33: Chanyeol doesn't need magic to find himself a Prince Charming, but he can admit that it certainly helps. Pairing!ChanHo, HarryPotter!AU, HighSchool!Fluff

Chanyeol didn't believe in soulmates anymore than the next person, but he'd read Harry Potter's memoir in school just like every other Hogwarts sixth year had, so at the very least Chanyeol could believe in the kind of love Lilly and James had for each other and for their son. He liked to call his approach to romance a sort of wary optimism, then, under which he constantly searched for his "Prince Charming," while simultaneously rationalizing the disappointment that swallowed him when his prince always failed to appear.

"The one" for Chanyeol hadn't been Yixing, who he'd met during fourth year when Higwarts finally felt itself ready to host the Triwizard Tournament again. The Chinese student had come from an international school that specialized in herbology; he had dimples and was older, so Chanyeol was naturally smitten, but Yixing also had a boyfriend back in China named Luhan, and hadn't been interested in Chanyeol the same way Chanyeol was in him.

At the start of his fifth year, Chanyeol watched a Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff Quidditch match, and he'd thought for a while that maybe Kris was it for him instead. They dated for a while, but Kris' commitment to his house and his sport overruled everything else, and Chanyeol grew tired of being the Quidditch captains "dirty little Hufflepuff secret."

After those two unfortunate romantic experiences, Chanyeol focused on loving himself. One of his roommates, Baekhyun, had giggled and assumed Chanyeol meant something ual by that, but really Chanyeol just wanted to become his best self. That was still about his future partner, in some respect, because he wanted to be a person that anyone would be proud to be with; mostly, though, his project of self-appreciation was for himself—a way for Chanyeol to start believing that he deserved more than just to settle for second best.

That's why he was in Walmart, actually; he was staying with a distant cousin of his mother's for the summer, studying preemptively for his OWLS and trying to adapt to the strangeness of life in the middle of the United States. Kansas was an adjustment, indeed, but Chanyeol liked to focus on the positives, like barbecue and the people's general kindness, instead of the negatives, like the enormous distance between here and England, or the fact that his mother had shipped him off to America so she could go cruising with her newest husband. When he'd naively wondered if anyone had ever heard of a Tesco in this country, his mother's cousin had laughed and suggested Walmart as an acceptable shopping alternative, and now there he was.

Chanyeol was searching for Molly Weasley's newly released book on sweater knitting—she was a wizarding legend, of course, but wrote muggle books in her retired free time; this was still part of his pursuit of personal growth, and he thought that knowing how to knit a Christmas sweater for whomever his Prince Charming was would be a splendid skill to learn. He was flipping through the pages and wondering if transfiguring some chopsticks into knitting needles would be enough to get him in trouble for underage magic, when a tap on his shoulder startled him out of his thoughts.

"Excuse me," a voice said politely. Chanyeol snapped the book shut and stuffed it under his arm as he turned around to face a shorter Asian boy with dark hair and a kind face. "Can I help you with something?"

Chanyeol noticed the boy was in an apron and his name tag read "Suho" before the other continued, "You look a little lost."

"Just in thought," Chanyeol admitted, his British accent a pleasantly strong contrast with Suho's southern-Midwestern one. He didn't really want to admit to the cute muggle in front of him that he was much more a doer than a thinker, actually, so Chanyeol just smiled sort of awkwardly and started turning back toward the books.

"You knit?" Suho asked suddenly, and almost desperately, as if he really wanted to keep Chanyeol's attention on himself. "Molly's a genius at that sort of thing."

"Not yet," Chanyeol admitted, facing Suho head on again and scratching the back of his neck uncomfortably. "I'd like to learn, though."

Suho shyly muttered a tentative, "I could teach you," before he emitted a strange sort of high pitched noise that startled Chanyeol enough to make the taller boy swear, "Gandalf's beard!"

His distinctly "wizard swear" sparked recognition in Suho's eyes, and the Walmart employee whispered furtively, "I thought you were a muggle." At that point, Suho didn't even care that Chanyeol had heard, or had just ignored, Suho's earlier offer; the boy was just excited to meet another wizard out in the middle of nowhere America.

"I thought you were a muggle too!" Chanyeol's whisper was a lot louder and more excited. "You've no idea how bored I've been this summer, surrounded by non-magic people who know but don't understand."

Suho's smile was brighter than the fluorescent bulbs that lit Walmart over head, and it grew even wider when Chanyeol added, "And you want to maybe include knitting needles into that offer of yours? I'd charm some, but I'm not 18 yet."

The taller boy was surprised when Suho admitted to being a recent graduate a US magical institution a lot like Hogwarts, and offered to charm anything Chanyeol liked, though he did already own some knitting needles anyway.

Chanyeol winked down at the boy, asking when Suho's shift ended because the elder had already "charmed" Chanyeol quite sufficiently. Suho blushed cutely but agreed to meet Chanyeol later that afternoon for coffee and knitting, and maybe other things, too.

Chanyeol put Molly's book back on the shelf with a happy sigh as he waved Suho back to work with an excited promise of "See you later!" He wasn't entirely sure, yet, what to make of Suho, and certainly couldn't tell if their upcoming date would lead to something more. He hoped it would, though; and maybe he wasn't Chanyeol's Prince Charming yet, but Chanyeol certainly believed that Suho maybe could be.