“Knight to E5!”

Kibum squinted at Minho’s remaining knight when it didn’t move. He smacked Minho’s hand away when he reached to move it himself. “Do you want the horse to bite you again?”

He huffed, drawing his hand back and crossing his arms. “Why isn’t it going?”

Kibum scanned the chessboard, his eyes widening. “Oh, it’s out of it’s...it’s...range,” he said, pointing on one of the black squares, flinching away when the light knight tried to beat his extended finger with its lance. “Hey! I didn’t touch you!” Minho chuckled and Kibum snorted after a minute. “I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised that Callum’s chess pieces are on the defensive.”

“Yeah, no.” Minho sat back in his chair, rubbing his eyes as he yawned. He smiled sleepily when he met Kibum’s curious eyes. “I’m not really tired.”

“Sure.” His gaze dropped to the chessboard before he glanced back up at Minho. “Do we want to stop for the night?”

“Probably.” He stifled another yawn. “We should get back to studying anyway, huh?”

Groaning, Kibum sat back in his chair as Minho started to stand. “I don’t even want to think about exams.”

“I mean, me neither, but we have three tomorrow so...” Minho pushed in his chair as Kibum reluctantly stood. “And like, an hour and a half until light’s out.”

Kibum let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “I suppose.”

They fought with the chess pieces to put them back into their box, the light knight’s horse biting Minho’s finger again -- he inspected the tiny wound with a whispered “Amazing...” Once the box was tied up with its string, Kibum tucked it under his arm and they were off to their study closet on the seventh floor.

For the past two days, they had been studying for exams as soon as the last bell rang and they were released from their classes for the day and until the lights started to dim. Today, both Kibum and Minho were too ancy and distracted to study, so after dinner, Kibum suggested they play wizard’s chess instead of going back to studying.

“Which ones are you taking tomorrow, again?” Minho asked as the metal filigree appeared on the closet door before it popped open.

“Transfiguration, Herbology, and Astronomy.” He chuckled when Minho nodded slowly. “We’re taking the same ones.”

“Right, I forgot.”

He opened the door and stepped inside, lighting the candles before Minho followed him. They sank to their spots on the floor at the back wall, Minho grabbing their discarded sweaters and passing Kibum his. With a simultaneous sigh, they reached for their books and -- Kibum, his A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration, and Minho, his One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi.

The flames danced and sputtered on their wicks, painting the close-set walls a warm yellow. The only sounds in the closet were the soft leafing of pages and the occasional scratching of pen against parchment. Minho yawned again, Kibum glancing away from his textbook when he scooted a little closer.

“We can stop for the night, if you want."

“No, no. I’m fine. We need to study.”

Kibum rolled his eyes and bit back a smile, going back to his book. It didn’t take too long until Minho’s head started to droop. He roused himself once, twice... The third time his head fell, it stayed down. “Choi...psst, Minho,” Kibum said, pinching Minho’s elbow. He stirred, barely, before he leaned back against the wall. “We should go downstairs.”

“It’s” -- he yawned again -- “it’s a good thing Transfiguration is first, ‘cause...because that one will be the hardest one” -- he sniffed, shaking his head -- “for tomorrow.”

“That’s true.” Kibum smirked as Minho rubbed his hands across his face. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to sleep?” He nodded, dropping his textbook on the floor and stretching out. Minho propped himself up on his elbows and hummed to himself as he flipped to the next page.

Not even five minutes later, there came a light smack and Kibum looked up to find Minho completely and totally asleep. He sniffed in quiet amusement and reached over Minho to grab their wadded up robes. He shook out one, draping it over Minho as a sort-of blanket, and he folded the other, leaning forward to tuck it between Minho’s head and his textbook.

He would wake him up and get him to his house, but he did not want to go through the struggle of getting Minho down seven flights of stairs.

No, it wasn’t worth it.

Kibum rubbed his eyes and went back to reading the same paragraph he had been for the last fifteen minutes. “I should sleep, too...”

He leaned back, making himself as comfortable as he could against the wall, and draped the tail of the robe covering Minho over his legs. Pulling his hands into his sweater sleeves, Kibum crossed his arms and closed his eyes, nodding off to the sound of Minho’s steady breathing.

* * * * * * * * * * 

Bright white light streamed into the room, rousing Minho. He rubbed his eye, rolling over as a frown furrowed his brow. What...was he doing in the study closet? The candles had just been blown out, given the faint wisp of smoke tickling his nose. Minho sat up, the blanket -- no, robe -- slipping off his shoulder, and squinted up at Kibum who was standing in the doorway.

“What...time...”

“I think it’s breakfast right now, we should go.”

Minho hummed, taking in the room with tired blinks. “Did we sleep up here?”

“No, I broke into Hufflepuff and dragged you up seven flights of stairs by myself.” Minho’s mouth opened in surprise and Kibum started to laugh. “You’re really not a morning person, are you? Yeah, we slept up here.”

“Oh.”

Kibum smiled before he looked back into the hall. “We should go see if there’s any breakfast left.”

After a fumbling of robes and shoes and books, they were on their way downstairs to the Great Hall. Everyone was starting to disperse by the time they reached it. Minho stood up on his tiptoes, peering over the heads of the other students to find the tables cleared of any remnants of breakfast. He shook his head and Kibum sighed, nodding down the corridor. They followed the other second years to Classroom 1.

The usual two-seater desks had been switched out with single desks, placed in a sort-of checker pattern, probably to eliminate cheating. Minho followed Kibum to the middle of the desks and took the one directly behind him.

Low murmuring hummed throughout the classroom. Kibum started to lean back in his chair, the telltale twinkle in his eye of something funny he thought of, but Professor Crowell walked through the classroom. A roll of parchment and a self-inking quill appearing on every desk in her wake.

“Once you’ve handed in the practical exam, you are to search the classroom for a partially Transfigured object and return it to its original state.” She reached her desk, standing behind it as she looked over the classroom. “And, when you’ve done that, you are to bring it up to my desk. Only then are you done with your exam.” Crowell sat down, and with a wave of her hand, the parchment unraveled in front of everyone.

Minho picked up his quill, writing his name on the line at the top before he started to scan the questions. There were twenty of them, plus an essay question. He tapped the feather end of his quill against his nose.

1. Why was the spell to turn beetles into buttons originally invented?

A. Economical purposes. In 1892, Althia Ness’ mother was sewing her father a new winter coat and was short one button. Instead of going to Diagon Alley and buying one from the shop, Althia found a black beetle outside and Transfigured it into a matching button.

B. Necessity. In the 1760s, an infestation of beetles plagued Diagon Alley, and the seamstress at Twillfit and Tatting created the spell to help the other shop owners with the problem.

C. On a dare. Melphius Twiet bet Chester Varus that he could not come up with a spell on the spot. A beetle crawled across Melphius’ knee just after, and it gave Chester an idea.

D. Curiosity. Emeric Switch and his sister Alphaba were playing outside in the when they came across some beetles. They performed various spells on them, just to see what would happen, until Emeric accidentally changed one into a button.

Minho circled B and went through the rest of the multiple choice questions relatively easily, balking at the essay question.

Essay: What are the five exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration and why are they exempt?

The five exceptions were things or concepts that could not be created or conjured from nothing. He knew food was one of them, and he remembered the lesson that this was taught...but his mind instantly went blank as to what the other four were.

Minho glanced up at the back of Kibum’s head, just as he was getting up to hand in his exam. He turned, giving Minho a smile and a thumbs up before he walked away. Several other students were already up and about, inspecting all the shelves around the classrooms for the partially Transfigured items.

Food...food, food, food...

Minho rubbed his stomach, hungry all of the sudden. He shook his head, refocusing on the exam. Food...oh! Money was another.

There was a commotion at one of the bookshelves -- a girl, Minho couldn’t tell who, screamed when the teacup goblet she untransfigured turned into a mouse. Everyone looked over at them, and Kibum caught Minho’s eye. Both of them mimed screaming at the same time, Minho smiling when he went back to his exam.

Food, money...love? That was probably one of them. He wrote it down with the other two, tapping his quill on the parchment while he thought. Minho looked back over at the bookshelves, hoping for some sort of clue. Books! Books equal information, which was the fourth.

He jotted it down, and brushed the feather over his chin. A couple of days ago, one of the students in Defense Against the Dark Arts asked about horcruxes, which was the act of splitting one’s soul by means of murder. It was forbidden, and apparently a couple of years ago there was a surge of horcruxes that needed to be destroyed. There was a glimmer of remembrance in Minho's mind -- soul was the last of the exceptions.

As quickly as he could, Minho wrote his essay and hurried up to Crowell’s desk, handing in his parchment roll. She took it and nodded for him to join the others in their search. He stepped up next to Kibum, folding his hands behind his back.

“How’d you do?” he asked when Kibum looked over at him.

“Good. You?”

“Okay, I think.”

Kibum smiled, glancing over his shoulder at Crowell. “Wait outside for me if you finish first?” he whispered, and Minho nodded before he moved away to search the other bookshelves on the other side of the classroom. It didn’t take him too long to find a glass chalice with soft, iridescent feathers sticking out of the sides.

He fumbled for his wand in his robe pocket and froze when he pulled it out. This was Kibum’s wand...and robe. In their hurry to get downstairs, they must have gotten their robes mixed up. Minho rolled it between his thumb and finger as he looked back at Kibum, who had a book in hand and was feeling for his -- well, Minho’s -- wand.

Minho snorted when Kibum looked confused and held up his wand when he found him. Kibum accidentally let out a laugh, which was abnormally loud in the quiet classroom. His eyes widened as he glanced around the room before he made his way over to Minho. They switched wands and Minho set his goblet back down on the bookshelf while Kibum set his book down on an empty desk.

He held out his wand, swishing it toward the goblet as he said, “Reparifarge!”

White light shone from the tip of his wand, and the chalice spun around with white sparks twirling around it. The glass shimmered and shifted, and all at once the chalice changed into its original state, which seemed to be a robin. Minho leaned towards it, finger extended, his eyes unblinking when it perched there.

“Kibum!” he whispered, looking over at him to see him holding an orange tabby cat. “We did it!” Kibum grinned and started to walk back over to Professor Crowell’s desk. Minho followed him, albeit slowly so as not to disturb the robin. Kibum was already halfway to the door by the time he returned the bird, and soon Minho joined him outside.

“I was wondering why this robe was fitting weird,” Kibum said as he was slipping out of it. Minho pulled his robe off and they switched, Kibum laughing as they headed in the direction of the greenhouses.

There were already some second years waiting outside for Professor Sprout to open the door. They sat at the trunk of the dirigible plum bush that clung to the outside of the greenhouse, quizzing each other on Herbology terms while they waited. Seb and Gilbert joined them, as well as Analecia when she got out of Charms.

It wasn’t long after that Sprout opened the door and let them inside. Minho went to his usual spot, and Kibum took the seat to his left. Minho brushed peat away from the table and over to Kibum’s spot, trying not to smile when Kibum glared at him. He tried to brush it back, but the exams appeared before them and everyone else.

Professor Sprout smiled at them all. “Let’s begin.”

The actual exam did not take too long. Herbology was Minho’s easiest subject -- now that he wasn’t in Flying anymore -- and he was pretty confident that he would pass it. Kibum was too, he knew, which is why they decided to just get it out of the way on the first day of exams. He finished his test before Kibum did, and he waited outside for him.

Astronomy was their last exam of the day, which was scheduled to happen after dinner, so once Kibum joined him outside they went back inside the castle and waited in the Great Hall for lunch. The rest of the day passed by swiftly, their time spent waiting for their final exam used to study for their Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts exams tomorrow.

The Astronomy exam came and went quickly, as all they had to do was ready their assigned star charts and write what they saw there. They were both done by ten. As they started back downstairs, Minho grabbed Kibum’s sleeve and led him down the hallway to their study closet.

“What are you doing?” Kibum asked as they stopped before the tapestry. “We need to get some actual sleep tonight.”

“No, I know, I just wanted to look over my notes for Defense again.”

“Min-hooo...” Kibum walked around him, lighting two of the candles before Minho followed him inside, sitting down at the back of the closet. “I’m tired.”

“It’ll just be for a second.” Kibum slumped against the wall next to him, letting out a sigh as his head rested on Minho’s shoulder. “Petri...petrificus totalus...boy, that sounds weird with a lisp.” He cleared his throat. “Petrifi...cus totalus. Does that sound right?” He looked down at Kibum, who was sound asleep.

He leaned forward a little -- being careful not to disturb Kibum’s sleep -- and watched him for a couple of seconds. Minho smiled, reaching for the sweaters they had discarded this morning in their rush. He arranged them carefully over himself and Kibum before he rested his head back against the wall. His head eventually settled atop Kibum’s, and soon, he was fast asleep.

* * * * * * * * * *

Kibum woke up shivering and reaching blindly for his blankets, only to find none. Blearily, he opened his eyes. Damn it, they fell asleep in the study closet, again. Minho was slumped over, his face smushed against the wall. He had stolen all of the sweaters, so Kibum took the one draped over Minho’s legs and slipped it on before he heaved himself up and made his way toward the door.

The corridor was still dark, except for the torchlights. He crept outside, leaving the door ajar, and shuffled on socked feet down the hall to the staircase tower, where there was a window. It was still night, moonlight streaming through the planes of glass.

Good, he could still sleep. 

Kibum trudged back to the closet and closed the door behind him, the candles’ flames flickering. Soon, he was back at his spot at the back wall, and he tucked his feet under Minho’s side to warm up his toes. He rubbed some warmth into his arms as he leaned against the wall, eventually falling back asleep.

When morning came, Kibum woke reluctantly, stretching his limbs before he stood. “Minho...Min...” Minho, who was curled up in a tight ball on the floor, didn’t stir. “Hey,” Kibum mumbled, tapping Minho’s thigh with his foot. “Wake up if you want breakfast this morning.” 

Still, no reaction.

Kibum shed his sweater and tossed it at Minho’s head. He made no move to get it off, instead, he started to snore. Rolling his eyes, Kibum picked up their two robes and dug through the pockets, putting on the one that had his wand. He blew out the candles on the way to the door, which he opened to let in the dim morning light. When he glanced back at Minho, he almost started to laugh. Only one of his sock-covered feet was visible beneath the pile of sweaters.

“Min-hooo!” He said, half-shouting. 

Only then did Minho sit up, the sweater sliding off of his head and onto the floor behind him. “Wha...”

“You hungry?” 

Minho stared blankly at him for a few seconds before he stood, bending down to grab his robe with a yawn. Kibum closed the door once Minho was outside and they started for the staircase, the closet door starting to disappear from view as soon as they turned away.

“It’s...Charms and Dark Arts today.” 

Kibum nodded and Minho rubbed his hands over his face. “Do you feel ready?” 

“As ready as I’m gonna be.” 

The Charms exam was during second period, which meant they had some extra time for some last minute pronunciation studying. When the bell rang, they as well as the small group of other second years trudged up the steps to the Charms classroom. 

Much like last year, Flitwick had enchanted the room so that no one could hear the exam when others were taking it. Kibum took his first, for Minho’s peace of mind, and then waited for him to finish his before they left together. Minho slung his arm across Kibum’s shoulders as they made their way downstairs, and he was grinning when Kibum looked over at him.

“Feeling good?” 

“Yeah. I think I did okay.” 

Kibum smiled.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was scheduled after lunch, so they made their way to the Great Hall, Minho sitting on the Hufflepuff table while Kibum laid down on the bench beside him. He dug the note cards Minho made from the things his mom got him for school out of his pocket. 

“What are the four different types of trolls?” 

“Uhh...Forest, Part-troll, River, and Mountain.” 

“Mhm.” Kibum flipped over the note card. “And which is the most dangerous?” 

“Mountain, because they’re the most violent and they travel in groups.” 

“And what are the groups called?” 

Minho’s brow furrowed in concentration. “Stenches?”

“Yup.” Kibum dropped the note card on his chest and went to the next. They continued to quiz each other, handing the stack of note cards back and forth until other students started showing up for lunch. Before Kibum headed over to Slytherin, he stopped before Minho. “Hey, since we slept up there for the past two nights, want to do it again tonight?” 

“Sure! It’s probably our good luck charm, since we’ve been doing so well on our finals.” 

“Don’t say that until we’ve seen our grades.” 

He snorted and Kibum started to walk away until Minho jumped off the table and grabbed his sleeve. “We should bring blankets or pillows or something tonight though.”

“Good idea.” 

The Defense Against the Dark Arts final was as painless as it could be. O’Neely made a short speech once everyone was finished about how proud he was of them all and their progress this year. Everyone left the classroom with their heads held high.

Dinner came and went, and they both excused themselves from their tables early so they could sneak some of their bedding out of the rooms before anyone else returned to the houses. It was quite the effort for both of them not to trip on the blankets on their way up all those stairs, but the pile of soft blankets and pillows taking up the entirety of the closet was well worth it.

They studied their History of Magic notes for as long as the could keep their eyes open. Minho fell asleep first, Kibum looking over at him as his steady breathing turned into light snoring. He tucked Minho in as best as he could before he drifted off himself.