A mortal enemy and a secret door

Being a Muggleborn, Kyungsoo had feared he would be the only one having to learn things from scratch, but he was pleasantly surprised when he found out the others were just as clueless as he was. Not everyone had enchanted their pants, but close enough.

Charms was his first lesson, alongside with fellow freshmen Hufflepuffs. First time using his wand, Kyungsoo was scared less of doing something wrong (like blowing up one of his hands), but it turned out he was pretty good at making feathers float mid-air: with a flick of the wrist, the object was slowly flying in the direction he pointed at, landing safely on his desk. Chanyeol on the other hand, made his shoot across the room like a bullet, getting it stuck in the wall.

Kyungsoo hardly recognized anyone from the Sorting the day prior, he didn’t have a good memory for people, but when he saw a familiar Hufflepuff sleeping on his desk, he couldn’t help but smile: Jongin was soundly asleep with his feather floating four inches above his head, wand placed over his ear like a pencil. That had to be a talent.

He looked like Sleeping Beauty, snoring quietly hidden behind his Charm’s textbook. With his spell already mastered, Kyungsoo rested his head on the palm of his hand and began tracing Jongin’s profile with his eyes: he looked like a portrait, clean lines that composed a perfect shape; full mouth, perfectly rounded nose (with a cute little bump) and dreamy hazel eyes, now shut and hidden behind a curtain of white hair. They were something Kyungsoo had never seen, long and fluffy, the texture of a swan’s plumage. It almost made him want to touch…

“MISTER PARK GET YOUR YOURSELF ON THE GROUND THIS INSTANT”

Kyungsoo looked up and stared at his friend who was now flying across the room, wriggling and panicking, unable to come down.

“Soo, help me!”

That, Kyungsoo decided, was going to be a long year.

***

“He’s here. I can feel it in my guts”

Tao stopped mid-motion with noodles dripping down his mouth. The dining hall was full of students making their way to find a seat, pushing and running to get the food before it could disappear, but Tao’d had the common sense of making sure every Slytherin knew that was his seat and nobody was allowed to take it; only Luhan. Maybe.

Being a fourth year made things simpler than being a second’s like the tiny Luhan that had to prove every day he hadn’t been placed into the wrong house, being the cutest boy Slytherin had ever seen. But when someone has a bad temper like his, making himself look bigger wasn’t really a problem.

“What exactly are we talking about?” asked Tao.

Luhan suspiciously looked around, wrinkling his nose. The older Slytherin could imagine why Luhan was constantly mocked for being too pretty: he had thin shiny lips, and when he smiled it lit up his whole face, making his eyes grow into two cute crescents, but when he was irritated he lost all those traits in favor of an edgier expression.

“Not what, but who. Oh is here”

Tao flicked his eyes to the side and saw the youngest heir of the Oh family, Oh Sehun, sitting in the corner, completely alone and avoided by all. Everybody knew that his grandad had been a Deatheater, now locked up in the maximum security cells in Azkaban, but his dad had cleansed the name of the family becoming one of the highest member in the Ministry of Magic.

However, it was also largely known that it had been Luhan’s grandmother to incarcerate the Deatheater, giving birth to one of the biggest family feud in history, only recently calmed down with the entering of the young heir at Hogwarts. Well,  Luhan eyeing him with flames in his eyes didn't really look all that peaceful...

Tao sighed.

“Do we really have to do this? He’s just a kid from another family, who cares”

“Spoken from the Head Auror’s son. Yours it’s not just a family, right?” mocked Luhan “You don’t understand, this is more than just a family thing: this morning I saw two first year girls offering him flowers and he used a Incendio spell on them. Who does that?”

Tao glossed over the fact that Luhan had been stalking Sehun all day long, he wasn’t going to be hexed into oblivion a second time. (First time he'd been left stuck in the wall for an hour).

“Uhm… Luhan, we’re Slytherins. It’s kind of normal being unkind, especially at six a.m. in the morning.”

The young wizard huffed irritated. He hated when people used their house as an excuse: oh yes, all Hufflepuffs are friendly and lovey dovey, not that that Leo guy had used a Knee-reversed hex on his legs just because he was looking at him the wrong way; Gryffindors are all brave and honest, not that Hyorin had faked being injured in the last Quidditch match to win the game; Ravenclaws are so clever and knowledgeable, but Junmyeon still didn’t know why people didn’t laugh at his jokes and Slytherins are mean and tough, so much that having a deer plushy on his bed was a heresy.

“Who cares. Let me hate him in peace”

Tao quietly returned to his food. Having Luhan in the wrong side of a fight could be the scariest thing and he surely wasn’t up for the bet.

“Whatever. And just so you know, he’s been staring at you the whole time”

***

Hogwarts’ library was grandiose: rows and rows of shelves filled with hundreds of books of all shapes and forms. Some were quivering, some twinkling and making sparks, some were trading places at every moment… and so many students were studying in the dead silence, under the stern look of the librarian.

It was with marvel that Kyungsoo realized: they were all wizard, his kind. He had been called to be there, he belonged to them.

He was supposed to find a new volume of “A beginner’s guide to Transfiguration” because he had accidentally hexed his copy’s pages all white, but he didn’t even know where to start looking. After ten minutes of browsing the shelves, he finally found it, on the highest row.

He tried to jump but it was just out of reach, making him curse under his breath. He had never been the tallest, but that height was just ridiculous: who was supposed to jump three meters to get a textbook? He was about to go ask for a ladder when he heard a whispered “Accio guide!” and suddenly the book was in his hands and a feline looking student in black and blue was smiling at him.

“Typical first year trouble. Don’t worry, it happens to everybody” the guy grinned even wider, his mouth’s edges curling like a cat “Name’s Jongdae, I’m a third year”

Fumbling to get the book on his left grasp, Kyungsoo offered a shy smile and shook his hand.

“I’m Kyungsoo. Thank you for helping me”

“Don’t mention it.”

Kyungsoo was just about to get away from the following awkward silence when another guy wrapped in a thick blue and bronze scarf approached them with his arms crossed, panting heavily in his dark robe and looking at Jongdae with furious eyes.

“I was waiting for you in courtyard. I was about to freeze myself to death”

The other Ravenclaw laughed, his voice high and bubbly.

“Sorry sorry, I was helping this little Gryffindor here and forgot the time. Kyungsoo, this puffy thing is Minseok, my roommate”

Kyungsoo looked at the new arrived and bowed. He had soft brown hair and really big bright eyes, a pair of round glasses placed right above his puffy cheeks, the scarf hiding the rest of his face. With a gentle shrug directed at Jongdae, Minseok turned to the young wizard and bowed back.

“It’s nice to meet you Kyungsoo, I’m… did you just called me puffy thing?”

In a blink of an eye, Kyungsoo found himself alone. In the distance, he could hear the faint sound of Jongdae running for the hills out of the library and Minseok screaming hexes with his wand going all over the place.

Later in the Gryffindor common room, Chanyeol saw him coming and stopped talking to Baekhyun next to him, making space for him on the sofa and offering him a piece of gingerbread. He was still shaky from the Charm’s lesson, but fortunately the Professor had had the patience to teach him the right way to spell the feather after he had come down form the ceiling.

“So, did you get your book?”

“Yeah...”

The giant turned to him, mouth full of food.

“Are you okay?”

“Kind of. This school it’s so weird”

Baekhyun at the side snickered, still chewing his gingerbread.

“Trust me, you’ll get used to it”

***

When Junmyeon returned to his room, he found a lanky kid cross-legged on the floor, carefully placing a trail of bread crumbs from under the nightstand up to his knees. Even Tabbytha, his tabby cat (yes, the name was a purposely crafted pun by the only and one Kim Junmyeon), was watching him from the bed, puzzled.

“Uhm… Yixing, what are you doing?”

The concentrated Hufflepuff didn’t answer, mouthing him to be silent and wait where he was. After a second or two, a little mouse’s snout peeped from the underside of the nightstand, rapidly eating the first piece of bread in front of him. Slowly, the little animal made his way to Yixing who promptly caught it between his fingers and sighed contently, putting it in his pocket.

“Yixing…”

Finally, the tall wizard stood up from the floor and greeted Junmyeon with a tired smile.

“Hi Jun. what are you doing here?”

The fifth year Ravenclaw couldn’t help but to make a defeated smile. Yixing, dear little Yixing, was his one of the few people he could study with because, despite never remembering where his room was, he was an exceptionally good student, always working hard and with passion.

Still, more often than not, one could find him roaming the hallways in search of the next class because he had forgotten the way.

“Xing, I’m pretty sure me being in my room is a normal thing. What are you doing here?”

“Oh, right. I was going to the Hufflepuff’s basement but suddenly T-Rex jumped from my pocket and started running so I followed him here. I don’t know why he keeps on coming in your room, but apparently he likes it here”

Junmyeon sighed.

“Xing, he likes it here because you forget to feed him and I don’t”

Five year of this and he still wasn’t tired of looking at Yixing's dumbstruck expression once he realized that the last time he had fed his little mouse was a week before. The Hufflepuff pouted, head down at the floor, and sat on the spare bed. Tabbytha immediately jumped on his lap, cuddling on his knees.

Junmyeon used to have a roommate but he had left school to become part of the Ireland’s Quidditch junior team, leaving an empty bed and even more space for him to make a mess out of the place. On the floor was a dumpster of clothes, washed and dirty all mixed, pieces of old Hogsmead candy and some coins. Kris once had found a galleon under one of his old Arithmancy essays.

“I’m sorry, I always make you work for me”

Junmyeon patted his head and reassured him everything’s alright. It was always like this, Yixing forgetting something and apologizing, Junmyeon fixing it up and telling him that it was okay, even if he had to work all night to find a spell to take away all those glitter from the hallway’s armors or to glue back in place the painting he had tipped of the stairs.

“T-Rex likes me more anyway” he said, playfully poking at his pocket.

The little mouse scampered out of the fabric onto his hand and placed himself on his shoulder, comfortably nestled against his neck.

Yixing looked at T-Rex with a fake pout.

“You traitor!”

Junmyeon laughed stretched himself over the bed, his hands resting under his head.

“Xing”

“Mmm?”

The Ravenclaw watched as Yixing began scratching Tabbytha’s ear, making her purr in delight. How many days had they spent in that room, talking about nothing and petting the tabby cat? Too many, Junmyeon answered, because he knew Yixing’s friends had gotten used to search for him there rather than in the Hufflepuff’s dormitory.

“Do you want to stay over?”

“Sure. Do you still have my pajama?”

Junmyeon looked at his floor, groaning internally because he surely had it, but he had no clue where. Yixing followed his eyes and chuckled.

“Okay. I’ll go get another one”

When the door finally closed, the Ravenclaw let out a muffled cry in his pillow.

Five years and Yixing was still the same.

Five years and he still hadn’t realized he was in love with him.

***

Jongin was waiting in his bed, covers pulled up to his nose and wand in his pajama’s pocket. As soon as he heard his roommate’s breath turn steady and even, he quietly got out of bed and exited his room.

In the Hufflepuff common room there were some older students asleep on the few couches, essays and potions ingredients sprawled on the tables as they had dozed off, exhausted from the exam’s studying, but Jongin paid no mind to them, directed to the main hallway.

In the dead silence of the night, the little Hufflepuff made his way through the moving stairs, up and up until he reached his destination. Seventh floor to the left, just as his father had said.

The Room of Requirements, only accessible by those in great need, and apparently Jongin had been deemed worthy because in front of him stood a tall wooden door covered in vines and half bloomed flowers. Jongin stretched his hand to a little rosebud and smiled as it bloomed between his fingers.

Swallowing hard and pulling forward all his courage, he pushed it open and entered what had morphed into a beautiful woodland. Taking off his shoes and placing them to the side, Jongin looked at the endless green before him a began running.

Finally, he was at home.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ah ha! Who would've thought I could write at such speed! I know it will never be this consistent, but for this second chapter I've done it! *proud smile*.

Here we meet Sehun, Luhan and Tao, a sneaky Jongdae and a soft Minseok and we learn something suspicious about Jongin (and that Chanyeol is still as clumsy as he is in real life). And don't worry, the Chansoo friendship will only become softer:). Hope you like the new chapter and anticipate meeting the other members in the next one ^__^

Let me know in the comments how you're liking it so far :)