Author's note: hope you've all been enjoying the fluff so far. If you need me I'll be over there, resisting the urge to cackle in an evil manner.

Please enjoy~!

The air hums around him.

Most of the room is dark, the only sources of light are the candles on the floor and the little sunlight that is able to slip through the closed blinds. His master sits in the middle of three concentric circles – made of runes, really old, really complicated ones – carved into the stone floor.

He exhales slowly as the hairs at the back of his neck and his arms stand up. There’s so much magic here now, such strong and raw magic, that it feels like a physical force brushing against him. The entire room feels saturated with it, almost buzzing, and the fact it’s a pretty small space – annexed to the office by a small door – doesn’t help with the overwhelming feeling of it all.

His master’s athame glows warmly, reflecting the flame of the candles as she carefully and deliberately prepares the core. He stands in a corner, watching intently. Unicorn hair, he knows, is the easiest to handle, dragon heartstring is the strongest and holly feather is the most temperamental and fickle to work with. There are other cores, rarer and more unusual, but most wands end up with one of those three.

Daesung almost doesn’t dare breathe and tries to pay the utmost attention. His master binds together the wooden shell and the core over the course of about forty minutes in an impressive display of wandless magic. Not as most people think of it, it’s not conjuration or any sort of charm, more like using her own magic to keep the ritual self-contained. There’s always a bit of a struggle between wand and wandmaker during this process.

The strong ambient magic in the air dies down to something like white noise and he finally breathes. His master is panting slightly, a bit hunched over and Daesung moves to go get a glass of water – not daring to conjure anything– before moving back inside and waiting for her to get out of the rune circles. She does so after a few minutes, leaving the brand new wand on the floor to settle down, thanking him for the water and immediately drinking it.

It’s a much more dangerous and draining art than most people give it credit for and at times he wonders if he’ll ever be able to do it. The mere idea makes him nervous and excited and curious, makes him wonder what it would feel like to create something like this, to sell it, to be able to part with something he considers art. His master seems pretty happy, however, and thinking about it he’ll probably be too. After all, wands are made to be used and to help wizards and witches accomplish wonderful feats of magic.

The last time he tried to help her stay up she swatted at him and mumbled something about not being that old thank you very much, so he settles for smiling. His master still mutters something under her breath and reaches over but ruffles his hair instead, reassuring him he’ll be able to follow in her footsteps just fine in time and not to worry about it – honestly, how does she always know – before shooing him off.

It’s Sunday, the day he usually spends buckling down for some serious studying, she usually spends making a new batch of wands and they both check on his progress and talk about it. There’s no doubt now that Daesung will start studying the cores deeply while keeping up with his carving practice by the end of the year and he’ll get his own athame next month. Both news make him so giddy he practically skips while leaving the store – it’s snowing again and Daesung smiles as he stares up at the sky, spreading out his arms out and twirling around.

A couple of people stare at him but he doesn’t much care. A joyful laugh escapes him as the world spins before his eyes, icy cold snowflakes drifting down his hair and face. It must look incredibly silly but he’s too happy to feel self-conscious – his studies are doing well, he met Seunghyun’s parents, his boyfriend met his own and both meals went well, Youngbae has started the next phase of his apprenticeship and Seungri and Jiyong seem incredibly happy.

Finally he comes to a stop, shaking his head and making his way back home with a skip still in his step. Two or three people are still looking at him but they smile genuinely once he rubs the back of his head sheepishly and laughs in their direction. Not that Daesung usually broods or anything, he’s been known to be good natured and good humoured since growing out of his shy teenager years, but his mood is even better than usual today.

D-Lite seems to pick up on it as soon as he walks inside the apartment, flying to his shoulder and nipping at his fingers before making his way into the kitchen and perching on the wireless. There was a match earlier today but Daesung had been studying and thus wasn’t able to listen to it. Now he cranks up the volume – they’ll probably mention the results again at some point – while rummaging inside the “fridge” for something to make for dinner.

As obstinate as wizards can be about certain things they’re also quite practical about others, he thinks. There aren’t actually any grocery stores or anything but if you can’t grow your own food – which a lot of wizarding families do – there’s a service you can sign up to that restocks your cupboards through magic. He isn’t sure how but it works, there’s even a catalogue for it. It’s almost like ordering take out except that doesn’t actually exist in the wizarding world… does it? Uhm, maybe he should ask Seungri.

His mind wanders as he prepares the vegetables, forgoing magic as usual in favour of preparing things with a knife. He thought it was just habit that made him prefer doing it this way but Daesung has become more aware of things like this since Seunghyun went to meet his parents and asked him if he missed the muggle world. On the one hand his answer had been true, the wizarding world is his world now… but on the other hand he doesn’t want to just forget where he came from. Maybe it just makes him stubborn but this is a way to remind him of his parents and how he grew up.

Jiyong is still working on his project. The apprentice has seen how it’s coming along and goes to help out every once in a while to see if the modifications are going alright whenever he has the time to do so. It’s incredibly ambitious but it’s also incredibly in character for the Ravenclaw to do something between crazy and genius. Daesung isn’t worried about it working, it certainly will, but the repercussions are kind of exciting. It may not extend to areas other than music but there’s that possibility and he can hardly wrap his head around it. Who knows, maybe someday there will be a wizarding version of computers!

His gaze flickers over to D-Lite hooting distastefully at whoever is speaking in the WWN before setting on the window, hoping to perhaps see another owl. Thinking about Seungri and Jiyong made him remember that today has been weirdly quiet. Usually he would have gotten a couple of letters from each of them throughout the day but neither of them had said anything. Even Seunghyun had only sent a single letter in the morning and hadn’t answered him yet. Really, only Youngbae had kept up their usual correspondence.

Daesung had just been assuming they were busy because it does happen, they all have busy or stressful days sometimes, but now he’s getting worried. All three of them? During the entire day? It doesn’t really help that two of them are purebloods and the other one has inside sources. Had something happened?

A ball of anxiety starts forming in his stomach but he shakes his head and pushes his worries aside. Dinner simmers on the stove as his eyes keep gazing towards the windows despite his intentions. The fireplace is out near the door, there’s not a lot of privacy but he can always make a Floo call if they don’t say anything by tomorrow. He’d rather not because seeing green flames forming the talking, disembodied head of someone he knows is honestly weird even after all these years.

Sighing lowly, he moves to the living room and grabs his writing supplies. The parchment is laid out on the counter as he starts scribbling and composing a letter to his parents while keeping an eye on the food. Every once in a while he sends them a very long one, rambling about anything and everything in a way that would make Seungri proud, telling them about the last couple of weeks in detail. Granted, it usually happens when he can’t visit and is feeling guilty about it but this time it’s something he can focus on, something to settle his nerves.

He writes and writes until his fingers hurts and his dinner’s ready. He lazily transfers it to a plate and moves to go eat on the couch, turning the radio up again much to D-Lite’s displeasure. It’s some weird show about wizarding fashion and the host speaks of charms and transfiguration spells he’s never even heard about. Some of them actually sound really useful when last minute alterations to robes are necessary. Jiyong’s name comes up around the same time as he’s wondering if his friend actually follows this show-

And it reminds him. Daesung quickly finishes the food and turns the radio off, waiting until D-Lite is finished with a small piece of meat before tying the rather lengthy letter to his leg and sending him off. It’s getting late but he’s too nervous to sleep. Maybe he can just study a bit more, at least until his body gets tired enough to fall asleep regardless. And there are those muggle novels he hasn’t gotten around to reading yet too. The ones that involve magic are actually pretty funny to him now, for obvious reasons.

Something shoots past the window just as he’s closing it, startling him. His wand’s out and ready, pointing in the intruder’s direction before Daesung recognizes the owl. VI looks like he’s been flying through a storm all day, feathers ruffled and twisted, swaying dangerously on the back of the couch. He stares for only a second before moving to pick the poor thing up, carefully placing him on D-Lite’s perch next to some food and water.

His fingers quickly work on unwrapping the message after he makes sure the bird isn’t going to collapse from exhaustion. It’s not nearly as long as Seungri’s correspondence usually is, it’s not even a proper letter in fact, just a bit of parchment with a hastily scribbled sentence on it. Daesung reads it once, twice, thrice, uselessly trying to wraps his head around the words. There’s a sick foreboding feeling settling in his stomach and the lack of explanation only makes his suspicions worse.

“… don’t read the Prophet tomorrow…?”