True fever
title: True fever
pairing: kris/lay
rating: pg-13
word count: 10k words
summary: Someone spikes the drinks at the Yule Ball with veritaserum. Naturally, chaos ensues.
notes: written for exolliarmus
It’s not that Yixing doesn’t want to go to the Yule Ball. He does. His robes are fine (his mom got them earlier that year, as soon as she got notice of the Triwizard Tournament), all his friends are going, and he’s got a hot Quidditch Champion date. He’s supposed to be thrilled about being Kim Minseok’s date -- everyone wants to be Kim Minseok’s date, and out of everyone else, Minseok asked Yixing to go with him. That’s definitely something to be thrilled about. Definitely.
He pops another glacial snowflake into his mouth and cushions his head onto his arms, staring at the robes levitating in front of him. Nice robes indeed. Yixing would be dying to wear them at any given opportunity -- so why didn’t he take Kim Jongin’s dance lessons like everyone else? The 5th year Gryffindor set up a secret dance studio in the Room of Requirement (since the dance lesson given by the professors was good for nothing) and accepted all students willing to learn a step of two. All his friends are there right now, attentive to Jongin’s last minute instructions in order not to look like a babbling, bumbling band of baboons on the dance floor.
Yixing, however, is hiding in the common room, munching on sweets and levitating his robes while he decides how much Kim Minseok’s fans will hate him if he cancels on the school’s brightest star. Honestly, Yixing can’t figure out what is it that Minseok sees in him anyway: he’s mostly ordinary, and his eyes are droopy. Someone like Minseok should be dating someone as famous and treasured as he is. Someone like Kang Seulgi, his Quidditch teammate. Or Oh Sehun. Although Oh Sehun is not the nicest person in the castle (he was one of the students who discouraged Yixing’s initiative on the care and preservation of unicorns), Yixing is pretty sure he wants into Minseok’s pants more than the rest of the magic and Muggle populations combined.
Heaving a long sigh, Yixing levitates his robes all the way up to his trunk by the bunk and pops another glacial snowflake into his mouth. Soon he’ll need to get ready for the damn ball, but he figures he can wait for the rest of the students to return to the common room before he acts on it. Or maybe he could take a bath while everyone else is preoccupied with Kim Jongin’s lesson. Yes, a warm bath seems nice.
He uses the bathroom in the Hufflepuff tower, carrying all his hair-care potions and a small can of Sleekeasy scalp treatment (he can style his hair if he’s in the mood). His baths don’t usually take long, but Yixing feels particularly up for cleansing and takes twice as long to come out of the washbasin. He ends up using the hair balm on his locks, but the results are not satisfactory so he washes it to try one more time. All in a slow, leisurely pace. When the voices of students start to fill the whole floor, Yixing knows it’s time to return to the common room and change into his robes. He doesn’t, though. He washes his hair one more time and tries another style. Slowly. Very slowly.
Someone with caramel hair attacks him as soon as he returns to the Hufflepuff common room.
“Yixing,” Luhan says with his eyebrows knit together and a pained look. Yixing notices his friend is already in his robes. “Why aren’t you dressed?”
“I was taking a bath,” he explains.
Luhan rolls his eyes as if taking a bath was something silly. “You should get ready! Minseok will come for you at any moment!”
Of course he wouldn’t be worried about his friend going missing for a few hours. Yixing has been reduced to ‘Minseok’s date’ ever since the other student asked him, and he’s not sure if he likes it as much as his friends do.
Yixing drags himself to the dorm room and changes into his robes, allowing a hurried Luhan to barge in and prod at his hair with remarks of ‘we need to fix this’. He just sits and sighs.
When Minseok arrives, the whole Hufflepuff common room holds their breath. (Why though, why you people are like this, why?)
“You look nice,” Minseok says, the smell of the Ravenclaw’s confidence permeating the Hufflepuff common room. Yixing can feel a dozen pairs of eyes focused on them. “Ready to go?”
Fixing on a smile, Yixing nods and takes the arm Minseok offers. “Yes.”
Luhan flashes him a grin and two thumbs up when they’re leaving. Yixing just hopes the night flows as perfectly as his housemates expect it to.
{x}
There’s not much he’d like to be doing at the Yule Ball. If he was in any other mood, Yixing would have gaped at how different the Great Hall looks decorated for the dance. The usual floating candles were replaced by tiny fairy lights, and snow is falling from the ceiling, originating from nothing and disintegrating before even reaching the students. There’s food everywhere -- literally everywhere -- and the Durmstrang students are already filling their bellies; Yixing sees their headmaster, Shim Changmin, devouring three chicken legs at once. Instead of relishing it like all the other students, Yixing just watches the Triwizard Champions waltzing gracefully around and allows Minseok to chatter about the suspension of the Quidditch House Cup.
Yixing’s mind easily wanders away from Minseok’s voice, taking in all the happiness surrounding them. He sees Luhan try to coax his date, Choi Jinri, a Ravenclaw girl who’s always yanking him around by the hair, into dancing. (Yixing is oddly fond of her.) Kim Jongin shows his unusual dance skills while a crowd cheers for him. Yixing thinks someone should check his shoes, maybe he’s been making use of one of those enchanted pairs. With one more glance around, he can see a few Beauxbatons girls tiptoeing and butterflying, spreading their veela charms around. Sometimes he wonders how crazy it would be to have veela powers, to be able to win the affection of anyone he wanted. He knows half of his friends would use said powers on Kim Minseok. Yixing wouldn't, which is really funny because he didn't need veela powers to win Kim Minseok's affections. He’s chuckling absent-mindedly when something catches his attention.
Glancing at Minseok to check if he noticed Yixing's diverted focus, the Hufflepuff turns to the drinks table. There's something suspicious there. Kim Jongdae is there, to be more exact.
Kim Jongdae could be considered the school's resident troublemaker. In his first year, the Gryffindor stole a broomstick and decided to fly inside the castle. Everyone laughed and it was kinda fun to see professors screaming in panic, but Jongdae fell and broke his leg in three places. In his second year, he freed a bunch of Cornish Pixies and all classes had to be canceled for two days because no one could catch them all. In his third and fourth years he must have done something equally dangerous, even though Yixing can't quite remember what, because that's the pattern. Kim Jongdae stirs trouble wherever he goes.
And now there he is, looking shady as he walks away from the drinks table. Yixing squints, but brushes his concerns aside because Kim Jongdae couldn't have possibly planned something for the Yule Ball, could he?
“Should we get drinks?” Minseok questions, his voice breaking Yixing from his ruminations. He glances at the Ravenclaw and nods, following Minseok to the drinks table. The contents fill his eyes. There is butterbeer, pumpkin juice, gillywater, exploding lemonade and the purplish party punch they usually see at celebrations in the Great Hall. “What do you want?”
“Punch, please,” he answers. Yixing doesn’t know why, but something about those drinks seem fishy. A few of them are frothing oddly, like someone shook them. The pumpkin juice is actually greenish. It’s probably from too many people pouring drinks.
“The Headmaster did not look sad to inform us about the cancellation,” Minseok says, still talking about the Quidditch House Cup as he pours punch in cups for both of them. “Everyone knows he’s trying to deal with the fact that the matron is too old to heal the most simple injuries. The other day she was trying to perform a Ferula and ended up erasing Song Wendy’s memory. Can you believe that? Almost 60% of all injuries in a school year are--”
A little ways from where he’s standing with Minseok, Oh Sehun glares at him. Frowning, Yixing wonders if it’s ok to just flip Oh Sehun off, since he’s not in the mood. Instead of being rude to the younger Slytherin, Yixing just asks himself why the hell he decided to accept Minseok’s invitation. It doesn’t matter if the whole Muggle and magical population combined would kill for a date with Kim Minseok, Yixing wouldn’t. He let himself be influenced by popular opinion.
Sehun scowls at Yixing. Yixing thought that Slytherins didn’t get along very well with Ravenclaws. Why is Sehun so obsessed with Kim Minseok anyway?
“... yesterday? I mean, someone could have lost a wand.” Minseok gently elbows him. “Your drink.”
Yixing blinks at him, taking the cup.
“You don’t look so well,” his date says.
“I’m just tired. I was up all night studying.”
Minseok looks truly concerned, and Yixing feels bad for not even trying to have fun. He could have put a little more effort. The band playing, The Rogue Bludgers, is a great one and everyone is excited to watch them. Minseok must want to dance.
He sighs, running a hand down his face. “I’m sorry, I’m being a terrible date.”
Elbowing him again, Minseok smiles at him. “No, you’re not.”
Yixing smiles. He can think whatever he wants about Kim Minseok, but the dude is nice. That’s probably why everyone likes him so much (besides his raging good looks and mad Quidditch skills). The least Yixing can do is try to enjoy Minseok’s company.
“Let’s dance,” he suggests, gulping all the contents of his cup before dragging Minseok to the dancefloor.
The Rogue Bludgers already finished their act, but there is still loud music filling the hall and couples are still dancing. Minseok and Yixing decided to sit and eat a little before Durmstrang students could finish all the food (they’re impressive eaters). The night goes surprisingly well for Yixing after he decides to quit sulking and have some fun. However, after a few minutes of sitting and munching on pumpkin pasties and dragon milk cheeses, Yixing starts to notice that something really weird is going on.
In fact, something really weird has been going on for a while, except he didn’t think it was something weird at the time. When he and Minseok were dancing, he saw one girl stomp on her date’s feet and storm out of the dance floor. He thought it could be a regular lover’s quarrel, but as he sits and watches similar quarrels happen to different couples all around the hall, Yixing figures that something really weird is going on. With time, he realizes it’s not only couples who are quarreling.
On a corner, a girl cries inconsolably while her friends surround her. More to her left, two boys scream at each other’s faces. Yixing's eyes catch sight of something and widen. Is that Choi Jinri slapping Luhan across the face?
Minseok chooses that particular moment to touch his arm and require his attention. "Yixing, I feel like I should be true to you." He's frowning, eyes lost between Yixing's face and his shoes. "I've had a crush on you since the sorting hat first screamed 'Hufflepuff!' and I was so sad because he didn't scream 'Ravenclaw!' that I tried to use a time turner--"
Loud yelling sounds from nearby, and Yixing wants to turn and watch what's happening. He’s pretty sure he hears spells being tossed left and right. Behind Minseok, Park Chanyeol runs from an infuriated Kim Jongin. What the hell is going on?
"Something really weird is going on," Yixing mumbles, frowning when he catches sight of some guy on a broomstick, flying shirtless. A few people have their wands in hands and there is someone tossing spells people left and right. A girl yells “Stupefy” and blueish light comes flying from her wand straight to her date’s chest. The boy gets violently yanked back and falls onto a group of Beauxbatons students. Music is still resonating through the hall, but no one is dancing anymore.
"... And I've always had the feeling that you were bothered by--" Minseok is still talking and there's too much information swirling in Yixing's brain.
A spell flashes too close to his ear.
"Merlin's beard!" he curses, focusing on Minseok. "Ok, listen up," the Ravenclaw looks up at him in surprise. "I understand that you have the hots for me, but right now? Chaos is descending upon this place!"
A girl runs past them sneezing, evidently under the Steleus hex, and Yixing follows her (and the four people bearing their wands that accompany her) with wide eyes, in complete shock. More to her right, a Durmstrang boy points his wand at a group of his schoolmates and says “Entomorphis!” Insects cloud the group and the boy cackles.
"You knew I was into you?" Minseok asks. How can he seem so oblivious at the whole mess around them?
“Of course I knew, everyone knows, man. You’re not exactly subtle in your staring and fawning,” Yixing blurts. Immediately after he says it there’s a weird feeling taking over him. He feels like he should apologize to Minseok because that’s something he wasn’t supposed to say, however, also feels like he couldn’t take his words back. Because that would be a lie.
Minseok gasps. “I just wanted a chance to tell you that--”
Yixing interrupts him hurriedly, “Dude, don’t do that. I’m flattered, but I can’t reciprocate your feelings.” Minseok frowns at him, like he can’t understand what Yixing is saying. “All you seem to care about is Quidditch!”
“What--”
A few professors are now trying to put some order in the hall, disenchanting a few petrified students and separating wrestling duos, but it’s clear that the Yule Ball has been effectively ruined. Yixing sighs, finding that he cannot stand in the middle of the hex crossfire anymore.
“We need to find cover,” he announces, looking around for a safe place to run. That’s when Oh Sehun comes out of nowhere to Minseok’s side, desperation written all across his face as he spills all kinds of confessions of love and admiration. The Quidditch player shifts his eyes to the younger, trying to pay attention to what Sehun is saying. Yixing would love to stay and watch the rest of the exchange, but the spells are getting out of control. Giving Minseok one last apologetic look, Yixing leaves.
As he runs out of what once was the Yule Ball, Yixing sees Luhan casting a Patronus spell onto Jinri (was that supposed to be a joke?), he sees Park Chanyeol and Kim Jongin making out on a corner (what?), he also sees Kim Jongdae laughing maniacally amidst it all. The way out of the Great Hall is clear, save for a couple of students still arguing. With his wand drawn for his own protection, Yixing tries to make it back to his common room, carefully walking into a seemingly danger-free corridor that’s not really empty, he realizes, taking in a lean, tall form sitting on the floor, legs brought to his chest like he’s shielding himself.
Upon closer inspection he realizes It’s Wu Yifan, 7th year Slytherin. Yixing knows Wu Yifan from the classes their houses have together but before that, Yixing knows Wu Yifan from The Diagon Alley.
His mom had left him at Amanuensis Quills and went to Gringotts, trusting that Yixing wouldn’t get lost because they’d been to the Diagon Alley several times and he should be accustomed to the streets. Yixing knew he would get lost if he decided to wander, so he just stayed right where his mom left him, between shelves of peacock feather quills and auto-answer quills. That’s where Wu Yifan found him.
10 year old Yifan was too skinny in his purple and green robes, black hair cut short and strong eyebrows frowning down at Yixing.
“Why do you wear Muggle clothes?” he asked.
Yixing looked down at his own attire -- a grey sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers -- and back up at Yifan. “My mum picked them for me.”
“Are you a Muggle?” Yifan insisted, stepping closer.
His mom had explained that to him, Yixing knew the answer. They weren’t Muggles, his mom and him. His dad was, though, but he loved them with all his heart.
“My dad is. I’m not,” he said simply.
Understanding flashed across Yifan’s face. “Did you get your letter yet? Your Hogwarts letter.”
Yixing sighed, lowering his eyes and shaking his head. A girl that lived a few houses from them received hers early and Yixing had been getting impatient to get his. “Not yet. Did you get yours?”
Yifan shook his head, but didn’t seem fazed. “Dad says I’ll get mine when I’m eleven.” He watched Yixing for a few beats, and seeming determined not to let the conversation die, poked a few more questions. “What’s your name? I’m Yifan.”
“Yixing.”
Opening a bright, gummy smile, Yifan patted Yixing’s shoulder. “Alright, don’t worry Yixing. I’ll be your guide when we’re in Hogwarts. My mom gave me a book called Hogwarts: A History, and I read it in a week. I really like books. Do you like books?”
“I don’t know… I haven’t read many books.” He remembered reading something called The Cat in the Hat and The Toadstool Tales, but his memory wasn’t very good.
Yifan nodded promptly. “No worries, you can read mine when we’re in school. I hope you’re in Slytherin. Which house was your mom in?”
Yixing forced his memory to fly back to his parent’s bedroom to find a silver and blue blazon portraying an eagle. “Ravenclaw,” he said. “But she says I could go somewhere else.”
“I hope you go to Slytherin,” Yifan reinforced before a tall woman with sleek black hair came for him, tugging at his hand.
The next time he saw Wu Yifan was at the Great Hall when they were all huddled together to be sorted into the houses. Right before his name was called, Yixing spotted Yifan among the other first years and his eyebrows shot up in recognition. The other waved at him, and the most vivid memory Yixing has of that night is Yifan’s disappointed look when the sorting hat yelled “Hufflepuff!”
They had spoken during classes, a few timid words, because even though they had met, there hadn’t been time to grow past the awkward phase of acquaintanceship. Despite the awkwardness of slightly bowing to each other in the hallways, Yixing still went to Yifan’s first game as a Slytherin beater. And all the others after that. While all his friends were cheering for Ravenclaw and Kim Minseok, Yixing was secretly smirking every time Yifan’s bat smashed back a bludger.
It takes the Slytherin a few beats to notice Yixing standing there, wand drawn and cheeks a little colored by the haste of escaping. Yifan doesn’t look surprised.
“It’s ok. This area is clear,” he says.
Yixing blinks, sighing and putting his wand away. “It’s madness in there. I don’t know what happened.”
“I do,” Yifan mentions, legs falling to the floor. “Kim Jongdae. I heard him talking to Byun Baekhyun. He poured... A potion into the drinks. By the time I knew, it was too late and I had taken a few sips.”
Gasping, Yixing frowns, flashes of Jongdae’s suspicious behavior near the drinks table coming back. “I knew it! He looked too damn fishy.”
Yifan chuckles. “Do you wanna sit down?”
He was about to refuse, but thinking twice Yixing considered the possibility of people under the influence of whatever Kim Jongdae spiked the drinks with crowding the common room. Perhaps Yifan’s danger-free area is the safest place to be right now. So he sits, adjusting his robes under his legs.
“I didn’t see you in there,” he says. Giving Yifan a quick look, he notices that the Slytherin has already undone half of his garments. His tie hangs around his neck and the cloak of his robes lies on his lap.
“I’m not into dancing,” Yifan offers, shrugging slightly before facing Yixing. “But you are.”
“Mm?”
“I saw you. With Kim Minseok.” Yifan’s eyes shift to his lap. “You looked like you were having a good time.”
There’s no reason for Yixing to act so surprised. Like he’s just been caught using one of the secret passages to Hogsmeade. All he did was dance a little with Kim Minseok, so why is he so embarrassed?
Clearing his throat, Yixing blurts, “I felt bad for him.”
Yifan studies him for all 30 seconds in which Yixing has his eyes wider than saucers, trying to figure out why he would say something like that. He felt bad for Minseok? It’s true, he felt bad for not trying, because Minseok is a cool dude after all, but why is that something Wu Yifan needs to know? Deep down there’s something, the hint of a feeling Yixing’s been noticing since earlier. It’s not a default feeling.
Squinting, he asks, “What did Kim Jongdae spike the drinks with?”
“Veritaserum.” Yifan answers immediately. “The truth is out there.” The Slytherin smiles at his own joke and Yixing would have thought it’s endearing if his brain wasn’t preoccupied trying to process the information that the chaos back at the Great Hall was caused by Veritaserum. “I don’t know how he got his hands on it, but that’s what he told Byun Baekhyun.”
“Why would he do that?” Yixing is perplexed. He knew about Kim Jongdae’s reputation, but ruining an event everyone was so excited about?
“That’s not even the worrying part,” Yifan mentions. “The use of Veritaserum is controlled by the Ministry. He could be in serious trouble.”
Would serve him well. Jongdae’s rebelliousness should have a limit.
“If anyone asks us about it we won’t be able to lie.”
“That’s why I’m hiding here.”
Yixing turns to face him, “I thought you were escaping the chaos.”
“That too, but mostly because if a teacher decides to ask me what is going on, I’d probably say ‘Kim Jongdae fed us truth serum’, although I find it very hard that no one’s identified the source of the problem by now.... Anyway, he would be in trouble with the Ministry. Probably be expelled and face an official hearing by the actual Wizengamot.”
Loyalty is one of Slytherin’s many features, but loyalty to their own. Jongdae is a Gryffindor and there shouldn’t be a single reason for Yifan to feel the need to protect him. That’s not a Slytherin feature. That’s a Yifan feature. Yixing thinks, cheeks warming up (to his horror). He quickly brings his palms up to his face in attempt to cover the blush. It doesn’t work, though. Yifan blinks at him, mouth suggesting a small smile.
“Are you blushing?”
“It seems,” the warmness stretches to the tip of his ears and Yixing wants to die.
“You’re so cute,” comes the statement, and Yixing’s heart skips a beat before he separates two fingers to peek at Yifan from between them. The Slytherin looks livid, his wide eyes and face almost as white as the ghosts roaming the school grounds. “I’m sorry.”
Yixing drags his hands to his lap. “Are you apologizing for complimenting me?” He’s probably apologizing for blurting that out of nowhere, but it’s not his fault, really. It’s the truth serum.
“This thing is going to make a fool out of us, isn’t it?” Yifan asks him, but it looks a lot more like he’s asking himself.
“Then we should probably try to make the best of it,” he suggests.
“How?”
It’s a silly idea, but sounds interesting and they’re doing nothing anyway. Yixing clears his throat before announcing: “True or false: You used a confundus spell on Park Chanyeol the last time Slytherin played against Gryffindor.”
Yifan snorts, running a hand through his styled hair. It breaks the form, a gelled strand falling across his forehead. “False. So is this what we’re doing? We’re asking each other questions?”
“What else do you propose?” When Yifan doesn’t answer, Yixing tilts his head towards him. “Your turn.”
“Ok.” The Slytherin says after a few beats. “True or false. You… Actually had fun with Kim Minseok tonight.”
Complicated question, Yixing figures. Rubbing his palms together to stop them from sweating, Yixing looks away from Yifan’s searching eyes. “True… And false.”
“How can that be?”
“At first I didn’t want to come to the ball, but once I got there I changed my mind.”
“So you had fun.”
“I did for a moment. And then chaos broke loose.” He chuckles at the memory of Jinri slapping Luhan.
Yifan hums, picking on his nails as he blinks to the ground and speaks before Yixing has the chance. “True or false; you were disappointed for being sorted into Hufflepuff.”
“Hey, it’s not your turn!” the Hufflepuff protests.
“True or false,” the other insists, serious eyes boring into Yixing’s like they’re about to go looking for the truth themselves. He wasn’t disappointed for not being sorted into Slytherin, if that’s what Yifan is asking. He was just… sad that he would not be in the same house as the only person he knew.
“Do I have to answer with true or false?” Warmness spreads across his cheeks, the urge to cover his face striking Yixing. He doesn’t, though.
“You’ll speak the truth any way,” shrugs the Slytherin.
Yixing sighs, blinking at his legs before inhaling all the courage he can muster and looking up at Yifan, who watches him with rapt interest. “I… I was sad, but not because I was in Hufflepuff… But because you weren’t in Hufflepuff.”
At this point Yixing figures he shouldn't even be fazed by the burning on his face, there’s nothing he can do to avoid puking out truth at any given opportunity. Yifan, on the other hand, looks positively charmed, lips threatening to quirk up as he blinks at Yixing with too much fondness in his gaze. He’s thought about it before -- about the possibility of Wu Yifan being interested in more than his friendship. Yixing was meant to reach that conclusion at some point, with the way Yifan’s words were always softer when he was speaking to him, how he bullied all his friends to sign Yixing’s petition to fund his care and preservation of unicorns initiative. How he never forgot Yixing’s birthday and there was always a card or a howler that didn’t exactly howl at Yixing, but sang him a song instead. Even that year Yixing was in the hospital wing with the black cat flu he received a small piece of parchment with a few doodles that were supposedly animals (Yifan was never a good artist) and a birthday message.
The indications were always there, however, Yixing couldn’t bring himself to approach the subject with Yifan himself. Not when they weren’t particularly friends. And come to think about it, he wonders why they never went past acquaintanceship if it always felt like a little more. Being in different houses now seems like a silly motive.
“Come.” Yifan speaks. Yixing barely has time to frown in confusion before he’s being hauled up.
“What are you doing?” the Hufflepuff questions, patting dust off his robes.
“We’re going to check the Great Hall,” Yifan says, eyebrows wiggling in suggestion as he tugs Yixing by the sleeve of his cloak, pulling him along. Yixing almost trips trying to catch up with Yifan’s strides.
“I thought we were avoiding that part of the castle, you know, because of the whole Fiendfyre Kim Jongdae created?”
Yifan snorts but never slows down. “I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t know how to conjure a Fiendfyre. Besides, we’re just peeking.”
With that Yixing just allows himself to be pulled, slowly the sounds of their mismatched steps mixing with the noise coming from the remnants of the Yule Ball. It doesn’t sound like chaos, though, and Yixing hopes the anarchy has ceased.
When they reach the destination, Yixing refraining himself from colliding with Yifan’s back when he stops abruptly, they find a post-battle scenario. There are people lying on the ground, a few crying in the corners and others being looked over by the too-old-to-function matron. Yixing spots Luhan and Choi Jinri sitting in a corner; Luhan has a few bandages around his arm and Jinri looks affronted, but both seem ok. Professors are still running around while prefects and the Head Boy and Head Girl return to the Hall with students in the most various states (he thinks he sees one of Ravenclaw’s monitors carrying a girl that appears to be dizzy). It looks like even the first, second and third years that were not allowed to attend the ball have been attracted by the whole mess, a few of them lurking in the corners still in pajamas. The situation has been controlled from what it seems, but it’s evident that not everything is normal yet.
“Do you see him?” Yifan asks. “Kim Jongdae. Do you think they know he’s the one behind it all?”
Something occurs to Yixing as he’s taking a look around trying to find Jongdae’s mischievous feline features among the sea of students. “They must at least suspect he’s involved. Do you know about The Twins? The red headed ones?”
Yifan looks at him, “Twins? Weasley? The ones who escaped in their seventh year?” Yixing nods. “I’ve heard about them.”
“Yeah, there’s a book about them in the library by someone named L. Jordan. They had something. A map,” Yixing says, trying to remember the contents of the book he read when he was still a 1st year. It was a collection of stories; he remembers doubting most of them. “This map indicated the position of everyone in the castle. L. Jordan says that’s how they managed to stir trouble without being seen.”
“Do you think Jongdae has this map?”
“No one has records of this map ever since the Weasley twins. Who knows what happened with it, but Jongdae could have gotten his hands on something similar.”
Yifan blinks, his eyes losing focus as he considers Yixing’s words. “Should we try finding Jongdae?”
“Why?”
“Well…” Sighing, the Slytherin lowers his eyes before lifting them again, like he’s unsure about what he’s about to say. Yixing turns to him, and when his sleeve gets a little stretched at the movement, he realizes that all the time they’ve been parked at the entrance of the Great Hall, Yifan’s hand never let go of his cloak. “If teachers find out that he’s the one behind it all, he’ll be expelled. Maybe if we get to him first we can find a way to save his skin.”
“And why would we want to save his skin?” Yixing frowns.
By the way Yifan fidgets at the question, fingers finally slipping away from Yixing’s sleeve, he must have a particular reason for wanting to help Kim Jongdae and since Yifan can’t lie, Yixing will hear about it.
“Did I ever tell you I suck at Potions?” Yifan asks, scratching at the side of his face.
Yixing blinks. What does that have to do with Kim Jongdae? “You must have mentioned…”
The truth is Yixing knows that Yifan sucks at Potions. They’ve brewed together once in 3rd year and Yixing had a hard time salvaging a potion Yifan nearly blew in their faces. Professor Lim rewarded Hufflepuff with 15 points for his astounding recovery. He knows Yifan lacks Potion skills, but that’s not something he should say to the Slytherin’s face.
Yifan sighs, looking a little dismal. “Yeah, so… I bought an auto-answer quill once in 5th year, and I was planning on using it on a Potions quiz,” he says nervously. “I never got to use it because I lost the bloody thing and Professor Lim found it after the quiz ended. I don’t know where it was, but she found it and asked the whole class who owned that quill. Jongdae knew it was mine because we had sat together the class before that one and he saw it in my bag. I was sweating like a damn pig when he stood up and said it was his quill.”
5th year was the year Hufflepuff took Potions class with Ravenclaw; the year Yixing met Kim Minseok.
Sighing once more, Yifan rubs a hand on his face. “He took the blame, even though we weren’t friends and he had no obligations whatsoever to help me. He got detention, and when I asked him why he’d done it, he said he already had a history of misbehaviour and my record was pristine.” He lets out a shallow laugh. “He said ‘better me than you’. It was an impulse action, something he did on spot because I’d get in trouble if he didn’t.
“So. I owe him for that. I still don’t know why he did what he did, but I can’t let him be expelled without trying to help.”
“Do you even know how to help?”
“I’ll figure something out.”
Slytherins never forget, Yixing was once told. He can’t remember if it was his mother or his aunt, but they told him that once Slytherins would redirect this feeling towards vengeance, and it would often result in disasters and tragedies, like the war in 1995. Of course the episode in the Potions class could never develop into a brawl, but even if it had Yixing could never see Yifan in the middle of it. He just… couldn’t. People say Hufflepuffs are prone to establish friendship ties with Slytherins because they don’t judge based on negative rumors, but Jongdae is a Gryffindor and he deliberately helped Yifan without asking for anything in return. It’s not a matter of house characteristics. It’s just Yifan. Who’s a good person. And everyone can see it.
“Yixing?” He’s probably been staring and looking like a fool, because Yifan is frowning at him looking the most reddish Yixing’s ever seen him.
Yixing shakes his head ready to apologize when a familiar voice calls his name.
“Yixing!”
He turns around to find Kim Minseok running towards them, probably having spotted the duo by the entrance. Minseok strides to them looking concerned, his well-shaped eyebrows knitting together as he takes in Yixing’s form, inspecting him head to toe in search for injuries.
“Are you ok? You disappeared on me!” the Ravenclaw hurries, bashfully ignoring Yifan by his side. Oh Sehun trails after him, hawk eyes squinting at Yixing as if he could swing his wand at Minseok at any moment.
“I’m sorry,” Yixing says truthfully. Minseok watches him. “I didn’t mean to escape you… I mean… I meant to escape the chaos, but I never meant to disappear on you.”
“You should have waited for me,” the other says.
“You were with Sehun,” he tries to justify, Sehun nodding eagerly behind Minseok. The elder turns to face him, patting Sehun’s shoulder before turning back to Yixing. He completely misses the sparkling smile Sehun flashes. “Do you know what happened?” he fishes, trying to know if the word about Jongdae already got around.
“It seems like someone thought it would be funny to give us Veritaserum. The teachers are still investigating if only the drinks were spiked or if the culprit enchanted the food too.”
Yixing looks up at Yifan, trying to catch his eyes but instead, finds the Slytherin glaring at Minseok. He’s even wheezing, nostrils flaring and lips pressed thin against each other. He looks angry.
“Yixing,” Minseok says quietly, seeming to have noticed Yifan and the way he looks. “I should take you down there so they can check up on you.”
Before Yixing can explain that there’s nothing wrong with him, Yifan’s says in a final tone, “He’s not hurt.”
Yixing would have flinched at that tone, but Minseok only narrows his eyes at the other. “Why don’t we let Yixing decide if he’s hurt or not.”
“Hyung, he doesn’t want your help.” Oh Sehun says in an almost whisper.
The atmosphere gets tense pretty quick. From his peripheral vision, Yixing sees Yifan’s fingers touch the spot where his wand is supposed to be. Clearing his throat, he turns to Minseok.
“I’m ok,” he assures the Ravenclaw. Minseok opens his mouth to speak, so Yixing continues. “Thank you for inviting me to the dance, and thank you for worrying about me and for being so nice to me. I’m sorry about what I said… The thing about you only caring about Quidditch. I promise I’m ok, Minseok.”
There’s a moment in which Yixing sees realization pass through Minseok’s eyes, and he casts them down, nodding in recognition before he looks up, offering Yixing a weak smile. “It’s ok. And it was my pleasure.”
“We’ll talk later, ok?” he promises, already feeling Yifan’s fingers pulling him by the sleeve. They should go find Kim Jongdae. Yixing waves at Minseok, his figure shrinking as Yifan pulls him away from the Great Hall. Something tightens inside him when Minseok waves back, walking back into the Hall with Oh Sehun.
Yifan snorts. “He likes you.”
“I know that,” Yixing tugs his arm free, returning to his normal pace now that he’s not being forced to accompany Yifan’s wide steps. The Slytherin slows down to match him, curiously peering at Yixing. “You shouldn’t have spoken to him like that.”
That takes Yifan aback, his mouth dropping open and eyebrows flying up in amazement. “I’m sorry, I just…”
“It’s ok.” Yixing knows what Yifan is about to say. The effects of the serum will soon start to wear off, but he can still spare Yifan the need to explain himself. “Minseok is cool, I feel bad for the way I treated him. I should never have said yes to his invitation in the first place.”
Yifan sighs, shifting on his feet and changing the cloak he’s been carrying on his left arm to his right arm. “Ok.”
“Let’s just find Jongdae.”
Finding Kim Jongdae turns out to be a real difficult task. They go up to the Astronomy tower, down to the greenhouses, then let the staircases take them to all the places they can move to. Yet, Kim Jongdae is nowhere to be seen. There's not even a trace of his existence (besides the destroyed reputation of one of the oldest traditions in the Wizarding world) in the entire castle. They'll never find him if he has a device like the Weasley Twins' map. Jongdae is too crafty.
They're reaching the dungeons when Yifan suddenly stops and Yixing panics at the prospect of being found by patrolling prefects or professors. A few paintings have tried to make them speak about the situation in the Great Hall, which means they could have passed the word that there are students taking a stroll. That is if anyone noticed they're missing.
"What is it?" he asks.
Yifan sighs, seemingly tired. "It's been an hour and we still don't know where he is. I don't think we'll find him."
"Perhaps we should take a break." Yixing suggests. "Are you hungry?"
"Starving." Yifan replies immediately.
"We could go grab something from the kitchen." The house-elves are probably awake, not having slept in order to keep cooking for the Yule Ball. Poor creatures. Yixing had plans for an initiative in their favor after his unicorn project was accepted. Neither got through.
Yifan frowns, "The kitchen? Can you go in there? Do you even know where it is?"
Yixing hums cheerfully at the idea. Fresh bread and warm milk, maybe even a slice of pie. His stomach growls at the mere thought.
"How do you know where it is?" Yifan still sounds impressed and confused at the same time but follows Yixing nonetheless.
"It's near our common room," he answers as they walk, his humor having lifted surprisingly. "The house-elves are always kind to me. They give me food anytime I ask."
"And where is your common room?"
"In the basement!" Yixing informs. "They let us in because we keep them company sometimes, since we're neighbors!"
Yifan's chuckle surprises him, making Yixing slow down his pace to stare at Yifan in question. "You sound so Hufflepuff right now."
"I am a Hufflepuff."
“Well, yeah, but you’re only mildly Hufflepuff.”
“Like you’re,” Yixing makes quotation marks in the air, “‘mildly’ Slytherin?” He resumes walking. They’re almost there and his stomach keeps growling.
Yifan gasps, “How dare you, I’m 100% Slytherin!”
“Uh-huh, whatever you say Nice Guy.”
Once they reach the basement, Yixing slows down, allowing Yifan to look around because clearly this is the first time he’s been there. Usually no student is allowed into the kitchen (according to L.Jordan, The Weasley Twins made it once, bringing snacks to their common room after winning a Quidditch game), but the house-elves are always kind to Hufflepuff students, so they let them slide.
“Here,” Yixing grabs the back of Yifan’s robes’ shirt, bringing him right in front of the fruit bowl painting. “That’s the door.”
Yifan blinks. “The painting?” Yixing nods. “How do we get in?”
Deciding to show him instead of talking, Yixing smiles, reaching for the painting and touching the pear in the fruit bowl. He tickles the pear, continuing with the tickles until the fruit squirms and starts giggling. Yifan laughs too, and Yixing briefly glances at him before the pear transforms into a green door knob.
“That’s cute,” the Slytherin says.
Yixing snorts, arching an eyebrow at him as he opens the door. “100% Slytherin…”
Inside it’s warm. It always is, probably because of the huge fireplace in there. The kitchen is as wide as the Great Hall, placed right underneath it. There are four large tables, just like the Great Hall, but there is no enchanted ceiling, and no Hourglasses or decorations. Only pans, crates with vegetables and fruits and old cupboards. The first to notice their presence is Brutus, one of the house-elves Yixing knows.
“Master Yixing!” he chirps, running towards them in little steps.
“Hi Brutus, how are you this evening?”
“Very well, very well. We heard about the dance. Terrible thing! Are you ok, Master?” he asks, twisting the toga made of tea-towels he wears as clothes.
“We’re fine,” Yixing pulls Yifan to the front. “This is Yifan.”
“Hi.” Yifan says, waving an awkward hand at Brutus, who waves a hand back.
“Welcome, Master. Any friend of Master Yixing is a friend of ours. Are you hungry, Masters?” Brutus drags Yixing by the cloak of his robes. “You can join your friends. They came in here earlier and Rocky gave them pumpkin pie!”
Friends? Yixing frowns at Brutus before following the elf’s gaze. At the end of the fourth table, the one closer to the wall, sit two figures. One of them is wearing white robes, the other was supposed to be wearing black robes but, as well as Yifan, took off their cloak.
“Yixing,” Yifan whispers, also having noticed them.
“Go Masters, go! Brutus will bring you nicely baked goods in a jiffy!” Brutus pushes forward.
They walk very carefully, not trying to sneak up on them, but also not wanting to scare the two boys. They spent the past hour trying to find them, after all. The first one to notice them is Baekhyun, who’s sitting facing the direction that they came from, eyebrows shooting up when he sees them. His face probably startles Jongdae, who turns around and gapes at them.
“What are you doing here?” the smaller Gryffindor asks. He doesn’t sound as rude as he’d like.
Yifan steps closer, sitting next to Jongdae unceremoniously. “We’ve been looking for you,” he informs. Jongdae exchanges a glance with Baekhyun before focusing on Yifan. He remains quiet, giving the Slytherin the word. “We know what you did.”
Jongdae doesn’t gawk, or get to his feet trying to escape. He simply stares at Yifan, doesn’t even deny it.
“What do you know that I’ve done?” he questions, face unreadable. Baekhyun, though, looks positively freaked. Yixing watches him for a few seconds, the way his eyes shift from Jongdae to Yifan then widen at Jongdae like he’s trying to get his friend’s attention. He catches Yixing’s gaze and tries to relax but still looks nervous.
“The Veritaserum.” Yifan says.
Jongdae snorts, tossing a piece of bread into his mouth. “What are you going to do? Turn me in?”
Shaking his head, Yifan leans his forearms onto the table. “No,” he says seriously. “I’m not going to turn you in.”
That gets a reaction out of Jongdae. The Gryffindor frowns at Yifan for a good thirty seconds before asking, “Why not?”
“I owe you one.” Yifan answers.
Jongdae smiles like the Cheshire Cat, his usual demeanor slipping in. “Are you taking the blame?”
Yifan snorts, rolling his eyes, “Of course not. You know my records are pristine. But I have a few ideas on how you can get out of this one.”
“We already know what he’s going to say if questioned.” Baekhyun speaks for the first time.
His friend nods, “These house-elves love me. They agreed to say that I was here all night.”
Yixing doesn’t even have to hear the rest of it to know it’s a stupid plan. A lot of people, including himself, saw Jongdae in the Great Hall. “I saw you at the Ball. There’s no way I was the only one.”
“I can’t Obliviate everyone there, can I?” Jongdae asks. “I’ll just have to trust they’ll think the House-elves have no reason to lie.”
“That won’t work and you know it,” Yifan chuckles half-heartedly. “It’s almost like you’re trying to be expelled.”
“I wouldn’t be expelled, they’d give me a month’s detention tops,” he shrugs.
“I’m sorry,” the Hufflepuff says, only because he’s been quietly listening for too long. Yixing circles the table, taking a seat next to Baekhyun. “I’m afraid you have no idea what you’re facing here. We’re talking Wizengamot besides expulsion.”
Whatever Jongdae mutters gets muffled by Brutus who walks on top of the table with a steaming hot pie, a small basket of bread and two cups and a jar of what’s possibly pumpkin juice floating behind him.
“Brutus brought food, Masters!” He sets everything in front of them, the cups and the jar graciously landing on the wood. “Enjoy!”
“Thank you!” Yixing says as he retreats, the elf showing him a yellowed-teeth smile before running back to his chores.
The pie smells wonderful and Yifan wastes no time, grabbing himself a slice. Jongdae and Baekhyun still have a few pieces of bread, but they’re ignored at the arrival of a fresh food
“So you’re saying I can go to Azkaban,” Jongdae says, mouth completely full. Yixing gets himself a slice and has a bite as Yifan takes the turn to speak.
“I don’t know if you can go to Azkaban, but you’ll get in serious trouble, that’s for sure. All use of Veritaserum is controlled by the Ministry.”
Jongdae shakes his head, the sides of his mouth dirty with pie crumbs. “They can’t Trace it. It’s not a spell, it’s not under the Trace’s radar. Besides, I’m in the school.”
“But they can find out. This is the Triwizard Tournament we’re talking about. The Department of International Magical Cooperation is all over its ass, especially after so many deaths happened in the tournament,” Yifan mentions. “And my dad has a friend working for the Department of Magical Games and Sports and he says this Tournament was prepared with a lot more secrecy than the previous ones, you know, to prevent anyone else from dying or dark wizards rising from their tombs.”
Baekhyun shivers at mention of ‘dark wizards’. Yixing offers him a slice of pie because there’s nothing pie can’t cure. Baekhyun accepts, naturally, because no one ever refuses pie.
“So you’re saying they might have… means to know I’m responsible for this?” Jongdae swallows dryly, and now he looks terrified.
“Yes. Frankly Jongdae, you seem like an amateur.”
Yixing bites back a laugh and Baekhyun looks concerned.
“I clearly didn’t plan this enough,” the Gryffindor ponders. “Alrighty Mr. Wu. What’s your plan?”
The response is immediate. “You’re gonna say you have Somnambulism.”
Baekhyun goes into a coughing fit. Yixing frowns.
“Excuse me?” the Hufflepuff asks, slipping back into the conversation. “Is that your great way out?”
Yifan shifts on his seat, gesticulating around his words. “No, no, hear me out! My neighbor is a somnambul. Once his siblings locked him in the closet as a joke and he stayed there for two whole days. He developed the habit to return there in his sleep. He told me the Ministry takes somnambulism very seriously because wizards can develop strange habits in their sleep to cope with trauma and other things.”
Realization falls upon Jongdae, and his whole aura changes drastically. It’s like all worry lifts from his body and just evaporates. “I see where you’re going with this, Wu. It’s brilliant!”
Not wanting to sound dumb, Yixing doesn’t voice all the questions he has about the plan, instead just watching Yifan and Jongdae go over details. Baekhyun, however, leans into his space and whispers close to Yixing’s ear:
“What is the plan?”
“I’m not sure.” Yixing replies, focusing on the duo in their front.
“... subdivision of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. So she faced Improper Use of Magic charges just because she was somnambul and petrified her father! She was only 14, so the Trace got her, obviously,” Yifan is explaining.
“How am I going to explain having Veritaserum with me?” Jongdae asks.
“How did you get it?”
“I stole it from Professor Lim’s office.”
Yifan hums, “You’re traumatized because your brother once fed you Veritaserum. You were so tired earlier that you dressed for the ball and fell asleep. Then you sleepwalked to Professor Lim’s office, by chance it was empty because she had to attend the ball, fetched the potion and done the do.”
“It sounds pretty believable to me,” Jongdae scratches his chin and turns to Baekhyun. “What do you think?”
Having been caught by surprise, Baekhyun rushes to swallow down the bread he’d just pushed into his mouth. “I finally understand the plan,” he clears his throat. “It’s a good plan.”
Yixing sips at his pumpkin juice before saying, “I think it would help if you explained where this idea came from… I mean, did you thought of the whole plan while asleep? Perhaps this was something you’d already thought about-- Like… You were thinking about stealing the serum to use on Baekhyun as a joke.”
“Why me?”
“I could say I wanted to know if he was the one who’d stolen my auto-answer quill.” The Gryffindor shares a look with Yifan and both of them bite back their laughs.
“That’s a good one. Makes it seem like the situation is forcing you to be honest and disclose your upcoming plans and secrets like the ownership of an auto-answer quill.” Yixing encourages just as Jongdae turns to Yifan to say: “You know, I stole that quill from Professor Lim’s office after I was done with your detention,” and the other laughs.
After the humorousness of the moment passes, silence installs between the four of them, and they all eye the remnants of the pie, the surface of the table covered in crumbles and beads of pumpkin juice.
“It’s settled, then.” Baekhyun says after a beat.
Jongdae nods, smiling at Yifan in a way that Yixing’s never seen him smile at anyone before. It’s filled with trust, as if Yifan is worthy of something that not many in Jongdae’s world are worthy of. “Thank you,” the Gryffindor says.
“I owed you one. Now we’re even.” Yifan shrugs.
“If this really saves my ass I’ll never forget it, Wu.” Jongdae tells him in all seriousness before breaking into of his cheshire grins.
“Hey,” they all look at Baekhyun. “I had an idea.” When no one speaks, he continues. “Do you think we can sneak to the Quidditch pitch?”
They make it to the pitch, but it’s not all that easy. The mess at the Great Hall seems to have been controlled now that all effects caused by the truth serum have worn off. They all hear the Headmaster’s voice echoing through the walls, informing them that professors and prefects will be patrolling the hallways in search of any stray student. Before going down to the pitch, Yixing enters his common room and grabs a few blankets. Jongdae convinces his many House-elf friends to pack them a few muffins and they go. A few mean paintings threaten to tell on them and they try to be really quiet not to attract any ghost or living being, but they make it.
Yixing learns that Jongdae doesn’t have a device like the Weasley’s mysterious map. All of his mischief was managed by sheer luck and extreme competence in the art of misbehaving. He confesses to have read the book by L.Jordan and claims to be a great supporter of the legendary twins. While Yifan tries to fight the last muffin out of Baekhyun’s hands, Yixing takes the opportunity to ask Jongdae a question that’s been bugging him the whole night.
“Why did you cover for him?” he asks.
Jongdae frowns slightly. “What?”
“Potions class, 5th year. Why did you cover for him?”
Making a gentle sound of understanding, Jongdae laughs timidly, and that’s something Yixing never thought he’d see the Gryffindor do. In fact, he’s seeing a lot of sides of Jongdae he’s never seen before. The boy looks over to where Baekhyun and Yifan still argue about the muffin and smiles that same way he’d done in the kitchen. Warm and genuine.
“Yifan is a good friend,” he starts. “Not that we’ve been friends, but… He’s the only Slytherin that I’ve never seen use the word ‘Mudblood’. I hear a lot of them whisper insults when they think I’m not looking. They never do it to my face because they know the school frowns upon using such derogatory terms and they’d probably face detention, but I can hear them. They always make sure I do. Yifan, though… He’s different. Hard headed sometimes - still a Slytherin after all, but nice.”
Yes, of course. Jongdae is a Muggle-born. Yixing is friends with a great amount of Muggle-borns; he thinks they’re smarter. They go to Muggle school since their early years and learn a lot of important things. Yixing is a half-blood, but his mother convinced his Muggle father that the best option for him was to wait for his Hogwarts letter. He wishes they hadn’t agreed on that. Yixing would have gone to Muggle school and would have learned a lot of important, math things and wouldn’t suffer through Arithmancy like he’s suffering. It was always a known fact that Jongdae is smart. He just likes to pretend like he’s not, even though he fools no one.
“He likes you, you know.” The Gryffindor mentions after a moment of silence. “He watches you. In class, in the Great Hall, even today at the Ball.”
Yixing wants to know how Jongdae knows all those things, but figures it’s best if he doesn’t ask. Instead he just nods, watching Yifan and Baekhyun reach an agreement on the last muffin, then Baekhyun breaks the cake in half and offers the smaller part to Yifan who, of course, looks outraged. The argument restarts.
“Hey, Baek!” Jongdae calls his friend. “Give me a piece of this muffin!”
He’s trying to pull Baekhyun away from Yifan to give Yixing space to approach. It works; Baekhyun stuffs his mouth with the cake and Jongdae runs after him promising revenge. Yifan notices Yixing stepping closer and makes a little more room for him on the blanket he’s sitting on. Yixing sits down, having gotten rid of his cloak when he went to the common room. Sitting is a lot easier without it, he thinks.
“Crazy night, huh.” the Slytherin says.
Yixing narrows his eyes, “Good night.”
Leaning back on his hands, Yixing looks up. The stands are high risen, each two decorated with the colors of the four houses. Soon the sun will come out, and then they’ll be able to see the colors more clearly. It feels too unreal to be sitting at the empty Quidditch pitch. Even more unreal that he’s not freaking out about breaking a lot of school rules.
“What are you thinking about?” comes Yifan’s voice.
“That the sun will be up soon.” Not entirely a lie. Yixing looks at the other and offers him a smile. Yifan returns with a smile of his own. “And that we have Transfiguration on Wednesday.”
Laughing in confusion, Yifan frowns, “Yeah, we do.”
“So. Can we sit together?”
The smile freezes on the Slytherin’s face.
It’s something Yixing’s been thinking about. Being in a different house seems like an idiotic reason not to be closer with Yifan. He wants to be closer. Those 7 years tiptoeing around each other and sneaking glances when one thinks the other won’t be looking. It’s ridiculous. They only have a few more months before school is over, and it would be ultimately pathetic if they allowed themselves to graduate and never do a thing about… Them. Hopefully, there’s still time.
Blinking out of the apparent daze he fell into, Yifan says, “Yeah. We can sit together.” He nods. “In fact… Are you free this weekend?”
Yixing can’t even contain the smile spreading across his face. “Yes. Do you want to hang out?”
“We could go to Hogsmeade, or go to the library and check that book about the twins you can’t seem to shut up about.” Yifan says and Yixing laughs. Sounds like a plan. A wonderful plan.
“Great night, huh.”
“Crazy night.”
{x}
Dear Mr. Kim,
We have received intelligence that you made use of a controlled substance obtained through illegal means. As you know, the distribution of Veritaserum (also known as Truth Serum) must be kept on records, and the illegal possession of controlled substances is a serious offence under Section 8 of the International Code of Use of Controlled Substances.
Substances like the one you made use of are still under study by the Department of Mysteries, and for that reason, the legality of the aforementioned is still questionable.
As you have already received an official warning for a previous breach of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, we regret to inform you that your presence is required at a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Magic at 10:17AM on the 18th of November.
Yours sincerely,
Park Jungsoo
Improper Use of Magic Office
Ministry of Magic.
{x}
Dear Mr. Kim,
We hope this letter finds you in good health. It was brought to our attention that you suffer from a rare Somnambulism condition originated from traumatic ingestion of Truth Serum. Knowing that your actions on the night of the offence under Section 8 of the International Code of Use of Controlled Substances were guided by an unfortunate chronical illness, no further investigations will be held, and your hearing at the Ministry of Magic has been suspended.
We advise you to visit the Potions and Plant Poisoning floor of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, where your condition can be treated with the utmost care.
Yours sincerely,
Park Jungsoo
Improper Use of Magic Office
Ministry of Magic.
pairing: kris/lay
rating: pg-13
word count: 10k words
summary: Someone spikes the drinks at the Yule Ball with veritaserum. Naturally, chaos ensues.
notes: written for exolliarmus
It’s not that Yixing doesn’t want to go to the Yule Ball. He does. His robes are fine (his mom got them earlier that year, as soon as she got notice of the Triwizard Tournament), all his friends are going, and he’s got a hot Quidditch Champion date. He’s supposed to be thrilled about being Kim Minseok’s date -- everyone wants to be Kim Minseok’s date, and out of everyone else, Minseok asked Yixing to go with him. That’s definitely something to be thrilled about. Definitely.
He pops another glacial snowflake into his mouth and cushions his head onto his arms, staring at the robes levitating in front of him. Nice robes indeed. Yixing would be dying to wear them at any given opportunity -- so why didn’t he take Kim Jongin’s dance lessons like everyone else? The 5th year Gryffindor set up a secret dance studio in the Room of Requirement (since the dance lesson given by the professors was good for nothing) and accepted all students willing to learn a step of two. All his friends are there right now, attentive to Jongin’s last minute instructions in order not to look like a babbling, bumbling band of baboons on the dance floor.
Yixing, however, is hiding in the common room, munching on sweets and levitating his robes while he decides how much Kim Minseok’s fans will hate him if he cancels on the school’s brightest star. Honestly, Yixing can’t figure out what is it that Minseok sees in him anyway: he’s mostly ordinary, and his eyes are droopy. Someone like Minseok should be dating someone as famous and treasured as he is. Someone like Kang Seulgi, his Quidditch teammate. Or Oh Sehun. Although Oh Sehun is not the nicest person in the castle (he was one of the students who discouraged Yixing’s initiative on the care and preservation of unicorns), Yixing is pretty sure he wants into Minseok’s pants more than the rest of the magic and Muggle populations combined.
Heaving a long sigh, Yixing levitates his robes all the way up to his trunk by the bunk and pops another glacial snowflake into his mouth. Soon he’ll need to get ready for the damn ball, but he figures he can wait for the rest of the students to return to the common room before he acts on it. Or maybe he could take a bath while everyone else is preoccupied with Kim Jongin’s lesson. Yes, a warm bath seems nice.
He uses the bathroom in the Hufflepuff tower, carrying all his hair-care potions and a small can of Sleekeasy scalp treatment (he can style his hair if he’s in the mood). His baths don’t usually take long, but Yixing feels particularly up for cleansing and takes twice as long to come out of the washbasin. He ends up using the hair balm on his locks, but the results are not satisfactory so he washes it to try one more time. All in a slow, leisurely pace. When the voices of students start to fill the whole floor, Yixing knows it’s time to return to the common room and change into his robes. He doesn’t, though. He washes his hair one more time and tries another style. Slowly. Very slowly.
Someone with caramel hair attacks him as soon as he returns to the Hufflepuff common room.
“Yixing,” Luhan says with his eyebrows knit together and a pained look. Yixing notices his friend is already in his robes. “Why aren’t you dressed?”
“I was taking a bath,” he explains.
Luhan rolls his eyes as if taking a bath was something silly. “You should get ready! Minseok will come for you at any moment!”
Of course he wouldn’t be worried about his friend going missing for a few hours. Yixing has been reduced to ‘Minseok’s date’ ever since the other student asked him, and he’s not sure if he likes it as much as his friends do.
Yixing drags himself to the dorm room and changes into his robes, allowing a hurried Luhan to barge in and prod at his hair with remarks of ‘we need to fix this’. He just sits and sighs.
When Minseok arrives, the whole Hufflepuff common room holds their breath. (Why though, why you people are like this, why?)
“You look nice,” Minseok says, the smell of the Ravenclaw’s confidence permeating the Hufflepuff common room. Yixing can feel a dozen pairs of eyes focused on them. “Ready to go?”
Fixing on a smile, Yixing nods and takes the arm Minseok offers. “Yes.”
Luhan flashes him a grin and two thumbs up when they’re leaving. Yixing just hopes the night flows as perfectly as his housemates expect it to.
{x}
There’s not much he’d like to be doing at the Yule Ball. If he was in any other mood, Yixing would have gaped at how different the Great Hall looks decorated for the dance. The usual floating candles were replaced by tiny fairy lights, and snow is falling from the ceiling, originating from nothing and disintegrating before even reaching the students. There’s food everywhere -- literally everywhere -- and the Durmstrang students are already filling their bellies; Yixing sees their headmaster, Shim Changmin, devouring three chicken legs at once. Instead of relishing it like all the other students, Yixing just watches the Triwizard Champions waltzing gracefully around and allows Minseok to chatter about the suspension of the Quidditch House Cup.
Yixing’s mind easily wanders away from Minseok’s voice, taking in all the happiness surrounding them. He sees Luhan try to coax his date, Choi Jinri, a Ravenclaw girl who’s always yanking him around by the hair, into dancing. (Yixing is oddly fond of her.) Kim Jongin shows his unusual dance skills while a crowd cheers for him. Yixing thinks someone should check his shoes, maybe he’s been making use of one of those enchanted pairs. With one more glance around, he can see a few Beauxbatons girls tiptoeing and butterflying, spreading their veela charms around. Sometimes he wonders how crazy it would be to have veela powers, to be able to win the affection of anyone he wanted. He knows half of his friends would use said powers on Kim Minseok. Yixing wouldn't, which is really funny because he didn't need veela powers to win Kim Minseok's affections. He’s chuckling absent-mindedly when something catches his attention.
Glancing at Minseok to check if he noticed Yixing's diverted focus, the Hufflepuff turns to the drinks table. There's something suspicious there. Kim Jongdae is there, to be more exact.
Kim Jongdae could be considered the school's resident troublemaker. In his first year, the Gryffindor stole a broomstick and decided to fly inside the castle. Everyone laughed and it was kinda fun to see professors screaming in panic, but Jongdae fell and broke his leg in three places. In his second year, he freed a bunch of Cornish Pixies and all classes had to be canceled for two days because no one could catch them all. In his third and fourth years he must have done something equally dangerous, even though Yixing can't quite remember what, because that's the pattern. Kim Jongdae stirs trouble wherever he goes.
And now there he is, looking shady as he walks away from the drinks table. Yixing squints, but brushes his concerns aside because Kim Jongdae couldn't have possibly planned something for the Yule Ball, could he?
“Should we get drinks?” Minseok questions, his voice breaking Yixing from his ruminations. He glances at the Ravenclaw and nods, following Minseok to the drinks table. The contents fill his eyes. There is butterbeer, pumpkin juice, gillywater, exploding lemonade and the purplish party punch they usually see at celebrations in the Great Hall. “What do you want?”
“Punch, please,” he answers. Yixing doesn’t know why, but something about those drinks seem fishy. A few of them are frothing oddly, like someone shook them. The pumpkin juice is actually greenish. It’s probably from too many people pouring drinks.
“The Headmaster did not look sad to inform us about the cancellation,” Minseok says, still talking about the Quidditch House Cup as he pours punch in cups for both of them. “Everyone knows he’s trying to deal with the fact that the matron is too old to heal the most simple injuries. The other day she was trying to perform a Ferula and ended up erasing Song Wendy’s memory. Can you believe that? Almost 60% of all injuries in a school year are--”
A little ways from where he’s standing with Minseok, Oh Sehun glares at him. Frowning, Yixing wonders if it’s ok to just flip Oh Sehun off, since he’s not in the mood. Instead of being rude to the younger Slytherin, Yixing just asks himself why the hell he decided to accept Minseok’s invitation. It doesn’t matter if the whole Muggle and magical population combined would kill for a date with Kim Minseok, Yixing wouldn’t. He let himself be influenced by popular opinion.
Sehun scowls at Yixing. Yixing thought that Slytherins didn’t get along very well with Ravenclaws. Why is Sehun so obsessed with Kim Minseok anyway?
“... yesterday? I mean, someone could have lost a wand.” Minseok gently elbows him. “Your drink.”
Yixing blinks at him, taking the cup.
“You don’t look so well,” his date says.
“I’m just tired. I was up all night studying.”
Minseok looks truly concerned, and Yixing feels bad for not even trying to have fun. He could have put a little more effort. The band playing, The Rogue Bludgers, is a great one and everyone is excited to watch them. Minseok must want to dance.
He sighs, running a hand down his face. “I’m sorry, I’m being a terrible date.”
Elbowing him again, Minseok smiles at him. “No, you’re not.”
Yixing smiles. He can think whatever he wants about Kim Minseok, but the dude is nice. That’s probably why everyone likes him so much (besides his raging good looks and mad Quidditch skills). The least Yixing can do is try to enjoy Minseok’s company.
“Let’s dance,” he suggests, gulping all the contents of his cup before dragging Minseok to the dancefloor.
The Rogue Bludgers already finished their act, but there is still loud music filling the hall and couples are still dancing. Minseok and Yixing decided to sit and eat a little before Durmstrang students could finish all the food (they’re impressive eaters). The night goes surprisingly well for Yixing after he decides to quit sulking and have some fun. However, after a few minutes of sitting and munching on pumpkin pasties and dragon milk cheeses, Yixing starts to notice that something really weird is going on.
In fact, something really weird has been going on for a while, except he didn’t think it was something weird at the time. When he and Minseok were dancing, he saw one girl stomp on her date’s feet and storm out of the dance floor. He thought it could be a regular lover’s quarrel, but as he sits and watches similar quarrels happen to different couples all around the hall, Yixing figures that something really weird is going on. With time, he realizes it’s not only couples who are quarreling.
On a corner, a girl cries inconsolably while her friends surround her. More to her left, two boys scream at each other’s faces. Yixing's eyes catch sight of something and widen. Is that Choi Jinri slapping Luhan across the face?
Minseok chooses that particular moment to touch his arm and require his attention. "Yixing, I feel like I should be true to you." He's frowning, eyes lost between Yixing's face and his shoes. "I've had a crush on you since the sorting hat first screamed 'Hufflepuff!' and I was so sad because he didn't scream 'Ravenclaw!' that I tried to use a time turner--"
Loud yelling sounds from nearby, and Yixing wants to turn and watch what's happening. He’s pretty sure he hears spells being tossed left and right. Behind Minseok, Park Chanyeol runs from an infuriated Kim Jongin. What the hell is going on?
"Something really weird is going on," Yixing mumbles, frowning when he catches sight of some guy on a broomstick, flying shirtless. A few people have their wands in hands and there is someone tossing spells people left and right. A girl yells “Stupefy” and blueish light comes flying from her wand straight to her date’s chest. The boy gets violently yanked back and falls onto a group of Beauxbatons students. Music is still resonating through the hall, but no one is dancing anymore.
"... And I've always had the feeling that you were bothered by--" Minseok is still talking and there's too much information swirling in Yixing's brain.
A spell flashes too close to his ear.
"Merlin's beard!" he curses, focusing on Minseok. "Ok, listen up," the Ravenclaw looks up at him in surprise. "I understand that you have the hots for me, but right now? Chaos is descending upon this place!"
A girl runs past them sneezing, evidently under the Steleus hex, and Yixing follows her (and the four people bearing their wands that accompany her) with wide eyes, in complete shock. More to her right, a Durmstrang boy points his wand at a group of his schoolmates and says “Entomorphis!” Insects cloud the group and the boy cackles.
"You knew I was into you?" Minseok asks. How can he seem so oblivious at the whole mess around them?
“Of course I knew, everyone knows, man. You’re not exactly subtle in your staring and fawning,” Yixing blurts. Immediately after he says it there’s a weird feeling taking over him. He feels like he should apologize to Minseok because that’s something he wasn’t supposed to say, however, also feels like he couldn’t take his words back. Because that would be a lie.
Minseok gasps. “I just wanted a chance to tell you that--”
Yixing interrupts him hurriedly, “Dude, don’t do that. I’m flattered, but I can’t reciprocate your feelings.” Minseok frowns at him, like he can’t understand what Yixing is saying. “All you seem to care about is Quidditch!”
“What--”
A few professors are now trying to put some order in the hall, disenchanting a few petrified students and separating wrestling duos, but it’s clear that the Yule Ball has been effectively ruined. Yixing sighs, finding that he cannot stand in the middle of the hex crossfire anymore.
“We need to find cover,” he announces, looking around for a safe place to run. That’s when Oh Sehun comes out of nowhere to Minseok’s side, desperation written all across his face as he spills all kinds of confessions of love and admiration. The Quidditch player shifts his eyes to the younger, trying to pay attention to what Sehun is saying. Yixing would love to stay and watch the rest of the exchange, but the spells are getting out of control. Giving Minseok one last apologetic look, Yixing leaves.
As he runs out of what once was the Yule Ball, Yixing sees Luhan casting a Patronus spell onto Jinri (was that supposed to be a joke?), he sees Park Chanyeol and Kim Jongin making out on a corner (what?), he also sees Kim Jongdae laughing maniacally amidst it all. The way out of the Great Hall is clear, save for a couple of students still arguing. With his wand drawn for his own protection, Yixing tries to make it back to his common room, carefully walking into a seemingly danger-free corridor that’s not really empty, he realizes, taking in a lean, tall form sitting on the floor, legs brought to his chest like he’s shielding himself.
Upon closer inspection he realizes It’s Wu Yifan, 7th year Slytherin. Yixing knows Wu Yifan from the classes their houses have together but before that, Yixing knows Wu Yifan from The Diagon Alley.
His mom had left him at Amanuensis Quills and went to Gringotts, trusting that Yixing wouldn’t get lost because they’d been to the Diagon Alley several times and he should be accustomed to the streets. Yixing knew he would get lost if he decided to wander, so he just stayed right where his mom left him, between shelves of peacock feather quills and auto-answer quills. That’s where Wu Yifan found him.
10 year old Yifan was too skinny in his purple and green robes, black hair cut short and strong eyebrows frowning down at Yixing.
“Why do you wear Muggle clothes?” he asked.
Yixing looked down at his own attire -- a grey sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers -- and back up at Yifan. “My mum picked them for me.”
“Are you a Muggle?” Yifan insisted, stepping closer.
His mom had explained that to him, Yixing knew the answer. They weren’t Muggles, his mom and him. His dad was, though, but he loved them with all his heart.
“My dad is. I’m not,” he said simply.
Understanding flashed across Yifan’s face. “Did you get your letter yet? Your Hogwarts letter.”
Yixing sighed, lowering his eyes and shaking his head. A girl that lived a few houses from them received hers early and Yixing had been getting impatient to get his. “Not yet. Did you get yours?”
Yifan shook his head, but didn’t seem fazed. “Dad says I’ll get mine when I’m eleven.” He watched Yixing for a few beats, and seeming determined not to let the conversation die, poked a few more questions. “What’s your name? I’m Yifan.”
“Yixing.”
Opening a bright, gummy smile, Yifan patted Yixing’s shoulder. “Alright, don’t worry Yixing. I’ll be your guide when we’re in Hogwarts. My mom gave me a book called Hogwarts: A History, and I read it in a week. I really like books. Do you like books?”
“I don’t know… I haven’t read many books.” He remembered reading something called The Cat in the Hat and The Toadstool Tales, but his memory wasn’t very good.
Yifan nodded promptly. “No worries, you can read mine when we’re in school. I hope you’re in Slytherin. Which house was your mom in?”
Yixing forced his memory to fly back to his parent’s bedroom to find a silver and blue blazon portraying an eagle. “Ravenclaw,” he said. “But she says I could go somewhere else.”
“I hope you go to Slytherin,” Yifan reinforced before a tall woman with sleek black hair came for him, tugging at his hand.
The next time he saw Wu Yifan was at the Great Hall when they were all huddled together to be sorted into the houses. Right before his name was called, Yixing spotted Yifan among the other first years and his eyebrows shot up in recognition. The other waved at him, and the most vivid memory Yixing has of that night is Yifan’s disappointed look when the sorting hat yelled “Hufflepuff!”
They had spoken during classes, a few timid words, because even though they had met, there hadn’t been time to grow past the awkward phase of acquaintanceship. Despite the awkwardness of slightly bowing to each other in the hallways, Yixing still went to Yifan’s first game as a Slytherin beater. And all the others after that. While all his friends were cheering for Ravenclaw and Kim Minseok, Yixing was secretly smirking every time Yifan’s bat smashed back a bludger.
It takes the Slytherin a few beats to notice Yixing standing there, wand drawn and cheeks a little colored by the haste of escaping. Yifan doesn’t look surprised.
“It’s ok. This area is clear,” he says.
Yixing blinks, sighing and putting his wand away. “It’s madness in there. I don’t know what happened.”
“I do,” Yifan mentions, legs falling to the floor. “Kim Jongdae. I heard him talking to Byun Baekhyun. He poured... A potion into the drinks. By the time I knew, it was too late and I had taken a few sips.”
Gasping, Yixing frowns, flashes of Jongdae’s suspicious behavior near the drinks table coming back. “I knew it! He looked too damn fishy.”
Yifan chuckles. “Do you wanna sit down?”
He was about to refuse, but thinking twice Yixing considered the possibility of people under the influence of whatever Kim Jongdae spiked the drinks with crowding the common room. Perhaps Yifan’s danger-free area is the safest place to be right now. So he sits, adjusting his robes under his legs.
“I didn’t see you in there,” he says. Giving Yifan a quick look, he notices that the Slytherin has already undone half of his garments. His tie hangs around his neck and the cloak of his robes lies on his lap.
“I’m not into dancing,” Yifan offers, shrugging slightly before facing Yixing. “But you are.”
“Mm?”
“I saw you. With Kim Minseok.” Yifan’s eyes shift to his lap. “You looked like you were having a good time.”
There’s no reason for Yixing to act so surprised. Like he’s just been caught using one of the secret passages to Hogsmeade. All he did was dance a little with Kim Minseok, so why is he so embarrassed?
Clearing his throat, Yixing blurts, “I felt bad for him.”
Yifan studies him for all 30 seconds in which Yixing has his eyes wider than saucers, trying to figure out why he would say something like that. He felt bad for Minseok? It’s true, he felt bad for not trying, because Minseok is a cool dude after all, but why is that something Wu Yifan needs to know? Deep down there’s something, the hint of a feeling Yixing’s been noticing since earlier. It’s not a default feeling.
Squinting, he asks, “What did Kim Jongdae spike the drinks with?”
“Veritaserum.” Yifan answers immediately. “The truth is out there.” The Slytherin smiles at his own joke and Yixing would have thought it’s endearing if his brain wasn’t preoccupied trying to process the information that the chaos back at the Great Hall was caused by Veritaserum. “I don’t know how he got his hands on it, but that’s what he told Byun Baekhyun.”
“Why would he do that?” Yixing is perplexed. He knew about Kim Jongdae’s reputation, but ruining an event everyone was so excited about?
“That’s not even the worrying part,” Yifan mentions. “The use of Veritaserum is controlled by the Ministry. He could be in serious trouble.”
Would serve him well. Jongdae’s rebelliousness should have a limit.
“If anyone asks us about it we won’t be able to lie.”
“That’s why I’m hiding here.”
Yixing turns to face him, “I thought you were escaping the chaos.”
“That too, but mostly because if a teacher decides to ask me what is going on, I’d probably say ‘Kim Jongdae fed us truth serum’, although I find it very hard that no one’s identified the source of the problem by now.... Anyway, he would be in trouble with the Ministry. Probably be expelled and face an official hearing by the actual Wizengamot.”
Loyalty is one of Slytherin’s many features, but loyalty to their own. Jongdae is a Gryffindor and there shouldn’t be a single reason for Yifan to feel the need to protect him. That’s not a Slytherin feature. That’s a Yifan feature. Yixing thinks, cheeks warming up (to his horror). He quickly brings his palms up to his face in attempt to cover the blush. It doesn’t work, though. Yifan blinks at him, mouth suggesting a small smile.
“Are you blushing?”
“It seems,” the warmness stretches to the tip of his ears and Yixing wants to die.
“You’re so cute,” comes the statement, and Yixing’s heart skips a beat before he separates two fingers to peek at Yifan from between them. The Slytherin looks livid, his wide eyes and face almost as white as the ghosts roaming the school grounds. “I’m sorry.”
Yixing drags his hands to his lap. “Are you apologizing for complimenting me?” He’s probably apologizing for blurting that out of nowhere, but it’s not his fault, really. It’s the truth serum.
“This thing is going to make a fool out of us, isn’t it?” Yifan asks him, but it looks a lot more like he’s asking himself.
“Then we should probably try to make the best of it,” he suggests.
“How?”
It’s a silly idea, but sounds interesting and they’re doing nothing anyway. Yixing clears his throat before announcing: “True or false: You used a confundus spell on Park Chanyeol the last time Slytherin played against Gryffindor.”
Yifan snorts, running a hand through his styled hair. It breaks the form, a gelled strand falling across his forehead. “False. So is this what we’re doing? We’re asking each other questions?”
“What else do you propose?” When Yifan doesn’t answer, Yixing tilts his head towards him. “Your turn.”
“Ok.” The Slytherin says after a few beats. “True or false. You… Actually had fun with Kim Minseok tonight.”
Complicated question, Yixing figures. Rubbing his palms together to stop them from sweating, Yixing looks away from Yifan’s searching eyes. “True… And false.”
“How can that be?”
“At first I didn’t want to come to the ball, but once I got there I changed my mind.”
“So you had fun.”
“I did for a moment. And then chaos broke loose.” He chuckles at the memory of Jinri slapping Luhan.
Yifan hums, picking on his nails as he blinks to the ground and speaks before Yixing has the chance. “True or false; you were disappointed for being sorted into Hufflepuff.”
“Hey, it’s not your turn!” the Hufflepuff protests.
“True or false,” the other insists, serious eyes boring into Yixing’s like they’re about to go looking for the truth themselves. He wasn’t disappointed for not being sorted into Slytherin, if that’s what Yifan is asking. He was just… sad that he would not be in the same house as the only person he knew.
“Do I have to answer with true or false?” Warmness spreads across his cheeks, the urge to cover his face striking Yixing. He doesn’t, though.
“You’ll speak the truth any way,” shrugs the Slytherin.
Yixing sighs, blinking at his legs before inhaling all the courage he can muster and looking up at Yifan, who watches him with rapt interest. “I… I was sad, but not because I was in Hufflepuff… But because you weren’t in Hufflepuff.”
At this point Yixing figures he shouldn't even be fazed by the burning on his face, there’s nothing he can do to avoid puking out truth at any given opportunity. Yifan, on the other hand, looks positively charmed, lips threatening to quirk up as he blinks at Yixing with too much fondness in his gaze. He’s thought about it before -- about the possibility of Wu Yifan being interested in more than his friendship. Yixing was meant to reach that conclusion at some point, with the way Yifan’s words were always softer when he was speaking to him, how he bullied all his friends to sign Yixing’s petition to fund his care and preservation of unicorns initiative. How he never forgot Yixing’s birthday and there was always a card or a howler that didn’t exactly howl at Yixing, but sang him a song instead. Even that year Yixing was in the hospital wing with the black cat flu he received a small piece of parchment with a few doodles that were supposedly animals (Yifan was never a good artist) and a birthday message.
The indications were always there, however, Yixing couldn’t bring himself to approach the subject with Yifan himself. Not when they weren’t particularly friends. And come to think about it, he wonders why they never went past acquaintanceship if it always felt like a little more. Being in different houses now seems like a silly motive.
“Come.” Yifan speaks. Yixing barely has time to frown in confusion before he’s being hauled up.
“What are you doing?” the Hufflepuff questions, patting dust off his robes.
“We’re going to check the Great Hall,” Yifan says, eyebrows wiggling in suggestion as he tugs Yixing by the sleeve of his cloak, pulling him along. Yixing almost trips trying to catch up with Yifan’s strides.
“I thought we were avoiding that part of the castle, you know, because of the whole Fiendfyre Kim Jongdae created?”
Yifan snorts but never slows down. “I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t know how to conjure a Fiendfyre. Besides, we’re just peeking.”
With that Yixing just allows himself to be pulled, slowly the sounds of their mismatched steps mixing with the noise coming from the remnants of the Yule Ball. It doesn’t sound like chaos, though, and Yixing hopes the anarchy has ceased.
When they reach the destination, Yixing refraining himself from colliding with Yifan’s back when he stops abruptly, they find a post-battle scenario. There are people lying on the ground, a few crying in the corners and others being looked over by the too-old-to-function matron. Yixing spots Luhan and Choi Jinri sitting in a corner; Luhan has a few bandages around his arm and Jinri looks affronted, but both seem ok. Professors are still running around while prefects and the Head Boy and Head Girl return to the Hall with students in the most various states (he thinks he sees one of Ravenclaw’s monitors carrying a girl that appears to be dizzy). It looks like even the first, second and third years that were not allowed to attend the ball have been attracted by the whole mess, a few of them lurking in the corners still in pajamas. The situation has been controlled from what it seems, but it’s evident that not everything is normal yet.
“Do you see him?” Yifan asks. “Kim Jongdae. Do you think they know he’s the one behind it all?”
Something occurs to Yixing as he’s taking a look around trying to find Jongdae’s mischievous feline features among the sea of students. “They must at least suspect he’s involved. Do you know about The Twins? The red headed ones?”
Yifan looks at him, “Twins? Weasley? The ones who escaped in their seventh year?” Yixing nods. “I’ve heard about them.”
“Yeah, there’s a book about them in the library by someone named L. Jordan. They had something. A map,” Yixing says, trying to remember the contents of the book he read when he was still a 1st year. It was a collection of stories; he remembers doubting most of them. “This map indicated the position of everyone in the castle. L. Jordan says that’s how they managed to stir trouble without being seen.”
“Do you think Jongdae has this map?”
“No one has records of this map ever since the Weasley twins. Who knows what happened with it, but Jongdae could have gotten his hands on something similar.”
Yifan blinks, his eyes losing focus as he considers Yixing’s words. “Should we try finding Jongdae?”
“Why?”
“Well…” Sighing, the Slytherin lowers his eyes before lifting them again, like he’s unsure about what he’s about to say. Yixing turns to him, and when his sleeve gets a little stretched at the movement, he realizes that all the time they’ve been parked at the entrance of the Great Hall, Yifan’s hand never let go of his cloak. “If teachers find out that he’s the one behind it all, he’ll be expelled. Maybe if we get to him first we can find a way to save his skin.”
“And why would we want to save his skin?” Yixing frowns.
By the way Yifan fidgets at the question, fingers finally slipping away from Yixing’s sleeve, he must have a particular reason for wanting to help Kim Jongdae and since Yifan can’t lie, Yixing will hear about it.
“Did I ever tell you I suck at Potions?” Yifan asks, scratching at the side of his face.
Yixing blinks. What does that have to do with Kim Jongdae? “You must have mentioned…”
The truth is Yixing knows that Yifan sucks at Potions. They’ve brewed together once in 3rd year and Yixing had a hard time salvaging a potion Yifan nearly blew in their faces. Professor Lim rewarded Hufflepuff with 15 points for his astounding recovery. He knows Yifan lacks Potion skills, but that’s not something he should say to the Slytherin’s face.
Yifan sighs, looking a little dismal. “Yeah, so… I bought an auto-answer quill once in 5th year, and I was planning on using it on a Potions quiz,” he says nervously. “I never got to use it because I lost the bloody thing and Professor Lim found it after the quiz ended. I don’t know where it was, but she found it and asked the whole class who owned that quill. Jongdae knew it was mine because we had sat together the class before that one and he saw it in my bag. I was sweating like a damn pig when he stood up and said it was his quill.”
5th year was the year Hufflepuff took Potions class with Ravenclaw; the year Yixing met Kim Minseok.
Sighing once more, Yifan rubs a hand on his face. “He took the blame, even though we weren’t friends and he had no obligations whatsoever to help me. He got detention, and when I asked him why he’d done it, he said he already had a history of misbehaviour and my record was pristine.” He lets out a shallow laugh. “He said ‘better me than you’. It was an impulse action, something he did on spot because I’d get in trouble if he didn’t.
“So. I owe him for that. I still don’t know why he did what he did, but I can’t let him be expelled without trying to help.”
“Do you even know how to help?”
“I’ll figure something out.”
Slytherins never forget, Yixing was once told. He can’t remember if it was his mother or his aunt, but they told him that once Slytherins would redirect this feeling towards vengeance, and it would often result in disasters and tragedies, like the war in 1995. Of course the episode in the Potions class could never develop into a brawl, but even if it had Yixing could never see Yifan in the middle of it. He just… couldn’t. People say Hufflepuffs are prone to establish friendship ties with Slytherins because they don’t judge based on negative rumors, but Jongdae is a Gryffindor and he deliberately helped Yifan without asking for anything in return. It’s not a matter of house characteristics. It’s just Yifan. Who’s a good person. And everyone can see it.
“Yixing?” He’s probably been staring and looking like a fool, because Yifan is frowning at him looking the most reddish Yixing’s ever seen him.
Yixing shakes his head ready to apologize when a familiar voice calls his name.
“Yixing!”
He turns around to find Kim Minseok running towards them, probably having spotted the duo by the entrance. Minseok strides to them looking concerned, his well-shaped eyebrows knitting together as he takes in Yixing’s form, inspecting him head to toe in search for injuries.
“Are you ok? You disappeared on me!” the Ravenclaw hurries, bashfully ignoring Yifan by his side. Oh Sehun trails after him, hawk eyes squinting at Yixing as if he could swing his wand at Minseok at any moment.
“I’m sorry,” Yixing says truthfully. Minseok watches him. “I didn’t mean to escape you… I mean… I meant to escape the chaos, but I never meant to disappear on you.”
“You should have waited for me,” the other says.
“You were with Sehun,” he tries to justify, Sehun nodding eagerly behind Minseok. The elder turns to face him, patting Sehun’s shoulder before turning back to Yixing. He completely misses the sparkling smile Sehun flashes. “Do you know what happened?” he fishes, trying to know if the word about Jongdae already got around.
“It seems like someone thought it would be funny to give us Veritaserum. The teachers are still investigating if only the drinks were spiked or if the culprit enchanted the food too.”
Yixing looks up at Yifan, trying to catch his eyes but instead, finds the Slytherin glaring at Minseok. He’s even wheezing, nostrils flaring and lips pressed thin against each other. He looks angry.
“Yixing,” Minseok says quietly, seeming to have noticed Yifan and the way he looks. “I should take you down there so they can check up on you.”
Before Yixing can explain that there’s nothing wrong with him, Yifan’s says in a final tone, “He’s not hurt.”
Yixing would have flinched at that tone, but Minseok only narrows his eyes at the other. “Why don’t we let Yixing decide if he’s hurt or not.”
“Hyung, he doesn’t want your help.” Oh Sehun says in an almost whisper.
The atmosphere gets tense pretty quick. From his peripheral vision, Yixing sees Yifan’s fingers touch the spot where his wand is supposed to be. Clearing his throat, he turns to Minseok.
“I’m ok,” he assures the Ravenclaw. Minseok opens his mouth to speak, so Yixing continues. “Thank you for inviting me to the dance, and thank you for worrying about me and for being so nice to me. I’m sorry about what I said… The thing about you only caring about Quidditch. I promise I’m ok, Minseok.”
There’s a moment in which Yixing sees realization pass through Minseok’s eyes, and he casts them down, nodding in recognition before he looks up, offering Yixing a weak smile. “It’s ok. And it was my pleasure.”
“We’ll talk later, ok?” he promises, already feeling Yifan’s fingers pulling him by the sleeve. They should go find Kim Jongdae. Yixing waves at Minseok, his figure shrinking as Yifan pulls him away from the Great Hall. Something tightens inside him when Minseok waves back, walking back into the Hall with Oh Sehun.
Yifan snorts. “He likes you.”
“I know that,” Yixing tugs his arm free, returning to his normal pace now that he’s not being forced to accompany Yifan’s wide steps. The Slytherin slows down to match him, curiously peering at Yixing. “You shouldn’t have spoken to him like that.”
That takes Yifan aback, his mouth dropping open and eyebrows flying up in amazement. “I’m sorry, I just…”
“It’s ok.” Yixing knows what Yifan is about to say. The effects of the serum will soon start to wear off, but he can still spare Yifan the need to explain himself. “Minseok is cool, I feel bad for the way I treated him. I should never have said yes to his invitation in the first place.”
Yifan sighs, shifting on his feet and changing the cloak he’s been carrying on his left arm to his right arm. “Ok.”
“Let’s just find Jongdae.”
Finding Kim Jongdae turns out to be a real difficult task. They go up to the Astronomy tower, down to the greenhouses, then let the staircases take them to all the places they can move to. Yet, Kim Jongdae is nowhere to be seen. There's not even a trace of his existence (besides the destroyed reputation of one of the oldest traditions in the Wizarding world) in the entire castle. They'll never find him if he has a device like the Weasley Twins' map. Jongdae is too crafty.
They're reaching the dungeons when Yifan suddenly stops and Yixing panics at the prospect of being found by patrolling prefects or professors. A few paintings have tried to make them speak about the situation in the Great Hall, which means they could have passed the word that there are students taking a stroll. That is if anyone noticed they're missing.
"What is it?" he asks.
Yifan sighs, seemingly tired. "It's been an hour and we still don't know where he is. I don't think we'll find him."
"Perhaps we should take a break." Yixing suggests. "Are you hungry?"
"Starving." Yifan replies immediately.
"We could go grab something from the kitchen." The house-elves are probably awake, not having slept in order to keep cooking for the Yule Ball. Poor creatures. Yixing had plans for an initiative in their favor after his unicorn project was accepted. Neither got through.
Yifan frowns, "The kitchen? Can you go in there? Do you even know where it is?"
Yixing hums cheerfully at the idea. Fresh bread and warm milk, maybe even a slice of pie. His stomach growls at the mere thought.
"How do you know where it is?" Yifan still sounds impressed and confused at the same time but follows Yixing nonetheless.
"It's near our common room," he answers as they walk, his humor having lifted surprisingly. "The house-elves are always kind to me. They give me food anytime I ask."
"And where is your common room?"
"In the basement!" Yixing informs. "They let us in because we keep them company sometimes, since we're neighbors!"
Yifan's chuckle surprises him, making Yixing slow down his pace to stare at Yifan in question. "You sound so Hufflepuff right now."
"I am a Hufflepuff."
“Well, yeah, but you’re only mildly Hufflepuff.”
“Like you’re,” Yixing makes quotation marks in the air, “‘mildly’ Slytherin?” He resumes walking. They’re almost there and his stomach keeps growling.
Yifan gasps, “How dare you, I’m 100% Slytherin!”
“Uh-huh, whatever you say Nice Guy.”
Once they reach the basement, Yixing slows down, allowing Yifan to look around because clearly this is the first time he’s been there. Usually no student is allowed into the kitchen (according to L.Jordan, The Weasley Twins made it once, bringing snacks to their common room after winning a Quidditch game), but the house-elves are always kind to Hufflepuff students, so they let them slide.
“Here,” Yixing grabs the back of Yifan’s robes’ shirt, bringing him right in front of the fruit bowl painting. “That’s the door.”
Yifan blinks. “The painting?” Yixing nods. “How do we get in?”
Deciding to show him instead of talking, Yixing smiles, reaching for the painting and touching the pear in the fruit bowl. He tickles the pear, continuing with the tickles until the fruit squirms and starts giggling. Yifan laughs too, and Yixing briefly glances at him before the pear transforms into a green door knob.
“That’s cute,” the Slytherin says.
Yixing snorts, arching an eyebrow at him as he opens the door. “100% Slytherin…”
Inside it’s warm. It always is, probably because of the huge fireplace in there. The kitchen is as wide as the Great Hall, placed right underneath it. There are four large tables, just like the Great Hall, but there is no enchanted ceiling, and no Hourglasses or decorations. Only pans, crates with vegetables and fruits and old cupboards. The first to notice their presence is Brutus, one of the house-elves Yixing knows.
“Master Yixing!” he chirps, running towards them in little steps.
“Hi Brutus, how are you this evening?”
“Very well, very well. We heard about the dance. Terrible thing! Are you ok, Master?” he asks, twisting the toga made of tea-towels he wears as clothes.
“We’re fine,” Yixing pulls Yifan to the front. “This is Yifan.”
“Hi.” Yifan says, waving an awkward hand at Brutus, who waves a hand back.
“Welcome, Master. Any friend of Master Yixing is a friend of ours. Are you hungry, Masters?” Brutus drags Yixing by the cloak of his robes. “You can join your friends. They came in here earlier and Rocky gave them pumpkin pie!”
Friends? Yixing frowns at Brutus before following the elf’s gaze. At the end of the fourth table, the one closer to the wall, sit two figures. One of them is wearing white robes, the other was supposed to be wearing black robes but, as well as Yifan, took off their cloak.
“Yixing,” Yifan whispers, also having noticed them.
“Go Masters, go! Brutus will bring you nicely baked goods in a jiffy!” Brutus pushes forward.
They walk very carefully, not trying to sneak up on them, but also not wanting to scare the two boys. They spent the past hour trying to find them, after all. The first one to notice them is Baekhyun, who’s sitting facing the direction that they came from, eyebrows shooting up when he sees them. His face probably startles Jongdae, who turns around and gapes at them.
“What are you doing here?” the smaller Gryffindor asks. He doesn’t sound as rude as he’d like.
Yifan steps closer, sitting next to Jongdae unceremoniously. “We’ve been looking for you,” he informs. Jongdae exchanges a glance with Baekhyun before focusing on Yifan. He remains quiet, giving the Slytherin the word. “We know what you did.”
Jongdae doesn’t gawk, or get to his feet trying to escape. He simply stares at Yifan, doesn’t even deny it.
“What do you know that I’ve done?” he questions, face unreadable. Baekhyun, though, looks positively freaked. Yixing watches him for a few seconds, the way his eyes shift from Jongdae to Yifan then widen at Jongdae like he’s trying to get his friend’s attention. He catches Yixing’s gaze and tries to relax but still looks nervous.
“The Veritaserum.” Yifan says.
Jongdae snorts, tossing a piece of bread into his mouth. “What are you going to do? Turn me in?”
Shaking his head, Yifan leans his forearms onto the table. “No,” he says seriously. “I’m not going to turn you in.”
That gets a reaction out of Jongdae. The Gryffindor frowns at Yifan for a good thirty seconds before asking, “Why not?”
“I owe you one.” Yifan answers.
Jongdae smiles like the Cheshire Cat, his usual demeanor slipping in. “Are you taking the blame?”
Yifan snorts, rolling his eyes, “Of course not. You know my records are pristine. But I have a few ideas on how you can get out of this one.”
“We already know what he’s going to say if questioned.” Baekhyun speaks for the first time.
His friend nods, “These house-elves love me. They agreed to say that I was here all night.”
Yixing doesn’t even have to hear the rest of it to know it’s a stupid plan. A lot of people, including himself, saw Jongdae in the Great Hall. “I saw you at the Ball. There’s no way I was the only one.”
“I can’t Obliviate everyone there, can I?” Jongdae asks. “I’ll just have to trust they’ll think the House-elves have no reason to lie.”
“That won’t work and you know it,” Yifan chuckles half-heartedly. “It’s almost like you’re trying to be expelled.”
“I wouldn’t be expelled, they’d give me a month’s detention tops,” he shrugs.
“I’m sorry,” the Hufflepuff says, only because he’s been quietly listening for too long. Yixing circles the table, taking a seat next to Baekhyun. “I’m afraid you have no idea what you’re facing here. We’re talking Wizengamot besides expulsion.”
Whatever Jongdae mutters gets muffled by Brutus who walks on top of the table with a steaming hot pie, a small basket of bread and two cups and a jar of what’s possibly pumpkin juice floating behind him.
“Brutus brought food, Masters!” He sets everything in front of them, the cups and the jar graciously landing on the wood. “Enjoy!”
“Thank you!” Yixing says as he retreats, the elf showing him a yellowed-teeth smile before running back to his chores.
The pie smells wonderful and Yifan wastes no time, grabbing himself a slice. Jongdae and Baekhyun still have a few pieces of bread, but they’re ignored at the arrival of a fresh food
“So you’re saying I can go to Azkaban,” Jongdae says, mouth completely full. Yixing gets himself a slice and has a bite as Yifan takes the turn to speak.
“I don’t know if you can go to Azkaban, but you’ll get in serious trouble, that’s for sure. All use of Veritaserum is controlled by the Ministry.”
Jongdae shakes his head, the sides of his mouth dirty with pie crumbs. “They can’t Trace it. It’s not a spell, it’s not under the Trace’s radar. Besides, I’m in the school.”
“But they can find out. This is the Triwizard Tournament we’re talking about. The Department of International Magical Cooperation is all over its ass, especially after so many deaths happened in the tournament,” Yifan mentions. “And my dad has a friend working for the Department of Magical Games and Sports and he says this Tournament was prepared with a lot more secrecy than the previous ones, you know, to prevent anyone else from dying or dark wizards rising from their tombs.”
Baekhyun shivers at mention of ‘dark wizards’. Yixing offers him a slice of pie because there’s nothing pie can’t cure. Baekhyun accepts, naturally, because no one ever refuses pie.
“So you’re saying they might have… means to know I’m responsible for this?” Jongdae swallows dryly, and now he looks terrified.
“Yes. Frankly Jongdae, you seem like an amateur.”
Yixing bites back a laugh and Baekhyun looks concerned.
“I clearly didn’t plan this enough,” the Gryffindor ponders. “Alrighty Mr. Wu. What’s your plan?”
The response is immediate. “You’re gonna say you have Somnambulism.”
Baekhyun goes into a coughing fit. Yixing frowns.
“Excuse me?” the Hufflepuff asks, slipping back into the conversation. “Is that your great way out?”
Yifan shifts on his seat, gesticulating around his words. “No, no, hear me out! My neighbor is a somnambul. Once his siblings locked him in the closet as a joke and he stayed there for two whole days. He developed the habit to return there in his sleep. He told me the Ministry takes somnambulism very seriously because wizards can develop strange habits in their sleep to cope with trauma and other things.”
Realization falls upon Jongdae, and his whole aura changes drastically. It’s like all worry lifts from his body and just evaporates. “I see where you’re going with this, Wu. It’s brilliant!”
Not wanting to sound dumb, Yixing doesn’t voice all the questions he has about the plan, instead just watching Yifan and Jongdae go over details. Baekhyun, however, leans into his space and whispers close to Yixing’s ear:
“What is the plan?”
“I’m not sure.” Yixing replies, focusing on the duo in their front.
“... subdivision of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. So she faced Improper Use of Magic charges just because she was somnambul and petrified her father! She was only 14, so the Trace got her, obviously,” Yifan is explaining.
“How am I going to explain having Veritaserum with me?” Jongdae asks.
“How did you get it?”
“I stole it from Professor Lim’s office.”
Yifan hums, “You’re traumatized because your brother once fed you Veritaserum. You were so tired earlier that you dressed for the ball and fell asleep. Then you sleepwalked to Professor Lim’s office, by chance it was empty because she had to attend the ball, fetched the potion and done the do.”
“It sounds pretty believable to me,” Jongdae scratches his chin and turns to Baekhyun. “What do you think?”
Having been caught by surprise, Baekhyun rushes to swallow down the bread he’d just pushed into his mouth. “I finally understand the plan,” he clears his throat. “It’s a good plan.”
Yixing sips at his pumpkin juice before saying, “I think it would help if you explained where this idea came from… I mean, did you thought of the whole plan while asleep? Perhaps this was something you’d already thought about-- Like… You were thinking about stealing the serum to use on Baekhyun as a joke.”
“Why me?”
“I could say I wanted to know if he was the one who’d stolen my auto-answer quill.” The Gryffindor shares a look with Yifan and both of them bite back their laughs.
“That’s a good one. Makes it seem like the situation is forcing you to be honest and disclose your upcoming plans and secrets like the ownership of an auto-answer quill.” Yixing encourages just as Jongdae turns to Yifan to say: “You know, I stole that quill from Professor Lim’s office after I was done with your detention,” and the other laughs.
After the humorousness of the moment passes, silence installs between the four of them, and they all eye the remnants of the pie, the surface of the table covered in crumbles and beads of pumpkin juice.
“It’s settled, then.” Baekhyun says after a beat.
Jongdae nods, smiling at Yifan in a way that Yixing’s never seen him smile at anyone before. It’s filled with trust, as if Yifan is worthy of something that not many in Jongdae’s world are worthy of. “Thank you,” the Gryffindor says.
“I owed you one. Now we’re even.” Yifan shrugs.
“If this really saves my ass I’ll never forget it, Wu.” Jongdae tells him in all seriousness before breaking into of his cheshire grins.
“Hey,” they all look at Baekhyun. “I had an idea.” When no one speaks, he continues. “Do you think we can sneak to the Quidditch pitch?”
They make it to the pitch, but it’s not all that easy. The mess at the Great Hall seems to have been controlled now that all effects caused by the truth serum have worn off. They all hear the Headmaster’s voice echoing through the walls, informing them that professors and prefects will be patrolling the hallways in search of any stray student. Before going down to the pitch, Yixing enters his common room and grabs a few blankets. Jongdae convinces his many House-elf friends to pack them a few muffins and they go. A few mean paintings threaten to tell on them and they try to be really quiet not to attract any ghost or living being, but they make it.
Yixing learns that Jongdae doesn’t have a device like the Weasley’s mysterious map. All of his mischief was managed by sheer luck and extreme competence in the art of misbehaving. He confesses to have read the book by L.Jordan and claims to be a great supporter of the legendary twins. While Yifan tries to fight the last muffin out of Baekhyun’s hands, Yixing takes the opportunity to ask Jongdae a question that’s been bugging him the whole night.
“Why did you cover for him?” he asks.
Jongdae frowns slightly. “What?”
“Potions class, 5th year. Why did you cover for him?”
Making a gentle sound of understanding, Jongdae laughs timidly, and that’s something Yixing never thought he’d see the Gryffindor do. In fact, he’s seeing a lot of sides of Jongdae he’s never seen before. The boy looks over to where Baekhyun and Yifan still argue about the muffin and smiles that same way he’d done in the kitchen. Warm and genuine.
“Yifan is a good friend,” he starts. “Not that we’ve been friends, but… He’s the only Slytherin that I’ve never seen use the word ‘Mudblood’. I hear a lot of them whisper insults when they think I’m not looking. They never do it to my face because they know the school frowns upon using such derogatory terms and they’d probably face detention, but I can hear them. They always make sure I do. Yifan, though… He’s different. Hard headed sometimes - still a Slytherin after all, but nice.”
Yes, of course. Jongdae is a Muggle-born. Yixing is friends with a great amount of Muggle-borns; he thinks they’re smarter. They go to Muggle school since their early years and learn a lot of important things. Yixing is a half-blood, but his mother convinced his Muggle father that the best option for him was to wait for his Hogwarts letter. He wishes they hadn’t agreed on that. Yixing would have gone to Muggle school and would have learned a lot of important, math things and wouldn’t suffer through Arithmancy like he’s suffering. It was always a known fact that Jongdae is smart. He just likes to pretend like he’s not, even though he fools no one.
“He likes you, you know.” The Gryffindor mentions after a moment of silence. “He watches you. In class, in the Great Hall, even today at the Ball.”
Yixing wants to know how Jongdae knows all those things, but figures it’s best if he doesn’t ask. Instead he just nods, watching Yifan and Baekhyun reach an agreement on the last muffin, then Baekhyun breaks the cake in half and offers the smaller part to Yifan who, of course, looks outraged. The argument restarts.
“Hey, Baek!” Jongdae calls his friend. “Give me a piece of this muffin!”
He’s trying to pull Baekhyun away from Yifan to give Yixing space to approach. It works; Baekhyun stuffs his mouth with the cake and Jongdae runs after him promising revenge. Yifan notices Yixing stepping closer and makes a little more room for him on the blanket he’s sitting on. Yixing sits down, having gotten rid of his cloak when he went to the common room. Sitting is a lot easier without it, he thinks.
“Crazy night, huh.” the Slytherin says.
Yixing narrows his eyes, “Good night.”
Leaning back on his hands, Yixing looks up. The stands are high risen, each two decorated with the colors of the four houses. Soon the sun will come out, and then they’ll be able to see the colors more clearly. It feels too unreal to be sitting at the empty Quidditch pitch. Even more unreal that he’s not freaking out about breaking a lot of school rules.
“What are you thinking about?” comes Yifan’s voice.
“That the sun will be up soon.” Not entirely a lie. Yixing looks at the other and offers him a smile. Yifan returns with a smile of his own. “And that we have Transfiguration on Wednesday.”
Laughing in confusion, Yifan frowns, “Yeah, we do.”
“So. Can we sit together?”
The smile freezes on the Slytherin’s face.
It’s something Yixing’s been thinking about. Being in a different house seems like an idiotic reason not to be closer with Yifan. He wants to be closer. Those 7 years tiptoeing around each other and sneaking glances when one thinks the other won’t be looking. It’s ridiculous. They only have a few more months before school is over, and it would be ultimately pathetic if they allowed themselves to graduate and never do a thing about… Them. Hopefully, there’s still time.
Blinking out of the apparent daze he fell into, Yifan says, “Yeah. We can sit together.” He nods. “In fact… Are you free this weekend?”
Yixing can’t even contain the smile spreading across his face. “Yes. Do you want to hang out?”
“We could go to Hogsmeade, or go to the library and check that book about the twins you can’t seem to shut up about.” Yifan says and Yixing laughs. Sounds like a plan. A wonderful plan.
“Great night, huh.”
“Crazy night.”
{x}
Dear Mr. Kim,
We have received intelligence that you made use of a controlled substance obtained through illegal means. As you know, the distribution of Veritaserum (also known as Truth Serum) must be kept on records, and the illegal possession of controlled substances is a serious offence under Section 8 of the International Code of Use of Controlled Substances.
Substances like the one you made use of are still under study by the Department of Mysteries, and for that reason, the legality of the aforementioned is still questionable.
As you have already received an official warning for a previous breach of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, we regret to inform you that your presence is required at a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Magic at 10:17AM on the 18th of November.
Yours sincerely,
Park Jungsoo
Improper Use of Magic Office
Ministry of Magic.
{x}
Dear Mr. Kim,
We hope this letter finds you in good health. It was brought to our attention that you suffer from a rare Somnambulism condition originated from traumatic ingestion of Truth Serum. Knowing that your actions on the night of the offence under Section 8 of the International Code of Use of Controlled Substances were guided by an unfortunate chronical illness, no further investigations will be held, and your hearing at the Ministry of Magic has been suspended.
We advise you to visit the Potions and Plant Poisoning floor of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, where your condition can be treated with the utmost care.
Yours sincerely,
Park Jungsoo
Improper Use of Magic Office
Ministry of Magic.