and here i come out as an exorcist
I think I remember why I had a fic comm -- it was so I wouldn't suddenly pop up here with fic from fandoms out of nowhere.
So crayeol and I have this tumblr called --->EXO-HOGWARTS<---. Which is, yeah, a Harry Potter-verse AU for Exo and probably the craziest, geekiest thing ever. To get acquainted with it I suggest taking a look at the profiles first. Most are up! The only ones still in the works are Baekhyun, Chen, and Lay.
Because we are cray, there is still a ton of story I have yet to touch on -- but this post is all the fic so far! The first fic-thing I ever posted there is actually "a bird's eye view of hindsight", but I'm not gonna copy pasta it here because it was really hastily written and I don't want it to be the first ficlet in this post XD...also didn't want to scare everyone away with the characterization of Luhan and Xiu Min. Sob I only watched like three interviews at the time.
ANYWAYS. All the titles link to the fic post on tumblr. And credit for all the drawings in this post goes to crayeol/hism
>>>How to Potion with Kris and Luhan
(2012; Kris and Luhan are both fifth years)
"Oh, bollocks, bollocks," Luhan panics when their sleeping draft starts to turn a shade too puce.
"I'm turning down the fire." Kris says as he retrieves his wand from his robes.
"No, don't. I know it has to stew some more." Luhan bites his lip. "I think it darkened because we didn't crush the beetle finely enough..."
Kris arches an eyebrow. "So are you saying it's my bad?"
"No, I'm not..."
Their attention is drawn back to the cauldron when a large bubble pops and the potion sighs. They both stare at the concoction for a long beat.
"You know," Kris starts, looking thoughtful, "We can still get a passing grade if it works." He pauses pointedly, because obviously their potion doesn't work and probably never will. "And since I tested the our botched herbicide last time..."
"Oh, come off it," Luhan scoffs. "That would have worked better if you hadn't been a complete sodding idiot."
During their last lesson, the students had grouped into pairs to brew an omniherbicide. An effective brew could stop the effects of any herb and would be useful against poisoning from unknown plants. To test the potions they brewed, their professor observed as one member from each pair drank a tea containing an herb that tickled the insides of the recipient mercilessly. If their herbicide was any good, drinking it would stop the overwhelming tickling sensation and the recipient would usually stop laughing instantly and look a bit sick.
Everyone in their class who drank the tickling herb tea immediately dropped to the ground laughing and begging for the antidote. However, when the herbal tea was administered to Kris, nothing happened.
The class watched on in silence. Luhan looked at him in disbelief.
"Do you feel anything?" The professor asked.
Kris actually felt a pretty severe urge to burst out laughing, so he nodded.
The professor frowned at the blue and white porcelain tea pot containing the herbs and, to Kris's horror, poured him another dose before he could protest.
Luhan was still gaping in disbelief when Kris stepped up and forced himself to down the second cup. But Kris wasn't sure if it was in admiration or if Luhan just thought he was a complete idiot. This notion was interrupted when Kris felt the second dose as an excruciating pain gripping his sides and trying to shake the laughter out of him.
"Maybe it gets weaker when it cools..." But before their bewildered potions professor could give him even more, Kris barked out a terrifying laugh, startling the class.
Luhan mouthed laugh more and made a gesture with his hands as though urging Kris to continue.
Kris felt like the urge to laugh could have opened his ribcage. "Ha." he said, without detectable emotion.
Luhan started to gesture more wildly. LAUGH MORE. He started to mimic laughing in a panic, as though hoping Kris would learn by example, but looked mostly like a maniac.
Kris let out a chuckle that sounded nothing like a chuckle.
Luhan stared on helplessly as Kris remained stubbornly resistant to showing mirth, and face palmed when their potions professor stepped forward with another cup, and Kris actually drank it.
Kris folded over in his chair for a while then, before finally letting out a terrifying, hollow...sound.
Mainly to prevent the horror from happening again, the professor finally said, "You may now take the herbicide, or if you cannot, your partner may help you."
Kris snatched up the vial containing their herbicide and downed it. Luhan tried to breathe normally as the professor waited for the potion to react, and as Kris fought to keep a straight face -- which looked mostly constipated and made Luhan realize for the briefest of moments that surely even the suave Slytherin prefect must have painful bowels once in a while but what was this train of thought it should be stopped.
All that mattered was that Kris's acting was convincing enough to earn them a passing grade, and compensated for whatever that idiotic showdown with the tickling herb was.
As soon as they were dismissed, Kris and Luhan rushed to the hospital wing, which happened to be the furthest point in the castle from their potions classroom in the dungeons. All the while, Kris's anguished laughter filled the halls.
Shuddering at the memory, Kris shoots Luhan a glare. "Who are you calling an idiot? It would have been just fine if someone remembered to turn the fire off instead of doing their Charms homework..."
"I was not doing my Charms homework," Luhan objects. "I was looking through Sehun's Charms essay before our tutoring session. You know, the kid you asked me to tutor? Even though you're in the same house and all?"
"Don't change the subject." Kris sighs, "You were still in charge of the fire." And before Luhan could bring up anything else, he adds, "You're better at Charms anyway."
"Why couldn't you have just laughed like a normal person?" Luhan presses on, not to be flattered.
"Are you really asking me this, right now?"
"...Okay, I'll drink our sleeping draught." Luhan concedes, probably because Kris had looked ready to whack him in the face with the burning cauldron between them. "And if it doesn't knock me out I'll just keel over and pretend to be asleep. What's the worst that could happen anyway? Besides dying."
"Well..." Kris says thoughtfully, his eyes lighting up in a slightly terrifying way. "Part of the test is trying to wake you up."
Luhan lets the words sink in. Then he groans.
"I think I'll put my sock over your face."
Luhan makes a face in disgust, and groans. Again.
Kris hmmphs, "I resent that." He looks to the front of the class room, at a jar sitting on the teacher's desk. "Actually, I think I'll ask the professor if I may borrow that biting fairy and release it in your trousers."
Flinching, Luhan groans for a third time. "Sweet Merlin on a maypole, what have I done to deserve this." He dumps a vial of something into the cauldron. Its contents flash white for a second before becoming worryingly iridescent.
"...Right then," Luhan starts after a while in a distant voice. "Do you have any tips on how to remain completely still under physical torture?"
"Besides nerves of steel?"
"Yeah."
"And besides previous experience?"
"Yeah, besides -- wait, what?"
Kris smirks. "If you want you can borrow my sock."
Luhan stirs the potion, looking as though he could see hell in the cauldron. "I hope this kills me."
>>>How to Potion with D.O. and Tao
(2016; D.O. and Tao are both in their sixth year.)
hism
Kyungsoo spreads a fresh sheet of parchment before him and licks his thumb and forefinger to smooth a stray downy barb on his quill. Sitting at his desk in potions, he knows exactly what their assignment will be that day. He even mouths it along with the professor.
"In observance of Saint Valentine's day we will be brewing Amortentia in class. The strongest love potion in the world." Their professor pauses to allow the giggling to subside. Kyungsoo notices that Tao, looking more preoccupied than usual, suddenly perks up. "Do not be mistaken," their professor continues, "It is a powerful potion which can easily go wrong under an unskilled hand. It's good practice for your N.E.W.T.S next year."
Kyungsoo takes careful notes, as always, when the class is given instruction before brewing. But he notices that Tao is taking notes more attentively than usual.
It may already be common knowledge that Huang Zitao, tall and imposing genius seeker extraordinaire, is a hopeless romantic. Tao, for instance, actually takes Divination seriously. He shows up to class with dream accounts twice as long as the required length, he's able to spend three hours looking into the senseless fog of a crystal ball, and he answers the professor's questions in such a way that could only imply he knew their text by heart. He also has a subscription to Witch Weekly for their 'accurate and detailed horoscopes.' Tao's exact words.
Despite all he already knows, however, Kyungsoo will always find out more. He had always been a magnet for Too Much Information. It's a real problem he recognizes in his life.
About halfway into the potion, Kyungsoo goes to the class stock to choose a rose stem, as the ingredients called for thorns from a rose bush that blossomed under a full moon.
He returns to find Tao about to chop up a pickled doxy.
"Here," Kyungsoo says, handing the thorny rose stem to Tao. "I know the teacher didn't go over this, but you should cut humanoid creatures anterior side up." Kyungsoo turns the human shaped ingredient face up and begins to slice it.
Tao winces. "I didn't want to see its face." He turns the rose stem over in his gloved hand and begins to cut the thorns off. "I didn't think it mattered anyway. How do you know?"
"Well," Kyungsoo says without looking up, "Last month we had to read that essay about how to cut different materials, remember?"
"Oh." Kyungsoo could hear Tao's eyes rolling. "Right."
Kyungsoo then angles the cutting board above their cauldron and whisks the pieces of fairy into the potion with a clean swipe of his knife. "I've noticed our professor purposely omits small things like this to see who did their reading."
The potion starts to bubble, according to plan. And when it turns the correct shade of scarlet -- Tao gasps, as if in realization. "So that's...that's why it didn't work..."
Actually, this might be more of a confirmation than new information. Kyungsoo looks up from the potion.
"Hey, you don't have to look so surprised," Tao mumbles, looking slightly embarrassed.
Kyungsoo inhales to respond, but didn't know what to say. That his face is just stuck this way? His expression must have shown that he was becoming increasingly more mystified at how to respond because Tao nudges him and says, "Hey, you're staring."
"I expect a few of you are out of the running now," they hear the professor say above the din. A good half of the class groans in response. Tao and Kyungsoo exchange something of a triumphant smile. "Those of you who are still on track may come up for an Ashwinder's egg when you need it."
Kyungsoo looks at the jar of ivory white eggs floating in the jade solution, and he debates going up now to get his pick of a nice egg. But he also knows that it'll lose its potency if he takes it from the jar too soon. His mind switches back to a thought he had earlier and instead he blurts out: "Who..."
Tao shoots him a dark look, daring him to finish that question.
"No, I mean. Why, I guess," Kyungsoo continues, "Why would you need to brew a love potion? You have a fanclub. Who wouldn't want to go out with you?"
Tao makes a small noise that sounded equal parts like a laugh and a sob.
"...Sorry." Kyungsoo glances away in a bit of a panic. "I shouldn't ask stuff like that."
"Why are you assuming I brewed Amortentia to get someone to fall in love with me, anyway?"
Because that was obviously what Tao had intended to do. But Kyungsoo didn't know what to say. After a beat of deadpan staring at their potion, he shrugs and mutters, "Sorry."
They add the final ingredient, a sprig of peppermint, near the end of the lesson. Tao stirs their potion clockwise four times and Kyungsoo waves his wand over the cauldron.
Wispy fumes rise from the cauldron in spirals and Kyungsoo does a thumbs up at Tao. "We've got our potion."
Tao sniffs warily at the fumes wafting toward him, and begins to move closer to the cauldron.
"What do you smell?" Kyungsoo asks.
"I smell, hmm," Tao sniffs the brew again, a look of awe on his face. "It smells like morning on the Quidditch Pitch, high up and clear. And dark chocolate cake...and...and dragon leather..."
"How are we going to test our potions, professor?" asks one of the Ravenclaw girls sitting at the back of the room, giggling. Her partner, also giggling very hard, hits her lightly.
"Well," the professor starts in a loud voice that indicated the whole class should listen, "Who can tell me how to recognize correctly brewed Amortentia?" He glances around the class and calls on Kyungsoo.
"You can tell if it's correct by its mother-of-pearl sheen and spiral fumes, professor. You can also tell by smelling it. Amortentia is a mixture of what you find most attractive, and has a different aroma to everyone who smells it."
Hearing this, Tao's face turns bright red. Haven't you at least read up on its properties if you've tried to brew it before? Kyungsoo thinks, perplexed.
"Excellent, Mr. Do. Five points to Ravenclaw."
"Ooh, what do you smell, professor?" The same girl asks cheekily.
"Well, it doesn't match up with what I get from yours, I'm afraid."
When their professor reaches Kyungsoo and Tao, he hovers over their cauldron and inhales once more. "What a potent brew," their professor exclaims, but mostly directing the praise to Kyungsoo. "Truly wonderful. The tiniest of drops could induce infatuation like the world has never seen." He takes an empty vial from his sleeve and fills it with their potion for grading. Then, with a wave of his wand, the professor empties the contents of the cauldron. Kyungsoo hears Tao gasp.
"You weren't thinking of taking some out, were you?" Kyungsoo asks Tao with a laugh when the professor has moved on to the next table.
"No, I wasn't." Tao sighs, though he looks like he'd just been denied heaven or some equivalent of it.
"We just do this for practice. Using a love potion isn't right, anyway --"
"If you've had to think about whether or not it's right," Tao starts hotly, looking down, "Then you've never been in love."
Kyungsoo falls silent. After a while, he realizes he's staring.
>>>Badgering I.
(2012; Suho is a 4th year and Tao is a 2nd year)
The common room cleared out within an hour. It's a new record as far as Joonmyun can recall. He lingers behind to pick up the black and yellow streamers strewn across the room and maybe put away some of the untouched butterbeer and treacle tart still on the table.
The year before had seen the Hufflepuff common room bursting at the seams in celebration after every Quidditch match. The common room would be decorated the day before in anticipation of victory, and the merriment after that lasted well into the night. The Hufflepuffs would probably never admit it, but the lukewarm at-least-we-played-our-hardest celebrations that Joonmyun remembers from his first and second year were markedly less enthusiastic.
This was because last year, when Joonmyun was a third year, Zitao Huang had become a first year and singlehandedly lead Hufflepuff into an age of hope. He became the pride of the house -- the youngest player to make the Hufflepuff house team in a century and a flying prodigy to boot. Sure first years weren't allowed to own broomsticks, but the headmistress sympathized.
At the moment, Tao is nowhere to be seen.
Joonmyun knows the house elves could clean up the streamers. Ideally, he'd bump into one right now and they could clean up the common room together. He'd really like to meet one, if only to give his thanks, but unfortunately he doesn't know how to go about finding the house elves that clean the Hufflepuff common room. So he figures straightening things up a bit once in a while is as good an indicator for appreciation as anything. It's just as well, since the house elves would be up to their cute batty ears cleaning up after the festivities he's sure the Gryffindors are having right now.
He sits at the table and decides to help himself to some treacle tart. He hears the soft padding of a small animal and sees a black cat walking toward the wall on the other side of the common room. As if on cue, Joonmyun hears the barrels at the entrance moving to let someone in.
Tao, broom slung over his hunched shoulders, comes through the entrance quietly. His cat nuzzles his ankles and Tao reaches down to scoop it into his arms.
The first game of the year took place that afternoon between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. It was not a normal game, but the first battle between a defending champion and a prodigious newcomer. Gryffindor had gained an exceptionally talented first year named Jongin Kim and whether or not he was better than Tao fed an intense hype that preceded the game weeks in advance. Whenever any of the Hufflepuff players went to the field during Gryffindor practice sessions to investigate, there would regularly be other curious students watching from the bleachers. The general consensus seemed to be that Gryffindor's new seeker flew very well, but since Tao had already been an exception there's no way Gryffindor gained a genius first year seeker the year right after Hufflepuff did. Surely the Gryffindors are trying to one-up the Hufflepuffs because they're used to having the lion's share of the glory circulating Hogwarts at any given moment.
The brisk October day made every cheer more breathtaking than usual, and the outcome of the match culminated over a splendidly golden sunset. Not that anyone paid attention to the sunset. With the young seekers of both houses out of sight -- literally so high up that nobody could make out their actions -- a silence so dense fell upon the stadium that one could hear the wild, scratchy wind gusting through the Forbidden Forest. But nobody paid attention to that either. Even the team members of both houses stopped playing and turned their faces to the sky, waiting for a sign from above.
Then, from out of the clouds, a red figure slowly descended. Jongin was shivering like mad, frost clouding the lenses of his goggles. The entire school had stalled its breath as Jongin shakily rose a fist into the air. The last light of the setting sun caught his clenched fist -- which gave off a golden gleam. It's all Joonmyun can remember before the Gryffindor team blurred from their respective places on the field to gather around him. The stadium, as if to compensate for the extreme silence only moments prior, erupted with a ground shaking noise in the dusk.
The very depressing party in the Hufflepuff common room afterwards was made all the more awkward with Tao's absence. Joonmyun had asked the Hufflepuff captain, who had gone into the air after the game to look for Tao, if she knew of his whereabouts. She had replied that when she tried to chase after Tao, he flew in the opposite direction. He just needed some time alone. Joonmyun had nodded and looked outside then. Night had already fallen and he imagined Tao still by himself, high in the dark sky and watching the lights in the castle from afar.
Now, seated at the table and eating treacle tart with Tao in front of him, Joonmyun checks his watch. It is a little past midnight. He looks up with a ready smile, "Good game today, Tao!"
When Tao doesn't spare him a glance, Joonmyun wracks his brains for something he could say. Fortuitously, a log crackles invitingly in the fire and Tao stops his walk toward his dormitory and stands still, seemingly to debate whether or not he wants to rest by the warm fire or to go change into dry clothes and hide in his bed.
"Here, why don't we..." Joonmyun points his wand in Tao's direction and murmurs a drying spell. Alarmed that Tao's clothes had suddenly began to steam, Tao's cat leaps out of his arms and hurries to curl up by the fireplace. Tao whips around with a glare sharp enough to make Joonmyun's stomach turn ice cold, breaking his concentration and stalling the drying charm.
But Joonmyun knows that Tao is a nice kid, a second year who had been painfully shy his first year until he started getting attention as a Quidditch player. He's just in a very rough spot. Possibly the roughest he's ever known.
Understanding this much, Joonmyun smiles at Tao and motions toward the plushy sofa next to the fireplace.
Tao looks at Joonmyun for a bit, seemingly trying to guess if he might regret sitting next to the fire with the most talkative person he knows when he just wants to be left alone.
Joonmyun puts up two hands in mock resignation and turns his attention back to his pie.
Getting the message, Tao then makes his way to the sofa and sinks onto the cushy seat with a small groan. He gingerly lifts his legs, one after the other, onto the rest of the sofa and raises his hands to unwind his long scarf. It's been a few hours after the match and he had already changed out of his Quidditch gear. His muscles are likely beginning to feel sore. The pain would come down full force when Tao wakes up tomorrow, but Tao is used to that. He's used to a lot of things when it comes to Quidditch. He's just not used to losing.
The glow of the fire leaps across Tao's face and he closes his eyes. He still looks chilled to the bone. His hair is damp from the ice and moisture that had no doubt collected on his body up in the clouds. His eyes are swollen and the rest of his face, particularly his nose and lips, look chapped and wind-bitten red.
Joonmyun watches Tao rest by the fire with his eyes closed for so long that he wonders if Tao had fallen asleep. But then the black cat leaps onto Tao's lap and Tao winces before bringing up a lazy hand to stroke it.
Since Joonmyun doesn't think he could keep his word and stay silent, he decides to leave the common room and let Tao have time to himself. He cuts the remainder of the treacle tart into three large slices and casts a charm to keep them warm. Then he puts two bottles of butterbeer on either side of the dish. On a scrap piece of parchment he writes: There's more in the pantry. :-)
He steps back from the setup and looks at it, then he raises his eyes to check on Tao. Joonmyun had always believed that discussion can solve just about everything. But he is learning that sometimes a moment calls for silence.
He doesn't think this moment is one of those moments, however. "Tao, if you have anything you want to talk ab --"
Tao cuts him off with a groan. "Are you serious." Joonmyun watches, suddenly feeling anxious, as Tao opens his eyes and sits up.
"Let's --"
Shooting Joonmyun an irritated look, Tao grabs his cat and cradles it against his chest with more force than usual. "Come on, Dark'ness," He mutters as he stalks to his dormitory.
In a panic, Joonmyun calls out, "I'll be here!" To which he's answered with the sound of a door thudding closed.
Once again, he's alone in the Hufflepuff common room. "Ahh..." Joonmyun says in a long, anguished breath as he turns slowly on his heel. He looks at the food on the table and wonders if house elves like butterbeer and treacle tart.
>>Badgering II.
(2013; same school year)
From his vantage point on the bridge leading to the Astronomy Tower, Joonmyun regards the Quidditch Pitch with a passing amazement at how different it could seem after a game. Even when the banners and streamers littered over the stands have been cleared, the empty Quidditch Pitch post-game is not the same as it is pre-game. If the field before is an inhale, then the field afterwards is the end of an exhale.
Tao is standing next to him and also looking out at the empty Quidditch pitch, though Joonmyun doesn't know what's going through Tao's mind.
Hufflepuff played Ravenclaw on an overcast day in mid-February. Set against the paper white sky, blue and yellow had circled this pitch only an hour before and the bleachers had been overflowing with spectators. Now everyone has cleared the field, hurrying back to the warmth of the castle.
The match itself had lasted only about ten minutes. It might not have ended quickly enough, as the sportscaster kept using words such as dethrone and fallen and speaking at length about Hufflepuff's loss against Gryffindor earlier that school year. Joonmyun could understand what might make the sportscaster (a Ravenclaw) so keen to rub it in, as Hufflepuff dominated every other house last year, but it was objectively very unprofessional and not even entertaining. He felt like he could have done a better job.
Tao himself had looked completely uninterested in the game. He seemed spaced out and hovered higher than the other players, seemingly to remove himself from the game and watch it pass before him from above. The snitch practically threw itself at the Ravenclaw seeker after ten minutes, as though it felt bored.
"The captain really wanted to talk to you afterwards," Joonmyun brings up. "She even asked me if I'd know where to find you."
"Why didn't you tell her?" Tao mumbles irritably. The chilly air makes their breath show up white before them.
"I felt that if you wanted to talk to her, you'd have stayed."
Tao shrugs, his eyes seemed to be fixed on something beyond the field. "She's probably going to replace me."
Joonmyun gasps, shocked at how indifferently Tao said this. Tao is only a second year. A year ago he had been a cute and chipper little thing on the Quidditch field -- constantly alert and scanning the premises, drowning in his signature long scarf until it whipped out behind him like a Hufflepuff banner as he gave chase to the snitch.
"You'll get to try out again this year." Tao adds, laughing a little.
Joonmyun's gut feels the sting of the words a bit, but he just smiles in response. He knows Tao didn't say that to hurt him. It's true that Joonmyun had tried out for the house team every year, without avail, since his second year, but so did many other hopefuls.
"I'm positive the captain doesn't want to replace you." Joonmyun finally manages. "Just as long as you don't want to be replaced."
Tao just shrugs vaguely, again. "I can't stop replaying that match in my head."
Joonmyun feels a chill, the hairs on his arms standing up. "What happened?" he asks, trying to balance his tone between concern and curiosity. No one saw the play that occurred up in the clouds between Tao and Jongin.
Tao doesn't roll his eyes up to access the memory, as he usually does when trying to recall something. He's obviously thought about this extensively and, instead, he closes his eyes.
Jongin had been hounded for a play by play after the match, as most people had the sense not to ask Tao, but accounts varied so much that everyone came to realize they may never know. Joonmyun's personal favorite account involved the two seekers flying as far as Hogsmeade and running into a large caravan of flying travelers. Supposedly the snitch and the two boys hurtling toward them at break neck speed caused them to lose their concentration and reveal that they had been trying to smuggle a dragon by camouflaging it with a disillusionment charm. Joonmyun recalls it whenever he misplaces his pet chameleon.
He watches Tao collect his thoughts for what seems like a long time. Joonmyun knows that Tao couldn't possibly have fallen asleep here, unless he could sleep while standing up...and even if he could it was pretty rude to fall asleep right now. He begins to consider patting Tao's face when Tao starts to speak:
"We were both flying straight up, I was a little ahead of him. Then the snitch changed direction and we both start flying as fast as we could to the right -- but then Jongin sudden spun and flew underneath me, upside down, like a reflection." Tao furrows his eyebrows, as if he found the memory disturbing. "We flew like this for a long time. He had taken his eyes off the snitch to mirror my moves. It's like he knew he would be on the right track as long as he followed me. So I thought of doing a feint." Tao heaves a heavy sigh here, fogging the cold air white, and Joonmyun knows that it all went wrong at this point.
Tao doesn't like being marked, which is unfortunate because the seeking strategies of the other house teams have all basically been 'mark Tao, follow him closely.' Jongin had been the first seeker to actually try to seek the snitch himself. Joonmyun thinks it's odd that Jongin would choose the middle of a high speed chase to mark Tao when they both knew where the snitch was. The only explanation would be that he was trying to get under Tao's skin, and it had worked.
Tao opens his eyes then, facing the empty Quidditch pitch and the emptier sky. He looks like he's at a loss for words, so Joonmyun tries, "And when you were steering off course, Jongin got ahead."
Tao nods. He then leans his elbows on the railing of the bridge and buries his hands into his hair. "It's like he knew how to distract me."
Joonmyun looks away from the field and at the carved arch above them. After a beat he starts, "You feel that way because he did know how to distract you. He knew exactly what to do. I bet my entire Gringotts account that he knew all about you before the match even started, your strong points and your weak points." He glances at Tao, who shoots him a confused look, so he elaborates, "The Gryffindor team didn't just sit there twiddling their thumbs while you were playing your other matches last year! Jongin is a great flyer, but they've definitely drilled him on everything about you."
Tao's expression goes from wonder to helplessness.
"...What now," Tao says flatly.
"We just need to play to Jongin's disadvantages." When Tao looks a bit discomfited at the idea, Joonmyun adds, "It's called playing smart. I'm sure your captain does this for your other teammates. She just never bothered with you because, well, you're legitimately a genius. You know that, right?" Joonmyun beams, nudging Tao until Tao looks down with an embarrassed smile. "This would make your next match more even anyways, if both of you are aware of the other's weak points."
"But does Jongin even have any," Tao asks, looking resigned again.
"Gryffindor will play Slytherin in March and we'll find something. I have a few theories already that need confirmation..."
Tao turns his head to face Joonmyun at this point, still leaning on his elbows. "I don't get you."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you're really going to help me? Are you just nice, or..."
Joonmyun smiles, and claps a hand on Tao's shoulder. "If you didn't close yourself off after the last game, you'd know that we are all still rooting for you! I know some people have said some bad things, but the only problem here is that you are letting this get you down. Everyone remembers how you played last year. And that was some awesome flying between you and Jongin -- people still talk about how exciting that game was! You played hard and impressed everyone. That's what should matter."
Tao remains silent, he looks up the archway above them. After a bit he asks, "Aren't you going to tell me I'm still a winner?"
"Exactly! You're still a winner!"
"No, don't," Tao puts his face in his palms. "I was just kidding."
"Sorry, but you are a winner." Joonmyun laughs, and slings his arm around Tao's shoulders. "I know you can't take this lying down either, because I found you at the Astronomy Tower, like you needed confirmation that today was just not your day."
"Did you stalk me?"
"No! I simply know that you stargaze when you have bad days."
"That's...kind of creepy..."
"It's called caring. You don't make it hard to guess, either." And before Tao and can say anything to that, Joonmyun asks, "You love Quidditch right? Come on it's not a trick question."
"...yeah."
"What is 'yeah?' Come on!"
"Yeah, I love Quidditch." Tao mutters obediently.
"Good!" Joonmyun grins, "That's the root of it. The most important thing is that you love, and if you love Quidditch then that's all you have to know. So let's love."
Tao nods, looking at Joonmyun as if he really wanted to leave it at that, and maybe Joonmyun would be waving goodbye now and hopping on a magic carpet.
"No. Say it with me." Joonmyun insists, "Let's love!"
"What?" Tao splutters, "Why--"
"Let's love!"
Tao glances around to see if there would be anyone within earshot. "Let's love..."
Joonmyun looks Tao squarely in the eye. "LET'S. LOVE." He says it with such weight that if someone had stumbled upon the scene at that moment they might be lead to believe the fate of the world depended on Tao's decision to love.
Though there's nobody present to hear, Tao squeezes his eyes shut in embarrassment, as if he thought he could hide what would be happening next from himself. "LET'S LOVE!"
"GOOD!" Joonmyun replies loudly, with a large, satisfied beam aimed at Tao. "LET'S --"
As if speaking for Tao, a gust of wind blows the end of Tao's scarf into Joonmyun's smiling face.
>Badgering III.
Hufflepuff's final game of the year is against Slytherin and takes place on a rainy day at the end of April.
Joonmyun, holding a large yellow umbrella, is standing at the edge of the muddy green field and waiting for Tao. It's about twenty minutes till the match starts and members of the Hufflepuff and Slytherin teams are starting to head to the Quidditch pitch to get ready.
"What are you doing here?" Joonmyun hears a voice jeer behind him. A different voice next to it laughs stupidly.
He turns around and sees two of the Slytherin chasers leering at him.
"Oh, just waiting for a friend." Joonmyun smiles from underneath the umbrella.
The boy he had heard laugh first scoffs. "Are you sure you're alright in the head? Who'd want to be friends with you? That's even more delusional than trying out for the house team."
Before Joonmyun could decide that was uncalled for, he hears someone behind him ask, "Is there a problem here?"
Perking up at the familiar voice, Joonmyun turns around and sees Tao carrying his broom and his Quidditch bag.
"Tao! I just wanted to wish you good luck before the match and show you something --"
"Oh, I'm not worried," Tao smirks, looking at the two chasers. "It's just Slytherin."
Joonmyun gasps and covers his mouth, widening his eyes at Tao as if to say oh, you shouldn't say that! But he is smiling too broadly to be taken seriously.
The two chasers make a face back at Tao, but are otherwise unable to say anything to him.
When they are left alone, Joonmyun raises his umbrella to cover the both of them.
"What is it you wanted to show me?" Tao asks, as they slosh through the field to the changing rooms.
Joonmyun beams and proudly shows off a badge pinned to his chest.
Tao leans in to look at the badge. "...Derp?" He squints and tilts his head in slight confusion, looking as though he's hoping he read that wrong. Or that maybe it'll change if he squints hard enough.
"D. E. R. P." Joonmyun corrects him. "Determined Emotional Rescue Pals! I have one for you too!"
"Determined Emotional Rescue Pals." Tao repeats slowly.
"Here!" Joonmyun presents Tao with another badge identical to the one on his chest.
Tao looks at it the way a parent might look at their toddler's artistic attempts. But he takes the badge and looks for a spot on his robes he can pin it to. He also pulls out the end of his scarf to position it there, looking at it before deciding to pin it on his shirt.
"When did you get that scarf anyway?" Joonmyun decides to ask. "I remember you didn't always have it."
Tao doesn't answer right away, he looks like he trying to decide if he remembers or not. "Right before my second match last year."
"Ah, I see! You bought it yourself?"
"How else could I have gotten it?" Tao asks with a laugh.
"Well," Joonmyun mutters, also laughing to himself, "I guess I thought someone could have given it to you."
Tao nods, as if to say fair enough, and shrugs.
After about two steps of silence, Joonmyun says, "I notice you wear it all the time."
"So...?"
"Is it something like a good luck charm?"
Tao now turns to Joonmyun with a searching look in his eyes, like he could read his mind if only he looked hard enough. And Joonmyun remembers how a look from Tao could get even those sixth and seventh year Slytherin chasers to shut up.
When Tao doesn't say anything, Joonmyun sighs, "I was just hoping maybe you'd pin it to your scarf...but that was just a thought, I don't mind at all if you prefer one over the other..."
Tao squints at Joonmyun in confusion before widening his eyes with an, "Oh." Then he laughs with a sigh of relief -- of which Joonmyun isn't quite sure what to think. "That's why you're asking."
"Er," Joonmyun tries, with a slightly confused smile, "What did you think I was asking?"
"I forgot." Tao replies, the hand holding his broom over his shoulder opens just enough to wave off the subject dismissively.
Joonmyun doesn't believe him, but he has a more pressing matter on his mind. He could ask about Tao's scarf later.
After too long a stretch of silence, filled only with rain pattering on his umbrella and mud sloshing underfoot and the indistinct sounds of people entering the Quidditch pitch, Joonmyun says brightly, "I'll be wearing my D.E.R.P. badge at all times! You should too! And if anyone asks you should tell them about our club manifesto, which I'll have to show you later, and invite them to join us!"
"Club manifesto?!" Tao looks at Joonmyun, eyes still reeling at this new information. "Wait...so this is actually a club? With members?"
Joonmyun decides to ignore the surprised tone in which Tao said members. "Well, so far the only ones on the official roster are you and I, but if we spread the word then we'll have more in no time! The badges we have now are just prototypes. I'm still experimenting with the design."
"Oh." Tao says. Without intonation.
"I plan to make about two hundred more by the end of this week," Joonmyun continues, "Wanna help me?"
Tao blanches at 'two hundred more.' He then says very carefully, "You don't think two hundred is a bit much...?"
"Didn't talking about your problems help you out a lot?"
"Well, yeah, but..." Tao trails off, and looks at Joonmyun as if he had to tell him a piece of particularly bad news.
"...I'm leaving," Joonmyun sighs.
"No! I mean yes! It helped...I didn't mean...I just...derp, I mean D.E.R.P...being a club just took me by...surprise." Tao stammers, flushing. And Joonmyun, again, remembers how intimidating this second year could be, but also how much of an adorable underclassman he still is. "You've helped me out a lot," Tao then admits. "I'm really thankful..."
Joonmyun beams and claps Tao on the back, "No, I mean I should get to the stands by now, I'm going to sportscast this match."
"Oh...oh!" Tao laughs to himself, as though imagining the sight. "That's wonderful!"
"Yeah, I'm really excited about it," Joonmyun tries to say in an upbeat voice when a knot of tension suddenly sets in his stomach at the thought. He imagines himself high up in the box, freezing up and forgetting what a broomstick is, is it something you can eat?
"Congratulations on getting the post!" Tao says animatedly, snapping Joonmyun from his reverie.
"Oh, thank you..." Joonmyun laughs uneasily, "It's really nothing to congratulate me about...."
"It's a huge deal! They hardly bother changing the sportscasters, and tons of people are interested in doing it." Tao pauses, then adds hastily, "But don't be nervous, you already got the job so you'll be brilliant. I look forward to it." He beams at Joonmyun excitedly, and so brightly that Joonmyun could hardly believe it's directed at him.
"Not as much as I'm looking forward to a Hufflepuff victory." Joonmyun says when they reach the entrance of the changing room, patting Tao's back as the boy makes his way through the canvas flaps. "Play hard and remember we are one, we are D.E.R.P!"
Tao pulls on his shirt to present his D.E.R.P. badge to Joonmyun with a nod before disappearing into the bustling changing room.
Joonmyun stands in place for a while after that, listening to the pouring rain continuing to come down against his umbrella and running what Tao had said through his mind. You've helped me out a lot. I'm really thankful.
"Aww, shucks," he says to no one in particular. He turns on his heel and makes his way back across the damp green to the stands.
--
If you're a follower on tumblr, do drop a word here? You don't have to comment on the fic if you don't want to (though that would be appreciated haha ;;) I just want to connect some names!
So crayeol and I have this tumblr called --->EXO-HOGWARTS<---. Which is, yeah, a Harry Potter-verse AU for Exo and probably the craziest, geekiest thing ever. To get acquainted with it I suggest taking a look at the profiles first. Most are up! The only ones still in the works are Baekhyun, Chen, and Lay.
Because we are cray, there is still a ton of story I have yet to touch on -- but this post is all the fic so far! The first fic-thing I ever posted there is actually "a bird's eye view of hindsight", but I'm not gonna copy pasta it here because it was really hastily written and I don't want it to be the first ficlet in this post XD...also didn't want to scare everyone away with the characterization of Luhan and Xiu Min. Sob I only watched like three interviews at the time.
ANYWAYS. All the titles link to the fic post on tumblr. And credit for all the drawings in this post goes to crayeol/hism
>>>How to Potion with Kris and Luhan
(2012; Kris and Luhan are both fifth years)
"Oh, bollocks, bollocks," Luhan panics when their sleeping draft starts to turn a shade too puce.
"I'm turning down the fire." Kris says as he retrieves his wand from his robes.
"No, don't. I know it has to stew some more." Luhan bites his lip. "I think it darkened because we didn't crush the beetle finely enough..."
Kris arches an eyebrow. "So are you saying it's my bad?"
"No, I'm not..."
Their attention is drawn back to the cauldron when a large bubble pops and the potion sighs. They both stare at the concoction for a long beat.
"You know," Kris starts, looking thoughtful, "We can still get a passing grade if it works." He pauses pointedly, because obviously their potion doesn't work and probably never will. "And since I tested the our botched herbicide last time..."
"Oh, come off it," Luhan scoffs. "That would have worked better if you hadn't been a complete sodding idiot."
During their last lesson, the students had grouped into pairs to brew an omniherbicide. An effective brew could stop the effects of any herb and would be useful against poisoning from unknown plants. To test the potions they brewed, their professor observed as one member from each pair drank a tea containing an herb that tickled the insides of the recipient mercilessly. If their herbicide was any good, drinking it would stop the overwhelming tickling sensation and the recipient would usually stop laughing instantly and look a bit sick.
Everyone in their class who drank the tickling herb tea immediately dropped to the ground laughing and begging for the antidote. However, when the herbal tea was administered to Kris, nothing happened.
The class watched on in silence. Luhan looked at him in disbelief.
"Do you feel anything?" The professor asked.
Kris actually felt a pretty severe urge to burst out laughing, so he nodded.
The professor frowned at the blue and white porcelain tea pot containing the herbs and, to Kris's horror, poured him another dose before he could protest.
Luhan was still gaping in disbelief when Kris stepped up and forced himself to down the second cup. But Kris wasn't sure if it was in admiration or if Luhan just thought he was a complete idiot. This notion was interrupted when Kris felt the second dose as an excruciating pain gripping his sides and trying to shake the laughter out of him.
"Maybe it gets weaker when it cools..." But before their bewildered potions professor could give him even more, Kris barked out a terrifying laugh, startling the class.
Luhan mouthed laugh more and made a gesture with his hands as though urging Kris to continue.
Kris felt like the urge to laugh could have opened his ribcage. "Ha." he said, without detectable emotion.
Luhan started to gesture more wildly. LAUGH MORE. He started to mimic laughing in a panic, as though hoping Kris would learn by example, but looked mostly like a maniac.
Kris let out a chuckle that sounded nothing like a chuckle.
Luhan stared on helplessly as Kris remained stubbornly resistant to showing mirth, and face palmed when their potions professor stepped forward with another cup, and Kris actually drank it.
Kris folded over in his chair for a while then, before finally letting out a terrifying, hollow...sound.
Mainly to prevent the horror from happening again, the professor finally said, "You may now take the herbicide, or if you cannot, your partner may help you."
Kris snatched up the vial containing their herbicide and downed it. Luhan tried to breathe normally as the professor waited for the potion to react, and as Kris fought to keep a straight face -- which looked mostly constipated and made Luhan realize for the briefest of moments that surely even the suave Slytherin prefect must have painful bowels once in a while but what was this train of thought it should be stopped.
All that mattered was that Kris's acting was convincing enough to earn them a passing grade, and compensated for whatever that idiotic showdown with the tickling herb was.
As soon as they were dismissed, Kris and Luhan rushed to the hospital wing, which happened to be the furthest point in the castle from their potions classroom in the dungeons. All the while, Kris's anguished laughter filled the halls.
Shuddering at the memory, Kris shoots Luhan a glare. "Who are you calling an idiot? It would have been just fine if someone remembered to turn the fire off instead of doing their Charms homework..."
"I was not doing my Charms homework," Luhan objects. "I was looking through Sehun's Charms essay before our tutoring session. You know, the kid you asked me to tutor? Even though you're in the same house and all?"
"Don't change the subject." Kris sighs, "You were still in charge of the fire." And before Luhan could bring up anything else, he adds, "You're better at Charms anyway."
"Why couldn't you have just laughed like a normal person?" Luhan presses on, not to be flattered.
"Are you really asking me this, right now?"
"...Okay, I'll drink our sleeping draught." Luhan concedes, probably because Kris had looked ready to whack him in the face with the burning cauldron between them. "And if it doesn't knock me out I'll just keel over and pretend to be asleep. What's the worst that could happen anyway? Besides dying."
"Well..." Kris says thoughtfully, his eyes lighting up in a slightly terrifying way. "Part of the test is trying to wake you up."
Luhan lets the words sink in. Then he groans.
"I think I'll put my sock over your face."
Luhan makes a face in disgust, and groans. Again.
Kris hmmphs, "I resent that." He looks to the front of the class room, at a jar sitting on the teacher's desk. "Actually, I think I'll ask the professor if I may borrow that biting fairy and release it in your trousers."
Flinching, Luhan groans for a third time. "Sweet Merlin on a maypole, what have I done to deserve this." He dumps a vial of something into the cauldron. Its contents flash white for a second before becoming worryingly iridescent.
"...Right then," Luhan starts after a while in a distant voice. "Do you have any tips on how to remain completely still under physical torture?"
"Besides nerves of steel?"
"Yeah."
"And besides previous experience?"
"Yeah, besides -- wait, what?"
Kris smirks. "If you want you can borrow my sock."
Luhan stirs the potion, looking as though he could see hell in the cauldron. "I hope this kills me."
>>>How to Potion with D.O. and Tao
(2016; D.O. and Tao are both in their sixth year.)
hism
Kyungsoo spreads a fresh sheet of parchment before him and licks his thumb and forefinger to smooth a stray downy barb on his quill. Sitting at his desk in potions, he knows exactly what their assignment will be that day. He even mouths it along with the professor.
"In observance of Saint Valentine's day we will be brewing Amortentia in class. The strongest love potion in the world." Their professor pauses to allow the giggling to subside. Kyungsoo notices that Tao, looking more preoccupied than usual, suddenly perks up. "Do not be mistaken," their professor continues, "It is a powerful potion which can easily go wrong under an unskilled hand. It's good practice for your N.E.W.T.S next year."
Kyungsoo takes careful notes, as always, when the class is given instruction before brewing. But he notices that Tao is taking notes more attentively than usual.
It may already be common knowledge that Huang Zitao, tall and imposing genius seeker extraordinaire, is a hopeless romantic. Tao, for instance, actually takes Divination seriously. He shows up to class with dream accounts twice as long as the required length, he's able to spend three hours looking into the senseless fog of a crystal ball, and he answers the professor's questions in such a way that could only imply he knew their text by heart. He also has a subscription to Witch Weekly for their 'accurate and detailed horoscopes.' Tao's exact words.
Despite all he already knows, however, Kyungsoo will always find out more. He had always been a magnet for Too Much Information. It's a real problem he recognizes in his life.
About halfway into the potion, Kyungsoo goes to the class stock to choose a rose stem, as the ingredients called for thorns from a rose bush that blossomed under a full moon.
He returns to find Tao about to chop up a pickled doxy.
"Here," Kyungsoo says, handing the thorny rose stem to Tao. "I know the teacher didn't go over this, but you should cut humanoid creatures anterior side up." Kyungsoo turns the human shaped ingredient face up and begins to slice it.
Tao winces. "I didn't want to see its face." He turns the rose stem over in his gloved hand and begins to cut the thorns off. "I didn't think it mattered anyway. How do you know?"
"Well," Kyungsoo says without looking up, "Last month we had to read that essay about how to cut different materials, remember?"
"Oh." Kyungsoo could hear Tao's eyes rolling. "Right."
Kyungsoo then angles the cutting board above their cauldron and whisks the pieces of fairy into the potion with a clean swipe of his knife. "I've noticed our professor purposely omits small things like this to see who did their reading."
The potion starts to bubble, according to plan. And when it turns the correct shade of scarlet -- Tao gasps, as if in realization. "So that's...that's why it didn't work..."
Actually, this might be more of a confirmation than new information. Kyungsoo looks up from the potion.
"Hey, you don't have to look so surprised," Tao mumbles, looking slightly embarrassed.
Kyungsoo inhales to respond, but didn't know what to say. That his face is just stuck this way? His expression must have shown that he was becoming increasingly more mystified at how to respond because Tao nudges him and says, "Hey, you're staring."
"I expect a few of you are out of the running now," they hear the professor say above the din. A good half of the class groans in response. Tao and Kyungsoo exchange something of a triumphant smile. "Those of you who are still on track may come up for an Ashwinder's egg when you need it."
Kyungsoo looks at the jar of ivory white eggs floating in the jade solution, and he debates going up now to get his pick of a nice egg. But he also knows that it'll lose its potency if he takes it from the jar too soon. His mind switches back to a thought he had earlier and instead he blurts out: "Who..."
Tao shoots him a dark look, daring him to finish that question.
"No, I mean. Why, I guess," Kyungsoo continues, "Why would you need to brew a love potion? You have a fanclub. Who wouldn't want to go out with you?"
Tao makes a small noise that sounded equal parts like a laugh and a sob.
"...Sorry." Kyungsoo glances away in a bit of a panic. "I shouldn't ask stuff like that."
"Why are you assuming I brewed Amortentia to get someone to fall in love with me, anyway?"
Because that was obviously what Tao had intended to do. But Kyungsoo didn't know what to say. After a beat of deadpan staring at their potion, he shrugs and mutters, "Sorry."
They add the final ingredient, a sprig of peppermint, near the end of the lesson. Tao stirs their potion clockwise four times and Kyungsoo waves his wand over the cauldron.
Wispy fumes rise from the cauldron in spirals and Kyungsoo does a thumbs up at Tao. "We've got our potion."
Tao sniffs warily at the fumes wafting toward him, and begins to move closer to the cauldron.
"What do you smell?" Kyungsoo asks.
"I smell, hmm," Tao sniffs the brew again, a look of awe on his face. "It smells like morning on the Quidditch Pitch, high up and clear. And dark chocolate cake...and...and dragon leather..."
"How are we going to test our potions, professor?" asks one of the Ravenclaw girls sitting at the back of the room, giggling. Her partner, also giggling very hard, hits her lightly.
"Well," the professor starts in a loud voice that indicated the whole class should listen, "Who can tell me how to recognize correctly brewed Amortentia?" He glances around the class and calls on Kyungsoo.
"You can tell if it's correct by its mother-of-pearl sheen and spiral fumes, professor. You can also tell by smelling it. Amortentia is a mixture of what you find most attractive, and has a different aroma to everyone who smells it."
Hearing this, Tao's face turns bright red. Haven't you at least read up on its properties if you've tried to brew it before? Kyungsoo thinks, perplexed.
"Excellent, Mr. Do. Five points to Ravenclaw."
"Ooh, what do you smell, professor?" The same girl asks cheekily.
"Well, it doesn't match up with what I get from yours, I'm afraid."
When their professor reaches Kyungsoo and Tao, he hovers over their cauldron and inhales once more. "What a potent brew," their professor exclaims, but mostly directing the praise to Kyungsoo. "Truly wonderful. The tiniest of drops could induce infatuation like the world has never seen." He takes an empty vial from his sleeve and fills it with their potion for grading. Then, with a wave of his wand, the professor empties the contents of the cauldron. Kyungsoo hears Tao gasp.
"You weren't thinking of taking some out, were you?" Kyungsoo asks Tao with a laugh when the professor has moved on to the next table.
"No, I wasn't." Tao sighs, though he looks like he'd just been denied heaven or some equivalent of it.
"We just do this for practice. Using a love potion isn't right, anyway --"
"If you've had to think about whether or not it's right," Tao starts hotly, looking down, "Then you've never been in love."
Kyungsoo falls silent. After a while, he realizes he's staring.
>>>Badgering I.
(2012; Suho is a 4th year and Tao is a 2nd year)
The common room cleared out within an hour. It's a new record as far as Joonmyun can recall. He lingers behind to pick up the black and yellow streamers strewn across the room and maybe put away some of the untouched butterbeer and treacle tart still on the table.
The year before had seen the Hufflepuff common room bursting at the seams in celebration after every Quidditch match. The common room would be decorated the day before in anticipation of victory, and the merriment after that lasted well into the night. The Hufflepuffs would probably never admit it, but the lukewarm at-least-we-played-our-hardest celebrations that Joonmyun remembers from his first and second year were markedly less enthusiastic.
This was because last year, when Joonmyun was a third year, Zitao Huang had become a first year and singlehandedly lead Hufflepuff into an age of hope. He became the pride of the house -- the youngest player to make the Hufflepuff house team in a century and a flying prodigy to boot. Sure first years weren't allowed to own broomsticks, but the headmistress sympathized.
At the moment, Tao is nowhere to be seen.
Joonmyun knows the house elves could clean up the streamers. Ideally, he'd bump into one right now and they could clean up the common room together. He'd really like to meet one, if only to give his thanks, but unfortunately he doesn't know how to go about finding the house elves that clean the Hufflepuff common room. So he figures straightening things up a bit once in a while is as good an indicator for appreciation as anything. It's just as well, since the house elves would be up to their cute batty ears cleaning up after the festivities he's sure the Gryffindors are having right now.
He sits at the table and decides to help himself to some treacle tart. He hears the soft padding of a small animal and sees a black cat walking toward the wall on the other side of the common room. As if on cue, Joonmyun hears the barrels at the entrance moving to let someone in.
Tao, broom slung over his hunched shoulders, comes through the entrance quietly. His cat nuzzles his ankles and Tao reaches down to scoop it into his arms.
The first game of the year took place that afternoon between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. It was not a normal game, but the first battle between a defending champion and a prodigious newcomer. Gryffindor had gained an exceptionally talented first year named Jongin Kim and whether or not he was better than Tao fed an intense hype that preceded the game weeks in advance. Whenever any of the Hufflepuff players went to the field during Gryffindor practice sessions to investigate, there would regularly be other curious students watching from the bleachers. The general consensus seemed to be that Gryffindor's new seeker flew very well, but since Tao had already been an exception there's no way Gryffindor gained a genius first year seeker the year right after Hufflepuff did. Surely the Gryffindors are trying to one-up the Hufflepuffs because they're used to having the lion's share of the glory circulating Hogwarts at any given moment.
The brisk October day made every cheer more breathtaking than usual, and the outcome of the match culminated over a splendidly golden sunset. Not that anyone paid attention to the sunset. With the young seekers of both houses out of sight -- literally so high up that nobody could make out their actions -- a silence so dense fell upon the stadium that one could hear the wild, scratchy wind gusting through the Forbidden Forest. But nobody paid attention to that either. Even the team members of both houses stopped playing and turned their faces to the sky, waiting for a sign from above.
Then, from out of the clouds, a red figure slowly descended. Jongin was shivering like mad, frost clouding the lenses of his goggles. The entire school had stalled its breath as Jongin shakily rose a fist into the air. The last light of the setting sun caught his clenched fist -- which gave off a golden gleam. It's all Joonmyun can remember before the Gryffindor team blurred from their respective places on the field to gather around him. The stadium, as if to compensate for the extreme silence only moments prior, erupted with a ground shaking noise in the dusk.
The very depressing party in the Hufflepuff common room afterwards was made all the more awkward with Tao's absence. Joonmyun had asked the Hufflepuff captain, who had gone into the air after the game to look for Tao, if she knew of his whereabouts. She had replied that when she tried to chase after Tao, he flew in the opposite direction. He just needed some time alone. Joonmyun had nodded and looked outside then. Night had already fallen and he imagined Tao still by himself, high in the dark sky and watching the lights in the castle from afar.
Now, seated at the table and eating treacle tart with Tao in front of him, Joonmyun checks his watch. It is a little past midnight. He looks up with a ready smile, "Good game today, Tao!"
When Tao doesn't spare him a glance, Joonmyun wracks his brains for something he could say. Fortuitously, a log crackles invitingly in the fire and Tao stops his walk toward his dormitory and stands still, seemingly to debate whether or not he wants to rest by the warm fire or to go change into dry clothes and hide in his bed.
"Here, why don't we..." Joonmyun points his wand in Tao's direction and murmurs a drying spell. Alarmed that Tao's clothes had suddenly began to steam, Tao's cat leaps out of his arms and hurries to curl up by the fireplace. Tao whips around with a glare sharp enough to make Joonmyun's stomach turn ice cold, breaking his concentration and stalling the drying charm.
But Joonmyun knows that Tao is a nice kid, a second year who had been painfully shy his first year until he started getting attention as a Quidditch player. He's just in a very rough spot. Possibly the roughest he's ever known.
Understanding this much, Joonmyun smiles at Tao and motions toward the plushy sofa next to the fireplace.
Tao looks at Joonmyun for a bit, seemingly trying to guess if he might regret sitting next to the fire with the most talkative person he knows when he just wants to be left alone.
Joonmyun puts up two hands in mock resignation and turns his attention back to his pie.
Getting the message, Tao then makes his way to the sofa and sinks onto the cushy seat with a small groan. He gingerly lifts his legs, one after the other, onto the rest of the sofa and raises his hands to unwind his long scarf. It's been a few hours after the match and he had already changed out of his Quidditch gear. His muscles are likely beginning to feel sore. The pain would come down full force when Tao wakes up tomorrow, but Tao is used to that. He's used to a lot of things when it comes to Quidditch. He's just not used to losing.
The glow of the fire leaps across Tao's face and he closes his eyes. He still looks chilled to the bone. His hair is damp from the ice and moisture that had no doubt collected on his body up in the clouds. His eyes are swollen and the rest of his face, particularly his nose and lips, look chapped and wind-bitten red.
Joonmyun watches Tao rest by the fire with his eyes closed for so long that he wonders if Tao had fallen asleep. But then the black cat leaps onto Tao's lap and Tao winces before bringing up a lazy hand to stroke it.
Since Joonmyun doesn't think he could keep his word and stay silent, he decides to leave the common room and let Tao have time to himself. He cuts the remainder of the treacle tart into three large slices and casts a charm to keep them warm. Then he puts two bottles of butterbeer on either side of the dish. On a scrap piece of parchment he writes: There's more in the pantry. :-)
He steps back from the setup and looks at it, then he raises his eyes to check on Tao. Joonmyun had always believed that discussion can solve just about everything. But he is learning that sometimes a moment calls for silence.
He doesn't think this moment is one of those moments, however. "Tao, if you have anything you want to talk ab --"
Tao cuts him off with a groan. "Are you serious." Joonmyun watches, suddenly feeling anxious, as Tao opens his eyes and sits up.
"Let's --"
Shooting Joonmyun an irritated look, Tao grabs his cat and cradles it against his chest with more force than usual. "Come on, Dark'ness," He mutters as he stalks to his dormitory.
In a panic, Joonmyun calls out, "I'll be here!" To which he's answered with the sound of a door thudding closed.
Once again, he's alone in the Hufflepuff common room. "Ahh..." Joonmyun says in a long, anguished breath as he turns slowly on his heel. He looks at the food on the table and wonders if house elves like butterbeer and treacle tart.
>>Badgering II.
(2013; same school year)
From his vantage point on the bridge leading to the Astronomy Tower, Joonmyun regards the Quidditch Pitch with a passing amazement at how different it could seem after a game. Even when the banners and streamers littered over the stands have been cleared, the empty Quidditch Pitch post-game is not the same as it is pre-game. If the field before is an inhale, then the field afterwards is the end of an exhale.
Tao is standing next to him and also looking out at the empty Quidditch pitch, though Joonmyun doesn't know what's going through Tao's mind.
Hufflepuff played Ravenclaw on an overcast day in mid-February. Set against the paper white sky, blue and yellow had circled this pitch only an hour before and the bleachers had been overflowing with spectators. Now everyone has cleared the field, hurrying back to the warmth of the castle.
The match itself had lasted only about ten minutes. It might not have ended quickly enough, as the sportscaster kept using words such as dethrone and fallen and speaking at length about Hufflepuff's loss against Gryffindor earlier that school year. Joonmyun could understand what might make the sportscaster (a Ravenclaw) so keen to rub it in, as Hufflepuff dominated every other house last year, but it was objectively very unprofessional and not even entertaining. He felt like he could have done a better job.
Tao himself had looked completely uninterested in the game. He seemed spaced out and hovered higher than the other players, seemingly to remove himself from the game and watch it pass before him from above. The snitch practically threw itself at the Ravenclaw seeker after ten minutes, as though it felt bored.
"The captain really wanted to talk to you afterwards," Joonmyun brings up. "She even asked me if I'd know where to find you."
"Why didn't you tell her?" Tao mumbles irritably. The chilly air makes their breath show up white before them.
"I felt that if you wanted to talk to her, you'd have stayed."
Tao shrugs, his eyes seemed to be fixed on something beyond the field. "She's probably going to replace me."
Joonmyun gasps, shocked at how indifferently Tao said this. Tao is only a second year. A year ago he had been a cute and chipper little thing on the Quidditch field -- constantly alert and scanning the premises, drowning in his signature long scarf until it whipped out behind him like a Hufflepuff banner as he gave chase to the snitch.
"You'll get to try out again this year." Tao adds, laughing a little.
Joonmyun's gut feels the sting of the words a bit, but he just smiles in response. He knows Tao didn't say that to hurt him. It's true that Joonmyun had tried out for the house team every year, without avail, since his second year, but so did many other hopefuls.
"I'm positive the captain doesn't want to replace you." Joonmyun finally manages. "Just as long as you don't want to be replaced."
Tao just shrugs vaguely, again. "I can't stop replaying that match in my head."
Joonmyun feels a chill, the hairs on his arms standing up. "What happened?" he asks, trying to balance his tone between concern and curiosity. No one saw the play that occurred up in the clouds between Tao and Jongin.
Tao doesn't roll his eyes up to access the memory, as he usually does when trying to recall something. He's obviously thought about this extensively and, instead, he closes his eyes.
Jongin had been hounded for a play by play after the match, as most people had the sense not to ask Tao, but accounts varied so much that everyone came to realize they may never know. Joonmyun's personal favorite account involved the two seekers flying as far as Hogsmeade and running into a large caravan of flying travelers. Supposedly the snitch and the two boys hurtling toward them at break neck speed caused them to lose their concentration and reveal that they had been trying to smuggle a dragon by camouflaging it with a disillusionment charm. Joonmyun recalls it whenever he misplaces his pet chameleon.
He watches Tao collect his thoughts for what seems like a long time. Joonmyun knows that Tao couldn't possibly have fallen asleep here, unless he could sleep while standing up...and even if he could it was pretty rude to fall asleep right now. He begins to consider patting Tao's face when Tao starts to speak:
"We were both flying straight up, I was a little ahead of him. Then the snitch changed direction and we both start flying as fast as we could to the right -- but then Jongin sudden spun and flew underneath me, upside down, like a reflection." Tao furrows his eyebrows, as if he found the memory disturbing. "We flew like this for a long time. He had taken his eyes off the snitch to mirror my moves. It's like he knew he would be on the right track as long as he followed me. So I thought of doing a feint." Tao heaves a heavy sigh here, fogging the cold air white, and Joonmyun knows that it all went wrong at this point.
Tao doesn't like being marked, which is unfortunate because the seeking strategies of the other house teams have all basically been 'mark Tao, follow him closely.' Jongin had been the first seeker to actually try to seek the snitch himself. Joonmyun thinks it's odd that Jongin would choose the middle of a high speed chase to mark Tao when they both knew where the snitch was. The only explanation would be that he was trying to get under Tao's skin, and it had worked.
Tao opens his eyes then, facing the empty Quidditch pitch and the emptier sky. He looks like he's at a loss for words, so Joonmyun tries, "And when you were steering off course, Jongin got ahead."
Tao nods. He then leans his elbows on the railing of the bridge and buries his hands into his hair. "It's like he knew how to distract me."
Joonmyun looks away from the field and at the carved arch above them. After a beat he starts, "You feel that way because he did know how to distract you. He knew exactly what to do. I bet my entire Gringotts account that he knew all about you before the match even started, your strong points and your weak points." He glances at Tao, who shoots him a confused look, so he elaborates, "The Gryffindor team didn't just sit there twiddling their thumbs while you were playing your other matches last year! Jongin is a great flyer, but they've definitely drilled him on everything about you."
Tao's expression goes from wonder to helplessness.
"...What now," Tao says flatly.
"We just need to play to Jongin's disadvantages." When Tao looks a bit discomfited at the idea, Joonmyun adds, "It's called playing smart. I'm sure your captain does this for your other teammates. She just never bothered with you because, well, you're legitimately a genius. You know that, right?" Joonmyun beams, nudging Tao until Tao looks down with an embarrassed smile. "This would make your next match more even anyways, if both of you are aware of the other's weak points."
"But does Jongin even have any," Tao asks, looking resigned again.
"Gryffindor will play Slytherin in March and we'll find something. I have a few theories already that need confirmation..."
Tao turns his head to face Joonmyun at this point, still leaning on his elbows. "I don't get you."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you're really going to help me? Are you just nice, or..."
Joonmyun smiles, and claps a hand on Tao's shoulder. "If you didn't close yourself off after the last game, you'd know that we are all still rooting for you! I know some people have said some bad things, but the only problem here is that you are letting this get you down. Everyone remembers how you played last year. And that was some awesome flying between you and Jongin -- people still talk about how exciting that game was! You played hard and impressed everyone. That's what should matter."
Tao remains silent, he looks up the archway above them. After a bit he asks, "Aren't you going to tell me I'm still a winner?"
"Exactly! You're still a winner!"
"No, don't," Tao puts his face in his palms. "I was just kidding."
"Sorry, but you are a winner." Joonmyun laughs, and slings his arm around Tao's shoulders. "I know you can't take this lying down either, because I found you at the Astronomy Tower, like you needed confirmation that today was just not your day."
"Did you stalk me?"
"No! I simply know that you stargaze when you have bad days."
"That's...kind of creepy..."
"It's called caring. You don't make it hard to guess, either." And before Tao and can say anything to that, Joonmyun asks, "You love Quidditch right? Come on it's not a trick question."
"...yeah."
"What is 'yeah?' Come on!"
"Yeah, I love Quidditch." Tao mutters obediently.
"Good!" Joonmyun grins, "That's the root of it. The most important thing is that you love, and if you love Quidditch then that's all you have to know. So let's love."
Tao nods, looking at Joonmyun as if he really wanted to leave it at that, and maybe Joonmyun would be waving goodbye now and hopping on a magic carpet.
"No. Say it with me." Joonmyun insists, "Let's love!"
"What?" Tao splutters, "Why--"
"Let's love!"
Tao glances around to see if there would be anyone within earshot. "Let's love..."
Joonmyun looks Tao squarely in the eye. "LET'S. LOVE." He says it with such weight that if someone had stumbled upon the scene at that moment they might be lead to believe the fate of the world depended on Tao's decision to love.
Though there's nobody present to hear, Tao squeezes his eyes shut in embarrassment, as if he thought he could hide what would be happening next from himself. "LET'S LOVE!"
"GOOD!" Joonmyun replies loudly, with a large, satisfied beam aimed at Tao. "LET'S --"
As if speaking for Tao, a gust of wind blows the end of Tao's scarf into Joonmyun's smiling face.
>Badgering III.
Hufflepuff's final game of the year is against Slytherin and takes place on a rainy day at the end of April.
Joonmyun, holding a large yellow umbrella, is standing at the edge of the muddy green field and waiting for Tao. It's about twenty minutes till the match starts and members of the Hufflepuff and Slytherin teams are starting to head to the Quidditch pitch to get ready.
"What are you doing here?" Joonmyun hears a voice jeer behind him. A different voice next to it laughs stupidly.
He turns around and sees two of the Slytherin chasers leering at him.
"Oh, just waiting for a friend." Joonmyun smiles from underneath the umbrella.
The boy he had heard laugh first scoffs. "Are you sure you're alright in the head? Who'd want to be friends with you? That's even more delusional than trying out for the house team."
Before Joonmyun could decide that was uncalled for, he hears someone behind him ask, "Is there a problem here?"
Perking up at the familiar voice, Joonmyun turns around and sees Tao carrying his broom and his Quidditch bag.
"Tao! I just wanted to wish you good luck before the match and show you something --"
"Oh, I'm not worried," Tao smirks, looking at the two chasers. "It's just Slytherin."
Joonmyun gasps and covers his mouth, widening his eyes at Tao as if to say oh, you shouldn't say that! But he is smiling too broadly to be taken seriously.
The two chasers make a face back at Tao, but are otherwise unable to say anything to him.
When they are left alone, Joonmyun raises his umbrella to cover the both of them.
"What is it you wanted to show me?" Tao asks, as they slosh through the field to the changing rooms.
Joonmyun beams and proudly shows off a badge pinned to his chest.
Tao leans in to look at the badge. "...Derp?" He squints and tilts his head in slight confusion, looking as though he's hoping he read that wrong. Or that maybe it'll change if he squints hard enough.
"D. E. R. P." Joonmyun corrects him. "Determined Emotional Rescue Pals! I have one for you too!"
"Determined Emotional Rescue Pals." Tao repeats slowly.
"Here!" Joonmyun presents Tao with another badge identical to the one on his chest.
Tao looks at it the way a parent might look at their toddler's artistic attempts. But he takes the badge and looks for a spot on his robes he can pin it to. He also pulls out the end of his scarf to position it there, looking at it before deciding to pin it on his shirt.
"When did you get that scarf anyway?" Joonmyun decides to ask. "I remember you didn't always have it."
Tao doesn't answer right away, he looks like he trying to decide if he remembers or not. "Right before my second match last year."
"Ah, I see! You bought it yourself?"
"How else could I have gotten it?" Tao asks with a laugh.
"Well," Joonmyun mutters, also laughing to himself, "I guess I thought someone could have given it to you."
Tao nods, as if to say fair enough, and shrugs.
After about two steps of silence, Joonmyun says, "I notice you wear it all the time."
"So...?"
"Is it something like a good luck charm?"
Tao now turns to Joonmyun with a searching look in his eyes, like he could read his mind if only he looked hard enough. And Joonmyun remembers how a look from Tao could get even those sixth and seventh year Slytherin chasers to shut up.
When Tao doesn't say anything, Joonmyun sighs, "I was just hoping maybe you'd pin it to your scarf...but that was just a thought, I don't mind at all if you prefer one over the other..."
Tao squints at Joonmyun in confusion before widening his eyes with an, "Oh." Then he laughs with a sigh of relief -- of which Joonmyun isn't quite sure what to think. "That's why you're asking."
"Er," Joonmyun tries, with a slightly confused smile, "What did you think I was asking?"
"I forgot." Tao replies, the hand holding his broom over his shoulder opens just enough to wave off the subject dismissively.
Joonmyun doesn't believe him, but he has a more pressing matter on his mind. He could ask about Tao's scarf later.
After too long a stretch of silence, filled only with rain pattering on his umbrella and mud sloshing underfoot and the indistinct sounds of people entering the Quidditch pitch, Joonmyun says brightly, "I'll be wearing my D.E.R.P. badge at all times! You should too! And if anyone asks you should tell them about our club manifesto, which I'll have to show you later, and invite them to join us!"
"Club manifesto?!" Tao looks at Joonmyun, eyes still reeling at this new information. "Wait...so this is actually a club? With members?"
Joonmyun decides to ignore the surprised tone in which Tao said members. "Well, so far the only ones on the official roster are you and I, but if we spread the word then we'll have more in no time! The badges we have now are just prototypes. I'm still experimenting with the design."
"Oh." Tao says. Without intonation.
"I plan to make about two hundred more by the end of this week," Joonmyun continues, "Wanna help me?"
Tao blanches at 'two hundred more.' He then says very carefully, "You don't think two hundred is a bit much...?"
"Didn't talking about your problems help you out a lot?"
"Well, yeah, but..." Tao trails off, and looks at Joonmyun as if he had to tell him a piece of particularly bad news.
"...I'm leaving," Joonmyun sighs.
"No! I mean yes! It helped...I didn't mean...I just...derp, I mean D.E.R.P...being a club just took me by...surprise." Tao stammers, flushing. And Joonmyun, again, remembers how intimidating this second year could be, but also how much of an adorable underclassman he still is. "You've helped me out a lot," Tao then admits. "I'm really thankful..."
Joonmyun beams and claps Tao on the back, "No, I mean I should get to the stands by now, I'm going to sportscast this match."
"Oh...oh!" Tao laughs to himself, as though imagining the sight. "That's wonderful!"
"Yeah, I'm really excited about it," Joonmyun tries to say in an upbeat voice when a knot of tension suddenly sets in his stomach at the thought. He imagines himself high up in the box, freezing up and forgetting what a broomstick is, is it something you can eat?
"Congratulations on getting the post!" Tao says animatedly, snapping Joonmyun from his reverie.
"Oh, thank you..." Joonmyun laughs uneasily, "It's really nothing to congratulate me about...."
"It's a huge deal! They hardly bother changing the sportscasters, and tons of people are interested in doing it." Tao pauses, then adds hastily, "But don't be nervous, you already got the job so you'll be brilliant. I look forward to it." He beams at Joonmyun excitedly, and so brightly that Joonmyun could hardly believe it's directed at him.
"Not as much as I'm looking forward to a Hufflepuff victory." Joonmyun says when they reach the entrance of the changing room, patting Tao's back as the boy makes his way through the canvas flaps. "Play hard and remember we are one, we are D.E.R.P!"
Tao pulls on his shirt to present his D.E.R.P. badge to Joonmyun with a nod before disappearing into the bustling changing room.
Joonmyun stands in place for a while after that, listening to the pouring rain continuing to come down against his umbrella and running what Tao had said through his mind. You've helped me out a lot. I'm really thankful.
"Aww, shucks," he says to no one in particular. He turns on his heel and makes his way back across the damp green to the stands.
--
If you're a follower on tumblr, do drop a word here? You don't have to comment on the fic if you don't want to (though that would be appreciated haha ;;) I just want to connect some names!