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http-mianhae · 1 year

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AMORTENTIA ; jeonghan

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DESCRIPTION ᝰ He was the worst of worse, how could anyone love him? Such a cold-hearted kid yet you were forced to sit next to him and as a Ravenclaw, it didn’t do you justice that all Jeonghan did was throw insults and act like a total jerk

WARNINGS ᝰ kinda enemies to lovers / dislike to like, deskmates ravenclaw!reader x slytherin!jeonghan

PAIRING ᝰ yoon jeonghan x fem!reader

WORD COUNT ᝰ 25.3k

“Yo, Y/NNNN~! Dap me up!” a too-familiar Gryffindor shrieked, hand outstretched. You narrowed your eyes down at the boy upon recognition, questioning what went down for him to be so enthusiastic in the rise of aurora.

You dapped him up anyways. Because if anything, Soonyoung was your beloved friend.

“What happened to you?”

“Huh? Nothing. Where’s your little boyfriend? Isn’t he always scurrying around you?” the boy asked, leaning oh-so-casually against the doorframe of the classroom.

“He’s literally twice your size, Soonyoung. Don’t go around calling Mingyu ‘little’,” you stated defensively, pushing through Soonyoung’s shoulder roughly to enter the DADA classroom. The over-energetic Gryffindor followed you in, a grin smacked right on his face.

“Sure. You still won’t admit that you have a thing for younger men.” he smiled.

“Come on, Soonyoung, He’s in fifth year.” It was usual for you that people would discuss the age difference between you and your honey badger boyfriend. Not that it was a bad thing, you didn’t take it as a bad thing, seeing that the age gap wasn’t illegal as such.

He was sixteen and you were sixteen, turning seventeen. So technically, you were the same age still until you were to turn seventeen in a few months time.

“He could be a younger brother,” Soonyoung said to you, not letting it go.

“You could mind your own business.”

“He could quit his Quidditch team and let us have the Quidditch Cup this year.”

You rolled your eyes, striving to find a good seat in the classroom. It didn’t support you that Soonyoung was all over you, bent over backwards to talk you into breaking up with Mingyu for Mingyu to be dismayed the days leading up to the finals of Quidditch. As much as you loved Soonyoung as a friend, you were not willing to put your relationship on the line for some Quidditch Cup. With the time he spent talking you into breaking up, he could spend on academics or even, Quidditch, for that matter.

“Hold on―why are there labels on the desks?” you noticed.

“I dunno, princess. Use those brainwit-thingies you Ravenclaws have,” he said, smiling at you like a little kid.

Frustration grew inside you as you collapsed your books on a random table. Your finger traced over the little white label plastered across the corner of the desk. “What’s going on? Is this some kind of prank, Soonyoung?”

“We’re having seating arrangements. I came here especially early to see your reaction,” he admitted, putting a hand on your shoulder lightly. Once again, you rejected him by shrugging him off. You grabbed your books up in an armful and sauntered the barren classroom, now on a hunt for your seat. If you were sitting at the back, you were obviously going to pick a dispute with Professor Lupin.

Though, you were sort of confused on the part in which Soonyoung said he was early to see your reaction. Why would he come especially early to see―

BANG!

Your books dropped in a brown heap on the shiny floors of the classroom. In an instant, your eyes became wide and you could sense that there wasn’t an inch of your muscle that moved for a whole second. You wanted to believe that this was a dream (oh, please let it be a dream) so badly but your intelligence proved you wrong. Squeezing your eyes shut and taking a deep breath in and out, you opened them again.

It was still there.

Soonyoung’s laughing was heard but it seemed to be in a distance as you doubled over to pick up your books. The thought of it just made your body crash with adrenalin. You placed the heavy books back on the table one by one, an unlikable feeling settling in you. And what was even more unlikable was the fact that you were so near tears that you wanted to just disappear right then.

“I’m sorry, but it’d best be a Ravenclaw than a Gryffindor.” you heard Soonyoung said, embedding a hand on your shoulder. You wanted to shrug it off, yet was partly too shocked to even conjure that thought. “And also, you’re not far from the front of the class.”

Was he seriously trying optimism with you?

“He’s going to murder me,” you whispered coldly, hands fixed on the table as you figured out what to do. Was there anything you could do about this? You were a Ravenclaw for goodness sake, you should use that knack of a brain for something at least.

“He is not! And even if he tries to, I’m here!” Soonyoung declared just as the huge doors of the classroom open flauntingly. Your knees shook, the voices registering in your mind. You had no choice. You were to sit on this table for the rest of the god damn year and live with the fact that Yoon Jeonghan was going to be next to you.

It wasn’t that you were scared―it was more that you were a mix of annoyed and shocked for the reason being you were paired up with the most obnoxious, ungrateful brat in the world. Like there was a choice in it.

You swooped into your seat, cupping your face as your elbows held themselves on the table, sighing. The dismay was plastered on your face, signed by the eyebrow furrow.

“I’m gonna go take a seat, good luck.” He looked back nervously at the door and then left to the other side of the room. You would admit that the racing of your heart was much faster than envisioned. It was not your fault.

Those Slytherins put themselves on such a high pedestal that no other house in the year level could stand up to them. So if you were irritated at them being some sort of comical in class, you couldn’t just bark at them to shut up.

And Yoon Jeonghan. He was a sick little daddy’s boy. Stacks higher than him was basically what backed him up and you’ve seen the black card in the flesh. He wasn’t to be messed with, with all those assets and a filthy rich background. So it willed you to wonder, as soon as he saw an average-classed Ravenclaw, what would be the resolution?

You would be waiting.

It took a second for the Slytherins to realise that there were labels on the table and when they did, his group of friends began looking for where their name tags would be.

You played cool on the outside, taking away the anxiety from your face and staring straight ahead as they roamed the classroom. A piece of you was idling for Jeonghan to show up next to you. Waiting with every tiny sound of the clock’s hand passing the seconds ahead of you. Until it finally happened.

“Don’t tell me you’re sitting next to me.” His voice dragged out smoothly, yet managed to release your heart to your stomach. So maybe you were a little scared, but that didn’t mean that you were going to back down…sort of?

You turned your head to the left, seeing Jeonghan standing there with his books in hand, staring you down. Acting as if you didn’t know, you cleared your throat to attain your voice. “Yeah, you’re Jeonghan?”

“Who else would ask you that question? Aren’t you a Ravenclaw? You should know this.”

You pursed your lips together and faced the front again, praying for Lupin to arrive quicker. You didn’t want to be stuck conversing with an arrogant kid.

“Answer me.”

“I don’t think there’s a reason for me to answer that as you can see clearly that I am one.”

He scoffed, setting his books down on the table before sliding into the seat next to you. You continued to sit while facing forward. You didn’t know if it explicated that you were scared but you didn’t want it to show at all.

“I can’t believe this teacher,” he muttered to himself.

“If you have a problem with the seating arrangements, you should go speak with Professor Lupin with it because―” you began while turning to him.

“I don’t have a problem with this seating arrangement dumbass, I have a problem with you,” he answered sharply, also turning around to you with disgust painted with a sneer.

“That’s literally the same thing. Maybe you should consider thinking before speaking.” you began, but were cleanly cut off along with many other classmates and Professor Lupin’s voice came booming into the classroom. The man walked to the front with his loving greetings to the gloomy class, leaving Jeonghan powerless to act towards your rude reply.

You took pride in that as the lesson began.

“Good morning, class. Good morning, Soonyoung. As you can see, I have put you in seating arrangements. Now, I’m sure you have a lot of questions and opposes. But I have a reason for this.”

No one argued, seemingly interested as to why the ex-Gryffindor wanted to put you in seating arrangements. Though he was your favourite teacher thus far, you threatened him in your head to have a good reason.

“I noticed the social hierarchy in this year level specifically, so I would like you guys to sit around different houses just to build up that friendship a little…if you have any problems with it, though. Please do come to see me after class and we can discuss it.”

After that, Lupin started his class.

Reluctantly, you focused your eyes on the teacher, following his every word and taking notes here and there. You noticed, however, Jeonghan wasn’t paying attention a tad bit. Rather he was involved in a series of comics with his friend who was placed next to your table.

They were noisy, but you tried your best to focus on Lupin’s explanations briefly overviewing the topic of Dementors stationed on the outskirts of Hogwarts, trailing like blighted ghosts. Truthfully, you hated every inch of the boy’s presence beside you, it made you want to hit him with your massive Charms textbook more than anything.

How could he just turn completely away from the teacher and talk to his friends? He was going to be behind on work, you couldn’t imagine being behind on work with your hectic schedule. It would be a nightmare.

“Okay, so for today’s homework, I want you to answer the questions for Boggarts on page 209. Unfortunately, you must complete the questions for next week’s practical, so please do, do them…”

The bell rang, dismissing the class for the next period. You stood up and packed up your books like every student in the room, pumped for Advanced Arthimacy with your best friend.

Until the Slytherin spoke up. “Where are you going?”

“My next class?” you said.

“I need to go talk to Lupin―”

“Okay, go do that?”

You knew what he was trying to get at, but stayed fooled just for the pleasure of it and the honesty that you had another class anticipating you in literal minutes.

“You’re coming with me,” he declared grandly.

“Are you twelve? No, I have a class to get to and I―”

Jeonghan’s glare hardened, cutting you off as students rushed out of the room as if on cue by him.

You didn’t agree nor did you disagree which determined being a faulty choice made by you as Jeonghan slipped out from his desk and marched to the teacher, all high n’ mighty. You gawked with resentment screwing the back of his damned blonde head. The temptation of hexing him right then was indeed a hard one to let go of.

Despite that, you did heed that it would be embarrassing if you just left like that, so you settled your books down in the forced decision and moved to the front of the classroom to stand next to Jeonghan.

Lupin was sat at the desk when he looked at the two of you with a smile. But when he regarded that neither of you had similar expressions, he outlasted seriously.

“Is there something I can do for the two of you?”

You didn’t say anything, stubbornly gazing into the window. This was in fact a Jeonghan problem, he dragged you into it when you paid no mind―news flash, you paid tons of mind, you just didn’t act it.

He talked anyways, not requiring your cooperation a slight bit. Then, what was the point of bringing you here, if he could do everything himself? “Could you change our seating arrangements? I don’t want to sit with her.”

“What do you mean by that, Mr Yoon? I can’t just change the seats without a proper reason.” Lupin replied tensely.

It was like he doomed Jeonghan.

Jeonghan was quiet, suddenly and you predicted the anger showing on his face through a glare. Lupin continued, reeling his words in a teasing manner as he explained the reason. “An affair mayhaps that happened a long time ago between the two of you? Is that why you don’t want to sit―”

Sharply turning your head back, you gawked at your professor, offended. “What are you saying, sir?!”

“Well, was it?” he smirked at you.

“No!” Jeonghan answered this time.

“It’s not, so why are you so bothered about sitting by each other a few days a week? It’s just an hour class.”

“Fine, then. I’ll sit with her,” he grumbled.

Jeonghan whipped around and stalked off, frustration evident in the way he stopped to scoop his books into his arms and left. It happened all so quick, you only had time to part your lips in astonishment. Neither did Lupin say anything to comfort the boy. It was best to leave the aggression alone anyways.

When the door slammed hard behind the bitter Slytherin, your head returned to the teacher. Your hands urgently slammed onto the wooden table, striving for some sort of explanation on your side.

“Sir, it wasn’t my idea to come to talk to you, in case you were wondering.” you defended yourself excessively.

“I know that, L/N,” He stood up from his seat. You watched as he put a hand on your shoulder like he was going to have a deep discussion with you like he was your father. Not that you had time for that. Your next class had already begun. “Slytherins have the tendency to be full of themselves sometimes. I hope you can tolerate it, it’s a Ravenclaw’s duty to assist a Slytherin to see a different perspective.”

You laughed when the thought of showing Jeonghan the stars in the sky. You didn’t know why that was the first thought that registered in your mental process out of all likely thoughts. It would never happen even if the world was ending. Him being seen around another house was a scare for him.

“Sure, Professor Lupin.” you sarcastically answered, stepping down the narrow hallway of tables to get to grab your set of books. Smilingly, you looked back at the teacher, who smiled back, as if challenging your notion of his words.

You were off to your next class, forgetting your morning encounter.

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

“So you’re sitting next to him now?” Adora asked.

You nodded with a sigh, digits sweeping past the tethers of books in the library’s inner shelves. Your best friend got to know the tea when you met her in Advanced Arthimacy and now she was expanding the conversation, seeking to find a solution to the problem. She sank against the table behind her, considerably shocked about the chances of you being with Jeonghan out of all people.

“Ah, that’s going to be tiring,” she said, forcing herself off. The active Ravenclaw patted your head, clearly feeling sorry for you. Who wouldn’t feel sorry for you? You were going to live sadder after this.

“You know what’s worse? Lupin was so funny about it. He was teasing us when he asked for a change in the seating plan.” you continued, looking over at Adora with pain screwed in your eyes. “And after Jeonghan practically stormed out, he was like ’it’s a Ravenclaw’s duty to assist a Slytherin to see a broader perspective’.”

“Dude, what?!” she queried, tucking her silky auburn hair behind her ear. It sprung back to the sharpness of her cheek, honouring her facial features.

“I know!” you exclaimed to your best friend, furrowing your eyebrows. “It was so weird! I really don’t know what to do with this kid sitting next to me. You can literally feel it, like the Slytherin energy when he’s sitting next to you.”

“God.” she sighed. “That’s scary. I would not like that at all…but he’s kinda cute.”

There she goes with the teasing. It was what any best friend would’ve done in the situation anyways.

“True.” you agreed, seeing honesty in her words. Jeonghan’s face emitted prettiness, but the kind of prettiness that was unjust. It was structured but also soft, masculine but feminine in and you found it difficult not to ask for his skincare routine. Had he been in any other house, you most definitely would. “But still, I don’t want to be sitting next to him for the whole year. He’s going to make a fool out of me.”

She sighed, planting her hand on your shoulder. You reminisced that it was to soothe you from the fluttering thousand thoughts running around your mind. She was simply taking her duty as best friend to make things right.

“I know. Though, you are a Ravenclaw, just focus on your studies.”

She made it seem so easy.

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Thinking it was easy but to be there in the present and acting as if everything was tight rein seemed to be a high achieving goal you set for yourself. It was achievable, but it was the direness that made you not want to even try.

By the next DADA lesson, you sat at your arranged seat, waiting for class to start as you flicked through your notes.

“Good morning, L/N.” Lupin greeted, walking past your table.

“Morning, sir.” you greeted back, not swerving your eye contact to the man.

You were a little early for class but that solely meant more revising time for you. The night before you were stuck in a rather competitive game of chess with Jeon Wonwoo that got his whole year level staying to watch. The game was played until three am, with you winning, of course, to keep the pride of your year level.

Other than that, you made a new friend and made friends with his friend Vernon. So now, not only were you and Adora not alone together all the time, you had adorable little fifth years as friends.

“We shall begin the class, how are you lot?” Lupin asked the class. They responded as you took the sign of the fact Jeonghan wasn’t next to you. You didn’t say anything about it either. He was probably late. “L/N, where’s your deskmate?”

You glanced up at the teacher. It was painful not to get mad at him, especially when knowing that Lupin was doing it on purpose.

“I don’t know, sir. Sorry.” you apologised calmly, letting the ball of fists under the table unwind to let some air into your palm.

“Strange,” Lupin commented and then, grabbed white chalk from the chalkboard to commence the lesson. A lesson he thought would begin from there. Unfortunately not.

He was shortly interrupted by a bang which could only come from behind, indicating the double oak doors to glide open, as if on command. You gripped the fresh sight of an elephantine sea of green accented figures walking in. And the way they walked, it certainly caught you in a trance for a second. So in synch and with purpose and authority. You hadn’t seen anything like it. Lupin hadn’t said anything about it either. And when you turned back to face the teacher, there wasn’t an inkling of surprise dotted on his face.

“There you are…we were all wondering where you were.” Lupin chuckled. The Slytherin didn’t participate in his laughing. Your shivers were taken note of as the room moved severely cold. It was like there were no souls, yet thousands of eyes watching at the same time.

Instead, they scattered before entering the maze of tables and walked to their assigned seat, obviously filled with hatred for the teacher. You detected instantly it was because they couldn’t be with their friends but you also saw that some Slytherins didn’t regard anger in their face.

“We had to stay back.” the boy you recalled as Junhui, the Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team, said.

A spark must have lit for Lupin because he straightened up. “Ah, yes. Is it because of the…incident?”

Jun nodded.

“What incident?” Soonyoung’s voice was as clear as a harmonised whistle and you crinkled your eyes, caught in cringe. He should have wished that moment he could have taken it back. Yet, he didn’t. He stared at the teacher, anticipating an answer.

He did get one, just not the one the poor kid was foreseeing.

“Stay in your lane, Gryffindor,” Jeonghan told him as he took the seat next to you, dropping his books in an untidy load on his table.

A heavy pit landed in your abdomen, somewhat feeling bad for the tiger but also feeling bad for yourself that Yoon Jeonghan had arrived and so dramatically, too. You didn’t commit to the acknowledgement of his arrival but minded your own business, the thought of getting called out was not a good one.

“Um, let’s speak to each other nicely in this classroom, shall we?” Lupin smiled.

You were funded with relaxation when the man once again swished and flicked, closing the double oak doors of the classroom. Then, he turned to the blackboard, beginning the class for the second time in five minutes. It was only moments before something started again. Honestly, you wanted an easy breezy class that would end with a nice finish.

Jeonghan started it.

“Tell your little boyfriend to stay away from us,” Jeonghan whispered.

You widened your eyes, shooting a side-eye at the boy. You thought he had no idea who you were. But then again, you were dating the Kim Mingyu, it came with a position of popularity dropped on your head like a crown.

You were deemed to be focussing on class, but the news flash caught you off guard. Suddenly, you found yourself needing to know what was happening with Mingyu and why he had gotten right into a web of troubles with the Slytherins. Because that was the last thing a Hufflepuff should be doing in this world. Messing with a Slytherin was bound to ruin a Hufflepuff’s reputation.

“What happened?” you whispered right back, your voice sadly biting the fact that you weren’t supposed to share curiosity around like that. You focussed on Lupin and leaned in a little so you could hear Jeonghan better.

“Your boyfriend picked a fight with Junhui after accusing the team of cheating in the last Quidditch match. Now tell me, do you think that just because we may come off intimidating, Slytherins will go as low as cheating?” It sounded like he was talking to Mingyu than his Ravenclaw deskmate and you were getting the feeling that the grudge dawdling his words were starting to follow you up. As if you were responsible.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean it.” you defended Mingyu anyways.

He was the sweetest boy you ever knew of. If Mingyu ever picked a fight, there would be a valid reason for it and when there is one, he would tell you. He hasn’t told you anything yet, so you were left to assume that there was something terribly wrong going on.

“He gave Jun a blood nose, what are you talking about?”

You glanced back at the said boy. Junhui, the brunette, was sitting a few rows back, his eyes plastered on the teacher as he scribbled down notes. Abruptly, his eyes peeled off the teacher to look at you. You turned back just as quick, not wanting to catch the Slytherin’s gaze. You heard rumours about him that were far too brutal for the average ear to even hear. For Mingyu to go pick a fight with him was unbelievable. But you had perceived the bloodstains at the edge of his nostrils. They had to mean something. Your grip tightened on your quill, feathers scrunching under your grasp.

“Why are you telling me?” you asked Jeonghan, covering the shakiness in your voice. You didn’t want to falter around him, wanting to prove that you weren’t scared of a small fight. But when you recalled the way the Slytherins walked in just before, you were beginning to trail with your own doubts and worries.

“Because you’re his girlfriend, duh. You don’t ever use your brain for a Ravenclaw.”

You flashed him a glare that made him a little startled as he backed the tiniest away. “I will converse with Mingyu after.” you stated and returned your focus back to the class.

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

“Y/N, I swear! They cheated, I saw it with my own eyes!” your boyfriend exclaimed and you were sure if it weren’t for you questioning him, Mingyu would most likely be pulling on his hair.

The enthusiasm enraged the younger boy’s eyes. You cornered him near your common room entry on the fifth floor. In all your years of knowing Mingyu, you hadn’t seen him act like this before. It was fresh to your sights. “Okay, okay. Explain to me exactly what happened in the game.”

Mingyu sighed, looking to the ground. It was like he was trying to gather his words to talk to you. You recalled the previous Saturday game where Hufflepuffs were playing the Slytherins. You recalled that it wasn’t the nicest game in the world―insults were thrown at each other, physical abuse was involved in abundance that the game was about to be stopped halfway. If it wasn’t for the honey boy agreeing to play properly, the game would’ve been called off.

“Fine. I was flying around as one does and I had the Quaffle in my hand. Friggin’ Junhui smacked that Bludger right into me and I dropped it and―”

“That’s allowed, right?” you interrupted.

“It is, but here’s the thing. I was going to my goalpost because I got hit with the Bludger. That’s the rules, right? So I was in the middle of touching my goalpost when I saw, Tzuyu, their Chaser and Ace, push the ball into the hoops. That’s not allowed!”

You found the mistake. A deep disappointment ran through you. You were hoping that Jeonghan was wrong, hoping very hard but in the end, that is what the truth ended up being. “I know how Tzuyu is and are you sure she did that? I was near your goalpost and I―”

“Are you saying you don’t believe me?” Mingyu asked. “Or is it because she’s a girl and you’re taking sides with her because she’s a girl?”

He tilted his head to the left and it took everything in you not to smile at it. Mingyu was trying to stay serious about some Quidditch game and here you were, pursing your lips together in a straight line, seemingly thinking.

“No,” you answered, touching his arm comfortingly. Your eyes shined. “I was spectating by your goalpost and I even had binoculars with me. I saw Tzuyu hit that one goal only because the other boys were hogging the ball and that was the only time you went to touch the goalpost. What I don’t understand is the fact that she was so far away from the goalpost when she scored, you even saw that.”

It was Mingyu’s turn to purse his lips. His hair radiated under the light with elegance, almost. The Hufflepuff normally resonated with such bouncy behaviour, but today was the first time in a while you were seeing him act oh-so gloomy. As if you struck something you weren’t meant to. You understood immediately, your breath slightly hitching in your throat.

“I don’t know what to say…” he told you, looking at the ground.

“Don’t tell me you lied and went to pick a fight with them anyways,” you said, sounding more aggressive than you needed to. It was solely because you were praying in your heart that wasn’t the case. You didn’t want Mingyu to get on their bad sides, you cared for him that much.

“I did.” Mingyu answered you, laying his head in your shoulder with a plop. “I can’t even answer you, no wonder they didn’t believe me.”

“It was such a stupid lie.” you sighed, settling your hand in the tufts of his fluffy hair. You loved him and all, though at times, he would be so stupid, you wondered if it was humanly possible. “Why would you go and do that when there’s so much proof that she didn’t cheat?”

You were a little annoyed at the fact he lied. You were able to decipher why it angered the Slytherins too, it wasn’t fair on them.

“I don’t know, I was frustrated. You’re not going to tell me off?”

“Of course not, just don’t do it again, okay?”

“Okay…I have a Quidditch practice now, so I have to go,” he told you, looking up at you. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Sure, be safe.”

You pecked Mingyu on the lips before turning around to go to your dorms, ending the day with the calmness that you sorted the situation out.

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Only when your head hit the fluffy pillows a week later had you remembered something. You struck up immediately again, your tired eyes now as wide as an owl. Beginning to hate the way your mind worked, you stood up to your feet.

How could you forget? You were relaxing the whole day and you had the audacity to forget something as vital as that?

“You okay, Y/N?” your best friend inquired from beyond the room. She was leafing through the pages of a book, obviously tired from the way a yawn slipped through her mouth after asking.

“I said I would go get that book for Potions at the library and see? I completely forgot it.” you sighed, slipping on random slippers aggressively. You didn’t even see if you had them on right.

Adora giggled and her glance moved to the clock in the dorm. “What an idiot. Go get it quickly though, the library closes in like twenty-five minutes.”

That was sufficient to get you moving. As if there was an added force in the room, you were thrust to the door of your dorm, basically jabbing to grab the doorknob and pull aside the door. Adora’s laugh wasn’t lost in the air at your actions as you sprinted down the slim hallway where there were girls coming out and going into their dorms.

You nearly wanted to screech at all of them to get out of the way, but after discerning that it was hardly likely for you to do so, you sharpened your focus more on your way to the library. This was not easy for a Ravenclaw to do so whatsoever. Mainly when you were on the fifth floor, you had to escalade down a radical number of stairs in your pyjamas, which provoked the joints in your knees to barely stick together. Talk about disadvantage.

You were put through a rough time until you finally made it.

Accessing the library, you assuredly put your hands on your knees, breathing in and out piercingly, a punch right in your stomach. The sweat residue on your head became evidence of your hard work as you clammed for a grasp of yourself. Pushing back up, you decided to go straight into locating the book than wasting any time with your barely-jointed legs strolling.

You walked through the adventure section towards the left, before finding a table in the middle of three shelves and a comprehensive view of the lake. You were about to be distracted by the view when you skimmed your eyes back to the table, your heart almost stopping.

It had to be pure coincidence.

You stared, as did he.

The effort of running all the way to the library had doubled its results somewhat. His eyes tracked down to your feet, the book in his hand in a tight grip.

“Nice slippers.”

You looked down too and pinched your eyes shut. Please tell me I’m dreaming. No matter how hard you squeezed your eyes shut and opened them, the same vision of your dormmate’s llama slipper and your sheep one would still be below you. Shaking your head, you glanced back at the boy. He was the last person you foresaw here.

“What are you doing here?” you asked, changing. the subject. He was dressed exceptionally well, you noticed. Head to toe, clad in a nice outfit for something as plain as going to the library.

“Detention,” Jeonghan answered as you began sauntering around the area again.

“That’s stupid of me to ask,” you muttered, fingers running through the thick binds of books in a row as you turned your awareness away from him. You couldn’t forget why you came here.

Each bind came with its own texture―bamboo, silk, wood, paper and it was ascertained that each of those binds came with its own story. Soon, your fingers were brushing the wooden shelf, slowly delving into the side of the shelf and the other side.

Jeonghan’s presence simply slipped your mind like drops of quicksilver as you wandered through the quiet shelves, scanning for the title of the book. But it was nowhere to be seen. It was like you were looking for the same thing for hours and hours on end, yet came with nothing but a dead end. Surely, it was tiring you out too because you were sure that the book was here.

You had seen it before you went to have dinner and no one else in the school needs the book until your level in the latter part of the year. It didn’t fully set into you where it could be until your eyes met the authoritative figure at the counter.

You sighed and walked up to Pince, seeming very confused about the book’s whereabouts. You were hugely entwined with the fact that it had to be somewhere within the library’s walls and with your Ravenclaw knack, you weren’t far off.

Discussing the problem with the librarian, she took the big book stating all the books that have ever been borrowed in the library.

“Is it called Quick Potions, you say?” she asked, flicking through the pages. Something was telling you she was looking for the 'Q’ section to find the book’s name. And when she got nearer to the end of the book, you were told the same thing. “It has to be somewhere in here, dear. It hasn’t been checked out since last year.”

“Oh…maybe I didn’t look properly? Thanks, Madam Pince,” you said, bowing slightly to the woman.

She gave a firm smile prior to getting straight into her paperwork again. You were left with the suspicion rolling in your mind as you took another round the library, where you ascertained that you didn’t miss anything.

Nonetheless, the fact that nothing had been checked out stood out like a splinter in a knee. You looked again, skimming past Jeonghan’s table.

You shot him a brief glance, his doe eyes following the lines of the book he was reading. What was he reading anyways?

The way your body had stopped as soon as you saw the title of the book.

“Hey.”

He looked at you.

“Why do you have that book for?”

He scrunched his nose somewhat in revulsion. You gave no heed to the action as you penetrated your sights through the front cover that was strangely familiar from the start. You just never paid much attention to it, when Jeonghan was all dressed up fancy, drawing recognition away from the tattered case the book was in.

“To read, duh.” he remarked.

For all intents and purposes, you didn’t believe that. You didn’t show it, your target shifting to the book in interest.

“I need that book,” you addressed, leaning your hands on the wooden table slowly. Just as though Jeonghan was some prey of an animal you were trying to get near.

He must’ve seen the way you were looking at that book because he shrunk it back to himself a little as you looked at him. “No way. I’m having it.”

The book proved to be of such importance to you.

“Come on, Jeonghan! At least let me write some notes on it.”

“Um, no,” he stated with sass detected in his tone. “You should’ve got it before. And why do you even need it for? We don’t do this topic until later in the year.”

He was stating the obvious.

“I’m a Ravenclaw.” was the only excuse that drew from your lips.

“Right. You lot want to impress the teacher all the time.” he insulted, sounding like he was spitting his words out almost. He needed to look for the way he said things sometimes, it would come out wrong.

“Right we do.” you agreed with a firm nod. “So give me the book.”

Hope depleted your body. The boy in front of you didn’t seem to be wanting to give you the book, neither did he want to provide an explanation as to why he needed the book. Was he trying to be ahead of class, too? You didn’t know, but what you did know was there was no point trying anymore when he was so determined in his case.

“No.”

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

“And then I told Wonwoo to piss off.”

“Adora, shut up. You did not!”

“You bet I did. Like, do I look the type to mess around with shit like that? Absolutely not! He had me mad mad!”

“So did you get your stuff back again or what?” you pestered her, genuinely involved in what she did with the younger students of your house.

Adora, Mingyu and you were currently walking through the busy halls of Hogwarts, striving to get to your classes. Had it been that Mingyu’s class wasn’t on the way, he wouldn’t be entwined by your link of an arm as you dragged him, chattering with your best friend. You acknowledged that he was very bored and looked over at him to see what he was doing instead of listening.

Your eyes had caught a glance of something else in the short distance.

Jeonghan was standing there, with his group of friends surrounding him in a semi-circle so they were all able to face the bustling hallway. His eyes had fleeted the conversation for a mere second, darting to make contact with you.

Your body stammered, identifying crisis at its peak. If you wanted to leave without a fight starting, you had to get yourself and Mingyu out of there immediately.

“Um,” Adora perked up.

You faced her again, realising that her line of sight was stuck at the troublemaking Slytherins. You could assume that she was worried about why you were looking at one spot only. Hating that you were so obvious with it, you looked at the girl with the intention to get away quickly. Your best friend got the message and before you knew it, you were starting to walk a little faster.

“Why are we going so fast? It’s just Monday morning.” came Mingyu’s groan.

You weren’t in a desire to hear any of it. It was your responsibility to get him into that class safely. If you weren’t doing that, what kind of girlfriend, or even, senior were you?

“Ssh, child. We’re going to your class now.”

“You did not just 'child’ me,” Mingyu complained, practically jogging at the end of his hold. Was he always such a brat? No. It must’ve been the prank that his roommates did on him that had him this grumpy in the morning. He was whining about it all morning and as much as you felt bad for him that it was the result of a bad’s night sleep, you rather Mingyu’s day not get worse.

Which meant physically flinging him into the classroom.

Adora laughed at seeing that, as well as a few other members of the younger year level.

Mingyu poked his head right out of his classroom again, furrowing his eyebrows in the slightest. “What’d you do that for?”

You put on a feverish smile on your face, acting as if you do this every day for Mingyu’s sake.

“For fun. Now, get back into your class and learn a lot. I love you, okay?” you told him.

Mingyu rolled his eyes and waved you off as if you were an embarrassing mother bidding her child to school.

“Love you too.” he muttered.

Your resisted the urge to say ‘say it louder’ and walked off with Adora, acknowledging that you had settled your boyfriend. It left some time before class actually started so you and Adora were able to almost crusade to class, now speaking more freely because there was no guy there listening in on your conversation.

The two of you entered the classroom and took seats at the far left back of the classroom where you were confirmed of being able to have your own conversation as well as easy access to notes since the board was on the left. You chatted your way through minutes as other members of the class came in as well as the teacher herself.

You almost had to bite your tongue to stop talking, just because you and Adora were having that good of a conversation. The whole class beame quiet, even the Slytherins who, fortunately, don’t stand a chance in front of McGonagall. Who does, honestly?

“I can’t believe I’m only now noticing how many classes Jeonghan and I have together,” you commented briefly as your eyes stuck to the teacher instructing.

“You don’t have that many classes with him.”

“I don’t. But it’s annoying to just see his face this early in the morning if you get what I mean.” you said.

The fear of getting caught talking in one of McGonagall classes was on your back.

“I get what you mean. It’s going to be hard now, huh?”

“It is―”

“L/N, would you come hand out these worksheets for me?” The teacher manages to instruct you.

You would admit that when she had said your last name, you felt a claw in your stomach scratching you and telling you that you had done something wrong. It wasn’t until she said her full sentence, had you calmed down a little. The shock stained your face, however, quickly erupted when you got up with a nod.

Chair skidding back, you removed yourself from the prickly gap between the table and chair and got out to the front of the classroom that had broken into a set of broken whispers here and there―the class was for once, able to talk in class.

You did your dutiful task of handing out worksheets, replying to ‘thank you’s and such for one side of the classroom. As you went along the last column, dreadfully as well, because Jeonghan and his group of friends were coming up, you felt this pit drop. Just looking at his face gave this ungrateful whirr of mush in you that you wanted to splutter out, but there was no possible way of doing so. It was so hard to describe, yet so easy to express the pain he gave.

You placed down Jeonghan’s paper on his table, sensing the silence when you did so.

What? Were you not even allowed to do your own task?

You moved away quickly because you realised that the group of Slytherins were just staring.

The class continued with the agonising pain of McGonagall’s voice deliberately getting screwed in your head. As much as you loved staying on top of your work and the satisfaction of doing so, you hated when teachers would give homework.

You left the class more burdened than you were when you came in, with your best friend complaining about the workload once again.

“It’s suffocating,” she whined.

“I hate it here.”

“Let’s run away with the Dementors. Lowkey, they’re kinda fine.”

“Girl―no, you’re kinda right.” You nodded along before the two of you bid each other a goodbye as you had different classes.

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

“No, no. I stole your stuff because you stole my glasses.” Wonwoo argued affirmatively.

Vernon and you were shocked as you stared between the two quarrelling. How he had changed the story so drastically, you had no idea, but your were confirmative in your enthusiasm for it. As was Vernon who sat right opposite you.

Although Vernon and Wonwoo were juniors of yours, it didn’t seem that for a second that Wonwoo wanted it to be that way since he was starting to get out of line with his argument.

“Whatever it is, I am your senior,” Adora argued.

“Oh, so just because you’re my senior, you get special privileges of stealing my things?” Wonwoo asked.

“I did not steal them, I―”

You stuffed a spoonful of mashed potato into Adora’s mouth, causing Vernon to laugh. You smiled at him, glancing over at your best friend. “Eat. Or you’re going to be complaining about hungry you are all day and I don’t have time for that.”

Adora swallowed hard, her fists curled in her lap. You were her next target. If you didn’t notice right there, right then the absence of one of your textbooks on your concerning book pile, you would’ve been dead meat.

“Oh my God.” you gasped.

“What is it?” Wonwoo asked you.

You looked back at the three. “I totally forgot my Transfiguration textbook back at the classroom.”

Untangling yourself from the bench, you pursued into a run, not forgetting to turn a little to see your friends. “Take my stuff with you!”

And you were on a run; fleeting down the linear course of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables where a sea of yellow and blue punctured your eyes. Students moved out of your way once they saw you running for what appeared like your life and frankly it was. You had homework that involved the presence of that textbook.

Lucky for you, McGonagall’s classroom was on the ground floor of Hogwarts, allowing students like you easy access. You scooted through some more starving students, a few fellow Ravenclaws in your sprint prior to making it to the entrance of your destination.

Oh, you felt like you had seen the light of the day when the double doors met your eyes. A soft smile of relief sculpted your face as you pushed the door just enough for you to slide through.

“Do you think it’s funny that your grades are going down, Mr Yoon?”

Your eyes caught quite the killing scene―McGonagall stationed at the front of the classroom with Jeonghan right in front of her. She seemed as if she was ridding her heart and soul out to the boy about the importance of school and you couldn’t agree less.

Yes, scold him more.

You nearly forgot that you could be seen so you quickly slid to the back of the classroom where your textbook was waiting for you like a child waiting for their parent to pick them up from kindergarten. It was like all your sweat droplets slinked back into the pores of your skin…only for them to bleed out again.

“L/N? What are you doing here?”

You looked up at the authoritative women at the front of the classroom who shot daggers at you. You stood still for a second, before trying to explain why you were in the classroom.

“Sorry, Professor. I just left my textbook in here.” You waved up the textbook.

She nodded, letting you walk freely. “Alright. You can go, then. Now, you―”

“No, Professor. She’s here to find out why I’m in here, so later she can go talk behind my back about me.”

You stopped in your tracks and rolled back around. “What? What are you talking about?”

“Yes, what is this about, Yoon?” McGonagall asked, her eyebrow raising. If she didn’t believe it, it would only cause you luck because she was such an opinionated woman.

Jeonghan sniffled. If you believed that McGonagall was not going to fall for his lies, why were you literally shaking in your shoes? Maybe because of the known fact that Slytherins tended to have their way with things.

“She’s been doing it the last few weeks and I’ve been hearing the worst rumours about myself spread around. She keeps calling me a manwh―”

“L/N, what is this?” McGonagall interrupted.

Her eyes proved that she was in a state of anger as you stood there, a textbook in hand, deadpanned. You were staring right at Jeonghan, instead of looking at your teacher because there was a part of you that was still concocting the message. He really lied to get you in trouble and for what?

“Professor, I swear to you, he’s lying! Why would I call him such a word? I don’t even know him!”

“Of course the professor will believe you.” Jeonghan looked away, enticing an effect of devastation. “Just because I’m a male and a Slytherin for that matter, I’m expected to take these words and be okay with it. But there’s always a line, Y/N. You should understand that―”

“That’s right, L/N.” McGonagall interrupted with a firm nod.

Resentment gradually rose in you as the doe eyes of Jeonghan floated to the teacher. “I feel like it’s only fair for her to serve detention too. That way she can learn from her mistakes.”

McGonagall nodded at the liar. “I think that is fair too. Furthermore, what is even more fair is that the two of you should serve detention together and sort out this issue.”

“What?” Jeonghan and you spoke out.

Your muscles felt stiff and rigid, your throat had gone dry. There was no way that you were hauled into a lie and detention with him. This was all beginning to be a little too much for you to take in.

“I said what I said, Yoon. Apologies, but I feel like this is a situation that the two of you need to make up together or come on okay terms. I hear that you are seated together for Defence Against the Dark Arts, it will be less awkward if you talk things out.” she explained carefully, looking between the two of you.

And it was like she knew everything that was going on. You were placed in a web of lies like prey for the spider. The spider being Jeonghan. You were daunting it with all your soul already, how would you be when you actually work with him?

“No, no, I don’t think―”

“That’s the final decision. Trophy Room, Wednesday night, at nine o’clock.” McGonagall stood up and swept her books into her arms magically. She was full of authorisation as she stepped down the steps from her desk before sweeping past Jeonghan. When she walked past you, she gave you a stern glare, her square glasses glimmering under the lights.

“I don’t want to hear such things coming again. You are a well-behaved student but you also need to be well-behaved when it comes to other students. Do you understand?”

As much as you wanted to tell her it was a lie, you nodded. She had too much power and was aware of it. McGonagall left the room, closing the door behind her.

Now that it was the two of you alone, you looked up at the blonde boy. He was looking at you already.

“Why the hell did you think that was okay, Jeonghan? I do not want to waste time doing detention with you and you―”

“How was I supposed to know that hag was going to give the two of us detention?” Jeonghan asked.

“She is the head of Gryffindor house. You should know that and above all, you lied about me. You don’t even know how much I wanna hex you right now.” you said, speaking in small breaths. You knew the rage hadn’t fully settled in yet.

Jeonghan didn’t seem bothered, he acted with the thought that the whole thing wasn’t his fault.

Why was he so arrogant for? Couldn’t he just be accepting of his faults? Slytherins like Jeonghan make you think that there will never be a good Slytherin again. They were all deducted of the need to tell the truth.

“Oh, shut up,” he muttered. Jeonghan walked past you, eyes seething from the looks of it. You couldn’t bring yourself to be afraid of him anymore. His cold presence meant nothing. In that moment, you just wanted to grab him by his luscious blonde hair and tug at it until it all ripped out.

Jeonghan left the classroom, leaving you in the emptiness of it. Placing the textbook on the table, a revelation opened up―you remembered something.

“Oh my God,” you muttered out of frustration.

You had a test on Thursday.

How the hell were you going to spend the night before revising when you had detention?

You hit your head with the textbook.

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

“What if I just don’t show up?” you asked Adora, looking at her pitifully.

It was already Wednesday, twenty to eight and here you were, walking with your group of friends and boyfriend, dreading to see him. The last two nights ended up being full of revision because you couldn’t fully set it out over three days. Thanks to Jeonghan and his lying. You hadn’t wanted to beat someone up so badly.

He made it a point that he didn’t like you and he used that to make your life miserable. For what? Because you sat next to him in a class. You had no control over that, what were you supposed to do?

“It’s just one detention and you already know everything, babe.” Mingyu said, slinging his arm around your shoulder so casually. Even his pretty face hadn’t managed to make you comforted. “I tested you, remember?”

“Exactly.” Adora nodded, putting her hand on your head to reassure you. None of it was working.

You were scared that this one night gone would make a sacrifice.

“You’re a Ravenclaw, Y/N.” Mingyu told you. The other two juniors of yours entailed behind the two of you, quiet for their own good. You looked back at them, pitiful of yourself.

“You guys aren’t going to say anything to make me feel better?”

Wonwoo and Vernon exchanged a glance worriedly because they were put on the spot.

“Well, you’re our senior. So we don’t know what exactly to say.” Wonwoo said for the two of them as Vernon nodded along with his friend’s words. It must’ve been the fact that Mingyu was here.

Because behind closed doors, these two were the most fun you’ve known of in your life. Since Mingyu was in their year level and popular at that, it must’ve caused a margin of how much they talked. You understood that and smiled at them, despite the distasteful situation you had brought yourself into.

“Ah, babe.” Mingyu perked his head up at you, his eyes widened a little as if he remembered something.

“Yeah?”

“I-I have to be somewhere right now,” he told you urgently.

You furrowed your eyebrows wondering what it was and why he would remember it now? Like he could’ve said something about it earlier?

“Well, what is it?” you asked him.

“Um, you wouldn’t really get it now. But I’ll explain it tomorrow, okay? Good luck on your detention and test.” Mingyu quickly pecked your check, much to your distaste as you had previously mentioned your dislike towards public affection. Then, he turned around and dashed through your juniors without an apology.

You watched as the boy ran as if his life was on the line and for a second you pondered the idea if it was, then, you turned right back around, finding yourself dipped in worry and frustration once again.

“We’ve arrived,” Adora told you with a fatal sigh leaving your lips. How much you wished McGonagall would appear in front of you like a fairy and tell you that you were in luck, but there was no fairy McGonagall as you drove the doors of the Trophy Room wide open.

The dramatics of the door opening prolonged a silence that was without warning. You walked in first, the footsteps behind you reassuringly following.

He was already there.

A similar feeling of dread once again swamped inside you.

“Oh, look. You brought your stupid Ravenclaw friends with you.” Jeonghan commented, a glare that felt like it was stained on his face like turmeric to a countertop.

“You should be the last person calling them stupid.” You remarked back.

The room was silent for a second and you felt Adora’s hand on your shoulder, signalling you that your remark was a bit unexpected. You didn’t care. Watching Jeonghan’s face fall was somewhat pleasing to the eyes.

“Are you talking back to me?” Jeonghan asked.

“Yeah, I am. Because frankly, I’m starting to get sick of your rich boy attitude.”

Jeonghan didn’t say anything about it and it convinced you that you got him good. The rest of the room was quiet so you looked back at your group of friends.

“You guys can leave. I don’t want you to view this torture any longer.” You told them.

The two boys stood there for a second before Adora pushed them out. Door slamming behind them, it left only you and Jeonghan in the room and it was not the ideal environment to let two people that were on the verge of killing one another together.

Grabbing your wand out, you start to wave things out. You didn’t want to be here, neither did you want to put in the effort of cleaning up the room. The last time you checked you didn’t lie so you’re not doing the detention.

Jeonghan didn’t give you another look as he whipped out his own wand to get stuff done. The two of you were quiet with each other and there was this fine border, you saw it from the way things were going, that screamed that if someone were to talk right that second, it would break out something. Like a zit popping, an explosion that destroyed the world.

The two of you knew this deep inside and were basically playing tug-of-war in your minds, waiting for someone to say something. It was just that adrenalin rushing that made you all frustrated all over again.

“Detention with you out of all people…” Jeonghan muttered under his breath.

Your eyes darted up instantly, feeling the knot keeping the rope of sanity together break.

“You shouldn’t be complaining. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be here together. I hope you regret this for the rest of your life, Jeonghan. I have a test tomorrow and now thanks to you, I can’t revise for it.” you complained, lashing out a trophy from the cabinet. It flew in the air and into your hands for the cleaning spray and a wipe down to retrieve another layer of glossiness.

Jeonghan furrowed his eyebrows at you. It seemed that no one really stood up to him, so he didn’t know what to say. Though he did know that his standards and expectations were being abolished by your comebacks.

As they should be.

“You shouldn’t be talking back to me.”

He had another one coming because your mouth opened and spat facts.

“Aw, that’s literally how communication works.” you pouted, before deadpanning at it. You flew the silver trophy right back into the cabinet and got the one adjacent to it. “I think you’re the stupid one, Jeonghan.”

Jeonghan’s grip on his trophy tightened and although it was fairly dark in the room, you were capable of seeing his veins tense. Sort of like Mingyu before a game.

“Oh, you should really shut that mouth. It’s not going to do you justice.”

You didn’t care. It showed too.

“Aw, really? How? Because I really love seeing you look so mad and do absolutely nothing about it.” You teased.

Jeonghan almost shoved the golden trophy into the cabinet. It urged no new reaction from you as you were determined to defend yourself well.

“I’ll do something for real, you dumb Ravenclaw. Don’t test me.”

“Come do it, then. Don’t tell me.” you smirked proudly.

It seemed like you snapped Jeonghan’s rope of sanity because the next thing you knew, he was walking towards you.

It was then you felt like a bucket of ice water was dumped over your head―you were enlightened as to why no one messes with him.

It’s not that he’s not use to it, it’s that he doesn’t want to make the effort to go fix the situation. This is shown through his unbothered behaviour and his lazy actions. Yoon Jeonghan was feral on the inside.

But now, you weren’t sure 'feral’ was the only way to describe it. He had his wand out and everything, you were sure he was going to murder you then.

You looked around for a possible defence for yourself. There was absolutely nothing in the stone-cold room that could pitch as a defence tool rather than your own wand.

It wasn’t until Jeonghan had reached a foot to you did you let out a loud gasp. A little away from you was a metal bucket that held all the cleaning supplies that you and Jeonghan were to use the night. It was empty when Jeonghan tripped over the bucket.

Gratitude to the fact that you were only what seemed a feet away, the only falling position had was on top of you. Though you were a Ravenclaw, it was a given you were too late in moving out of the way. Jeonghan’s body clashed against yours, causing the two of you to topple over to the stone-cold floor in a disordered pile.

The menacing Slytherin had his chest right at yours, the tension circulating one that could come off contradictory from your dispute. Your heart was shaking, beating profound in your ears as you took a glance at those ravishing doe eyes, hardly inches from you.

Light from behind had shadowed his face but you knew all too well that the look on his face could only mean that…he didn’t mean for this to happen.

However, before you could even get a word out of the, well, knotted situation, the door of the trophy room opened. You were not only weighed down by Jeonghan but also, fear.

“What in the world is going on in here?!” came the stern voice of McGonagall.

It looked wrong, you admitted it, but you required to explain yourself first. Sweet Minerva didn’t delight you with a chance.

“When I said to sort things out, I did not mean this. You children are a menace to society! Up to your feet―now!”

The two of you paused. Partly because Jeonghan was still on top of you, half his body on top while his hands held his weight up and entrapped you in between him. You felt heat rush to your face.

“Up!” the Gryffindor called.

With a glare that spoke ‘it’s all your fault’, Jeonghan got to his feet, and you clambered to yours too, a pain stretching across your shoulder blade from the knockdown.

“Another detention, both of you,” she said. “You have five more minutes in here and then you can leave.”

The way the teacher had expressed herself proved that she didn’t want to hear excuses drawing from either of you.

You pressed your lips in a firm hold and nodded at the teacher. Your head was down so you couldn’t see what your fellow classmate did, so you could only imagine that he did something that was sufficient for the teacher to leave you guys in the room.

Jeonghan shifted to the back of the room where he continued with the trophies, being somewhat louder, showing his have for the detention.

You could say the same with a bit more embarrassment.

The next five minutes were the most awkward five minutes of your life.

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Fire was darting through your lips by the next afternoon, insulting everything and everyone who was in the way under your breath. You were lucky to not have DADA yet. You didn’t have it until after lunch and during lunch, you were complaining to your friends, every word dropping with no hesitation or respect for the place you were in.

“Like how do I deserve detention in the first place?” you argued.

“Wow, this is my first time seeing you bitch about a teacher,” Adora commented.

And she was quite right about that. You didn’t complain about any teacher until McGonagall’s string of stupid accusations yesterday. She didn’t give you a chance to explain, instead, she put you in another detention with him. How could you not be frustrated?

“Yeah, because it doesn’t make sense. If it was a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff teacher, they would’ve asked what happened,” you answered, the fragility gone in your voice. You proposed the subject of Minerva McGonagall with such aggression.

The bell rang, signalling your mood to get more unsatisfactory. DADA―your favourite.

You stood up, the burden coming again. You smiled sarcastically at your friends, your boyfriend not present. It was like he disappeared overnight, you haven’t seen him all day. Neither did you care very much, you had a lot on your plate at the moment and to check his whereabouts was not the top of your priority list.

“My favourite class.” you sighed.

“Just show him you’re not going to back down like everyone else in his way and he’ll treat you like an equal.” quiet Vernon spoke.

Your glance shifted to him―everyone’s glance shifted to him. He moved uncomfortably in his seat.

“Whoa, since when did you speak like that?” Wonwoo asked in utter shock.

If you were in shock, how would Wonwoo, his friend for a long time, be? You shook your head, clearing the air so that none of you would be late to your classes.

“Thanks, Vernon. I’ll do that.”

You grabbed your books from the small coffee table that was in the middle of the seance of armchairs and then shuffled out of the library with the rest of the students that were on their way to their fifth-period classes. It was an ill-fated, but a known fact that the three of them coincidentally had a vacant period and yours was after this DADA class.

He was already there when you had walked into class, on time, rather than early because of your grudge towards the Gryffindor head. You took your seat, not endorsing him.

It went on and you were sure that the air clouded between you and Jeonghan proclaimed to the whole class. Something about them whispering about the no recognition of the other showed. It was like you wanted it to show that you weren’t going to back down from his words because you were still mad at the test.

Oh, the test.

It didn’t go well at all. But at least you answered all the questions.

“Yo, my favourite Ravenclaw. Got a quill I could borrow? Kinda lost mine on the way here.”

The point that you knew Soonyoung was too dumb to read the mood made you glare at him more.

His eyes widened a little, accentuating his adorable features. “I-I mean―”

You cut him off with a sigh, clutching the spare peacock quill and delivering it to him. He muttered gratitude before leaving, pacing quick to his seat as you had anticipated. Since Soonyoung came, you sensed a simmer down In the atmosphere.

Jeonghan broke the tense silence.

“Have you said anything to your boyfriend yet?”

“What do you mean?” You didn’t face him, you were writing on the worksheet Lupin had given out earlier in the class. You noticed that Jeonghan’s was blank. He must’ve been going through some thinking time.

“Oh, you must’ve told him about how we Slytherins are…”

“No.” you replied. “What are you talking about?”

It had to be the way you said it because Jeonghan had straightened up. You finally looked at him, blonde hair shining under the light of the classroom to find out what he was trying to tell you.

Jeonghan appeared pissed.

You continued, Vernon’s voice stuck in your head like glue.

“You have too much Slytherin pride. Do you think I would actually go run my mouth about you to everyone? Sure, I’m concerned for him and that the irrelevancy of him going to pick a fight is prominent but at the same time, I wouldn’t go talk about you to him.”

He was quiet.

You’d never seen anything like it.

From what you viewed afar, Jeonghan was the type to fight back straight away but for once, he was silent, his lips loosely closed. He was examining your face.

It still made you doubt the lingering impression of whether someone hadn’t stood up to him or was he just observing?

“And as much as I hate sitting with you, I complain more about the situation than you.” you continued.

It was a lie.

Everything that left your lips was Jeonghan this, Jeonghan that.

“Sure you do, dumbass. Now give me the answers to this.” He motioned towards his blank worksheet. What was he doing?

You sighed, furrowing your eyebrows. “You’ve been copying every single one of my worksheets, Yoon Jeonghan. Why are you asking suddenly?”

It seemed that the air was clearing. It was much to your disappointment, but you couldn’t bring yourself to make it heavy again.

A giggle left him, one that felt a little too innocent to be Jeonghan. “You noticed?”

“Yeah, I did and not only that, Lupin let me know too that our worksheets are too vaguely similar.”

He smirked. “What’s the point of doing work when I already have a sweet Ravenclaw sitting next to me doing it for me?”

The word ’sweet’ coming from him stuck longer in your head than Vernon’s encouragement.

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

The last detention with your enemy consisted of cleaning the Charms classroom, the following week. It was evident that both you and Jeonghan just wanted to get it over and done with. And you did. Without blaming each other, without talking much.

It was like for once, things were on par with either of you and you treated each other as equals rather than wanting to rip the other’s hair out. Supposedly, you would assume that it was the class where he asked for your answers that kinda released some pressure between the two of you from the night in the Trophy Room.

McGonagall came in after everything was done and dusted to give the two of you a speech.

“I don’t want to hear any name-calling or anything else like that, you hear me?”

You didn’t suppress your eye roll. Instant regret flourished through you.

“Young lady, you did not just roll your eyes at me,” she said, fairly disturbed.

You didn’t say anything as you were meddled by Jeonghan’s laughing.

“Is this funny to you, Mr Yoon?”

“A little.”

She made an offended sound, placing her hands on her hips. Then, she shook her head. “Thank God, I don’t have the two of you anymore for detention. Off you go now.”

The two of you spun around and left the classroom, leaving the teacher in her own thoughts.

It made you wonder, what does the woman even think of besides the fact that she’s a Transfiguration teacher? Does anything that doesn’t match the solidness of a rock go through her head? It was something you were far too afraid to ask but eagerly wanted to know the answer to.

Among the silence outside the Charms classroom, you let out a heavy sigh.

Jeonghan snapped.

“Thank God, I don’t have to be doing two horrendous tasks at the same time. Cleaning is enough, but looking at your face and cleaning―”

“Why would you look at my face while cleaning?” you cleanly interrupted.

It went horribly cold.

Your eyes widened a little, realising what you said. You were tired, both of you were tired―in short, you didn’t need to say that.

“I’m going back to my dorms,” you muttered, heading down the hallway. You didn’t want to anticipate in the reaction. But before you did leave, words slipped out of your mouth that couldn’t help themselves. “Hope your bedbugs eat you alive.”

He didn’t hesitate.

“Hope both sides of your pillow are warm, love!”

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

The next class with Jeonghan proved to be rather interesting. Besides the fact that Soonyoung came over a couple of times to ask you questions about the work, which Lupin didn’t see as he had his own errands to run during class time. You didn’t fully understand what was going on in him, he was quite tired-looking.

Almost as if a Dementor had absorbed the life out of him.

Anyways, Soonyoung came to ask another question.

“What’s the answer?”

You leaned forward to the parchment, reading to where he was pointing.

What happens when a prisoner escapes from Azkaban and what is it?

You rolled your eyes. “We just went over it, but it’s the Dementor’s Kiss. So essentially, it’s when the Dementor sucks out a person’s soul and it’s used as a sentence for those who attempt to escape Azkaban…you got that?”

You turned to Jeonghan to see him scribbling it down.

"Yup,” he muttered.

The past two times that Soonyoung came over, the Slytherin found it easy to just copy what you said aloud to the simplest questions. He wasn’t surprised you caught him in the act of doing so either.

“Thanks, Y/N!” the Gryffindor exclaimed, closing his eyes and smiling. Then, he went back to his arranged seat across the room. You looked back at your work, all finished.

Jeonghan opened a conversation, appealing to your boredom. But it wasn’t quite the expected.

“You and your boyfriend don’t seem as close anymore.”

You looked at him, his blonde locks falling perfectly near his eyes. He was really, such a beauty. “What are you talking about?”

A part of you understands what he’s getting at but the other part tells you, why is it his business?

“I just don’t see you two hanging out often anymore.”

“This bothers you because…?”

“It doesn’t.” he replied, the quill in his hand falling flat to the parchment, prior to him continuing, “Just an observation. Like I’d give a care for your life.”

You smirked. “Mhm, you sound like you are, Jeonghan.”

“You think I would just hover around a middle-class Ravenclaw girl?”

You stopped.

The words bled an unexpected pain and you could see that his face twitched a little when you paused.

“You did not just call me a middle-class girl,” you said, standing up. Your hands pushed into the wooden table as your desk chair scraped back. It alerted some members of the classroom to look at you.

“I did.” he said calmly, face not wavering from it’s blankness

Alas, his predatory pride couldn’t help but come back again.

“Jeonghan, you do realise no one likes you because of how you speak to others?! Your friends only want to be with you because of your wealth, okay? It spoiled you into thinking you have real friends and that you can make fun of other people’s financial issues. It’s seriously not cool…you should really think about how fortunate you are instead of coming at people who are less fortunate!”

You didn’t know how the words spilled out, but you were glad they did. Who had given him this much confidence? Why didn’t anyone put him into place? Jeonghan needed to understand that not everyone may have gone through the same treatment as him.

He was advantageous and as much as he did call you a middle-class girl, he didn’t have any authority of making himself look like the bigger person because of his financial issue.

Murmurs broke out subsequent to your outburst.

“Y/N, detention,” Lupin said.

“W-What?!” You yelled, your frustration yet to back down. How many teachers were just giving detention without knowing anything about the situation? It was seriously getting out of hand. “I didn’t do anything, sir. He was the one that―”

“How can you raise your voice in a quiet working environment? Do you see anyone else making noise?”

Unbelievable. There was no way people were ganging up on you, now were they?

You sat back down to your seat, Jeonghan letting out a chuckle at your misfortune. It wasn’t funny, neither was it anything close to fair.

Devising a plan in your head, it was all set to go once the bell rang. You waited. Waited until all the students left the classroom before you made your way to the front where the teacher sat. You needed to give this one a lecture, the teachers at this school were starting to get on your nerves one by one.

“Yes, Y/N?” he asked as if everything was okay and he did not just give you a detention for standing up for yourself.

“Why would you give me detention? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Lupin laughed.

You felt humiliated at that point. It wasn’t suggested to be funny. Were you that much of a laughing stock for the world? Jeonghan, Lupin, who else?

“I know, I know. I was just playing with the two of you―it was a joke.”

You crossed your arms together, the racing heart unable to move to its original speed. “Sir, It’s not funny. I’ve already ended up with two detentions because of that boy. You’ve already put me next to him and that itself is torture, let’s just leave it at that.”

Lupin opened his mouth to speak, maybe to comfort you but you weren’t into it. Your mood was just ruined for the day. There was literally no one that could make you feel better.

You dismissed yourself from the empty classroom, a cloud parading over your head when you bumped into someone.

Seriously? Who else was going to try messing with you today?

“Dude…Mingyu!”

There he was. Your boyfriend.

Actually in person to see you.

“Hey!“

"You came at the right time. I’ve just had the worst day ever.”

“Really? Oh, I’m so sorry, babe. You’re lucky though! I came here wondering, do you wanna go on a date today?”

That in itself had made the clouds go away and a smile came onto your face. Finally, someone could make your day better than ruin it all.

“Yeah, I would really like that.”

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

The Three Broomsticks was a common place for couples of Hogwarts to go. You discerned it whenever you would be talking to your friends that had a significant other. You would guess it was because of the mature feelings that would surround the restaurant from the decorations to the people that attended it.

You couldn’t catch first to third years there much. So when you and Mingyu went in there thanks to your more senior rights of visiting Hogsmeade late at night, you guys were feeling comfortable in the atmosphere.

“Well, look who it is, my favourite couple,” Rosemerta said, with a smile that was so big and beautiful you wouldn’t miss it for the world. She was always so optimistic, it was wondered by many how it was humanly possible. The owner pulled out her notepad and pen, “What can I get for you today?”

You glanced at Mingyu and then ordered what you wanted. He ordered his food too and the woman went away, complimenting the two of you once again.

A conversation was then taken away by Mingyu. It’s been a while since you were able to talk to the other. But that didn’t stop chaos from happening.

Mingyu’s eyes shifted to the left when he had stopped abruptly in his words.

“Uh-oh,” Mingyu whispered.

“What?” you asked, deeply hoping it wasn’t another excuse for him to leave again.

Instantly you felt the hope turn into an unquestionable rage that could rake this whole restaurant into chaos. Yoon Jeonghan and his delinquent friends were sat a table away from the two of you.

If it wasn’t for the people sitting at the table in between yours and Jeonghan’s party, you would’ve said something about it and caused chaos anyways.

What he said last time had wound buried inside you and articulated some sort of extreme hatred for him. To the point where you couldn’t bring yourself to care anymore neither could you bring yourself to want to see him ever.

It was damaging that you were stuck sitting next to him.

Time went on on your date and you did your best to ignore Jeonghan and his friends that were laughing often. It was a restaurant, had they no respect?

Soon, the people that were seated in between the two of you left and that was enough for you and Jeonghan to turn around and lock eyes immediately.

You wish you could tell him that your boyfriend did actually care for you and was close to you but due to what he said earlier, you didn’t think that would be likely of happening.

“I really don’t want them to be here,” you told the honey-badger as you looked back at him.

He nodded, understandingly as the Slytherins roared with laughter again.

“I get it. Jun keeps looking at me. It’s a little uncomfortable.” Mingyu admitted.

A little silence flew by and you opened your mouth to suggest to leave when suddenly, a splat knocked you on your shoulder. You gasped and turned to your right to see a strawberry shortcake splat right on you. Your eyes directed upwards to meet with the Slytherin boys who were laughing again.

Jeonghan was too.

“Yoon Jeonghan!” you bellowed, knowing it had to be him. It seemed as if a rope broke because of him―the only thing keeping you sane in the restaurant and he had to go ahead and destroy that. “You better come here and clean this up!”

Mingyu seized a napkin from the stack on the table, leaning over your empty plates to reach your top but you put a hand up at him, still looking at Jeonghan. He sought to avoid eye contact, but even that didn’t allow his friends from letting it go. They were thorough in teasing him, something that you pronounced of his deserving.

“Yah!” he told them, striving not to break into another stream of laughter. “You can bet on my father’s black card that I’m not going there to clean up a prissy little middle-class girl.”

The way those words rolled off his tongue felt a little too natural for your liking. The Slytherins laughed again and Jun smacked his friend on the back. “Go! You’re the one who did it! Look at how mad she is!”

“Y/N, don’t do anything you’re going to regret.” Mingyu warned you patiently. He had fear screwed in both his eyes and you found that rather annoying, seeing that he was the one that willingly went to pick a fight with them.

You had about enough of everyone right that second, that you whipped around to look at Mingyu. “Oh, shut the hell up, Mingyu. You can’t say shit when you lost the fight anyways!”

Jeonghan’s table heard.

You knew when they all went silent.

You squeezed your eyes shut when you heard them all laugh again at what you said. It was an impressed and shocked roar of laughter and agreement that went past all of them and you couldn’t even bring yourself to look at Mingyu. You did not just embarrass him in front of all those Slytherins, did you?

“No, that’s not what I meant!” you tried, but failed, shaking your head. “Yoon Jeonghan, come clean this up.”

“No―”

“Yeah, Jeonghan.”

“Go clean it up, Jeonghan.”

“You’re the one who made the mess.”

His friends chirped him, aggravating him. But what was surprising was the random push Junhui gave him, urging him to go towards your table. Now that he was already up, he was left with no choice. Jeonghan walked towards you, surrendering.

Turning back to your seat, you waited for him to clean up his mess.

“Oohhhh~” his friends continued. They were contributing too much to this and in front of your boyfriend. You felt bad enough just looking at his face. The tips of his ears turned red and you were divulged into knowing the pain he must be experiencing because of these green-robed students.

Jeonghan’s napkins became an endless pile of cream as he wiped them off your bare shoulder. You kinda froze, letting him do his work in shame. His friends were too loud for your liking.

His fingers scraped past your bare shoulder, cool and relaxed as they touched by the off-shoulder material you were wearing. Jeonghan laughed again at something his friend from the other table.

“Shut up, Junhui!”

“Done…you act like too much of a princess for someone who wears something this cheap.” he commented. His finger casually glided into the sleeve of the material that started at your forearm and he playfully pulled it back.

A knot appeared In your stomach.

Mingyu was watching too. You looked up at Jeonghan, wanting to telepathically choke him to death.

“Go away, Jeonghan.”

He let it go, the elastic strap coolly hitting your skin again.

“Whatever you say, princess.” And he walked away to his seat.

You wanted to get up and get back at him but Mingyu reached for you over the table, in attempts of calming you down. You regretted dissing him earlier, so you took it as a way to repay him―by calming down.

“Let’s just go,” Mingyu instructed.

You nodded.

Thanks to Jeonghan, what was expected to be a perfect date became completely imperfect. In all honesty, you desired to spend as much time with Mingyu as possible, fill the long night with pleasant memories because you don’t get to see each other a lot during the week. The one time you wanted to live in a little bubble with just the two of you for a few hours was the time Jeonghan came to deflate it.

Mingyu and you weren’t quick to give up though―the two of you paid Rosemerta and walked, seeing snow fall in blankets over the ground. It was probably past eight-thirty and the coldness of the winter hugged the two of you together.

You reached for Mingyu’s arm, coincidentally, he put on his jacket. Pursing your lips together, you acted as if it never happened and decided to venture down the lone lanes of Hogsmeade.

“Where do you want to go?” he asked.

“I wanna walk around…there’s nothing much to do this late anyways,” you answered with a sigh that breathed out white smoke. Though you weren’t able to see that due to the darkness.

Mingyu and you walked along the snowy path, talking about random things as time flew. Because of the dark, you couldn’t see where you were going and soon you ended up down a small hill with a wired fence that felt a little too familiar to your liking.

“Holy, are we―”

“The Shrieking Shack.” you interrupted, seeing the other side of the fence.

It was far into the distance, yet noticeable. You didn’t mind it much, turning around to incline against the tall fence. The path back to Hogsmeade was next to you but for now, you needed to enjoy the time you had with Mingyu. Your eyes found his and you smiled, feeling the comfort that normally drew from him. Although, this time, it felt less.

You blamed it on the distance and how you couldn’t see him in the dark, but there was something about looking at his face that didn’t bring you the same satisfaction as it used to. Why? You asked yourself.

Was it a once in a while thing?

You furrowed your eyebrows as he looked over at you, hands stuffed in his pockets instead of holding you like the night was meant for. Why were you so far apart?

“Is it hard with Jeonghan?” Mingyu questioned you.

“Not just hard, I just feel so much worse when I’m with him. He’s always doing something to make the mood worse.” you said with an annoyed sigh. You did not want to be talking about him now.

All you wanted was for Mingyu to hold you, kiss you but he was just standing there and asking questions. You didn’t know how to tell him how awkward this was making it between the two of you.

“Can’t you ask the teacher to move seats?”

“I did, but he refused. Mingyu, I―”

“BOO!”

Mingyu and you both jumped, profanities leaving your lips in an instant. The hairs on your skin raised far quicker than it did when you stepped outside to come to Hogsmeade. Right on the other side of you appeared Vernon and someone else you failed to recognise. A drop of a cloak gave the answer away as to what they were doing.

“Who are you?!”

“Mingyu, calm down. It’s just Vernon,” you said, laughing. “What are you doing here? Who’s this?”

“Ah, I was bored so me and Chan decided to sneak out. But you know how fifth years aren’t supposed to go into Hogsmeade unless they’re with a senior, so we sneaked out.”

“Chan?” Your eyesight moved to the boy standing next to him and your mouth simply dropped to the ground. “The Chosen One, Lee Chan?”

“That would be me.”

“I never expected for this day to come.” you sighed, feeling your heartbeat quicken. Admittedly, it’s the quickest your heart had beaten this whole date because of Mingyu’s distance. Mingyu was also shocked as he took in the sight of the shorter boy as if succumbed in the shock.

You had another question coming for Vernon. “How about Adora? She could’ve taken you, Chan and Wonwoo.”

Vernon sighed and he rolled his eyes. “You’re not going to believe this but they were too busy studying together.”

You tilted your head in confusion.

“Wonwoo and Adora…”

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Every single second accumulated by the next DADA lesson made you want to hit your head on the nearest wall. The tension, Lupin talking, his fingers tapping on the table made you a ball of frustration, to say the least. You wished for it to go away.

But alas, you were stuck there, sweat sticking to your forehead in a thick layer and your legs jiggling under the table. Why was the class taking forever? Why was one simple hour taking so long to complete itself?

"―and I hope that all of you are writing this down as I speak to you?” Lupin asked, suggestively hinting that notes should be taken in the lesson. You were stress-scribbling everything he was saying, if not, repeating some of the words.

You hadn’t seen such rubbish on parchment in your life, it hurt your eyes from just looking.

“Except, Mr Yoon, of course. What makes you exceptionally different that you don’t have to be taking notes?” Lupin asked, his tone laced with sarcasm.

��I didn’t bring a quill,” Jeonghan answered.

Your eyes burned at the spare quill on top of your pile of books―the same one that Soonyoung had asked to borrow a week ago, it seems.

“Unprepared?…there’s not much we can do about it, can we?” Lupin said, strolling back and forth in a little circle. The whole class had tuned their attention towards Jeonghan, except you. You were attented to the teacher.

“Except we could ask our deskmate if we could borrow their pen.”

Your heart plunged into your stomach. It felt like the world had crumpled into you and you were the last person standing right that moment. A fake, but a tense smile passed across the features as you met a couple of glances from your classmates. They were amazed at how rough yet smartly Lupin played his cards.

The influential desire you and you would assume, Jeonghan had to play those cards right back were a slim chance, nearly none. You picked at the skin on your palm under the table, telling yourself not to fidget at the moment but it didn’t do you any justice that you were put in the spotlight.

“Fine.” Jeonghan replied to the annoying teacher, “Y/N, can I borrow your quill?”

Jeonghan took o polite voice, one that was fake as your smile previously.

“Sure, Jeonghan.” you awkwardly answered, looking at the boy daringly.

But it was that moment where you should’ve known that what hit you were a feeling quite different from what you would feel when you looked at someone you hated.

It was amazement that flooded your body for a second, taking every space inside you as you found yourself staring at his eyes. They looked the same, but you never really noticed how pretty they looked.

What the hell is going on?

Like the whole of your body went into dysfunction, you couldn’t find yourself breaking eye contact. He kept it going too. Suddenly, it didn’t matter that your class was still looking into the drama, anticipating for Jeonghan to pick up the quill from his mortal enemy’s book pile. But they would be rather startled to find that they were staring at each other, or at least you were.

You couldn’t help it. The doe-sleepy look, plus, the eye bags that stood out made you stare. It had to be the newly added eye bags that still burned with the same ember of fiery hate that made you pause that second extra.

Jeonghan’s hand roughly scrolled to the top of your book pile and picked up the peacock quill. Just as quick as it happened, it felt painfully slow. It was like time stopped for a second even. How dare he touch your quill? You saved up for it to look pretty on the pile of books you take to lessons and he just roughly grabbed you.

Wait until you roughly grab his throat.

The regret still stuck to you like super glue. You banged your head on your textbook when people left the classroom, appearing dazed at the thought of his eyes.

“What is wrong with me?” you groaned, grabbing at your scalp for some sort of moral support but none arrived. You collapsed back onto the book pile once again, left in a confusing dark.

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

When you came to the library, you expected some quiet and peace but that was far from what you got instead. You got loudness that even Pince wasn’t able to pipe down and that proved to be deteriorating to your study time. You kept at it though, moving down the worksheet from Charms at a God-level speed. Your quill moved with fluidity, a smile on your face at every satisfying answer that came, until, of course, you were interrupted.

You looked up, taken aback slightly. Then, you search around and to your luck, the library was quite full and there was no other space except at your little table that had space for four.

“Are you Ravenclaws always hogging this space?” Junhui asked as he drew back the chair opposite you.

Still slightly in shock, you managed to pull in a few words, smartly. “You are stating the obvious. This is our natural habitat.”

Jun rolled his eyes, taking out the same worksheet as you from his Charms textbook. You didn’t find him to be the type to do his homework, he and Jeonghan skip classes at times.

You don’t mind him either, understanding the importance. You did your homework, proud that you were getting your stuff done today. You might go pay a visit to Mingyu if you had time to spare. So for the time being, you would just complete your homework and then―

“Do you have a crush on Jeonghan?”

The quill on your worksheet stopped writing ink bleeding through the parchment as you glanced up at the Slytherin in pure disgust. “I have a boyfriend.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

I don’t?

Why were you thinking this over?

“No, I don’t like Jeonghan. Why would I like Jeonghan out of everyone that exists?” The way Jun was asking you this―there had to be a reason. Had it been the time you were constrained to spend with his best friend or how you communicated with no chill? You were confused, yet sort of understood where he was coming from.

“You suit him, that’s all.” Jun shrugged.

You laughed. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, I’m serious.”

You shook your head and placed your quill down, demanding to know where he was coming from. “Why are you saying this all of a sudden?”

Jun sighed. “I don’t really seem the type to care about people―”

“You don’t.” you agreed.

He squinted his eyes sarcastically at you and continued with what he was saying, his finger swiping across one of your many books set on the table. “We grew up together, I know what’s best for him and I think rather than having a girl that wants his money, he should have someone smart and to keep him grounded.”

To say you were shocked that Junhui would be saying this was the least―you were mortified. The brunette didn’t give any type of sentiment as long as you’ve been in his residence. It was rather aggression that Jun designated towards others and now you felt sort of enlightened and shocked you were perceiving this side of him. Although, you felt the uncomfortable aspect of it too. You didn’t expect him to pour out his feelings like that.

“What are you telling me to do? Break up with my boyfriend?” you said, trying to make a joke out of it.

He was serious though. The boy didn’t falter from his point of view. He shrugged.

“Look, I―” you began, but was intervened by him.

Junhui locked eyes with you and you felt the seriousness coming from those half-closed eyes. “It might be because we’re in completely different houses. But if a Slytherin were to choose which house they would want to be acquainted with, it’s most definitely Ravenclaw…it’s just my opinion.”

You nodded, looking back at your work, trailing over the many answers. You were reminded about how Jeonghan would copy your homework last minute nearly every lesson and you wouldn’t have a choice but to let him because you didn’t want a fight to start in class.

“I respect your opinion and I really wish I could help you right now but I think you understand the situation yourself.” you smiled. And instead of making a joke out of it, you tried to comfort Junhui out of it.

They were really close to each other. Talk about bro-code.

“Jun? What are you doing here with her?” All your tension was back. This is why the two of you shouldn’t be together.

“Shut up, Jeonghan.” you told him, looking over at him. He was standing behind Jun’s chair as Jun stayed quiet, not responding to your fights. He’s never been that way between you and Jeonghan and you realised at that moment, this was the reason. He wanted the two of you to be together.

If he was going as far as desiring another girl for his best friend who was from another house, it genuinely showed how much he cared for Jeonghan. It reminded you of you and Adora―how you would do anything for each other.

It kind of comforted you knowing they were close like that.

“Say, you’ve gotten a little too much these days for a Ravenclaw,” he commented harshly. You noticed no use of the 'middle-class girl’.

You rolled your eyes. “You’ve gotten too prideful of yourself if you think I’m just going to let you be rude to me.”

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

DADA was starting to become boring.

Lupin didn’t give any extensions for the inquisitive Ravenclaws, explaining that you didn’t need it. You tried to look for more extensions but truth be told, you’ve done everything possible for the topic. So by the next lesson, you were just sitting there with nothing to do.

Reading random things in your textbook didn’t dare give the same fulfilment as doing actual work on the things you reviewed.

“Hey, give me the answer to this question.”

Looking over a little above your book, you whispered harshly: “The answer is B. Stop asking me.”

“It doesn’t matter how many times I ask, your smartass always answers.” he chuckled quietly. You rolled your eyes and paid attention to your book, wanting to doubt the false accusations but they weren’t false accusations if you thought about it yourself. You gave him the answer regardless.

“You’re late, Junhui!” Lupin called, the boy entering the classroom.

Nothing new, you noted.

“I was held back by Professor Snape.” Jun excused, his footsteps echoing the quiet classroom.

He’s always held back by Snape. You were starting to think it was a little lie he would implore whenever he came to class late. But who would know? Snape always defended the Slytherins.

You felt a small shift from your side, you looked over. Junhui had sneaked over when Lupin returned his shift to his papers on his desk. Jun bent down beside Jeonghan’s table, locking eyes with you for a second, before going by his best friend’s ear and muttering something. You didn’t trouble yourself trying to listen, flicking through the pages of your book for something you haven’t read yet.

However, the definite: “What?” coming from Jeonghan reached you.

You minded your own business, grasping the boy would make a fuss if you didn’t. But the whispering became more jarring.

“I’m sorry.” you heard Junhui. Did they mess something up? Your mind wandered anyways.

“Just…go back to your seat,” Jeonghan instructed his best friend.

The next few moments were sat in silence. You couldn’t help but think something had gone wrong because the silence between the two of you was so awkward, unlike how it would be most of the time. It made you realise your talking terms with the Slytherin. If it wasn’t something serious Jun had said to him, he would be back to bother you for answers but Jeonghan hadn’t touched his quill.

“I’m redoing the roll since some of you came late to class. Soonyoung?”

“Junhui? Just arrived…Shawn? No…? Jeonghan?”

He didn’t answer.

“Jeonghan? I swear I saw him today―”

With no substitute, you nudged Jeonghan with your elbow without looking at him.

“Oh, here,” he said, passively. Something was wrong for sure.

The roll finished soon and Lupin was back at his table, seemingly marking tests as the students did their work. But Jeonghan hadn’t touched his quill. You were concerned and it worried you too much to concentrate on your reading.

Finally, you put a hand on his arm. “Hey…you good?”

Jeonghan shoved your hand away firmly. Your eyes widened at the reaction and you hesitantly looked over. You had to arrest the gasp coming halfway up your throat to prevent a murder from happening within the walls of the DADA classroom.

There was no way you were witnessing this yourself.

Jeonghan had his head hanging low, but even then, you could see it yourself. The tears.

They were rolling down in heavy beads, almost not seen.

What were you supposed to do?

You already made it awkward by freezing upon their existence. It was literally like a slap in the face as your eyes enlarged. Another side of you softened.

Jun must’ve told him something that happened at home. How? You didn’t know yet, but you felt as if it was critical that Jeonghan was okay.

“I got you, okay?” you said softly, routing out your wand and bringing over the tissue box at the front desk of the class. Then, with the brilliant wits of your Ravenclaw self, you pulled out a bunch of tissues and stuffed them with no hesitance on Jeonghan’s face. He shot you a glare from half his face and red eyes but you only nodded at him in reassurance. He took the tissues from your wand’s grip and tousled them onto his face like you instructed through the nod.

You put a hand on his shoulder and got up, shouting. “Professor! Jeonghan’s got a bloody nose!”

Lupin stood up quick to see the ‘pitiful’ boy beside you that supposedly had a bloody nose. “Go to the infirmary quickly! I don’t want any bloody kids in my class!”

You nodded and patted Jeonghan with the same hand and the other hand to motion him off his seat. Whispers broke out in the classroom, Lupin dismissing them. “Don’t fret. It’s just a bloody nose.”

“You were the one that was worrying, sir.” Soonyoung teased, tending at the teacher.

You pronounced yourself grateful as you crossed over Jeonghan’s chair and followed him to the exit of the classroom. You got to see Lupin’s face that was dying of hesitance as the class broke out into merriment. He hadn’t known how to respond to Soonyoung’s facts.

You rolled around just in time to see Jeonghan disappear through the doors and hurried to accompany him. Your smile disappeared as quick as it came. Outside the classroom, you found him walking ahead, soft sniffles emitting from the poor boy. Still having no inkling what happened, you dashed forwards to be by his side.

You knew you weren’t meant to be the person comforting him. In fact, you would be the last on his list. So, why this? You couldn’t help seeing him cry like that for some reason.

The sensitiveness that emptied the Slytherin was difficult to see.

You stayed withdrawn by his side, letting him morph himself into the bundle of tissues provided in his favour. Your hands crossed in front of you, fidgeting slightly to foresee how things will turn out.

“Why’d you take me out?” Jeonghan asked as you turned around the corners in the hallway.

“I was just worried. Didn’t want to ruin your rep or anything.”

Jeonghan lifted his face slightly from the tissues and looked over at you, seemingly scanning your face. And then, he was back at the tissues. “Like you would care about that.”

He stopped walking, taking a rest at a wall. His shoulder dug into the solidness as he peered down, refusing to look at you. You sighed, being patient with him. The solitary excuse he had was that he was crying, you were going to respect that this time. “Hey Jeonghan, news flash. Not everyone is like you, okay?

He didn’t say anything. Alternatively, he let the quietness coiled itself into the conversation. Jeonghan sniffled a little, his nose growing a rosy pink. Whatever it was that was going on, there was an intimation of curiosity running in your body to know what it was that made the great rich boy, cry.

It only took time for him to reveal it himself.

“…my dog just passed away…”

Once more, you were submerged into astonishment. Your lips parted to say your apologies and pay immediate respects but he cut you off, looking at you fiercely. Tears were at the brim of pouring again.

“And if you’re looking at me like I’m weak or something, don’t even because―”

“I’m not,” you answered. “How does Junhui know though?”

He let out a sigh, the force in his face releasing. Neither of you suspected to be here at such a depressing time but here you were.

“I didn’t open any letters from my family the last few days. So Junhui’s mum told him to tell me.”

You nodded inaudibly and then slinked down the walls. Jeonghan gazed at you weirdly. You just patted the spot next to you. He wasn’t going to have it if you were all generously comforting him, he wanted to be treated like an equal because to him, you were merely a scum. You recognised that Jeonghan didn’t want to be treated nicely by ‘scum’.

Jeonghan sat down beside you. You looked ahead at the other wall, fading in its colour of beige. The embers of torchlight shone amongst the cloudy hallway with its breaks of windows and walls. You felt like you could feel the heat from those torches, but it wasn’t exactly the case. It was rather the distance between you and Jeonghan that you were met with.

“Cry it out,” you told Jeonghan. “I’m not going to judge you.”

He stared at you, asking with his eyes if you were teasing him. You didn’t say anything, rather, you looked back at him with the same neutral look in your eyes. You were still unsure whether it was good to say something comforting or not.

Jeonghan turned around and buried his face in the tissues and the light sobs soon resonated. You tilted back upon the wall, waiting for him to finish. A hand soon found itself on his back, this time he did not restrict it.

You couldn’t believe he wasn’t restricting it.

“What was your dog’s name?”

“Charlie…my little sister named her,” he said and you found the smile on his face that shone like the sun after a huge storm.

You were warm. “How old was she?”

“She was going to be fourteen next week.”

You moved your hand from Jeonghan, scrunching your face at the sad news. “Ah, that must hurt then. I’m sorry…for your loss.”

“Is this your way of making fun of me?” Jeonghan questioned abruptly. It took a second to register in your mind―what he said.

You snapped at him. “No! Why would I use such a thing against you?!”

Jeonghan also turned to face you, calm even though you were going to scream at his accusations. “Just joking, chill.”

“I can’t believe you’re joking at a time like this.” you huffed. “Your dog literally died.”

You rolled your eyes away from his face that caught a delicate smile. A smile that represented that he was already getting over it. He chuckled again. “You know, you’re kinda cute when you’re all riled up.”

Bewilderment severed a cord inside you. You fastened your head at him the second time to see something else instead. A tall kid walking down the hallway.

“Y/N?” Mingyu asked before you could barely register his presence.

“Oh, this isn’t going to look good.” you whispered to Jeonghan, waving at Mingyu. He didn’t respond, it only meant that you were alone for this.

You got to your feet, Jeonghan followed you up. Realising then was a renowned mistake―what could you do? It was already too late to cover it up.

“Y/N, what are you doing here? Don’t you have―what’s he doing here?” Mingyu’s words were sharp, sudden from the Hufflepuff.

Since when did he act like this? He never addressed you like that? You had many questions during that moment, but it was challenging for you to get an answer when you didn’t want anything to start neither did you want allegations flying around. It was better for things to be left as they were, particularly when you and Jeonghan weren’t at each other’s throat for once.

“Are you skipping with him?“ Mingyu interrogated you.

You gasped. “What? No! Mingyu, stop. It’s not that big of a deal. We’re just in the same class.”

Mingyu wasn’t having it for some reason. The male treated you with such caution like you were a prized possession. But all of that was gone as soon as it came to Jeonghan. Mingyu was mad.

“Sure, just tell me to calm down. It makes everything better, doesn’t it? You would doubt it too if you were in my position. One minute you hate him and the next you guys are skipping class together.”

You were aghast by his behaviour. Out of everyone you knew, you didn’t expect Mingyu to interrogate you like that. It was out of line.

“Stop looking at her like that,” Jeonghan told him when he was borderline glaring at you.

“You. Don’t tell me what to do―”

“Mingyu, seriously. You’re getting out of hand. I literally can’t speak to him? He’s in my year level, we sit together, we have the same classes. How am I not supposed to communicate with him?”

“Whatever you say. Because for me it looks like a completely different story,” Mingyu said, shoving past the both of you. He didn’t want to talk to you and it hurt that he was the one that wasn’t willing to listen to you. “Have fun.”

Jeonghan and you stood there, watching the tall boy walk down the hallway in absolute shock. You never saw this day come. The most mellow boy that ever existed was the one telling you off.

“Aren’t you going to follow him?” Jeonghan asked.

“It’s not my job to. He should be trusting me.”

You guys baked in the quietness, your eyes scrutinizing Mingyu’s back. Jeonghan used the time to get rid of the stray tears on his face.

“All of this…don’t think I’m suddenly going to be nice to you or something.”

You weren’t in the very mindset to think about what and what not Jeonghan wasn’t going to do. So you replied simply to him. “I’m not.”

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Rushing was something you hated to do. It was proved so when a week later, you were rushing around the dorm with your best friend, the two of you, off timing for once in your school years. Your alarm rang late and because Adora was a deep sleeper, what you would do normally was get ready first and then wake her up so that she can get ready.

You were close like that. Though, this one time, your alarm hadn’t sounded and the others in your dorm began to get troubled and woke the two of you up.

“I’m so sorry!” you apologised, almost wanting to cry. What was worse was that the two of you had a test for Muggle Studies first period. It was unfortunate that your day had to start with sprints and worries.

The two of you were already worried about the test, it seemed that this poured more salt into the growing wound.

“If we get to the Hall now and grab something small, we’ll be five minutes early to class.” Adora dismissed, before waving at a non-existent fly. “Don’t be sorry, you goose! You didn’t do anything wrong!”

The guilt continued to sink into you as you ran through the nearly empty common room. Students must be finishing with their breakfasts and getting to their classes but you and Adora were only getting to the Hall. You second-guessed Adora’s estimate of getting to the Hall, but you did stay persistent in trying as you followed her out the door and down the hallway jammed with students getting to classes.

Lucky for them they were all extremely early for class.

It sucked that the Ravenclaw dorm was on the fifth floor too, it was unimaginable how many steps you had to take at this hour. Your hand flung to Adora’s shoulder when you felt that you were going to lose her in the crowd and she was assuring in the way she grabbed onto your arm and lurched your forward, winning profanities from the students that were bumped into.

“Stop running!” you heard a teacher yell.

It was far from getting you to stop on the staircase almost tripping and toppling you into the branches of auburn hair in front of you.

Until you were stuck.

A guy had bumped into you from behind as you were running, nearly knocking you off your balance, thanks to the jumpy feeling settling into you since the morning. You parted your lips to say something.

“Hey!”

Adora, you and the guy snapped your head behind you, in time to see something startling. Jeonghan…and his group of friends walking through the crowd with luxury (they were practically giving them way) as he looked at the guy. You couldn’t believe this.

“Why’d you bump into her?” he questioned the guy.

It was hard to ignore the nudge from Adora. It was screaming with questions, you couldn’t face her.

The guy looked down to his feet and then bowed at you promptly. “I’m sorry, ma’am.” And he pushed past you to get down the remaining stairs. You were about to go as well when the Slytherins didn’t let you without another ounce of surprise that morning.

“Why are you rushing so much?”

You furrowed your eyebrows tensely. “We haven’t eaten anything and we have a test first period.”

“Ah, that’s all?”

What was up with him? You nodded. “Why are you asking so many—“

Jeonghan whipped out his wand and swished and flicked. You assumed you were getting a live demo from Flitwick from the elegance that departed Jeonghan’s wrist. His other Slytherin friends were questioning his behaviour.

“Why are you talking to Ravenclaws?”

You heard draw from one of their lips but Jeonghan ignored it. Subsequent to his elegance, his best friend’s bag lifted in the slightest and rattled, gaining attention. Out came two packets of pumpkin pasties.

"Hey! Jeonghan!” Jeonghan didn’t mind him as his other friends got a hold of the grabby Junhui. Jeonghan turned to you more seriously, his eyes not wavering with any source of pity of such.

“It’s not much but you best get early to your classroom.”

The pumpkin pasties floated over to you, Jun trying to grab at them but failing miserably. You believed your inside warmed up yet not having a single bite of the sweet pumpkin pasties. The shock had taken some time to indulge you. Instead, you were thankful for the gesture by Jeonghan. Until you held your pumpkin pasty in your hand.

Adora was dead silent, letting you talk. She wasn’t involved, you didn’t blame her.

However, you had a choice and it was limited. Accept it and be early to class, don’t accept it and eat at the Great Hall and be late to class or don’t accept it and starve during the test, ultimately, failing from zero concentration. You were choosing the best option.

You were still in surprise. Maybe this was just repayment for last week’s assistance of comfort.

“Jeonghan, I—“

“Just go do your test.” he sighed, placing his hands on his waist.

You nodded and sent him a small smile. He didn’t smile back, you weren’t expecting him to. He already saved you enough.

“Come on, Adora.” You gestured the evidently nervous Adora and hiked back up all the stairs. This time, the two of you weren’t rushing, rather walking upstairs, waiting for the perfect time to talk about it. It wasn’t until the two of you entered your empty classroom that were you allowed to speak freely without the sound of other students near.

“Mingyu doesn’t seem like a dick, but up close he is. Jeonghan seems like a dick, but up close he isn’t,” Adora concluded.

“How do you draw to that conclusion?”

“Unless you have another opinion, Ms L/N,” Adora smirked, finding a spot on top of the back row table. Her approach was insightful, you admitted and you didn’t affirm offence in how she described Mingyu the d-word. Jeonghan helping you out was really a blessing, you believed. You were able to make it to class twenty minutes earlier.

You grabbed your pumpkin pasty wrapper as well as your best friend’s and made your way to the front of the classroom.

“I don’t have anything to say,” you told her truthfully.

“Hey, it’s just like Junhui said. Maybe the two of you are meant for each other. If he can see it, I can too.”

“You guys are so not playing matchmaker right now.” you gasped, watching as the orange wrappers swirl before taking a dip into the empty garbage liner.

“We should be. Have you sorted your stuff out with Mingyu?” Adora asked you.

You walked back through the tangle of tables and sat on top of the table in front of Adora’s. She twirled around so she could see you and the disappointing look your face gave away. “No. It’s been like this for the past week. If I see him in the hallway, I don’t even wave.”

“Sounds like a red flag to me. Even the overall jealousy.”

You didn’t doubt her. She wasn’t wrong that it was a bad indication of how Mingyu got angry easily.

“What do you think I should do?”

The auburn-haired girl pursed her lips. “I don’t know. I strongly believe that you and Jeonghan are a much better match. After you told me what Jun said at the library, it’s been on my mind.”

“Why, though?” you asked softly.

It didn’t make sense—before this, you and Jeonghan wanted to blow each other up. There were people that think that you would actually look good together. You could understand Junhui’s belief in keeping his best friend grounded but how did Adora think you would benefit from a relationship with Jeonghan?

“Not only will you guys look cuter but Jeonghan is also a lot more emotionally available for you than Mingyu. He fits with your time schedule so you’ll get to see him more often.”

How were you taking all of this in? It was like you were actually reflecting the differences between your boyfriend and Jeonghan for a second as if they were two different pairs of shoes you really wanted to wear for one outfit. You shook your head. “Enough. Now test me on technology evolution with Muggles.”

Even if Adora stopped talking, the topic of Jeonghan lingered in your mind.

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

“How do you think school is going for you guys?” It was more of a question you wanted to ask yourself because of the deepness of homework you were sinking in. Almost brutal to the touch, you hoped that your juniors were going through something easy.

“It’s starting to get harder,” Vernon admitted, filling in another blank on his worksheet.

You nodded and turned to Wonwoo for an answer but before you could, you caught something beside his head that sauntered in through the library doors.

“Mingyu,” Vernon stated for you.

You pursed your lips, seeing another girl, seemingly his year level next to him. They were laughing and chatting. Wonwoo had turned around to catch the honey boy walk in and the world had slowed. A pain slashed into your heart, ridiculing you at the sight.

“Who’s she?” You asked the boys more than yourself.

But all Vernon could do was shrug. Wonwoo, however, answered for you. “She’s one of Mingyu’s friends. They’ve been hanging out for a while together.”

“For a while, as in?”

“Since you guys stopped talking to one another,” Wonwoo told you. He must’ve known that was enough to cut the ties between the two of you, because the next minute, you were yelling for Mingyu from across the room. He caught your eye in a second as if knowing that you were where you were. You wouldn’t be caught surprised if he did, he was sly like that.

Mingyu walked over with the girl, who confusedly looked between you and Mingyu.

“You wanna talk?”

Mingyu looked at you blankly, “Sure.”

With that, he followed you out the door of the library, completely quiet and trying so hard to diminish the awkwardness between the two of you but there was proven to be no way. You and him were going to be like this until the problems themselves diminish.

The outside of the library had no trace of people or soul so you started talking immediately. You knew he was trying to get you back for what happened.

“Look.” You began. “I wasn’t trying to make you mad or anything, the other day. You know that’s definitely not my intention.”

Mingyu sighed. “No, it’s just that I was hurt that you would hang out with the guy that I fought with. It felt like you were on his side or something.”

You shook your head. He got the wrong idea. Completely. “Jeonghan was just going through a hard time and I brought him out of the class, that was it. And besides, there were no sides at all, neither was Jeonghan the one you were fighting. You’re just in the wrong with them.”

“It’s the same thing. He was still threatening me for his best friend and you know how that made me feel?” He was starting to show aggression, far from how a normal Hufflepuff would’ve handled the situation. You didn’t want to anyone thinking that you were in the wrong for something that wasn’t even your fault.

“Okay, thinking rationally, this whole thing was your fault, to begin with as you admitted to cheating―”

“So you go hang around with him?”

You took in a deep breath and let it out, estimating the stress would just air itself out. But another glance at Mingyu proved the exact opposite. “I told you we weren’t hanging and even if we were, it’s bound to happen. Not only are we in the same year level, but we also have some classes together and seating arrangements. Of course, I’m going to have to talk to him and he’s actually kinda okay. Maybe if you didn’t mess things up, he wouldn’t have gone hard on you.”

Your past self wouldn’t have guessed you would come to this stage in your life. Your past would rather die than see the day you defend the Slytherin.

“You complained yourself that he wasn’t nice and he annoyed―”

Mingyu stumbled forwards, his eyes widening. The Hufflepuff riled back to his straight posture, turning to the side to see who it was. It happened to be the very person you were discussing. It gave you a sickening vibe that things were about to turn ugly. You wished for an escape.

“What?” Mingyu asked.

“Stop messing around with her. I can see how much she doesn’t wanna be here from all the way down there.” Jeonghan pointed down the hallway.

He was right, but you couldn’t not defend Mingyu. “Hey, Jeonghan! It’s not like―”

“Don’t ‘hey’ me, dumbass. You’re still in a relationship with this cheater. If he’s cheating in Quidditch, imagine how he’d cheat on―”

Mingyu snapped. He grabbed Jeonghan’s collar in a fistful, causing adrenalin to shoot down your veins, worrying resting at your temple. It seemed that your endless worries were starting to prove the bottomlessness it really was. Why was this happening to you?

Jeonghan’s smirk wasn’t missed as he was hoisted in the air by your boyfriend and you could only assume that this was a bad sign. You didn’t want anything bad happening so you quickly grabbed onto Mingyu, pulling him away.

“Stop, Mingyu!”

He looked over at you, fingers opening to let down Jeonghan who fell gracefully to his feet. His intention was to trigger Mingyu and obtain some sort of victory from it―that was one way to assume Jeonghan’s doings.

“Y/N.” Mingyu pressed on, looking over at you sharply. “You choose me or him.”

“Hey, stop it.” you began, the anger starting to drive into you too. He wasn’t the only one that can show frustration. “This is not like some movie, okay? This is real life and we need to sort our situations sensibly.”

He didn’t talk, simply gawked at what you said. You stared back, just because you didn’t expect this quiet of a reaction from the determined boyfriend. Jeonghan, on the other hand, didn’t miss with a small giggle leaving his lips.

“Fine.” he stated. “I see how it is.”

Mingyu turned around and walked down the hallway. You watched for a few seconds, turning around too, deciding whether it would be the right decision to follow along. The boy was immensely immature, but simultaneously, you were filled with a need to stick to your spot on the ground, determining your dominance in the fight. You weren’t going to let him get away with something this silly.

But when a laugh left Jeonghan and his group of his friends, a sad sigh drew from your lips.

“Mingyu!” you yelled.

He didn’t stop walking.

“I’ll be back,” you said to the Slytherins before running down the hallway, in the attempt of seeking attention from your boyfriend again.

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Your lips melded together perfectly into a rushing heated kiss. Back pressed against the wall, you found your hands pressed on Mingyu’s nape as he placed your hands on your waist.

“Oh my God, we haven’t done this in ages,” he said, pulling out at last.

You leaned your head back, catching your breath from the kiss. It wasn’t every day that you would be kissed like that from Mingyu, especially these days where all it seemed to be was bickering with one another or excuses of not meeting up with each other. Mainly Mingyu since he didn’t want to break the rules by sneaking out in the middle of the night.

“I missed it,” you replied with a sigh, feeling relief that the two of you were able to sort out your issues a few hours ago.

“Me too…we gotta go now,” Mingyu said, patting your shoulder. You wished it wasn’t time though. Something about having the satisfaction of his lips back on your mouth was somewhat urging you to ask him to stay back, but you couldn’t.

There was an invisible barrier blocking you from asking the Hufflepuff such an easy question. You were his girlfriend after all, not some random stranger. But the barrier was there and it was telling you not to cross it.

“Sure.” A brief glance into his eyes displayed tension that you couldn’t get past, however, you ignored it and walked down the hallway. Mingyu and you were somehow quiet on the way back to your dormitory as if the make out didn’t just happen. You were in your own headspace, thinking that you were starting to lose touch with Mingyu.

Ever since the incident a few days back, he’s been acting weird. Like he doesn’t want to talk to you much even though you have reconciled your issues.

“Emma!” Mingyu suddenly exclaimed, causing your head to lift up. Your eyes went comically wide, seeing the same girl that was with him when he came into the library on the day of the near-fight with Jeonghan. You squinted, double-checking but there was no doubt. It was the same junior girl that you saw last time.

She had a big grin on her face as she made her way towards the two of you, with you standing there awkwardly.

“Oh, hey, Mingyu. I was looking for you all around the common room! We need to work on the project today and try and finish it off.”

Were you not there?

You cleared your throat, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Project? Do you guys need any help? Because I can be of assistance.”

Mingyu smiled at you tensely. “Ah, no…we’re okay, we’re nearly done. anyways”

You nodded and smiled back, biting the tension away. You didn’t want to be there anymore, a distaste in seeing the two. Like you didn’t like Mingyu anymore.“Okay, why don’t you go, then? I’m sure you guys need to finish it off before the due date so I’m going to go now―”

“Are you sure?”

“Sure! Good night, Mingyu…and Emma.”

You turned around and walked away, a confused feeling stuck in your chest as you did. You’ve never done that before, why were you doing it? You recollected those days when you used to be jealous of girls that talk to him so brazenly and you would no doubt tell it to Mingyu.

You headed back to your dorm, putting your mind off things. It was pretty easy as the first thing you saw was Adora about to throw hands at Wonwoo.

Again.

You stepped in fast, grabbing her off of the poor kid.

"Girl, you better get off me or you’re going to get it too!” she exclaimed. The threat was evident in her voice but didn’t scare you, to say the least. The two of you were used to threatening each other in a way it became the norm.

“Shut the hell up and sort issues out without violence, dumbass.”

Adora paused, coming back to her senses and thank God for that too. You wouldn’t want to live for the day that she struck a punch at Wonwoo, that would be too painful.

“What were you guys were doing anyway?”

“We were discussing―”

“Arguing.” Vernon interrupted cleanly.

“Discussing,” Wonwoo argued. “We were discussing what we were going to do while you were gone.”

“And…?”

“We’re going to go to the library.” Adora answered with a shrug. You walked around the girl and claimed the seat next to her. “Just to hang out and stuff.”

“Wow, I should’ve just stayed with Mingyu,” you said sarcastically.

The three dropped their jaws to the ground, cooking in your comment. You laughed, realising how what you said cut a wound intensely to your friendship.

“No, no! I meant that he was at the library doing a project so I should’ve stayed there if you all were going to go there anyway.” you explained, a hand going to Vernon’s shoulder. They all sang with an understanding tone.

“Really thought you were betraying us like that.” Wonwoo put his hand to his chest, breathing out a relieved sigh.

“Of course not! Now, how long are we going to stay here? Let’s go.” The three of them got up along with you, exiting the Ravenclaw dorm hastily to enjoy the Friday night. Walking in the hallway, their voices echoed throughout.

To be frank, Adora and you were basked in more entertainment when you started talking with Vernon and Wonwoo. Whether it’d be Wonwoo and Adora fighting just for the fun of it or you and Vernon having to get those two back to the dorms because they’ve fallen asleep by each other’s side again after endless arguments―you counted it all as your entertainment.

There was something special of a sort between you and your friends and you were forever cherishing in that. Especially as you walked to the library, you and Vernon exchanged smiles at seeing your friends bicker again.

If you and Jeonghan weren’t enemies, these two definitely were. Arriving at the library, Vernon cut them off.

“I need to show you guys this comic I saw the other day.” He grabbed both Adora and Wonwoo’s wrist and then paused, regarding that he wasn’t holding you too. He pouted a little.

You shook your head and smiled. “It’s fine. I’ll go look at the 'romance’ section anyways.”

“Need to find more erotica? I can hel―”

Adora used her free hand to ball into a fist and hit Wonwoo on the head. His head fell a little. “You idiot. How dare you ask that question to her? She has a boyfriend!”

“Okay, so? It’s only human nature to read what is erotic. Therefore, I’m not asking her anything wrong.”

“Therefore, I’m not asking anything wrong―shut up before I smack you silly. Y/N, listen to me. Go look at all the erotica you like, but don’t take advice from him. Even I know better erotica.” Adora said, pointing sharply at Wonwoo like he was something disgusting under her shoe.

You raised your eyebrows with Vernon. Wonwoo defended himself nicely. “I know better erotica than you―”

“No, you don’t. Don’t argue with me, Four Eyes!”

“I can show you better erotica,” he said to her.

All four of you paused in your respective positions at Wonwoo’s words. Did he just say what you thought he said? Even Vernon let go of Wonwoo to place his hand on his mouth.

“Yo, Wonwoo~ Are you trying to tell her something?” you teased. It was your turn to get hit by Adora. “Ow!”

“Don’t joke like that. I would never do anything like―”

“Wonwoo, don’t you think a great erotica story would be one where you’re doing Adora and you take off your glasses and put it on her. Then, you compliment―”

“Enough. Go read your damn erotica!” Adora said, shoving you out of the way.

Vernon and you erupted with laughter. “I said I was going to look at romance, not erotica. There’s no erotica section in a school. You two started this!”

They tried to argue with you but you were already on your way to the other side of the library.

The rest of them were off to the other side of the library, apparently looking at the comics. You didn’t bother them, on your way to the romance section like you said you were, finding fascination in the particular enemies-to-lovers trope.

“Are you sure she won’t come here?”

“I’m sure. She’s too stupid to even realise that I’m cheating on her.”

“Mhm,” she giggled, looping her arm around his neck. Her lips were nearing closer to him. “Thank God.”

You were frozen, captivated wrongly in the scene your eyes fled to. Particularly noting that it was happening right at the end of the last romance aisle. You felt as if someone had ripped out your heart and stomped on it and that person being Mingyu had caused tears to run freely down your face as you stood there. Just watching.

Funny how merely seconds ago you were joking with your friends and now this.

Body against body, you were met with betrayal. The girl you suspected was actually with him, kissing him so passionately. Mingyu had never done that with you. You were almost discreet of showing public display of affection, it hurt to see that he was open with someone else.

You couldn’t see it any longer. Turning around, you exited the library, allowing the tears to run loose. If Vernon and Wonwoo weren’t there, you would’ve gone to confide Adora straightaway and she would’ve given him all she had but they were there and you were alone. It would be embarrassing to go tell her that now, so you escaped the claws of the self-delusional way of a cheap thrill Mingyu had.

He didn’t see you either.

You looked down even though there weren’t any students that passed the hall at this hour.

Some assignment, he said.

Not only had he lied but he was making out with another girl in the library and in the romance section. You wished to bleach your eyes as the scene refreshed and replayed in your mind like some kind of heated drama.

All you could keep asking yourself was why?

Why were you so easily fooled? You bumped hard into someone.

“Dude, what the hell―dumbass? It’s you?”

You looked up at him as if you were strong and proud of your tears and least to say, he was quite still to see you in tears.

“Yeah, it’s me, everyone’s favourite dumbass. The one that’s so easy to fool because she’s such a dumbass.” you laughed half-heartedly, before sinking your face into your palms again. The sadness came out behind all the anger stored in you. It was like you had so much anger that the way that Jeonghan was in front of you in such a moment, didn’t seem to phase you.

“What happened to you?” he asked, more aggression in his voice than was relevant.

“No, don’t speak to me. I’m a dumbass. Dumbasses don’t know how to speak for themselves.”

Jeonghan held onto your wrist, pulling back an arm to reveal your crying face. You looked to the ground, feeling his stare penetrate through your skull, prompting your heart to go wild at how he was the one that found you out of all people. But with the way that he was staring at you, you found the care that came through it. Like he was waiting for you to explain.

“Right now, as of nine-thirty-one pm, Mingyu is making out with another girl and what did I do? Walked right out and acted as if I didn’t see anything? Yeah, I did. That was me.”

“He did not.”

Jeonghan overlooked your ignorantly sarcastic behaviour, focussing more on the fact that Mingyu cheated on you.

“He did.” you nodded, smiling.

Jeonghan’s grip on your arm got tighter as if bringing you back to your ground. The tears stopped for a whole second.

“Ah, ah!”

“Oh, sorry.” He let your arm fling to your side, then he proceeded to question you. “How could you just walk out like that?”

The way in which he asked the question seethed with toxin.

“Because I’m a dumbass.”

Jeonghan furrowed his eyebrows, his hands placing themselves on his waist. Never in a million years, you would expect Jeonghan to be here when your heart was at stake.

“You dumbass! You know I didn’t mean that! Ugh, just, come on!”

“No. I’m not going back in there!” you yelled arrogantly as he got a grip of your forearm again. He needed to get his anger issues consulted because if he was going on like this, everyone was going to be insulted profoundly.

“Um, yes. You are. Because you’re a dumbass that speaks up for herself. Don’t let anyone step all over you.” Jeonghan turned around, leading the way towards the library.

Instead of objectifying, you proceeded with caution, watching as his face contorted into frustration of some sort. You were seeing a new side of Jeonghan―a preventive side. Why was he helping you out? What happened to his Slytherin class? He held himself up so greatly to the point that you assumed you would never see the day he would be helpful to you in some way.

And yet here he was, dragging you back into the library to stand up for yourself.

He kicked open the library, making you jump in your skin. You didn’t bother trying to tell him where Mingyu was because he was dragging you through the aisles (left, right, up, down) until he finally met the romance section and your doom.

And to your great horror, he was still there.

“Yah, Kim Mingyu!”

Mingyu snapped his attention away to you, his eyes widening at seeing you and Jeonghan there. A dreadful pit dropped into your stomach. Jeonghan pushed you forwards.

You really didn’t want to do this.

But after seeing that girl, Emma, rolling her eyes, it made you more mad.

“What is this, Mingyu? What are you doing?”

Mingyu pushed Emma out of the way, walking down the aisle towards you.

“No. Don’t even come here.” You stood there, wiping away the last tears with your sleeve, glaring at Mingyu. “Breaking my trust was one thing, but being a coward and telling me about it, pushed the line. The least you could’ve done was be honest about it. But you didn’t.”

“Babe. Let me explain.”

You looked away. “Jeonghan, I can’t even look at his face anymore. If you let me stay here any longer, I might actually damage his face for life.”

Jeonghan sniggered beside you and then nodded. “So no slap or…?”

“Not feeling it.” you sighed, placing your hands on your hips. Looking at Mingyu’s face for a longer time made you realise that you weren’t so mad anymore. It must’ve been the distance that separated the two of you the past few days but somehow wounding into your night, looking at him only concluded disappointment in your heart.

It was kind of an annoyance that it would happen on such a good day, so as you and Jeonghan left the library together, with no signs of your friends (they were probably riddled into a good comic), you were alone.

“Come on.” Jeonghan stated, grabbing the sleeve of your top.

“No.” You shook your arm, hoping that he would let go but Jeonghan stuck to you like super glue. “I’m going back to my dorm.”

“And do what? Cry for the rest of the night and then act like nothing was ever wrong…? Exactly. Come with me,”

A final tear slipped down your face loosely, not emitting any particular emotion. It just came down itself without being asked to.

“Where are we going?”

“Shut up.” was all Jeonghan said as he pulled you down the hallway. You might as well be an inanimate object from the way things were going. The pull was strong and you could’ve said anything to it, but you didn’t. Partly, you knew that Jeonghan was trying to help and him helping was better than spending a night alone with tears running down your face crazily. When Jeonghan brought you outside the castle, you were beginning to dispute his actions, wondering if he was purposely doing this so you guys get in trouble.

“How about the Dementors?” you asked, feeling a bold shiver run down your spine as you hiked the fresh grass patches. The sound of waves crashing slowly onto the shore of the lake resonated the night, along with branches swaying. The night was bright, notably because of the white moonlight that decided to stripe against you and Jeonghan.

“What about them?”

You rolled your eyes at him, acknowledging there wouldn’t be a way out of this. He had let go by now and the two of you were finding a spot amongst the field.

“Here.” you motioned, slinking down into a sitting position. By now, all tears were dispersed from your space. You were indulged in relaxing your body against the night’s sways. Jeonghan sat next to you.

The silence bathed in itself, the calm yet rough wind delivering cool air to your body. That’s what you liked about nights. Not only was it a perfect time to study, but the cool breeze from opening your window in the slightest also delivered satisfactory cool air. Jeonghan bringing you here could only mean he enjoyed it similarly.

“You’re not crying anymore,” he noted.

You nodded, folding your knees to your chest habitually. “We weren’t doing as well anyways. I don’t wanna cry for him too. He didn’t trust me and ended up breaking my trust…God, I didn’t even expect this.”

Jeonghan converted his shift towards the Black Lake.

“I’m not the best to comfort, however, he is such a big asshole for doing that to you.” Jeonghan said.

And that in itself was able to soothe your racing heart, calming down the nerves that came from the cheating incident.

“Geez, I didn’t expect you out here out of all people when things turn bad.” became the only way you could reply. You really didn’t know what else to say.

“Me neither.” Jeonghan agreed.

You shook your head, another important thought slipping into your head, one that was staying in your mind like an undefeated fire, soon taking over every single part of your brain. Every time you had spare time, your mind would aimlessly wander to this question.

Of course, as a Ravenclaw, you had not one, but variants of answers in which Jeonghan could answer―carefully analysed and thought of too but it was the best to hear from him.

“How come you’re talking to me now? Don’t you Slytherins hate everyone except your kind?” You made sure to sound doubtful about him so that he would answer properly.

“You’re okay.”

“I’m okay?” you scoffed, turning your head towards the pretty boy. He was still busy examining nothing in the lake. The night was light, but when it came to the Black Lake’s side, nothing shone over there. It was concealed. “What’s not okay?”

“That you’re not a Slytherin.” he answered, his own smile on his face. You laughed along, finding truth in his voice. You liked that he was truthful, unlike some people.

You sat for a while, admiring the lake’s beauty even though it was quite dark for the eyes to adjust to. Being with Jeonghan made it better. You were smiling too instead of having a glare around him. It was like a miracle.

“You know something, Jeonghan?”

“What?”

“You’re more tolerable than I expected these days.”

“Hm, why do you say that?” His voice had gone one octave lower, making you look over at him. Jeonghan seemed tired, though you couldn’t exactly tell.

“Because…because you’re being nice for once.”

“Or maybe…you’re into me,” Jeonghan smirked.

Your eyes widened, heart racing as you captured a glance of his eyes. They seemed only half-open and doe-shaped. God had given him sexy and cute in one person, you couldn’t take it anymore. Just looking at him made you want to hit your head on the wall, making you question your own morals.

You just got out of a relationship, why were you already looking at him like a next target? But your mouth had answered before you could.

“Maybe I am.”

Jeonghan chuckled. “You know that would make you equally as bad as Mingyu?”

“No.” you told him, shaking your head. “I’m not in a relationship, I can say what I want.”

“But technically, you must’ve been thinking about this for a while before telling me,” he said. You had an answer for everything.

“Or I could’ve just found you attractive?”

“Or you just never wanted to admit it before because it would’ve made things awkward between us?”

Scratch that. Jeonghan always had an answer for everything. You looked away with a smile, prompting a giggle from the boy. There was no arguing with him.

“There’s no beating you.” you sighed.

“Glad you admit it.”

“I hate that you’re being nice, though. Since when were you nice?”

“I don’t like seeing you be nice too, love.” he admitted, the ‘love’ getting you to zip your mouth so quickly. The first time he called you that, you didn’t feel anything. But now there was this rumbling feeling inside you that caused your body to heat up in the cold night. There was no other explanation for this.

“I’d take you on a date…”

You whipped your head back at him.

“But―” Jeonghan’s perspective darted to your lips. “I’d rather we wait it out a little.”

“I was going to say that anyways.” you said. “I don’t want a relationship right now. Besides, we never got to know each other properly. Let’s do that.”

Jeonghan nodded. “So you actually have feelings for me?”

“Do you?”

“You caught me there.” he smiled. You waited a brief second for him to answer. He didn’t. Your heart was pounding in your ears.

“So you do?”

He nodded.

“For how long?”

The night’s breeze quickened, your eyes following the stars up. You could see a Dementor in the distance. It didn’t scare you much, to say the least, it was more like you were used to seeing it there, flying around lonely. If Jeonghan hadn’t found you in tears, you would’ve felt like a Dementor. All lonely.

“Last week.”

“All the tension finally got to you.” you commented.

“It did.”

When you were first seated with Jeonghan, you imagined stargazing to get along, you didn’t expect it to actually happen. Lupin’s plan to make your year level mingle with each other with something as simple as a seating plan was coming into reality.

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