First impressions
Orchideous
It was late October and that meant three things for the students at Hogwarts. The Hogsmead excursion, Halloween and most importantly the start of quidditch season.
The first match to kick off the year would be Slytherin vs Hufflepuff on the first of November. Although some were disappointed that due to the match they wouldn't be able to celebrate Halloween the way they wanted (especially a certain Oh Sehun) but the majority of the players were excited and vowed to start the season off strong.
Lee Taemin was one of those players, although he was the fastest seeker Slytherin has seen in a century it was not a natural born talent. Taemin practiced for years, even before he came to Hogwarts in hopes of trying to impress his father. Sadly it didn't work but after the years of dedication Taemin realised he truly enjoyed the sport.
He was in the middle of the quidditch pitch before practice, his nimbus 3000 in his right hand. He observed his teammates. Kim Yerim, the youngest addition to the team as she was only a second year and Park Sooyoung the third year known as Joy, they were the two newest chasers. Despite their girlish and dainty appearance the two were the reincarnation of the devil himself.
"Okay that's a little exaggerated but still" Taemin thought as he imagined the two with horns and red tails. He looked over to see Kai who was a beater along with Oh Sehun, the most irresponsible fourth year Taemin has ever seen. He never understood why the majority of his year thought he was under the influence of drugs when someone like Sehun existed.
Sehun was a lanky muggle born who had bloodshot eyes most of the time, Kai would often tell him it was due to a medical condition the younger had but Taemin found that hard to believe when Sehun spewed philosophical nonsense every day.
There was Cho Kyuhyun, a seventh year keeper who looked completely uninterested in life and the people he was around, Taemin barely knew anything about him but Jinki once told him he had a disturbing talent in defence against the dark arts.
Taemin's eyes finally scanned over their captain, a trunk in tow. She looked angry as she saw her team slacking off. She opened the trunk filled with various quaffles, strapped down bludgers and a single golden snitch. She unstrapped the already fidgeting bludger and with impressive strength threw it straight into Sehun's chest, sending him flying backwards and leaving him out of breath. "Kim! Oh! Stop ing around, get in the air and hit that thing!" Jessica barked, Kai and Sehun quickly grabbed their bats, mounted their brooms and took off, bludger following close behind.
She then turned her attention to Taemin picked the snitch from the trunk and held it in front of him in her open palm. Taemin reached for it before Jessica lifted her palm extremely quickly, sending the snitch flying into the sky while smirking.
"Lee, fetch"
"I'm not a ing dog for Merlins sake" he thought as he mounted his broom. He could hear the younger chasers sniggering at him and Jessica barking orders to Kyuhyun.
Practice went that way for the rest of the afternoon but as it was already autumn; daylight was scarce and soon enough it became dark making it immensely difficult to see the tiny flying snitch. This was when they stopped and the entire team went over their strategies, Taemin not needed for this excused himself and left for the changing rooms. He wanted to leave before the the Hufflepuff team arrived for their practice.
Slytherin and Hufflepuff had the pitch on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; swapping the time slots accordingly while gryfinndor and ravenclaw had Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. He changed back into his uniform while he was thinking about the match, he smirked. It was only Hufflepuff so they were sure to do well, He knew he shouldn't be cocky but with opponents like them it was hard not to be.
*
Jonghyun smiled as he finally made it to the owlery. The owlery was Jonghyuns second favourite tower in castle, with a perfect view of the quidditch pitch on the right and the forbidden forest on the left. Not to mention how Jonghyun loved owls, people often said their big eyes and wise image reminded them of him but he was told he resembled a puppy even more so.
He searched through the parliaments of owls and spotted his family's tawny one, he saw envelopes in its talons and whistled it over.
He held out his arm for it to land and took them, "thank you, Comme des" Jonghyun said and the owl squawked in response before flying up into the higher tier of the tower.
Jonghyun opened the one that was addressed to him and saw there was another envelope addressed to Kibum.
"I'll give it to him before dinner" Jonghyun said to no one in particular.
"Dear Jonghyun" it read
"How are you darling? Your father and I are doing well. Roo has been very lonely, we believe she misses you" Jonghyun felt sad at the mention of his beloved dog.
"Your slip for Hogsmead will also be in the envelope (don't worry I didn't forget this time) Kibums is in his letter, I assume you will read this before him so if you could please pass it to him.
I hope you are both doing well.
I hope you are eating, Jonghyun and your father is very concerned about you sleeping. I hope you are taking your potions"
After trying every muggle remedy for his insomnia, Jonghyuns mother finally convinced his father to allow him to drink sleeping potions. Jonghyun hated them, he preferred falling asleep naturally. He hated lying to his parents and Kibum telling them he takes them when he really empties them into a sink every night but he simply couldn't handle forced sleep.
"Will you be joining us for Christmas? Your grandmother will be with us (my mother, don't worry your pretty little head)"
Jonghyun laughed at that. His father was a muggle and apart from him the entirety of his family have no idea his wife and children were anything other than normal. It was an absolute disaster trying to hide the boys abilities when they were younger. Jonghyun remembers the distress he and Kibum put their grandparents through when they used to babysit.
His favourite memory being when Kibum had the flu and whenever he sneezed it would cause him to accidentally apparate to a different part of the room and at one point the roof of their two story house.
"Please take care of yourself and Kibum, I love you so much my pretty little son. We'll wait for your reply
Love mother and father"
Jonghyun felt homesick, he loved Hogwarts as it was his second home but he still missed his parents, his dog, his muggle life.
he read his permission slip for Hogsmead and smiled as he looked at his mothers elegant signature And his fathers scrawled signature; while he was making his way out of the tower a snich suddenly flew past him, followed by someone on a broom. That someone didn't see him nor did Jonghyun recognise him until he saw green robes and blonde hair make their way back to the quidditch pitch.
"Obviously it's Taemin" Jonghyun thought, he knew he was staring but the other couldn't see him, leaving him to admire Taemin in peace. Fawning over his flying, if only he was closer "I bet he looks so handsome" Jonghyun blushed when he realised how creepy he must seem and hurried out of the tower and into the west wing of the castle.
He was too busy trying to flee the scene he didn't notice he bumped into someone. Baekhyun.
"Wooooooow there Jjong, where are you going in such a rush hmmmm?"
Jonghyun was still flustered and answered with "n-no where!"
Baekhyun looked to his right and saw the slytherin team practicing, he raised an eyebrow before giggling "oooooohh I get it, you were peeping!" "n-no!" "It's okay Jjong we all do it at some point, besides they have some really cute beaters" Baekhyun winked as he walked into the tower leaving Jonghyun embarrassed. Baekhyun was a good friend but sometimes just too much. Jonghyun composed himself and went on his way.
*
Kibum was smoking in the boat house, overlooking the black lake.
It was a disgusting habit he picked up from his muggle friends. Smoking was not permitted at Hogwarts but muggle borns, halfbloods and curious purebloods found their way around the rules. The boat house was barely maintained and was a secluded area that let them smoke in peace. they learned charms to remove the smell from their robes and kept their cigarettes within the floorboards; out of sight.
Kibum knew it could kill him, he could feel his lungs being lined with tar but he couldn't stop. He was addicted. "At least Jongie hasn't picked this up" Kibum sighed "your brother is far too good for this, Kibum" said a new voice. Kibum looked up from his spot on the floor to see Tao standing next to him. Huang Zitao was a fourth year ravenclaw that Kibum didn't know very well.
He slumped down next to Kibum and pulled out an unlit cigarette, Kibum passed him his gold plated lighter. "you know my brother?" Kibum asked not really interested; just trying to make conversation.
"Believe it or not, not many people don't know your brother. Well they don't know him as your brother, they know him as Jonghyun. you two are so different it's hard to believe you're twins And besides a lot of Ravenclaws complain about him the common room saying how 'he stole their top spot in this subject' or some stupid like that"
Kibum scoffed "well that's their own problem not his"
They remained silent like that for a while it was already dark the only light came from the castle.
"Kibum-ah?" Tao asked still looking out to the black lake "hm?" "Do you ever want to leave this place?"
Kibum thought about it. He always wondered if he would fit better in muggle society instead of the wizarding world. Muggles seemed to be more his style, but there was Jonghyun and there was magic, Kibum loved magic but hated the responsibility that came with it.
"I do, but I never will" he said not looking at Tao, he wondered if Jonghyun ever felt that way "he probably doesn't, he loves magic too much, he's too good at it, He's too good for the cruel muggle world"; Tao pulled him out of thoughts "if you thought i meant the wizarding world then me neither. I meant Hogwarts, do you wanna leave Hogwarts"
Kibum then looked at Tao and blinked at him, he sighed before taking another puff of his cigarette "no" he answered clearly. He knew where this was going, lately so many pureblood students were 'dropping out'. "There was Yifan, Luhan and now sulli" Kibum thought sadly "and I really liked sulli"
"Kibum-ah, I feel like something bad is gonna happen. I have to get out before hits the fan" Tao said ominously, he threw his cigarette into the lake before standing up "maybe I'll see you around?"
"Probably not" Kibum answered dryly
Tao nodded before adding "also your brother is looking for you" he stalked back to the castle leaving Kibum alone.
At the mention of his brother Kibum immediately tossed his cigarette into the lake as well. Even though they were twins Kibum as always felt as if he was the older brother (technically Jonghyun was older, being born only a few hours before him) Jonghyun was a sickly baby and very small, Kibum knew it was his fault. He was a very healthy infant and he felt as if he stole Jonghyuns strength. When Jonghyun started to get bullied Kibum felt disgust for the first time.
To see others take advantage of someone so vulnerable "why? Because he's different? Kids are so dumb" maybe that was why Kibum was so defensive of him even now. He never means to be rude but if it's for Jonghyun then he'll do whatever to keep him safe, to defend him even if that means being the wall separating Jonghyun from others.
He remembered what happened weeks prior with Taemin and Kibum felt guilty for accusing him. His first impression of Taemin was that he was a spoilt brat and he wasn't wrong. Taemin was a brat but many people said the same thing about Kibum. Kibum was always gentle around Jonghyun and those he cared about, "maybe Lee is the same, maybe we're not so different after all"
The other night when Taemin had his nightmare he could've sworn he heard his brothers name amongst the screams.
*
"Bummie!" Jonghyun called as he saw a flash of violet pass him in the courtyard. The moment Kibum heard his voice he turned his head and greeted his twin with a smile. Jonghyun held out his envelope, Kibums eyes immediately lit up, he saw the beautiful written "to Kibum" and he needed no explanation of who the letter came from.
"She also remembered our Hogsmeads slips" Jonghyun added "where were you by the way? I was looking everywhere for you trying to give this to you" Jonghyun asked more curious than concerned. Kibum rapidly created a story in his head before speaking "oh I was just chatting up Arisa, you know me" Jonghyun nodded in understanding, he knew his brother had been pursuing a beautiful Ravenclaw by the name of Yagi Arisa for quite some time now.
"Are you going with her to Hogsmead?"
" I actually forgot to ask her about that" Kibum cursed in his head "yeah I think I am, you have fun with Choi" Kibum said with a smile and Jonghyun smiled in return.
Jonghyun linked arms with his twin "let's go to dinner okay?" Kibum didn't reply, his appetite left because of his casual afternoon smoke. He led Jonghyun to the great hall anyway, praying Jonghyun wouldn't be able to smell his shameful habit.
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