I had nearly a day of silence after the issue with Jackson. Nearly.

   I hung around with the Durmstrang girl, Ari, a lot, and even talked to Miriam more.

   I think it was my free period when things sped up a bit again. I had headed down to the Gryffindor common rooms with Miriam; Ari had gone to talk to her Durmstrang friends, and Miriam wanted to hang around with Bambam. I wasn't exactly excited to see Jackson or his friends but I had a small hope that Youngjae would be there. Out of all of them, Youngjae had bothered me the least, and I felt pretty comfortable with him.

   The walk up the moving stairs was dreadful. As Miriam and I slowly climbed up the stairs, I spotted someone I did not want to see.

Jackson.

  Despite my desperate wanting to run back down the stairs, I kept walking, clenching my knuckles and gritting my teeth. Jackson was coming from above us, behind another group of people, which was behind Mark, Jinyoung and Youngjae. It looked like Jackson was trying to catch up to them.

  When Youngjae got closer, I ran out with a burst of speed and grabbed his arm before yanking him towards the fat lady’s portrait and shoving him in front of me. Miriam stayed back and joined up with Mark and Jinyoung.

  “Wh-what-” Youngjae started, obviously caught off guard and blustered. I just gestured wildly to the portrait, eyes wide and huffing.

  “-password,” I said, clinging to his robes. He just stood there for a moment, then looked at me, still confused. The fat lady sat there and didn’t say anything.

  “Um, what?” Youngjae tried again. I hopped up and down with indignation.

  “Password, Youngjae, PASSWORD!” I said hurriedly, and he turned back to the portrait.

  “Grimoire,” he said, and the fat lady opened the passageway to the Gryffindor commons. I shoved past him and hid behind one of the chairs by the fireplace. I could hear the fat lady say something about “giving the password to just anybody” but I ignored it and looked over the top of the chair at Youngjae. He folded his arms and I knew he expected an explanation.

  “Um, well…” I began, but then I paused. I didn’t want to tell him that I was avoiding Jackson, even though he probably definitely knew what had happened at quidditch practice. Luckily, Youngjae answered for me.

  “I know. You’re avoiding someone, right?” he questioned. I looked down and was going to reply, but then the others entered the common room. I ducked behind the chair again as Mark, Jackson, Jinyoung, Miriam, and a few other Gryffindors entered the common rooms. I could hear them all chatting; Miriam was talking to Mark about their history class, and Jackson and Jinyoung were talking. It sounded like Jinyoung was chastising him, and that made me a little happy. Eventually, Mark and Miriam sat down, but Jackson huffed indignantly at something Jinyoung said and made straight for the dorm rooms. I scooted around the base of the chair to avoid Jackson until he was gone. I could tell Mark, Miriam, Youngjae, and Jinyoung were judging me, and I heard Jinyoung laugh sarcastically a little.

  When I turned to face them after Jackson had gone, I saw Miriam, Mark and Jinyoung sitting on a couch, and Youngjae was sitting on a chair by himself. Jinyoung was staring at the fire. He didn’t look very happy. Youngjae looked like he felt really awkward, and kept shifting in his seat. Mark and Miriam looked indifferent, and were carrying on a conversation of their own.

  “If you’re wondering, he did see you,” Jinyoung said, startling me. I jumped up and dropped into the chair I had been circling previously.

  “He did?” I said. It wasn’t really a question. Jinyoung grabbed a fire poker and started poking the fire with it before nodding slowly. I looked at Youngjae, and he just looked away. I knew that Miriam and Mark were listening, but they didn’t add anything and carried on by themselves.

  It was silent for a while as I watched Jinyoung poke the fire. It was uncomfortably warm, and I wondered why we had a fire going if it wasn’t cold. It wasn’t until I was so uncomfortable that I was going to say something that I noticed Jinyoung’s hands where slightly shaking. I decided not to say anything and let Jinyoung continue to stoke the fire.

  The near silence continued until Jinyoung finally dropped the poker. I watched him stare at his empty hand for a bit before laying back on the couch, exhaling loudly. Miriam laughed quietly at something Mark said. Jinyoung kept sinking into the couch, pulling a pillow on top of him. He looked really worn out; he had light eye rings, his hair was messier than usual, and his clothes were ruffled. I turned to look at Youngjae. He looked a little stressed out too.

  “Hey…” I whispered to Youngjae. The crackling fire covered it so that Miriam, Mark, and Jinyoung couldn’t hear. Youngjae looked up briefly before closing his eyes and sighing, sinking into his chair like Jinyoung.

  “Um…” I tried again, and Youngjae’s eyelids fluttered a bit before closing again. I looked away at Jinyoung.

  “Jinyoung looks stressed. Did something happen?” I muttered more to myself than Youngjae, but Youngjae nodded a bit and replied.

  “There’s been a bit of… a problem recently,” he whispered, eyes still closed. I looked back at Youngjae.

  “What?” I said, a bit louder. He put his hand up and slowly brought it down without opening his eyes, signaling to be quieter. I scooted my chair so that it was touching his.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. He opened his eyes and sighed.

  “Jinyoung gets really worried about everyone. We call him the eomma of the group. The mom,” he explained, then went on. “There’s been a lot of issues recently, especially with the Triwizard Tournament and people’s grades. You know Bambam couldn’t care less about class,” he said, and I hummed.

  “Why Triwizard, though? They lowered the age, so it should be safer.” I folded my arms. “That’s what he’s worried about, right? How dangerous it is?” I asked.

  “He is. However, he knows more about the tournament than we all do, because his dad works in foreign affairs. I overheard him trying to convince Jaebum not to let any of us participate. I have... a feeling…” Youngjae trailed off before deciding to tell me.

  “...that they didn’t change how dangerous the tasks are.”

  I just sat there. That didn’t make any sense in my head.

  “Also, this year they will be doing it in teams of two, because of what happened last time, so I can understand that, too. That means that two will be picked from our school and then- and then it’s a higher chance of them getting picked,” he muttered.

  “Who’s them? I mean, I get that probably all of you want to put your names in, but it’s sounding like some don’t and some do,” I asked. Youngjae shook his head.

  “Jinyoung gave a big speech on how dangerous it was this year. I think it scared Mark and Bambam off. Jaebum isn’t too interested; he’s the kind to just put his name in the goblet to see how fate works out, but he’s been slightly disinclined this year because he doesn’t want to anger Jinyoung. I’m not too interested myself, but I might anyways. I don’t really want the jinx that’s been on our house after the last Triwizard Tournament, so I probably won’t. Yugyeom and Jackson, though…” he trailed off again.

  “First of all, Jackson and Yugyeom aren’t on great terms right now anyways. I heard something about them challenging each other and seeing who out of them gets picked.” I groaned at his words. Idiots.

  “There’s been some kind of feud going around, like a competition? I don’t really know the details, but it’s stressing out everyone, especially Jinyoung,” he said, looking away. It seemed like he was reluctant to tell me. I could tell he wasn’t being entirely truthful, but I didn’t want to push it too much. Youngjae was smart, right? If I needed to know he would tell me. After all, I couldn’t care less about whatever Jackson was doing. He never cared about what I was doing.

  “Plus, there’s the reason why you are avoiding Jackson.” I jumped, startled at the break in silence. Behind me was standing Jinyoung. I hadn’t even noticed he’d moved, and I could tell Youngjae was startled too.

  “U-um,” I stammered, but Jinyoung just smiled painfully.

  “You two both need to fess up. Jackson’s been all moody and it’s affecting the group atmosphere,” he grimaced. I looked away from Jinyoung and at Youngjae, but Youngjae just looked away too.

  “Hey, I know you’re not really in the wrong on this one, but sometimes that’s what it takes to fix things like these,” Jinyoung grumbled from behind me. I turned to face him again.

  “You’re asking me to go talk to him,” I said. Jinyoung nodded.

  “I mean, I am worried about the Triwizard Tournament too,” Jinyoung continued, and I knew he had heard us.

  “-but the most concerning thing right now is to get Jackson to be Jackson again.”

  I stopped and stared right at Jinyoung.

  “And what if I don’t want him to be the Jackson he was before?” I questioned, staring him down. Jinyoung looked away, obviously distressed.

  “Jackson’s…” he stopped.

  “Jackson’s the one who…” he stopped again.

  “What’s with people not wanting to tell me anything?” I muttered to myself.

  “Jackson’s the one who what, Park?” I gripped the chair menacingly. Jinyoung swallowed. Then, he gathered his pride and raised his voice.

  “Jackson’s the one that started this. He needs to finish it, and while you may not care about him, his friends do and want things to go back to the way they were before because they’re a hell of a lot better than they are now.”

  I sat, shocked and in silence.

  “He started what?” I whispered. Jinyoung shook his head.

  “Yugyeom was already on edge, like he always is, except he was especially grumpy,” Jinyoung began, but I could already see where it was going.

  “I’m sure you know better than anyone that when Jackson gets embarrassed, angry, or sad, he takes it out verbally, right? Like when he got mad at you for getting hit with the bludger when he was obviously just worried,” he gestured at me. I rolled my eyes.

  “And that’s no excuse for taking it out on anyone else.” I folded my arms again.

  “Yes. I’ve already gave him multiple lectures, but unfortunately he was put in a tight situation. I’m in no way saying that you’re at fault, all right? But whatever happened with you two set him on edge. He hasn’t been like this since a girl dumped him two years ago. Because he feels really bad about… what happened earlier, he can’t take it out on you... and… well, Bambam tripped and fell onto him on the stairs… long story short he got really pissed and yelled at him and then Yugyeom got involved and they’ve been at it for a while now,” he summarized.

  “And being the prideful idiot he is he couldn’t apologize like a normal person and it escalated,” I added. Jinyoung nodded mournfully.

  “I understand,” I muttered, and looked down at my hands.

  “But why do I have to talk to him?” I whined. I really didn’t want to see Jackson.

  “Well, as you can see, it didn’t work when I talked to him, and believe me when I say Jaebum is the last result.”

I shivered. I knew better than to cross Jaebum. He was scary enough without getting on his bad side.

I sighed.

“Might as well get it over with,” I groaned, getting up and walking towards the stairs leading to the guy’s dorms.