It was night time already, some time after dinner when Zitao prepared some of Jongin's warm jumper and a scarf in their bedroom, without the presence of Jongdae who probably out wandering around, looking for his victim. Since Jongin was about to do his so called detention in forbidden forest, Zitao needed to make sure he wore something to keep him warm enough.

 

 

 

"I think you also need gloves, where did you put them last time?" Zitao asked, folding a grey jumper and handed it over to Jongin.

 

 

 

"I don't know..." Jongin muttered, silently sitting on his bed.

 

 

 

"What? Don't tell me you lost them again?" Zitao sighed.

 

 

 

He walked to Jongin's cupboard beside his bed, rummaging through it to find his gloves. "Seriously, tell me when was the last time you put it?"

 

 

 

"I don't remember..."

 

 

 

"Come on, Jongin. You don't want to freeze outside, do you?" Zitao sighed again and stood up, silently sitting next to Jongin who didn't budge his presence.

 

 

 

"What is up with you? You're unusually quiet since yesterday..." Zitao softly asked.

 

 

 

Jongin didn't answer at first, fiddling his pillow with a small pout instead. "Nothing..."

 

 

 

"Liar. There's always something when you're this quiet. You didn't even finish your dinner earlier." Zitao scoffed. "What is it? Are you nervous?"

 

 

 

"What? What for?" Jongin frowned.

 

 

"Because, you know...forbidden forrest is not a really merry-go-round place?" Zitao shrugged.

 

 

 

"As if."

 

 

 

"Then what is it?"

 

 

 

Jongin sighed and threw his back on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Zitao did the same, following Jongin only that he was staring at Jongin's side figure, waiting for an answer.

 

 

 

"Why didn't you tell me?"

 

 

 

"Tell you what?" Zitao raised his brow.

 

 

 

"You and your stupid problem with Ravenclaws."

 

 

 

Zitao widened his eyes and held still, bitting his lip awkwardly but quickly softened when he saw the guilt in Jongin's eye.

 

 

 

"I assume Kyungsoo-hyung told you that?"

 

 

 

"Kyungsoo? Oh, you mean that shrimp." Jongin frowned.

 

 

 

"Yeah, him. But don't call him that." Zitao chuckled. "What else did he tell?"

 

 

 

"That you deliberatedly took all the blames when it was me who they supposed to suspend and how you were saving the asses of me and our Quidditch team." Jongin frowned.

 

 

 

"Well, he told you everything then." Zitao sighed.

 

 

 

"Why did you do that?"

 

 

 

"Did what? Covering you?" Zitao raised his brows.

 

 

 

"Yes. I don't deserve it. All I did was treating you badly and making your life miserable everyday. Why would you go as far as covering me?" Jongin scoffed. "Should've let them get me instead. I'm used to it anyway."

 

 

 

"Jongin, there's no such thing as 'you' and 'me'." Zitao frowned. "There's only 'us'. We're practically family, aren't we? Besides, if I give you up, not only you but the whole Quidditch team is going to be disqualified!"

 

 

 

"......We are family?" Jongin blinked.

 

 

 

"My god, yes! I spent half my life here at hogwarts with you and Jongdae-hyung for these past four years living in this bedroom together! That's not family?" Zitao laughed. "Or you don't like it when I call you family?"

 

 

 

"What- No!! I mean, I like it, well- I- Don't you hate me?" Jongin asked confused, now sitting down and Zitao did the same.

 

 

 

"Why would I hate you?" Zitao frowned.

 

 

 

"Because I ate you dessert secretly, I scared the out of you each year of halloweens, I turned your christmas presents alive, I hid your favorite potion books under Kris' bed, I blew my mucus on your robes, and there are many things to list that I deserve to be hated by you!" Jongin exclaimed, funny enough that he was being offended by his own statements.

 

 

 

Zitao processed the whole things that Jongin just said, he could not believe Jongin would think such thing because he had been pranking Zitao all these times to the point that it would make Zitao hated him.

 

 

 

"But I don't—"

 

 

 

"And since you started hanging out with that Oh Sehun guy, I knew you were sick of me and didn't want to play with me anymore." Jongin muttered. "Which is why I keep pranking you, maybe worse so that somehow, I could get your attention again."

 

 

 

Zitao's heart shattered hearing Jongin's heartbreaking confession. He never thought the prideful Kim Jongin would think as far as that and it made Zitao felt guilty. He had never planned to stick around with Sehun and ditched Jongin just like that. Perhaps Jongin was staring at both Zitao and Sehun at classes the whole time, silently feeling outcasted.

 

 

 

"Hey, I never thought badly as far as I wanted to stop being friends with you. Never!" Zitao huffed. "You're annoying and a rascal, both of you and Jongdae-hyung! But if I were sick of you guys' pranks, don't you think I'd talk to Snape so that I could change my room long time ago?"

 

 

 

Jongin stayed silent and stared at his feet. "So you don't hate me?"

 

 

 

"No! God, no. I could never hate you. You're my very first friend, remember?" Zitao smiled.

 

 

 

"Eh, right. First time I saw you, you were so small and vulnerable. Just like Kokobop." Jongin grinned, pointing out the resemblence of Zitao and his dark pet cat again.

 

 

 

"You were small too." Zitao scowled. "And now I'm waaayy taller than you."

 

 

 

"Shut up, I'm still better at flying with broomstick though."

 

 

 

"And I'm better at the rest of the subjects."

 

 

 

"Motherer." Jongin scowled, which Zitao could only laugh.

 

 

 

The two chatted some more, reminiscing about their first years of wonders and innocences and laughing at their stupid past-selves. Like that one time Zitao accidently broke his arm when they first flew with their broomstick, and how Jongin blasted his potion formula and turned his hair spikey until Snape threathened him to fail his class in the process. It was a nice talk after all the times they weren't this close anymore, and finally Zitao realized how much he missed talking to Jongin due to him focusing on his every day lives with Sehun.

 

 

 

There was a knock on the door in the middle of their small talks, causing them to focus on the person behind that door. Jongdae never knocked when he wanted to enter, saying that 'for those who live here don't need to knock', so of course it wasn't Jongdae.

 

 

 

"Who is it?" Zitao asked.

 

 

 

"It's Kris. I'm here to pick up Jongin."

 

 

 

Zitao widen his eyes and just for a split second, he scrambled to the door, startling Jongin who flinched on his bed since Zitao was practically sped up.

 

 

 

Kris was wearing their school's winter cloak and a pair of house gloves. Instead of matching the glove with their house scarf, the Head Boy was wearing the silver scarf Zitao made, and although he was touched that Kris willingly wore something like that, his hand made scarf wasn't charmed so it wouldn't be as defensive as the school ones.

 

 

 

"You shouldn't wear the scarf, Kris." Zitao frowned.

 

 

 

"What? why?" Kris raised his brow.

 

 

 

"You know why. It doesn't contain any magical defensive spell."

 

 

 

"I can defend myself with my knowing self-spells though. Besides, it's not my first time going to the forbidden forest so it should be fine." Kris smirked.

 

 

 

"But still though..." Zitao mumbled. "I'll borrow you mine. Wait here."

 

 

 

Zitao walked to his own mini cupboard this time beside his bed, looking for his school scarf. Jongin walked from his bed to where Kris was standing, smirking slightly and wiggling his brows, gaining a disgusted look on Kris' face.

 

 

 

"What?"

 

 

 

"Oh nothing. I thought we were supposed to meet at Hagrid's? Why bother aaaaaaaaall the way here from hospital wing to come 'pick me up', hm?" Jongin snickered.

 

 

 

"Shut up."

 

 

 

"Oh come on Kris ing Wu, I know you're here because of Huang, right? You miss him dearly so you use me as an excuse while in fact, you just want to check on your boyfriend that's all."

 

 

 

"Shut up I said." Kris sighed. "And he's not my boyfriend, stop making things up."

 

 

 

"Right. And Kim Jongin is not the school's prankster along with Kim Jongdae." Jongin rolled his eyes.

 

 

 

Zitao came back with his Slytherin scarf, staring at both Jongin and Kris with confusion. “What did you guys talk about?”

 

 

 

“Ohh nothing! Just, greasy stuff.” Jongin shrugged. Kris only rolled his eyes.

 

 

 

"Okay then.” Zitao blinked cutely. “By the way, here. Wear this. And Jongin, you wear this."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zitao handed Kris his house scarf, a green and silver stripped pattern they usually wore at school, and borrowed Jongin his house gloves since he couldn't find Jongin's on his cupboard earlier.

 

 

 

"Don't loose them, alright?" Zitao said, more to Jongin than Kris.

 

 

 

"Yes, mom." Jongin mocked. "I'll we waiting outside."

 

 

 

Jongin walked away, silently giving privacy to the ridiculous awkward couple standing by the door. He knew Kris was here to see Zitao, it was quite obvious and rather disgusting in Jongin's opinion, like they were just going to the forbidden forest and not war, which the thought Kris was just being overly dramatic.

 

 

 

Zitao awkwardly fidgeting on the door, staring at his feet since Kris couldn't stop staring at his direction and it made Zitao self-conscious. After some time like forever, Kris finally made a move, unwrapping his silver scarf and circling Zitao's house scarf around his own neck.

 

 

 

"Help me with this, will you?"

 

 

 

Zitao blinked his eyes and unconsciously proceeded to help Kris with the scarf, furrowing his brows in concentration. For no reason, Kris found the serious-mode Zitao endearing and for many years, Zitao was his baby junior and now his precious peach was growing up so fast.

 

 

 

"Why are you smiling?" Zitao frowned.

 

 

 

"Hm? Nothing." Kris answered with a smile plastered on his face.

 

 

 

"Are you sure? Is it not because of your injury?" Zitao sighed, Kris' head softly which still covered in bandages.

 

 

 

"Zitao, I told you I'm fine. It's you I'm worried about." Kris frowned.

 

 

 

"What? what about me?"

 

 

 

"You know with me not being here, you'll be doing your night shifts alone for the whole week, right?" Kris stared into Zitao's eyes.

 

 

 

Now Zitao didn't think of that. Obviously, not only Kris, but also Sehun who wouldn't be with him doing their usual night patrols, and Zitao thought maybe he should just did his shift alone just like he used to.

 

 

 

And to say that he still needed to get his wand back, Zitao wasn't just going to wait until Sehun finished his detention, wouldn't he?

 

 

 

"I'll be fine." Zitao smiled.

 

 

 

"Are you sure? I remember you were fainting when you did your night shift months ago." Kris sighed. "Should I ask Yongguk or Leo to come with you?"

 

 

 

"What?! No! I mean- No need" Zitao violently shook his head. "I'm fine. Really. Please don't tell them."

 

 

 

"If you say so." Kris nodded. "Just remember I'll always be there for you. So don't be afraid."

 

 

 

"What do you mean?" Zitao tilted his head.

 

 

 

"You'll know." Kris shrugged casually.

 

 

 

He wrapped his silver scarf around Zitao's neck this time, smiling at the confused boy in front of him.

 

 

 

"Take care of this will you? Let's trade scarf tomorrow." Kris grinned.

 

 

 

"Yeah." Zitao smiled.

 

 

 

"Night, peach."

 

 

 

Kris slowly walked outside, an idiot smile still plastered on his face. He tighten his scarf around his neck and savored Zitao’s lingering scent on the scarf, the smell of sweet peaches Kris adored so much. Kris was never a fan of sweet things, yet somehow he could tolerate Zitao’s trademark scent.

 

 

 

He wasn’t paying attention in front of him when he opened the common room’s door and startled when Jongin was leaning on the brick walls outside the halls and grinning mischievously to the Head Boy.

 

 

 

“Is the lovey dovey time over, capt?” Jongin said, wiggling his brows in a suggesting way.

 

 

 

“You’re disgusting Kim Jongin.” Kris scoffed.

 

 

 

“Seriously, why don’t you two just go out already? You guys are technically boyfriends after all.” Jongin said, wrapping around his arm on Kris, tall shoulder, dragging the boy to Hagrid’s. Kris could only groaned and swatted Jongin’s arm away and shoved the boy to his side, only that Jongin managed to came back sticking to Kris’ side like a fish.

 

 

 

“Nonsense, he’s like a little brother to me.” Kris sighed.

 

 

 

“Little bro you said, motherer?” Jongin asked bewildered. “Holy yo, I could practically feel the between you two every time— oooowww what the ?!”

 

 

 

Kris slapped Jongin’s head to silence the boy but he got non-stop rants instead which Kris could only rolled his eyes and plugged his ears with his fingers.

 

 

 

The walk to Hagrid was a hell for Kris, with Jongin’s constant mockery about his personal ‘brotherly’ relationship with Zitao.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The howling wind at night scrapped through the thick and tall trees, the sound of mystical animals could be heard, and the wet, damp soil gave the muddy feeling whenever the shoe sole stuck on the ground. Forbidden forest was never the perfect place to hang out, especially at night, and due to detention.

 

 

 

Kris, Joonmyeon, Jongin and Sehun were all walking very slowly in rows, with both Kris and Joonmyeon silently leading their way while Jongin and Sehun trailed behind the two Head Boys. Jongin was just ahead of Sehun, making the Gryffindor seeker being the last from the front, not like Sehun could protest. Being near Jongin was exactly the last thing he wished for.

 

 

 

“Hold on a sec.” Jongin suddenly stopped his tracks, causing the daydreaming Sehun to bumped into his back.

 

 

 

“The hell?” Sehun hissed.

 

 

 

“Well, you should have paid attention, tard.” Jongin scowled.

 

 

 

“Well maybe if you didn’t stop your tracks so sudden like an idiot I wouldn’t have bumped into you, .”

 

 

 

“Well, maybe—“

 

 

 

“Enough, both of you.” Joonmyeon sighed. “Kim Jongin, you were saying?”

 

 

 

“Motherer.” Jongin whispered one more time to Sehun. He swung the bucket on his right hand and a hand shovel on his left in front of Joonmyeon’s face, “I was saying, so we’re here to do what? Collecting unicorn’s s? I thought they rainbows?”

 

 

 

“Not ‘we’, but you guys. Me and Kris are here only to you and Sehun.” Joonmyeon nodded. “And no Jongin, unicorns don’t poo rainbows.”

 

 

 

“You mean you only watch while me, the mighty Kim Jongin picking up the disgusting ?!” Jongin shrieked.

 

 

 

“That’s correct.”

 

 

 

“What a job for Head Boy, eh!”

 

 

 

“Hey. We’re only here because we got dragged by the mess you guys created in the first place.” Kris said flatly.

 

 

 

“I know right?” Joonmyeon. “If it’s not because of you guys, I could’ve done my night shift with Yixing.” He mumbled.

 

 

 

“Who?”

 

 

 

“What? No one.”

 

 

 

“Now what? So far, I haven’t seen any unicorn or its anywhere since we started walking for twenty minutes.” Sehun sighed. “Clearly we’re only wasting our time.”

 

 

 

“Sehun’s right. We’re getting nowhere.” Joonmyeon answered. “We have to split up into two pairs.”

 

 

 

“Cool. Kris and I are going that way.” Jongin declared.

 

 

 

“Not so fast.” Joonmyeon raised his hand. “We’re splitting up the houses too. A pair of each house.”

 

 

 

“What? Who the are you making up the rules?” Jongin protested.

 

 

 

“I’m just doing my job right. You Slytherins are sly creatures, we all know it. If you and Kris are pairing up together, you might just ditch your job and go back to your common room.” Joonmyeon rolled his eyes.

 

 

 

“Here we go again with your nasty prejudices.” Jongin scoffed. Though he really did think of ditching his detention and go back to his dormitory.

 

 

 

“So what now? Am I pairing up with this little ?” Sehun pointed to where Jongin was standing, clearly an unpleasant look showing on his face.

 

 

 

"No, Sehun. I'm going with Jongin. You're going with Kris." Joonmyeon simply stated.

 

 

 

"What?!" Jongin, Sehun, and suprisingly Kris who remained calm since they got there, also shouted in unison.

 

 

 

"Hyung, are you serious?!" Sehun panicked.

 

 

 

"Yeah, I mean I can't let you and Jongin walk around just the two of you without any protection, right? You guys are only four years, and there might be dangerous creatures here. It's only right if Kris and I are splitting up as the Head Boys." Joonmyeon firmly said.

 

 

 

"Kris, say something! You have the power here, man!" Jongin violently shook Kris' body, clearly disapproving Joonmyeon's decision. After all, they still had the heavy tension between Gyffindors and Slytherins.

 

 

 

"Jongin, stop shaking him! He's injured!" Joonmyeon screamed.

 

 

 

Sehun stared at the whole scene of Jongin screaming at Kris, Joonmyeon screaming at Jongin and Kris' spirit slowly leaving his body due to Jongin who kept shaking his body. With a blank expression, Sehun processed every possibilities that could happen later.

 

 

 

He talked to Zitao many times about the Slytherin Head Boy, and for the many stories he had heard, Kris was never friendly with people who weren't close with him. He had seen Kris at the halls or Great Halls with his hard, stoic expression and judging by himself, what Zitao said was true.

 

 

 

And somehow, Sehun felt that Kris held a personal grudge towards him though he didn't exactly know why. He had encountered the infamous, death glare of the Head Boy many times to his directions every now and then, even at Quidditch. What had Sehun done wrong?

 

 

 

"Sehun? You okay?"

 

 

 

Joonmyeon waved his hand in front of Sehun's face, snapping the boy back to reality. Sehun blinked few times when he saw the three boys standing in front of him, waiting for his consciousness.

 

 

 

"What?"

 

 

 

"I said, we're going back here at this spot exactly an hour later. Okay?"

 

 

 

"Right..." Sehun trailed. "Who am I going with, again?"

 

 

 

"Kris."

 

 

 

"Very funny, hyung." Sehun laughed.

 

 

 

Joonmyeon stared funny at Sehun who kept laughing at no one's joke, and by the time the younger realized that he was laughing at nothing, he blankly stared at Joonmyeon's with a horror expression.

 

 

 

"Seriously?" Sehun whispered.

 

 

 

"Yes. Now Let's split up, we don't want to waste more time!" Joonmyeon said, dragging away Jongin deeper in the forest, leaving the apprehensive Sehun and Kris just the two of them in the woods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joonmyeon and Jongin were walking very slowly, with Joonmyeon guiding their ways with his oil lamp on his hand, while Jongin constantly groaning behind saying how his feet were tired and he didn’t want to clean up the unicorn dump anyway since it would probably freezing due to the cold weather.

 

 

 

“Where are the s?! Where did they ?” Jongin groaned.

 

 

 

“Are you always this noisy?” Joonmyeon sighed, massaging his nose bridge.

 

 

 

“Their s better be rainbows or else—!!!”

 

 

 

“I told you they don’t poo rainbows!” Joonmyeon cried, instantly regretting his own decision to pair up with the Slytherin boy. “Good grief, if I knew you were this noisy, I would’ve paired up with Kris instead.”

 

 

 

“Ha! Your loss!” Jongin blew raspberries. They kept walking for about five more minutes when Jongin’s eyes perked up and he suddenly ran away to the pile of brown mud next to a giant tree, only few meters ahead of them, crouching next to it.

 

 

 

“I FOUND IT!!” Jongin shouted dramatically. “I found the ! Man, who would’ve guessed I’ll be this happy finding a pile of !” He cried.

 

 

 

“Well, then you should start digging up and put it inside the bucket.” Joonmyeon rolled his eyes.

 

 

 

“, the smell! Real !” Jongin shouted. He removed the gloves he was wearing carefully, then giving it to Joonmyeon.

 

 

 

“Here, hold these.”

 

 

 

Joonmyeon took the gloves and stared at Jongin with confusion.

 

 

 

“Why would you remove your gloves? It’s freezing though.”

 

 

 

“Those are Huang’s. He borrowed it to me. Don’t wanna dirty them.” Jongin muttered, concentrating on his work, silently crouching next to the unicorn dump.

 

 

 

Joonmyeon was taken by surprise, he thought Zitao was being bullied by all the Slytherins since Sehun told him that. Turned up the boy had more friends than he thought.

 

 

 

“You’re actually a pretty nice guy, huh?” Joonmyeon chuckled.

 

 

 

“Huh? What ing s are you talking about now?” Jongin hissed. He gained a slap on his head by Joonmyeon, saying ‘don’t curse to your elders’, which he could only scowl in response.

 

 

 

“Come on, I’ll help you so we can go back quickly.” Joonmyeon sighed, crouching next to Jongin.

 

 

 

“This is the weirdest thing I’ve ever done. Collecting unicorn’s with a Gryffindor. Who also happens to be a Head Boy.” Jongin grumbled.

 

 

 

 

“Same goes for me.” Joonmyeon laughed. The older casted the ‘Wingardium Leviosa’ charm to levitate the dump. Jongin’s mouth hanged open, feeling beyond stupid since why didn’t he think of that?

 

 

 

“How am I not thinking of that?!” Jongin shrieked. “I worked hard digging the s and put it on the bucket with this stupid shovel! I’m a wizard, for Merlin’s s sake! Stupid professors for giving me these things!” He quickly took his wand from his jeans pocket and did the same, finishing it in an instant.

 

 

 

“One pile done.” Joonmyeon huffed. “This is actually quite fun.” He claimed, gaining a disgusted look from Jongin. Joonmyeon felt awkward and coughed to hid his embarrassment,

 

 

 

“Come on, let’s go.” He awkwardly said.

 

 

 

They both continued their ways, looking for another ‘pile of brown mud’ somewhere deeper in the woods with the sound of wolfves from afar, and once in a while Jongin’s hideous Hoggy Warty Hogwarts song, forgetting that he was practically in the middle of dangerous area.

 

 

 

“I wonder what happens with Kris and Oh.” Jongin yawned, after finishing his marathon Hogwarts song in different melodies. “Is he dead already?”

 

 

 

“What? Who’s dead?” Joonmyeon’s eyes widen.

 

 

 

“Oh Sehun. I wonder where Kris would bury him.” Jongin shrugs.

 

 

 

“What nonsense are you talking about?” Joonmyeon shrieked, taking literally Jongin’s exaggerating statements.

 

 

 

“Awe, Come on, you don’t know?” Jongin scowled. “If Oh died, it’s your fault too!”

 

 

 

“What?! Why, what do you mean?!” Joonmyeon cried.

 

 

 

“You’re pairing him up with Kris!”

 

 

 

“So?!”

 

 

 

“So Kris could kill him! He HATES Oh Sehun.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sehun wasn’t one of those school losers who had no friends or stuck up with his school books day and night. In fact, he wasn’t really an outstanding person in academics to begin with, but he was pretty much popular and dependable. He excelled in Quidditch and Defence Against the Dark Arts, making him qualified enough as one of the prefect candidates though he wasn’t a fifth year yet.

 

 

 

It was rare, for fourth year students to be chosen as prefects, which Sehun considered as lucky since the new semester on his fourth year, he was chosen as prefect, alongside with another student whom he heard that came from Slytherin.

 

 

 

At first, Sehun didn’t really bother to look for the boy, not really interested to be friends with him either since the other fourth year prefect was technically their house rival, though Sehun never really met him in person.

 

 

 

The first time Sehun knew the boy, who he learned as Huang Zitao, was in fact, a clumsy— awkward boy with low self-esteem. They had been in the same classes for the whole four years and Sehun just noticed that the ‘wimpy’ boy from Slytherin who was almost sorted into Hufflepuff on their first day at Hogwarts, was in fact, the other fourth year prefect he had been avoiding to meet.  

 

 

 

The boy had darker skin and a jet black hair, a ridiculous tall height but sharp eyes, pointy nose which if you look closely, could be very stunning but was hidden with the usual dreadful look and those awkward gestures he was showing. Sehun also noticed that the boy didn’t really have any friends, aside from Kim Jongin who was also a seeker just like him, but that was it. Sehun concluded that Huang Zitao was just an edgy, miserable kid in his emo phase.

 

 

 

The of his curiosity reached Sehun’s limit when they had been brewing potion and the boy stood next to him, a very bothered expressions that caused his eye bags to look more prominent than they already were. The stressful gestures made Sehun pitied him and for the first time, he initiated to talked to the boy that had been inside his head without him noticing, and turned out the boy had lost his precious wand which was a disaster as a prefect. Sehun offered some help, and by the time they talked more, he felt guilty for judging Zitao first because the boy was nothing but sweet and kind. They instantly became best friends in no time.

 

 

 

Sehun also learned that the boy adored and looked up to their Head Boy, Kris Wu and the two were pretty close to each other. It was quite funny in Sehun’s opinion that Zitao would be close to someone as Kris, they practically had very different traits. Zitao was all bundle of fluffs and Kris was just the exact opposite of him. Very strange indeed.

 

 

 

But what even more strange was Sehun had the feeling that Kris Wu hated him and he didn’t know why. He would see the Head Boy glaring at him at random times and places, such as at the Great Halls, Hospital Wings (that one time he checked on his eye with Luhan), even at Quidditch match. Kris seemed to always had the chances to showed his death glares to Sehun every time, and much to his own discomfort, he couldn’t just go and tell ‘stop glaring at me!’ to the older, couldn’t he?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

“— the better.”

 

 

 

 

 

Sehun perked up and glanced to Kris, who was also glancing to him with a serious look.

 

 

 

“Umm…what?” Sehun mumbled. Bad luck for not listening and daydreaming instead.

 

 

 

“I said, you better keep your eyes and look for the s. The sooner the better.” Kris said sternly.

 

 

 

“Yes sir. I mean— Yes.” Sehun answered.

 

 

 

“Wand’s ready.”

 

 

 

“What? Why?” Sehun asked, confused.

 

 

 

“This area is Centaur’s mark place. Some of them could be stubborn enough and hurt students.” Kris said. “Use the defensive spells, just don’t use the offensive ones.”

 

 

 

“Right.”

 

 

 

Sehun took out his wand and held it on his right hand, pretty hard since he was also holding a bucket and a shovel and that made him stumbled for a bit while walking. Kris saw the younger and sighed, walking towards him.

 

 

 

“Give me that.”

 

 

 

“Wh— what?”

 

 

 

“The shovel. I’ll carry it.” Kris said.

 

 

 

“Oh.”

 

 

 

Sehun reluctantly handed over the shovel to Kris, while the older started to walk again. Sehun trailed behind the older, not wanting to get scolded for being slow.

 

 

 

They walked in silence for another thirty minutes yet Sehun had not yet found any unicorn dump he was supposed to clean. The cold, stinging air only made Sehun uncomfortable even more, hoping that the torturing night would end soon though he still had another six days of detention.

 

 

 

 

 

“How long have you and Zitao secretly being friends?”

 

 

 

 

 

It was quite faint voice coming from Kris that Sehun could barely heard it, but he thanked himself for paying good attention so he didn’t need to ask ‘what?’ for the hundredth time that night because that would be really annoying.

 

 

 

“—I think it was the second week after we became prefects.” Sehun answered with hesitation.

 

 

 

“So?”

 

 

 

“……So….what?” Sehun murmured.

 

 

 

“So how come you two became friends in the first place?”

 

 

 

“Oh. It was when Zitao lost—“

 

 

 

Lost his wand. Sehun was about to spilled the beans but remembered that Zitao made him promise to not tell anyone, especially to Kris.

 

 

 

“—Lost his mortar at potion class. Yeah. So we gotta share.” Sehun awkwardly smiled after the brief pause.

 

 

 

“I see.” Kris said, not looking back at Sehun and kept walking. “Do you guys often talk?”

 

 

 

“Huh? Yes, I mean— now? Not really..no..” Sehun sighed.

 

 

 

“No?”

 

 

 

“I haven’t talked to him since the day after Quidditch.”

 

 

 

“Really? So it’s been a week then?”

 

 

 

“Yes, I think…” Sehun murmured.

 

 

 

“Why?” Kris asked, whirling his body to Sehun’s direction, finally facing him. “Is it because of what the Daily Prophet said?”

 

 

 

Sehun stopped walking, his eyes were widen but after some time he closed his eyes and sighed heavily,

 

 

 

“Kind of…”

 

 

 

“Oh? So your friendship is only that much huh?” Kris said in a mockery, but serious tone.

 

 

“What? No!”

 

 

 

“None of you actually initiate to talk?”

 

 

 

“Wh— well, Zitao did try to talk to me, but—“

 

 

 

“But you pushed him away?”

 

 

 

“No!” Sehun yelled. He was rather feeling irritated since Kris pushed him on the edge, but somehow he was triggered because what the older was saying was actually true.

 

 

 

“I pushed him away because I didn’t want anyone see us together.” Sehun sighed.

 

 

 

Kris didn’t say anything, in fact, he was only standing on his original position, waiting for more explanation.

 

 

 

“When Zitao tried to talk to me, a girl from our class, a Gryffindor, saw us and she said nasty things to him.” Sehun frowned, recalling the event. “I’d hate if people treat Zitao like that so I thought I’ll just avoid him until the thing from Daily Prophet cooled out for a bit.”

 

 

 

A hard expression from Kris’ face was finally softened after he saw the so-calm Gryffindor seeker finally showed a distressed expression, just as much as Zitao when the boy knew he could no longer talked to his friend from their rivalry house.

 

 

 

“You should go talk to him tomorrow.”

 

 

 

Sehun blinked few times because did he just hear that right? Kris was telling him to talk to Zitao after all this time, since Sehun thought Kris was never fond with them two being together.

 

 

 

“But—“ Sehun trailed.

 

 

 

“You must.” Kris said sternly.

 

 

 

“But— aren’t you gonna—“ Sehun whispered.

 

 

 

“What? Send death glares to you and silently cursing you? Of course I will.” Kris said flatly. Sehun was beyond confused, and before he could ask any other question, Kris said,

 

 

 

“Zitao told me that he missed you. And that he’d hate if the houses keep hating on each other.” Kris muttered. “As much as I hate to admit that he missed you, I can’t just stand and do nothing can I?”

 

 

 

“Well…” Sehun whispered. He wasn’t expecting this kind of thing from Kris, so he really didn’t know exactly how to react.

 

 

 

“Just so you know, I’m not doing it for you or for the sake of Hogwarts’ houses. I really don’t care if either Gryffindor or Slytherin tried to kill each other, honestly.” Kris scoffed, folding his arms. “I’m doing it for Zitao. So at least you have to do it for him too.”

 

 

 

Sehun only stared blankly at Kris and nodding silently, not really processing the words the

older just said. Zitao told Kris that? Sehun didn’t really realize that he also missed talking to his best friend. He made sure to exactly do what Kris told him.

 

 

 

“Okay…” Sehun said weakly.

 

 

 

“Good.” Kris half-smiled. The two were silence for few minutes before Kris realized something important.

 

 

 

“Is this the time you usually went out for night patrols?” Kris asked hurriedly.

 

 

 

 

“Yes..uummm…since about fifteen minutes ago.” Sehun shrugged.

 

 

 

“.” Kris cursed silently.

 

 

 

The Head Boy placed his wand in front of his voice, and breathed in and out. He concentrate for a few moments before he opened his eyes and focus on the incantation before whispering,

 

 

 

“Expecto Patronus.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zitao was walking alone in front of the dark, Great Hall with only his temporary wand and Kris’ silver scarf. Being honest with himself, Zitao always hated night patrols alone and since neither Sehun nor Kris was going to accompany him for the whole week, he needed to get used to it like before. He was lucky though since Kris’ scent was lingering on his scarf so Zitao could pretend that the Head Boy was with him. And though he was scared, he was better to be gone alone than having a night patrol with Yongguk or the other Slytherin prefects.

 

 

 

Zitao had not yet seen Luhan and since they still had the cold treatment between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, he did not dare to look for the older though he knew Luhan wasn’t the type of person to easily hating other people just because The Daily Prophet wrote such thing.

 

 

 

Zitao also hadn’t seen Yixing anywhere even after dinner. He had been planning to ask the 5^th year Ravenclaw to do the night patrol together, but alas, he was nowhere to be seen.

 

 

 

“This is the worst.” Zitao sighed to himself. He arrived at the Grand Staircases with the many paintings on the wall, silently walking to where the Lady in Blue painting was.

 

 

 

“I swear I will slap Sehun’s head next week after he finishes his detention.” He muttered.

 

 

 

By the time he arrived at the second floor where the painting was there, it was empty with only violent scratches on the frame. The Lady wasn’t there and neither did Zitao’s wand.

 

 

 

“I knew it.” Zitao groaned. “I shouldn’t have come here.”

 

 

 

With dejected feeling, he decided to just go back to his dormitory. He was bored and the school was dark, not a really good place to be lurking around in the castle. Not to mention if he ever met with Mr.Filch again, that would be very much unpleasant.

 

 

 

As he was arriving at the stairs to the dungeon, from afar, was the same crooked figure that had been haunting him for months. It was the Lady in Blue, and she became more visible than before. She had a very sad expression on her face, and Zitao wasn’t afraid of her anymore.

 

 

 

“What are you doing?” Zitao said vocally. “I’m not scared of you. You’re not supposed to be here.”

 

 

 

The Lady in Blue now turned angry, with a hideous expression and sharp teeth. Her beautiful figure turned into a terrifying monster, and she flew towards Zitao’s way in fast speed that Zitao jumped back in reflex. He shut his eyes tightly, ready for whatever the thing was going to do when he heard a loud, screeching voice coming few meters away from him.

 

 

 

He peeked through his eyes and saw a blinding, beautiful silver light floating around him, as it was protecting Zitao from any harm. The Lady was making a hideous screeching noise and after few seconds, she vanished into thin air and dropped something on the ground.

 

 

 

Zitao took a closer look of the thing that fell and slowly held it on his hand, feeling bewildered.

 

 

 

“It’s my wand…” He whispered excitedly.

 

 

 

The same silver light was still floating around him, and when Zitao narrowed his eyes to see a clear view of the light, he saw the shape of a wolf, the wolf he knew very well who it belonged to.

 

 

 

It was Kris’ Patronus charm, a corporeal shape of wolf, protecting Zitao from the harm he was about to face earlier. The wolf floated few more minutes, before it slowly walked in front of Zitao which gave a warm, bubbly feeling to his heart. And then, he remembered what Kris told him earlier this evening back at their dormitory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 "Just remember I'll always be there for you. So don't be afraid."

 

 

 

Hello! It’s been a long time, eh? I survived my midterm tests, so yeah! Good for me LoL

 

Soooo this chapter is cheesy but hey, I know everyone likes cheesy stuffs even though you’re probably disgusted with indirectly-greasy-Kris but I guess we all agree that whatever Taoris do, it’s always cute, yeah?

 

Jongin and Zitao’s friendships are finally blooming! And hahahah I enjoyed writing Joonmyeon and Jongin’s part, they’re just a weird combo. And Kris finally meeting Sehun…huehuehue

 

Welp, I hope you also enjoy my another random chapter for this fic!

 

 

 

Love, author<3