Sehun was sitting in the back rows, a perfect spot hidden by the tall book shelves, reading something he did not even understand or enjoy, something  about magical creatures and myths. Hogwarts library was placed in the first floor of the castle, a magnificent amount of books and magic shelves that floated the books to its spot, a place usually called for ‘nerds’. Sehun never concluded himself as a nerd, no he would never, which was why book was never Sehun’s cup of tea, neither hanging out in the library. Yet there he was, awkwardly holding a book, pretending to be enjoying it and hoping it would help him looked less-awkward than he already was. Yixing and Luhan were sitting across him, religiously reading something beyond Sehun’s capability of understandment or interests and for no reason, Sehun felt self-conscious without the presence of his other 4th year best friend, yes best friend, Sehun finally decided to use the term ‘best friend’ for his fellow Slytherin mate. Zitao had promised to meet at the library after dinner, and it was 7:45 pm, almost fifteen minutes left before the library closed but his dark haired friend had not yet showed up.

“Where is he?” Sehun hissed.

“Maybe he forgot?” Yixing shrugged and continued to read whatever he was reading, seemingly not interested in their night shift plan anymore and instead, sticking up to his book, damn Ravenclaws. “Or he caught up with something?’

“Then what are we gonna do? The library’s gonna close in ten minutes.” Sehun mumbled, throwing the book he just read into the air and it floated to the shelf where it belonged.

“I think I saw Zitao being dragged by Kris..” Luhan recalled, seeing his junior and his classmate excused themselves from the great hall earlier after dinner.

“, why are the headboys always have to interfere with everything?!” Sehun sighed desperately, running his hand to his blonde hair.

“Excuse me??” Joonmyeon frowned, suddenly sticking his head from the top of the shelf, he was going to borrow some book to read just before he went to sleep later until he heard the voice of his junior inderectly mentioned him. “What do you mean interfere?”  

“Hyung? Why are you here?” Sehun smiled sheepisly.

“No, what are YOU three doing here? The library’s closed in five minutes, shouldn’t you guys prepare for the night shift instead of gossiping about the headboys?”  Joonmyeon folded his hands, silently scolding the trio who were now staring at each other awkwardly, except Yixing who seemed to be staring at the headboy with a creepy grin on his face.

“Now, don’t get angry Joon-ah, we were just waiting for one more person before doing our night shift.” Yixing stood up and put his arm on Joonmyeon’s shoulder, ignoring his forgotten book he just read earlier. “But since I think he couldn’t come, now why don’t you take his place instead?” he winked.

“Hyung, are you serious? I’m so not going to patrol with him!” Sehun whined, gesturing the ‘him’ to Joonmyeon which the older protested.

“That’s okay Sehun, we can always split up right? I’m going with Joon-ah and take the first until second floor, you and Luhan-hyung take whatever floors you desire.”

“What?? Sehun is going with me, he needs protection!” Joonmyeon protested.

“It’s fiiiineee. Besides, Luhan-hyung here is the oldest among us and a master in defence against the dark arts despite his girly appearance.” Yixing waved his hand and laughed, which he got an almost too much disagreement from Luhan.

“...Fine..” Joonmyeon agreed though with hesitatement.

“Great! Now, let’s get going shall we?”

Yixing grinned almost too brightly, dragging away the poor Gryffindor headboy outside the library.

---

The halls seemed to be a lot creepier at night, any creatures even the dangerous ones could possibly lurking in the darkness, though highly unlikely. The reason why Luhan was so eager to learn defence against the dark arts was one of his fears of dangerous creatures, especially the ones in the darkness. He spent his whole 6th years lifetime learning all kinds of defences spells he could master as much as possible, even practicing his patronus charm with blood, sweat, and tears before he could conjured it in perfect shape. He always hated all kinds of bad and negative things, and that was the main reason he was always teased by his friends such as ‘girly’ or ‘pretty boy’ because of his slender figure and awkward personality. Though his biggest fear that trigerred his nervousness right now would probably the boy walking calmly next to him, even when Luhan’s heart was about to bursted out from his chest, literally.

Oh Sehun, a 4th year prefect also Gryffindor’s Quidditch seeker had always been Luhan’s biggest crush ever. The tall and skinny younger boy was perfect in every sides of him, according to Luhan, his sharp jaws and cold face mixed perfectly with his dirty blonde locks. Luhan knew Kris Wu a.k.a his Slytherin classmate was the most popular guy at school at the moment, but Luhan refused to admit it because right now, the young Gryffindor seeker was now walking oh-so-handsomely beside him and that made Luhan nervous while internally fanboying the younger, boy.

Luhan didn’t know weather he needed to thanked Yixing or kicked the Ravenclaw boy in the for making him walk with his crush, they were now silently patrolled in the moving grand staircases in 7^th floor, almost near the Gryffindor’s tower, but either way, Luhan felt extremely nervous right now. The scary creatures lurking in the dark wasn’t even attending in Luhan’s mind, nor the hideous snoring from the wall paintings who seemed to be sleeping peacefully, he was too busy clutching his wand while the younger beside him thankfully dense enough with Luhan’s internal dying alert. He breathed in and out repeatedly to calm his nerves when Sehun glanced to his side and asked the older the thing he had been dying to know.

“—take to learn patronus charm?”

Luhan shot his head to Sehun’s direction almost too quickly, Sehun thought the older might broke his neck.

“E—excuse me??”

“I asked, how long did it take to learn patronus?”

“O—oh..” Luhan awkwardly coughed, “Well, it depends on the person. And their memories. As long as you have a powerful, and happiest memory, it wouldn’t be that hard. It took me four months to succeed though.”

-

“Happiest memory?” Sehun asked.

“Yes, and it needs to be powerful. Or else you wouldn’t be able to get your perfectly shaped patronus.”

“Cool! So everyone’s patronus form is different? I’ve seen yours as a doe right? Do you know any other students at Hogwarts who could cast their patronus charm?” Sehun asked.

“Correct, the patronus form represents the owner themselves.” Luhan chuckled, the younger was too eager to know about this charm like those innocent 1^st years guessing which flavors they were going to get from the Berty Botts Every Flavor Beans, because that was too damn adorable. “Let’s see… the headboy Kris Wu has his patronus form as a wolf, or my house’s Quidditch captain Choi Seungchol is the mountain hare. Another 6^th year classmate Bang Yongguk’s patronus was incorporeal, meaning he doesn’t have or choose not to reveal his form so I don’t know..”

“That is so damn cool!! I can’t wait another year before the professors agreed to teach me patronus before I reach 5^th year. Do you think you can teach me some other time?” Sehun grinned, he had always been interested in defence against the dark arts and he wouldn’t miss any opportunities if he had the chance.

“Wh—what?? T—teach you?” Luhan nervously asked, of course teaching junior was a common thing to do at school, even the face Kris Wu used to teach his junior Zitao before, but not your crush, period.

“Yeah I mean, I don’t know anyone else who can cast the spell, even Joonmyeon-hyung doesn’t know how.” Sehun mumbled. Luhan gaped, he didn’t know what to answer nor react because talking to Oh Sehun was aleady like a dream come true, and now the younger asked him to help with his charm?

“Come on Hyung, pleaseee? I’ll treat you butterbeer at Hogsmeade sometime later as my gratitude, alright?” Sehun laughed, shoving Luhan’s side playfully, and Luhan was sure to die anytime soon.

“E—eh alright…”

“Perfect.” Sehun smiled, and that was too blinding for Luhan. The older was busy fanning himself with his hand due to his nervousness, it was an awkward silence around them, not even a sound of those snoring paintings and that made Luhan more embarrassed with no reason when suddenly the younger stopped his tracks and pulled his arm to stop. Luhan shrieked and glanced to the younger a thousand times more nervous than before.

“S—Sehun?? What’s wrong??”

“—‘re gone….”

“Huh??”

Sehun’s eyes were wide, like he was seeing something unbelievable right in front of him and that worried Luhan, because the younger turned pale. They were in the middle of the grand staircase, and Luhan followed the direction Sehun was staring at. That was the wall a few meters away from them with empty, ugly scratches frames hanging on it. When it clicked in Luhan’s head, he gasped in horror.

“That’s…..”

“The paintings…”

“They’re…they’re gone…”

---

Three things Zitao hated the most were such as, The Kim’s pranks. It was no secret that Zitao hated his roommates pranks, sometimes they wouldn’t stop until Zitao cried all days. Second, Zitao hated Bloody Baron, the infamous grumpy and hot-tempered Slytherin’s house ghost. It wasn’t that Zitao hated the Bloody Baron with no reason, once, when he was a 1^st year and forgot which way the boy’s dormitory was, he asked the house ghost and instead of answering, the ghost got angry, saying how Slytherin was downgrading for sorting such a fool like Zitao who couldn’t even remember his dormitory. Zitao hoped the ghost could be at least a little bit funny like Sir Nicholas from Gryffindor’s house ghost or friendly like the Fat Friar from Hufflepuff’s, or maybe Sir Bloody Baron could do the Slytherins a favor such as being a silent ghost like the Grey Lady from Ravenclaw’s instead of being all angry for no reason.  But of course, the last thing Zitao hated the most was, making Kris angry.

His relationship with Kris Wu was way more complicated than the Divination class, or solving the riddle to pass through Ravenclaw’s common room. They were so close, just like a normal senior-junior relationship before Zitao decided to stay away from the older due to their blood status. But for the past four years being in the same house and studying Kris Wu’s mind, Zitao couldn’t understand the least. The elder’s mind was complicated, It was as if he possessed double personality. One time he acted all sweet and caring to Zitao, and the other time he would turn cold and indifferent, like he didn’t know Zitao at all. But to say the best, it was rare, when Kris Wu got angry at him. And judging by the elder’s behavior, the definition of his anger was ‘acting all cold and constantly glared the younger while they were together’, which was what Kris Wu was doing right now.

Earlier in the great hall, Kris told him that they would be doing the night shift together, and from Zitao’s experiences being a prefect for almost a month, night shift meant patrolling around the castle, checking the unusual things that could probably happen. It had stopped raining and yet, instead of the usual procedure, they headboy led them to silently sitting on the empty benches near the school ground, gazing the sky just before Hagrid’s hut, just like they used to, without exchanging any words. The smoke from the hut could be seen even from afar, meaning the school’s game keeper was still awake, a contrast situation compared to the castle.

“It’s been a while, huh?” Kris started the conversation first after a long, long silence.

“What? Stargazing?”

“Yeah..you used to cling on me, saying ‘it’s too dark!’ though I told you to look for the stars.” Kris mumbled.

“Hey, I was twelve.” Zitao protested.

“Right,” Kris chuckled, but it wasn’t a pleasant one. “It doesn’t matter anymore.” He continued.

“What do you mean?”

Kris turned his body facing Zitao, the elder’s silver locks was beautiful no doubt, but under the moonlight, his wet hair was a thousand times magnificent, more beautiful than the magical creatures Zitao had ever seen. Kris’ eyes were always beautiful yet intimidating, his dark and fierce orbs always successfully triggered Zitao’s curiosity to explore the elder’s secret inside those orbs. But for tonight, those orbs were nothing but tender and sad, clouded with hurtful and Zitao hated, hated so much the sight in front of him.  

“Do you hate me?” Kris whispered.

Zitao was silent, unsure what to answer because he did not expect the older to ask such question. Of course, a hundred percent Zitao did not hate the older and he really wanted to call the headboy stupid for thinking such thing, but seeing Kris’ seriousness in finding an answer, Zitao couldn’t possibly be rude without telling what his heart had always told him.

“I don’t hate you.” Zitao said in determination. He reluctantly moved his hand to touched Kris’ silver locks, slowly removing Kris’ bangs which was covering  the elder’s beautiful eyes. It was soft and silky, weird because Kris’ hair was practically wet due to his ridiculous two hours bathing-ceremony. The older didn’t seem to mind with Zitao’s bold action so the younger continued , “I could never, ever, hate you.”

There was a small smile plastered on Kris’ face and Zitao really, really loved the elder’s smile. In fact, when someday Zitao was told to list anything he loved from Kris, he would probably write everything. The smile, the scent, the hair, and Zitao’s personal favorite would probably be the elder’s eyes. Zitao wronged himself, because he had never felt this way to someone and he should never, especially to the headboy himself.

“Then why’d you left me?”

There was a hint of sadness in Kris’ voice, and it broke Zitao’s heart just by hearing it directly from the owner, but he couldn’t tell the headboy he didn’t want to ruin the elder’s future career just because Kris was mingling with a muggle-born, right?

“Zitao?”

 Kris’ deep voice snapped Zitao back to reality and the older was waiting for an answer with an irritated expression on his face. Sometimes, Kris Wu acted just like little kids, asking questions and demanding an answer right after, Zitao didn’t know was it adorable or annoying instead, but before he could answer, thankfully there was a voice he recognized, shouting the headboy’s name from distance.

“KRIS!!”

Zitao and Kris snapped their head to the direction of the voice, heavy footsteps could be heard like someone was running. From afar, there were small lights conjured from two people’s wands and Zitao recognized it was Luhan’s voice from the shouting earlier. The boy immediately turned pale when he saw who the person behind Luhan was.

“KRIS!!”

Luhan shouted for the second times and panting heavily when they arrived to where Kris and Zitao was sitting, both the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff prefects were panting heavily. Sehun threw his wand to the ground and crouched, gaining his breath.

“You didn’t have to shout.” Kris growled. “What is it?”

“The…paint..paintings!” Luhan spoke while panting.

“What paintings?”

“They’re gone, Kris!” Luhan shouted again, violently shaking the Slytherin’s headboy body. Kris immediately clasped Luhan’s mouth with his hand.

“Quiet, Lu! Geez.” Kris hissed. He then glanced to the Gryffindor Prefect and frowned. “What do you want?”

Sehun averted his eyes to Zitao, so what Luhan told them was true. Zitao really was ‘kidnapped’ by the headboy, that’s why his friend didn’t show up earlier in the library. The young Syltherin prefect glared at his friend and shook his head silently, Zitao then mouthed an inaudible ‘no’, as if telling Sehun not to say something stupid in the presence of the mighty Slytherin headboy.

“I—We were…patrolling in the 7^th floor when we noticed the paintings were gone. Like, inside the paintings…the objects…” Sehun awkwardly said. They were going to tell Joonmyeon but the Gryffindor headboy was nowhere to be seen and to their luck, they saw a certain silver and jet black hair from afar sitting on the bench where Luhan quickly launched to the Slytherin headboy before Sehun could stop the older.

“What? That’s not possible.” Kris mocked. “Maybe they’re just gathering in somewhere, having a feast.”

“It is possible though.” Zitao said, the three then stared at him curiously, especially Kris who narrowed his eyes to the younger, as if he disliked it when Zitao knew something he didn’t.

“What do you mean?”

Zitao closed his eyes and sighed deeply,

“Remember when I had my night shift with you and fainted, Luhan-hyung?”

Luhan silently nodded, recalling the event.

“Well, there was this crooked figure, not a castle ghost, but it was floating and vibrant...” Zitao mumbled. “You might saw it too, but I saw it clearly…”

“Saw what? You told me you didn’t remember what happened,” Kris asked impatient and a hint of anger from the elder’s voice.

Zitao glanced to the three and bit his lips,

“It was...The lady in blue..” The boy whispered.

“You mean…the one in the 2^nd floor? The one I told you before?” Sehun gaped and Zitao quickly shot his friend a warning look.

“Before? What are you guys actually talking about?!“ Kris asked annoyed, he ran a hand through his silver hair and sighed deeply, his voice showed a dominant irritation and Zitao almost, almost flee out of fear. “Is there anything I don’t know about?”

“Relax Kris, let him explain..”

Luhan silently said and put a hand on the headboy’s shoulder to calm the raging dragon, truth to be told, Luhan was also scared to face the wrath of his Slytherin classmate because, it wasn’t pleasant indeed. Kris took a deep breath and swatted Luhan’s hand away.

“No, it’s alright, never mind. I’m sure Zitao here also doesn’t want me to know anyway, right?”

Kris folded his arms and spat. Usually Kris wouldn’t act this way towards Zitao, maybe the headboy had had enough and Zitao understand, though he really hated the concept of Kris hating him. How ironic, because Zitao was the one who broke their fine relationship in the first place, so he couldn’t blame the older.

“I’m going to check the paintings myself. You guys… proceed on whatever you are doing.” Kris turned to his cold self and walked to the dark hall when the headboy suddenly stopped his tracks, “And Zitao.” He said without glancing back at the said boy. “Suit yourself. I’m not responsible for what happened to you anymore.” He then walked away, leaving the three prefects stunned.

“Woah, what an ..” Sehun commented. He glanced to his side when he heard small sniffs and Zitao was silently wiping his face with both of his hands.

“Zitao? —Hey, are you crying?”

 The young Gryffindor panicked. Sehun tried to calm his friend along with Luhan who cooed and quickly hugged the Slytherin boy. Zitao was soft hearted and always easily cried, he would cry on small things such as Jongin ate his favorite moon cake dessert, or Jongdae Hiding his scarf and mittens in winter, and that one time when Zitao didn’t get a perfect score in brewing potions, Zitao was indeed a crybaby. And Kris had always been there, whispering sweet nonsenses to calm him down, or took the boy to walk near the Great Lake to cheered him up. This time, it wasn’t his favorite gege who cooed at him, and Zitao felt weird.

“I’m okay..” Zitao sniffed, “I don’t know why I’m crying though.” He chuckled.

“I’m sorry..I didn’t know Kris would act that way to you..” Luhan frowned.

“That’s alright, it’s just his nature anyway.” Zitao laughed. “But at least now we’ve got some answers about those paintings.”

“What is it?”

“The scratching and cackling voices I told you about? And the empty frames? And the crooked figure who turned to be the lady in blue?”

Sehun and Luhan furrowed their brows, sinking the informations inside their brains. It was Luhan who got the answers first, well, Sehun was never good in thinking fast.

“The paintings! They’re alive! Lurking, in the castle!” Luhan gasped and Sehun only stared at the Hufflepuff prefect jaw dropped.

“Exactly.” Zitao smiled and Luhan squealed in delight, hugging the Slytherin prefect who was a lot taller than himself, and Sehun taught the older was cute.

What?

“That’s brilliant, Zitao! You solved the case! I bet even Yixing hasn’t even find the answers yet!” Luhan smiled brightly. Zitao only laughed and hugged along the older.

“Not yet, hyung. We still don’t know who did it, so it’s not yet solved.”

“Yeah, but at least we made progress.” Sehun also encouraged his friend. Zitao only grinned in response before realizing something.

“By the way, where’s Yixing-hyung?”

“ing with Joonmyeon-hyung. Maybe.” Sehun shrugged and both Zitao and Luhan blushed deeply.

And as if answering the Gryffindor prefect’s statement, there was a muffled screams somewhere in the castle,

“What was that?” Zitao whispered and clinged to Sehun.

 Sehun knew the voice too well and groaned in disgust.

“They’ve got to be kidding me…”    

---

The next morning, Zitao had potions class during second period. His eyes were still sore due to him crying silently some time later last night before sleep thanks to a certain silver-haired dragon, and both the Kims couldn’t stop mocking his more prominent eye bags  when he woke up, which Zitao protested that his eye bags were natural gift but of course, both Jongin nor Jongdae wasn’t buying it. To make it worse, Sehun slept almost the entire class periods, and if it wasn’t thanks to Zitao waking his friend up, Snape could have smashed his friend’s head with a cauldron and probably killed the boy in the process.

They ended their lessons after astronomy class, walking silently from the astronomy tower. Finally weekends were coming. It was November, yet the weather was already cold and he could see the small steams every time they spoke. Zitao had not yet seen Kris after last night, and that kind of relieved the boy because he didn’t know what to do if he ever encountered the headboy somewhere around the castle. He had talked to Luhan before after the first period and the Hufflepuff boy told Zitao that Kris was in class as usual with his resting -face without exchanging any words to other, and that was a good sign, meaning the headboy wasn’t venting his anger to anyone else, something he would usually do.

“Sehun, do you have time tomorrow?”

Zitao and Sehun were sitting on the edge of the Great Lake, the young Slytherin boy had told his friend that it was a perfect spot to relax without anyone disturbing. Zitao and Kris used to come here when they had stressful days, or just to spent their weekends here instead at the Hogsmeade and throwing rocks to see which rocks could bounce further, which was what Zitao and Sehun doing right now.

“What, you gonna take me for a date?” Sehun wriggled his brows playfully and Zitao shoved his friend to the side, almost stumbling Sehun to the cold water.

“I have Quidditch practice tomorrow morning, probably until lunch. Why?”

“Oh...right...” Zitao smiled apologetically. The Quidditch players needed to practice even in weekends in this cold weather and suddenly Zitao gained more respect to those players.

“What is it?”

Zitao hesitated for a moment before whispering something to his friend’s ear, it was a question he had been dying to know, and although nobody was there, Zitao made sure he spoke very quietly just in case. Sehun listened to the boy without much protest before he cringed hard and stared at Zitao with a judging expression.

“Are you kidding me? Of course I don’t know, that’s girly stuff!” the Gryffindor boy scoffed, throwing some other rocks to the lake.

“Hey, it’s not girly! It’s...art!” Zitao protested.

“Zitao, there are three things I’m good at. Defensive class, flying with a broomstick, and searching the golden snitch. Find me when you want to know those, but if you want to do ‘that’, just ask Luhan-hyung, maybe he knows?”

“I did, and unfortunately he didn’t. That’s why I’m asking you.” Zitao mumbled. “I don’t know anyone else. Jongin and Jongdae-hyung wouldn’t possibly know this kind of thing, they’re just good at making people’s life miserable.”

Sehun scrunched up his nose and thought hard, before he remembered something,

“Well, I know someone who’s practically a maestro in this girly thing.” Sehun shrugged.

“Really?” Zitao beamed, not forgetting the ‘I told you it’s not girly’ and shoved his friend some other more.

“Whatever, but what are you going to do with ‘that’ anyway?”

Zitao fiddled with his fingers and mumbled softly,

“The second Quidditch match will be held next week right? on November 6th?”

Sehun thought for a second, “No, it's the day after, on November 7th. Why? What is it on November 6th?”

“Well…” Zitao threw double rocks to the lake, and they quickly drowned with a splash.

“It’s Kris’ birthday.”

Oohh what is Zitao up to? And hurray for the slight HunHan and of course *cough* Sulay *cough*

Aww Kris, please don’t be mean to our baby Taozi >.< I promise I will fix their relationship, but we need some dramas here and there, right? Huehuehue

By the way, Happy Chinese New Year for those who celebrate it! And I will never get tired thanking you who always support my random story! You guys are awesome!!!

Love, author<3