Kyungsoo closed his eyes as he drew a note that contained his potions partner for the rest of the semester. He detested group work, he would much rather just work alone.

“Please, not Sehun, everyone but Sehun.” he prayed. Why, oh why did they have to have Potions with the Hufflepuffs? And why did professor Kim insist on having mixed teams, making the Slytherins each draw a Hufflepuff partner. He didn't want to work with any of the students in the class, but as long as it wasn't Sehun, he could cope. Sehun was completely useless when it came to potions. No, worse than useless. He had the uncanny ability to make everything explode. Sometimes he barely had to look in the direction of a cauldron to make it combust into flames.

Slowly, carefully, he unfolded the note in his hand. The first syllable was Se. Oh no. He looked around the classroom, hoping to find someone else who had a name beginning with that same syllable, but only got a crooked grin and a wave from Sehun.

Suddenly, the semester seemed like an eternity. Would he be able to survive it, with Sehun as his Potions partner? His life was definitely in danger.

“Alright, everyone pair up with your partners.” professor Kim Jaejoong ordered.

Chaos ensued. The Slytherins, who each held a note with their partner's name in their hands, spread out and tried to match the name with a face. Those who already found their match hurried and sat down at an empty desk together, the best ones being taken first.

The crowd quickly thinned, there were only a few people left. Kyungsoo didn't move. He hoped that if he didn't do anything, that maybe, just maybe the numbers wouldn't add up and Sehun would be paired with someone else when Kyungsoo volunteered to be solo. He crumpled the note with Sehun's name on it in his hand and slyly put it in his pocket. He made a mental note to learn a spell to turn back time a few minutes or one that could erase ink.

“Sehun and Kyungsoo, you are the only ones left. Pair up and find a table, quickly!” professor Kim noted. Rats. Stupid even numbered class, Kyungsoo cursed under his breath. The only table that was left was at the very back of the class. That was something, at least. The teacher wouldn't be able to keep as close an eye on them, so hopefully he could just do the work alone while Sehun stared into space or something.

“Alright, let's get started. Today we will be doing an easy one since its the first day, just to let you get reacquainted with the tools and the materials. Everyone turn to page 5 of your books. 'Hum the Hymn'. It's a potion that makes whoever drinks it get the song of your choice stuck in their head. It's harmless and wears off in a few hours. But keep in mind that any potion wrongly made can turn into poison. You will be testing the potion later on yourselves, so you better pay attention while making it or you could end up in the hospital wing, or worse.” professor Kim warned in an ominous voice.

Kyungsoo got a pang of fear in his stomach. He was going to have to drink something Sehun made? And not just some horribly concocted cocktail, but a magical potion that could possibly end his life as he knew it. He wasn't going to get out of this classroom alive, that was for sure, unless he took matters into his own hands. He was going to make absolutely sure that Sehun would get nowhere near the cauldron. He was going to guard it with his life.

He took out his Potions book. It was brand new and laminated with perfect precision, to protect it from spillage.

“Oh! Can we use mine! I got it from my big brother, he used it when he took this class two years ago. Now he's a Prefect.” Sehun beamed and fished an old, tattered rag out of his bag. It barely resembled a book anymore. And it smelled something awful. “I want to tell Channie I used it.” he grinned.

Kyungsoo was about to object and throw that abomination in the biohazard waste, when he got an idea. If Sehun was in charge of the book, the only thing he had to do was read the recipe out loud. It was only reading, not even Sehun could make a potion explode by reading.

“You just read, okay. You can read, right?” Kyungsoo raised his eyebrow. Sehun nodded proudly. Kyungsoo double checked that Sehun was on the right page, just in case. Page 5. 'Hum the Hymn'. Okay, they were good to go.

Kyungsoo wiped the sweat from his forehead. He was doing the work of two, hunting down all the ingredients, which were oddly many for such a simple potion, making sure to carefully cut them up right, add them into the cauldron in the right order and staying on top of stirring the right amount and in the right direction, while Sehun just sat there, petting his gross book, beaming and occasionally using his not that impressive reading skills to make sure they were on the right track.

“Okay, now all that's left is to add the song lyrics and hum the song twice while stirring. I think we should pick a song called 'Billionaire'.” Kyungsoo insisted.

“But I've already written down the lyrics to Justin Bieber's 'Fall', it's really good.” Sehun showed him a crumpled piece of paper with illegible scribbles on it. He really wanted to redo it and use his favorite song and a clean piece of paper, but most of the other students had already finished their potions. If he didn't want to have to stay after class to complete it, he had no choice but to go with Sehun's horrible handwriting. He really didn't want to spend any more time with him than he had to.

Kyungsoo let the paper with the lyrics slide slowly into the mixture, holding his breath, preparing for disaster since this was Sehun's only contribution. It sank to the bottom of the cauldron. He waited a few seconds, but nothing happened. He exhaled. Now all that was left was to stir slowly, four times clockwise and two times counter-clockwise, while singing the song. Wait. He didn't know the song, he had no idea how to sing it.

“Okay, start singing after I count to two. Are you ready?” Kyungsoo clenched his teeth, not at all happy with this.

Sehun nodded, enthusiastic. “Hyung, trust me. I can do this.”. Hyung? Who said it was okay for him to call him hyung?

“One... two...” Kyungsoo gave him the cue to start singing, but he instantly regretted it. He didn't know how to classify the horrible sounds that came out of Sehun's mouth, but whatever it was, it was definitely not singing.

Kyungsoo started stirring, but he hadn't even finished half a clockwise stir when the potion turned bright red and started bubbling furiously. Oh no! Kyungsoo's eyes doubled in size. Something was wrong, he knew it. It was going to blow.

“Duck!” he yelled, grabbing Sehun around his waist and pulling him down to the floor with all his strength, dragging him under the table opposite them, hoping to get them both out of harm's way.

There was a loud bang as the potion exploded, followed by a high pitched scream that made the hairs on the back of Kyungsoo's neck stand on end.

“Hyung. You saved me.” Sehun beamed at him with admiration in his eyes. Kyungsoo avoided eye contact, mumbling something unintelligible and slowly getting out from under the table. He was scared to see the damage they had caused. That Sehun had caused.

Kyungsoo gasped.

Oh no! They were so dead.

Jongin, Hufflepuff's golden boy, the best seeker in all of Hogwarts and the handsomest guy in school, stood there, drenched in the red, jelly-ish liquid. He looked really shaken up. They were done for if something were to happen to him. Not only with the teacher and the principal, but they would have to answer to the whole school. It wasn't long until the in-house Quidditch competition started. Hufflepuff was going to need their seeker. And normally, the Hufflepuffs were a peaceful bunch. But when it came to their beloved star seeker, they were not kidding around.

Hufflepuff was the house that had won the fewest house cups in the history of Hogwarts, but after Jongin joined the school, all of that changed. Last year they had won the cup for the first time in a very long time. So they protected their most prized possession, the new prince of Hufflepuff, by any means necessary. And they had all kinds of creatures on their side, ready to pounce at their request. Kyungsoo was not eager to test their resolve.

Jongin rubbed his eyes, trying to remove the slimy liquid so he could see. He opened his eyes and stared right at Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo's heart did a backflip. He was done for. Jongin's eyebrows turned angry, his eyes lit with fire. All Kyungsoo wanted was to get through these years at Hogwarts quietly, without anyone noticing him. And he would have, if not for Sehun.

Jongin's eyes widened, focusing intensely on Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo could imagine how the snitch felt when Jongin locked his eyes on it. He was like a predator sizing up its prey. And then he charged forward at full speed. He was so fast that Kyungsoo didn't have time to realize what was happening, let alone run away. Jongin threw himself at him at full speed, both of them crashing to the floor. Jongin clutched him, locking him in his arm prison. He was strong. Kyungsoo was petrified, his heart refusing to beat out of fear. This was it. This was how his life ended.

Professor Kim and a few students tried to pry him off him, but that only made him hold on tighter. Kyungsoo couldn't breathe.

“He's mine now!” Jongin yelled fervently.

“Did you know that I loved you or were you not aware?” he whispered into Kyungsoo's ear.

What?

Kyungsoo started to think he was hallucinating out of lack of oxygen.

“What's gonna make you fall in love?” Jongin murmured.

“Huh?” Kyungsoo was stunned. What was happening? His heart stirred in his chest. It was good to know that it was still alive at least.

“I will catch you if you fall.” Jongin swore.

Wait a minute. Those were the lyrics to the song Sehun liked so much. Jongin was under the spell of their potion. So it had worked! Jongin definitely had the lyrics stuck in his head. But professor Kim had said the spell was harmless. This definitely did not feel harmless. If Jongin squeezed any harder, he would become instant worm food.

“Releaziousus!” someone shouted in a high, ringing voice and Jongin's arms flew out and he fell backwards. Kyungsoo was free. He took a deep breath. He looked up and saw the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Shim Changmin, wielding his wand, holding Jongin captive with invisible bonds. He looked so composed and majestic, like it was nothing, but it took extreme mental strength to restrain someone like that. Especially Jongin, who was strong as an ox, fighting to get at Kyungsoo again. Kyungsoo slowly scooched backwards on the floor, scared what would happen if Jongin broke free.

Professor Shim removed Jongin from the classroom. All the students watched in shock.

“Do Kyungsoo! Oh Sehun! Come here this instant!” Professor Kim growled. It was scary, even though he had such a beautiful voice that he could never make it sound as harsh as he meant to. He was standing over their cauldron, inspecting what little was left of their potion.

“It was Sehun's singing.” Kyungsoo pointed at the culprit standing right next to him. Sehun looked back at him, pouting in disappointment.

“That's impossible.” Professor Kim shook his head. That doesn't explain the color. He smelled it, wrinkling his eyebrows. It was not often that professor Kim was stumped. He could identify a potion a mile away.

“Oh... maybe I cut the Phyllanthus Fluitans incorrectly.” Kyungsoo hung his head, embarrassed.

“Phyllanthus Fluitans!? You used red root?!” Professor Kim gasped.

“Uh.. yeah. It was in the recipe.” Kyungsoo admitted.

“Let me see!” Professor Kim ordered sternly. He looked really concerned.

Sehun handed him his wreck of a book, open on page 5. Professor Kim inspected it carefully, reading every word twice. “Mhm mhm.. that's all in order.” he mumbled and turned the page.

“Holy basil!” Professor Kim yelped. All his swearwords were plant-related. “What is this!” he tore a crumpled piece of paper out of the book, that had been stuck to the back of the page. “Rotten mugwort! It's an amateur love potion! Those can be really dodgy. And now that you've mixed it with... hmm... not good.. a wrongly made potion can be tricky to reverse.” he shook his head, very concerned.

“I have to analyze this right away so we can alleviate the poor boy's symptoms. Do you think you two can handle disposing of the dregs without causing a disaster?“ he asked them with urgency after bottling a sample of the potion. They both nodded guiltily. “Careful! It's paramount that the potion doesn't come into contact with skin, not even a drop!” he warned them before leaving the room in a hurry.

Kyungsoo sighed. He had been way too optimistic. Sehun had managed not only to make the potion explode, but also to poison the most popular kid in the entire school, by the simple task of reading. That took skills.

“How did you not realize this scrap of paper wasn't part of the book?! These are just some scribbles! The paper doesn't even match the pages in the book!” he vented his frustration on Sehun.

“How was I supposed to know.” Sehun shrugged, pouting as if he was being unfair to him. What was really unfair was that now they would become famous for sabotaging Hufflepuff's strongest quidditch team in all of history. Just great. He hoped Jongin would be alright. Both for Jongin's sake, but also for his own.

Kyungsoo's arms started shaking under the weight of their cauldron the last part of the way to the potions bin, which was a huge cauldron in the back of the class that was enchanted to neutralize the potions that were poured into it and turn them into clear water. He could feel a drop of sweat trickle down his chin. Those cauldrons were no joke, they were heavier than solid rock.

“I'll help!” Sehun said brightly and bounced towards him right when he had already done all the hard work, and the only thing left to do was to pour the cauldron's contents into the potions bin.

“No! Watch out!” Kyungsoo cried out when Sehun grabbed the cauldron, not expecting it to be as heavy as it was, losing his grip so it plonked down on the table. They were using special wizard grade cauldrons that were made to last, since they had to be able to contain some extremely powerful potions, so it didn't break or anything, but as it clunked down, a single droplet of their poisonous concoction catapulted into the air.

No, no, no!

He and Sehun both followed the drop's trajectory while holding their breaths, hoping against hope that it would not encounter anything on its way. They had no such luck. As if born under an unlucky star, Suho, a Slytherin senior Kyungsoo barely knew, walked past right when the droplet started losing altitude. It splattered on the back of his hand.

Sehun ran to him, fervently wiping his hand with a tissue he had dug out of his back pocket. It did not look very sanitary. Kyungsoo scrunched his nose, glad he wasn't Suho right now. Suho looked at Sehun, appalled.

“Are you okay??” Sehun inspected Suho's hand carefully, making sure there was nothing on it.

“Uh? Ah, yeah... yeah, I'm fine.” Suho nodded, slightly shook up.

Sehun and Kyungsoo both sighed with relief. That could have been bad.

“How can I not be fine, when the most handsome man in the whole wide world is holding my hand!” Suho exclaimed, beaming.

Oh, rats! They had celebrated too soon.

Sehun glanced back at him with an 'Oops'-expression. He looked back at Suho. “Could you do me a favor?” he asked him.

“Yes! Yes!! Anything for you!” Suho smiled so widely, he looked like he was high. And in a way he was, high on Sehun.

“Don't tell the professor about this teeny tiny spilling incident. Nobody has to know, right? No harm done, huh?” he asked Suho in a low, soft voice.

“Okay!!” Suho nodded fervently, super determined to honor his deal with Sehun.

“What the hell do you think you're doing?” Kyungsoo said under his breath as he slid up to Sehun's side.

“We're going to be in double trouble if they find out we messed up again.” Sehun whispered back. He was right. What he was doing was all kinds of wrong, but he was right. And it was just one drop. Jongin had taken a shower in it, that was a pretty big dose. One drop wasn't that much. It was probably going to be okay, Kyungsoo convinced himself. He dumped the rest of the cauldron's contents into the potion bin and went back to his seat. Thankfully, the rest of the students had been too busy cleaning up their own stuff to notice what had happened.

A last year Ravenclaw potions major came and took over the class. Apparently it was taking a while to figure out how to fix Jongin. Kyungsoo sank into his seat, wishing the floor would swallow him. Sehun, on the other hand, was having the time of his life. Suho was always peeking back at him, sending him little hearts and winks. The poor bloke. This was so wrong.

Fortunately, the rest of the class went into testing everyone's potions, so they didn't have to do anything. Theirs had already been tested, in a big way. They would probably get zero marks for the project. Ugh. He needed good grades, he had plans for the future. And their potion not only succeeded in making Jongin get that song stuck in his brain, but also made him fall head over heals for him, two potions in one! It was only fair to give them double the marks, he thought.

The moment the class was over, Sehun and Kyungsoo ran out. They had decided to find his older brother, the former owner of the potions book. He had to know something about the spell, where it came from and maybe how to break it, or at least know someone who knew.

“Hyung! Chanyeol hyung!” Sehun waved at a really tall, dark haired boy, sitting at the Ravenclaw table in the dining hall. Wow, their parents must have drunk nothing but milk, all day every day, they were both so tall.

“What's up, hooney.” Chanyeol said in a jokingly sweet voice, ruffling Sehun's hair. He was clearly teasing him, using the latter part of his name and mixing it with honey to make fun of him. But it didn't bother Sehun one bit, rather he seemed to like it. He was probably used to it. They looked really comfortable together. Sometimes Kyungsoo wondered what it would have been like to have had siblings. But he probably would have ended up as a loner anyway, it was a part of who he was.

“Hyung... the potion... in the book, the love potion... do you know it? Is it dangerous?” Sehun asked him with urgency.

“Hahh! Don't tell me you gave someone a taste of my ultra mega super special love potion?” Chanyeol laughed.

“You made it?” Sehun and Kyungsoo asked in unison.

“Yeah, it's harmless, it'll wear off in a day or two. No worries. Just enjoy the ride until then.” he chuckled. “But be aware, don't fall in love or anything, because it won't create any lasting emotions. Tomorrow the person will go back to not caring about you at all, ignoring you like the kiss didn't even happen!” he added bitterly with his eyebrows hanging low, his eyes somewhere else. That warning was weirdly specific.

“Phew.” Kyungsoo gave Sehun a look of relief.

“I'm going to see what Suho's doing.” Sehun giggled. “See ya!”.

Poor Suho.