- January 6, 2010 -

“Mr. Stewart,” Professor Sprout said, sighing heavily. “Please stop taunting your willow.”

Kibum leaned back, glancing down the table over Minho’s shoulders to where Callum and Aaron were. Callum’s hands were frozen in claw-like shapes just out of his potted baby Whomping Willow’s reach. “Yes, Professor.”

Minho sniffed a laugh, which drew Kibum’s attention back to him and their willow. He settled back in his stool, taking a quick peek at him and smiling before he refocused fully on the willow. The objective of today’s lesson was to find a way to calm the willow long enough so that they could water it without injury. Some were more successful than others in interacting with the baby willows, but none of the teams had actually watered it yet.

Minho scooted forward a bit on his stool, cocking his head to the side as he said, “Okay, what about this…”

He held his hand, palm out, drawing the tendrils of the whip-like branches up and away from the trunk. It strained for his hand, and with the other, he reached out to gently the smooth-looking bark. Its branches fell limply around his hand after a couple of seconds of that, making it look almost like a normal willow tree.

“Get the water. Slowly,” he added when Kibum started to pour it into the terracotta pot. He lifted the beaker so that only a trickle of water poured over the rim. And, once it stopped, Minho slowly started to retract his hand. The baby willow didn’t so much as twitch as he moved away from it, but Kibum waited until Minho was completely clear of the willow before he turned over his beaker.

“Good job, you two!” Sprout said, finally looking pleased. “Five points to both of your Houses.”

Minho held out his hand for a low-five, and Kibum obliged him, smiling.

While they waited for the bell, Minho took out his textbook and Kibum his notes, and they quietly worked on jotting down the points they thought were necessary from today’s lesson. When it rang, it took Minho a minute to stuff everything back into his backpack, but Kibum just sat beside him, waiting for him to stand so they could follow the others into the Great Hall for lunch. Sprout closed the door behind them, and Minho turned at the sound. It was just a short walk back to the castle interior, but since they were alone --

Kibum grabbed Minho’s hand, smiling to himself when Minho laced their fingers together. “Studying after lunch, like usual?”

“I think that’s still the plan.”

Minho nodded, and just as they were about to reach the doorway, he stepped off the slick, well-trodden path and into the powdery snow, pulling Kibum with him. His hands settled around Kibum’s waist as he leaned against the castle wall, pulling him close until they kissed for the first time today, smiling as he did. “Thanks for your help,” he said when Kibum pulled away.

“In the lesson?” Minho nodded. “You’re the Herbology nerd. I didn’t do much.”

Minho shrugged, a boyish smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Am I not allowed to appreciate you?”

“You are, I’m just sayi -- “ But Minho was kissing him again, and Kibum leaned into him, unable to keep from smiling as Minho’s arms wrapped even tighter around him.

The second bell rang before they reluctantly parted, though they held each other’s hand for as long as they could. Kibum stomped the snow off of his shoes, prompting Minho to do the same before they made their way into the Great Hall.

“See you after,” Kibum said, glancing Minho’s way before he turned to the left and started for his usual spot. Analecia's eyes were on him as he made his way over to the Slytherin table. "What?" he asked when he finally sat down and she looked away with a hint of a smirk.

"Nothing," she said, though her tone belied that. "It's just funny how little things have changed between you two."

If only she had seen them five minutes ago, then she would know that’s not entirely true… Smirking, Kibum's gaze darted across the room, finding where Minho was sitting before he looked back at her. "I mean, we can't really be open about it, can we?"

Her smile started to wane, and she blinked, looking down at her bowl of stew. "I guess I didn't think of that."

. He didn't mean to make her feel bad… "No, you're right though. The only thing that's really changed has been -- "

He was cut off by Aaron and Callum joining them on the other side of the table, Callum complaining about the welt their willow gave him across the back of the hand.

"You don't have to say it," Analecia whispered, a smile returning to her voice. Kibum looked her way, smiling himself.

They ate quickly, eager to reunite with their boyfriends in the library, despite having to be stuck with the others. Analecia finished first, but she waited for Kibum to finish. Minho and Gil were on their feet almost immediately after they stood, and they met them by the doorway.

Minho greeted him with an easy smile that Kibum couldn't help but return. It was short-lived, however, as Travis, Seb, and Marvin approached. "Let's go!" Seb said, shooing everyone out of the threshold and on their way to the library.

Almost as soon as they were all situated, Minho, Analecia, Travis, and Marvin got up, no doubt in search of the books they needed to study for tomorrow's double Potions. Kibum pulled Minho's backpack up onto his vacated seat, digging through it to find their notes, some parchment and quills, and their Potions textbook.

His gaze slipped to the window as he zipped up Minho’s backpack, his hands stilling as he grabbed the handle. Huh...it was snowing again. First time since Christmas day when M --

Minho reappeared, reaching over Kibum’s outstretched arm to set his books down. “Can I sit?” he asked, a quiet laugh coloring his voice.

“No, find another chair.” He nodded and started to turn away, but Kibum cracked a smile and grabbed his arm, pulling him back. Minho grinned as he moved his backpack to the floor and sat down beside him.

As he reached for the book on sleeping potions that Minho had gotten, his attention shifted to the window again. He watched the snow for a while, the occasional rasping of turning pages not enough to draw his attention back to studying. Had things not changed enough between them? Were they not doing this right?

He started when Minho’s finger grazed his hand, and when he looked down, he saw that Minho had scrawled a note into the corner of their potions notes. You okay?
Kibum picked up the quill and wrote back Yeah, but we can talk about it later. Minho nodded and went back to reading.

Later didn’t come until after dinner when the study group moved to the loft. Despite the looming threat of N.E.W.T.s that all except Minho were preoccupied with, not much studying happened. Sure, their books were out and on their laps or the floor or the table, but they were sleepy after eating such a hearty dinner, and now they couldn’t concentrate much on the extensive ingredient list of the Potion for Dreamless Sleep that they were supposed to have memorized for tomorrow.

Kibum was lounging next to Minho on one of the oversized cushions, absently flipping back and forth between the pages as he tried to focus on the list of ingredients when Minho shifted a little closer to him and asked in quiet Korean. “So, what’s bothering you?”

“Hm?”

“From before.”

Kibum squinted, looking up from the page as Minho’s words registered in his mind. “Oh! Uh, it’s kinda dumb…”

“So?”

Sniffing a laugh, Kibum glanced up, meeting Minho’s curious gaze for a second before his eyes darted about the room before they settled back on the ingredient list. “It’s nothing, really. Analecia said earlier that it was sorta funny how little things have changed between us, since the Ball.”

“Ah.” Minho sat back, relaxing into the cushion. “Well, I mean, we kiss a lot more often than we did before.”

Kibum snorted, drawing the attention of everyone in the room, but he shook his head at them, and they went back to ignoring them. He looked back up at Minho, unsurprised to find him looking amused and pleased with himself. “She wouldn’t necessarily know that, though. And I think she meant other than that.”

“Yeah, true...” Kibum went back to perusing the book, reading the line Flobberworm mucus at least three times before he realized he had and moved on. “I don’t think much had to change, really, do you?”

Kibum shook his head. “Jjong said we were practically dating anyways, we just hadn’t told each other yet.”

“That...is painfully accurate.” Kibum smiled to himself, flipping the page back to once again read through the ingredient list. “So, what, do we want to start calling each other ‘babe’ now?” If the others hadn’t been in the loft with them, Kibum probably would have burst out in surprised laughter. Instead, he simply smacked Minho’s thigh, which made them both crack up. “I’ll take that as a ‘no’,” he added once they both sobered up and the others looked away.

“It just...I don’t know…seems a bit…”

“Unnatural?”

“Yeah.”

Minho nodded, sighing. “I agree. We don’t have to do stuff just because other couples do it, right? We can just do whatever we feel like, I think.”

“I think so, too.”

“Still…” Minho let the word linger until Kibum looked up at him. “I think I’m gonna call you ‘babe’ now, just to be annoying.”

Kibum’s face immediately inflamed as soon as Minho said jagiya again and he shook his head, his teeth as he pointedly looked away from him and back at his textbook. “Merlin, this kid,” he muttered in English, still quiet enough for Minho to be the only one to hear him.

Minho’s shoulders shook in silent laughter, and Kibum shook his head, sighing as he looked up to see if anyone was paying any attention to them. Just Analecia, and even then it was just a curious glance. He’d explain it to her later if she asked. But, for now, he went back to his reading in an attempt to distract himself from the thought of Minho calling him jagiya...