A/N: I apologize for any unnecessary s's lol My keyboard on my laptop is ed up (specifically with the "s", "w", and "x" keys), and I probably didn't catch all of them :( Also, sorry for the super long delay in posting. I'm gonna try to get back on a more regular schedule with writing this fic

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“Did he see us?”

Kibum crouched down further, pulling his scarf over his head. Beside him, Analecia peered over the snowbank. “We’re good,” she whispered as she ducked below the wall of snow. “He’s attacking Callum right now.” Nodding, Kibum rested his head against the snow and stared into the depths of the Forbidden Forest.

It was the first snow of the season, which, of course, meant that during any free period between classes, many of the students were outside playing in it. It was snowing now, though, with his and Analecia’s proximity to the forest, most of it was getting caught in the overhanging branches. Kibum started to sit up but froze instead when Minho’s maniacal laughter rang out across the lawn. Snorting, he peeked over the bank at his best friend, who was chasing Aaron down to the Black Lake, snowballs falling out of his arms as he ran.

“He’s insane.”

“He’s just excited,” Kibum said, sinking further down when Minho turned back to the lawn. It was every House for themselves, as it was every year, which meant that Hufflepuff had a distinct advantage. When it came to snowball fights, Minho usually was delightfully unhinged, which both irritated and amused Kibum. “We should make some snowballs to defend ourselves.”

“Or you could go distract him and Slytherin could band together to form a sneak attack.”

“Are you implying that I should weaponize our friendship to win?”

“No. I’m stating it outright. You’re our only hope.”

The line Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re our only hope immediately flitted through his mind. Damn Minho for making him watch Star Wars over the summer. “Fine,” he said with a huff. “This is what we’ll do...”

The bell for the next period after lunch rang by the time they finished brainstorming, and both he and Analecia looked over the rim of the snowbank, watching the younger students hurry back to class.

“This is as good a time as any,” Kibum said, nudging her. She nodded, and he stood, striding out from behind the bank and waving his hands to draw Minho’s attention. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her duck into the shadows of the forest and run down to meet the nearest group of Slytherins. “Min!” he called out, the snow crunching beneath his feet as he walked across the lawn.

Minho sighed, his breath coming out in a white plume around his head. “Really? You’re trying to distract me?”

Kibum put up his hands in faux defense and hoped his grin didn’t give him away. “No, buddy! I just think you need to relax a bit, that’s all.” He pointed at the kids running back toward the castle. “See, you’re scaring away the first years!”

His laughter filled the snowy air. “Bull! They had to go to class and you know it!”

Kibum took a couple more steps forward, trying to be as subtle as possible as he glanced at the Slytherins gathering on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. “I mean, maybe...but they wouldn’t be running to class like that unless they had a reason to.” Minho shifted his stance, his gaze turning to the last of the younger students as they disappeared inside the castle. Oh, , had he really made him feel that bad? That hadn’t been his intention at all…

He stuffed his hand into his pocket, hiding the gesture he had been about to make to sic the Slytherins on Minho and the rest of the Hufflepuffs. Minho dropped the snowballs in his arms and brushed the snow off of his coat and back onto the ground. He looked over at his fellow Hufflepuffs, and Kibum took that second to glance over at his Slytherins, only to be startled by a chorus of yelling.

A volley of snowballs soared over Minho’s head, smattering the Slytherins where they huddled in wait for Kibum’s signal. Astonished, Kibum looked back at Minho to find him watching him with an annoyingly smug grin. That er…”Get him!” he yelled, and the Slytherins sprang into action.

Minho, however, had no intention of being caught. He bolted through the snow, Kibum running after him while their houses and the stragglers from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor fought each other. Kibum ran through the thick of the fight, following the sound of Minho’s high-pitched giggling. He caught up to him just as Minho slipped and slid down the hill leading to the lake. Without a thought, Kibum followed him, snow caking on his trousers and robe.

He slid past the protruding rocks and the Whomping Willow, down to where Minho lay at the bottom of the hill. Kibum tried to slow his descent, but even still, he tumbled right into Minho, knocking the wind out of him, by the sounds of it.

They lay there for a moment, and when Minho got his wind back Kibum lightly slapped Minho’s stomach. “Serves you right.”

“What’d I do?” Kibum snorted. “It’s just a bit of fun!”

“I know, I know.”

“Wait.” Without looking, he could tell that Minho was sitting up. “Are you actually upset with me?”

“Of course not, don’t be absurd.”

“Okay.” Minho settled back onto the snow and Kibum looked up, watching the Whomping Willow shake off the accumulated snow. “Your plan was really obvious, you know?”

Kibum rolled his eyes. “Shut up, no it wasn’t.”

“Yeah, it was.” He could hear the smile in Minho’s voice. “Maybe I just know you too well. I can read your mind, Bummie. You might as well get used to it.”

“Oh yeah?” He sat up and turned, wishing he could wipe that stupidly cute smug expression off of Minho’s face somehow. “What am I thinking?”

“Right now?” He nodded as Minho sat up, squinting comically at him as he lifted his finger to his forehead. “Clear your mind, my child,” he said, impersonating Trelawney. Kibum burst out laughing, falling into Minho's side until he could compose himself. "Please, my child, do not distract me while I try to work."

"Why do you sound Russian?"

Minho almost broke character, pursing his lips together to keep from cracking up. "Quiet, please." With the finger still on his temple, he rested the tips of his fingers of his other hand on the crown of Kibum's head, closing his eyes dramatically.

Merlin's beard, what an adorable .

"You're thinking…about how amazing and wonderful and talented and smart your best friend is," he said as he lifted his hand.

Laughing, Kibum shoved his shoulder. "No, I was thinking about how much of a you are."

Minho snapped his fingers, pointing at him with a grin. "But you were thinking about me."

Kibum pushed Minho away, hoping the cold air was doing a good enough job of hiding his growing blush. Minho fell back into the snow, grinning up at him. "We should probably head back in soon."

Minho nodded and sat up, shaking the snow out of his hair. "It'd be nice to warm up a bit before that two-hour Defense lesson."

Kibum groaned, looking up at the overcast sky. "Don't remind me."

"Come on, it won't be that bad."

"The last time we did this was for Boggarts."

Minho's smile waned. "I know."

Kibum patted his thigh before he made to stand. "I don't think it'll be that bad this time. And, in any case," he said, holding his hand out for Minho to grab. "O'Neely will find a way to make whatever it is fun."

"True."

Minho clasped his hand, hefting himself up. He brushed himself off and followed Kibum up the hill. When he slipped, Minho's hand immediately went to his back, supporting him until he regained his footing.

The others were all back inside now, or heading there, by the time they reached the summit of the hill. The Whomping Willow shuddered, startling Kibum, and they inched away from it as they walked across the lawn towards the castle.

"Meet you in the kitchen?" Minho asked as he stomped the snow off of his boots once they were back inside.

"First one there puts the kettle on."

"Deal," Minho said with a grin and darted off toward the stairs.

"Hey?" Kibum called out, his voice dripping with mock annoyance. "Why is everything a race to you?" If Minho heard him, he didn't indicate it at all before he ran down the stairs to the basement. Kibum shook his head as a picked up his own pace. "Damn athletes."

He took his time changing his uniform, robes, and shoes and leisurely made his way down to the kitchen. He was not surprised to find Minho already there, using his wand to stir both mugs of hot chocolate with spoons. Kibum sidled up next to him, staring at the display of magic.

"When'd you learn how to do that?"

"Read ahead in Charms." He set his wand down and the spoons soon clattered to a stop. He pulled them out, and Kibum watched as he carried them over to the nearest table.

It was impressive, really, how far Minho had come. Kibum watched him sit on the table, facing him as he set Kibum's mug down beside him. For a split second, he flashed back to the first moment he saw Minho, the scared kid sitting alone on the Hogwarts Express. The relief in his expression when Kibum started to speak Korean. The stuttered way he spoke English and Latin at first. His heart swelled with pride now, with how at ease Minho was here.

At Hogwarts.

And with magic.

"What?" Minho asked, his voice cutting through Kibum's reverie.

"Uh…"

How does one tell their best friend, without it being weird, that they're proud of them and they love them very much? Platonically, in this specific instance, but also… No, it would be too awkward. Even the thought of saying it right now made him want to crawl out of his skin.

He cleared his throat and shook his head. "Lost in thought, I guess."

He nodded, squinting as he sipped on his probably still-too-hot hot chocolate. "Wanna hear a secret?"

Kibum's eyebrows shot up in interest. "Gossip-y secret?"

"Obviously." Kibum grinned, scooting closer as Minho lowered his voice, despite them being the only ones in the kitchen. "Gil has got the biggest crush on Analecia."

"Oh really?" Minho nodded eagerly. "I wonder if she likes him back."

"For his sake, I hope so."

Kibum snorted, scanning Minho's profile. He changed his mind as soon as he thought it, but for a moment, he thought about asking Minho if he had a crush on anyone. If he did…

"My brother keeps asking me if I like anyone."

Kibum gulped. "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Do you?" Minho's attention shifted to his mug, overly intent on the swirl of steam curling off of the surface of his hot cocoa. He shrugged half-heartedly. "I mean, if you do, I feel like I should know. As your best friend and all."

He laughed out loud, some of the hot cocoa sloshing over the side and splashing onto his show. "I don't. Not really. Minseok just wants me to get a girlfriend is all."

Kibum's hand shook as he set down his cocoa, and he hoped to Merlin that Minho didn't notice it. A girlfriend. Of course. It was beyond foolish for him to get his hopes up. He hadn't even been trying to, and yet...Well, in his defense, it was only natural, but --

"But, just the idea of...of a girlfriend doesn't appeal to me. N-not right now, anyway."

"I mean, you're still young."

"Aw, hyung," he said, emphasizing the honorific sarcastically. "You're so wise!"

Kibum cackled, the pent-up tension in his chest releasing. "Don't you ing call me that." Minho started giggling and shoved Kibum's shoulder as he went to pick up his mug again. "I'm serious."

"No, I know. I swear on -- "

But, before he could finish his thought, the bell for the next period rang. Kibum gulped down the rest of his hot cocoa and passed his mug off to the waiting Minho, who bolted for the sinks with the mugs and spoons. He waited for him at the door, then joined him in running for Hufflepuff.

"Just wait out here," he said quickly tapping in the password before he hunkered down to fit inside the tunnel. It was only a matter of minutes before Minho reappeared, backpack in tow. "Let's go!"

“Good afternoon, class.”

Minho immediately straightened in his seat, looking over Kibum’s head as O’Neely strode into the room. He joined in the chorus of “Good afternoon, Professor.”

“Thank you for your patience with me,” he said once he reached his podium and began sorting through his notes for class. “My daughter, Camilla, she’s sick today and I decided to pop home during lunch so that I could make my wife lunch and so she could take a nap.” He looked up at them, an apologetic smile brightening his already bright features. “Are we ready to begin?” When most of the class responded affirmatively, he stepped around his podium, tapping his wand on his palm. “How many of you are familiar with the concept of patronuses?”

Beside him, Kibum immediately raised his hand, as did a majority of the other students. Minho looked down at his Common Defense Theories and their Derivation textbook, flipping to the table of contents and turning to page two-hundred three.

“The word patronus -- " As he said it, one of the pieces of chalk on the chalkboard behind him jumped to life, scrawling the word in all caps and underlining it twice. " -- comes from the Latin word for...does anyone know?”

Towards the front of the class, Elsie Rigby’s hand rose. “Isn’t it ‘protector’?”

O’Neely nodded, smiling. “Yes, five points to Ravenclaw. It means ‘protector’ or ‘guardian’, and, looking even further back in Latin, it means ‘father’. But, for this purpose, ‘protector’ or ‘guardian’ is more applicable."

He waited until the chalk finished writing before he cleared his throat. "Now, keeping that in mind, let's open our books to page two-hundred three. Follow along." He waited until the flutter of pages stopped before he started speaking again.

"It is, unfortunately, unclear when the patronuses and the subsequent charm to summon them came to be, but it is clear that they have been around since the birth of magic itself. Usually, when they are summoned, they come to us in an incorporeal form, which is to say that they are beams of light streaming from the tip of your wand, acting as a sort of shield between you and the danger. We're still unsure who the first person was to cast a corporeal patronus was, but if I had to guess, I would say it was Merlin himself."

Kibum raised his hand, and once O'Neely acknowledged him. "Why don't we know more about the history of the charm, Professor?"

He sighed, leaning against his desk. "Well, that would be because of the witch trials. You all have gone over that in History, I trust?" Minho and several other students around the room nodded. "Many of our texts -- spell books and written history alike -- were used as kindling to start the fire to burn the witches and accused Muggle women." He nodded when several of them gasped. "I know, it was a tragic loss, and once we went into hiding, we had to rebuild most of our history. Many of our elders were deceased or missing afterward, so we couldn't rely on them to help the witches and wizards of that age to help to rebuild our libraries and knowledge. We were lucky, honestly, that some of the ghosts of that era were willing to help regain our written history."

Kibum sat back in his seat, letting out a huff. "That really ," he whispered to Minho in Korean, to which he nodded in response.

"Those who can cast a corporeal patronus, it shapes the beam of light into an animal or creature that acts as a guardian between them and the danger before them."

A couple of seats ahead, one of the girls from Gryffindor raised her hand. "Yes, Ms. Khatri?"

"What is the danger that you keep referring to?"

O'Neely brushed some lint off of his robe sleeve. "Dark creatures, mostly. Dementors, usually, and about twenty years ago, Lethifolds as well. But," he said quickly when some of the other students raised their hands. "Learning about them is a whole other lesson. Next year I'll explain them more in-depth.

"Now, when it comes to the actual spell -- " He twirled his wand. “ -- it’s quite simple. It is Expecto Patronum, which loosely translates to ‘I await a protector’. The wand motion is a circle, like so.” He demonstrated it, circling in from the outside. Behind him, the chalk mimicked the motion, drawing a diagram below the pronunciation guide it just finished writing. “Seem easy enough?”

“Yes,” Minho said along with the rest of the class.

O’Neely smiled. “Good, because now it gets to be a bit tricky.”

“Of course,” Kibum murmured, and Minho glanced over at him with an amused huff.

“Since the Patronus Charm is used to combat dark and evil creatures, it only makes sense that it would require some light to counterbalance the darkness, right?” He waited for them to respond with murmured yeses, and when that happened, he continued. “There are two things that give the charm the most power, but in different ways. The first and most commonly used form of light is a happy memory. The happiest memory you can think of. They’re the most easily accessible tool in your arsenal when you need to produce a Patronus Charm.

“However…” his voice trailed off and his gaze grew distant for a moment. He blinked, returning to the present. “The other, possibly more powerful fuel for this charm is desperation. This spell is used against dark creatures who specialize in feeding on your happiness until there is nothing but despair left. In times like that, it’s nigh impossible to think of anything except for the creature — or, God forbid, creatures — before you, and that’s when your desperation comes into play.”

He cleared his throat, leaning back against his desk again. “How many of you have read The Boy Who Survived? Harry Potter’s autobiography?”

A couple of people raised their hands, and Kibum leaned over to Minho, whispering, “I keep meaning to, but I always forget whenever I’m in a bookstore.”

“It’s a great read, I highly suggest it. Anyway, aside from clearing up the lies the media told about him, his family, and He-Who...Voldemort’s second rise to power, he talked about the experiences he had while he was here at Hogwarts. It was during his — oh, what was it — “ He counted on his fingers. “Yes. His third year and my seventh year that he fended off dozens of dementors by himself by producing a fully corporeal patronus. Which, is impressive at any age, but especially for one so young. In that passage of his book, he doesn’t describe happiness as a factor in dispelling the dementors at all. He doesn’t say it outright, but it was pure desperation. That, I’ve found, produces the strongest patronuses. I hope you never have to find out for yourselves.”

He set his wand down on the desk beside him and clapped his hands together. “Now,” he said with a grin. Let’s get started, shall we?” It took a few moments for everyone to move the desks and benches out of the way so they had room to move around. Once they finished, O’Neely clapped his hands again, garnering everyone’s attention. “I’ll demonstrate the charm now, and then you will have the rest of the period to practice it for yourself, alright? Okay.” He brandished his wand, holding the pose for a second or two before he started to twirl the tip of his wand inward. “Expecto Patronum!”

From the tip of his wand, sparks flew. Silver sparks, followed by a thin stream of light and a swirl of mist curling around the light. The width of the beam grew until it curved around O’Neely as a shield of pure light. Minho could vaguely see his silhouette through the light, and it came more into focus as the light started to dim. It faded as he lowered his wand.

“That,” he said, smiling at the classroom. “Was an incorporeal patronus. As you can see, it would work well enough to dispel any dark creatures that you might be unfortunate enough to cross paths with. Now, I will attempt to show you my corporeal patronus, but it’s not always easy to conjure up.”

He took another deep breath, closing his eyes as he started to twirl his wand inward again. “Expecto Patronum!”

Once again, silver light flashed out of the tip of his wand, and soon, a falcon emerged from the light. Sparks glanced off the falcon’s wings as it flew above their heads, falling like glitter amidst the students. It flew past Minho, its wing flapping right through his shoulder, on its way back to O’Neely where it perched on his wand. It looked down at him, and once he stopped moving his wand, it vanished as if it had been blown away by the wind.

“And that,” O’Neely said, quieting the excited murmurs that erupted around the classroom, “was my corporeal patronus. It takes...much more effort to conjure than the incorporeal patronus, and requires either the happiest memory you have or the desperation of the direst situation you may find yourself in.”

“Professor?” Callum asked, raising his hand.

“Yes, Mr. Murphy?”

“What do you think of?”

O’Neely set aside his wand with a smile. “My wife. Always.” He looked back at the class. “You may begin. Call me over if you need any help.”

Minho fiddled with the end of his wand, glancing around at the others who tentatively started to attempt the charm. A few sets of sparks lit up in different corners of the rooms, but nothing past that. What memory...would be his happiest?

Beside him, Kibum bit on the end of his wand, humming to himself. "Got anything yet?"

He took the tip of his wand out of his mouth and shook his head. "Not sure where to start."

"Same here."

Kibum squinted, raising his wand only to lower it a second later. "No, that might work. Expecto Patronum!" Minho turned to attentively watch the sparks form at the end of Kibum's wand. The light that was beginning to form sputtered and died out a second later. "Guess not."

"What was the memory?"

"First day of school." That was a happy memory for him? Well, maybe it was happy for Minho, too, in hindsight. The day was terrifying, but it was also the day he met Kibum, so…

The memories he had made in Korea before the move to England were fuzzy now, which made it hard to focus on any one of them. Still, even if he had been able to, they probably wouldn't have been strong enough to produce even an incorporeal patronus.

He glanced over at Kibum, who was fully lost in thought -- if his blank expression and the fact that the tip of his wand was maybe a millimeter away from sticking into his nose were anything to go by. Minho bit his lip to keep from laughing and immediately looked away.

Memories…Here in England, all of his really happy memories were here at Hogwarts. His first thought was back in first year when he was able to perform the Levitation Charm in their study closet. How happy he -- and Kibum -- had been. It was a great moment because it was the first time he knew for sure that he could actually be a wizard...that this was what he meant to do.

He latched onto the memory in his mind and did his best to conjure the feelings that accompanied it as he raised his wand. “Expecto Patronum!”

Silver sparks spurted from the tip of his wand, slowly revolving around the beam of light that flickered to life. It petered out quickly, and Minho lowered his wand, neither disappointed nor surprised that it wasn’t strong enough. It was good for a first try, though.

Harnessing the memory where Kibum decided that he would stay with him for Christmas in second year didn’t work, and neither did the one of Kibum’s reaction to his first attempt at homemade pumpkin pasties, but it did get him a bit closer. He tried his and Kibum’s first trip to Hogsmeade, and the day he first taught Kibum how to swim in the secret pool they found in the basement, and the first time he flew on a broomstick, but none of them seemed to be strong enough.

He thought back to the moment in that abandoned room on the sixth floor and his reflection in that strange mirror. It was just his reflection, and he still didn’t understand it, but even so, he couldn’t get over how...easy and natural it had been for him to kiss Kibum’s cheek. Even just thinking of it now and imagining what that would be like...it might be enough…

As he started to lift his wand, Kibum said “Expecto Patronum!”, and Minho glanced his way to see the strongest beam of light he had seen from Kibum so far. He watched the light intently, his eyes widening when what looked like a pair of antlers formed out of the light. Minho lowered his wand, watching in awe as the light transformed into a proud stag. Almost as soon as it transformed, it dispersed into a cloud of sparks. Minho grinned at him when he looked his way.

“Did you see it!” he said, walking over to him from where he had paced.

“I did!”

“I can’t believe it!”

“What’d you think of?” Minho started to ask, but was cut off when O’Neely said: “Very impressive, Mr. Kim! You should be proud of yourself!”

Kibum grinned, glowing from the praise, and Minho smiled as he looked down at his wand. Oh, why didn’t he think of it before? His first Quidditch win and how proud Kibum had been of him! Of course…

Even though it happened a few years ago, the feelings that rushed back into his mind at the thought were still almost as strong as they had been on the actual day. He raised his wand once more, the bell ringing for the end of the period as he said the spell.

Light burst forth -- he could feel the strength of it coursing through his wand -- and for the first time today, it started to curves at the end, creating a shield around him and Kibum. It may have just been his imagination, but he felt Kibum’s shoulders press into his as he huddled closer to him. As the light started to fade, Minho looked down at Kibum to find him looking back. Kibum’s eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled at him and started to look away, and Minho found himself wishing that he had Kibums’s polaroid so that he could capture the way Kibum looked right now. Even after the light faded and Kibum moved away to join the others in arranging the desks back to where they should be, Minho stayed rooted where he stood, watching him.

Maybe he was too invested and his feelings for Kibum were clouding his judgment, but...he really was the most beautiful person in any room, wasn’t he?

“Hey!” Kibum called out, snapping him out of his sort of trance. “Come get your stuff! We have to head to Charms.”

“O-okay.” Minho hurried over to grab his backpack and their books, eagerly following Kibum out the door and into the Serpentine Corridor. Minho caught up to him by the time he reached the staircase, and together they slipped into the Charms Corridor. “Congratulations, by the way. For your patronus.”

Kibum smiled at him as he slipped through the door to Classroom 2E. "Thanks. You did good, too, you know." Minho started to shrug, but Kibum caught his eye before he could avert his gaze. "Don't deny it. You did."

Minho watched him find their usual seats, his thoughts straying to the enchanted mirror again. If only…

"Minho!" Kibum said with a laugh, drawing his attention across the room. "Walk through the door. Other people want to get to class."

"Oh, ," he said before he switched to English. "Sorry!"

They learned about the theory of Disillusionment Charm and its uses, both taking notes as Flitwick lectured. Minho was soon distracted, however, when Kibum drew a quick, squiggly line on the edge of his notebook paper. He stopped taking notes then, doodling random shapes and lines around it. At times, he would pull his pen away and sit back, waiting for Kibum to make an addition.

He always did.

Once Charms ended, they headed downstairs, as that was their last class of the day besides Astronomy, but that was held at midnight, so they had some time to kill before dinner.

"So," Kibum said as he walked up to him from the Slytherin side of the basement. "What do you wanna do?"

Playing in the snow sounded like fun, but he wasn't in the mood to change his clothes again before dinner. Studying would probably be smart, but they usually did that after dinner, especially when they had an Astronomy lesson later. "I don't know."

"You're no help." Despite his tone, Kibum's fond amusement was obvious. Smiling, Minho followed him up the stairs to the ground floor, and then in an unsurprising turn of events, Kibum led him up to the seventh floor. The door appeared once they both were in front of the dancing troll tapestry, and they slipped inside, both lighting a few candles before Minho remembered to close the door.

Once there was enough light to see easily see around the room, Minho headed to the back wall, picking up his Arithmancy textbook before he sat against the back wall. Kibum grabbed his thin black notebook that he used to talk to Jonghyun with. Almost immediately, he started writing inside. And Minho, to resist the urge to take a curious peek at whatever Kibum was writing, scooted until he was laying down, his head resting on Kibum’s thigh and his feet propped up on the opposite wall. He thumbed through his textbook without really reading anything, listening instead to the sounds of Kibum’s writing.

When he chuckled, Minho looked up. “What’d he say?”

Kibum shook his head. “He’s mad about my patronus.”

“Why?”

“Because his is a squirrel.”

Minho laughed, and Kibum lowered his notebook to look at him for a second. “Tell him I think it suits him.”

His pencil scratched against the parchment, then snorted a few seconds later. “He says, ‘ you’.”

“Aww, how kind of him.”

Kibum chuckled. The messages continued for a few more minutes, and Minho looked up when the notebook snapped closed. “He had to get to dinner.”

“Ah.” Minho looked back at his textbook, looking back up when he felt Kibum’s eyes on him. “What?”

“Oh, nothing, sorry.”

Minho glanced back at his textbook, but he had lost any interest he had in “reading” it. He closed it and set it on his chest, crossing his arms over it. “So, what was your memory? For your patronus?” he added a few seconds later when Kibum didn’t answer right away. “One with your dad or Grandma?”

Kibum shook his head. “Not directly, no. That was my first thought -- ones with them -- but they made me too sad. The, uh, the one that gave me the corporeal patronus was one with you, actually.”

He wasn’t quite sure why that surprised him as much as it did -- they spent so much time together, it was hard for him to think of a memory that didn’t involve Kibum, so he imagined it would be the same for him. “Oh?”

“That Christmas that we met up with our families in London -- “

“And went ice skating!”

“Yeah.”

Minho looked up, meeting Kibum’s gaze with a smile. “That was fun. It’s too bad we can’t do it again.”

“True, but it’s still a nice memory to have. What was yours?”

“The first time I caught the Snitch.” And how proud you were of me, he held himself back from adding.

“Good one.”

“I like to think so.”

Kibum shoved Minho’s shoulder, and he chuckled. “Do you have a test coming up?” Minho nodded. “I’ll let you study, then.” He leaned over and Minho lifted his head from his thigh until he resettled. He wasn’t sure which book Kibum grabbed, and he couldn’t look to see which one it was because Kibum rested the hardcover on his forehead.

“Seriously?”

“Hm?” Minho flicked the book cover. “Oh, is this bothering you?” Kibum asked with disinterested amusement. He moved the book further over Minho’s face, completely blocking his vision. “Is this better?”

“Much.”

“I’m glad.” When Kibum didn’t pull the book off his face right away, Minho started bouncing his head on Kibum’s lap, the pages of the book fluttering every time he moved. It only took a few seconds for Kibum to lift the book to “glare” at Minho. “Why are you so annoying?”

“You love it.”

“I tolerate it.”

Minho snorted and Kibum started to smile before he went back to reading, this time keeping his book away from Minho’s head. Minho stared at him for a moment, until he felt like he had indulged himself for too long, then he opened his textbook, flipping through the pages until he found where he had left off in class.