Jeno smiled brightly. The smiles that Jaemin loves to see. Jaemin tries to smile back, but it’s futile.

“Thank you” Jeno’s voice came out soft and gentle.

They hold hands through the gaps of the cold iron bars of the cage as they sat in silence. They had nothing to say that can improve the mood. Jaemin usually the jolly one out of the two didn’t even try to lift the gloom.

Though it was almost the beginning of summer, the chill of spring can still be felt in the nights in the mountains of Scotland.

A sharp breeze of cold air made Jaemin shiver. Jeno held his hand tightly and looked sad. The stun hex hasn’t worn off yet so Jeno can’t make large movements, not that he can in that small cage. He can make small ones though like interlacing their fingers together.

“I’ll be fine. Why don’t you go up and get some sleep? It’s a bit cold here, you are shivering.”

Jaemin glared at the boy.

“Don’t you dare Lee Jeno! One more word about leaving you and I’ll go to the forest myself to look for your Hyungs.”

“NO. N-no….I-I won’t ask you to go away. So don’t go to the forest. You might get hurt.”

The worry was sincere and it warmed Jaemin’s heart a bit. He huffed in annoyance.

“You think you are in a position to judge my safety when you trapped in this cage?”

Jeno looked like a kicked puppy, not that Jaemin has kicked any. He is not a criminal. Another gust of wind and Jaemin shivers a bit. He was in his pajamas with a thin shawl.

Jeno looks sadly at Jaemin. Then he remembers something.

“My robe is kept over there. Wear it. It’s made of wool it’ll keep you warm.”

Sure enough, there was a robe lying there.

Jaemin picked it up then draped it around himself. The warmth seeped into his bones and he was engulfed in his scent of pine and citrus.

Jaemin can’t help but take a sniff.

Jeno looks at him inquisitively.

“Does it stink? I just washed it today morning though.”

Jaemin blushes a bit caught in the act.

“N-no…it’s just I have a sensitive nose. By the way, do you use cologne?”

Jeno looks a bit bewildered.

“No. I don’t use anything of that sort.”

“But there is always a scent of pine and citrus….”

“Pine and citrus you say….maybe I got it from roaming in the forest. The fir and pine trees have a strongly perfumed sap. It must’ve been from there.”

“Forest? You mean the forbidden forest?”

“Yeah. I have to collect ingredients for my brother’s potions.”

There seem to be something more but Jeno avoids his eyes. He bites on his already injured lip and blood fills in inside his mouth staining his lips crimson. He flinches a little in pain.

Jaemin tactfully avoids the topic. He doesn’t want to irk the boy when he is already in such a dreadful condition.

“Potions? Do you mean the Wolfsbane potion? You make it yourself?”

“Yes…. If you didn’t already know Yong Hyung is seriously bad at potions. Mother was rarely home and Donghae Hyung gets seriously tired and irritated before the transformation. So mostly I do it. We collect whatever we can rest we buy.”

“Wait! Since when are you doing it?”

“About the age of 8 or 9 years. He awakened as a Lycan when he was 13. Thankfully mother was home that day and helped out. She is the one who taught me potion-making first.”

Jeno looks a bit melancholic, like remembering a happy memory.

“Wolfsbane was the potion I had to master. Later I used to make them at home and parcel Hyung the vials by owls on the morning of full moon. Nowadays there is also Vitality potion, blood regeneration, Wiggenwald, and a few ointments added to the list. I usually make them at night before, fresher potions have better action. But I end up dead tired by the time the full moon ends. But Hyung can’t really take a day off like me. He is the Prefect after all. And I can’t send him to school looking sick.”

Jaemin is amazed. No wonder Jeno is good at potions. He always looks at ease in potions class and maybe this is the reason why.

“You make potions the night before and then attend classes and handle your brother during his transformation in the whole night. That’s pretty impressive but no wonder you take a day off the next day. That’s too much work.”

“Yeah. I know. I am usually dead after I hit the bed morning after.”

Jaemin doesn’t answer for some time.

“Don’t you get tired Jeno? Doing this month after month? Not to be mean or something you look sick when you come back to classes. I am worried it will harm your body.”

I have seen you retching in the toilet bowl and it looks serious every time...

He didn’t say it though.

Jaemin has indeed seen Jeno after the first incident twice in that disused bathroom vomiting his guts out. Taeyong was always sitting behind him draped on him as he rubbed his back and soothed his sweat drenched hair keeping it out of the way. It looked like a private moment and he never intruded in. Whenever he saw that he turned and went away.

Jeno is silent for a while as if organizing his thoughts in his mind formulating the answer to it.

“To be truthful, I am much of a worse case than my Hyung. I am thankful that they not even put up with me but even dared to love me as a family member. I would be long dead if it wasn’t for them keeping me alive and functioning. This is the least I can do for them.”

There is a sad self-deprecating smile on his face. And Jaemin wants to rub it off.

“What are you saying, Jeno? Don’t sell yourself short. You’re the topper of our batch. You care for your family so much that you even end up like this. And you are saying you are a worse case!”

Jeno might have sensed Jaemin’s anger on his behalf.

“I am grateful you think so highly of me Jaemin. But it is true. I am just not who you think I am. I am really sorry.”

Jaemin wanted to shout at his face in frustration.

What are you sorry for, you idiot?

But then Jeno tried to move and let out a groan. The immobilization curse has apparently worn off by now.

“What happened? Did you get injured? Ugghh…what should I do? Should I call the professors? Lee Jeno, you are an idiot. Let me see, where is it? Where does it hurt?”

Jaemin realized he was fussing like a mother hen. Maybe Jisung is having too much effect on him lately.

Jeno just laughs.

“It’s okay. It’s cramped here and I think I just sprained my ankle. Nothing happened, so stop worrying.”

Jaemin bounds to the other side of the cage where the boy’s feet are tucked in an awkward angle.

True enough the left ankle is swollen and an angry red.

Jaemin doesn’t know whether to punch the boy or comfort him. He falls silent contemplating.

“While you were making potions for your brother didn’t you pack any for you in case you get hurt? Don’t tell me you didn’t consider It.” his voice terrifying.

“I don’t want to be healed. If I heal all the effort goes to waste. I need to have the wounds for evidence.”

Jaemin can feel the gears turning in his head.

“What are you planning?”

“About what?”

“About Kevin.”

“Oh! Him, he is going to get expelled. The worse the condition I am found in the greater is his doom.”

“There were 9 people there except me and Donghyuck. Even if we testify for you they will overrule it by sheer numbers. He said he is going to come in the morning and get you out.”

“In his dreams maybe.” Jeno scoffs.

Jaemin knows Jeno has a plan.

“What have you done that I don’t know about?” Jaemin raises an eyebrow.

“Nothing much. Chenle has put sleeping draught in Kevin and lackey’s drink. They are not gonna wake up before noon. And you and Donghyuck are gonna pretend you were never here last night. I asked Chenle to pass on the message.”

“I thought Chenle was with Renjun at the Ravenclaw.”

“He was. But when you people left, he is supposed to sneak in with Jisung and put it in their water bottles.”

“What if somebody else drinks from it?”

“Usually people wouldn’t dare to drink from Kevin Trunk’s and his gangs’ bottles. And even if somebody drinks from it from sheer spite, he’ll sleep really well today that’s all. It has no adverse effects or anything. It just makes you sleep a bit more and a bit deeper than usual. It’s not potent like Draught of the Living Dead, so no need to worry. It’s just a much-diluted version of it.”

Jaemin thinks about it.

“How do you know Chenle has done the job?”

“I don’t. But it’s Chenle we are talking about, so no need to worry.”

“Then what are we going to do?”

“Now, nothing. We are going to wait until morning.”

“Then?”

“Then you are gonna go to Professor Shim and tell him what you ‘accidentally’ saw in the clock tower courtyard when you came down to collect the gob-stones you left here yesterday while playing with Donghyuck. Or you can use the excuse of a morning walk.”

“I am not a morning person though.”

Jaemin smirked.

“But your House Master doesn’t know that.”

Jeno returned the smirk.

Jaemin leans onto the stone wall and spreads his legs in the front. His left hand still interlaced with Jeno’s right. The clock strikes two in the night and Jaemin can hear the hoot of a nearby owl.

The silence slowly lulls Jaemin to a drowsy state. He thinks of Jeno’s plan and he is a bit relieved, that they have something to work with. But he is concerned if Chenle was able to do his part.

He buries himself more into the other boy’s robe enjoying the enveloping warmth, the stone is cold behind his back and under him but the robe makes it better.

He looks at Jeno. His large body tucked at awkward angles inside that small cage only in his shirt and school trousers. He is looking outside with a faraway look in his eyes. His cold hand holding Jaemin’s warm one tightly, thumb tracing over his knuckles in a rhythmic soothing motion like he is trying to comfort the other boy and Jaemin can feel it working.

“Aren’t you cold?”

 Jeno broke from his reverie and made a (cute?) inquisitive sound.

“No, I am fine. You still feel cold?”

“No, I am also fine. Your hand is really cold though.”

Jeno hesitated a bit.

“I have cold extremities. I usually put on a warming charm before going out. It seems like I forgot today. And I really can’t reach for my wand now. Too little space to move.”

Jaemin grasps his hand tighter over his in an attempt to pass on the heat. He tries to distract him from his uneasiness.

“Say, how did you know I’ll stay? I could have left you here for all you know.”

 “I didn’t know. I asked Chenle to check up on the morning if you return to the dorm.”

Jaemin was upset. He thought finally he got the boy to open up but it doesn’t look like he trusts him that much. Jaemin rolls his eyes and lets out a scoff.

This boy and his iron wall.

“I hoped you would stay though.”

Jaemin whips his neck at a breakneck speed. He sees the Jeno flashing a tiny smile. His dried-up bloody cracked lips tugging at a corner.

Jaemin feels a bit elated. Maybe as Chanyeol said, he had made a dog hole in his iron walls, and maybe all that is left for Jaemin to crawl in and breakthrough his walls like a bulldozer.

“I am a bit selfish, aren’t I? It’s okay if you think like that. A being of contradictions who says that he won’t be your friend but expects you to stay. Sorry, Na Jaemin for always confusing you with my words.”

Jaemin just laughs.

“You know yourself pretty well, don’t you?” Jaemin yawns a big one. “It’s my fault for going along with your wishes. It was my choice to stay. You are not selfish, but I want you to be.”

“I can’t be selfish. I shouldn’t be.”

Jaemin wants to dig his hair out. But he is too sleepy to do it

Jeno just smiles a sad smile and gives his hand a squeeze.

Jaemin falls asleep beside him within a few minutes cocooning him inside the robe on the stone floor, fingers still interlaced with Jeno.

There is a hand smoothening out the tangles in his strawberry hair. Blunt nails scratching the scalp sometimes behind his ears like petting a cat. Though Jaemin is a bit offended at being treated like a cat, it’s warm and Jaemin shifts a bit to get comfortable. He doesn’t want the hand to stop. The owner of the hand must’ve sensed him waking up. It travelled from his head to his nape. A cold touch on his usual warm furnace-like body was like a rude shock and he whines loudly. Jaemin wakes up with another gentle push on his back.

The first thing he sees when he wakes up is he is holding onto a hand with both of his arms, next thing is he is lying on the floor with a robe on him that is definitely not his. There is a cage beside him. Then he sees a familiar face.

Lee Jeno. And Jaemin sits up straight.

There is the soft first light of the sun breaking through the clouds falling in an orange glow over the top of the clock tower. The old clock struck a 5:30 in the morning with a single gong.

Jaemin was trying to remember what happened. Then he saw Jeno looking at him from the inside of his cage, his complexion is pretty bad even in the healthy orange glow of the sun. There are eye bags under his eyes, but he smiles a tiny one as he greets Jaemin.

“Morning, I hope you are well-rested. Not really, but it can’t be helped I need you to get me out of this. My neck has cricked due to these odd angles.” Jeno chuckles.

Jaemin feels guilty. He was sleeping so soundly while the other didn’t even get a shut-eye.

“I am so sorry I fell asleep on you, while you seem like was barely able to get any.”

“It’s okay. You have the main job anyway; I can rest after getting out of this.” He squeezes his hands in assurance.

“Let’s go have a show to run.”

Show it was indeed.

Jaemin was nervous. Even nervous is an understatement. He was downright feeling like . He doesn’t know how Jeno can lie with such a plain face. He hopes he won’t fudge it up.

It is 5:35 in the morning and Jaemin wouldn’t have blamed him if he had been asleep but when he knocks on Professor Shim’s cabin fortunately it is him who opens up. He is still in his pajamas and a shawl around his shoulders. He looks like he woke up a few minutes ago as he held a cup of coffee in his hand. He looks a bit annoyed initially, but when he looks at Jaemin’s panicked face his expression turns serious.

“HELP! Professor!”

He lets him in, but Jaemin doesn’t enter. He is not someone who willingly enters the lion’s den. His acting is not perfect he can’t drop his guard around Professor Shim. Entering his cabin spells danger for him, what if he sits down with him to question details. He can’t afford that now. Jeno needs to be taken out first.

“What if I mess up?”

“You won’t” Jeno looks confident.

“Just panic around there, flail your hands, and look unsettled. Don’t get to close to him or sit down when he asks you to. Insist you have to bring him here because it’s urgent.”

“Ok.”

“Professor Shim is not stupid. He could see right through your act, so before that happens don’t get close to him and bring him here.”

“Professor, I need your help. I can’t get him out.”

Jaemin tries to act. He remembers last night, and that Jeno is injured and untreated and he really starts to get into the real emotion entering his panic mode.

Professor Shim looks even more serious.

“Na Jaemin, slow down and tell me slowly. What happened for you to come knocking on my door so early in the morning?”

Jaemin doesn’t slow down though.

“I came down for a walk since I was unable to sleep. I forgot my gob stones at the clock tower courtyard yesterday, so I went there to get them. And then….then….then I saw this cage. And there was a person inside it. Professor, it is Jeno Lee of Slytherin. But I can’t get him out. I don’t know but the lock is weird. It won’t budge under spells or anything. What should I do? I didn’t know where to go so I came here for help. He is injured and I can’t get him out….”

Professor Shim looked equally panicked and shocked. He grabbed his robe and wand and ran towards the destination. Jaemin is a Gryffindor, so it is natural he would come to him first in case of any trouble and the boy looked genuinely worried and panicked.

When they reached the corridor Professor Shim can feel a headache coming. There was indeed a cage in the middle of the corridor the open in the old courtyard. And what is even more terrifying is there a boy inside it. It is indeed Jeno Lee. And Professor Shim has an inkling as to who did it.

Professor Slughorn is going to have his head.

The first priority is the trapped boy. The adult kneels down on the floor in front of Jeno. The boy just stares at him and greets him.

“Morning Professor, pardon my condition.”

Professor lets out a sigh. He doesn’t know how to comfort this icy personality of his.

“Jeno are you hurt?”

“A few injuries here and there. A left sprained ankle. Nothing serious, I am fine.”

Professor tried the lock. But it won’t budge, no amount of Alhomora worked on it. He was afraid of using the exploding charm on it, for it may end up hurting Jeno. He clicked his tongue. A charms resistant lock.

“How did you get in there?   Who did it to you?”

Jeno glanced at Jaemin behind the professor before replying.

“Mr. Trunks and his lackeys. I was sneak-attacked with an immobilization curse. They suspected me of Lycanthropy and caged me to see me transform and supposedly ‘expose’ me. Turns out I wasn’t. So they left the ‘useless’ me here to suffer the night. ”

Professor Shim wanted to bang his head on the wall. Those idiots are gonna be the death of him. He was angry at himself, sorry for the trapped boy, and frustrated at his students.

“I know you are in pain Jeno, can you wait a bit? I need to call the locksmith. I don’t wanna hurt you while getting you out.”

“It is okay Sir. I have been here all night. A few more minutes won’t hurt.”

There was pity, guilt and anger that flashed through the elder’s eyes. He sent his Patronus out. A transparent greyhound emerged from his wand and took off.

“I am sorry Jeno. I’ll get to the end of it. I promise.”

Jaemin, who was observing from behind, knelt down in front of Jeno and took his hands as discreetly as possible and clenched tight on to it. He looked determinedly to the Slytherin.

If professor saw his action he didn’t say anything.

25 minutes into waiting for the locksmith arrives with a large toolbox yawning. He stops short at the sight of Jeno in a cage before proceeding to work on the lock, pretending he saw nothing to spare the boy of some embarrassment. Jaemin holds onto Jeno throughout the process hiding their hands under Jeno’s robe he is wearing.

Another half an hour and after sweating buckets the locksmith finally opens the cage.

“That was a pricey lock there. Whoever did it has too much money to spare.” Even the locksmith looked at Jeno with pity.

Jeno finally can move. He tried standing up but his body has frozen up. He bit his lips to stop himself from groaning in pain as he moved them to get rid of the kinks of his joints which made sickening cracking sounds under the pressure.

Professor and Jaemin somehow helped Jeno step out of the cage. His left ankle had turned blue-black from clotted blood. Professor Shim made a note of the injuries. He was about to say something when Professor Slughorn came rushing in.

Jaemin thought the old potion master is gonna faint. But thankfully there was no other victim. He fussed over Jeno like a mother hen wailing at the cruelty and occasionally throwing glares at Professor Shim.

“Oh, how could they do this to you? My poor pitiful child! How could they hurt you so badly......professor Shim how could a Gryffindor student of yours do this to him?”

Professor Shim being the younger one was going to apologize but Jeno beat him to it.

“It’s okay Professor Slughorn. The one who saved me Jaemin Na is also a Gryffindor.”

Then the overprotective grandpa finally noticed Jaemin who greeted him respectfully. The elder just patted his head.

“Thank you so much youngling, more people should be like you.”

Professor Shim was saved from the impending scolding.

Jeno was taken to the Hospital Wing for Madam Pomfrey to work her magic on him, while Jaemin returned back to his dorm.

When he entered the common room, Donghyuck, Jisung, and Chenle were sitting on the sofa. Jaemin nodded in greeting too tired to frame sentences as he flopped down in one of the armchairs. Jisung was snoozing peacefully against Donghyuck, Chenle looked well-rested unlike the rest of them.

“So, what happened?”

“Professor Slughorn and Shim took him to the hospital wing.”

“Why is Hyung hurt? He said he won’t get hurt though. He said it’s just a revenge prank? Did something serious happen?”

Chenle was concerned. He sat up straight on the sofa. Donghyuck signaled at Jaemin that Chenle and Jisung don’t know about what happened to Jeno.

Jaemin just shook his head.

“No nothing happened. Jeno is not seriously hurt. They are just fussing too much.”

Chenle looked skeptical but dropped it.

“ What about them?” Jaemin pointed upstairs with his chin towards the dorm room aka. Trunks and co.

“Still asleep and would be till the whole fiasco is over.”

Chenle winked at Jaemin.

Donghyuck was curious though.

“Where were you last night? Did you stay with him?”

“I met with him last night. He told me his plan then I…ummm…I…uh…”

“He stayed with me at the common room while you were sleeping upstairs. He left to check up on Jeno in the morning because I asked him to.” 

It was Baekhyun. He entered yawning. He glanced at Jaemin in assurance. As much as Jaemin trusts Donghyuck there are still some matters he is not willing to share now. He feels guilty but Jeno is one of those matters, so he agrees with Baekhyun. His friendship with Jeno is really fragile and he doesn’t want to publicize it now.

Donghyuck didn’t ask anymore.

“So now what?”

“Now we wait. Let’s see what happens.”

Baekhyun looked like he knew something. He patted Chenle on the head smoothening his mused up bed hair.

“ As for Chenle, Chanyeol is waiting outside for you. Go back to your dorm with him and stay with your Sehun Hyung.”

Jaemin grabs Baekhyun by the arm as the elder makes his way upstairs to catch up on his missed out sleep.

“Hyung, where you really here last night?”

Baekhyun smiles. He whispers in a low voice.

“Nope. I went to the forest with Taeyong and Chanyeol. Donghae Hyung can be a handful when he transforms. I had to run around all night. My legs are killing me!”

“Did you return just now?”

“Yeah, I heard it from the janitor about it on the way. We thought Jeno was sick that’s why he begged us to go in his stead. It turns out it’s because he planned this. Taeyong is dead tired. Still, he would go with Chanyeol probably to see him later. Donghae is still unconscious; it’s going to be a scene when he wakes up. Damn, I hope nobody dies. Seriously Jeno is too kind, that’s what I don’t like about that brat.”

Jaemin fiddled with Jeno’s robe he still had on.

“Why did you help me there?”

“You’ll know why when you grow up. Thank me later.”

And he was gone.

The professors called for him in the lunch time. He reached the revolving staircase near the Headmistress’s office and saw Jeno standing there. He hasn’t seen him since morning. He still looks pale and tired but his cuts were no longer visible, and Jaemin can see a bandage wrapped around his left ankle peeking above his oxfords where usually dark grey socks are worn.

“Hey!”

“Hi.”

“You look tired.”

“I am tired.”

“You have become famous though. ‘The bullied Slytherin who was trapped in a cage’. News spread like wildfire here.’

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Since it spread that much I am guessing your brothers have heard it also.”

“Yep. Not only that Chenle heard it too and suddenly he was crying. That child has the highest pitch my eardrums got almost blown off. Then I got told off by my brothers. I am telling you they are out for blood. I very painfully held them back, or it would’ve ended up in a massacre.”

Jaemin laughs.

“Oh! What a hero you are!”

Jeno sniggers, eyes glinting with mischief. And Jaemin likes this Jeno a lot.

Professor Shim comes down to get them.

“Professor McGonagall just returned today a few minutes ago from the Ministry of Magic. She was supposed to return tomorrow but you are lucky the work ended earlier and she returned in a hurry when she heard about the incident.”

It’s the r