Year One

The world was dark. 

It was to be expected, of course, as Sehun Oh perched on the little stool with fingers clenched around the worn wood of the seat. The Sorting Hat was large -- far larger than his older brother had made it out to be -- and Sehun was nothing if not runty in size. The corner of the brim sat well over his nose, and he waited for the whisperings he had been told to expect.

Gryffindor, please, he pleaded desperately. Please please please. He’d been chanting the phrase ever since the domineering woman -- Professor McGonagall, was it? -- barked out his name in the alphabetical line-up. 

“Oh?” The little voice sounded, and Sehun’s shoulders lifted even higher in anxiety. “Pureblood family, to be sure -- the rest of the lot passed through Slytherin. Why not the same?” 

I’m not like them, Sehun forced the thought forward. They’re boring. I want to be like Junmyeon Kim -- Gryffindor!

“Junmyeon,” the Sorting Hat mused. “Noble chap. From a long line of Gryffindors, eh? Valor and leadership and passion, and the like.” 

Yes! Thought Sehun. Gryffindor, please! The House of bravery always seemed much more fun to Sehun than his family’s usual Slytherin, and more entertaining than the book-smart Ravenclaws. From Junmyeon’s stories, Hogwarts sounded thrilling and exciting, unlike the accounts of his brother, who made it seem like school was a place to get ahead. Sehun much preferred an experience like Junmyeon’s, full of adventure.

But the Sorting Hat went silent, neither affirming nor denying Sehun’s petition. 

His short fingers tightened against the stool in anticipation. Then --

“RAVENCLAW!” 

The entirely wrong section of the Great Hall burst into cheers, welcoming their young ward. Sehun jumped down miserably, avoiding the burn of his brother’s stare on his back from the Slytherin table, and avoiding eye contact altogether. He slumped into his seat, unable to stomach the veritable feast that soon appeared, and tried not to look as dejected as he felt. 

Two tables away, a freshly-sorted first-year craned her neck to survey the crumpled form of Sehun Oh. She had been watching his sorting with great interest, wondering why the hat sat atop his pate for so long. It had screamed no sooner than the brim had barely grazed her fringe with a loud “GRYFFINDOR,” and she had been watching the boy stare listlessly at the maroon-decorated table for the whole ceremony. 

It was his frustrated, melancholic expression that piqued her interest. The Sorting Hat couldn’t be wrong, certainly everyone knew that, but she never thought she’d see that kind of disappointment on her very first day at Hogwarts. 

But a tanned, sporty-looking first year jostled her elbow in his efforts to serve himself a few of the steaming pork chops before her, pushing Sehun Oh from her view and nearly spilling his pumpkin juice into her lap.

“Here, let me help you,” she laughed, placing a small tower of chops onto the boy’s plate, and he smiled in relief. 

Later she would find it quite difficult to reconcile the clumsy boy beside her with her best House friend and agile Quidditch keeper, but very few first-years knew then what their time in these castle walls would hold for them.

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“Stop--laughing--Kai!” 

A Gryffindor girl gripped the handle of the broom as if her life depended on it -- and truth be told, it did. But the boy next to her laughed all the same.

The boy hovered beside the girl, already a proper foot off the ground and earning an approving smile from Madam Hooch. But the girl’s broom would not agree with her -- it seemed to sense her fear. And she seemed to have … quite a lot of it. Sehun watched with some interest; the broom between his own legs had responded to his touch and command at once, much like the Gryffindor boy’s had, and he couldn’t imagine why the girl looked so pained. 

At Madam Hooch’ whistle, Sehun bolted forward into the air -- the Gryffindor boy quickly followed suit.

“I’m Kai,” the boy said, shoving his hand out to shake Sehun’s mid-air. 

Sehun grinned, introducing himself. “You’re good!”

“You too,” said Kai, glancing down at Sehun’s broom and looking impressed.

It was a good feeling. Sehun’s heart felt as weightless as his body on his broom. 

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Year Two

It was fate that brought Sehun and Kai together, and Sehun daily thanked his lucky stars that the lithe boy with honeyed skin had jumped onto his broom with the same ease as Sehun -- he and Kai were thick as thieves from that first lesson onward, and made it a point to sneak out of their respective dorms to squeeze in more flying practice. 

It had been a pact between the two of them to make it into their respective Quidditch teams. Sure, they would compete ferociously, but Sehun cherished having something intense to share and found that the Quidditch camaraderie far outweighed any pitch rivalry the two boys had. Kai’s captain, Baekhyun, wasn’t pleased with Kai’s ‘fraternizing with the enemy,’ but against his own will he’d grown to like the spindly Ravenclaw boy and soon welcomed him into his circle of friends. It was these boys, all senior to him, who began to define Sehun’s Hogwarts experience -- through them, he had a family that loved him no matter who he was or what he did, and for that he was grateful.

That is not to say that the rest of his time was spent in exhilarating happiness -- at feasts or in matches, he was always distinctly aware that he didn’t belong. In classes he found himself annoyed with Kai’s precocious friend, who always made an effort in class regardless, even when she was wrong. Sehun had more accurate answers than her, but never felt compelled to raise his hand like his fellow Ravenclaw housemates or that Gryffindor girl. He would shrink into his seats in the Ravenclaws’ desks instead, hoping for each class to end so he could escape the scrutiny of being the only one not as eager to speak up. Even the shy, quiet girl in his House who always had her nose in a book would shoot her hand in the air from time to time, always with unerring responses. 

Still… Even if he was the most apathetic in his class, he knew he was at least more clever than the Gryffindor girl. This knowledge gave him great satisfaction -- she worked hard, always helping others or signing up for clubs, but her lifestyle seemed exhausting to Sehun. 

He and Kai had an understanding that they were broom people, not brain people, and so Sehun constantly itched to be in the air where he could rely on skills instead of smarts. It was easier -- and more fun -- to apply his energies to things other than books.

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“You’re not an idiot,” his brother complained over Christmas dinner back at home. “But why aren’t your marks as good as mine? Even I’m not in the House of the Bookish, and I do better than you.” 

Sehun only slid further down his chair, trying as best to shrink his rapidly-growing frame into as tight a space as possible. Anything to avoid the concerned glares of his all-Slytherin family -- all highly intelligent, all from a proud line of pureblood Ohs, all eternally disappointed in their youngest. 

His mother clucked at him, reaching forward with serving utensils full of sauteed string beans. “I still don’t understand how the hat sorted you into that House. In the least you didn’t end up in Hufflepuff--” She turned her nose up with a sneer. “Myopically focused on equality and patience as they are.”

“Still, though,” his brother insisted. “Our family has never had a non-Slytherin, not our direct lineage, that is -- damn that great-uncle marrying the half-blood Kims, putting out Gryffindors along the way.” 

“Junmyeon’s an EXCELLENT cousin!” Sehun burst out, stabbing angrily at his string beans and chewing with malicious intent. But the table went silent, the rest of the Ohs picking at their meal with avoidant gazes. 

He cursed the Sorting Hat in his mind -- clearly, it had been mistaken. He wasn’t as clever or driven as his Housemates -- and yet he certainly wasn’t as ambitious or cutthroat as his family’s green credentials. But perhaps he, too, lacked the determination and courage that made a Gryffindor. Perhaps there was nowhere he truly belonged. Every House seemed to value some sort of aspirational energy, and Sehun didn’t really have interests beyond his day-to-day. It was enough for him to chase after his older Quidditch friends, or to flirt excessively with the girls in his classes… everything else was far less entertaining.

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Year Three

Things took a turn for the better in Year Three -- Hogsmeade helped immensely, and he suspected that becoming a true teenager had given him some new, sage wisdom. He was no longer a mediocre twelve, he was thirteen, with privileges (and, in his eyes, a better perspective of the world). 

Honeydukes in particular much improved Sehun’s life at Hogwarts. By his second visit to Hogsmeade, Sehun had already memorized every single item in their inventory, especially the novelty items that tended to surprise rather than please. 

Sehun’s world also grew, little-by-little, with the addition of more people in his midst.

There was the Ravenclaw Prefect, Chen, who took a liking to his far less studious ward, and would help remind Sehun to complete his homework after Quidditch practice. There were his sports-mates, who formed quite the motley crew of friends off the field and enemies on it, and he found himself at home in their little group. Sehun quite admired the Gryffindor Seeker, a rambunctious and outgoing fifth-year -- she was good at what she did and he was always amused at her antics with her captain, Baekhyun. The Slytherin captain, Baekhyun’s partner-in-crime Chanyeol, quickly became one of very few Slytherins Sehun liked (excluding his brother, who he often found himself at odds with), and Chanyeol soon became someone Sehun felt comfortable sharing difficult conversations with. 

It was nice to have older friends to look up to, but of his year only Kai was Sehun’s friend, and he wished, sometimes, to know his classmates a bit better. Watching the fifth-years’ dynamic relationships made him worry about when they would graduate and leave him behind. So Sehun found some entertainment in flirting with most of the girls in his year. He was usually rebuffed, but nobody seemed to mind it much, and he thought it was fun to tease them and see their reactions.

He supposed that he could count Kai’s other best friend, the Gryffindor girl who couldn’t fly, as a friend in his year, but Sehun thought that she didn’t much approve of his relaxed attitude. That was more than fine with him -- he didn’t agree with her try-hard workaholism. They were thirteen, for goodness’ sake. If she wasn’t able to take a bit of a breather now, when would she ever find the time? 

But for Kai’s sake, the two begrudgingly got along, preferring to talk around each other whenever they hung out as three. Neither made any effort to reach out beyond their shared friendship, and this arrangement worked rather well. 

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Year Four

Sehun found the fourth year the most droll of them all. 

The newness of Hogsmeade had long worn off, as had Quidditch -- he wondered if he had ‘peaked’ at fourteen. Courses were boring, and his brother had been made Slytherin prefect after the previous boy in his year transferred to Durmstrang and left the job vacant. Naturally, this made his brother more insufferable, and therefore someone Sehun preferred to avoid him as much as possible.

After one too many points taken from Ravenclaw by his prat of a sibling, Sehun decided to remain Hogwarts for Christmas this year. He’d expected his family to put up more of a fight, but his parents had merely passed a note along through an owl to his brother, saying that he was free to do as he pleased. Staying away from the toxicity of his family seemed to improve his mood somewhat, and he vowed to keep staying away during holidays until he could move away from them for good.

In the meantime, he wrote to Junmyeon, always his favorite cousin, and was encouraged by his mentor’s advice (although Junmyeon’s criticism of Sehun’s work ethic left something to be desired). A few of Junmyeon’s owls scolded Sehun for his miniature-Casanova personality, but Sehun assured the older boy that it was all harmless fun. 

Still, Junmyeon had written back. Someone’s going to take it the wrong way someday. Be careful with others’ hearts. 

He paid his older friend no mind -- he’d exhausted most of the supply of teasing victims by Year Three, and nobody took his joking advances seriously anymore. Underclassmen were no fun; they always held older, handsome students in thrall, and what Sehun craved was the challenge and amusement of getting under someone’s skin.

Nevertheless, the year finally drew to an end, and to Sehun, that was what mattered. Perhaps Year Five would be more entertaining.

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Year Five

Year Five filled itself with the business of O.W.L. examination preparations and the advent of Kai finding himself crushing on a Ravenclaw girl. Sehun considered this a vast improvement from the doldrums of the fourth.

He noticed Kai’s friend leading the first-years around on the first day of the term, unsurprised to see she had made prefect. Last year had passed with the two barely exchanging words; they’d gotten busier over the years, with increasingly incompatible schedules -- what with Sehun and Kai’s differing Quidditch practice sessions, and the prefect typically helping underclassmen or studying in the Gryffindor common room with friends. He wished sometimes that she could have lent him that energy, that drive to succeed -- but when he remembered he hadn’t seen her have a laugh in possibly years, he retracted those wishes. 

Kai, on the other hand, struggled valiantly with the less spell-heavy courses, like Potions, History of Magic, or Transfiguration. Sehun had tried, of course, to tutor Kai himself -- not that he was incredibly intelligent, but his marks had always been considerably better than Kai’s. He gave up quickly, though, noticing that his talented Quidditch friend was far less confident at the desk than at the field. Sehun empathized with this, truly he did, but his marks didn’t lie despite the minimal effort he put in. (Kai’s close friend, the overtaxed Gryffindor girl, tried as well, but nothing seemed to stick). It wasn’t until a shy Ravenclaw girl from their year became his tutor that Kai’s marks began to improve -- but Sehun figured that it wasn’t just her tutelage that kept Kai focused on his work.

Moments like those made him wonder if Sehun did, in fact, qualify as a Ravenclaw. But he found as always that his ambitions were not the same as the others -- that he didn’t have any that came to mind when prompted. 

Sehun knew that at the end of this year, he’d be asked to discuss his career plans. He would have time to think in the spring, he assured himself. After Quidditch season. He would figure it out. Later. 

But Quidditch season sped through faster than Sehun anticipated, and he soon found himself in May -- a month away from the O.W.L.s, none the wiser about his goals. 

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Kai and I neared the Potions classroom, noticing Sehun chatting easily with the girl I recognized as Kai’s new tutor. I’d been noticing them for a few weeks now. I felt Kai stiffen beside me. 

“What’s up with Don Se-juan and his ‘lil Ravenclaw girlfriend?” 

“She’s not his girlfriend,” Kai quickly said through gritted teeth as he followed me into the classroom. 

A few desks away in the Ravenclaw seats, Sehun seemed to be quite caught up in teasing Kai’s tutor. Without drawing my eyes away, I leaned towards Kai. 

“How are you not bothered by that? We’ve long known that Sehun is an unnecessarily mischievous flirt, but even so...”

“What? Sehun’s harmless, I’d have known by now if he wasn’t,” Kai quickly defended his friend, but I saw that his typically open (or confused) face seemed clouded by a bit of grumpiness instead. 

I wandered off to my own seat, allowing myself a secretive smile -- Kai had it bad for his sweet little tutor, loathe he might be to admit it. But as I slid into my seat next to the other Gryffindor prefect, Taeil, I felt a set of unhappy eyes watching my retreat. I looked up, searching for the source of the shiver down my spine, and noticed that the seat I’d just vacated was now filled with Little Miss Tutor. She smiled at Kai, but there was something sad and unconvincing in those eyes of hers. 

I watched in great interest, and then it hit me. How could I not have noticed? There was something in the air between them, clearly. Something alien festered in my stomach; had I been so neglectful a friend that I hadn’t noticed these two being sweet on each other? Kai had been my friend since our first day at Hogwarts -- guess I hadn’t been as good of a friend as I should have been.

Maybe it was time for me to allocate more time to the people I held dear. An idea formed in my mind, but I’d need to enlist a bit of help. And unfortunately, that help could only come from Sehun, Kai’s other best friend.

I scribbled a note onto a spare bit of parchment, doing my best to tear the corner as quietly as possible -- no use in having Professor Snape snap at me for no real reason. As the class shuffled out of the room, I discreetly waved my wand by my side and helped the slip of parchment find its way into a pocket in Sehun’s robes. 

Meet me by the North Tower stairwell at 9 p.m. Our friends could do with a bit of urging along; don’t bring Miss Tutor with you. 

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At a quarter to eight that evening, Sehun cut his routine game of wizard’s chess match with Kai’s tutor. The Ravenclaw girl looked up in surprise; Sehun had never been rude to her apart from his egregious flirtations, but Sehun only threw her a knowing wink before slipping out of the Ravenclaw common room and scuttling off to meet the Gryffindor prefect.

He was secretly pleased to have found the note in his pocket as he fished around for his wand at dinner -- he’d never known how to approach the prefect beyond curt nods and meaningless platitudes while hanging out her through Kai over the years. She was well-known and fairly social especially once she’d started the year in her leadership role, so Sehun knew it wasn’t shyness, but in all these years she’d never really deemed to talk to him. Then again, she rarely talked about anything besides her duties... They were different people, of course, but as the years went by, their relationship had settled at acquaintanceship and nothing more.

Sehun found her exactly where she would be -- she seemed startled to see him a minute or two early, as if she’d half-expected him to be late. He let that assumption slide, electing to lean against the wall with one shoulder and into spilling her secrets. 

“Calling me aside, alone, eh?” He started, but she shushed him almost instantly. 

“No time for that,” she dismissed his flirtatious tone. “But there’s also no time for us to sit around and wait for those two to get together. She looked so sad when she saw me sitting next to him, and he even got peeved at your--” she waved at Sehun. “-- your you-ness!” 

Sehun’s lips pulled into a grin. “Noticed that, eh? I’ve been trying to rile Kai up a bit by laying it on her thick. He might have gotten Bludger-ed a few too many times -- I thought he’d have figured it out by now.”

“They’re both such shy personalities, it’ll take ages if they aren’t… encouraged. We’ve got to do something.” 

That sounded fun. 

“I’ve been trying to scope it out for a while, shall I continue my reconnaissance?” 

The prefect nodded. “That’s good. Keep up your ridiculous flirting, I think it’s working. But you’ll need to try to get Ravenclaw’s side of the story; I’ll work on Kai in the Gryffindor common room.”

Sehun wondered aloud how she would find time to manage this, what with the various tasks the Gryffindor prefect taken on (as told by Chen) and her smile faltered. “I don’t want to be out of the loop in my friends’ lives,” she finally replied. “I hadn’t realized how little I’d seen Kai -- or, goodness, even you, who I’ve barely had a full conversation with -- these past few months. I’ll just have to find a way to make-do if I want to complete my tasks while keeping my friends.”

That startled Sehun a bit -- it was rare that he’d seen her alone, ever -- she was always helping out some hapless younger student, or smiling placidly as Kai nearly knocked over his food (a habit that he’d still found difficult to break). That she might have been out of the loop or even lonely had never crossed Sehun’s mind. He’d assumed she was as close to Kai as he, especially as they were both Gryffindors, but he did recall Kai saying that she’d been too busy with her prefect-ly duties to see him often between his Quidditch practices.

Sehun knew that he himself would have barely survived Hogwarts if it weren’t for Kai and his Quidditch mates -- he had nothing else with which to occupy his time. But perhaps the grass wasn’t greener on the other side of productivity after all. 

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In the second week of May, I found myself sitting in the stands for the Hufflepuff-versus-Ravenclaw game, and waved to a Ravenclaw sixth-year I’d seen a few times (she was looking around the staff seating at a quiet, large-eyed Hufflepuff boy). Kai -- adorably -- sat next to me at the edge of the Gryffindor seats, constantly taking his eyes off the match to explain various moves and rules to his tutor, who sat across the divide at the edge of the Ravenclaw section. 

I had no stake in the match -- I only cared when Gryffindor played because I liked the Captain - Baekhyun, his friend and Seeker - “Gryffindor’s Angel,” and of course, Kai --  but I found myself with rare free time and thought it might be nice to watch for fun, for once. 

As Ravenclaw Seeker, Sehun performed admirably, clinching the Snitch and securing a rather absurd score of 210 to 100. I could play Muggle sports with my active grandparents on my mother’s side, but I certainly never managed to get above a few shaky inches off the ground on a broom. It was hard not to be impressed by people with more athletic skill than I had. 

 

Kai, his tutor, and I joined the throng of celebrants at the pitch to congratulate Sehun, but the group of raving students was so thick that we hung back at first. Himself a Quidditch player (and also having considerable height or strength), Kai felt comfortable enough braving the crowd, leaving me with the Ravenclaw girl who helped him with his abysmal Potions marks. We chatted for a bit, some of her questions startling me greatly, but I was grateful for the opportunity to clear up some misunderstandings. She’d thought that Kai and I were an item -- a wild notion I immediately quashed. 

Kai jogged back to where I stood with his girl -- not that he’d ever get around to admitting that he saw her that way, the poor duckling -- so I excused myself to give them some space. I even braved a knowing wink at Kai, but he seemed to think my eye was spasming instead, so I hurried away before he could say anything more.

Those two were sickeningly adorable and so helplessly drawn together. Clearly, my nefarious plot to get one of them to confess was working, although perhaps not as well as I’d hoped. On my way to the field, I turned over the Ravenclaw tutor’s words in my head -- “Um… you guys look cute too?” -- had she really thought that Kai and I were interested in each other? I’d known the boy since our first day at Hogwarts and had instantly understood that our roles in each other’s lives would not extend beyond the platonic. But I thought to myself what the girl had seen in our shared courses with Ravenclaw… perhaps she might have misunderstood. 

It was time to double-down on my efforts to bring the two closer, then. 

As I neared the exuberantly celebrating Ravenclaw crowd, Sehun caught my eye and asked me to confirm that his victory-clincher was ‘cool.’ I sniffed, giving him as curt of a reply as possible, before weaving to his side and dragging him away to scheme. A few familiar faces caught my eye, and I waved to Baekhyun and his best friend, the Gryffindor Seeker, before pulling Sehun away from earshot. He yelped -- I noticed, but I cared not. 

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Sehun smirked to himself against his better judgment as she led him away from his team; was he to be rewarded for his talents? Praised for his athletic skill? It was about time she threw a bone his way instead of the usual indifference. For someone who was known as one of the kinder prefects, she was certainly unlike any of her reputations with him. 

“If you’re going to applaud me, don’t bother,” Sehun drawled, cocking his hip and leaning against his hovering broom. “I already know.” 

But she gave him a gaping look of disbelief instead, and he straightened up, pushing down the arrogant jokes. 

“What is it, Little Miss Prefect?” 

She ignored the nickname Kai and Sehun had given her and pulled Sehun in closer for a whisper. “I’ve had about enough of this business with Kai and his tutor. It’s time to attack.” 

He acknowledged the glint in her eyes with some alarm, but leaned toward her to better hear her above the din. “Attack?”

“Yes!” She began to gesture excitedly. “For some reason, the poor girl thought that Kai and I were a couple of sorts -- she couldn’t be any more wrong, of course,” -- Sehun snorted, earning himself a glare. “-- so we have to dispel that notion and get them to realize they’re moony for each other. There’s a Hogsmeade trip next week, it’ll be our perfect chance to put them together so they can have non-academic alone time!” 

That… certainly sounded entertaining. Guess the Gryffindor girl had a personality after all. 

“You’re on, then,” Sehun nodded affirmatively. “But how will we manage to get those two Shrivelfigs alone together?” 

The girl grinned. “Here’s the plan…” 

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A few days before the Hogsmeade trip, Sehun and I had been in the library working out the finer details of our plan when the poor little Ravenclaw became victim of yet another unprompted bullying incident. In perhaps the first real abuse of my powers I’ll ever admit to, I stripped as many points from Slytherin as I could before Professor McGonagall turned up with eyes ablaze. I fumed in the Gryffindor common room afterward, having just punished a member of my own House who had participated in the incident.

Kai dragged himself through the portrait hole and stepped in front of me, interrupting my furious pacing. I stopped abruptly, looking surprised, then sympathetic. 

“I’m sorry that happened to her, dear,” I tried to comfort him. “I’ve taken care of the troublemaker in our house -- the message should be clear.” 

“Thanks,” he said wearily, but prevented me from herding him into a cushy armchair by the fire. “No, hang on -- there’s something you should know.” 

I must have looked startled, because Kai instantly rushed a few words out to reassure me that it wasn’t anything worrisome or bad. Calming down my impulses, I waited for him to explain. 

“I’ve just told Sehun this, but...” (I tried not to show my indignance at being told second on my face). “I… I like her.” 

I blinked. Kai himself looked a little shell-shocked at his admittance. Then I remembered the plan I’d cooked up with Sehun, and (against my better judgement) began to laugh in relief. Kai gave me an alarmed look, but I waved his worry off. 

“Of course you do, love,” I patted his shoulder. I hadn’t expected him to figure it out that quickly, but perhaps I had given him less credit than he deserved. It was clear by then that I needed to pay closer attention to my friendships and perform greater maintenance on them.

Kai seemed to be caught off guard by my lack of surprise, but I didn’t say any more. I pushed him off to the boy’s dormitory to rest. 

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Kai’s tutor paused before Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop, calling out to us and indicating for us to go ahead. Perfect -- I had no faith that Sehun would execute his part of the plan correctly, anyway, not without bursting into giggles. All morning I’d been looking for the perfect opportunity to splinter Sehun and myself from our little group, all to force Kai and the Ravenclaw girl into a bit of tutoring-free time alone. I opened my mouth, ready to set things in motion, but Sehun cut in first. 

“We’ll just go with you--” 

With a yelp, I lurched forward and dragged his pitifully oblivious bum away from the couple. Forcing a smile, I pointedly wriggled my eyebrows up at Sehun, urging for him to catch my drift with my eyes. 

He scowled at me, trying to wrench his arm free from my grasp, but I held on. He may have been an agile, talented Quidditch player, but he was no match for a woman on a mission. 

“What!” He exclaimed, giving me a quizzical look. 

“You promised me that you’d accompany me to Honeydukes, re-mem-ber?” I plastered a saccharine smile on my lips, not caring how off-my-rocker I might look. It was more important to get my point across than to keep up sane appearances. “To get some candy for my insanely sweet tooth, Sehun?” 

“But I’ve never seen you even so much as look at a sweet--”

The little Ravenclaw looked surprised. “Oh -- please don’t change your agenda because of me--” 

I tightened my grip on Sehun’s arm, forcing myself to not notice the tight cords of muscle I was latching onto, and turned my insistent gaze on Kai. Thankfully, he was brighter than Sehun, and averted his eyes from mine.

Kai waved us away, saying he’d accompany her into the shop, and I nearly sagged in relief. 

Sehun cleared his throat. His posture stiffened, and I realized he’d finally remembered. “In that case, we’ll take our leave,” he said. He gave the shy couple instructions to meet us at the Three Broomsticks later that evening, and we ambled off to Honeydukes.

“Really, though,” Sehun resumed his argument. “I’ve never seen you so much as nibble the corner of a Chocolate Frog--” 

“You don’t eat at the same table as me, nor witness me in the dorms,” I countered. “I can inhale my own portion of sweets when required.” 

“When required?” He gave me a disbelieving look. “What situations would ever require candy? I seriously wonder if you have a life at all -- do you do anything for fun? Anything that doesn’t serve some sort of career purpose?” 

I stopped short of the door to Honeydukes. It took a few beats for me to scrounge up an answer. 

“This, I guess.” I gestured between Sehun and I. He raised his thick eyebrows. 

“Us?” A slow smile spread across his lips. “What, like a date?” He sank his weight into one leg, canting his hips and crossing his arms over his chest before leaning in. “Never thought you’d be the type to be interested in a slacker.” 

I pushed past him with a disgruntled noise. “No, not that,” I stressed. “I meant trying to get Kai and his adorable tutor to stop dancing around each other like startled foxes. It’s clear how besotted they are with each other, and it’s rather entertaining to help them along.” 

Sehun jogged up to me, effortlessly ignoring the door I hadn’t held open for him. “And you’re sure that there aren’t some side benefits to this, like my company?” 

“I’ve been immune to your flirtations since we met as first-years, Sehun. Why do you think we never talked much?” I scanned the loud colors of the various candies in the shop, realizing I was well out of my comfort zone. I’d had some of them, I think, by virtue of Kai tossing me a bite or two in the Gryffindor common room, but I quickly realized that Honeydukes carried an almost overwhelming variety of tastes. 

How was I supposed to pass time until six in the evening? With Sehun, no less? 

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Sehun surveyed the prefect with great curiosity. He’d never in the few years of knowing her seen her this perplexed. He watched as her eyes flickered between various lurid displays, trying to find something to focus on. Thoughts flashed across her expression, as if she was trying to figure out a way to extricate herself from this very situation she was in. 

Well, in the least, Sehun knew how to have fun -- and with a new target to set his whimsy on for the next few hours, he would have considerable entertainment, indeed. Time to make the most of it. 

“I can tell you’re trying to get out of this,” he told her lightly. “Need I remind you that this Hogsmeade double date was your idea, miss?” 

“It’s not a double-date,” she hissed almost immediately. Were she a cat, she would be fluffing up in defense. 

“Is it not?” Sehun mused, grabbing the stick-in-the-mud by her shoulders and steering her towards the “Unusual Tastes” section. Judging by the way her face paled, Sehun figured his hunch about her lack of adventurousness was spot-on. He reached around her, brushing his chest against her back in the effort -- she shied away, but he firmly brought her back to him. 

He held the item in front of her, and she wrinkled her nose in distrust. 

“What is that?” She furrowed her brows, trying to read the label he kept obscured in his fist.

“Blood-flavoured lolly.” 

Recognition filled her irises. “And you think I’m going to try that? No, sir, I know about those, they’re, what, a diet snack for vampires, right?” 

Sehun looked surprised. “That’s right. I thought you didn’t know about sweets, or anything leisure-oriented for that matter.” 

“I read, Sehun.” But when he didn’t look convinced, she hastily prepared an addendum. “And I occasionally confiscate things from first-years when they prank their mates. You wouldn’t believe how many of these partially- things I’ve found strewn about the common room; it’s always the younger ones who think they might be strawberry-flavoured instead.” 

“Well, all right then,” Sehun replaced the lolly, reading labels quickly before selecting another. “But have you even tried any of the sweets you’ve seen?” 

It took her far longer to think than it should have; shouldn’t most people their age have already experimented with Honeydukes’ entire inventory by now? She listed off a small handful of items; the standard Chocolate Frogs, toffees, and Sugar Quills -- as well as the highly dreary Tooth-flossing Stringmints (“quite useful, I find, especially after a meal of roast beef or pork chops,” she’d said mildly). 

“Do you do anything besides study or live in the library? Have you even stepped inside Zonko’s, once?” 

“I don’t live in the library,” she said, but she seemed regretful. “Not like Kai’s tutor, or that quiet Ravenclaw girl that I keep seeing there in the few hours of spare time I can spare for studying. I’m too busy cleaning up messes in the hallways or trying to stop some Slytherins from going after anyone less than a pureblood.” 

“That sounds exhausting,” he offered lamely, unsure of what else to say. He wanted to ask why she pushed herself so much, why she didn’t stop to take breaks, or rest -- but he didn’t want to extend this depressive topic any further. Not, in the least, while they were standing in the world’s greatest wizarding sweets emporium, and certainly not on a Hogsmeade visit. 

He straightened, suddenly ignoring her to shovel a curated selection of colorful candies into his arms. Taking them to the counter, he paid for the wares with a Galleon Junmyeon gave him for his birthday, then dumped the lot into the prefect’s arms. 

“You’re to study these,” he ordered. “As homework for learning how to relax.” 

The girl began to splutter out objections, but Sehun shook his head. He reached into the pile in her arms, extracting a bag of Fizzing Whizbees and holding one out to her. She stared at the obscenely bright sweet, then at Sehun’s fingers proffering it to her face -- surely he wasn’t implying that she should just reach out and bite it from his grasp? But her arms were full, and he didn’t seem to be letting her off the hook anytime soon. 

She let out a huff, bared her teeth, and collected the candy with as much dignity as she could. Sehun grinned at her, giving a little wink, and she fought back the cringe that threatened to overtake her. 

“I’ll take those,” Sehun held out a large bag slung over his shoulder, and she glared at him. Clearly Sehun was a veteran of large Hogsmeade hauls; couldn’t he have mentioned the bag before dumping his purchases into her arms? But she obliged, tipping the boxes and wrapped sweets into the bag, just as she felt herself begin to float several centimeters from the ground. 

It was an odd sensation, one she’d not felt since that failed attempt to mount a broomstick years ago in class. But Sehun only flashed her a triumphant look. 

“Fun, isn’t it?” It was his turn to hold her by the elbow, effectively steering her floating body out of Honeydukes and back into the main road. “What do you think?” 

She shoved the sweet into one cheek, looking somewhat like a lopsided chipmunk, and admitted that the sweet was, in fact, quite moreish -- if the floating wasn’t a bit odd.

She wasn’t sure if it was the sensation of weightlessness or the fact that this was the first real day of rest she’d taken in a while -- but she had to admit that it was nice to feel her burdens temporarily and truly lifted for once. As Sehun pulled her bobbing self along on the way to Zonkos with a large warm hand in hers, she thought that time off wasn’t quite so aimless or wasteful after all. 

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Once the depression of Gryffindor’s Inter-House Quidditch Cup  loss had somewhat worn off, Sehun found himself realizing that he’d not seen the Gryffindor prefect in some time. He’d been so wrapped up in commiserating with Kai (as well as trying to feebly celebrate Kai’s freshly-minted relationship with his tutor) that he didn’t notice her absence.

He felt guilty; they had built their little ‘get our friends together’ scheme as partners in crime -- they should have rejoiced together. 

When she next appeared, a few days later at breakfast, Sehun watched carefully as she dumped herself next to Kai at the Gryffindor table. He turned to Kai’s girlfriend beside him, asking if she might know what was wrong with their friend, but Kai’s girlfriend had no more answers than he did. Sehun wondered what might be causing the prefect’s pallor. With a sinking suspicion he remembered that the fifth-year exams were soon upon them all. Was the prefect overworking herself once again, perhaps making up for time lost while plotting their friends’ romance? 

He approached her after the meal, asking if she was alright, but she only waved him off. Worried, Sehun ran back to Kai’s girlfriend asked if she might help with a little project. 

Sehun was reasonably good at Potions, but Kai’s girlfriend was far ahead of where their class was, having studied ahead and pursued some independent learnings. (There was no chance Sehun would have any interest in doing the same). 

“I’m trying to make a Pepper-Up potion,” Sehun explained to Kai’s girlfriend, and she had understood who it was for at once. She said nothing, only smiling knowingly, and for this Sehun was grateful.

“This is the first time I’ve seen you crack a book open on your own, without it being required,” Kai’s girlfriend mused as they stared into a cauldron in one of the Ravenclaw tower’s several study rooms. “Thankfully you’re not as thick as Kai, so you don’t need quite as much help.” 

Sehun looked impressed at her improved confidence -- clearly being with Kai made her happier and a bit more bold. He stirred the potion at her gentle instructions, making sure to reference the notes in the textbook. 

It took a few failed attempts, but no more than could be counted on a hand. Before long, Sehun had something that looked like it should. 

“You know, you have a natural knack for this,” Kai’s girlfriend commented. “Why are you doing this again?” 

But Sehun went uncharacteristically pink, seemingly unable to conjure up a smart or coquettish response as his usual. 

“I’m just a bit concerned,” he got out with some effort. “It’s for her, you know she’s been looking like a ghost recently.” 

Kai’s girlfriend nodded wisely, knowing not to say any more. 

The next day at breakfast, Kai arrived at the Great Hall alone once again -- his friend was nowhere in sight. Sehun escorted Kai’s girlfriend over to the Gryffindor table once the meal was over, giving Kai the little potion bottle and gruffly asking him to pass it along to his prefect. 

“Me?” Kai looked confused, his gaze flicking to his p