we are back at last! it is me, the sister!
thank you so much to everyone who has been waiting for an update. you guys are too sweet T.T
this one took me several months to write but I'm really happy with this chapter. we get to learn a lot more about sunwoo's past and we also get a lot more jeongwoo fluff uwu

Warning: this gets a little angsty, stay safe kids!!!

anyway i'll shut up now, enjoy reading this 20k long bich!

 

About 8 months ago, back in July, after Sunwoo’s fifth year in Hogwarts had come to an end, he had had no choice but to return to his home.

A bad feeling lingered in his stomach and it became stronger by the minute as he sat in a lonely compartment inside the Hogwarts Express, inevitably on his way to Kings Cross. From time to time, a student would peek inside his compartment to check if there was any seat available, but none of them dared to come in after they had recognized him.

It didn’t surprise Sunwoo.

After all, it was like this every year. He decided to distract himself by reading a book, but that also turned out to be fruitless. His eyes flew over the same exact paragraph seven times, but his brain simply didn’t pick up its content. His mind was clouded with worries and the anxiety made his chest feel stuffy. He simply couldn’t relax.

Sunwoo didn’t want to go back to his family and relive the same nightmare he had experienced so many times in his life. He didn’t want to hear them insult him and treat him like an abomination every single second of the day again. Couldn’t they please just let students stay at Hogwarts over the summer too?

The Slytherin sighed deeply and looked out the window, trying not to tear up. He was going to be with his family for the next six weeks. It was inevitable.

The train arrived sooner than Sunwoo had anticipated.

The bad feeling got even worse when he retrieved his luggage, exited the train and stepped on the platform. He watched the other students hug each other goodbye before happily leaving through the magical barrier, while excitedly telling their parents all about their school year.

His chest felt even stuffier than before and his head was spinning so much, he almost didn’t notice Hyunjin approaching him. The older gave Sunwoo a quick hug and bid his goodbyes before another student approached the two of them.

“Hyunjin!” he chanted excitedly and wrapped his arms around him. Sunwoo remembered his name to be Yang Jeongin and that he was a fourth year and close friend of Hyunjin’s.

“I’ll miss you too, Jeongin!” Hyunjin chuckled at Jeongin, who then let go of him and turned to smile up at Sunwoo.

“What are your plans for summer vacation?” he addressed him. Sunwoo was surprised that Jeongin even bothered to talk to him, but didn’t get to think about that more, as he got reminded of the upcoming six weeks of despair.

What were his plans for summer vacation?

Trying to stay as invisible as possible?

Trying to not go insane and trying to not have his parents kill him?

He couldn’t really say that.

“Well... I’ll probably just stay in my room and do nothing all day...” Sunwoo ended up replying as Hyunjin gave him a knowing look.

He talked to those two for a little longer before they eventually got picked up by their parents. After a few more minutes of standing around and waiting, Sunwoo’s driver appeared and led him to the car that was going to take him ‘home’.

Sunwoo just hoped that he would be able to make it back the next year…

~

“…and class dismissed,” Professor Binns announced, ripping Sunwoo out of the nap he had decided to take in this History of Magic class. The students around him rose from their seats, cautiously keeping their distance from him, as usual, while Sunwoo let his history book slip back into his bag.

After leaving the classroom, the Slytherin hurried to his common room to leave his bag there before heading outside again to meet up with his boyfriend Jeongin by the Quidditch field.

He had invited Sunwoo to watch him at Quidditch practice before going on something like a date in the Room of Requirements. Sunwoo’s heart jumped at the thought. Spending time with Jeongin always seemed to lift his spirits by at least 95%.

“There you are, Sunwoo!” Jeongin jumped up from his seat in front of the locker rooms and smiled when he noticed his boyfriend walk towards him and greeted him with a hug.

“Sorry for being a bit late... did you wait for a long time?” Sunwoo asked after Jeongin had let go of him.

“Not at all~ but training will start in about a minute, so I have to go get my broomstick,” he replied.

“Alright, good luck then. And be careful,” Sunwoo told him and earned a nod from Jeongin before giving him a small smile as he headed for the spectator’s area to watch him from up there. The other team members soon gathered on the field and discussed some techniques before they all got on their respective broomsticks and started to practice.

Time passed by quickly as Lucas gave his team some tasks and exercises to do, depending on what their position on the team was. Jeongin just had to practice finding and catching the Snitch a couple of times, since a Seeker didn’t really have anything else to do, and Sunwoo watched him from his seat.

He noticed the wide smile on Jeongin’s face as he skillfully roamed through the air, his eyes scanning his surroundings for the tiny golden ball. Sunwoo couldn’t help but smile at the younger’s obvious enthusiasm for the sport.

About half an hour into practice, the weather suddenly started to get a bit rougher. The wind became a lot stronger and rain started to pour down on the players.

Sunwoo didn’t mind it too much, since the spectator’s area had a roof and he didn’t feel how cold the wind was, but the team members’ yellow uniforms were already soaked. The team continued to practice, even though the wind made it a lot harder for them, especially Jeongin, who looked like he had a hard time spotting the Snitch and even bumped into another team member with his shoulder as he tried to coordinate through the rain.

It looked pretty painful, but the both of them just continued their practice nonetheless.

A few more minutes after that, Lucas finally told them to return to the ground, so Sunwoo also left the spectator’s area to make his way over to Jeongin and his team.

“I guess we got unlucky with the weather today, I didn’t know it was going to storm like this. Anyway, let’s just continue next time,” Sunwoo heard Lucas tell the others as he approached them. However, the latter’s expression darkened when he spotted him.

“Are you alright?” Sunwoo asked Jeongin quietly. After all, his collision with that other team member did look a bit painful.

“Sure, I’m okay,” Jeongin replied with a smile before making a face when Sunwoo carefully put a hand on his shoulder, exposing his lie.

“I knew it. Let’s go to Madame Pomfrey after this,” the older told him.

“No, it’s really okay, it’s just a bruise,” Jeongin assured him before Lucas interrupted them.

“Oh, I see. Of course, nothing goes right when you’re around,” Lucas said to Sunwoo, giving him a condescending look, as always. The other Quidditch players took a step away from Sunwoo when they spotted him. “Why did you bring this creep here, Jeongin? Or did he curse you to invite him, so he can mess up our practice?” Lucas spat, causing Jeongin to give him a glare.

“What the hell is your problem, Lucas?” he replied, taking Sunwoo’s hand.

Sunwoo mentally slapped himself. He should’ve known that it was a mistake to come down to the field when the team was still there. He should’ve known that it was going to be like this.

“He’s my problem! He keeps getting my team members hurt. Especially you, Jeongin, in case you were too blind to notice it,” Lucas said, giving Sunwoo an even more disgusted glare than before.

“He didn’t even do anything!” Jeongin defended Sunwoo, causing the captain to scoff.

“Yeah, knock it off, Lucas,” Eric chimed in, much to Sunwoo’s surprise.

“Don’t you get it? Just him being here is enough to cause trouble. Just don’t ing bring him here again!” Lucas yelled looking around the team for confirmation.

“I bring whoever the hell I want!”

“Let’s just go, please...” Sunwoo said to Jeongin, tugging on his sleeve and avoiding everyone’s eyes.

Lucas was right. It was true that he was a walking unlucky charm and he didn’t want Jeongin to lose his position on the team because of him. He didn’t want to cause any more damage than he already had.

Jeongin looked like he had a lot more to say to Lucas but held back when Sunwoo squeezed his hand. He gave Lucas one last glare before turning around to head to the lockers with Sunwoo.

“ing creep!” they heard Lucas shout after them, just like last time.

When they arrived at the lockers, Jeongin quickly grabbed his things without letting go of his boyfriend’s hand and the two of them made their way back to the castle. Sunwoo didn’t say anything on the way back, but he looked down and lost in thought which wasn’t very surprising.

Jeongin also didn’t know what to say to him. Sunwoo always claimed that it was alright and that he was used to it but Jeongin could tell that their words still got to him. He just couldn’t believe these people. He couldn’t understand how they could be like that to Sunwoo. Or how they could be like that to anyone for that matter.

It was still raining hard, so their clothes were soaked, and their hair stuck to their foreheads by the time they arrived at the entrance hall. Sunwoo was about to climb up the great stairs to take his boyfriend to the hospital wing, but Jeongin, who was still holding his hand, held him back.

Sunwoo turned around to look at him in confusion. “What are you doing, the hospital wing is that way,” he stated but Jeongin just smiled up at him.

“I told you, I’m fine. It’s really just a bruise,” he said and pulled Sunwoo in for a hug instead.

“Are you sure?” he asked, wrapping his arms around Jeongin’s waist.

“Yes, I’m sure,” he laughed. “Plus, I’d rather have a date with you than with Madame Pomfrey.”

Sunwoo chuckled a bit at his boyfriend’s stupid joke and pulled away from their hug to take both of his hands and smiled down at him.

“You should do that more often,” Jeongin said.

Sunwoo frowned. “What, get you hurt and almost make you lose your position on the Quidditch team?” he asked, earning a slap on his arm from the younger.

“No, you idiot. I meant your smile. It’s so cute,” Jeongin said and gave Sunwoo a quick kiss on his reddening cheeks. “Don’t smile at anyone else like that though! I don’t want them to fall for you,” Jeongin pouted playfully.

“I’ll only smile for you then,” Sunwoo smiled and softly kissed the younger on the lips.

Afterwards, they headed to their respective common rooms to change out of their soaked clothes into their regular robes and made their way to the Room of Requirement for their little date. They came to a halt in front of the large door and Jeongin smiled widely, pushed it open, and led Sunwoo into the room. Sunwoo’s jaw dropped as he took in the surroundings slowly appearing around him.

Apparently, Jeongin had wished for the room to turn into a place that looked like the Stone Circle near the Owlery. The ground was covered in grass and a checkered picnic blanket was placed in the center of the circle. When they looked up at what would be the sky if they were outside, they saw the clear night sky covered in what seemed like a billion stars. The large rocks were decorated with colorful lights with fireflies gathered around them.

It was beautiful.

The two of them took a seat on the picnic blanket and wished for their favorite snacks to eat.

Jeongin wished for Chocolate frogs and Pumpkin juice, which was his favorite combination, and Sunwoo wished for four packages of pear juice, which he then told Jeongin was his absolute favorite beverage. After they had finished those, Jeongin put his snacks aside and lied down on his back, letting his head rest in Sunwoo’s lap and looking up at the magical night sky. Sunwoo smiled down at him for a second before also looking up.

They didn’t need to talk. Just being close to each other like that was enough for them.

“Sunwoo,” Jeongin softly spoke up after a few minutes of comfortable silence.

“Hm?” Sunwoo replied, without taking his eyes off the stars above.

“Are you really okay? Lucas said some really mean things earlier, but please don’t listen to him,” Jeongin said in a worried tone and took one of Sunwoo’s hands in his.

Sunwoo finally looked down at him again. “It’s okay. I’m used to it,” he replied but the younger didn’t seem convinced.

“I don’t believe you. You’re not okay. I know that it gets to you,” he stated.

His eyes started to look a bit watery as he looked up at his boyfriend.

Jeongin still didn’t know exactly what was going on with Sunwoo and why he was so secretive and mysterious. He was almost sure that there was something he didn’t tell him, but usually avoided talking about it.

What Jeongin did know was that it was something bad, and that it might be the reason why Sunwoo always tried to stay away from people. Whatever it was, Jeongin wanted to help him as best as he could.

Sunwoo remained silent for a moment as he let his free hand caress Jeongin’s cheek. “I’m used to people thinking I’m weird,” he stated, making his boyfriend frown.

“But why? I don’t think you’re weird, Hyunjin doesn’t think you’re weird, you’re just a normal student like everyone else in this castle. I just don’t understand... why do they think you’re weird? Why are they so scared of you?” Jeongin asked, looking up at Sunwoo, who tensed up a bit and paused again.

“That’s... very complicated, Jeongin...” he replied, avoiding Jeongin’s eyes.

“You know you can tell me anything, right?” Jeongin said after another pause, giving Sunwoo’s hand a light squeeze.

But... could he really?

Sunwoo wanted to trust him. He wanted to tell Jeongin everything, but he just couldn’t do it. What if Jeongin changed his mind about him when he found out? What if he pushed him away just like everyone else had?

Or even worse, what if it dragged him into even more danger?

Being close to Sunwoo was already dangerous enough for Jeongin.

Ever since the two of them had started dating, more and more unlucky things had started happening to Jeongin, even if it was just something as minor as him burning his tongue on his food or accidentally putting salt into his tea instead of sugar.

Jeongin got hurt way more often during Quidditch, earning a lot of bruises from it, he frequently lost things and couldn’t seem to find them, he got sick very quickly, and so on. And Sunwoo knew it was because of him, because Jeongin was close to him, because Sunwoo couldn’t stay away from him and because he was an unlucky charm.

There was no way he could tell Jeongin about it. No matter how much he wanted to get it off his chest. It was too dangerous for him.

And deep down, Sunwoo was scared of Jeongin fearing him, avoiding him, leaving him.

“I’m sorry, I-I can’t...” Sunwoo eventually said, a conflicted expression on his face. Jeongin, however, gave him a patient smile.

“Don’t apologize. It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me. I just want you to know that you can trust me. No matter what it is, it won’t change anything,” he reassured the older, whose hand was still resting on his cheek, his thumb gently caressing it.

Sunwoo didn’t say anything to that and instead just gave him a grateful smile. Jeongin was still holding onto Sunwoo’s other hand and closed his eyes as he relaxed in his position. He probably didn’t realize just how much these words meant to Sunwoo.

The couple stayed in the Room of Requirement for a while longer, until Jeongin almost fell asleep on Sunwoo’s lap and they decided to head back.

Jeongin claimed that he was too sleepy to walk, so Sunwoo carried him back to the Hufflepuff common room, ignoring his “I was just kidding!” before returning to his own dorm and going to bed.

~

“We’ve arrived,” the driver announced as the car came to a halt in front of Sunwoo’s family’s house.

Sunwoo looked outside the car window and sighed deeply. He could already feel the dark energy erupting from the building.

He exited the car and took his luggage out of the trunk before heading towards the house.

When he arrived at the front door, he took one last deep breath before pushing it open. The cold aura, that always seemed to be present in that house, hit Sunwoo as soon as he entered, and he wished he could just turn around and leave again.

His father was sitting at the table, leaning over some paperwork which was probably important ministry stuff, his mother sat across from him, reading the Daily Prophet and using her wand to do the dishes, cut vegetables and boil water at the same time, and his sister was nowhere to be seen, so she was probably in her room, busy or already asleep.

His father didn’t bother looking up from what he was working on to register Sunwoo properly, greet him or even just give him any sort of acknowledgement.

Meanwhile, his mother only gave him a quick glance and wordlessly shook her head before turning back to the Daily Prophet. However, he didn’t mind that. Not getting any attention from his parents was still better than the times when they did give him attention…

Sunwoo decided to get to his room quickly before his parents could change their minds and carried his luggage up the stairs. As soon as he reached his room, he let himself fall backwards onto his bed, sighing. He couldn’t wait for summer vacation to pass, because he knew that it was only going to get worse.

He was exhausted from the long train ride, the drive from the station to his house and from carrying his luggage upstairs all by himself, so he soon drifted off to sleep without unpacking his luggage or changing into something more comfortable.

-

As expected, the next few days went by painfully slowly. Sunwoo spent most of his time in his room, reading or doing nothing at all. At some point he was even bored enough to do his schoolwork, to the point where he had already finished all of it in the first week, leaving him with nothing else to do for the next couple of weeks.

He avoided going downstairs, because he was scared to face his parents. They would take any opportunity they could get to show him, how unwanted, how unloved, how repelling and how much of a burden he was to them. He didn’t even go downstairs to eat, since his mother would only cook food for themselves and his sister anyway.

He probably wouldn’t have eaten anything if it weren't for his sister Jiwoo sneaking food into his room every day.

She was the only one in his family who didn’t hate him or treat him like a piece of trash. She would always try to make his life in that house at least a little bit easier for him, even if their parents didn’t approve of her having anything to do with Sunwoo.

They were scared that he would hurt her and usually tried to keep her occupied with something to make sure she couldn’t spend much time with him.

Over past summer vacations, Sunwoo had made it a habit to sneak out of the house before his parents woke up and spend most of his time outside.

He made it past the cautious looks the neighbors in their street were giving him and went to a little secret spot he had found about a year ago, a quiet place from where he could see the whole town.

It was a little bit like a junkyard, full of abandoned furniture, old cars and more stuff like that. He usually spent multiple hours there, reading a book, playing the piano he had found there or studying.

One time, when he headed back after the sun had already set, he quietly opened the front door, hoping that his parents were already asleep, but, of course, he got unlucky.

His mother was in the kitchen, apparently talking to a friend she had invited over or something. Of course, they didn’t register him at all, but while Sunwoo hurried to his room, he couldn’t help but overhear them talk about him.

“Right, how is the situation with that cursed child going?” his mother’s friend asked, not bothering to keep her voice down, even though she knew Sunwoo was there.

His mother sighed in an annoyed manner. “Every day, I wish I would’ve drowned him as a baby. He’s bringing so much shame over our family. I can’t wait for the marriage, that’ll finally get him out of this house,” she said coldly, and her friend just nodded and hummed in agreement.

Sunwoo stopped in front of his room for a second when he heard that. He could faintly hear his mother add something but his mind was too cloudy to understand, and he quickly entered his room.

He leaned his back against the closed door and carelessly let his bag slide off his shoulder and fall to the ground next to him. He didn’t want to cry. He didn’t want to be weak. He didn’t want to let it get to him. But it did.

His mother’s cold voice kept ringing in his head and no matter how hard he tried to think about something else, he couldn’t.

Maybe she was right. Maybe it would’ve been better if he hadn’t been born at all. All he ever did was scare people, put them in danger, hurt them.

It was not his fault and it was so unfair, but there was nothing he could do about it.

There was no cure, no solution, no hope.

His family hated him, his neighbors avoided him and even his fellow students wanted nothing to do with him.

Sunwoo quickly wiped away the tear running down his face and went to bed, trying to quickly fall into a dreamless sleep.

~

Sunwoo woke up with a start, feeling breathless. He had thought he was used to the nightmares by now, but they had gotten a lot worse than usual ever since he and Jeongin had started dating.

Usually, his nightmares were surreal versions of memories of the harm he had caused people before he had started going to Hogwarts, but they’d never felt this real before.

He didn’t understand why he kept dreaming about last summer.

His body tensed up and his hands balled to fists at the memory.

Was it because of the conversation he’d had with Jeongin yesterday?

Was it simply a reminder that he wasn’t supposed to get close to anyone?

Or a reminder that he was dragging Jeongin into the danger that surrounded him?

Sunwoo didn’t know what he would do if Jeongin would really get hurt because of him.

Or even...

He quickly shook the thought out of his head and decided to get up. Hyunjin’s and his other dormmates’ beds were empty, probably meaning that they were at breakfast already.

Sunwoo decided to wash up and make his way to the Great Hall as well.

He didn’t feel hungry, but he wanted to see Jeongin.

When he arrived, he let his eyes scan the Slytherin table and quickly found his boyfriend sitting there by himself, having some toast.

Sunwoo felt himself ease up as soon as he saw him but hesitated before making his way over to him.

Deep down, he knew that someone like him would never deserve someone like Jeongin, that he was supposed keep his distance from Jeongin, but the way his entire day just brightened up whenever he saw him just made him too selfish to actually do so.

Sunwoo decided to finally walk over to the Slytherin table, giving Jeongin a smile before sitting down across from him.

“Good morning!” Jeongin said cheerfully and leaned over the table to give his boyfriend a kiss on the cheek.

“Good morning,” Sunwoo replied, about to reach for the glass of grape juice the younger had apparently already prepared for him, when he noticed a bandage on his left wrist.

“Is that a bandage? What happened?” Sunwoo asked, causing Jeongin to look down to the injury.

“Oh, that’s nothing. I just sprained my wrist a bit when I fell down the stairs this morning,” Jeongin explained, chuckling awkwardly and dismissing the subject with his healthy hand while attempting to hide the other one underneath the table.

Sunwoo’s eyes widened. “Y-you fell down the stairs!? Oh my god, are you okay?” he exclaimed in shock and carefully pushed back the sleeve of Jeongin’s robe to look for any other bruises.

All he found were the ones he had gotten from Quidditch practice, which didn’t worry him any less. He knew that it was his fault that Jeongin kept getting hurt and he felt horrible because of it.

Jeongin, however, simply chuckled at his boyfriend’s worried expression and took his hands.

“Don’t worry about it so much. I’m okay and it doesn’t even hurt that much anymore! I just need to be more careful from now on,” he said reassuringly but Sunwoo still seemed just as worried as before, looking down at their hands.

“I’m sorry, Jeongin... It’s all my fault...” he mumbled, slowly pulling his hands away from Jeongin’s.

Jeongin frowned in confusion.

“But that’s nonsense, you weren’t even...” he started but trailed off when Sunwoo rose from his seat.

“Sorry, Jeongin, I-I forgot my Charms book at the dorm. I’ll go get it before class starts... I’ll... see you later,” he apologized quickly, his heel, hurried past Hyunjin and Seungmin, who were just about to join them at the Slytherin table, and left the Great Hall before Jeongin could say anything else.

Hyunjin’s eyes followed Sunwoo for a moment before he looked at Jeongin, furrowing his eyes at the pouting Hufflepuff.

“What’s wrong, didn’t he just get here?” Hyunjin asked as him and Seungmin took a seat across from Jeongin.

“Yeah, we wanted to join you two, what happened?” Seungmin added.

“I really don’t know either... I just told him that I sprained my wrist this morning and he became really worried and apologized to me,” Jeongin explained, still pouting.

“He’s probably just worried about you. You’ve been getting hurt a lot recently,” Hyunjin figured and put some delicious-looking toast on Seungmin’s plate, earning a smile from the younger, before grabbing some pancakes for himself.

Jeongin sighed and directed a concerned look at the grape juice that Sunwoo hadn’t even touched.

“Yeah, but he keeps saying that it’s his fault, even when he had absolutely nothing to do with it. He gets so... careful with me whenever it happens. He won’t even touch my hands because he thinks he might hurt me if he does,” Jeongin explained before letting out another sigh. “I know there’s something he’s not telling me. Something important. And I need to know what it is so I can help him, but I also don’t want to pressure him…”

Seungmin thought about Jeongin’s words for a moment before giving him a reassuring smile. “Just give him some time. I’m sure he’ll tell you eventually if it’s really that important,” he concluded. Jeongin nodded and a small smile returned to his face.

“You’re probably right... I’ll do that,” he replied and finished his breakfast.

~

Jeongin decided not to think about it too much and made his way to his next class, which happened to be History of Magic with the Gryffindors.

Most of the seats were already taken by other students, either happily chatting or groaning about how boring this class was going to be, but luckily, Jeongin spotted an empty seat next to Daehwi.

The Hufflepuff smiled at the slightly older boy as he made his way over there and sat down next to him, sliding his bookbag off his shoulder.

“Daehwi, hi!” Jeongin chirped, unpacking his History of Magic book.

“H-hi Jeongin,” Daehwi replied, shifting awkwardly in his seat.

The two of them hadn’t really spent much time together lately, and the air between them was a bit awkward.

It was understandable. Daehwi probably didn’t know what to say to Jeongin. He had been turned down by him after all. And it was also partly Jeongin’s fault for not making an effort to approach his friend sooner, but he had wanted to give him some space first. He didn’t want to be all up in his face about him and Sunwoo being a thing.

Sunwoo...

Jeongin pouted a little bit when he remembered what had happened at breakfast just about half an hour ago.

He’d gotten so upset and distant when Jeongin had told him about his wrist and hurried to his class so quickly…

The Hufflepuff couldn’t help but worry about him. Was he really okay?

Jeongin sighed to himself, causing Daehwi to look at him. “What’s wrong, Jeongin?” he asked, making Jeongin snap out of his thoughts.

“Oh, it’s nothing, I just sprained my wrist this morning...”

“Really, why didn’t you heal yourself?” Daehwi asked, taking a closer look at Jeongin’s wrist.

“I tried, but lately I haven’t been able to heal myself properly. Last time I tried I got a rash on my legs...” Jeongin replied with a pout.

Daehwi thought for a second. “Then... why didn’t you just go to Madame Pomfrey?”

“I don’t want to risk it getting worse again... that rash was really annoying,” Jeongin explained before pausing and gnawing on his lower lip. “Plus... I don’t want Sunwoo to get worried. He always blames himself whenever I get hurt,” he added.

“Sunwoo, huh...” Daehwi started. “I’ve heard a lot of bad things about him, so I didn’t know what to think of you dating him but... he seems to make you really happy,” he concluded with a small smile.

Jeongin couldn’t help but feel relieved because of those words. At first, he had almost regretted bringing up Sunwoo in front of Daehwi because he hadn't known how the older would react, but he was really glad to hear him say that.

“Thanks, Daehwi... you’re one of the very few people in this castle who seem to think like that,” he said, returning his best friend’s smile.

It was true. Almost every student in Hogwarts disliked Sunwoo because of those stupid rumors some gossip-thirsty people tended to spread. Some of them were still telling Jeongin to stay away from Sunwoo because they “heard he’s a descendant of the Dark Lord” or asked him how he wasn't scared of him.

Once, a guy from his year had even said that dating Sunwoo made Jeongin just as creepy as him.

“Well, if you like him, he can’t be that bad,” Daehwi chuckled encouragingly, before Professor Binns entered the classroom through the wall and started his lesson.

~

After lunch, Jeongin decided to roam around in the dungeons in hopes of running into Sunwoo somewhere. He hadn’t seen him anywhere at lunch and wanted to make sure he was okay.

Luckily, he didn’t have to wait long before the older came down the stairs, probably on the way to his common room. Jeongin smiled to himself in excitement and approached his boyfriend.

“Jeongin,” Sunwoo said as soon as he spotted him. “I’m sorry about earlier, I didn’t mean to be like that. It’s just...” Sunwoo apologized quickly and looked like he wanted to add something but decided against it.

The younger would be a liar if he said he wasn’t curious, but he decided not to ask about it.

“It’s okay,” Jeongin smiled and stepped closer to his boyfriend to give him a hug, “I’m not mad at you.”

“You’re not?” the older replied in a confused tone, making Jeongin chuckle a bit.

“No, I actually wanted to ask you something,” Jeongin said, pulling away a bit to smile up at Sunwoo, who was now giving him a questioning look. “The thing is, my older brother is getting married and of course he invited me to come home for the ceremony this weekend. He also said to bring you along because he and my parents want to meet you!” Jeongin announced excitedly, his arms still wrapped around Sunwoo’s neck.

“T-They want to meet me? Jeongin, I don’t–”

Sunwoo didn’t get to finish his protest as Jeongin’s expression changed to that of a sad puppy asking for his favorite treat. Sunwoo hesitated, figuring someone like him probably shouldn’t attend a wedding, but at the same time he just couldn’t say no to Jeongin.

Especially not when he used his puppy eyes on him.

So, eventually, he sighed in defeat and agreed to be Jeongin’s date for the wedding, causing the younger to jump in excitement, before planting a kiss on his lips. Jeongin gave him some more details about the wedding and how they were going to get to his house and back.

“I actually have to go to my dorm room now... Professor McGonagall wants us to hand in an essay about Untransfigurations tomorrow,” Sunwoo sighed, reluctant to leave already.

Jeongin pouted and paused for a second before his smile returned. “Can I come with you?” he asked happily.

“To my dorm room?”

“Yes! I’ve never been inside the Slytherin common room before,” Jeongin explained.

The older seemed to think about it for a moment and then nodded, smiling.

“Alright, why not.”

~

“Wow, your dorm room is so nice!” Jeongin exclaimed, looking around the room in awe and taking in his surroundings.

“You think so?” Sunwoo smiled, set his bag down on his bed and took a seat as he watched his boyfriend excitedly explore his dorm room.

“Is this Hyunjin’s bed? Oh– it must be. There’s a picture of Seungmin and him on the nightstand. How cute!” he observed.

He looked around for a little longer before he sat down next to Sunwoo and checked out his nightstand as well. There was a stack of books, a nightlight and the Christmas card he had received from Jeongin the month before.

Jeongin smiled at him. “You still have this!” he said, making Sunwoo smile as well.

“Of course I still have it. It’s my first ever Christmas card after all” Sunwoo replied. “Plus... it’s from you,” he added, and a slight blush appeared on his cheeks.

Not long after, Sunwoo had started working on his Transfigurations assignment, his back resting against his pillowcase and sitting in a cross-legged position, while Jeongin had occupied himself by reading one of the many works from the pile of books on the Slytherin’s nightstand.

The two of them didn’t speak a word for several hours, but, as usual, it was a very comfortable and relaxing silence. They didn’t need to talk to enjoy each other’s presence.

Eventually, Sunwoo stretched and let his finally finished assignment slide into his bag. He then yawned and checked the time, realizing how long he had worked on it.

“It’s getting late, Jeongin, you should probably go to...” He interrupted himself when he looked at the younger, fast asleep with the book he was reading resting on his chest and his hands loosely holding onto it. Sunwoo smiled at the sight and sighed quietly, “...sleep.”

He looked around the room, noticing that his dormmates hadn’t returned yet, before carefully taking the book from Jeongin’s hands. The younger didn’t notice a thing. He couldn’t help but fondly smile to himself as he softly moved some of the black hair out of his boyfriend’s face and gently let his hand caress his cheek. He didn’t know how Jeongin still managed to look like an angel, even in the dim green lighting and cold atmosphere that was always lingering around the Slytherin common room.

Sunwoo took a moment to contemplate whether he should carry Jeongin to his own dorm but decided against it when he looked at his boyfriend sleeping so peacefully. He didn’t want to wake him.

Instead, he drew the dark green curtains of his bed, grabbed one of the spare blankets from his bedside drawer and covered Jeongin in it, before lying down next to him, looking at him for a few more seconds before pressing a soft kiss on his cheek and eventually drifting off to sleep.

~

“I don’t know what kind of spell that weirdo cast on Yang Jeongin, but now he’s just as weird as Kim Sunwoo himself.”

“Yeah, I can’t believe he’s still dating him. I thought it was a joke.”

“Hyunjin probably only added him to the Quidditch team because he knew the other players would be scared of him. That’s his winning strategy.”

“Wow, I can’t believe him.”

“Don’t be too loud. If he hears you, he might tell Sunwoo to push you down the stairs or something.”

“And I thought Jeongin was better than this...”

Jeongin tried not to listen or react to those students talking about him and Sunwoo as he walked past them on his way to the library the next day. These kinds of comments weren’t anything out of the ordinary, but he still had a hard time ignoring them.

He just wanted to tell them that Sunwoo really wasn’t like that, and that he had never cursed Jeongin or anything, but of course he knew that they wouldn’t believe him. Whenever he defended Sunwoo in front of them, they would say that ‘it’s the curse talking’, so he had given up on trying to reason with them.

He didn’t actually care what they said about him. He didn’t really know them anyway. He just wished they would stop making up and spreading those stupid rumors about Sunwoo when they had probably never exchanged a single word with him before.

Just thinking about it brought a frown to Jeongin’s face as he hugged his bookbag closer to his chest. They didn’t know how sweet, caring and adorable Sunwoo actually was. They had never even given him a chance to show that, and Jeongin just couldn’t understand why they were like that.

“I’m telling you, sooner or later, Jeongin is going to get really hurt because of him. But at least then I’ll get to say ‘I told you so’–”

“You wanna say that to my ing face, you cowards? You better skedaddle before you get very hurt because of me,” Felix suddenly said, walking up to the gossiping students, threateningly lifting the book he was holding.

Jeongin hadn’t even heard him coming, but his words seemed to work. The students scoffed at him but scattered anyway after Felix gave them a few more glares. He then sighed and turned to look at Jeongin.

“Thank you, Felix. I didn’t even realize you were here,” Jeongin told him and Felix waved off, giving him a bright smile.

“I couldn’t just stand there and listen to them talk trash about you,” he replied. The younger smiled in return.

“But... are you okay? Why didn’t you say anything to them?” Felix asked, matching his walking speed with Jeongin’s whose smile faded a bit.

“Well... no matter what I say to them, they never really listen anyway, so I try to just ignore them,” he explained. “They don’t know what they’re talking about anyway.”

Felix nodded. “Yeah, the gossip is crazy around this castle. These people will just latch onto anything they can talk about. I never understood what their problem with Sunwoo is though. I don’t know him that well, but he seems like a pretty cool guy to me,” he said with a shrug.

Jeongin smiled at him. “You really think so?” he asked, earning a nod from Felix.

“Yeah! He totally beat my in a Quidditch game a while ago. He’s really talented,” he confirmed, making the younger smile even more.

The two of them soon arrived at the library and had to part ways there to sort their respective books back into the shelves.

“Cheer up. And don’t listen to those ers,” Felix whispered to him encouragingly.

“Thanks again, Felix!” Jeongin replied, already feeling much better than before.

After returning to his dorm only about half an hour later, Jeongin started packing his clothes for the weekend, feeling a rush of excitement. He couldn’t wait to see his family again, celebrate his brother’s wedding and, more than anything, spend a lot of time with Sunwoo. He also felt a bit nervous about introducing his boyfriend to his parents, but there was no doubt in his mind that they would love him.

The thought brought a giddy smile to his face and he couldn’t contain a little squeal. The weekend just couldn’t come soon enough.

~

Sunwoo took a deep breath and felt a rush of nervousness overcome him as the two students approached the front door of Jeongin’s house. They’d finally arrived after a few hours of traveling there, but Sunwoo still couldn’t relax, even after hearing Jeongin reassure him more than 10 times already. He just couldn’t help but picture all the bad things that could happen.

What if Jeongin’s parents ended up hating him?

What if they didn’t approve of Jeongin dating somebody like him?

What if something happened and somebody got hurt?

He wasn’t exactly the lucky when it came to... well, absolutely anything actually. What if they didn’t even want to let him stay in their house?

The younger seemed to notice the worry evident on his boyfriend’s face and turned around to grab his hand. “Don’t worry so much, Sunwoo. I told you, they’re going to love you!” he reassured him, as if he had read Sunwoo’s mind.

Another thing that the Slytherin found so endearing about him. How did he always have just the right words to say?

“Are you sure? What if they don’t...” he replied, causing Jeongin to take his hand, looking up at him.

“Just trust me,” Jeongin insisted, pulling Sunwoo, who gave him a desperate pout, towards the front door of his home. He trusted Jeongin, but he didn’t trust himself.

Jeongin gave Sunwoo’s hand one last reassuring squeeze before unlocking the door. The two of them took off their shoes and Jeongin led Sunwoo to the living room, where they were met by his mother who was in the middle of taking off some dirt-stained gardening gloves. She looked up and her face lit up immediately when she saw the two boys standing there.

“You’re here already! We didn’t expect you for another hour!” she smiled, making her way around the table before hugging her son warmly. Sunwoo just stood there awkwardly, not really sure what to say or do in that kind of situation.

Jeongin and his mother hugged for a few seconds until she let go of him again, turning to Sunwoo, the bright smile, which resembled Jeongin’s smile a lot, still lingering on her face.

“You must be Sunwoo,” she figured and hugged him next. Sunwoo was surprised, to say the least, but did his best to act natural about it. “It is so nice to finally meet the boy our Jeongin keeps going on and on about,” she said cheerfully.

Jeongin turned deep red, laughed awkwardly and quickly changed the subject to prevent her from making any more embarrassing comments. “Where’s dad?” he asked.

“He’s in the kitchen, preparing lunch. It’ll probably take a while, since we didn’t expect you to be here yet,” she replied. “Why don’t you two unpack your bags and wait in your room upstairs? You could show Sunwoo around the house. I’m sure the food will be ready by then,” she suggested, earning a nod from her son.

“Great. You can make yourself at home, Sunwoo. If you two need anything, I’ll be in the garden,” she smiled, put her gloves back on and returned outside.

Jeongin’s house was completely different from Sunwoo’s. There were many plants, pretty decorations and a lot of windows in every room, causing the entire house to be very well lit. The atmosphere just seemed very warm and comfortable overall, with a lot of pictures of Jeongin and his brothers all over the place.

After finishing the brief tour around his house, Jeongin took Sunwoo upstairs to his room.

Sunwoo smiled when he entered it. It looked just the way he had expected it to look. Just like the rest of the house, Jeongin’s room was very well lit, the walls were painted in a warm tone of yellow and the floor was covered in a soft dark brown carpet. There was a tall wooden closet, a desk, a bed and a small bedside table with many pictures on it. His bed filled up most of the room and was covered in countless stuffed animals.

It was comfortable, full of life and pretty – just like Jeongin.

The two of them unpacked their bags before sitting down on Jeongin’s bed. They hadn’t noticed how exhausted they were from traveling to Jeongin’s place and then walking through the entire house, until they actually got some rest.

“Your room is really nice,” Sunwoo commented.

“Thanks! I really like it too,” the younger replied, letting himself fall backwards on the bed. Sunwoo followed his movement and looked at him. Jeongin smiled. “See? I told you it was going to be fine,” he said after a few seconds.

Sunwoo smiled back at him and nodded. He still couldn’t relax completely just yet. They still had the entire weekend ahead of them and Sunwoo still had a lot of opportunities to accidentally mess something up. But he didn’t say that to Jeongin, not wanting to ruin the mood.

Instead, Sunwoo wordlessly reached over to Jeongin, softly running a hand through his hair. It still fascinated him how he only ever felt warmth when he touched Jeongin. It was a feeling he just couldn’t get used to. Jeongin closed his eyes and leaned into Sunwoo’s touch, still smiling.

They stayed like this for a bit until they heard a knock on the door, causing the two of them to sit back up.

“Come in,” Jeongin said and his older brother opened the door just wide enough to peek inside.

“Dad says the food is ready,” he told Jeongin, earning a nod from him before looking at Sunwoo. “You must be Sunwoo. I’m Jeongin’s brother Jeongmin,” he grinned and wiggled his eyebrows at Jeongin before leaving the room.

“Don’t mind him, he’s always like that,” Jeongin chuckled and jumped to his feet before pulling Sunwoo up as well. The two of them headed downstairs and sat down at the large table in the living room. Jeongin’s dad soon came in with the lasagna in his hands. Sunwoo’s eyes lit up at the sight. Jeongin noticed his reaction and smiled knowingly.

“Jeongin told us what your favorite meal is, and we decided to surprise you with that, since you’re practically part of the family now,” Mr. Yang explained with a smile.

Sunwoo couldn’t help but return the smile. He couldn’t believe how sweet they were to him and had to fight back a tear.

“Wow, I don’t know what to say... thank you,” he replied shyly, but Jeongin’s dad just waved off. The whole family soon started eating and chatting about casual things. Sunwoo didn’t say much, but he enjoyed listening to their conversation. He had almost finished his lasagna when Jeongin’s mom turned to him.

“So, Sunwoo... what do your parents do for a living? They’re wizards, right?” Mrs. Yang questioned, before taking a sip of her drink. Jeongin noticed Sunwoo tense a little at the mention of his parents. He hadn’t expected them to ask about that so suddenly.

Sunwoo felt the younger take his hand underneath the table and cleared his throat before answering: “Um, yes... they work at the Ministry of Magic.” Jeongin’s mother made a noise of delight.

“Oh, just like us! Which department do they work in?” she asked, intrigued.

“I believe it’s the Department of International Magical Cooperation,” Sunwoo answered. Jeongin hadn’t expected his parents to react like they did; their eyes slightly widened in realization.

“You’re the Kim’s son...” Mr. Yang stated, causing Jeongin to furrow his eyebrows at his tone.

“Do you know them?” he asked his father.

“You could say that. We work with them from time to time. They’ve never mentioned a son, though. They only ever talk about their daughter,” Mrs. Yang explained.

Sunwoo lowered his head. “My parents aren’t too fond of me, I’m afraid,” he explained, subconsciously squeezing Jeongin’s hand.

Jeongin’s parents seemed to sense that Sunwoo was uncomfortable talking about his parents and quickly changed the subject. They asked Sunwoo about his hobbies and his favorite school subject, to which Sunwoo replied that he really loved to read and that his favorite subject was Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Mr. Yang’s face lit up as he remembered how Defense Against the Dark Arts used to be his favorite subject as well and happily told a story about how he accidentally set his classmate’s robes on fire once, making the six people at the table laugh. Jeongmin almost choked on his lasagna from laughing when Sunwoo jokingly gasped, saying that the exact same happened to him too.

Jeongin was glad that his parents really seemed to like Sunwoo and couldn’t stop smiling as he watched them get to know him. Mr. Yang shared some more funny stories about his time in Hogwarts, creating a bright and comfortable atmosphere.

“So,” Mrs. Yang eventually spoke up after everyone had finished their meal, “let’s go over the plan for tomorrow, shall we?” she said, turning to her husband.

“Sure, honey. We get up at 9 am tomorrow, have some delicious breakfast before we get ready to head to the venue by eleven. And then, after the ceremony, we come back here for the reception,” he explained, earning nods from the others.

After that, Mrs. Yang assigned everyone to do some tasks around the house. She told her husband to pick up some supplies from the store, while Jeongmin and Jeongshin decorated the living room some more and Jeongin did the dishes.

The young Hufflepuff did as he was told and started carrying the glasses and plates back to the kitchen, closely followed by Sunwoo who didn’t really know what else to do.

“I’ll help you,” Sunwoo

announced, taking some of the plates from Jeongin's arms. "Thank you,” the younger smiled and told Sunwoo to bring the dishes to the kitchen while Jeongin already started to wash them.

It didn’t take them long to finish doing so and all they had to do was to put the freshly cleaned plates back in the drawer. Sunwoo was just about to hand Jeongin the last stack of plates when they slipped from his hands and fell to the floor, shattering to pieces.

Jeongin gasped and Sunwoo clasped his hands over his mouth in shock as Mr. and Mrs. Yang already hurried into the kitchen. They must’ve heard the plates breaking.

“Are you two okay? Did anyone get hurt?” Mr. Yang asked, the bag of supplies from the store still in his hands.

“I-I’m so sorry, it’s my fault... I didn’t mean to drop these,” Sunwoo replied, looking down to his feet.

“Oh no, Sunwoo, it’s okay! Those were horrible plates,” Mrs. Yang reassured him, ignoring her husband whispering, “but this was your favorite set of china…”

“The important thing is that nobody got hurt. You two can head upstairs for now while we repair those plates and clean up the mess. Watch out for the shards!” she added and urged them out of the kitchen.

Sunwoo sighed deeply as soon as they closed the door to Jeongin’s room behind them. “I did it again...” he said quietly, his eyes glued to the floor.

“It’s not your fault, Sunwoo. It was an accident! Plus, my parents have probably already repaired the plates with magic, so everything is fine,” Jeongin replied, taking one of his boyfriend’s hands.

Sunwoo appreciated the fact that Jeongin and his family were so understanding about everything, but he still couldn’t shake the bad feeling in his chest.

If only he could tell Jeongin about the real reason why these things kept happening to him.

He knew that he could trust Jeongin and wanted to be honest with him.

So maybe... should he tell him?

Sunwoo considered it for a second but soon chased the thought out of his head.

No, he couldn’t tell Jeongin. He couldn’t.

It was already dangerous enough for Jeongin without knowing about it. And besides, it wasn’t like the younger could do anything about the issue, even if he knew. Nobody knew what would happen if Sunwoo dragged Jeongin into this.

Yes, it’s better if he doesn’t know, Sunwoo concluded.

“You’re right,” he finally told Jeongin, pressing a quick kiss to his forehead.

“Of course I am!” Jeongin laughed and took a seat on his bed before motioning for Sunwoo to do the same. The Slytherin gave him a small smile and took a seat next to him.

The two of them listened to music and talked for hours, both of them losing track of time. They talked about school, the wedding and their friends, wondering what was going on in Hogwarts. Jeongin even introduced Sunwoo to all of his plushies and Sunwoo told Jeongin about the book he was currently reading.

In the evening, Mr. Yang brought them some snacks to enjoy before they changed into their pajamas and they eventually fell asleep.

~

Sunwoo climbed up the stairs, leaving the dungeons to head to breakfast.

The castle seemed unusually cold today, and there was no other soul to be seen. He thought it was weird, it was time for breakfast and the hallways would’ve usually been full of other students, but there was nobody there. The silence was almost eerie.

The only thing Sunwoo could hear were his own footsteps, his breath and his pulse, ringing in his mind.

He finally reached the Entrance Hall and stopped in front of the large, heavy door leading to the Great Hall. As soon as he stepped closer to the door, he could hear voices coming from the inside, but it didn’t sound like the usual playful chatter. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, despite the loudness of their voices. It sounded like war, like people were screaming, standing on the tables and waving around torches, as if everyone had gone insane.

A weird contrast to the numbing silence from a few seconds ago.

Sunwoo didn’t want to go inside. He was scared.

He didn’t want to hear what they said. He didn’t want to know why they were so angry. He didn’t want to confront them. He wanted to turn back, run away and hide in his dorm.

But, for some reason, he started leaning against the door anyway, as if his body had decided not to listen to his mind, as if he had lost control.

The door felt twice as heavy as usual and Sunwoo had to use all of his might to push it open, the screams getting louder and louder with every inch.

The screaming stopped abruptly as soon as he had managed to enter the Great Hall.

It was full of people, probably thousands, but everyone had quieted down and stopped in their tracks, staring at Sunwoo wordlessly. They still looked like Hogwarts students, dressed in their robes and color-coordinated ties. They didn’t say a thing, and their faces were hidden behind black masks with no facial features.

Sunwoo wanted to back away and leave, but he didn’t.

The masked students started coming closer and closer, until one of them emerged from the crowd.

He wore a white mask, but that wasn’t the only reason why he looked different from the others.

He seemed taller, scarier, angrier.

Sunwoo wanted to turn around and escape, but his feet just wouldn’t move.

“You disgust me,” the student with the white mask spoke up, breaking the silence. The other students nodded, and Sunwoo could feel their stares, even though he couldn’t see their eyes.

“You’re an abomination. Nobody wants you here,” the student continued, earning even more nods from the others.

Sunwoo recognized his voice. He couldn’t see his face, but he knew the condescending tone in his voice. He was pretty sure it was Lucas.

The yellow Hufflepuff tie only confirmed it.

“All you do is annoy everyone. Bother everyone. Hurt everyone. You don’t belong here. You should be put in a cage,” he added, spitting the last word. He came closer and closer to Sunwoo, who was still unable to move. “You know it too, don’t you? You know that you don’t deserve him.”

Sunwoo wanted to scream, tell him that he was wrong, tell him that he didn’t know anything, but he just couldn’t.

“You know that Jeongin is better off without you. He deserves better than you. You’re the one lying to him. You’re the one hurting him. You’re the one putting him in danger. He hates you, but he’s too nice to tell you,” he continued, now standing right in front of Sunwoo, his faceless mask mocking him and his fear.

“Did you actually think he loved you?” Lucas asked so quietly, it was almost a whisper.

His cold laughter echoed through the large room.

“He could never love you. You’re nothing . You couldn’t even tell him the truth, could you? You couldn’t even tell him that you’re dangerous and that people like you should stay away from people like him.”

Lucas suddenly pushed Sunwoo with a lot of force, causing him to stumble backwards. The students around them cheered him on, repeating his harsh words over and over and telling him to keep pushing him.

“He doesn’t love you. He hates you.”

Lucas pushed him again.

“He doesn’t like you. He hates you.”

Again.

“Jeongin only puts up with you because he pities you.”

Again.

Sunwoo stumbled backwards against the door as the crowd of students cheered Lucas on even more, hungry for more violence.

“He hates you!” Lucas yelled.

“That’s not true!” Sunwoo finally yelled in response, pushing Lucas back and causing him to fall backwards, hitting his head on one of the tables. The crowd of students fell silent again. For a few seconds Sunwoo just stood there, shaking as he waited for the masked student to get back up.

He didn’t.

Sunwoo didn’t know what to do and stared down at the student, frozen in his spot. Then, suddenly, the white mask vanished, revealing the student’s face.

But it wasn’t Lucas anymore.

“J-Jeongin?” Sunwoo realized as he looked at his face, recognizing his soft features.

Sunwoo stumbled over to the boy, falling to his knees and trying to help him up, but it was useless. Jeongin looked up at him, an unreadable expression on his face as Sunwoo desperately tried to help him somehow. He yelled at the students surrounding them, telling them to help him, to help Jeongin, but they just stood there, wordlessly staring down at the two of them.

Sunwoo stared at his hands, realizing that they were stained in the blood stemming from the back of Jeongin’s head. A pain spread throughout his entire body and he was shaking in guilt and helplessness.

“Why...” Jeongin said in a weak voice, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Sunwoo cried, desperately trying to lift Jeongin’s body up to take him somewhere, anywhere to get someone to help him, but it was no use. It was like all the strength had left his body, like he couldn’t even lift his own arm, no matter how hard he tried.

“I trusted you, but all you did was hurt me...” Jeongin replied, his voice getting weaker and weaker by the second.

“Jeongin, no! Please... I’m sorry! I-I didn’t want this to happen!” Sunwoo sobbed uncontrollably, trying to cover Jeongin’s wound with his hands, but it only seemed to make it worse. The pool of blood around them only expanded further, reaching the other students’ shoes, but they didn’t bother moving away.

“Why did you do this to me, Sunwoo...” Jeongin asked weakly, his face and his lips losing their usually healthy and bright color and his body showing no signs of his usual warmth.

“Jeongin, please...” Sunwoo whispered, his face stained with tears and his robes half-soaked in Jeongin’s blood.

“You lied to me, Sunwoo... You lied to me... You... monster...” Jeongin said slowly before his eyes went glassy and lifeless.

Sunwoo cried out for help, but nobody moved. All he heard was his own cried echoing back to him and all he felt was Jeongin’s cold and lifeless body in his arms.

~

Sunwoo woke up with a scream, his body feeling sweaty and tense and his eyes wet with tears. Jeongin was sitting next to him, already awake and giving him a very worried look. He had tried to shake the older awake after noticing that he was having a nightmare that seemed pretty intense.

Sunwoo tried to calm his heavy breathing, but just couldn’t seem to stop sobbing, both because the images from his nightmare were still fresh in his mind, but also because he was so relieved to see that it wasn’t real, that Jeongin was okay and right next to him.

The younger tried to ask him what happened, but his boyfriend was way too shaken up to speak, so he just hugged him in an attempt to calm him down. Sunwoo had had nightmares every night ever since he was a little kid, but he’d never had one this bad.

No nightmare had ever felt this real before either.

Sunwoo struggled against Jeongin’s embrace at first, the traumatizing dream reminding him that he shouldn’t be close to him, but the younger didn’t let go of him. It took Jeongin a good twenty minutes to calm Sunwoo down enough to be able to speak.

He carefully let go of Sunwoo, who looked down to his hands, avoiding Jeongin’s eyes until the younger took them in his to make Sunwoo look at him.

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on, Sunwoo?” he asked carefully.

“Why didn’t you tell me? You lied to me, Sunwoo...”

The words still rang in his head. Sunwoo had kept this secret from Jeongin for so long. He had wanted to protect him from it, but what if that only made it more dangerous for him?

He had wanted to tell Jeongin since the beginning, but he was so scared that Jeongin would be scared of him.

That he would push him away.

Sunwoo started to think that that had been the wrong choice all along. Keeping secrets from Jeongin would only drive them apart.

Deep down he had always known that he had to tell Jeongin eventually, but he had just never found the courage to do it.

But after that nightmare, Sunwoo knew he had to tell Jeongin the truth. It was what he should have done from the very beginning. He had been so selfish this entire time. He needed to be honest with him, even if it meant that Jeongin would want to stay away from him.

At least he would be safe then.

Jeongin put his hands on Sunwoo’s cheeks and kissed his forehead reassuringly.

“It’s okay. You can tell me anything, no matter how bad it is,” he said quietly, giving one of his hands a squeeze of encouragement. Sunwoo looked down to their hands and took a deep breath, gathering his words.

“The truth is... um...” he started, unsure how to put it. “Ever since I was born, I’ve been really unlucky. And by that, I mean really unlucky. Really bad things happened to me, my family and the people around me. It happened so often that my parents realized that it couldn’t be normal anymore. They took me to many different witches and wizards to find out what was wrong with me and they found out... that I was cursed,” Sunwoo explained.

Jeongin didn’t say anything and just listened patiently, his expression growing more and more worried by the second. Sunwoo was too scared to look him in the eyes and kept his eyes locked to their hands as he continued.

“It’s a very rare curse that runs in my family, but it only happens every 500 years and it’s been running in my family for centuries. It causes me to attract dark magic and it brings misfortune to me and the people around me, especially the ones I love. It could be something harmless like me being clumsy and breaking something, but it can also cause serious accidents to happen. I can’t control it... but it’s the reason why my family hates me so much,” he said, wiping away a tear forming in his eyes. “I... didn’t mean to hurt them but it just kept happening and there was nothing I could do about it...”

He paused for a bit before continuing. He needed to tell Jeongin everything. “That’s not all. It also affects me physically. It’s the reason why my skin feels ice-cold to others, my heartbeat is a bit slower than normal and I’m stronger than regular people. When I get hurt, it’s very hard to heal me, because good magic doesn’t work well on me. I got hurt really badly as a child a couple of times and even some of the most powerful healers needed a couple of hours to heal me fully. Even Madame Pomfrey. That’s why I was so shocked when you healed that cut on my arm in just a few seconds... And lastly, as you know, I can’t feel temperatures... or at least I couldn’t until you hugged me by the lake back in December... I felt your warmth back then. But that only happens with you...”

There was a pause. The older kept his eyes shut tightly, too scared of Jeongin’s reaction to open them. Then he felt the younger scoot closer to hug him tightly. Sunwoo hesitantly opened his eyes and let his arms find their way around Jeongin, hugging him back and pulling him closer.

“Sunwoo... I-I don’t even know what to say...” Jeongin said between quiet sobs, burying his face in the crook of Sunwoo’s neck as they hugged.

“You don’t have to say anything...” the older replied, fighting back his own tears.

“Do you get it now? This is why I hate seeing you get hurt, Jeongin. Because I know that it’s because of me and my stupid curse. I can’t control it and I’m putting you in danger just by being close to you... by liking you. I’m the one hurting you,” Sunwoo said and pulled away from Jeongin, causing the younger to look up at him with teary eyes.

“I understand if you don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t deserve you and you don’t deserve to get hurt because of me,” he added.

Jeongin cupped his face with his hands. “I’ll never leave you, Sunwoo. Don’t ever say that again...” he spoke, his eyes still looking watery.

Sunwoo looked down to his lap. “But it’s so dangerous... Don’t you understand? A curse like that is not to be messed around with. I already hurt you so many times I... I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“It’s not your fault, it never was. I’m not scared of some curse. I like you and I don’t ever want to lose you, alright? I’ll find a way to break that curse somehow. I promise,” he said, some more tears escaping his eyes.

“But–” Sunwoo wanted to protest more but Jeongin interrupted him by kissing him on the lips.

“See, nothing happened,” the younger said, smiling after pulling away. Sunwoo showed a small smile before reconnecting their lips for a little longer this time.

“You’re crazy,” he replied before wiping the tears from Jeongin’s eyes. “And don’t cry. An angel like you shouldn’t cry, especially not because of someone like me,” he added and the younger blushed deeply at his words, leaning in for another hug to hide his face in the crook of Sunwoo’s neck again.

Jeongin probably didn’t realize how relieved and happy Sunwoo was that he didn’t push him away. He was so incredibly lucky to have met someone like Jeongin. Now that he had finally told Jeongin about the curse, he felt like he could finally breathe again. Having Jeongin in his arms made him feel like he could somehow be okay again.

They stayed like that for a while until Jeongin pulled away again, wiped Sunwoo’s remaining tears and lay back down, pulling his blanket back over his shoulders.

“So, where do we start looking? There must be some way to cure you somehow,” he said, watching Sunwoo lie down next to him and facing him.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy... I’ve secretly been trying to break it ever since I was old enough to understand it, but obviously I haven’t found a cure yet. I even sneaked into the restricted area of the library in Hogwarts, but I couldn’t find much information about my kind of curse. I don’t know where to look anymore,” Sunwoo replied, his gaze directed at the ceiling of Jeongin’s room in thought.

“That’s okay, we’ll find it. Together,” the younger said, causing Sunwoo to smile at him.

He couldn’t think of anything to say. He didn’t think he could put into words how grateful he was for Jeongin. His kind and understanding nature, his smile, his warmth, the sparkle in his eyes and the fact that he was next to him...

Sunwoo could never put into words how thankful he was for all of that.

Before Jeongin could say anything else, Sunwoo had already drifted off to sleep. The younger smiled fondly and reached out to softly let his hand caress his cold cheek. He glanced at the clock just above his door, realizing that it was past 3 in the morning already. No wonder he felt so tired, especially after waking up in the middle of the night.

“I’ll find a cure for you. I don’t know how yet, but I promise I will find it somehow...” he whispered to him and looked at him for a few more seconds before his own eyelids became heavier and heavier as he fell asleep.

~

After watching his luggage get stored away by one of the train conductors, 11-year-old Sunwoo anxiously entered the Hogwarts Express for the first time. He had arrived very early, so it wasn’t hard for him to find an empty compartment. They wouldn’t depart for another 30 minutes, after all.

He had, of course, come alone, so there wasn’t anyone to say goodbye to either. He took a seat by the window and decided to look outside the window to occupy himself with something, anything, until he would finally be on his way to Hogwarts. Away from his ‘home’ for the first time in his life.

The young boy watched as more and more people came through the magical wall and filled the platform, breaking the silence. Students, their siblings and their parents watching the conductors load their luggage on board, before hugging each other goodbye and reuniting with their friends.

Parents shouting after their children, telling them to write, to go safely, to take care.

Sunwoo found himself wondering what it was like to have somebody like that. Somebody who would tell you they’ll miss you when you go far away. Somebody who would hug you goodbye and tell you to go safely.

Would he be able to find somebody like that?

Would he be able to start over and forget about the past, at least for a year?

“Excuse me, are these seats still free? The other compartments so far were full or reserved...” a voice spoke up, ripping Sunwoo out of his thoughts. It belonged to a young boy his age, probably also a first year, and he even had about four other students behind him, waiting for permission to come in.

“O-oh hey, hi! Sure, y-you can sit here, it’s just me in here,” young Sunwoo replied.

“Awesome, thanks,” the boy smiled, signaling the others to come in, before they all took their respective seats. Sunwoo felt his heartbeat pick up out of nervousness. He wasn’t sure what to do or say since he didn’t remember the last time, he met someone new who hadn’t already ‘heard about him’ and didn’t look at him with a disgusted expression on their face.

Instead, this group of people actually seemed to like him. Once the train had departed soon after they had joined him in that compartment, they chatted happily, asked each other some casual questions and shared their snacks with him. They didn’t exclude him and treated him like everybody else.

Some of them even got sorted into Slytherin, just like Sunwoo did (as expected, his entire ancestry consisted of Slytherins after all) and befriended him, spent time with him.

It was like a dream Sunwoo never wanted to wake up from. He had made friends and Hogwarts was much more fun that he had expected. His wish to start over had come true... or so he thought.

One day, in potions class, Sunwoo and one of his friends had to team up to brew a Hiccoughing Potion together. Sunwoo was responsible for adding the ingredients and stirring the potion for the correct amount of time, while his teammate weighed and cut those ingredients. Everything was going just as planned, until Sunwoo was about to reach for the next ingredient to add, when he accidentally knocked over the cauldron, causing the hot liquid to spill all over their table and his teammates hands.

“I’m so sorry, are you–” Sunwoo started and tried to help his friend, whose hands were already covered in red marks getting worse and worse by the second, but the boy quickly scooted away from him with a terrified expression on his face.

“Oh my god, Sunwoo! Did you do that on purpose?!” he asked, his hands shaking before two other students rushed to help him as he winced in pain.

“No, of course not! It was an–”

“He knocked over the cauldron on purpose, I saw it!” another student interrupted him.

“I can’t believe you did that, Sunwoo. What did I ever do to you?” the injured student cried as the two other students took him to the Hospital Wing.

“That’s not what happened, I–”

“What the hell, man? I thought you guys were friends?”

“He’s absolutely crazy.”

“I can’t believe we have a dangerous person like this in our class...”

The other students were only giving Sunwoo disturbed looks. Some of them even backed away from him, looking so scared, as if he were about to pull out a flamethrower and attack all of them.

It had happened again. Just like last time.

Sunwoo panicked. Nobody listened to him and everyone was convinced that he had hurt his friend on purpose.

So, he ran away. Luckily, the Slytherin common room was in the dungeons, just like the Potions classroom, so he managed to get there without getting lost. He didn’t know what else to do. Tears were running down his face and he knew he was going to get into even more trouble for running out of the classroom in the middle of a lesson.

The next few weeks were tough. And it didn’t seem to get any better, no matter how much time passed.

Sunwoo had tried to apologize to the student he’d injured or explain to him that he didn’t mean for it to happen, but the guy called Madame Pomfrey immediately to get him out of there, so he didn’t really get to say anything. He also got detention for ‘skipping class’ and had to help the janitor clean the entire castle while listening to the portraits curse him out or tell him stories about how to injure more people, deeply disturbing the boy as he dusted off their frames.

Soon, the entire castle had heard about the incident and the other students avoided him or glared at him whenever they saw him, calling him weird and dangerous. They sat away from him during meals in the Great Hall, calling him a waste of space.

Someone even spilled a hot beverage over his hands once while he was eating to “show him what it’s like,” earning the guy some high fives and laughs from his friends.

Sunwoo didn’t feel temperatures, so it didn’t hurt as much as it would have if he was normal, but the burn was still annoying and took a very long time to heal since he didn’t want to risk showing up at the Hospital Wing again.

Some of the friends he had made on the train had been on his side for a short while, but after the other students had started to avoid them too, they figured that it would be better for their reputation to ditch Sunwoo.

He was alone, lost and misunderstood. And nobody wanted to hear him out.

Sunwoo didn’t want to make even more of a fool of himself by walking around the castle crying, he always hid away in his dorm whenever he didn’t have to go to class or help the janitor. He was thankful for the curtains every bed in the dorm had since they made his bed a perfect hiding spot. The only place where he didn’t have to worry about anyone else watching him break down and cry silently.

“Hey man...” a voice said quietly one evening when Sunwoo was lying awake as usual. Sunwoo didn’t know who the voice belonged to and he couldn’t see past his curtains. “I wanted to tell you something. Can I move this aside for a bit?” the guy whispered, tugging on the curtains.

Young Sunwoo wasn’t sure what to reply since he didn’t even know who was asking, so he just said nothing. He didn’t know who to trust anymore.

“It’s nothing bad, I promise,” the voice on the other side of the curtains added. Sunwoo thought about it for a few seconds before he got too curious.

“Okay, s-sure,” he whispered back.

The curtain was pulled aside and one of Sunwoo’s dormmates took a seat across from Sunwoo.

Sunwoo recognized him. He was one of the most popular boys in his year. The type of guy pretty much everyone wanted to be friends with. Sunwoo had seen him around, but he didn’t remember his name. They had never talked to each other before, after all.

“I just wanted to tell you not to let the rumors get to you too much. I don’t believe you knocked over that cauldron on purpose. People in this castle are just too hungry for drama,” the boy said, giving Sunwoo a genuine smile. He couldn’t believe his ears.

Someone who actually believed him and even made an effort to tell him that?

“Th-thank you for believing me... it really was an accident,” Sunwoo said and a tear escaped his eye. He didn’t even really know why he was crying. He was just so relieved that he wasn’t completely alone.

The other boy seemed to notice that Sunwoo was crying, causing his smile to change into a sympathetic expression.

“Do you need a hug?” he asked, chuckling quietly.

Yes, he did, but Sunwoo was too embarrassed to actually say it so he just looked down to his lap as a few more tears rolled down his cheeks. The other seemed to take the hint and scooted closer to hug Sunwoo.

Words couldn’t even describe how thankful Sunwoo was, especially when that boy waited until Sunwoo pulled away.

“Better?” the boy smiled after Sunwoo had calmed down a bit. He nodded in response. “Your name is Sunwoo, right? I’m Hyunjin,” the boy said and smiled.

“I’d love to stay but I’m actually really tired,” Hyunjin chuckled and got back up from Sunwoo’s bed. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Cheer up, Sunwoo,” he added, yawned and returned to his own bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

After that evening, Hyunjin made an effort to spend time with Sunwoo, eat with him and partner up with him in their classes. Hyunjin was really nice, very popular and also very good at Quidditch. He didn’t really study a lot, so his grades weren’t the best, especially in Charms, but he was really fun to be around.

Sunwoo didn’t know why Hyunjin was so nice to him, but he was impossibly grateful for it.

People sometimes called Hyunjin out for it. Like that one day in their Defense Against the Dark Arts class, when one of the students sitting in front of them turned around and interrupted Sunwoo in the middle of his sentence.

“You’re too nice, Hyunjin. You don’t need to hang out with that weirdo just because you pity him,” he said with a nasty grin, before shooting a condescending look at Sunwoo.

Hyunjin’s smile dropped and his expression darkened. “I don’t pity him. I pity you for buying into cheap rumors some random asshat in this castle made up,” he replied.

The student probably hadn’t expected that answer and just mumbled a quick “whatever” before turning back around.

Sunwoo felt so bad. Though he felt very grateful for Hyunjin having his back like that, he didn’t want Hyunjin to risk his popularity because of him.

“You don’t have to do this, Hyunjin...” Sunwoo said, looking down at his hands. Hyunjin, however, smiled and put a hand on his shoulder.

“I know. But I want to,” he replied.

Class started soon after, so Hyunjin shifted his attention to whatever the teacher was talking about. Sunwoo smiled at him for a few seconds.

He had finally made his first real friend in this castle.

~

Not much had changed over the course of Sunwoo’s second year in Hogwarts. People still hated him, spread rumors about him and avoided him, and Hyunjin was still his only friend.

Sunwoo’s grades improved a bit since he occupied himself with reading and studying a lot. Hyunjin had many other friends to spend time with, and since Sunwoo didn’t have any other friends, he had a lot of time on his hands.

He was just on his way back from borrowing some new books at the library, making his way down the Great Stairs when he ran into Hyunjin.

“Oh hey, Sunwoo! Are you heading back to the dorms too? Let’s go together,” the older suggested, earning a nod from Sunwoo, before they headed down to the dungeons together.

They were about to pass by the Great Hall and Sunwoo was about to ask Hyunjin if he had already eaten when he saw that the Ravenclaw girl walking in front of them lost her balance and was inevitably going to fall down the set of stairs in front of them.

In an impulse, Sunwoo tried to reach out for her arm to stop her from falling, but he was just a little bit to slow and she fell.

The two Slytherins froze for a second, before rushing down the stairs to help her. Sunwoo arrived there first, grabbed her shoulders and shook her lightly, but she didn’t react at all. She seemed to have a wound at the back of her head, judging from the blood that was staining Sunwoo’s fingers.

It had happened again. Someone had gotten hurt because of him.

It was his fault.

Hyunjin had kneeled down next to him, checking her pulse and telling Sunwoo that she was just unconscious, but Sunwoo barely even heard him. They needed to get her to Madame Pomfrey as soon as possible. Sunwoo was about to lift her up, since carrying her there seemed to be the most logical and fastest option, but before he could attempt to do so, he was pushed aside by a couple of students that had seen the accident happen from the Entrance Hall.

“Get away from her, weirdo,” one of them said as him and another guy lifted her up. “Don’t you think you’ve already done enough?”

Everything after that happened in a flash. The girl was taken to the Hospital Wing, the students who had seen her fall were convinced that Sunwoo had pushed her and he soon found himself in the headmaster’s office.

“Trouble seems to be following you around, Kim Sunwoo,” the headmaster started. If the situation hadn’t been so serious, Sunwoo would have scoffed at that. He couldn’t be more correct. “I’ve heard many stories about you.”

“This is a misunderstanding,” Sunwoo said, even though he already knew how this was going to end.

“I don’t think there’s much to misunderstand about you pushing a girl down the Great Stairs,” the headmaster replied. Sunwoo was already mentally preparing to be expelled and sent back to his ‘family’, a thought that caused a rush of anxiety to wash over him, when somebody entered the headmaster’s office.

“He didn’t push her, headmaster! I was there with him and I saw it clearly. She lost her balance and he only tried to keep her from falling,” Hyunjin stated, sounding out of breath, probably from running there.

The headmaster looked beyond bewildered. “Hwang Hyunjin, what are you–”

“You have to believe me! I’ll drink an entire glass of Veritaserum if I really have to!”

The headmaster’s eyes went back and forth between the two Slytherins, before he let out a sigh. “I’ll let you off this once, Sunwoo. But I will keep an eye on you,” he said.

Sunwoo thanked him multiple times and left the headmaster’s office, accompanied by a confidently smiling Hyunjin.

Sunwoo let out a sigh of relief and smiled at the slightly older Slytherin. “You are crazy, Hyunjin,” he stated, but couldn’t hide a grateful smile before hugging him.

Sunwoo couldn’t imagine being expelled from Hogwarts. Sure, his life in Hogwarts wasn’t too pleasant either, but at least he was away from his parents. Anything was better than being with his parents.

Plus, he had Hyunjin.

~

Luckily, Sunwoo’s third year was very uneventful.

The other students still avoided him, and they still had all of those rumors stored in the back of their heads, but they didn’t pull any stupid pranks on him anymore. Instead, most of them just ignored him, acted like he wasn’t there and only ever talked to him when they were forced to do so.

Of course, that still wasn’t an ideal situation for Sunwoo, but at least he didn’t have to worry about people trying to spill hot beverages over him, reporting him to the principal for things he didn’t do or pushing him when he passed by them.

Hyunjin had started dating around and hanging out with a lot of different guys, just like his friend Minho had, and he was still as popular as before, spending most of his time with his best friend Changbin, so he didn’t have a lot of time left to spend with Sunwoo anymore, but the younger didn’t blame him.

He was already grateful for Hyunjin even wanting to be friends with him in the first place.

As a result, the third year was over and had transformed into his fourth year before Sunwoo knew it. The first half of that year felt pretty much the same as always.

However, in the last week of January, his day-to-day-life took a turn.

Sunwoo was just on his way to the library, minding his own business as usual, when another student bumped into him, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the floor. His bag slipped off his shoulder, fell to the floor around him, causing his books to spread all over the stone floor.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t watch where I was going...” Sunwoo apologized quickly before looking up to see the student who had caused him to fall.

He was also in Slytherin but looked older than Sunwoo. Sunwoo figured he was probably a sixth year, with light brown hair and sharp eyes. To Sunwoo’s surprise, the boy didn’t seem angry, on the contrary, he even gave him an apologetic smile in return. His smile was very gorgeous, too.

“No, it’s my fault. Sorry, I didn’t mean to knock you over like that,” he chuckled and held out his hand. Sunwoo hesitated, but eventually took the boy’s hand and let him pull him to his feet. The boy even picked up Sunwoo’s books for him.

“Th-thanks,” the younger Slytherin said and awkwardly cleared his throat as the boy chuckled.

“Anytime,” he replied, “I’m Kang Youngjun.”

Youngjun was a few inches taller than Sunwoo and had the figure of a Quidditch player. Sunwoo had no idea why Youngjun was so nice to him and it caught him off guard. He seemed to be genuine though, so Sunwoo gave him a small smile.

“I’m, um, Sunwoo. Kim Sunwoo,” he replied. There was a short pause until Sunwoo awkwardly turned to leave. “See you around, um, Kang Youngjun,” he stammered.

“Definitely,” Youngjun replied, still smiling warmly.

To say that Sunwoo was surprised when Youngjun took a seat in front of him at breakfast the next day was an understatement. The older student smiled brightly at him and chuckled when Sunwoo looked at him with wide eyes.

"I saw you sitting here all by yourself and figured I should join you,” Youngjun smiled, already grabbing one of the many bread buns that had appeared in front of them.

"O-oh you really don't need to... I'm..." Sunwoo trailed off.

He didn't know why Youngjun was so nice to him all of a sudden. He couldn't remember ever talking to the guy. Sure, he knew that Youngjun was fairly popular, and he'd seen him and his group of friends in the Slytherin common room from time to time, but they'd never even exchanged looks or anything.

But there he was, giving Sunwoo his charming smile as he reached for a second piece of bread.

"Don't worry about it,” he said, shrugging.

Sunwoo couldn’t wrap his head around this situation, but he also couldn't complain. It was not like he was in a place to deny anyone who was nice enough to talk to him.

A few seconds of awkward silence passed, since Sunwoo didn't really know what to say as he watched Youngjun eat his breakfast. After all, Sunwoo wasn't the best at making conversation – or friends for that matter – and the whole thing had caught him even more off-guard than the library incident.

Sunwoo was ripped out of his thoughts by a sudden touch to his arm. He looked up in confusion.

“Sunwoo, were you listening?” Youngjun chuckled, his hand resting on Sunwoo’s forearm on the table.

Sunwoo felt his face heat up. “What? Sorry, I must’ve zoned out... What did you say?”

“I was just asking you out on a date. Just you and me...”

And before Sunwoo even knew it, he had landed himself his very first boyfriend.

Suddenly, his time at Hogwarts didn’t feel like a nightmare anymore! Youngjun was super sweet, waiting in front of the classroom for him, giving him little gifts and going on romantic Hogsmeade dates every day. After years of feeling like an outcast, having someone like Youngjun in his life; someone who loved and appreciated him, made Sunwoo feel like he was special.

“Can I ask you something?” Sunwoo asked about two weeks later when he and Youngjun hung out in Hogsmeade once again, a cup of butterbeer standing in front of them.

“Sure,” Youngjun said, giving Sunwoo one of those warm smiles that made his heart flutter.

“Why do you like me?”

Youngjun chuckled, like he wasn’t entirely sure if Sunwoo really meant he question. He did mean it, though. People didn’t like Sunwoo, so why did this sweet, handsome guy like him of all people.

“You’re cute,” was all Youngjun said. “Although your hair looks kind of weird today” Youngjun chuckled, ruffling Sunwoo’s hair and ruining his efforts to keep it curly. “Anyway, what do you want to do for Valentine’s day?” he changed the subject.

Sunwoo didn’t think much about it and smiled at the question. This year Valentine’s day wouldn’t just be another day of the year to him. He was really looking forward to doing something special and romantic with Youngjun. Though he wasn’t sure what exactly people did on that day...

“I don’t know, surprise me,” he told Youngjun who grinned secretively.

“Alright then, I have the perfect idea! I’ll wait for you on top of the Astronomy tower tomorrow at sundown and I’ll have the biggest surprise ready for you,” Youngjun promised. Sunwoo’s smile widened and he found himself feeling giddy and excited at the thought of tomorrow.

Sunwoo could barely sleep that night, wondering what kind of surprise Youngjun had planned for him.

Should he get him something too? But what?

He should have thought of that earlier when he could have still secretly bought something in Hogsmeade.

Sunwoo didn’t see Youngjun all day the next day but he didn’t think much about it because he was probably busy. He couldn’t deny that he had gotten used to Youngjun’s presence around him though, since the older had taken him out every day over the past two weeks. When Sunwoo thought about it he could barely believe that it had only been two weeks with Youngjun. He figured that time really did fly when one was having fun.

He couldn’t wait until sundown and practically sprinted up the stairs to the Astronomy tower when it was finally time. When he reached the top, he expected Youngjun to already be there waiting for him but there was nobody here.

Sunwoo furrowed his brows in confusion. He sat down at the edge and decided to wait while admiring the view. Maybe Youngjun was just late.

Sunwoo watched the sunset while waiting for his boyfriend to show up. He didn’t know how much time had passed but the moon and the stars had long since come out and there was still no sign of Youngjun. Sunwoo was beginning to grow worried.

What if something had happened to Youngjun and he was just sitting up here like a fool?

Sunwoo got up and made his way back to the common room to check if Youngjun was there. It was late so he didn’t see anyone in the corridors. When he finally made it to the common room, he was surprised to see the commotion. Since it was already past midnight, he wouldn’t have expected so many people to still be up.

It wasn’t just Slytherins either, but he spotted a few Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors as well.

“There he is,” someone said, pointing at Sunwoo.

A few people snickered, confusing Sunwoo even more. What was so funny?

“Were you up there all this time?” he heard Youngjun’s voice right before he stepped into his vision after being surrounded by his friends.

“I-I was worried about you...” Sunwoo stammered, trying not to let too much of his confusion show. “W-when you didn’t show up–”

The other students in the room laughed and even Youngjun joined them. It was nothing like the warm smiles he had regarded Sunwoo with over the past two weeks.

“You’re so easy, Kim Sunwoo!” he sneered.

“E-easy?” Sunwoo asked. He didn’t understand what was going on.

Why was Youngjun looking at him like that and what were all those people doing here?

“Yes, easy! Don’t you get it? This,” he gestured between himself and Sunwoo, “was never real! I made a bet with these guys here,” Youngjun told him.

Sunwoo felt like he had been slapped. “A bet?”

Youngjun laughed again. “They bet that I couldn’t make you fall for me within two weeks. Well, originally it was one week but you were just so ing funny to mess with, we extended the bet a little. Do you really think I’d date you? You’re a psycho!”

Sunwoo lowered his head, trying to fight the tears that were b in his eyes. Youngjun had never really liked him. He had just toyed with him and Sunwoo had walked right into his trap because he had been blinded by the fact that a cute guy had actually been nice to him.

“Aw, look Youngjun you made him sad!” some random guy Sunwoo didn’t know mocked him.

He wanted to run away, hide in his dorm and never ever come out again. But he couldn’t move. It felt like he was frozen into place and now he had to endure the mocking coos and the laughs and Youngjun looking at him triumphantly.

“Happy Valentine’s day!” Youngjun sneered.

“What the hell is going on here!” a new voice suddenly spoke up. Sunwoo’s head snapped in the direction of the entrance.

Hyunjin had just come through, probably from a date with one of his conquests. He looked from Sunwoo to Youngjun to the crowd and then back at his friend.

“We were just having some fun here, Hwang,” a Hufflepuff snapped at Hyunjin.

Sunwoo finally got his limbs to move and he ran off, past Hyunjin and out of the common room, away from the mocking shouts of “aw, where are you going Sunwoo?”

He had made it to the entrance hall before Hyunjin caught up with him, holding him back by his sleeve.

“Sunwoo, wait, what happened?” he asked, concern laced in his voice.

Sunwoo tried to answer him but all he managed was a pathetic sob. Hyunjin didn’t hesitate to pull him into a hug which Sunwoo gratefully returned. Unfortunately, it did nothing to soothe his crying. Hyunjin was rubbing comforting circles into his back, repeatedly telling him that it was going to be okay.

But how could it be okay?

He had been screwed over and publicly humiliated by someone he thought he could trust. Part of him hoped that this was all just a bad dream – but why wasn’t he waking up?

He sniffled, trying to stop crying but the tears just kept coming. Hyunjin still tried to get him to calm down but it took him about 20 minutes to do so. When Sunwoo finally felt like he was able to speak without his voice cracking he pulled out of the hug and looked away, not wanting Hyunjin to see how messed up he looked.

“So... it turns out that Youngjun was just pretending to like me because of a stupid bet,” Sunwoo told him, sniffling again. He hated how wrecked his voice sounded; he hated that he was crying over this guy like a pathetic fool.

“Wait, what? I’m going to kill him!” Hyunjin exclaimed, looking about ready to turn around and give Youngjun a piece of his mind.

Luckily, Sunwoo reacted quickly, holding him back by his robes before he could get his kicked by a sixth year who was a lot stronger than him. “Can you just... I don’t know... take my mind off things?” he pleaded.

Hyunjin’s features softened and he turned to fully face Sunwoo again. “Of course. Let’s go somewhere...”

They went to a narrow corridor that usually wasn’t on the prefects’ patrolling route and sat down on the windowsill, talking about anything that wasn’t Youngjun for hours. Hyunjin even managed to make him smile a couple of times.

It was 3am when they decided to sneak back into the common room after making sure that the coast was clear. Hyunjin gave him another hug once they had made it back to their dorm room. Sunwoo gave him a grateful smile before he finally crawled into his bed and pulled the blanket over his head, ready to forget all about Valentine’s Day.

~

Sunwoo woke up with tears in his eyes.

This dream had just brought back all the pain he’d wanted to forget full force.

He sat up and ran a hand through his disheveled hair. A peek at the clock on the nightstand told him that it was four in the morning. Sunwoo sighed, looking next to him where Jeongin was still sleeping peacefully.

He smiled faintly, remembering that he had Jeongin now and that everything was (hopefully) going to be alright.

~

Sunwoo inspected himself in the full-size mirror once more, fixing his tie for what felt like the 100^th time. Jeongin had gone to his little brother’s room to change into his own suit while Sunwoo had done the same in Jeongin’s room.

The tailored black suit Jeongin’s family had kindly lent him looked good on him. It was all-black, the only exception being the pastel pink tie, matching this wedding’s dress code.

Sunwoo couldn’t help but worry about the wedding.

What if he messed up again?

What if he embarrassed himself in front of Jeongin’s family and his parents threw him out?

What if…

Sunwoo’s train of panicked thoughts got interrupted when he heard the door open. He turned around to see Jeongin, giving him a small smile as he felt his worries disappear from his mind. The younger returned his smile and took a dramatic spin to show off his outfit.

“How do I look?” he asked, looking down at himself with a bright smile.

In contrast to Sunwoo’s all-black suit, Jeongin wore an all-white suit with a cute pastel pink bow instead of a tie.

His hair had been styled to curls and he was beaming, excitedly waiting for Sunwoo’s reaction.

“You look like an angel,” the Slytherin replied finally, moving away from the mirror and toward his boyfriend, “as always,” he added.

Jeongin blushed visibly but smiled shyly at Sunwoo’s words, unsure what to reply to that.

“Thank you,” he said, reaching out for Sunwoo’s hands to pull him close enough for their lips to meet, “that’s really sweet.”

“You’re sweet,” Sunwoo returned with a smirk. Jeongin couldn’t hold back a giggle and gave his boyfriend’s chest a slap of affection.

“Stop~” he whined before connecting their lips again.

“So, if you two lovebirds are done making out, we’re ready to get going,” Jeongmin spoke up, standing in the hallway and giving them a teasing smirk. Jeongin moved away from Sunwoo, turned beet red, and mentally cursed himself for leaving the door open.

“We’re not like that!” he complained but Jeongmin only chuckled.

“Yeah sure. One could think you’re the ones getting married today,” he teased, smoothly dodging the stuffed bunny Jeongin threw at him in embarrassment.

“Go away, Jeongmin!” he whined. “We’ll be downstairs in a second.”

They could still see Jeongmin wiggling his eyebrows at them before Jeongin closed the door on him. Jeongin sighed.

“Let’s stay in Hogwarts next time,” he pouted, his cheeks still looking red. Sunwoo simply chuckled, pressed another quick kiss to his boyfriend’s lips and took his hand.

“Let’s just go downstairs before he comes back,” he suggested, earning a nod from Jeongin before they left his room.

Soon enough the family piled into the car and made their way to the church. Jeongin noticed that his boyfriend looked a little unsettled, so he reached out for his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” he muttered only loud enough for Sunwoo to hear.

“How do you always know what I’m thinking?” Sunwoo asked, clearly surprised that Jeongin had sensed his worries. Jeongin grinned at him and properly laced their fingers together.

“I’m just that good,” he joked, earning one of Sunwoo’s small smiles in return.

The car ride wasn’t very long so they soon arrived at the church. The ceremony passed by in a blur and before they knew it, they were already on the way back to Jeongin’s house where the reception would take place.

“See, everything is going really well today,” Jeongin smiled.

They were in the kitchen sharing a slice of wedding cake. Sunwoo looked at the crowd of people gathered in the living room, having a great time chatting and laughing about Merlin-knows-what.

“We can be stronger than this curse. Together,” the younger added, causing Sunwoo to look at him again.

Sunwoo gave him a hug, surprising Jeongin. He figured that they hadn’t even been talking to each other for that long but Jeongin had already become such a huge part of his life. He just got him, and he didn’t judge him for being cursed.

With a start, Sunwoo realized that what he felt for Jeongin might not just be appreciation. He might not even just like him.

His eyes widened and he pulled back from their hug to look at Jeongin.

I love you, he thought.

Should he really tell him though? What if Jeongin didn’t feel the same?

Love was a pretty strong word and he didn’t want to overwhelm Jeongin with his confession. But then again, would there ever be a more perfect moment than this?

“I... uh...”

“I have to use the bathroom. Will you excuse me for a second?” Jeongin suddenly blurted out, already halfway out the door before Sunwoo could even process his words. Sunwoo’s shoulders slumped but he couldn’t help but chuckle to himself at his boyfriend’s cuteness.

Not long after, Jeongin’s dad entered the kitchen, making a bee line for the wedding cake. He noticed Sunwoo standing there and regarded him with a warm smile.

“Hey Sunwoo. Are you enjoying the party?” he asked.

Sunwoo returned the smile and nodded. “I am. Thank you so much for having me,” he replied.

“You know, Jeongin has always been a very bright kid but ever since he’s started dating you, he seems to be downright glowing. You seem to make my son very happy,” Jeongin’s dad told him.

Sunwoo felt heat rise to his cheeks. “Well, he makes me happy too. He’s really important to me,” he answered shyly. His father smiled at him and an awkward silence followed.

Luckily, Jeongin returned to the kitchen in that moment, looking from his dad to Sunwoo and back. “What were you two talking about?” he asked suspiciously. His dad laughed and patted Sunwoo on the shoulder.

“I was just telling this one some cute stories about you,” he joked.

“Dad!” Jeongin whined, “Can I not even leave him alone for one second without you or Jeongmin trying to embarrass me?”

His father only cackled. “Sorry, no can do, son. Now, I’ll leave you two be. I was just here to get some cake. Enjoy the party.” With that he grabbed his plate and left the kitchen.

The two of them shared another piece of cake before rejoining the party. It went on for a few more hours before the first guests started to leave. Eventually, the married couple made their way to the airport to start their honeymoon, so the party just fizzled out after that.

“We still have an entire day tomorrow before we have to head back to Hogwarts... what should we do?" Jeongin thought out loud later that evening. The couple had already changed into their pajamas –Sunwoo in his racoon onesie and Jeongin in a fox one – and gone to bed.

Jeongin's head was resting on Sunwoo's chest and Sunwoo had a protective arm wrapped around Jeongin, keeping him close and all to himself.

"I'm not sure... what are the options?" Sunwoo replied.

They were speaking quietly because of how late it was. Jeongin hummed in thought before looking up at Sunwoo.

"Well, we could probably help my mom with her gardening again, or we could help my dad with his cooking...” he replied, thinking some more before a new idea came to his mind. "Oh, I know! We can go to town, pretend to be muggles and do muggle stuff!” Jeongin suggested excitedly.

"Muggle stuff?"

"Yeah! We can go to the cinema, the amusement park, the regular park or... oh! The arcade!" he explained with even more excitement in his voice, making Sunwoo chuckle.

"I've never been to a muggle town before so... let's just do all of that,” he smiled and gave Jeongin a gentle kiss on his forehead, earning a "yay!" from him.

"I can't wait! It's gonna be so much fun,” Jeongin added, letting his head return to its previous position on his boyfriend's chest.

He was probably right. Sunwoo had no idea what a cinema was, but he was certain that as long as he was with Jeongin, it was going to be amazing.

They went back to being very quiet and the younger listened to Sunwoo's slow but steady heartbeat. It was far slower than Jeongin's, but that made it even more calming to listen to.

"Are you sure I'm not too cold? Sorry, it must be uncomfortable..." Sunwoo spoke up, causing Jeongin to chuckle.

"Not at all, actually. If anything, that makes it more comfortable. I can't sleep when I get too warm,” he said reassuringly, causing Sunwoo to smile a bit.

"If you say so,” he chuckled and pulled him a bit closer to his chest.

He would never let go of him. Even if someone pointed a wand at his face.

Never.

~

“That was amazing!” Jeongin exclaimed as he exited the cinema, followed by a slightly shaken up Sunwoo.

“It was. But also very terrifying,” the Slytherin pouted. Jeongin hadn’t told him that the movie they were going to watch was going to be a horror movie, so Sunwoo had had to find that out the hard way.

“I didn’t know you were such a scaredy-cat, Sunwoo,” the younger laughed, nudging his boyfriend.

“Listen, ghosts are really scary!” Sunwoo claimed and shivered when he remembered a particularly scary scene from the movie, making Jeongin laugh out loud.

“Aw, I’m sorry for picking such a scary one,” he smiled and gave his pouting boyfriend a kiss on the cheek. “Better?” he asked.

Sunwoo looked away but couldn’t hide a smile. “Yes,” he replied shyly.

“Then let’s head to the arcade next!” Jeongin announced, clapping excitedly.

“Is that as scary as the cinema?” Sunwoo asked with an alarmed expression, making Jeongin chuckle.

“No, it’s going to be fun,” he promised with a smile and took Sunwoo’s hand to take him to the arcade.

They had to head through the heart of the muggle city to get there, but Sunwoo didn’t mind at all. He had never been to a completely non-magical city before after all. The weather was a little bit cloudy, but since there weren’t that many people around, it was a really comfortable walk.

Feeling a bit hungry – despite those three bags of popcorn and chips they had shared at the cinema – they also got some delicious waffles from one of the stands they were passing by.

Sunwoo took the opportunity to ask Jeongin about muggle related things like the phone store, the regular post that worked without any owls, the internet café and the large TV screens behind the windows broadcasting the news, and the latter happily explained everything to him.

“You know a lot of things about muggles,” Sunwoo pointed out eventually.

Jeongin smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I come here a lot when I’m home over the summer. My parents are wizards, but they’re really fascinated by muggles, so they taught me many things about them ever since I was a child,” he explained.

Sunwoo would be lying if he said he didn’t envy him at least a little bit.

Jeongin had such a good relationship with his parents and it made him wonder what it would be like if his parents didn’t hate every fiber of his being. His parents had never taken him anywhere as a child.

They always went on vacation by themselves and locked him in the house while they were gone, so he’d never really spent time with them like this. They had always been scared of him and hated him because of the curse.

“What’s wrong?” Jeongin asked suddenly, pulling Sunwoo out of his thoughts. He hadn’t even noticed that he had stopped walking in the middle of the street.

“Oh, nothing, I was just... thinking about that ghost from earlier,” the older lied. He didn’t want to ruin their date by bringing up his family. He knew that hearing about it would make Jeongin cry again, because he just had such a kind heart.

“You’re still thinking about that? We’re almost there. I’m sure you’ll forget all about it at the arcade!” Jeongin smiled and took Sunwoo’s hand again. The Slytherin shook the dark thoughts out of his head and decided to focus on Jeongin instead.

The two wizards arrived at the arcade soon after and Sunwoo found himself overwhelmed with how colorful and bright everything was.

“Wow, what is all this?” he asked and looked around the room, his eyes widened in awe. He didn’t know what kind of place this was, but it looked fascinating.

“An arcade game paradise, basically!” Jeongin said excitedly, unsure where to go first. “Don’t worry, I’ll show you how everything works,” he added reassuringly and led Sunwoo to one of the shooter games first.

He took the gun attached to the machine, started the first game and explained how it worked as he played. After successfully winning the game, he handed Sunwoo the gun and told him to give it a try. The Slytherin actually did a pretty good job, considering he had never done anything like it before.

“This is really fun!” Sunwoo smiled, despite losing the game after running out of lives.

“I told you!” Jeongin laughed.

“C-Can I try again?” the older asked, earning an encouraging nod from Jeongin. He played a couple of times and became really good at it very quickly, beating Jeongin’s high score in his final round.

Eventually, they moved on to the Claw Machine with a lot of cute plushies in it. “That racoon over there is so cute,” Sunwoo commented, pointing at one of the plushies behind the glass.

“Do you want to try to win it?” Jeongin asked and showed him how to use the machine.

The Slytherin tried endless times to get the claw to grab the racoon but failed every single time. Eventually, he became all pouty and gave up on the machine, not wanting to waste any more money.

“I think I’m too unlucky for this,” he pouted, making Jeongin chuckle.

“Don’t be too disappointed, it’s probably rigged against the player anyway,” the younger said, patting his back before trying his own luck on the machine.

Surprisingly, he managed to grab the racoon and get it out of the machine on his first try, causing him to jump happily.

“Oh my god, I actually got it!” he cheered, successfully putting a smile back on Sunwoo’s face.

“Congrats, angel,” Sunwoo replied, fishing the plushie out of the small box the claw had dropped it in and handed it to Jeongin. The Hufflepuff however, gave it right back to Sunwoo, who now looked at him with a confused expression.

“You take it. You really wanted to have this racoon, right?” Jeongin said, smiling.

“But... you won it,” the older replied, hesitant to accept it, even though you could tell that he really wanted it.

“I won it for you! Plus, you worked much harder for it than I did, luck is just working against you,” he explained.

“Thanks, Jeongin...” Sunwoo said shyly, but seemed happy about the racoon.

Next, they played a racing game which Sunwoo turned out to be very good at, since he kept winning every single round. After his sixth win, Jeongin became a bit frustrated and asked for one more round before changing the game. He actually ended up winning that round, making him smile and clap excitedly like he always did when he won a game.

Sunwoo didn’t tell him that he had let him win that round on purpose. He thought seeing Jeongin happy was already enough of a win for him.

They then also went to the Dancing Machine, tried out another shooter and had a lot of fun with everything the arcade had to offer. Time flew by really quickly and before they knew it, they had been playing games for almost 4 hours.

“Should we head back? My dad is probably already making dinner,” Jeongin suggested as he checked the time after another five rounds of pinball.

“Sure, let’s. All of this winning has made me pretty hungry,” Sunwoo teased, earning a dramatic gasp from his boyfriend.

“Hey! I totally annihilated you in Dance Dance Revolution, remember?!” Jeongin protested, laughing as they made their way to the exit.

As soon as they stepped outside however, they got caught in some heavy rain. The two of them started running towards the bus stop, holding their jackets over their heads in an attempt to stay dry, but by the time they got there, their hair and clothes were already drenched in water.

The rain felt cold, it was January after all. Sunwoo didn’t feel the cold, as usual, but he could tell that Jeongin was freezing as he tried to find out when the next bus would arrive. The fact that his clothes were soaking wet didn’t make it any better.

Sunwoo took off his jacket and put it around Jeongin’s shoulders, since he didn’t need it anyway.

“Thanks, Sunwoo,” the younger smiled, looking up at him. “The next bus will arrive in about 10 minutes,” he sighed. A few seconds of silence passed, filled only by the sound of raindrops on the already wet pavement, before Jeongin chuckled suddenly.

“I guess we got a bit unlucky with the weather. Your curse is trying its best to ruin our great time,” he joked, but wasn’t mad about it of course, and smiled up at Sunwoo. The older looked insanely handsome with his dark brown hair wet, his bangs sticking to his forehead and despite everything, a small smile evident on his face as he looked at Jeongin.

“True, but somehow I still feel like the luckiest guy on earth,” he replied, taking the younger by surprise. Didn’t he always talk about how unlucky he was on a daily basis?

“What do you mean?” Jeongin asked with furrowed brows. Sunwoo smiled even more in response, lifted his arm and softly brushed some of the hair that was almost covering Jeongin’s eyes out of his face. He then cupped his boyfriend’s face in his hands and looked at him for a few more seconds.

“Because I have you,” he said.

A blush spread across Jeongin’s face as he smiled up at Sunwoo, whose eyes were still locked with his. Before Jeongin could come up with a reply to that, the older leaned in and wordlessly connected their lips. Their kiss lasted longer than the small pecks he gave him occasionally, and Jeongin let his arms find their way around Sunwoo’s waist, smiling into the kiss.

He didn’t let go of him, even when Sunwoo pulled away for a moment, unable to hide his smile. “I like you so much,” Jeongin replied sincerely, before reconnecting their lips. The rain suddenly didn’t seem cold at all, now that all he could think about was Sunwoo’s lips against his.

They could’ve stayed like this for much longer if the bus, which they didn’t realize had already pulled up next to them, hadn’t honked at them, causing them to pull apart.

“So, are you going to get in here or what?” the bus driver asked, sounding annoyed.

Embarrassed, the two of them entered the bus, not without hearing the bus driver’s comment about “these foolish teens, always making out anywhere and everywhere,” as the two of them took a seat somewhere in the back.

They couldn’t help but chuckle and soon intertwined their hands as they looked out the window. It was still raining hard, but the rain hitting the window sounded calming in a way.

“I like you more,” Sunwoo said suddenly, his cheeks turning red. Jeongin gave him a confused look at first but then smiled at his late reply.

“Impossible.”

~

The next day it was time for Jeongin and Sunwoo to go back to Hogwarts. Jeongin’s family took the two of them to the station and bid their goodbyes to them with warm hugs.

“You definitely need to visit us again, Sunwoo. It was so great to meet you,” Jeongin’s mom told him with a smile on her face.

“Uh... yeah, sure. If you’ll have me, I’d love to come along again,” Sunwoo said shyly.

He couldn’t believe that he had actually managed to make it through these past few days without Jeongin’s parents hating him.

Jeongin took his hand. “It’s time to go,” he pointed out.

His parents gave each of them another hug before taking off.

The train ride was long but luckily, there weren’t that many people around. They mainly just spent their time cuddling; Jeongin’s head resting in Sunwoo’s lap as the older petted his hair.

~

The first few days after their return Jeongin spent most of his time at the library, trying to do research regarding Sunwoo’s curse. He was determined to help his boyfriend, so he practically buried himself in books to the point where Sunwoo worried about him neglecting his studies.

He was concerned that Jeongin would fail exams because of him and told him to just let it go.

“I can’t give up, Sunwoo,” Jeongin told him with determination on his face. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from reading so much about curses and cures, it’s that these cures are often found in the most unexpected ways. I will rid you of this curse. I promise,” he said.

Sunwoo smiled at him and reached for his hands over the table. “What did I do to deserve you?” he asked.

Jeongin smiled and blushed. “Will you help me with the research? I’m sure we can find a cure together,” he asked, his cheeks still rosy but his eyes sparkling with that same determination.

Sunwoo chuckled and nodded, grabbing one of the many books that were spread on Jeongin’s table.

At this point, Sunwoo couldn’t even remember how he had coped with everything before he had met Jeongin.