Jongdae was dangling in the air, a couple of metres above ground. Or, more specifically, he was hanging from a tree; his cloak was stuck to one of its branches. It was the beginning of December and most of the trees surrounding the school area had lost their leaves, exposing their bare branches to the cold air. Releasing a breath, Jongdae could swear that it turned into a cloud of white smoke when meeting with the freezing weather.

He considered his options as he observed the back of his obnoxious Gryffindor arch-enemy (and said enemy’s obnoxious Gryffindor friends) walking further and further away. Muttering a rather obscene ramble of words, Jongdae decided to slowly detach himself from his cloak, letting himself fall down and land ungracefully on his . Ouch.

Standing up, trying to wipe the dirt off of his hurt behind, he realised the cloak was too far up for him to reach. He took out his wand, directed it to the garment and said,

“Accio.”

The cloak detached itself from the tree and landed swiftly in Jongdae’s waiting hands. While putting it on again, Jongdae turned towards the direction of the leaving figures, who were so far away by now that he almost couldn’t distinguish them from each other. He could still recognise who the tall silhouette in the middle belonged to, though. There was nothing he could do to keep his face from heating up in humiliation as he recalled the way the boy had appeared behind him with his usual group of friends, flinging him up a tree with a simple spell. The ringing of the loud, ugly laughter that followed was still haunting Jongdae’s eardrums, and at that moment he didn’t want anything else as much as he wanted revenge.

Knowing that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to run after the group and attack his nemesis from the back, Jongdae started plotting for another payback. Already beginning to get ideas, he smiled slightly to himself. He would get Chanyeol this time.

 

Jongdae didn’t exactly know why he and Chanyeol Park were still doing this. It had started way back in their first year, when Chanyeol had accidentally set fire to Jongdae’s almost-finished essay during a lesson in Charms and Jongdae had to start anew.

Jongdae was usually rather nice to others and easy to forgive people for their mistakes, but there was something about Chanyeol Park that rubbed Jongdae the wrong way. So during a while after that, Jongdae relentlessly made fun of Chanyeol’s accent whenever he could (Chanyeol hadn’t lived in the UK for very long before he started his first year at Hogwarts - while Jongdae, even though he also had Korean ancestry, had lived here his entire life). It was a very mean thing of him to do, but he wasn’t regretful when Chanyeol proved to be just as mean and in return began making fun of Jongdae’s poor broomstick flying skills during their first lesson in the subject. That led to Jongdae casting a spell on Chanyeol that made his already big ears grow even bigger, he even had to be taken to the hospital wing since Jongdae didn’t know how to fix it. A day after that, Chanyeol publicly threw a Dungbomb at him, and ever since then, they’d been at each other’s throats, playing pranks that became worse and worse with time. Even now when they were in their sixth year. Really, Jongdae’s dislike of the other had just become stronger with the years. The mere thought of Chanyeol’s face, the huge eyes, wide obnoxious smile and pointy ears, made Jongdae want to punch it. But he was more sophisticated than that. It was like a competition; they had to perform an act of revenge on the other that was even worse than what had been done before. And Jongdae was not losing against that idiot. No way.

 

That weekend the weather became even worse, with storm-like winds and, again, freezing weather. Not literally freezing though, it was still a few degrees above zero and instead of snowing it rained. That did not stop a whole pack of happy students from visiting Hogsmeade, however. Jongdae had constructed the perfect plan in his head, and it involved getting some goods from the Hogsmeade shops, so the timing was ideal.

He left the school grounds with a group of his usual friends, and when all of them were visiting Honeydukes he sneaked out, knowing his friends were too occupied with the sweets to notice his absence for the next couple of minutes.

He soon reached his destination, the joke shop that had opened a few years ago. Luckily, there were not a lot of people in the shop at the time he entered, which meant less people to see him purchase what he came there for.

The joke shop was a paradise for a prankster like Jongdae, he had explored it many times. However, he was not able to buy many of their items. He didn’t have too much money and he knew his parents wouldn’t be happy about him spending it on stuff like that… but the main concern was the fact that the majority of things for sale in the shop were not allowed at Hogwarts. At all. Therefore he had countless of times strolled around the shop, longingly staring at the items on the shelves, knowing that he couldn’t bring them back to the school area. Today, however, he was going to do that. He had a plan.

Jongdae headed for perhaps the only corner of the shop that he hadn’t really visited, an obnoxiously pink one. Not that Jongdae had anything in particular against the colour pink, but he knew what was displayed in that corner and he had never had the use for it before. Until today, that is. He was going to buy a love potion.

There were bigger and smaller bottles displayed, and of course, none of them were permanent. Jongdae grabbed a smaller one, they were supposed to work for 24 hours and he figured it would be more humane than a week.

Eyeing the price, Jongdae realised that it was rather expensive. It would be worth it though, he knew that, so he hurried to the check-out with the small bottle of light pink liquid in hand.

“You know that these are not allowed at Hogwarts, right?” asked the cashier and Jongdae nodded.

“Yes. I am not bringing it there. I’m not using it myself”, he said with his sincerest smile. Because of the rising popularity of joke articles in the recent years, there were now spells by the gates of the school that disposed of all the potentially dangerous stuff students would bring back. Jongdae learnt this the hard way in his third year.

He soon made his way back to the crowded Honeydukes; his friends were still there as if nothing had happened. Jongdae immediately grabbed a pair of Chocoballs, as he knew those were Chanyeol’s favourites, and some Sugarquills for himself.

After paying Jongdae sneaked out again, hiding in the alley between Honeydukes and the neighbouring house, making sure to stand under the roof of one of the houses to avoid getting hit by the rain. Then he carefully opened the Chocoballs in half, and proceeded to empty the bottle of love potion in the filling of strawberry mousse and clotted cream, mixing it in. The potion was strong, so the contents of the small bottle only consisted of about ten drops.

Closing the Chocoballs again, Jongdae put them back into their package and disposed of the now empty bottle. This was how he would be able to smuggle love potion into the castle.

 

Jongdae arrived back to Hogwarts later that afternoon, after spending the rest of his trip to Hogsmeade with his friends. His trick of spiking the Chocoballs with love potion apparently worked, as he wasn’t affected by the protecting spells by the gates. Well in the dorms, Jongdae constructed a letter, trying to write with a handwriting as different as possible from his own.

Dear Chanyeol,
I am a girl in a year below you, you’ve probably never noticed me, but I’m a big fan of you! I think you’re very handsome and nice, and I always root for you during Quidditch even though we’re not from the same house, haha… I am still too shy to tell you my name, but please accept these gifts (I happen to know that you love Chocoballs, so I bought you some during my visit to Hogsmeade today)!
Love,
?

Jongdae re-read what he had written and cringed. He couldn’t believe he just wrote something like that. It would probably work, though. Chanyeol seemed to be like that, a person who could do anything if he received enough praise.

All the preparations for his plan were now complete, and it was soon time for him to carry through with it. Jongdae left the Slytherin common room in the dungeons and made his way to the classroom where they usually had Charms. He knew Chanyeol was going to have detention with their Charms teacher this late afternoon, since he had overheard it two days ago. It wasn’t uncommon for any of them to have detention, they both caused… disruptions every now and then, but this time only Chanyeol had detention. Jongdae’s plan was to place the Chocoballs right outside the classroom for Chanyeol to find, the latter would probably be stupid enough to eat them.

The love potion worked in a way that the first person the victim lay their eyes on, they would fall intensely in love with (for 24 hours, that is). And in Chanyeol’s case it would be their small, bearded, old Charms professor. Jongdae couldn’t help but snicker at the mere thought of the idea. Chanyeol would really humiliate himself during the next twenty-four hours.

Hearing footsteps in the corridor, Jongdae quickly placed the pair of Chocoballs and the letter outside the door to the classroom, and hid himself behind a corner. It would be hilarious to watch how Chanyeol would react, he just couldn’t miss it. His heart beat faster as the owner of the footsteps approached him, this had to work, it had to be Chanyeol…

The footsteps did belong to Chanyeol, and Jongdae sighed in relief. He didn’t really know who else would be walking through the corridor at this time, but if it was a teacher who noticed the sweets by the door he was in real trouble. But it was not, and Jongdae watched Chanyeol reach the Chocoballs, pick up the letter in curiosity, and start reading it.

Jongdae suddenly became a bit nervous. What if he overestimated Chanyeol’s stupidity, what if the Gryffindor was smart enough to see through his trick, what if all of Jongdae’s efforts had gone to waste?

However, Jongdae yet again released a sigh of relief - a quiet one - when he spotted Chanyeol smiling widely and picking up one of the Chocoballs. Score. Seems like he was as dumb as Jongdae’d thought.

Chanyeol ate the first Chocoball in no time at all, and watching him devouring the second one Jongdae felt a bit hungry. He hadn’t eaten for a long time, and those Chocoballs looked rather delicious. So he couldn’t really help when his stomach started grumbling. Loudly.

Chanyeol stopped eating as it happened, and Jongdae held his breath, trying not to make a sound. Of course, his body betrayed him again and his belly released another noise, this one a tiny bit more quiet, but unfortunately still audible to both him and Chanyeol.

“Who… Who’s there?” the latter asked loudly, and Jongdae hid completely behind the wall of the corner, now he couldn’t see Chanyeol anymore, but he could hear footsteps. . Panicking, he attempted to turn around and run, but tripped over his own feet and landed face first into the floor. Also, right into Chanyeol’s view.

Looking up, Jongdae saw Chanyeol standing about a metre away, surprise painting his face.

“Hey! What are you-” Chanyeol started, but suddenly his voice softened, making him sound more curious than angry. “… doing here?”

Jongdae scrambled to his feet as Chanyeol stared at him, wide-eyed, looking rather… shocked? Or… something else, an emotion Jongdae couldn’t read.

“Um, are you okay?” Jongdae asked as he walked a little closer to Chanyeol, waving in front of his face. Chanyeol was still staring at him as if he hadn’t seen him before in his entire life, and looking closer, Jongdae could see how the pupils of Chanyeol’s eyes had widened in size, making him look as if he was… into him. That’s when Jongdae realised. Holy . Chanyeol was into him. Jongdae had been the one he’d seen first, after all.

…At that moment, Jongdae wished he had the power to turn back time. His plan had taken a different turn, and he was absolutely and royally screwed.

“A-ah, Jongdae, I, um, I haven’t seen you in a long time…” Chanyeol finally said, somewhat awkwardly. Jongdae swallowed. He hated how Chanyeol always referred to him as his full first name. He was the only one who did that. The teachers and the students Jongdae wasn’t close to called him by his family name, and his friends usually called him JD or just Dae (most of them pronouncing it like ‘day’). Chanyeol was the only one he knew (besides his parents, that is) who would call him his full first name, and pronounce it correctly too. It irritated Jongdae, because he always referred to Chanyeol as 'Park’ whenever he spoke to or about him, wanting to keep the distance that came with the contempt they had for each other.

“Er, we actually met yesterday. You used a spell to hang me up in a tree”, he stated matter-of-factly. Chanyeol looked very taken aback.

“I did? Why did I do that? I am so sorry, I, um… I didn’t mean to hurt you, I am really sorry…” he said, looking genuinely sorry, not breaking eye contact. Jongdae felt very uncomfortable. He hadn’t seen this side of Chanyeol before. A nice side. Of course, Chanyeol was usually nice to his friends and, well, most other people, but not him. Maybe because Jongdae was never nice back. Huh.

“Is there anything I can do to make you feel better? To apologise properly?” Chanyeol’s eyes were almost shiny, and his eyelids seemed to become heavier and heavier. Looking at him from under his eyelashes, Chanyeol raised a hand and ran his fingers softly on the side of Jongdae’s face. Jongdae felt said face burn as if Chanyeol had cast a fire spell on it, yet he couldn’t do anything. If his face was on fire, then the rest of his body was the opposite, frozen to the ground, powerless.

“You know, Jongdae…”, Chanyeol continued with cheeks rosier than the love potion, letting his thumb slide slowly against Jongdae’s cheekbone, “I don’t know how to say this, b-but… you’re r-really beautiful-”

Just as Chanyeol took a step closer, the door to the classroom opened, revealing their professor.

“Oh! Park, there you are-” he started but cut himself off as he took in the situation. “…Kim? I’m sorry, am I interrupting something? Er, Park, your detention is starting, so… If you may…”

Their professor pointed to the classroom and Jongdae finally regained enough consciousness to back away from Chanyeol.

“Yeah, Park, go have detention”, he said rather harshly. Chanyeol looked at him disappointedly but still obeyed and followed his teacher into the classroom.

When Jongdae finally was left alone, he slowly wandered back to the dungeons. He didn’t even make it all the way, stopping in the middle of a corridor and sitting down on a bench. Burying his face in his hands, Jongdae released a deep, shaky sigh. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

He rocked himself gently from side to side, trying to calm down. This was really a nightmarish scenario. His prank had failed, and he was going to be facing the consequences of it the following twenty-four hours. . It would not only be bothersome for him to have Chanyeol head-over-heels for him for a day, it would be humiliating him in front of his classmates too. Maybe he could fake a cold tomorrow to skip classes. But what if Chanyeol started going around, running his mouth, talking about him in an embarrassing way? He couldn’t let that happen either. So what could he do?

Jongdae suddenly remembered that his professor in Divination had told him something around a month ago. From looking into his crystal ball and comparing it with a diagram over the movements of the Moon she predicted that this week something horrible was bound to happen to him. Maybe, this was it! Jongdae shuddered. He was in for bad luck. However, it did not exactly fit what the teacher had said, because it would apparently lead to “his deepest secret getting exposed”, and Jongdae didn’t even know what his deepest secret was.

Sighing again, Jongdae got up to his feet and continued his walk. Upon reaching the dungeons, he headed immediately for bed. Whatever he chose to do tomorrow, he knew it would be a long day.

 

Jongdae woke up early the next day, and since he couldn’t manage to go back to sleep he started to think. About today, about yesterday, about what a failure his prank had been. He suddenly remembered that time one of Chanyeol’s tricks had failed, feeling a bit relieved over not having been the only one.

It had happened in their fourth year, and Jongdae had just left the main gates of the castle when Chanyeol appeared behind him.

“Hey, Jongdae! Check this out!” he shouted obnoxiously and before Jongdae could react Chanyeol had uttered some kind of curse. In less than a second Jongdae had felt something rain on him, something that wasn’t water but larger than that, heavier. Not liquid. And brown. A moment after that it had stopped, but Jongdae was covered in cockroaches. Dead cockroaches.

Jongdae had given Chanyeol a glare, then he tried simply shrugging them off, having expected something worse. Chanyeol had looked at him in disbelief.

“Aren’t you freaked out? Okay, they were supposed to be alive, but… still. They’re cockroaches…?”
Jongdae just shook his head, although he had to admit that it would be a lot more uncomfortable with actual living bugs. Chanyeol had looked at him with disappointment not very well hidden in his eyes. However, Jongdae had just walked away in a cool manner, telling Chanyeol to clean up the mess after himself.

Jongdae could not help but smile at the memory. Chanyeol had clearly been the one to embarrass himself that day. One of his faults was that he was always more spontaneous, most of times surprise attacking Jongdae with some curse he’d taught himself. It was probably the kind of foolish rashness Gryffindors were known for, acting before thinking and doing everything in a careless and impetuous manner. Jongdae, on the other hand, liked to use more carefully planned out and prepared pranks. And in spite of the fact that Chanyeol had failed, Jongdae still got his revenge when he during a Potions lesson three days after that had replaced Chanyeol’s doxy eggs with puffer-fish eyes, making Chanyeol’s potion swell over the edges of the cauldron and cover the entire floor in a sticky, foul-smelling liquid. Their teacher, who was usually very fond of Chanyeol, had not been happy.

With those memories in mind, Jongdae felt a bit more optimistic about the day he was about to face. He knew that even though his prank yesterday might have failed, he would still get a proper revenge on Chanyeol sooner or later. He was just going to survive twelve more hours or so.

 

Jongdae was less optimistic when he went to have breakfast later that morning. Because just as he reached the Slytherin table he felt a presence behind him. One that usually did not pester him during breakfast, or during any meal for that matter.

“J-Jongdae, good morning!” Chanyeol patted him on the back, smile brighter than the sun; Jongdae almost had to shield his eyes. “I was wondering if I could sit with you today…?”

Jongdae already spotted some of his housemates glancing at him and Chanyeol curiously, so he felt like he didn’t have a choice.

“Uh, actually I was just leaving, so…” he said abruptly, grabbing a breakfast muffin from the table to eat on his way out of the hall. Chanyeol immediately did the same, and Jongdae realised it would be hard to shake him off today.

“Y'know what, Jongdae…” Chanyeol started as they were walking to whatever direction Jongdae had chosen, he just wanted to escape and didn’t really have a plan in mind. Jongdae did not answer and after looking expectantly at him for about eight seconds, Chanyeol gave up and started speaking again.

“I had trouble sleeping tonight. There was a thing I thought of, and, could… could we go somewhere more, uh, private? I have to tell you something.”

Chanyeol’s unfortunate face was a bright pink colour and Jongdae couldn’t help but think of the equally pink shelf in the joke shop and how he regretted ever going there. Also, he was pretty sure he knew what Chanyeol wanted to tell him, so he had to come up with something fast.

“Actually, don’t we have lessons soon? I have Herbology, what about you?”

Chanyeol pouted as if he were a three-year-old. Ridiculous.

“That’s too bad, I have Astronomy.”

“In the daytime?”

“It’s theoretical. I have practical on Wednesday nights. But I’m sure we share some lessons later today! Besides, there are still forty minutes until classes start.”

“Yeah, but… I have to prepare a project before this lesson and I can’t be disturbed. You can go hang out with your friends instead”, Jongdae tried, wanting to have as little as possible to do with the enamoured Chanyeol today. The latter looked surprised at the mention of his friends, as if he had forgotten about their existence.

“Oh… yeah.”

“Yes. I’ll be going now.”

“Um, okay, bye! Oh, wait!” Chanyeol exclaimed. Jongdae, stupidly enough, stopped in his tracks.
“You have something…”

Chanyeol his thumb and wiped it against a spot on Jongdae’s forehead, near one of his eyebrows. Again, Jongdae was frozen at his spot on the floor, not knowing how to react. After a second that felt more like an hour, Chanyeol removed his finger and smiled widely at Jongdae.

“Done! I’ll see you later!” he said in an almost sing-songy voice and turned around, directing his long legs back to the Great Hall. Jongdae stood silently for a couple of seconds, still not having taken in what exactly had happened.

Finally,

“Ew!” he exclaimed to himself and ran towards the bathrooms to wash that particular spot on his forehead.

 

Jongdae couldn’t really concentrate during Herbology. His mind was occupied with other things, thoughts of his stupid giant of an arch-enemy. Jongdae was worried Chanyeol might do something weird because of his new obsession. There was nothing he could do about it, though. Except maybe wait for the class to end.

One thing he managed to do was to tell his friends (at least those of them who were in his year) about what had happened the previous evening. They had after all already started to get suspicious, and he had to tell them the reason to why Chanyeol would follow him like a mosquito follows light today.

Like the heartless people they were, they just laughed at him when he told them. Okay, they seemed a bit sorry for him too, but they mostly found it funny (Jongdae had to admit he probably would’ve too if it were someone else than him). He told them about his worries concerning Chanyeol and him running his mouth, and they just told him to seek the Gryffindor up after their lesson and talk to him. Simple as that.

 

Jongdae did not even have to look for Chanyeol when his lesson ended, because the other stood right outside the classroom, waiting for him like a dog waiting for its owner.

“Jongdae, I can’t wait anymore, I have to tell you something-” Chanyeol’s deep voice exclaimed before Jongdae had the chance to even open his mouth. He then grabbed Jongdae’s arm, pretty much dragging him away to the nearest “private place” he could find. At least that’s what Jongdae suspected he was doing.

Turns out he was right, because they soon ended up in the rather cramped storage room for Potions. It consisted of a tiny square in the middle surrounded by shelves building walls around them, filled to the brim with bottles varying in both sizes and contents. It was a great place to visit if you were interested in Potions, which Jongdae was, but right now it mostly felt like a prison.

Jongdae managed to release his arm from Chanyeol’s grip, the latter looking a bit wounded which Jongdae chose to ignore.

“Er, well, I’m sorry but I have to tell you something… I couldn’t even concentrate during Astronomy, my mind was filled with other things and… well… how do I say this…” Chanyeol trailed off and Jongdae decided to intensely gaze at one of the bottles behind him, containing something strangely yellow. He knew what was coming, and it didn’t make him too comfortable.

Chanyeol bit his plump lower lip and looked down, before lifting his gaze to Jongdae again.

“Don’t be too shocked or anything, but… I think I’m in love with you.”

Jongdae knew he was going to say that, yet he still drew a sharp breath when he did. He then had a small inner discussion if “Yes, I know” would be an appropriate answer, but decided it wasn’t.

“Uhh… That’s… nice and all, but, uh”, Jongdae uttered, not really knowing what to say in this situation. Chanyeol shook his head.

“You don’t believe me. Here, feel it yourself, feel what state you put me in”, he said and grabbed Jongdae’s arm for a second time, directing the hand to his chest. “My heart’s beating like crazy for you, you don’t even know-”

“I- I- I- I believe you - don’t worry!” Jongdae stammered, trying to retake control over his own hand, thinking that Chanyeol’s chest was one of the last places in the world where he would like to put it.

“But how do you feel? Can you accept my feelings?” Chanyeol continued, and Jongdae felt himself starting to panic, what would he even do? How could he break it to the guy that his supposed love for him was the product of a prank gone wrong, a love potion bought at the joke shop?

“I’m, er, I…”

Chanyeol chose that moment to take a few steps closer to Jongdae.

“I couldn’t even sleep last night… All I could do was thinking of you. You have no idea how much I want you, it almost hurts”, he said and Jongdae swallowed, now this was creeping him out. He recalled a disclaimer by the shelf in the joke shop saying something about love potions not actually creating real love, as it was impossible to artificially create something like that, instead making the victim have more of an obsession. He could understand what it meant now.

“So… you know how I feel, but… what about you?” Chanyeol persisted, and Jongdae looked around, trying to think of a way to escape the situation. Once again taking in the room he was in, Jongdae got an idea. With all these different Potion ingredients at his disposal, there had to be some way to cure Chanyeol. All he needed was guidance. And a quick way to escape this situation.

“Well…” Jongdae tried his hardest to gaze flirtatiously at Chanyeol, something he never thought he’d do in his entire life but here he was. This was (hopefully) a situation unlikely to repeat itself.

“If you close your eyes… I might tell you”, he said, looking at Chanyeol from below his eyelashes, internally cringing. He was probably doing a really crappy job of flirting with the other but he was sure Chanyeol’s sense of judgement wasn’t the best today anyway.

“A-ah”, Chanyeol simply answered, Jongdae had no idea what he meant by that, but at least he closed his eyes.

It was easier to look at Chanyeol when he was not looking back at him, Jongdae realised. The taller’s cheeks were even pinker than his lips, which were formed into an expectant smile. It was almost pleasant to watch, a nice expression. Different from the annoyingly smug smile Chanyeol usually had when talking to Jongdae. And Jongdae had thought the shocked and humiliated look whenever he was the victim of one of Jongdae’s pranks was his favourite expression of Chanyeol’s, but this was… another thing.

“You… like me back?” Chanyeol then uttered, and at that Jongdae kind of returned back to reality. Had he really been… admiring Chanyeol’s face? No, he was just surprised to see such a different expression from him, that’s all. Jongdae cleared his throat.

“You’ll see… Just keep your eyes closed”, he said and Chanyeol nodded. That was the cue he needed; Jongdae slowly backed towards the door, silently pressed the handle down and dashed off, escaping.

Now he had to spend his newly acquired freedom wisely. And he knew just what to do.

He reached one of the more populated corridors of the school and upon seeing a slightly familiar Slytherin girl, he stopped her.

“Excuse me, are you a fifth year?” he asked, and the girl looked at him curiously.

“Yes, I am, but why-”

“Do you know where I can find Kyungsoo Do? It’s pretty urgent.”

“Hmm…”, the girl started, “I just had a lesson with him, Transfiguration, so he might still be over there”, she said and pointed towards the direction of the usual Transfiguration classroom. Jongdae nodded. After thanking the girl, he ran off again.

Kyungsoo Do was a housemate of his, in a year below him. He was a rather quiet kid, kept to himself a lot. Jongdae didn’t know him very well, but he knew he was one of the best students the school had ever had when it came to potion making. If Kyungsoo didn’t know what could cure the effects of a love potion, nobody did.

Jongdae found Kyungsoo on his way from the Transfiguration classroom, carrying a thick book and looking down at the floor while passing by crowds of students. Kyungsoo was short, even shorter than Jongdae, but he made better use of his shortness as he still looked intimidating. Unlike Jongdae.

“Hey! Do, right?” Jongdae asked, stopping Kyungsoo in his tracks. The latter’s already wide eyes widened some more, looking surprised.

“Yes, that’s me. Kim?”

Jongdae nodded. They had talked before, but not a lot of times. Nothing less ordinary than the courteous “Good morning"s and the trivial "Do you know what’s for lunch today"s.

"Uh, I have to ask you something…” Jongdae started, but cut himself off to move them to a corner instead of standing in the middle of the corridor, as to not block the way for the end-of-term-stressed students passing them by in full speed.

“So, you’re good at Potions, right?”

Kyungsoo gazed at him with an unreadable expression.

“Yes… I suppose so. I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty good.”

Jongdae smiled at the confidence of the younger.

“Great. Um… so, I kind of need your help, or, well…” he then said, feeling a bit embarrassed over what he was about to ask. Kyungsoo would definitely think it was a strange question, and start to suspect things.

“Do you… Do you know how to cure the effects of a love potion?”

“… You mean like an antidote?” Jongdae still could not read Kyungsoo’s expression, but it might have been because of the fact that he couldn’t look Kyungsoo directly in the eyes. The embarrassment was that strong.

“Yeah… I guess.”

“Hmm… There is one I can think of; it has only three ingredients but they’re rather difficult to get your hands on. Wiggentree twigs, Castor oil, and let’s see… I think you’ll also need some extract of a Gurdyroot. This only works for the Amortentia though, is that the love potion you want to cure?”

Jongdae was impressed by Kyungsoo’s knowledge. He had heard about it but hadn’t seen it for real, in action, so to speak. He sighed though, upon realising that the antidote might not work on Chanyeol.

“No… it’s one of those tiny love potions from the joke shop in Hogsmeade…”

“Oh. Then I don’t really know. I think it would be the best to contact the shop or the producer in that case”, Kyungsoo said.

“Ah, then I might as well wait it out”, Jongdae said, feeling himself give up.

“Why are you even asking this?”

“Uhh… Well… I… A prank went wrong and the guy likes me instead of the person he was supposed to like…” Jongdae explained as simply as possible.

“Oh.”

“It .”

“I can understand that”, Kyungsoo answered, and Jongdae finally managed to look into the other boy’s eyes again. Or, at least, look at his face.

“Ah! Jongdae, there you are!” came a voice from behind him, seemingly out of nowhere; Jongdae almost jumped right into Kyungsoo in surprise. It was a deep voice. Chanyeol. God damn it.

“I was looking for you, you just disappeared! Were you too shy? Don’t worry, I-” Chanyeol continued, coming closer but stopping when he spotted Kyungsoo.

“Oh. Who are you?” Chanyeol asked in a rather rude manner, at the same time squeezing himself against Jongdae, putting an arm around his shoulder.

“I’m Kyungsoo Do, fifth year”, Kyungsoo said suspiciously, probably also having noticed Chanyeol’s sudden change of emotion.

“Are you a… friend of Jongdae’s?” Chanyeol then asked, almost interrogating the poor boy. Jongdae didn’t feel too bad for Kyungsoo though, he was in a much worse situation himself. Especially when Chanyeol started his cheek with the back of his hand in a possessive manner. Jongdae felt like sinking through the ing floor.

“We’re… we’re simply housemates”, Kyungsoo replied, looking a bit taken aback. Jongdae sighed and elbowed Chanyeol lightly.

“Park, let go of me”, he said and turned to Kyungsoo, whispering, “You see what I have to go through?”

Kyungsoo nodded while Chanyeol disappointedly detached his arm from Jongdae’s shoulder, still standing just as close to him as before, though.

“… Yeah. I thought you two weren’t on, uh, good terms?”

“Well, it’s gonna be even worse after this”, Jongdae predicted. And yes, a lot of the other students of the school knew about his and Chanyeol’s rival-like relationship. They had noticed many of their pranks, after all they were not very subtle at times.

“A piece of advice”, Kyungsoo uttered silently, leaning forward again to whisper to Jongdae, “if I were in your shoes, I would erase his memory after the potion stops working. It’s pretty easy to just delete that specific part of his memory, I think. Otherwise he’ll go around remembering everything, and I suppose you don’t want that, because I wouldn’t.”

Jongdae nodded, and decided to go when he felt Chanyeol tugging at his arm. Thanking Kyungsoo for at least trying to help, he gave in and followed Chanyeol to wherever it was that he wanted to go.

 

“Why were you talking to that one guy? You were even whispering”, asked Chanyeol as he dragged Jongdae through the corridor, sounding a bit sour.

“It’s none of your business”, Jongdae shortly answered, struggling to keep up with the steps of Chanyeol’s ridiculously long legs. This whole obsession thing was getting on his nerves. Couldn’t Chanyeol leave him alone for one second?

“It might be”, Chanyeol muttered, tugging Jongdae’s arm a bit harder. “What if you like him?”

“I don’t- That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard, I’ve almost never talked to him before and I don’t know anything about him. What makes you think I like him? Actually, what makes you think I like guys at all?” Jongdae snapped, massaging his temples with his free hand. Yup, this was really getting on his nerves.

Chanyeol’s eyes widened.

“I don’t know, I-” he started, slowing down his pace a little, “I have to at least hope you like guys. I mean… for you to like me. Don’t… don’t you like me back…?”

Chanyeol stopped, and Jongdae noticed that they were now standing outside the classroom they had History of Magic in. Oh, right, they shared their next class. And it was a double.

…Yay.

Chanyeol turned around a bit so that he was facing Jongdae, putting one of his hands on the shorter’s shoulder. Luckily, there seemed to be no one else around to witness their conversation. Jongdae looked down, inspecting the ground, avoiding Chanyeol’s gaze.

“You… you never told me before, you just ran away… Were you too shy, or… don’t you like me at all? Is it because we always fight? Because I play pranks on you? Because of that incident in our first year?”

As Jongdae was gazing intensely at the floor he couldn’t see Chanyeol’s facial expression (but perhaps that was a good thing). He did not sound very thrilled, though. Jongdae was surprised he remembered the accident from back then that started it all. He thought he was the only one who did, that Chanyeol had forgotten about it a long time ago.

“Well, I like you, sure, but I don’t…” Jongdae uttered, trying to satisfy Chanyeol so he wouldn’t be upset. He wasn’t sure if he could lie so blatantly to Chanyeol and tell him he liked him romantically, though. He had a limit and that was it.

“You don’t…?” Chanyeol repeated as a question, and his tone sounded so small that Jongdae had to look up at him.

Bad idea. Chanyeol’s big eyes were wide and shiny, as if he was about to break out in tears any second, and his lips were almost trembling. . He looked extremely vulnerable, Jongdae had never seen him like that before. It made him shiver. What would he do if Chanyeol actually started to cry? Jongdae was not good at these things. And he definitely did not want to see that face anymore. It did something with him in a strange way, like, he got such a weird feeling from looking at it. He felt almost protective, even. Of his arch-enemy. How did that even happen?!

“I don’t… Uh… I do like you a lot, but I don’t think I’m ready to admit that to everyone yet. So, um, can we keep it a secret? For now at least?” Jongdae stammered, feeling bad for lying but he could not have Chanyeol’s heart breaking in a public place in the middle of the day. There were only about eight hours left, he could put up with this. Especially if he actually got Chanyeol to shut up in front of other people.

“You… You do like me back, then!! I… I’m so happy, I can’t even believe-” Chanyeol exclaimed, smile reappearing on his face. Before Jongdae could even react, Chanyeol bounced forward and threw his arms around him, making him stumble backwards from the impact. Chanyeol then laughed happily and Jongdae struggled to not be crushed by the giant.

“C-can you release me?!” he tried to ask, voice coming out muffled because of his face currently being squeezed against the tall frame of the other boy. It was warm, almost cosy, though… Jongdae hadn’t really hugged someone who was that much bigger than him before, and it felt kind of comforting... Anyway, Chanyeol seemed to have heard him and slowly let go.

“As I said, I’m still not ready to let others know about my feelings for you, so… could you not do that in front of people?”

Chanyeol looked around briefly.

“There’s no one else here, though.”

“You can’t be sure of that.”

“Okay, whatever. I’m still too excited that you like me back! Can I…” Chanyeol trailed off, cheeks turning into a pretty shade of rosé.

“Can you what?”

“Can I… Can I kiss you, then? If I do it sneakily?” Chanyeol asked, fidgeting a little, gazing at Jongdae with an expectant smile on his face. Jongdae felt his face heat up in a similar way to Chanyeol’s.

“Wha- No! Not here. I mean, if you…” Jongdae said, and then… he came up with a master plan. “If you leave me alone this entire lesson, and keep quiet about me - basically ignore me! I-I’ll let you kiss me afterwards.”

This was a perfect way of getting Chanyeol to do what Jongdae wanted. As long as he got some kind of reward, then… everything would be fine.

“Yes! I’ll do that!” Chanyeol immediately agreed, looking as if he’d won the bloody lottery or something, letting Jongdae know how incredibly easy it was to get Chanyeol to do as he says. “I was just gonna keep from talking with, or about you, that’s all?”

“Yeah, just ignore me. Actually, don’t even look at me. People will be really suspicious otherwise.”

“Oh… okay. It’ll be a bit hard but I’ll do my best! Although… I might’ve already talked a bit about you with some of my friends…”

“You have?!”

“I m-mean… I really like you a lot so it’s difficult not to! You’re the only thing I can think about lately… ha.. ha”, Chanyeol laughed awkwardly, and Jongdae tried to keep himself from freaking out.

“What did you tell them?!”

“I don’t exactly remember, something about you looking… cute today and how I was gonna hang out with you and… Ah, sorry, I can’t really recall what I said in detail”, Chanyeol explained. Jongdae sighed deeply. Again, he was in trouble.

“You don’t… hate me, right?”

“No, I don’t hate you… I just need to talk to your friends a little…” Jongdae muttered. How would he even cover up this? He supposed the only thing he could do was to explain to them why Chanyeol was acting so strangely. What had actually happened. That’d mean that Chanyeol’s friends would get to know about his screwup, but… he did not know how else he was going to solve this.

“They’ll probably be here soon, since there’s not much time until we start”, Chanyeol assumed, and after waiting a couple of minutes Jongdae could spot a group of students dressed in red and gold. They were not even late. Incredible.

“Excuse me, could I, uh, talk to you guys a little? I need to explain something”, he said when they were close enough. He was met with curious and a bit suspicious glances.

“… Alright”, answered one of them, a girl Jongdae could vaguely recognise as Amber Liu, a Muggleborn Gryffindor in their year.

“Park, can you step away for a while? I have to talk to them in private”, he then asked Chanyeol, who looked disappointed but still obeyed, probably having his reward in mind.

“Okay… So”, Jongdae started when Chanyeol was out of hearing distance, clearing his throat. “I… guess you’ve noticed that Park is acting a bit strangely… He’s been talking about me, right?”

“Well, yes…” said a brown-haired guy in the group that Jongdae didn’t know the name of (he had never talked to him before). Amber then started speaking.

“You’ve done something to him, huh? Because he hasn’t been able to shut up about you, and… yeah. You’ve probably noticed it yourself, he’s been hanging out with you more than with us today!”

“Yeah. Um. It’s because… It was a prank that went a bit, uh, wrong. I tricked him into eating Chocoballs spiked with love potion before his detention yesterday, he was supposed to fall for the professor but he accidentally saw me before that, and… yeah. He, um, likes me. For today.”

Jongdae looked down while explaining, fiddling with his sleeves. This was so humiliating. At least, Amber started laughing (while a guy in the back frightened Jongdae by looking like he wanted punch him in the face).

“Damn. So that’s why. You really ed up, Kim”, she said after having stopped laughing. Jongdae felt a bit relieved. The thing about both his and Chanyeol’s friends was that none of them really aided them in their fights against each other. They usually liked to watch their pranks unfold, but they did not do anything themselves. It was a thing between him and Chanyeol, and only them. Jongdae had just been a bit nervous that Chanyeol’s friends would be enraged by what he had done (they were on Chanyeol’s “side” after all) but they seemed pretty chill with it. Good.

“Yeah, I’m… not very happy about that. He’s a real pain in the now. More than normally, even. Er, figuratively speaking, that is.”

“Well, watch out so that it doesn’t go that far!” said a voice from the group and Jongdae’s breath caught in his throat. Holy- That… that couldn’t happen, right?

He could hear Chanyeol’s friends snickering at him while he coughed, and he tried to ignore them. His face was probably beetroot red by now, though.

“I think I’m done talking to you guys now”, Jongdae shortly said when he regained his ability to speak. He had heard something along the lines of “Why is Kim talking to the Gryffindors?” from a passerby, and he didn’t want to attract more attention.

He then dragged his steps back to where Chanyeol was waiting for him, expectant smile on his unattractive face.

“What did you say to them?”

“Nothing.”

Jongdae noticed that he was standing even further away from Chanyeol than what he did before. What that friend of Chanyeol’s had said kind of haunted him. He definitely did not want to have those kinds of thoughts in his head at the moment, especially not if they involved Chanyeol of all people. But… Chanyeol could not try anything, right? He wouldn’t. Jongdae looked up at Chanyeol, his round, at the moment very innocent-looking eyes, and silly smile, no. Jongdae was sure he wouldn’t. That love potion only created romantic attraction, not ual.

“Are you okay? You’re really red in the face”, Chanyeol sounded quite concerned, glancing down at him.

“… I’m fine.”

The lesson soon started, so Jongdae and Chanyeol both entered the classroom. After telling Chanyeol to take a seat as far away from him as possible, Jongdae felt himself relax. Chanyeol would keep quiet during the lesson, the reward he had promised him was too important.

A couple of minutes into the lesson, which a lot of them already seemed to have tuned out, a scrunched up paper ball landed on Jongdae’s desk. Glancing at the direction it came from, he saw some of his friends gazing at him curiously. Oh. He almost hadn’t been able to hang out with any of them today, it was only during their previous lesson in Herbology when they got to work in groups.

Opening the ball of paper, Jongdae recognised Hyuna’s handwriting. So she had been the one to throw it, then.

To: Dae, it said, and Jongdae rolled his eyes. How unnecessary to write a recipient when she’d just throw it at his desk anyway.

Are u having troubles w/ Park? Can we help u?

That was all the note said, leaving a huge empty part below where Jongdae could write an answer. He could not believe they actually offered to help him. Maybe they did care.

park’s whole existence is trouble. today is just worse than normal. and no, i don’t know, what could you do?, he wrote and aimed to throw the paper back to Hyuna. When receiving it she read through the contents, snorted, and scribbled something down. Soon it landed on Jongdae’s desk again.

Tbh I don’t really know either. Lock him into a storage room or smth if he becomes too much of a pain, it said. Jongdae did not know if he should be scandalised or laugh at the suggestion. It would be such a horrible thing to do, yet amusing. He couldn’t do that.

Quickly writing that as an answer, he threw the note back to Hyuna (he would much rather have levitated it in a more sophisticated manner, but their teacher had a very strict no-wands-during-class policy and he didn’t want to get in trouble). She shrugged, wrote something down and when Jongdae could read it again, it only said:

I can’t wait until we tell Kris abt this.

Jongdae rolled his eyes, and looked at his other friends who seemed to be dying to read their conversation, so he threw it to one of them to pass along. They would be able to meet Kris during lunch, and they would probably have lots of fun telling him about Jongdae’s misery. Jongdae was unsure if he could accompany them, though, as he didn’t want to leave Chanyeol alone for too long in case he would say something stupid (he had a tendency to do that, after all).

He couldn’t have lunch with his friends. Just as Jongdae was leaving the classroom, steering his steps towards the Great Hall, he felt Chanyeol’s presence. Again. When he and the rest of the students had rounded a corner, Chanyeol grabbed him and they both came to a halt.

“Um…” Chanyeol started, then let go of Jongdae’s arm, fiddling with a loose thread on his cloak. As he didn’t continue after a couple of seconds, Jongdae followed up with a question.

“What?”

A straightforward question, that is. Chanyeol nearly jumped, seemingly having been lost in his own world for a little while.

“Well”, he attempted again, cheeks rapidly increasing in colour, “what… what about that kiss?”

Oh. That. Chanyeol looked at him expectantly, and Jongdae avoided his gaze. Maybe he didn’t really think this through.

“Uh, actually… The thing is… We have another lesson together this afternoon, right? Charms? If… If you do the same during that lesson, we could kiss after that”, Jongdae rambled, thinking that hopefully the potion would stop working somewhere around then.

Chanyeol looked at him the way a child looks at an ice cream they just dropped on the ground.

“What? Why not now?” Disappointment was an understatement when it came to Chanyeol’s display of emotions at the moment.

“I’m… I don’t feel ready… I’m sorry but this is the first time I’ve really liked someone and… yeah. It’s a bit difficult. I’m nervous. Maybe we can do it later, when I’ve gotten used to the idea…” Jongdae was essentially bullting his way through this but Chanyeol seemed to believe him. Surprisingly. Okay, Chanyeol was not the brightest guy around and additionally his mental state probably wasn’t the best today.

“Ah, Jongdae, you’re so cute. So innocent. But okay, you have to promise!”

The compliments (?) made Jongdae both flattered and annoyed. Cute and innocent were not really the kind of words he’d want to be associated with, but alright. He still felt a warm feeling in his stomach for being called that, though, by someone like Chanyeol. It was partly true actually, he had not ever liked someone for real (romantically, that is). Sure, he’d had a bunch of small crushes when he was younger, but nothing special. Nothing that gave him difficulties sleeping or butterflies in his stomach, or whatever people said. Although he still would not call himself innocent. He was a teenager, after all.

“Right?”

“H-huh? Yeah, I promise”, Jongdae uttered, this time he had been the one to have his head in the clouds.

“Great! I have another condition”, Chanyeol said and Jongdae mentally cringed. This was probably not going to be something he liked.

“Can we have lunch together?”

And, this was why Jongdae couldn’t have lunch with his friends.

He considered his different options, but it seemed like accepting Chanyeol’s offer was the best one. Making Chanyeol at least a bit satisfied seemed like a good idea (to not create trouble), and he would also keep Chanyeol away from other people that way. The only problem was telling him they couldn’t eat in the hall. “I don’t want to be seen together with you” was honest but it was also a very mean answer. Sometimes a guy had to lie a little to get by.

“Only if we… eat by ourselves.”

…Or, make it sound more appealing. Chanyeol did not even question why Jongdae wanted them to have lunch on their own. He just nodded so violently Jongdae almost expected him to get neck pains from it.

“That’s fine! It’s great! Okay with me!”

“Do you know a good spot, then?”

Again, Chanyeol nodded excitedly.

“Yup! Come, I’ll show you”, he said and grabbed Jongdae’s hand. This was the first time, he had just been grabbing Jongdae’s arm before. Jongdae liked this more, actually. It was more gentle. More comfortable.

They reached the spot Chanyeol had in mind, which was outdoors. It was on the grassy hill which the castle was situated on, near the place where it slanted forward, so when they sat down they had a view of the entire area; the cottage by the Forbidden Forest, the lake, and the trees and hills beyond that. It was a nice spot. It hadn’t rained the entire day, so the grass was not too wet, and Jongdae liked the calming feeling of the wind blowing through his hair. It was quite cold though, as winter was approaching. Jongdae could not wait for that.

“Don’t you look forward to this entire place being covered with snow?” Chanyeol said, voicing Jongdae’s thoughts out loud. Jongdae almost flinched, he didn’t expect that. But he rather liked that they shared their enjoyment of snow. He didn’t even know why he liked having a similar interest to Chanyeol.

“Yeah…”

They glanced at the distance for a while, trying to look as far as possible. Or, at least Jongdae did that, Chanyeol was occupied with watching him instead. Of course. Jongdae sighed.

“So… Are you gonna go get food or am I?”

“Oh, we won’t need that!” Chanyeol exclaimed, and Jongdae quirked his eyebrow. Did he really just suggest they didn’t need food? He could speak for himself then, but Jongdae on the other hand was hungry as hell. He was just about to question Chanyeol when the latter followed up his statement.

“I learnt this amazing spell that turns stones into food, or at least, edible things”, he continued, and Jongdae felt like commenting that stones technically speaking were edible already, but stopped himself, allowing Chanyeol to elaborate.

“Where did you hear about that spell?”

“I don’t know, some book in the library. Isn’t it amazing?!”

“Well, uh, let me see it in action first.”

Jongdae was sceptical. This was so typical of Chanyeol, to borrow the strangest books in the entire library and trying to learn the spells in them. Most of the time they did not even work like they were supposed to (the cockroach spell, for example).

Chanyeol stood up and walked closer to the gates to the castle, bending down to pick up a handful of gravel. Returning to Jongdae, he sat down and pointed his wand to the pile of small rocks in his hand, mumbling a word Jongdae didn’t recognise. When nothing happened, Chanyeol concentrated again, closing his eyes and mumbling something under his breath before saying the word out loud. Same as before, no result.

This was also very typically Chanyeol. One of his favourite subjects was Transfiguration, even though he wasn’t good at it. How he even got the chance to study it in a more advanced level was beyond Jongdae, Chanyeol probably had really bad grades in the subject. He did not even know why Chanyeol liked Transfiguration so much, when there were other subjects he was much better at.

“You know, I don’t think it works”, Jongdae stated blandly. Chanyeol didn’t even look at him, still focusing on the gravel in his hand.

“It should be”, he replied and tried again, but with no success. He then sighed and tossed the gravel down the hill.

“Let’s go get food then”, Chanyeol said and stood up, Jongdae relievedly doing the same.

This was Jongdae’s sixth year of attending this school, yet he was not sure if bringing food out of the Great Hall was allowed. Therefore he stuffed as much he could on a plate and hid it under his cloak, sneaking out of the hall as fast as he could. Chanyeol took some more time, piling food on two plates, and when he was carrying them out of the hall he was stopped by a teacher.

“I’m just bringing food to my friend who’s ill”, he simply said as an excuse and Jongdae had to admit it was a good one. He hadn’t thought of it at all.

Well outside again, they started to dig into their food. Stuffing his mouth with mashed potato, Jongdae decided that this was the best thing that had happened today; he was finally eating something, he had a nice view and Chanyeol was quiet for once. Amazing. Chanyeol had even been nice enough to bring two plates of food, one for himself and one that they both could share. He did not eat a lot of it though, and Jongdae gladly devoured the contents of the second plate all by himself.

“You sure you don’t want any more of this?” he asked while munching on a sausage, just to be sure. Then he realised how odd it was for him to ask Chanyeol a polite question, or, being nice to him in general. But it was not like Chanyeol was his normal self anyway, so it probably wasn’t that strange. Jongdae was just adapting to the situation, after all.

“I’m fine. I don’t feel very hungry, and this isn’t really my favourite food either. I’d rather watch you eat it instead.”

“Er”, Jongdae said, not sure how to reply to that. Trying to change subject, he asked, “What kind of food do you like, then?”

“Oh, lots. Chicken. Pasta. My mum makes the best pasta, I always have it at home”, Chanyeol explained and Jongdae looked at him questioningly.

“Your mum makes pasta?”

“Yeah, she likes Italian food. I do too”, Chanyeol continued.

“But you’re Korean, right? Don’t you have Korean food at home too?”

“Well, sometimes, yeah. At times it’s a mix, like adding kimchi to the pasta to make it more spicy. But it’s hard to get our hands on some of the ingredients, we can’t ask our relatives to send us them because the flight is way too long for the owls. It’s only when we’re visiting them that we can bring stuff back home”, Chanyeol said and Jongdae could relate. His parents didn’t cook any Korean dishes at all lately, only during special occasions. It was like Chanyeol said, difficult to find the right spices, the right vegetables, the right meat.

“My parents used to make this really delicious kimchi stew, with tofu and all. And on my first ride with the Hogwarts Express my mum made me bring kimbap as traveling food”, Jongdae reminisced. It felt easy to talk to Chanyeol about this, mainly because it was a thing the two of them had in common. Maybe that was why he had brought it up in the first place.

“That’s so nice. My mum made the best japchae back in Korea, but she hasn’t made it since…”

“Hey… When did you move here?” Jongdae asked, he was curious. For some reason. Of course he was always happy to get to know stuff about Chanyeol, so that he could use it against him later in his pranks (he knew that Chocoballs were a weakness of Chanyeol’s, and that turned out to be useful after all), but this was another thing. He didn’t have any ulterior motives, he was just genuinely curious.

“Um… I was just about to turn ten, I think. So around a year before starting Hogwarts.”

“Oh.”

Jongdae suddenly felt really bad about teasing Chanyeol for his accent when they were in their first year, even though Chanyeol had been equally mean to him. It was a stupid thing to do of him nonetheless. Well, okay, he was eleven, he didn’t know better. But it was strange of him to start regretting it now, five years later, just because Chanyeol all of a sudden was being nice to him thanks to… certain circumstances.

It hit Jongdae how he had just been sitting there, having a civil and actually enjoyable conversation with his so called arch-enemy. That was not the strange thing, though. The strange thing was the fact that it didn’t feel strange. Maybe he’d already gotten used to Chanyeol’s change of attitude towards him. More than half of the twenty-four hours had gone by now, after all.

How would things be when the love potion stopped working? Jongdae would do as Kyungsoo suggested, erase Chanyeol’s memory and everything would turn back to normal, right? For the first time, Jongdae wasn’t too sure of how he felt about that. About Chanyeol going back to detesting him and… playing his childish pranks on him. Was that the kind of relationship Jongdae wanted, especially after sitting here and having a normal conversation, like… well, Jongdae wouldn’t say friends, but something like that. People on good terms with each other.

“Are you cold?”

Chanyeol’s sudden question brought Jongdae’s state of mind back to the current moment, and he noticed that he was shaking slightly. It wasn’t too apparent, but probably to Chanyeol who had not let his eyes leave him for even a second. Well, it was almost winter, even if there was no snow present, and it was definitely the kind of weather that required thicker layers of clothing.

“I’m cold too”, Chanyeol continued even though Jongdae had not answered him yet, since the answer was that obvious. Jongdae noticed Chanyeol was shaking a little too, and the tips of his pointy ears were red, just like his cheeks.

“Maybe we should return to the castle”, Jongdae suggested, but he wasn’t that enthusiastic about the idea. He quite liked it here, it was nice and quiet, relaxing. Going back to the corridors packed with other students, who would mostly likely stare at them, was not something he was too keen on doing.

“We still have some time before the next lessons start, though”, Chanyeol pouted, not being enthusiastic about the suggestion either. “Can’t we stay here for a little longer? I like it when we’re by ourselves.”

“Hmm”, Jongdae replied, agreeing slightly. With the first thing Chanyeol said, not necessarily the second.

“Y'know, if you’re cold…” Chanyeol started but did not finish his sentence. Instead he moved closer to Jongdae, wrapping his arm around the latter, covering them both with his cloak. It did become a bit warmer with them sharing their body heat like that, so Jongdae had no choice but to lean into the source of the warmth. A good thing about Chanyeol being taller than him was that he could lean his head on Chanyeol’s shoulder. Finally he was useful for something. In the position Jongdae was in, he couldn’t see Chanyeol’s facial expression, but he was sure the other was smiling like an idiot.

Jongdae could launch himself into another deep thought process about how odd this situation was, that he was almost snuggling the guy he usually wouldn’t want to touch even with gloves on, and how comfortable it felt. However, he told himself not to overthink it, to just relax and enjoy the strangeness of the position they were in; the sudden affectionate and gentle Chanyeol, the warmth from both of their bodies protecting them from the cold (for the moment, at least).

Hell, Jongdae could even smell Chanyeol. He had the kind of scent that almost radiated warmth in itself, a bit like a campfire or a fireplace. There was also a faint scent of something sweet. It kind of suited him.

After a while Chanyeol leaned his head on top of Jongdae’s. It probably looked really ridiculous but Jongdae could not bring himself to care. They were the only ones there after all.

Then Jongdae did start to feel a bit colder, their simple solution to the problem was only temporary. He noticed that Chanyeol started to shiver again, and he too was close to doing so if it wasn’t for the long arm wrapped around him.

“What subject do you have now?” he asked Chanyeol, who seemed a bit startled by the sudden question.

“Um… Muggle Studies, what about you?”

“Ancient Runes.”

“Is it interesting?”

Because of their proximity to each other, Jongdae felt the vibrations from whenever Chanyeol spoke. It was like he could actually feel the deep voice, almost making him shiver as well.

“Yeah, it’s nice. I wouldn’t study it otherwise.”

“Ah, that’s true.”

Jongdae kind of wanted to ask Chanyeol about what classes in Muggle Studies were like, but he knew Chanyeol’s fascination with Muggles was so strong he could probably speak for hours. And they didn’t have that time. Unfortunately.

“Let’s go”, he said and got up on his feet, Chanyeol mimicking him. They parted ways when they reached the castle, telling each other “See you in Charms!” and going to their respective classrooms. Jongdae found that even though he wasn’t cold anymore, his legs were still a bit shaky. Strange.

 

Yet again, Jongdae found it hard to focus on his lesson. His thoughts were frequently drifting off to other places (most of them to a certain place on the hill where he’d been sitting before). He had realised that a simple fire charm would have been a good solution to his and Chanyeol’s problem before, but for some reason he didn’t think of it back then, favouring Chanyeol’s idea instead. Strange how he just let Chanyeol do that in the first place. Jongdae felt as though he could think more clearly now than before, not understanding what could have gotten into him during lunch. Why he had suddenly become closer to his so called arch-enemy.

Jongdae usually liked his classes in Ancient Runes, he found it very fascinating to learn a completely different writing system that was in use ages ago. Really, anything that had to do with languages interested him, and studying these runes and trying to decipher ancient pieces of writing was the kind of linguistic challenge his brain craved. But not today, evidently. His teacher asked him a question twice before he reacted, and it became even more humiliating when he couldn’t answer it. All he wanted was for the lesson to end, really.

 

Jongdae was surprised when he didn’t spot Chanyeol anywhere waiting for him when he left the classroom. Odd. It was a bit relieving, though, to be able to walk somewhere without the giant tugging on his sleeve or speaking nonsense. However, he couldn’t keep himself from wondering why Chanyeol wasn’t there.

As he was one of the first to reach the Charms classroom, Jongdae sat down outside it to wait. Looking around, he felt memories of yesterday evening come back to him; he wished he hadn’t been there, that he’d just stayed in the dormitories instead. None of this would have happened if he had done that instead of putting his dignity at stake doing some stupid prank.

Like yesterday, he heard steps approaching the classroom after a while. Jongdae looked up, expecting Chanyeol to appear in front of him, but instead it was some Gryffindor girl in their year. He vaguely hoped that the girl had Muggle Studies before this class, because that’d mean Chanyeol would arrive soon. Not that he wanted him to be there, no, Jongdae was just curious about his whereabouts. He could not have Chanyeol walking around, running his mouth about things he would rather stay between the two of them.

After a while, Chanyeol finally appeared. He smiled down at Jongdae and motioned for him to stand up and come with him. Jongdae didn’t really know why, but he did as Chanyeol wanted.

“Were you waiting for me?” asked Chanyeol as they hid behind a corner, the same one that Jongdae had used as a hiding spot the previous evening.

“Um”, was all Jongdae could say. Saying yes would be rather embarrassing and partly a lie, and saying no would make Chanyeol disappointed. He settled for looking down at his shoes instead, it felt safer.

Luckily, Chanyeol did not seem to care much about his answer, instead starting to tell him about what he had learnt at his lesson in Muggle Studies earlier. Apparently Muggles didn’t only invent “cool stuff” (as Chanyeol had worded it); there were also things called guns, which Muggles used to kill others (and at times themselves) with. When Chanyeol had discussed this for a whole eight minutes Jongdae jokingly wished he had one of those things, just to stop Chanyeol from opening his big mouth again.

Then, as if she had heard his plea, Hyuna appeared around the corner.

“Hey, Dae, what’re you doing?”

This caused Chanyeol to stop talking in the middle of a sentence, turn around and look somewhat irritated (to Jongdae’s delight).

“Nothing really. Just talking to Park. You can go back to the others”, Jongdae replied, feeling a bit thankful towards Hyuna for interrupting Chanyeol, but at the same time he supposed it would be better if he just stayed with Chanyeol for the moment. In case he would do something dumb.

“Alright, alright”, Hyuna said, stuck out her tongue, and disappeared from his view. Chanyeol moved his gaze back to Jongdae, looking a bit lost. He had probably forgotten what he was speaking about. After a small while of awkward staring he opened his mouth again.

“Hey… why do you call me 'Park’?”

Jongdae didn’t exactly know how to answer this either. Why did Chanyeol ask such difficult questions? He could not just reply “because I don’t like you and I want to keep the distance between us”. That would probably make Chanyeol burst out in tears or do something equally dramatic, as long as he was in this state (normally he would not have cared); besides, Jongdae wasn’t sure how he felt about that anymore. If he agreed.

“Well… That’s your name?” he replied dumbly at last, and even Chanyeol seemed to think it was a rather stupid thing to say, judging by the way he eyed Jongdae.

“Yes, but… One’d think we’re close enough to refer to each other as our first names”, Chanyeol stated, hands on his hips, looking as though he were not backing down on this.

“You already refer to me as my first name, I have to remind you”, said Jongdae, he on the other hand felt like avoiding the subject. This did not seem like it was going to end up in his favour.

“Yes, isn’t that alright? I’ve been doing it since our first year, so it’s kinda strange you’re not doing the same.”

“I…”

“We are close, after all. I don’t like it when you refer to me as my surname. Can’t you try calling me my given name, at least once? I know you wouldn’t have any problems with pronouncing it”, Chanyeol persisted, and Jongdae didn’t feel like having an argument just before Charms, at a place where people could hear them. He could favour Chanyeol this time, but go back to normal when the potion would stop working.

“Uh, okay, then… Chanyeol.”

It was sort of a weird feeling, saying Chanyeol’s name out loud. He hadn’t ever done that before, not that he could remember at least. Of course, it might have happened from time to time that he referred to Chanyeol as his complete name, but not solely his given name. Jongdae didn’t know how he felt about that.

Chanyeol seemed to like it though, smiling so wide he flashed Jongdae almost every single tooth in his mouth.

“See? That wasn’t so bad, was it? Sometimes you’re too silly. But I kinda like you for it. It’s cute”, Chanyeol said, and Jongdae looked away. There it was again. Cute. He was still not sure what he thought about Chanyeol calling him that.

“I’m…”

“You know what? We’re hidden behind a wall, no one can see us from here-”

“People could still pass us by, though!!!” Jongdae almost shouted out, not wanting to know what Chanyeol was about to suggest. “Or they could just look around the corner like Hyuna did before, it’s too risky!”

Chanyeol had a slightly put down look on his face.

“B-but if it’s something quick… There’s such a small risk that someone’d walk by right at that moment, it’s almost impossible…”

Chanyeol did that thing again where he looked like an abandoned puppy, his lower lip was even trembling, a look that probably worked on most people. Disgustingly cute. Jongdae tried not to cringe, opting for looking another way instead, perhaps at the wall. Or, again, at his feet. Although he knew Chanyeol wouldn’t stop with the sad look until he got his way.

Sighing, Jongdae finally said something.

“…Right, but… what do you even want?”

Chanyeol seemed to brighten a little, and lifted his hand to softly run his fingers through Jongdae’s hair, putting his fringe in place. Jongdae persistently continued to look down, feeling his face heat up once again. Chanyeol probably noticed that, as he made some sort of sound and when Jongdae glanced up at him he looked like he had just won the Quidditch Cup. Or, hm, almost.

“Ah, Jongdae, you’re so… cute…”

The third time. Was he really that cute? Of course, Chanyeol was still affected by the love potion - he’d call anyone cute if he was synthetically in love with them like this. Even their Charms professor, Jongdae thought with a bitter smile, as it was the intended outcome of his prank.

Suddenly, Jongdae felt something touching his cheek. Something softer than Chanyeol’s rather rough hands. It was very brief, but Jongdae’s mind still sort of blanked. Did Chanyeol just… kiss him?

Or… well… It was barely a peck. Jongdae should definitely calm down. It was nothing too intimate. Still, he felt his heart beating as if it were in panic. As if he were in panic. Chanyeol had touched him with his lips, after all. It was only natural for him to freak out, right?

Chanyeol did not seem to believe what he had done either, and the face he was making was quite remarkable. It was like a mix of satisfaction and apology. His cheeks had taken a pretty shade of scarlet, and even the tips of his ears seemed affected by his state of emotions as they also glowed the in the same shade.

“I-I’m sorry I couldn’t hold myself back I hadn’t planned to do this you just looked so cute and after all you didn’t kiss me before and I’m sorry if I upset you but-” he rambled, without even thinking of taking a break between the utterances. When he finally paused to breathe, he looked at Jongdae, wide-eyed, for a couple of seconds.

Seemingly having run out of things to say, Chanyeol then turned his gaze to his wrist as if he had a watch there - which he did not - and started talking again.

“Oh, but look at the time, we’re starting class now so… I'lljustgointherebye”, he exclaimed before running off, leaving Jongdae alone behind the corner. The latter was still stunned, lifting his hand slightly to touch the place on his cheek where he had been… pecked. After about ten seconds, his brain caught up and he sprinted away to the classroom as well, seating himself as far away from Chanyeol as possible.

 

If Jongdae had found it hard to concentrate during Ancient Runes, it was nothing to how he felt now. And concentration was really the key to mastering non-verbal charms, so the progress he made in class was very little. After failing at least seventeen times to perform a simple non-verbal Levitating Charm, he finally managed to at least do something to the quill he was supposed to lift with sheer mental power. Unfortunately it was not to his success as he accidentally chucked it all the way across the classroom, making it hit their Charms professor right in the forehead. Bulls-eye.

“Focus, Kim”, said his professor patiently, “I don’t know what’s gotten into you today, but please refrain from being distracted by other… things.”

Jongdae could swear the professor looked at Chanyeol for a millisecond when speaking the last words. Actually, their Charms teacher had been throwing him and Chanyeol suspicious glances every now and then throughout the whole lesson, probably because of what he had seen yesterday. This made it even more humiliating. Charms was one of Jongdae’s best subjects and now he couldn’t do things properly during class because of Chanyeol, out of all people. He so wanted to pay back Chanyeol for all the damage he had caused him this day.

…Of course, it wasn’t actually Chanyeol’s fault, but that did not stop Jongdae.

Even though he was supposed to ignore his existence during this lesson, Chanyeol still threw Jongdae these glances every now and then. Their eyes met at least three times and every one of those times Chanyeol smiled softly, giving Jongdae a knowing expression, with Jongdae promptly looking away, feeling embarrassed.

Near the end of their class Chanyeol accidentally Transfigured his quill into a toad, causing a bit of a ruckus when it jumped off his bench onto the floor. It had managed to leap halfway across the classroom when Chanyeol succeeded in retrieving it again, but still having trouble Transfiguring it back to its previous feathery state. When class ended Chanyeol still hadn’t gotten his quill back, so Jongdae had to wait for their professor to help Chanyeol before leaving the classroom with him.

 

“Did you see that? Did you see the toad?” Chanyeol almost shouted when they were on their own, walking down an empty corridor.

“I think the whole class saw”, Jongdae said honestly.

“Wasn’t it cool? I don’t think I’ve managed to turn a quill into an animal before, I always failed when we were supposed to turn one into a peacock in Transfiguration!”

Jongdae did not have the heart to tell Chanyeol that he still didn’t manage to do the task they were actually supposed to do; Chanyeol was enjoying himself far too much for him to ruin his mood. In fact, Jongdae found himself smiling slightly.

“P- Chanyeol, you’re such a doofus”, he said, but not really in a mean way. It actually didn’t feel that strange to call Chanyeol his first name, after all that was how Jongdae referred him as in his head.

“But I’m your doofus, am I not?” Chanyeol replied gladly and Jongdae felt his face turn red again. Trust Chanyeol to say something cheesy like that today.

“Er, right.”

Chanyeol then stopped in his tracks, turning to face Jongdae.

“Y'know what, haven’t I been good today, Jongdae?” he said in a surprisingly smooth tone. Jongdae warily avoided his gaze.

“Um, I’m not sure what you mean-”

Chanyeol raised a hand to do that motion again, the one where he let his thumb slowly follow an invisible line on Jongdae’s cheekbone, moving downwards.

“Haven’t I been good today? Haven’t I done as you said and ignored you during those two lessons? Don’t I deserve a …reward?”

Chanyeol’s thumb had reached the edge of Jongdae’s lips, and with that Jongdae understood what he meant.

“I, um, suppose so…”

“Really?!” Chanyeol exclaimed eagerly, dropping the rather flirtatious manner he had going on before. Jongdae sighed inwardly and looked up at Chanyeol’s rosy cheeks and expectant smile. Jongdae had received more smiles from Chanyeol today than he had in his entire life, and he didn’t know how to cope with that. It was strange, but he kind of liked it. Chanyeol was generally a smily person from what he’d heard and observed, but he never directed those smiles at Jongdae. Only the more smug ones, the arrogant ones, the almost mean ones. Today felt like a welcome change.

“…Yeah.”

He had no idea how, or why, he agreed to this. It was something about Chanyeol’s lips. Chanyeol’s eager expression. The happiness in his deep voice. To be completely honest, the whole kiss thing was something Jongdae had just come up with to get Chanyeol to shut up and leave him alone in class, not something he had planned to actually carry out. But did that matter now?

Chanyeol moved his hand to under Jongdae’s chin in a swift motion, tilting it upwards a little. Jongdae almost had the urge to giggle for some stupid reason, but he doubted it would be appropriate in this situation; on the other hand Chanyeol looked like he was close to bursting out in giggles as well.

“Jongdae, you know what? I r-really like you-”

“I know. Just get on with it”, Jongdae interrupted, he did not know why he felt so impatient, maybe he was just eager to get it done and over with, he supposed. There was an almost tickling feeling in his stomach that bothered him, it was not that comfortable, and if it continued for too long Jongdae was sure he was going to start feeling sick. If he wasn’t already. His face felt hot, his palms were sweaty, his lungs didn’t feel like they were making enough effort to keep up with his suddenly quick pulse.

Chanyeol smiled widely once again and started to lean forwards, holy , this was actually happening. Jongdae had not really kissed before, if you didn’t count the Ravenclaw girl in his fifth year, but you didn’t because it was under the influence of a bit too much Firewhisky and he had never talked to her since. This was another thing. He was a bit nervous, but he calmed himself down by thinking that it was just a simple kiss, even he could pull that off, it wasn’t like he had promised Chanyeol to make out or anything.

Suddenly Chanyeol was too close, Jongdae was almost fascinated by how he could distinguish Chanyeol’s eyelashes from each other and spot the pores in his skin, but then he pulled himself together. Kissing. All right. Realising he would kiss Chanyeol’s chin instead of his lips if they came even closer, Jongdae had to stand on his toes. To keep his balance better, his hands found their way to Chanyeol’s sort of wide shoulders.

Then Chanyeol parted his lips slightly, tilted his head a little, Jongdae had to close his eyes, it was too much to look at, too close. He was almost frozen to the ground again, standing still at his spot, even though he felt immensely hot. Chanyeol must’ve leaned even closer to him, because now Jongdae was sure he could feel something touching his lips, something else, something soft, Jongdae felt breathless, it was now it happened for real.

Except Chanyeol suddenly moved his hands from Jongdae’s chin and pushed them to Jongdae’s chest with all the force he could gather. Jongdae felt a sharp pain in his behind as he landed on the stony ground.

“W-what is going on?! What are you doing?!?” Chanyeol shouted out, and Jongdae in his somewhat disoriented state of mind thought it was a rather stupid question, wasn’t Chanyeol aware of what he had been wanting to do all day?

Then, it came to him. Jongdae slowly lifted his gaze to Chanyeol who was towering above him, looking quite distressed; his eyes were wide, staring at Jongdae in disbelief, and his face sported an expression of something that looked like… disgust.

The potion had stopped working.

Was it really that late? No way twenty-four hours had passed already, Jongdae felt as though he had been scammed by the joke shop. What time was it, anyway? It must be past five in the afternoon, at least, so maybe… 24 hours had gone by, after all.

“Hey, listen to me! What are you doing?!” Chanyeol yet again asked, his fiery deep voice making him sound almost intimidating. Jongdae stayed on the floor, he was sure Chanyeol wouldn’t attack him if he was sitting down, frozen at his spot.

He didn’t get a chance to answer since Chanyeol lowered his voice a bit and mumbled, more to himself,

“What am I doing?”

He seemed to have caught up with the fact that he was the one who initiated the kiss. Huh.

“I… wanted to…? Why did I…? Hey, you!”

Jongdae flinched when Chanyeol addressed him again, sounding less shocked and more angry than before. Frustrated, even.

“What did you do to me?!”

“I, um…” Jongdae started, yet he couldn’t finish. He could not explain this. Chanyeol wouldn’t even accept his explanation anyway, as long as he was in this state.

If only the potion had last a little bit longer, just a little bit, enough to give Chanyeol his reward, at least. Jongdae found himself already missing the previous Chanyeol, the more gentle, calm, nice one. The one who he enjoyed the company of. The one who wouldn’t want to kill him in this second, like the current one probably did. Suddenly, Jongdae felt like crying. Why did this even have to happen? Why couldn’t they have a normal and civil relationship in the first place? Or, perhaps, even more than so?

He had missed his chance to kiss Chanyeol.

Why he even wanted to do that in the first place was a mystery, but still. Jongdae absolutely dreaded the fact that the beautiful moment they had was left unfinished.

Chanyeol seemed determined to get some kind of answer out of Jongdae, with force if he needed, because he started to step closer to the latter, who was not far from panicking by now. But, somehow, the pressed situation made Jongdae think more clearly. As Chanyeol aggressively approached him, Jongdae lifted his wand and shouted out,

“Obliviate!”

Chanyeol stumbled backwards from being hit by the memory charm, and Jongdae allowed himself to breathe, to collect his emotions. It was not like Chanyeol would physically attack him anyway, he was just shocked, and Jongdae could understand. He would probably be too, if he was in that situation.

When Chanyeol returned to his senses he looked around a bit, confused, then he spotted Jongdae, still sitting on the floor.

“Um, what’s… What are you doing here?”

Jongdae simply shook his head, aware that it wasn’t a proper answer, but he felt like opening his mouth would end up terribly. He wasn’t in a state to trust his emotions at the moment.

“Okay, well, I don’t really know either… I think I had class a while ago, but I’m not sure… Hey, wait. Is this one of your pranks? Is that why I’m feeling so lost?”

Chanyeol leaned forwards and eyed him suspiciously, and Jongdae once again shook his head for a reply.

“Er… Are you… Are you feeling quite alright? Is something up?” Chanyeol then uttered awkwardly, probably having noticed Jongdae’s lack of spirit. And the fact that he wouldn’t move from where he was sitting on the floor.

Somehow, he almost sounded like he cared. Almost. Because, it was not like he actually did. A comment made simply because of common courtesy didn’t fool Jongdae. It felt like a bad joke; Chanyeol’s fake concern reminded Jongdae of his caring nature earlier today, what Jongdae had lost by now. A sweet and affectionate Chanyeol, a bit annoying perhaps, but still meaning well, was now the normal one, someone who despised him.

Jongdae was extremely irritated, not at Chanyeol, but more at himself. Irritated that he somehow preferred how Chanyeol had treated him before, when he should be thankful Chanyeol returned to normal. That’s what he wanted from the beginning, what he had been waiting for the whole day, right? Now he didn’t know how he felt, and that frustrated him.

…So it was not exactly Chanyeol’s fault when Jongdae finally grabbed his wand again and directed it right at Chanyeol’s surprised face.

“Leave me alone! Go back to your common room!!”

Jongdae managed to stand up while still threatening Chanyeol with the wand. Chanyeol almost tripped taking a few steps backwards.

“What, w-why-”

“Go. Back.” Jongdae said through his teeth, “Now.”

“Uh, I’m- Alright, alright, I’ll go! I don’t even know why I’m here, anyway. I’ll go to some place where people are less mental”, Chanyeol sputtered, and turned around to leave.

Jongdae considered shouting after him, telling him to come back, apologising for being rude. After all, it wasn’t Chanyeol’s fault that Jongdae had felt the thought of kissing his arch-enemy as quite pleasant for a minute or two. A very confusing minute or two. However, Jongdae knew that he had ruined his chance, and Chanyeol turned around a corner and was out of sight.

 

He should be feeling relieved, Jongdae thought while heading to his own common room. Relieved that the memory charm worked, that Chanyeol wouldn’t remember a thing from this rather embarrassing day. That life would go on like it normally did, even with Jongdae’s little slip up having happened. Everything went well, after all.

Yet, he felt something in his chest that wouldn’t go away. That he was missing something. And that tiny feeling he’d had for a short while when Chanyeol had leaned in to kiss him was still there somewhere, too. Jongdae thought he was weak, being affected like that. Absolutely powerless.

 

 

A/N: hope you liked it this far!! i just felt like sharing a couple of details here: the story is obviously set quite a bit after the events of the harry potter books, and since i have no idea which teachers work on hogwarts after that i decided to not mention any of the teachers' names. also, chanyeol as a gryffindor was an obvious choice for me, but on the other hand choosing a house for jongdae was a bit trickier. i decided to put him in slytherin because it fit him in this particular story, but otherwise i can also see him as a gryffindor (or possibly a hufflepuff). ok, that's enough for me! thanks for reading, the next part will hopefully be uploaded soon as well!