Care of Magical Creatures was something Kim Joonmyeon did not see himself continuing to study. He wasn’t even all that interested in the subject but that didn’t matter.

It was Friday, and Care of Magical Creatures was the last class before lunch. The professor had decided to let them into a certain area in the Forbidden Forest so that they can observe a magical creature Joonmyeon didn’t manage to catch the name of.

Honestly speaking, the subject itself wasn’t his cup of tea, but one Zhang Yixing sure loved it, so over the past two years, he had learned to tolerate what he had always thought was an entirely useless subject.

“You look tired,” Yixing said, suddenly appearing in front of him, brows knitted together in concern. He pressed the back of his hand against Joonmyeon’s forehead and if it had been any other person, Joonmyeon would have certainly hexed them into next week and maybe even thrown in a detention but it was Yixing so that was okay.

A soft smile made its way onto his face and he brushed Yixing’s brown bangs out of the boy’s face, “I’m fine, Xing,” he said reassuringly. “I just hate walking. You know that.”

“Do you want me to carry you?”

At this, Joonmyeon laughed. Most people would’ve meant it sarcastically but there was no doubt in his mind that Yixing was actually sincere with his offer. He watched the sixth-year Hufflepuff fret over him for a few more minutes, and soaked in the attention he was given.

He enjoyed the change in his posture and personality. While usually dazed and carefree, when worried, Yixing had that determined look in his eyes and his forehead would crinkle slightly as he pursed his lips in concentration, showing off his deep dimples.

He leaned forward, pressing a kiss against Yixing’s pursed lips and he smiled at the immediate reaction he got. Yixing’s eyes widened slightly as he looked at Joonmyeon and he broke out in a smile, showing off his dimples even more.

“I don’t need to be carried, Prince Charming,” said Joonmyeon as he shrugged off his cloak and proceeded to loosen his tie. The forest was pretty warm and humid. “Did you find whatever we’re supposed to find?”

Yixing nodded, opening his sketchbook to show Joonmyeon a near precise drawing of a three horned beetle. “I caught one, drew it and let it go,” he informed proudly.

Though Joonmyeon himself didn’t appreciate the subject all that much, he admired Yixing’s passion for it.

Only twenty minutes into the forest and Yixing had already caught, drew and released the magical creature they were studying, meaning that they were now free for the rest of the period.

They found a quiet spot under an old tree where the roots were huge and gnarled, and made themselves comfortable. They sat next to each other, leaning against the coarse bark and for a while, just sat there and enjoyed the white noise of the forest.

The only reason Joonmyeon ultimately chose to continue Care of Magical Creatures, was because Yixing would always finish their assignment really early so that they would be able to just spend time together.

“We barely got to see each other this week,” said Joonmyeon softly. “What a hectic one it’s been.”

Yixing hummed in agreement. “I was looking for a new Keeper for the Quidditch team. Loria graduated last year.”

“That’s a shame,” Joonmyeon murmured. “She was a great Keeper.”

“What have you been doing?”

He shrugged noncommittally, “Nothing much. Just studying, I guess.”

“You should join a sports club or something,” said Yixing, reaching out to lace his pale fingers with Joonmyeon’s and as usual, starting to rub soothing circles on the back of his hand. “I would suggest Quidditch, but you hate physical activities in general. So what's the use, right?"

“I don’t hate it," Joonmyeon protested, albeit weakly. “I just… don’t really love it either.”

“Exercise’s good.”

“Exercise is tiring. I duel. That should be enough.”

“Only lazy people say that. Duelling isn't really considered a sport though.”

A smile made its way onto Joonmyeon’s face again and he leaned onto Yixing, resting his weight there. “I’ve been handling detentions. Mostly the Ravenclaws and the Gryffindors. I have one tomorrow.”

“Who will you watch tomorrow?”

“Chanyeol. He got into that stupid duel with Zitao and Sehun. He’s going to be polishing the staircase.”

Yixing frowned slightly, “Tao and Sehun?”

“Yifan let them go, as usual,” Joonmyeon rolled his eyes.

“That’s a bit harsh for Chanyeol, isn’t it? Especially when Tao and Sehun are not getting punished.”

“It is,” Joonmyeon agreed, nestling his head on Yixing’s shoulder as he let out a small sigh. “But you know Yifan won’t punish his own house willingly and I don’t think anyone really wants to fight with him over it.”

The pair sat and exchanged idle chat for the next hour and somewhere along the way, Joonmyeon fell asleep. After Yixing realized that Joonmyeon dozed off, he smiled to himself.

This happened often.

Joonmyeon was always too busy for his own good. Everyone held high expectations for him, from his family to his peers, and through constant hard work and studying, he managed to meet every expectation placed on him. Though, it did come with a cost.

Joonmyeon would push himself to meet the expectations. That meant sometimes, especially during the exam period, he would be burying himself in mountains of books and rivers of parchment. He took several elective classes to satisfy his family’s demands and therefore, he would always be swamped in work and additionally, his prefect duties on top of it.

Yixing teased the Ravenclaw about not joining a physically active club, but he knew, that even as perfect as Joonmyeon was, the prefect knew his own limit.

He also knew that Joonmyeon’s family doesn’t like him taking an unbeneficial subject like Care of Magical Creatures, which would not help him at all in the future. In fact, it was obvious that Joonmyeon himself wasn’t fond of the subject, but he took it to be able to spend more time with Yixing, so the Hufflepuff couldn’t help but feel slightly guilty over it. Taking the class meant extra work for Joonmyeon.

Yixing liked to see Joonmyeon sleeping, albeit not in the creepy way. It was just that he looked so much more at peace when he wasn’t awake and stressing. The Hufflepuff realized after a while, that Joonmyeon started to relax more around him. He smiled more sincerely and his forehead didn’t crinkle as much. It felt great knowing the effect he had on Joonmyeon.

When the period was finally up, Yixing sighed to himself, slightly disappointed that their time together was coming to an end, and he wouldn’t see Joonmyeon until classes were over.

“Wake up, Joonmyeon,” he whispered quietly, almost inaudibly, but Joonmyeon heard him.

With a small yawn, the Ravenclaw sat up, trying to blink the sleep out of his eyes. “How long was I out?” he asked.

“Not long,” Yixing lied. Joonmyeon hated wasting his time and in his books, falling asleep during the day fell under the category of wasting time; but he needed those short periods of rest to recover. “Just five minutes I think. I didn’t notice.”

He hummed, nodding slowly. “Is class over?”

“It is.”

It took them several more minutes to actually get up and dust themselves off. Thankfully, the earth was dry and it didn’t stick to the fabric of their clothing that much. After cleaning every little speck of dirt off of them –Joonmyeon had an image to uphold– they headed back to the castle together, walking intimately close to one another, fingers linked together.

When they reached the entrance of the Great Hall, they stopped.

“I’ll tag along for the detention tomorrow. Is that fine?” Yixing asked, still not letting go of their intertwined hands.

Pleased by the idea, Joonmyeon nodded happily, cracking a smile. “That’d be great, honestly.”

It was a butterfly effect. Seeing Joonmyeon smile automatically made Yixing smile and his eyes turned into small crescents, and his dimples became apparent again. “Send me the time and location and I’ll be there.”

“Will do.”

Students walked past them and into the Great Hall, all anticipating the lunch cooked up by the dutiful house elves the castle housed. Yixing sighed again and he raised their joined hands, kissing the back of Joonmyeon’s hand.

“I’ll see you later, okay?” he said, still smiling brightly. “Try to eat something, alright?”

Again, the Ravenclaw nodded, feeling slightly shy.

It’s been two years and he was still not used to the affection and attention Yixing showered him in. He felt a tinge of disappointment when Yixing let go of his hand and they walked into hall. After one last glance to each other, they parted ways and went to their respective tables.

When Joonmyeon reached the Ravenclaw table, his eyes scanned for his friends and he found them sitting somewhere in the middle of the large group.

“Thought you and Yixing wouldn’t let go of each other,” Byun Baekhyun greeted him, the minute he slid in next to Kyungsoo.

“Just because you don’t have a boyfriend, doesn’t mean you can take it out on those of us who do,” Joonmyeon said teasingly to the boy sitting opposite of him.

Baekhyun harrumphed childishly and turned away with his nose high up in the air, “Kyungsoo doesn’t have a boyfriend either, does he?” the pure-blood said, gesturing to the fourth year who was sipping his lemon tea.

“Unlike you, I’m not looking for one,” Kyungsoo said, a smirk playing on his lips.

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Joonmyeon in a teasing tone, looking at Kyungsoo with a knowing glint in his eyes. “I can smell something brewing between you and baby bro Jongin. No?”

“The only things you can smell is books and Yixing’s arse,” Kyungsoo muttered, loud enough for Baekhyun and Joonmyeon to hear to which made Baekhyun snigger.

“You’re no better, ByunBaek,” said Kyungsoo. “Mr I’m-too-good-for-everyone. Get over yourself and maybe someone will end up liking you.”

“Oogh,” Joonmyeon said, pulling a bowl of chicken soup near him. “What’s got you to be this salty, Soo?”

Kyungsoo shrugged noncommittally, scooping steaming soup into his mouth. “I’m always salty.”

“Fair enough—”

“—not as salty as this soup,” Baekhyun cuts in, wrinkling his nose. “What did they do, spill a whole shaker in it?”

After drinking half the bowl, Joonmyeon felt full. He ended up observing the students around the Hall again and his eyes landed on his friends.

Over at the Slytherin table, as expected, Yifan was eating on his own. He didn’t look to his left or right and continued on eating in peace. No one bothered him but that was normal. There was no reason to poke a dragon in the eye without reason. Somewhere down the table, he saw Zitao and Sehun laughing off about something. They were probably the loudest ones at the table.

Generally, the Slytherin table was quite peaceful and everyone ate in silence, or at the very most, they would have a quiet chatter going on. Sehun and ZItao completely ruined any serenity to be maintained at their table with their obnoxious laughter and loud conversation.

From the Slytherin table, he moved on to the Hufflepuffs. He could pick out Yixing’s tuff of brown hair even across the Great Hall. The boy was eating with his own friends, smiling and chattering away in an excited buzz. Due to his friendly demeanour and easy going personality, he made friends quite easily and people liked to be around him. It was always nice to see Yixing look so relaxed. As if knowing he was looking, Yixing looked up and caught his eyes and his mouth pulled up in a smile almost instantly, and Joonmyeon found himself smiling right back.

Finally, his eyes travelled to the Gryffindor table. They were probably the most boisterous table out of the four. Excited chatter came from all along the table and everyone looked like they were having the time of their lives, even if they were just having lunch. There was Minseok chatting with an enthusiastic-looking Luhan who was accentuating a story he was telling with wild hand gestures, while the former merely nodded along, talking back every time Luhan took a break for air.

Only a few seats away from the two seventh-years, Jongdae was sitting with Chanyeol. They were talking in hushed whispers from the looks of it and every few seconds, they would look in Minseok’s way, and Joonmyeon just knew they were talking about a new prank they were going to do. The fifth-year duo had big grins on their faces and it seemed familiar. It was their distinctive mischief-making grins and Joonmyeon sighed, thinking about what it might mean.

Two people to their right, was Jongin; Joonmyeon’s youngest sibling. The third-year was probably the oddest one out at the table. While everyone else was hyped, he was eating alone. No one had bothered to make conversation with him.

He looked at the time on his watch and decided to get going. He had Ancient Runes in ten minutes and the classroom it was held in was quite a distance away from the Great Hall.

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo bid him a farewell, as he slung his bag over his shoulder, closing the cap of his water bottle he had just refilled.

The next morning, when Jongdae woke up, he nearly fell off of his bed.

At the foot of his bed, he saw a pair of familiar looking seventh year students.

“Oh my ,” he cursed, rapidly blinking as he backed himself up against the headboard, pulling his covers over his exposed chest.

“Get ready, Jongdae,” said Minseok, rolling his eyes at the reaction he got. It wasn’t his idea to wait for Jongdae to wake up like this. It was Luhan. It was always Luhan. “Detention starts in twenty minutes. Get ready.”

“Okay,” Jongdae said, still not processing the situation. “Okay. I know. You told me yesterday. I would’ve been awake without you here. What I don’t get, is why the , are you two waiting for me to wake up like psychotic loan sharks?”

Luhan laughed, carding his fingers through his honey-brown hair. “I would just like to inform you, my darling Keeper, that I had to postpone Quidditch practice for today because of you and Chanyeol over there.”

It took a lot of his morning willpower to not roll his eyes to that. Luhan was all fun and play until it came to Quidditch. Being the captain of the house team for a total of three years already, he was dead serious about the game. He had never lost the cup yet and he doesn’t intend to this year either.

“You know who’s going to use the pitch now? Yifan’s team. The Slytherins! We’re missing out on a practice and they get extra!”

Never mind who used the pitch, it was too early to hear Luhan rant about Quidditch right now.

“Huang and Oh are supposed to serve detention too but no, Wu didn’t give them any,” Jongdae whined, not wanting to take the entire fall.

Eyes gleaming with so-called justice, Luhan rounded up on Minseok. “You should’ve given them a detention!” he nearly boomed, successfully waking up the entire room. “Fanfan didn’t give them any because he didn’t want them to miss out on practice! It’s a conspiracy!”

Once again, Minseok rolled his eyes, pushing Luhan back gently. “Had I given them a detention, he would’ve given Jongdae and Chanyeol a month’s double detention. You know how bent he gets when someone goes after his house.”

Jongdae’s ears perked at this new piece of information and he grinned, raising a suggestive brow at the Head Boy, “So you were defending me? That’s touching.”

“Us, Jongdae,” came a voice from the bed next to his. Chanyeol’s head popped out of the sheets and he smirked at his best friend. “He was defending us.”

Knowing that the other occupants of the room were up, Minseok took it as their cue to go. “You’re meeting up with Joonmyeon at ten later. Don’t be late,” he said to Chanyeol. He grabbed Luhan by the arm and dragged the still steaming boy out of the room. 

The second the door closed behind the pair, Jongdae threw his used sock at Chanyeol to which he ducked to avoid. “You’re such a bastard. And it’s not even seven yet.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” Chanyeol snickered, disappearing back into his sheets. It was a Saturday morning and he didn’t need to be up till ten. He still had a few hours to spare. It didn’t take a genius to do the math.

Unlike him, Jongdae was forced to wake up. He rolled out of his bed and groggily headed towards the bathroom, ignoring the pitying looks his roommates gave him.

When he stepped into what the students liked to call the Data Storage Room, he was surprised to see Minseok sitting behind the sole table in the room. Head Boys don’t usually take detention duty.

It was a big room but there wasn’t much space to move around. The room was dominated by shelves upon shelves and each rack was filled up with bundles of files.

“No one else wanted to handle your detention,” said Minseok, answering the unasked question lingering in the air. “One of the professors messed up aisle 7, shelf number 8. Go clean it up.”

Jongdae nodded obediently, still not awake enough to come up with a witty comeback. He searched for the seventh aisle and nearly wept at the sight of the disaster.

Messed up wasn’t the word for this catastrophe. Shelf number 8 was completely gone, everything on the ground; files and the papers that were supposed to be in the files. Jongdae knew he would have to arrange everything by date and that Minseok would know if it wasn’t.

All this without magic.

He started his work by gathering up all the files and papers into several piles and set it in front of him. Every pile was stacked high and he knew that even one mistake from his end would cause everything to go back to square one. He sat down in the middle of the piles of files and started rearranging them by date, opening each file and looking at the fine print of the papers to see the exact date it was published on.

Not going to lie, it was tedious work. Trying to find the file the papers belonged to took up a majority of his time. He wondered if someone came in and trashed the shelf, or the professor just had really ty, clumsy hands. After the files were in order, with all the papers inside them, he went around the room to find the ladder. It was in aisle 32 and was pretty heavy. Now that he had the ladder and the files were in order, he picked them up in bundles, being careful as to not drop even one piece of paper.

The Gryffindor had started the chore at seven in the morning and when he finished, it was just shy of one in the afternoon.

Lunch, regrettably, was over by that time and he felt his stomach grumble, demanding food after six long hours of labour.

When he headed back to the entrance of the room, Minseok was still there, doing what he was doing six hours ago. He had thick hardcover books on the table and a long parchment spread out. A bottle of ink sat open on the top right corner of the parchment, holding it down. The seventh-year had stopped writing and was reading a paragraph from one of the many books that was spread open on the oak table. He continued to write after several seconds of reference, his writing small and neat, nothing like the chicken scratch Jongdae called his own handwriting.

The Head Boy didn’t stop writing until the whole parchment was nearly full. The sound of the quill against the parchment was near soothing and Minseok’s gracefulness as he wrote was mesmerizing. He managed to not spill even one small spot of ink on the parchment too.

Sometimes, Jongdae honestly wondered if Minseok was human. He was perfect in a sense. Perfect grades, spotless behaviour, great athlete and an honest conscience. He had no obvious flaws and he was always so determined and sure. He always knew how to handle a situation, no matter how absurd and surprising it was. He was never fazed by anything and he could never be caught off guard.

In short, Kim Minseok was a near perfect being.

Was he really just human?

“Are you done rearranging the shelf?” Minseok asked him, putting down his quill as he read the last few lines of his assignment.

“If that’s what you call it,” Jongdae muttered irritably.

Minseok cracked a small grin at that but didn’t reply. He closed the bottle of ink and rolled up the parchment, tying it up with a short string. He closed the books and put it in his charmed bag. There was no way a normal bag could fit six thick books without bulking up considerably.

“You owe me lunch,” said Jongdae.

“Your fault for not finishing earlier.”

“That won’t solve my hunger.”

“It’s not like you won’t just go to the kitchen and grab something to eat,” Minseok said, buckling up his bag as he stood up. “And if worse comes to worst, you’ll just have to hold out till dinner.”

“You didn’t eat either, did you?” Jongdae asked, eyeing the table that was just filled with books just a minute ago. Minseok wouldn’t leave a job halfway done. “You’re not hungry?”

“I’ll survive till dinner,” said Minseok with a shrug. “It’s not like you’ll die from missing lunch. Man up.”

Jongdae groaned, mourning for his stomach’s lack of food as he watched Minseok leave without the slightest sign of guilt on his face.

Bastard.

The water sloshes around in the bucket dangerously, but Park Chanyeol doesn't care. He's too busy trying to scrub a stubborn stain on the marble stairs. He was tasked with making the whole staircase sparkle.

Students pass by, jostling each other on their way to the Great Hall or the courtyard, while some are just observing the Gryffindor carry out his punishment. They were either sadistic or they just didn’t like him, mainly because they were now standing on the very staircase he had just, tiredly, finished polishing.

"Really had to go with the most obvious staircase, didn't you?" Chanyeol grumbled at the prefect responsible for all his troubles, Kim Joonmyeon.

"You brought this onto yourself, Chanyeol," Joonmyeon murmured back, flipping a page from the book he was reading, a book about high level alchemy.

The Gryffindor scrubbed harder at the stain, which seemed to be getting more obvious the harder he rubbed.

"Well, you really outdid yourself there, Yeollie," Yixing cut in, nibbling on a blue liquorice stick. "I haven't seen Minseok so mad in a long, long, time."

The younger wrung the rag, frustrated, shaking out excess water all over the floor and his own cloak. "I know, Yixing. But really? The grand staircase, outside of the Great Hall? While Jongdae gets to stay in an isolated room with Minseok?"

"A punishment is a punishment, right, Joonmyeon?" the Hufflepuff nudged the other sixth-year, before taking another bite of the candy and continuing his chatter, without waiting for a response from the Ravenclaw prefect. "By the way, Chanyeol, did you forget you're a wizard or something? You could just siphon the rag dry with a spell."

"Great. A stab at my blood status now? That's low, Yixing, even for you," the Gryffindor jokes back. "I'll hex you."

"Excuse me," Joonmyeon said in a monotone, not even looking up from the book he was reading. "There will be no hexing going on here. And no, he can’t use magic, Xing. It’s a physical labour punishment. Magic would make everything he’s doing redundant."

"And Joonmyeon defends his boyfriend once again," Chanyeol proclaimed, dipping his rag back into the full bucket.

But of course, nothing is too far-fetched for the clumsy Gryffindor.

His fingers had just barely brushed the edge of the bucket, when it tips over, spilling its contents all over an unsuspecting student.

It's a Ravenclaw fifth year, and his cloak was now soaking with the dirty water. There's a trail of it running down his cheek, and his eyes were wide open in shock. For a moment there, he saw the fire in the student’s eyes flare and that was enough to make Chanyeol rethink all his life choices.

"…Whoops?" he offered weakly.

Joonmyeon tucked his book into his cloak and trudged down to his fellow Ravenclaw's aid, whipping out his wand and starting to siphon the excess water from his cloak.

"You okay, Baek?”

"I'm fine, just a little wet is all," the student, Baek, replied.  

Chanyeol has seen the ebony-haired, fellow fifth-year during Quidditch matches, but never had he had a motive to cross paths with the pure-blood, even during matches. He admired Byun Baekhyun's swift movements in mid-air, twirling the broom, and reaching slender fingers toward the flitting golden ball.

This was probably the worst first impression he's made on someone in a long time.

And that's actually saying something, especially when it's Chanyeol-related.

Beside Baekhyun was Do Kyungsoo, one of Chanyeol’s close friends. He was also a muggle-born and was just a year younger than himself. He could see from the corner of his eyes that Kyungsoo was sniggering to himself, amused at the situation. He himself was fast enough to avoid getting splashed on.

"...Don't be so clumsy, Park," Baekhyun snapped at him, lifting a now-dry sleeve to wipe at the drop of water clinging to his cheek.

"You know who I am?" Chanyeol asked, surprise written on his face. Though Baekhyun was very close friends to both Kyungsoo and Jongdae, the two of them had never really interacted. To top it all off, Baekhyun was a pureblood and like the rest of the Gryffindor’s bloodline, he had thought Baekhyun wasn’t fond of muggle-borns.

It was stupid of him to think that now that he thought of it. Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were close friends and Kyungsoo was a muggle-born too.  

"Of course," Baekhyun scoffed. "Nearly everyone knows you, thanks to you running havoc for the past five years. Congratulations on becoming infamous."

"Would you like a signature, Byun?" The Gryffindor cheekily offered an ink-stained quill from his cloak pocket.

Baekhyun his heel, striding back up the once-again wet stairs, tossing back a last retort, "No thanks, Park."

Kyungsoo followed behind him, patting Chanyeol’s shoulder in a pitying manner and went up.

“You’re such a klutz,” said Yixing, tucking his wand back in after he conjured up a new bucket of clean water for Chanyeol. “Worse than me.”

“And that’s saying something,” Chanyeol laughed, going back to his work.

Half an hour later, Yixing started helping him. With Yixing’s help, he managed to cut down the time he would’ve spent polishing the staircase by a lot.

He appreciated Joonmyeon looking the other way. The punishment was tiring and generally a pain and without any help, Chanyeol might have had to spend several more hours on it.

By the time he was finished, there was an hour or two left till dinner and thankfully, Joonmyeon had dismissed him. Yixing was resting on one of the steps, drained from the physical labour he had done.

“You’re so nice it came back to bite you in the ,” Joonmyeon said, taking out his handkerchief and proceeded to dab the sweat off of his face. “Was it worth it?”

Yixing nodded, his smile didn’t dim down out of exhaustion. “Did you see his face when we finished? I think he was ready to kiss us.”

Maybe it was just how he was raised, but Joonmyeon never saw the point of tiring yourself out for the sake of another person.

However bizarre it was, he was glad that Yixing had fun. He was the type to be happy because someone else was happy. Joonmyeon knew from the moment he asked to tag along, that he would end up helping Chanyeol out. While usually it would be against the rules, he let it slide because Chanyeol looked sincerely distressed every time a student came back in from the courtyard with dirty shoes, and Yixing had genuinely wanted to help.

The following night, dinner was as loud and rambunctious as it always was at the Gryffindor table. The source of it was now Luhan, who was happy since the Quidditch team managed to practice earlier in the day.

The Quidditch players were relieved; watching their captain eat enough for two people. He downed the glasses of punch and he was telling obnoxious jokes and generally being very Luhan.

It was relieving, since the night before, the whole table was in a state of tensed silence with Luhan shooting anyone who talked a look that was sharp enough to kill. It was scary and everyone was nervous, but Luhan had done a total 360 after he announced the Quidditch practice during breakfast.

Rumour had spread saying that Luhan wanted to duel Yixing, the captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, for the use of the field but Yixing, being the great and understanding guy he was, allowed him to take the field.

So the Gryffindors were in a state of semi-celebration, rejoicing the fact that Luhan wasn’t being an angsty little anymore.

They were borderline partying when Professor Lee, the headmaster of Hogwarts, stood up and clinked his glass thrice, causing a silence to immediately break out all throughout the Hall.

The professor, eyes virtually closed and wrinkles on his forehead, looked at every table, waiting for utter silence to fall upon the student body.

Once there was total silence, he smiled and while his tone was just at a casual volume, the whole Hall could clearly hear him say,

“I have an announcement to make.”

-

a/n: the fact that val and I managed to pump this out so quickly is a miracle. I pulled an allnighter and wrote this in the wee hours of the morning and val had to sort through my morning bull to get this piece.