed it safe for them to return, Chanyeol’s cheeks much too full (with things he wasn’t sure he wanted to know) to speak. Though to be fair, it wasn’t all too embarrassing, talking about hotties because he found Jiyong unfairly attractive—he still wasn’t entirely sure why he was this flustered about it.

**********************************************

“So he is hot,” Youngbae’s eyes followed Seunghyun’s back all the way back to the Slytherin table.

Some shot him unfriendly looks, still brooding from the last Hufflepuff Quidditch win just before summer, so he quickly adverted his eyes back to his own table. Being keeper, he prided himself in his saves, in this case, completely relevant. But Tiffany Hwang, Captain and chaser on the Hufflepuff team, had really been suffering the most of Slytherin’s venom.

Daesung shrugged. “Still wouldn’t take a shower with him.”

Youngbae peered at his best friend in a particularly sceptical way. “You’re just weird.”

There had been one, though, on the team, spared by the Slytherins from the Hufflepuff win.

Zhang Yixing had accidentally knocked the bludger towards his own team twice during that particular match before Huang Zitao dove for the snitch an inch away from Seungri’s outstretched hand in a desperate attempt of ending the game on their win before Yixing did any more damage.

Speaking of the Hufflepuff seeker, Youngbae and Daesung were making their way out to Herbology when they spotted the familiar flash of yellow and black—only indicating that Zitao was up practising all by himself, again.

Youngbae felt a rush of pride. Never mind it being first day of term—he’d seen Zitao return to the Hufflepuff common room water running in rivers down his face from his drenched jet-black hair, torrents of rain hammering the windows. Zitao had only been seeker for what, a term? The kid always had the talent in him —he hasn’t lost a single match yet— so the rest of the team, Youngbae included, couldn’t wrap their heads around why the boy with the sleep-deprived eyes hadn’t tried out any earlier. But then they entered the greenhouses and the sight of self-fertilising shrubs drove Quidditch straight out of his mind, making him groan instead

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A/N

And it's finally here! The reason that we started this account and the story we've been working on all year and has caused me many tears

This one will be managed by me, but Bunny's written some of it too.

*whispers* also look forward to a super secret project to be uploaded at Christmas (I know what it is but that's about it because bunny won't let me read it :c)

Hope you liked it? Next chapter should be up in two days time

~Unicorn