- October 12, 2005 -

“Where are you going?”

Minho dropped the sandwich he was holding onto a cloth napkin as he looked over at Gilbert. He reached over, grabbing another one. “Back to the...the room.”

“How come?”

“Uh...I’m gonna study for the Defense quiz.”

“Are we even allowed to do that?”

“Don’t know.” He grabbed two apples and a handful of cookies before he tied the napkin up. “Don’t really care, to be honest.”

"Such a badass rebel,” Seb said, smirking when Minho and their dorm mates started to chuckle. “So inspiring!”

They started to whoop and holler when Minho stood, and his face flushed when other students started to turn and look at them. “Shut up, oh my god,” he said, trying to suppress his laughter. Seb grinned cheekily at him as he started to walk toward the door. He ran into Kibum on the stairwell, and he held up the napkin. “Got it!”

“What took you so long?”

“My dorm mates are idiots.”

Kibum snorted. “Let’s go.” He followed him down the stairs and the hall toward Slytherin, both peering down the hall and into the shadows. “I think we’re good. Argenti anguis.” 

Faint green light seeped into the hallway, and Minho followed Kibum inside the house. “Where is it?”

“Not in the common room,” Kibum said, chuckling. He led Minho to the stairs that led to the dorms, then past them down the thin hallway. As they walked, the air grew chilly and damp. Minho shivered when Kibum muttered, “Almost there...”

There was a turn and then a dip in the hall before it opened up to reveal an unexpectedly huge room. It almost reminded Minho of a movie theater, except instead of seats and carpet there was slate and the occasional boulders. A slightly convex wall of water ran in from the floor to the ceiling, The room itself was dark, save for the light filtering through the water and the torches posted about the room.

It was oddly serene.

When Kibum had told him about the Lacuspectio, he hadn’t been expecting that. His chest tightened as he walked inside, staring unblinkingly at the water. He froze, his eyes widening when a mermaid made eye contact with him as a cluster of them swam past the opening. “Did -- “ he looked back at Kibum, who was watching him and grinning. “Did you see them?”

“Cool, right?”

Minho plopped down on one of the boulders, looking back up at the water. “So, is there glass there?”

“Actually, no. the water is just held up by some sort of spell.” Minho scoffed, as he was used to Kibum’s sarcastic sense of humor. “No, seriously.” Kibum walked over to the lowest part of the wall, rolling up the sleeve of his robe, and stuck his hand into the water, waving at Minho. “You don’t want to have any part of you in there too long though, because the Grindylow are vicious.”

“Oh...my god...”

Kibum laughed as he made his way back over to Minho, shaking the water off his hand. “Scoot over.” He did, and Kibum sat next to him on the boulder. He grabbed the napkin off of Minho’s lap and untied the knot, digging through the contents to get to one of the sandwiches.

Minho took the other, mindlessly eating it as he watched fish swim past. “Is there, like...a whale in the lake?”

“That’d be awesome, but no. There is a squid though.”

“Well, that’s still cool.” 

He set his half-eaten sandwich on Kibum’s knee before he leapt off the boulder and started running to the wall. He held his hand over the surface, staring at the slight shimmer of the spell keeping the Black Lake at bay. Several droplets of water fell on his hand, sending a shiver down his spine.

“You need to finish eating, Choi!” 

Sighing, Minho tore himself away from the water and trudged back to Kibum. “This won’t be the only time you bring me here, will it?”

“Of course not.” 

Minho relaxed, looking back up at the water. He didn’t look away once until Kibum ushered him out of the room to get ready to go to their next class.