Author's note: catching up on what Jiyong's been up to and the Gri situation at this time. Enjoy~!

He wonders why Jiyong doesn’t live at home.

The Kwon family is one of the Most Ancient and Noble Houses so presumably they have a mansion – although Daesung had never been there – and as far as he’s aware his friend gets along well with his family. Maybe it’s an independence thing or maybe it’s just a Jiyong thing, since he’s probably the most atypical pureblood he’s ever met. Or at least the one that refuses to be bound by his ancestry the most.

Daesung stumbles a little coming out of the Floo network but manages to catch his footing in time. Both of his hands brush down to get the dust of his clothes before they clothing is suddenly magically clean again. He blinks for a moment but then laughs, locking gazes with his amused friend as soon as he raises his head properly.

Jiyong’s new, messy, pink hair is the first thing he notices, of course. He’s leaning against the closest doorway, twirling his wand around his fingers, grin on his face. There’s a glint in his eyes that only tends to show up whenever he’s working on and obsessing over something, dedicating himself entirely to it. It’s something to see but the dark circles under his eyes are more pronounced than usual and the Hufflepuff wonders for a second if it’s the project or Seungri or Seunghyun causing them… but doesn’t ask.

“Forgot that you’re a wizard, Daesung?”

“Oh, shush!” Daesung laughs, walking over with his eyes narrowing in happiness before dragging his friend into a hug. If it was anyone else he might have been a bit apprehensive about the teasing but Jiyong doesn’t mean anything by it, if anything he’s one of the people who seem to respect his magical ability the most. And it’s kind of true, he does still forget to use magic for a lot of simple things, like washing the dishes or keeping his drinks warm.

The Ravenclaw laughs and hugs him back fiercely for a few seconds before patting him on the shoulder and stepping back. His eyes take Daesung in carefully, as if to make sure he’s healthy and well, before Jiyong nods in a satisfied fashion. A smile’s offered his way and soon enough they’re making their way down some hallway or another, the only sound besides their voices and steps being the charmed silver bracelets around his friend’s wrist clinking everytime he gesticulates.

It’s good to see him, really. He seems tired and Daesung is planning on asking his questions before leaving but for now it’s just nice to enjoy his presence. They haven’t really interacted much besides letters since… the press party event, he thinks? Between his studying, job, the tiredness and all that’s happened with Seunghyun his memory has been feeling a bit jumbled lately. And it’s only November.

They pass by a lot of closed doors while making random conversation. This is probably another reason Jiyong has his own place – exactly how big is it, how many rooms are there and what is he using them for? Surely he can’t have this many projects going on at once? He’d never sleep! Daesung feels his curiosity rising the more doors he sees but keeps it down. His friend will tell him if and when he wants. Not many people are even invited here and he doesn’t want to introduce on the man’s privacy.

Jiyong abruptly turns, bracelets jingling as he does so, pushing open the doors to the right of them and ushering him in. The room is completely dark and he can’t see anything no matter how hard he tries or squints and doesn’t want to try Lumos in case there’s sensitive magic somewhere nearby…  alright, maybe working with wands has made him a little more aware of blacklash magic than he should be.

The lights – well, enchantments, wizards don’t have electricity – come on after a moment, making him close his eyes. He opens them again after a moment, staring in apparent confusion. Jiyong’s half grinning, half smirking, standing at the center of the room and gesticulating for him to come closer with one hand, pointing at something with the other. Daesung steps up, confused, and then promptly stops.

His attention focuses entirely on the… table? It certainly looks like a table but it also seems to be made out of stone for whatever reason. A cold sensation travelling up his fingers when he touches it confirms that it is stone. The entire thing goes up to his waist, there are small drilled holes in each corner of it in clusters, and there are several pebbles spread throughout the top. It seems too odd for them to just be randomly sitting there so there must be some purpose.

He moves around it slowly without really realizing it, eyes taking in every detail that they can. The small stones dotting the surface have runes on them, he notices, leaning closer to take a better look. Daesung immediately recognizes all of them, knows their individual meaning, but can’t for the life of him understand why they’re arranged like that or even what this entire thing is supposed to be. His nose is so close he can feel the cold from the stone and he straightens up, throwing a confused look at his friend. “What… is this?”

Jiyong smiles, pride etched into his face, passion burning bright in his eyes as he moves to stand at one corner of the table. Casually, he reached over and taps one of the pebbles. A steady sort of noise streams out of the small holes at the corners and the Hufflepuff feels the words get stuck in his throat as his brain slowly catches up. Is… is that a bass line? His head swims and he doesn’t question the stool that suddenly appears behind him, just sits down on it promptly. That shouldn’t even be…

Electronics simply don’t work around magic. A lot of muggleborns and halfbloods had tried to understand why and find a way around that quirk but no luck thus far – the only things that managed to be converted were old and mechanical. The Ravenclaw himself had tried for years now to make muggle instruments with electronic components work in magic heavy places with no success. 

So this has to be some sort of… spell?  Yes, a spell. Like the instruments that played by themselves in the Hogwarts, that floated around during balls without needing anyone to play them. Basically a recording.  So every pebble had a different activation rune, maybe to mark which instrument’s sound they could reproduce? But how had he managed to record it in the first place?

“Jiyong,” his voice sounds breathless as he reaches over to grab the back of the man’s robes, not even wondering when he walked over from the other side of the table. “You’re a genius.” Of course, this set up is pretty limited. There’s only so many pebbles – and thus sound styles – that can be active like this and unless it’s something with a pretty steady beat it’s unlikely to work. But maybe if they changed the way it’s designed…? What if the runes were on the table itself and the stones were just timed activators? If they divide it into sections like, say, make the top left corner for the guitar, record all the chords and mark them down, they could possibly play every single-

“Do you know where Seungri likes to spend his free time?” the question is so abrupt that it completely pulls Daesung out of his thoughts, leaving him disoriented. He blinks a couple of times, forcing his head to shut up about runes and positioning and layouts to focus on his friend – sitting down next to him on another conjured bench, staring at the front wall with a small frown – instead. “What?”

Jiyong lowers his gaze down to his lap briefly where his hands are curled together, a small but self-deprecating smile crossing his lips. It’s an unusual sight to say the least and Daesung shoves the rest of his thoughts away to wait patiently for the answer. As interesting as the project is, it can wait for a couple of minutes. “… well, I can’t call Seunghyun a coward for not asking you out and then do the same thing,” a small sigh escapes him. “So I thought I’d ask him out but I have no idea where to ta-“

“You called Seunghyun a coward?” the question is blurted out, not in affront but in surprise as the Hufflepuff blinks at him once more. Is this what the argument had been about, then? He can’t really imagine them fighting but then he wasn’t even really aware they knew each other until recently. Jiyong rubs a hand over his forehead before shrugging and raising both his arms. “He practically sighed whenever your name was mentioned after the Ministry’s event Daesung, I had to do something.”

“Wait, that reminds me, did you also lie to him about not being able to attend that?”

“… maybe,” the impish grin tells him everything he needs to know, making Daesung gasp in fake outrage and swat at the Jiyong’s arm. That causes the other man to burst into laughter, using both hands to stop himself from falling down from the bench. He laughs even harder once the apprentice crosses both arms across his chest and raises a brow, trying to look serious but not succeeding very well. “Jiyong Kwon, I can’t believe you!”

Both of them double over in laughter, clutching to their respective seats. Everything made a lot more sense now: the haircut, bumping into them at the press party and Jiyong telling Seunghyun he couldn’t attend but being spotted later. It makes him wonder exactly how long his friend had been trying to subtly push them together.  On the one hand he’s thankful for it, it definitively helped, but on the other hand… “you know, you could have just told me.”

“Seunghyun is good with hexes, he’d have cursed me so hard my great-grandchildren would still feel the effects.”

A comfortable silence descends between them and Daesung runs a hand through his hair in a relaxed gesture, thinking. Seunghyun and Jiyong don’t seem very upset with one another and it seems the problem with Seungri will be resolved quickly which he’s happy about, since both of these problems had been causing him a large amount of concern and stress lately. He’s the first to speak again, scratching at his jaw, still in thought. “You know Madam Puddifoot’s in Hogsmeade?”

“… the tacky tea shop?”

“Yeah, that one. Take him there.”

His friend slowly turns his head to stare at him, silently asking him if he’s being serious about this. Daesung shrugs helplessly and smiles – Seungri is no doubt going to kill him for this, and he’ll vehemently deny it, but the Gryffindor is actually rather fond of the gaudy and frilly place, considering it kind of cute and romantic and whatnot. Jiyong stares for a moment longer before letting out a sigh, somewhere between resigned and affectionate, and at that moment all the worries his mind had been conjuring about his friends’ possible date disappear. If the Ravenclaw is willing to go there to make Seungri happy…

They laugh a little more as they stand up, moving to circle the table and talk about how it can be improved, becoming totally engrossed in the discussion in a matter of mere seconds.