Mission: Return Jongin to his original self.

Step 1: Go on a date.

Step 2: ...

Kyungsoo looked at his notebook, realizing he hadn't taken one single note during the entire lecture, instead forming a plan. A very vague plan, that relied mostly on hope and desperation. He needed Jongin to back off before it was too late. If Kyungsoo got in any deeper, he wasn't sure if he would be able to go back to the way it used to be.

Date, huh? Where did one usually go on a date, Kyungsoo wondered. He had never been on one before. Maybe to Hogsmeade, but the next Hogsmeade trip was a while away. There were no restaurants around, and the crowded Great Hall was not very date-like, surrounded by other students sticking their noses where they didn't belong. He was out of ideas. This romantic stuff wasn't really his thing.

“We're going on a date!” Jongin told him beaming. He was waiting for him in front of the classroom. It was as if he had read his mind. Was that even possible? You had to be a fully fledged Legilimens to do that. Kyungsoo's gut churned. That was the last thing he needed, having Jongin find out his thoughts. There were quite a few in there that he hoped would never see the light of day, some that would definitely get the rated R stamp. He made a mental note to look up Occlumency methods the first chance he got, just in case.

People were giving them interested looks, especially girls.

“Come on, let's go somewhere private.” Kyungsoo grabbed Jongin's wrist and dragged him along.

“Oooh, private.” Jongin giggled.

“Not that private!” Kyungsoo coughed.

“You were saying?” Kyungsoo asked as they turned into a deserted hallway. He didn't dare take him into one of the empty classrooms, afraid of what Jongin would do with all that privacy.

Jongin smirked, leaning in closely. “Date.” he whispered into Kyungsoo's ear, giving him goosebumps.

“We're boyfriends, right? That's what we agreed, isn't it?” Jongin edged a little closer still.

Kyungsoo held his breath, trying to keep his heart from exploding inside his chest. He simply nodded.

“Phew. Okay.” Jongin grinned widely. “Boyfriends go on dates, you do know that, right?” he continued.

Kyungsoo hesitantly nodded again. He did know that. He was going to suggest a date himself, since that was the only way for Jongin to really realize that he wasn't in love with him, not in reality. But now that it was actually happening, Kyungsoo was scared. He was scared of finding out for sure that he was madly in love with Jongin, and he was even scareder of Jongin finding out the opposite, that Jongin wasn't in love with him back, not even a little bit.

“Alright then! Good to know we're on the same page. I was thinking a picnic somewhere secluded.. we can go by broomstick.” Jongin suggested, his face so close to Kyungsoo's that he could smell his breath. It smelled sweet and warm. It made Kyungsoo wonder how it would taste, to kiss him.

“Eh, I'm not that good with broomsticks.” Kyungsoo frowned, embarrassed.

“My broomstick, silly. It's wasteful to take two broomsticks, all that wear and tear.” Jongin sent him a short wink that made a flock of crazy, homicidal butterflies invade Kyungsoo's gut, attacking him from the inside. One short trip on a broomstick just didn't cause that much wear and tear. And riding one broomstick the two of them meant being very up, close and personal.

Kyungsoo started to get really worried about the level of skinship this date-thing would entail, and the possible kiss ambush Jongin might be planning, and how little he would hate it if Jongin's attempt were successful. But he couldn't let that happen, even if he wanted to. It wouldn't be right. Jongin was under the influence. He would be taking advantage, and Kyungsoo was not that kind of guy. Or maybe a small part of him was, but he was determined not to let that part win.

“Mm. I'm hungry.” Kyungsoo muttered, to create a diversion. He was so nervous he was sweating cold sweat.

“Oh! Oh no! We can't have that! Let's go grab a bite.” Jongin smiled, taking a step back.

Kyungsoo already missed having him so close that he could smell his skin, it smelled so good, but it was vital to get some distance if he was going to stay conscious. Jongin's smell, no, his entire being was intoxicating. Maybe his skin was sweating some of the love potion out, affecting Kyungsoo's ability to think straight.

“Oh hey, there's Sehun and Suho!” Kyungsoo pointed at them, sounding unconvincingly cheerful. It was not that he was so eager to sit with Sehun, on a good day he found him annoying, and he was the one responsible for the debacle he was facing right now, but it was the only thing he could come up with. It was time for Sehun to take part in the clean up of his own mess.

“Ehh...” Jongin looked like he was about to object, so Kyungsoo sped up, reaching the table before he could say anything.

“Hey guys!” Kyungsoo forced a smile. Suho looked like he suspected something was up, but Sehun seemed to be cluelessly happy at this sudden change in Kyungsoo's demeanor towards him. “Guess what!” he exclaimed over-enthusiastically.

“What!?” Sehun played along, over the moon to be included.

“Jongin is taking me on a broomstick picnic!” he said like he was the luckiest guy on Earth. It wasn't a hard sell, because he probably was. He had placed the crumbs on the ground, now all Sehun had to do was follow the path he had laid out for him.

“No! Don't tell hi....” Jongin tried to interject but was too late.

“Wow!!” Sehun's eyes doubled in size. “Let's go too!” he looked at Suho pleadingly.

“Would it be much trouble if we joined you?” Suho asked them so formally that it was awkward.

“You don't have to join us to go on a broomstick picnic, you can just go by yourselv...” Jongin started, but again Kyungsoo interrupted him.

“Sure! That sounds like fun.” he nodded fervently. His master plan had worked. They were going on a chaperoned date. That way, nothing could happen between them.

Jongin sighed, disappointed.

“Hop on!” Jongin encouraged Kyungsoo, who had a bad feeling about this.

Suho and Sehun were already up in the air, Suho flying very responsibly as always while reprimanding Sehun for letting his hands run wild. Sehun was hiding behind the excuse that he had to hold on tight to Suho or he was going to fall. Apparently, they agreed that Sehun had to hold on to Suho, but disagreed exactly where was appropriate for him to hold on to.

Was the potion slowly wearing off? Not so long ago, Suho wouldn't have dreamed of scolding Sehun. He always did exactly what Sehun wanted and more, like a lovesick slave. Kyungsoo felt a glimmer of hope that was instantly squashed by the blue that followed. When the potion had finally worn off, he wouldn't see Jongin every day like this.

He mounted the broomstick, backing up until he could feel the beginning of the brush, and could go no further. Those broomsticks were not made for two people, Kyungsoo thought, trying to somehow grab a hold of the stick without touching Jongin.

“Hold on tight!” Jongin warned him, turning around and seizing Kyungsoo's arms, locking them around his torso. Kyungsoo could feel himself turn instantly red as he felt Jongin's abs through his shirt.

They took off with such force, Kyungsoo instinctively wrapped himself tighter around Jongin's sturdy, warm back. Kyungsoo had never been much of a broomstick expert, and he wasn't the biggest fan of flying, he had more of a knack with the theoretical rather than the practical.

A gifted seeker sure rode a broomstick differently than the average Joe, and they shot through the sky like lightning. Kyungsoo could feel the cold air pierce his cheeks, burying his face into Jongin's shoulder, keeping his eyes closed. He was trembling like a little, scared mouse. He only hoped Jongin wouldn't be able to feel that.

After a while, Jongin slowed down a bit, and Kyungsoo finally mustered up the courage to pry his scaredy-cat eyes open. He gasped. The view was breathtaking. They were flying low over the lake, Kyungsoo could almost reach down and touch his reflection in the still water. His stomach jumped at the sight of himself backhugging Jongin so tightly. He started wishing they would never reach their destination and this broomstick ride would last forever.

He didn't get his wish, though. They touched down on a green patch at the other side of the lake.

Jongin started pulling a feast out of the picnic basket. Kyungsoo wondered how Jongin had managed to carry the weight of all this food all this way, but felt like an idiot when he realized that of course the picnic basket had a direct link to the Hogwarts kitchen, working similarly to the tables in the Great Hall, so the only thing he had to carry was an empty basket. Jongin had to have some serious pull in the kitchen to get this kind of special service though, Kyungsoo thought impressed.

Just when Kyungsoo dared hope this picnic would be perfect, Sehun stepped in and started hogging all the food, to feed Suho. Except for the stuff that was pure sugar, that he ate himself. Jongin gave Kyungsoo a look that sounded a lot like 'I told you so', having been against bringing those two party crashers from the start. As their eyes met, they both chuckled shyly. Jongin stole a bag of nachos back from Sehun, digging in the picnic basket until he found what he was looking for, hot cheese sauce. How did he know? Kyungsoo loved nachos with cheese sauce, especially if it was hot. It was what he missed the most from the Muggle world.

“Aaah.” Jongin made a sound to signal that Kyungsoo should open his mouth, having dipped a chip into the sauce, intending on feeding it to Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo shook his head, mortified.

“Aaah!!” Jongin insisted.

Again Kyungsoo shook his head. He just couldn't. This was too much.

“I'm not an invalid, I'm perfectly capable of feeding myse-hhppphhh.”.

Jongin used the chance while Kyungsoo was talking and just shoved the whole thing into his mouth. Kyungsoo couldn't believe his own eyes, nor his taste buds. An explosion of taste filled his mouth, nearly making him forgive Jongin on the spot, but he couldn't just let him walk all over him, then it would become a habit. So he punched him in the arm, but only lightly.

Jongin just giggled, not showing any remorse at all. Ah, he was too cute for his own good, Kyungsoo thought, melting.

On the way back, after numerous zigzags, Sehun and Suho's broomstick took a very sharp dive into the Forbidden Forest. Suho should never have let Sehun behind the wheel. Kyungsoo stared at the spot between the trees where they had disappeared, concerned.

Suddenly, Jongin somehow managed to jump up and turn all the way around in midair, ridiculously smoothly, so that he was now facing Kyungsoo with a big smirk on his face.

“Finally, we are alone.” he murmured, his eyes burning with desire.

“Uh oh!! Nobody's flying the broom...!” Kyungsoo panicked, trying to avoid Jongin's smoldering gaze without much luck. What had gotten into him?

As Kyungsoo had suspected, he was going in for a kiss.

“They're not coming out again! What if something happened to them?! We can't just leave them there, possibly incapacitated, in the middle of the Forbidden Forest... it's forbidden for a reason!” Kyungsoo's voice trembled slightly. He hoped Jongin would interpret it as distress rather than desperation.

“Fine.. but Sehun is not allowed to tag along on our next date!” Jongin complained, frustrated, turning around and aiming straight into the trees. Kyungsoo gasped as a branch swooshed past him, a little too close for comfort. But it was almost a welcome distraction from the two words that kept circling his brain, 'next date'. Kyungsoo hadn't dared consider what would happen if this date wouldn't be enough to snatch Jongin out of the love potion's clutches. Was he really going to have to kiss him, for him to realize it was all an illusion? He had zero confidence in being able to survive that.

“Guys! What the hell are you doing? When you didn't return, we thought you had turned into the appetizer of one of the millions of magical monsters that live in here and we risked our lives to come save you! ... and here you are, digging a hole?!” Jongin pouted, very obviously frustrated.

It wasn't just Jongin though, they were being really weird. Sehun was watching Suho dig a hole, in a ridiculously slow and careful manner. It was almost like he was on an archaeological dig. But then Kyungsoo saw it. Something red and glittering. No wait, blue and shiny. No, purple and sparkly! What was that? Kyungsoo edged closer.

Suho took forever to dig it up, refusing to go any faster and forbidding anyone from helping him, no matter how hard they begged and how profusely they complained.

“Woooah!” Sehun said what everyone was thinking as Suho lifted up what appeared to be an egg. But it was no ordinary egg. Kyungsoo had never seen anything like it. It was somehow every color of the rainbow at once, it's shiny shell reflecting the light in every color possible. It reminded Kyungsoo of a Fabergé egg, an ornamental egg he had seen at a Muggle museum once. Why anyone would ever feel the need to own an ornamental egg was beyond Kyungsoo's imagination, but Muggles were weird like that. Maybe it hadn't been ornamental at all, maybe it had been a magical egg prevented from hatching since it was stuck in some stuffy museum without any motherly love to encourage its tiny, supernatural inhabitant to join the world.

“What do you think it is?” Sehun asked, amazed, as he circled the egg with curious eyes, Suho not letting him get too close.

“I don't know, but I think we have to put it back.” Suho concluded.

“No!!” Sehun threw a small tantrum. “We have to take it home. It's our little baby now. We can take care of it, together.” he batted his eyelashes at Suho.

“It could be something dangerous, what if its mom comes back?” Suho pointed out, but he was already caving in the face of Sehun's aegyo.

“We can't leave it here... All alone in the dark. It looks abandoned, what if its mom never comes back?” the brim of Sehun's eyes filled with water.

“I could.. eh... see if the library has some information on what it is?” Kyungsoo shrugged, feeling uncomfortable watching the tears raining down Sehun's cheeks.

“I could help him look!” Jongin smirked, whispering “library date” into Kyungsoo's ear. It felt almost like he had punched him in the gut.

“Okay, let's leave it here then, find out what it is, and come back if it turns out it needs our help.” Suho suggested, but Sehun's pout only grew bigger.

Suho sighed.

“Let's take it with us then, but! ..If we find out it hasn't been abandoned or if it's bad for it to be out of the ground, we put it back! Agreed?” Suho tried to look stern, but he wasn't entirely convincing.

“Okay!!” Sehun's frown instantly turned into a big, wide smile.

***

Chanyeol stopped in his tracks in the middle of the hallway. He thought he had heard something. He held his breath and listened. It was eerily quiet. He shook his head at his own paranoia and started walking again, but there it was again! It was faint, but there was a definite low, scratchy sound. Chanyeol swallowed, ordering his heart to stay quiet so he could hear the sound better, but it didn't listen and just started beating louder. Thanks.

After sneaking softly around the hallway like he was a burglar with nothing to steal, he pressed his ear up against the wall. The sound got louder! There was something in the wall! ...wait... Chanyeol could feel cold water running down his spine. There was something IN the wall?! And it was getting closer, judging by the sound slowly getting louder. He tried not to panic, reviewing the prefect guidelines in his head to figure out what the standard response was in a situation like this. He came up empty. He knew he should probably go find a professor, but he was afraid that whatever it was would be gone when they came back, and then nobody would believe him and he would be labeled a lunatic forevermore.

Chanyeol jumped back, something had touched his leg. He looked down and saw dirt on his shoe. It was coming from the wall. And it kept building up into a heap of dirt on the floor underneath the wall, where there was a hole forming. Was it some kind of magical mole? He wondered whether it was safe for him to come face to face with it. What if it bit him? There had been nothing about this in the Safety Guidelines for Mystical Plants and Magical Creatures, other than urging students not to put themselves into situations similar to the one he was in right now.

And then the buildup of dirt stopped, and it turned quiet again. Against his better judgment, Chanyeol bent down and peeked into the narrow, newly formed tunnel. At least it wasn't made by a giant, that much he could assume. However, nothing could have prepared him for what he did find lodged inside the small tube. He let out an audible gasp.

“Baekhyun?!?!” he yelled out.

Baekhyun frowned sassily, and started trying to squirm backwards back down the tunnel, which was so narrow that he could barely fit. What the hell was he doing? And if he was going to dig a tunnel, for whatever inexplicable reason, probably just to get into trouble like usual, an incurable attention seeker, why hadn't he dug a tunnel he could actually fit through?

“Oh no, you don't!” Chanyeol stuck his hand deep inside the tunnel before he could escape, grabbing a hold of Baekhyun's ear and pulling him out kicking and screaming.

When he was out, Baekhyun frantically looked around like he was looking for someone to help him get out of this mess.

“There's no one here but us. And you're coming with me to the headmaster's office!” Chanyeol sneered, dragging Baekhyun along, who tried to resist, still searching their surroundings, like there was a possibility of somebody turning up out of the blue to save him. But there was nothing that could save him now. He had finally caught him red-handed, and this time he was not going to get away with it.