attention
►Recipient: berryboys
►Title: Attention
►Pairings: Suho/Kai, side!Yixing/Sehun
►Rating: PG
►Word Count: 2833
►Warnings: None
►Summary: Junmyeon is determined to find the leader of the dueling club.exo
Junmyeon is sitting in his Advanced Potions class when a glass bubble floats through the open door and hovers above his desk. It quivers for a moment, then breaks into shards all over his notes.
"Head Boy Kim Junmyeon, please report to the third floor east wing," emanates a voice from the remains of the bubble. Junmyeon recognizes it to be the headmaster's voice. His brow furrows.
Instantly, the other students in the class begin to whisper among themselves.
Junmyeon looks up at the Potions instructor, who sighs and rolls his shoulders. The man looks away. "I suppose you can go," he drawls, clearly annoyed that he wasn't summoned by the headmaster as well.
Another bubble whizzes into the room and slams into the chalkboard, pieces falling into the instructor's cauldron. The potion instantly bubbles up and emits a noxious brown cloud of smoke. All the students begin to cough.
"Professor Lee, please report to the third floor east wing," the headmaster says again, his voice strangely tinny due to the effects of the bubble.
The Potions instructor tries to hide his relief. "It looks like class is summarily dismissed--" he begins to say, but he finds himself speaking to an empty classroom.
Junmyeon takes the shortcut behind the tapestry of the one-eyed witch on the second floor and the other by the statue of Dandelion the Devious near the dungeons. He wants to get to the third floor before the other students do.
But there’s already a crowd clustering around the entrance to the wing. He shoves his way through, angling his badge ostentatiously. The other students grumble, but let him through.
Seohyun is standing behind the other professors. They seem to be peering into an old empty classroom. “What’s going on?” he whispers to the Head Girl, trying in vain to fix his tie.
“There appears, Mr. Kim,” the headmaster suddenly says, fixing his blue eyes on Junmyeon who gulps, “that a dueling club has been formed at Hogwarts.”
He lifts his arm to gesture into the classroom. Junmyeon steps closer.
The desks, the chalkboard, the windows have all been caught in a thin layer of ice. In the middle stands a student, completely immobilized - frozen into place, eyes darting about in horror. His eyes are covered by a thin black silk mask.
“Well, don’t just stand there,” the infirmary nurse snaps at the other teachers, who look hesitant. “We need to get that student out of there before he loses his fingers to frostbite.”
The teachers all push about near the door, pretending to go out onto the ice but not quite, none of them wanting to be the first. His hapless Potions instructor is shoved out at last, paling as he finds himself on the slippery surface.
It’s only a few moments before the greasy old man falls on his posterior. Junmyeon fights a smile.
“It’s quite serious,” the headmaster says. “There’s been a lot of broken windows and furniture recently. We should have noticed sooner.”
Seohyun nods her head gravely. “Oh, yes, sir.” Junmyeon frowns. He thinks he recognizes the boy stuck in the ice; he’d know those large ears like a house elf’s anywhere. Park Chanyeol, a sixth year.
“Almost as serious as mismatched socks in your underwear drawer,” the headmaster says, directly to Junmyeon, and drifts away. Junmyeon blinks, and he is gone.
Seohyun looks equally confused, but also rather thankful. “I think this is your problem now,” she translates for their absent-minded headmaster. She grins.
Junmyeon feels a headache coming on.
Sehun is scowling at the table when Jongin comes to breakfast in the morning. “What’s wrong?” he asks, because he’s a good friend. But in all honesty, he doesn’t really care. There’s always something upsetting Sehun.
“Yixing said he likes someone with a sense of humor!” Sehun whispers, quite loudly. Jongin is sure that they heard him in the dungeons.
“So?” he says, spreading some butter on a crumpet.
“So?” Sehun says, gesturing down at himself.
Jongin wishes that Yixing, the current object of Sehun’s affection, would intimate that he likes someone with high self-esteem, so that Sehun would stop putting himself down and going to such extremes to earn Yixing’s attention.
“How will I become funny?” Sehun wails. Jongin sighs.
There’s a flash of yellow at the door. Jongin watches as Junmyeon enters the Great Hall, rubbing at his forehead tiredly.
“Did you hear about the classroom?” Sehun laughs, noticing what Jongin is staring at. “Chanyeol is so stupid sometimes.”
Jongin hums noncommittally.
He comes over to their table, nodding to Sehun first. Jongin knows that Junmyeon thinks himself in Sehun’s debt, since Sehun taught him all the shortcuts and hidden places around the castle that have come to be helpful to the Head Boy. “Jongin,” he says, “I don’t think I can make our tutoring session today. I’m sorry.”
He walks off, slightly dazed and slips into the seat beside Seohyun. She fixes a plate for him, sheepish.
“He must be trying to figure out who’s in the dueling club,” Sehun says.
Jongin nods. Chanyeol is certainly dumb sometimes, but he doesn’t snitch. It must be difficult, then, for Junmyeon.
“Maybe that’s it!” Sehun says, slamming his fist down on the table. Jongin jumps, but Sehun scurries away.
Jongin wonders if he should be worried.
Junmyeon turns the corner, walking back from some late-night help with Transfigurations, to find water flooding the hallway.
He curses in annoyance. All of the students should be in their Houses now, since it’s so late, but clearly not. He hurries down the corridor, struggling with his robes not to slip.
A door at the far end bursts open, and a student stumbles backwards, ducking as a pale blue beam of light glances over him. “Close, but not quite,” he says.
He wears a dark mask, but Junmyeon thinks that maybe, he recognizes that smile.
“Stop!” he shouts. “Stop and stay where you are.”
The boy turns and sees him, instantly yelling to the occupants in the classroom to hurry and leave. A swarm of students break out of the classroom, running away from Junmyeon.
Most of them skid in the water as well. He surges forward, grabbing onto the sleeve of the first boy he saw. “Who are you? Did you do this?” he demands.
The lips twist humorously. The boy points at the ceiling above his head. “Pipe’s broken,” he says.
When Junmyeon turns to look, the boy pushes him with both hands and he falls on his knees. He struggles to get up, but the boy is already turning the corner of the hallway, pulling the mask off.
He’s clever. Junmyeon sighs. He’s probably spelling the water from his clothes as Junmyeon slogs through this water.
Junmyeon manages to upright, only for a few liters of water to burst from the pipe and drench him where he stands.
He casts his Patronus and watches it twist and leap as it runs to the caretaker’s office. He’s going to find that boy, clearly the leader of dueling club, even if it takes all his time.
Jongin stands in front of the entrance to Slytherin House. He spelled his robes dry but there’s a lingering clamminess that he thinks he can feel in his bones.
He asks a passing student to fetch Sehun, and waits, foot tapping sharply on the stones.
“What’s up?” Sehun asks. Jongin seizes his arm and pulls him to an alcove. “Ow, ow! What’s wrong?”
“Did you flood the second floor yesterday?” Jongin demands. “They think the dueling club did it!”
“Yeah,” Sehun sniffs. “I thought it was a good prank! Maybe Yixing would laugh?”
Jongin has to fight rolling his eyes. He’s pretty sure Yixing knows that Sehun likes him - he’s probably just messing with Sehun at this point, seeing how long it will take before Sehun finally confesses.
“But what do you care?” Sehun says. His eyes brighten. “Is it because of Junmyeon-”
Jongin shoves him away. Sehun doubles over laughing. “You’re infatuated,” he giggles. Jongin feels a blush creeping up his neck.
“Whatever,” he mumbles, stomping away.
But Sehun calls out, ruining his exit. “You’re part of the dueling club, aren’t you?” Jongin splutters, looking in both directions in case someone passing heard. “Relax,” Sehun says.
“Junmyeon almost caught us because of your prank,” Jongin hisses, his voice going embarrassingly high at the end.
Sehun studies him. “You don’t want Junmyeon to know you’re in the club, right?” Jongin looks away, and Sehun’s voice takes on an incredulous tone. “You’re the leader? And you think he’ll think less of you, if he knows.”
Sehun has always known him too well. Jongin waits, for whatever Sehun will say next, if he’ll tell on Jongin.
“You know a lot of spells then, right?” Sehun says cheerily, leaning into Jongin’s side.
“Yeah, kind of, what-?” Jongin replies, confused as Sehun pulls him away, farther from Slytherin.
“Teach me everything you know so I can impress Yixing,” Sehun says over his shoulder. Jongin groans, but follows dutifully.
Junmyeon is distracted. The nurse has confined Chanyeol to “bedrest” for the next week, but he’s still not talking. He tries to remember the features of the leader, the boy he saw - but he keeps blushing when he thinks of those lips.
“Junmyeon?” he hears, hesitantly. Jongin is practicing the motion for a charm, flicking his wand almost violently at the end. “Is this right?”
Jongin is a strange student, in that he never makes the same mistakes that others do. He has his own idiosyncrasies. And Junmyeon finds it difficult to just show Jongin, who learns more by feeling it, by movement.
He stands behind Jongin and curls his wand hand over Jongin’s, guiding him in the correct motion. “You have the first part right, but you want to gently flick and twist. Otherwise your feather will catch on fire.”
“Right,” Jongin says, face crumpled in a strange expression. Junmyeon chalks it up to a fierce concentration.
“Jongin?” They both look up to see the charms professor smiling at them, from underneath his sagging hat. “Junmyeon is tutoring you? I wasn’t aware that you needed the extra help.”
Jongin stutters. Junmyeon looks at him confused, even more when something seems to click and the professor winks at both of them. “He’s my best student, you know,” the professor says, gliding away, “a natural, really.”
Junmyeon thinks him say, “Ah, young love!” as he turns the corner of the bookshelves, but he could as easily be shouting at the termite infestation in that corner of the library.
“Jongin?” he asks. “Have you been pretending to need help?” His mind races over all the things he could be doing. Patrolling the corridors, checking empty classrooms, trying to enter the Room of Requirement-
Jongin licks his lips, clearly embarrassed. Junmyeon looks at his lips, and then startles, realizing that he recognizes-
“Snakes!” Peeves shouts, shooting over their heads. They both jump. “Snakes on the fourth floor!”
Junmyeon stuffs his books in his bag as Jongin looks on. “We’ll talk later, Jongin, I promise,” he says breathlessly. He can hear students screaming downstairs. “I just need to go see what’s going on.”
He doesn’t wait for Jongin to reply, racing away as fast as he can. Maybe at last, he’ll catch the dueling club.
Students are charging away as fast as they can. Junmyeon runs in the opposite direction, hoping that no one is stuck. He turns the corner and his heart sinks.
There’s Seohyun standing on a forgotten desk outside a boarded classroom in one of the corridors, her hand white on a pipe she’s clutching. The snakes bat their heads at the bars, while one starts to wrap its body around the metal intrepidly.
There are snakes everywhere. Junmyeon hates snakes.
Seohyu screams. She’s the best in their year, she can do the most advanced charms and spells that Junmyeon has ever seen a fellow student do. But he knows that in this kind of situation, there’s no point in reminding her that she’s a witch.
A Head Boy must do what a Head Boy must do, he tells himself grimly. He tries blasting a path with a harmless fire, but that does nothing. The snakes slither out of the way, but others quickly take their place.
“Accio!” he calls. He hears the whoosh before the broomstick falls into his hand. He mounts and carefully flies over the wriggling mass, reaching a hand out to Seohyun.
“Take my hand,” he says. “Don’t freak out, okay?”
Seohyun nods. It’s a bit of a struggle to pull her onto the broom, but she clambers on.
In the process, he doesn’t pay attention, and the broomstick drifts closer to the ground. The snakes snap at their shoes, and Seohyun shrieks, throwing her arms about, knocking Junmyeon off the broom.
There’s a moment when he feels the impending horror of falling. But instead he’s swooped up by careful arms, and set upright on another broom.
He turns, to see that mask again. “You alright?” the leader of the dueling club asks, concentrating on pulling them away from the tangle beneath them. Seohyun follows, her face pale and embarrassed.
They pause a good distance away, where the snakes have not yet come. Junmyeon suspects that they have been confined to that particular hallway. Seohyun gets down quickly, twisting the broomstick in her hands. She’s never been one for flying.
Junmyeon turns. “You know-” he begins, and that face, even under that mask - he knows who it is.
“Halt!” the Potions instructor is shouting behind them. “You from the dueling club! Stop where you are!”
“Shoot,” Junmyeon hears the boy say, and then suddenly they’re streaking away, fast as the broomstick possibly can.
They burst through the open window on the fifth floor, and the leader pulls the broomstick up, so that they go careening towards the sky. He turns, and the broomstick rolls with them.
Junmyeon breathes with happiness when they come to rest on the parapet leading to the Astronomy tower. “Sorry,” the boy says. Junmyeon turns to look at him, watching the way he pushes his sweaty bangs up his forehead. “I didn’t know - I didn’t think -”
The stumbling words, the dark eyes, the pretty lips, they’re all the same. Junmyeon wonders why he didn’t see before.
He reaches out and pulls the mask off, folds it in his hands. Jongin looks back at him, trying to front with his normal charisma. But he’s just a boy, still terrified at getting detention in the dungeons for the rest of the year.
“These masks weren’t very useful,” Junmyeon says. Despite his stern tone, a smile creeps on his face. “Thank you for saving me.”
Jongin seems to choke as Junmyeon stumbles towards him, not quite in control of his legs.
Sehun is scowling again, but Jongin doesn’t really care when Junmyeon’s arm is pressed against his, a nice warmth that Jongin feels spreading through his body.
“What’s wrong?” Junmyeon asks though. He doesn’t even wince when Jongin shoves his elbow into Junmyeon’s side.
“Yixing thought the pranks were funny,” he begins. Jongin thinks it’s too much to hope for this to be the end of it, and he’s right. “But then he said that he likes someone stoic.”
Now he’s really just messing with Sehun, who can’t even stay still for five seconds, not to mention maintaining a poker face.
Junmyeon throws down his fork, pressing a kiss by Jongin’s ear. He instantly blushes, and across the room he can see Chanyeol and the rest of the dueling club laughing at him. “Maybe you should just confess?” he suggests, patiently. “Instead of putting on a show to impress him?”
Sehun stares at him, incredulously. “No one does that, anymore!”
“Oh, no?” Junmyeon says, distracted by something in his bag. “I wasn’t aware of that. Listen, I’ll see you for tutoring after Potions, alright?”
Jongin nods. It’s not really tutoring anymore, after Junmyeon found out that Jongin was acing all of his classes. But Jongin likes what they do instead, much, much more.
Sehun snorts when Junmyeon is gone. “You still haven’t told him,” he says. “Why you made the dueling club? He went easy on you, didn’t even tell on you, and you didn’t tell him?”
Jongin clutches his fork. “You can’t tell him,” he hisses. “You absolutely cannot, Oh Sehun!”
“You wanted his attention,” Sehun sings. Jongin launches himself over the table to throttle the life out of his annoying best friend.
“You’re an idiot,” Sehun mutters, as they sit in detention together. Junmyeon is sitting at the desk in the front of the room, looking at them disapprovingly.
Jongin wilts and glares at Sehun instead. “You made a great poker face when I was choking you,” he hisses. “I’m sure Yixing was impressed.”
”Shut up,” Sehun whispers, a blush coursing over his face. This time, Jongin thinks that they can hear him in Hogsmeade.