When You Smile (The Whole World Stops and Stares) [prompt #65]
Title: When You Smile (The Whole World Stops and Stares)
Prompt: #65
Length: 2,445
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Summary: Yifan devises a plan to get the boy. All doesn't go as planned.
Notes: Ah~ I hope you like this anon! I tried my best ;A;
Yifan fidgeted awkwardly in his bright yellow robes. He was not a fan of the color, really, and who could be? It was yellow for Salazar’s sake!
It may or may not have something to do with the fact that at the moment he wasn’t even his own body. No, this one was short and stocky with sparse strands of brown hair cut in a bowl cut atop his head as opposed to his usual mop of blonde hair and six foot one stature.
This quite shocking change in appearance was the result of a perfectly concocted polyjuice potion that he’d managed to convince some fourth year Gryffindor girl to make him a month prior. It was simple, really. All he’d had to do was agree to join some sill club of hers that advocated the rights of house elves. He’d believed it was called SPIT. Or was it SPAT? Well, it didn’t really matter. Yifan had no real intention of joining. Why should he? House elves were meant to serve wizards and he’d had the same elf named Mitzy since he was a child.
All that’d mattered was that he get his hands on an efficiently made batch of the forbidden potion and he’d used his Slytherin cleverness to do just that. Yifan had no qualms about lying to that girl, because the ends justified the means and this was a rather important mission he was embarking on.
See, it’d all started when he was a mere second year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was anxious to get on with the opening feast and the promise of delicious food was making him irritable but alas, the Sorting Ceremony had to be done first. Professor McGonagall began to read the names of the nervously twittering first years and Yifan quickly lost interest. He’d been engaged in a heated conversation over Quidditch playing brooms with another Slytherin when the final name was read.
“Zhang, Yixing!”
Curiously, Yifan looked away from his conversation to see what would happen. There were not as many Chinese students at Hogwarts and he vehemently hoped that this round faced first year would be placed in his house.
The quivering boy with a slightly larger than normal head placed the tattered sorting hat upon his head and less than a second later, the hat roared, “HUFFLEPUFF!”
Yifan didn’t have time to be disappointed when the boy took off the hat and smiled the most beautiful smile that Yifan had ever seen. His eyes turned to little crescent moons and a dimple in his right cheek flashed brilliantly. Yifan’s mouth hung, agape, until the boy he had been talking to, one Blaise Zabini, had prodded him in the ribs. Flushing red, Yifan resolved in his mind that he wanted to be the one to make the adorable boy smile that stunning smile.
That was roughly five years ago and Yixing had only become more and more attractive. Somewhere between fourth and fifth year, he had lost his boyhood chubbiness and grew into his handsome face. Yifan kept as close an eye on him as possible and noted that Yixing now moved with a grace about him that left him speechless. Now, in his seventh year, Yifan was running out of time to woo his precious dimpled Hufflepuff. And thus, Mission: Make Yixing Mine came to fruition.
He was putting into action phase one, which consisted of him figuring out of Yixing had any interest in him at all. Seeing as he couldn’t simply come out and ask him as that would be far too simple, he’d expertly disguised himself as one of the Hufflepuffs that he saw speak to his love on nearly a daily basis.
The only problem was that he was standing in front of the portrait that led to the Hufflepuff common room with no clue how to get inside because he hadn’t thought to get their password beforehand. Yifan could have punched himself. He came this far just to have the mission fail before anything had even happened.
Right as he resolved himself to waiting out the end of the potion in the abandoned girl’s bathroom, he heard a pair of footsteps approaching from behind. He turned around and was pleasantly surprised to see the object of his affections smiling in his direction. Yixing slung his bag onto his other shoulder and said, “Hello Ernie. What are you doing just standing there?”
Yifan stared blankly, not sure who he was talking to, until he remembered himself. “Uh…I just, er, forgot the password?”
Yixing nodded understandingly, and then shot him a puzzled look before he said, “Fizzing whizzbees,” and the portrait swung open. He gestured for Yifan to go first and Yifan stumbled his way into the common room, not at all used to being so short.
The Hufflepuff common room was very similar to the Slytherin one, just draped in yellows instead of the mossy green he was used to. Shrugging, he plopped himself into the easy chair that was closest to the roaring fireplace.
The room was empty save for a few first years playing exploding snap on the other side of the room and for that Yifan was thankful. He’d needed some semblance of privacy for this phase of the mission to work out as he wanted it to.
Yixing dropped his bag on the carpet and lay idly across the floor in front of Yifan. He stretched, much like a cat, and Yifan gulped. He could only imagine the flat expanse of stomach underneath all of those robes tensing and shifting along with him. Yixing rolled onto his stomach and looked at Yifan expectantly. “So,” he began, “Are you going to tell me what’s on your mind?”
Yifan started out of his less than innocent thoughts and turned a light shade of pink. He straightened his posture and steeled himself. It was go time. Mission…start!
“You know,” Yifan began in what he hoped was a casual tone, “I was just wondering what you thought of that Yifan bloke from Slytherin. You know him, the seventh year?”
Yixing cocked his head. “Hm….tall and blond right? The one with the angry eyebrows?
Affronted, Yifan just barely caught himself before mumbling out an affirmative.
Yixing continued, “I guess I never really thought about him all that much? He seems nice enough.”
Yifan leaned forward. “That’s it? Just nice?”
Yixing looked at him oddly. “Well, yes. I haven’t really spoken to him and he’s a year above us. Why do you ask? Are you interested?”
Yifan’s (Ernie’s?) eyes widened briefly before he backtracked. “Uh no, not really. Just, um, wondering, because he seems like a cool guy. That’s all. Nothing else. Heh heh.” Chuckling nervously, Yifan searched his mind to find an excuse to get out of there. It was not as bad as it could have been. At least Yixing knew who he was. It would have been bad if he had to start completely from scratch.
Yixing yawned (cutely, Yifan thought, internally squealing. But only internally. Slytherins don’t squeal. Ever.) and stood up, hauling his bag up with him. “I’m a bit sleepy so I’m heading up. Are you coming?”
Yifan looked up at the beautiful ray of sunshine standing before him and shook his head quickly. “Er, no, I think I’ll stay down here and, um, think for a bit? Yeah think.”
Yixing smiled kindly down at him. “Well, alright then. Good night, Ernie.”
“Good night, Yixing.” He patted his shoulder and proceeded into the staircase leading to the boys’ dormitory. Yifan sat there in the chair, musing over the events that just happened.
“It would seem that it is time to proceed to phase two,” he mused and with that, he left the Hufflepuff common room and proceeded to trek back down to the dungeons.
Meanwhile, in a broom closet around the corner, the muffled screams of Ernie MacMillan were heard by no one until roughly two am, when Snape was conducting his usual patrol of the hallways. Despite being tied up and gagged, he earned himself a week of detentions and lost Hufflepuffs 50 house points for being out past curfew.
The following day saw Yifan anxiously awaiting his Potions class in the afternoon. He happened to know that the class prior to his was for the sixth year Hufflepuffs and Revenclaws and he also happened to know that Yixing was among the students in that class. This knowledge was essential for Mission: Make Yixing Mine to go off without a hitch.
Now, he was employing phase two. See, the Yule Ball was just around the corner and Yifan had every intention of going with his beloved Yixing. Seeing as directly asking him would be far less dramatic and fun, he had something special prepared for his date-to-be. All it required was for Yixing to be around at the same time Yifan was, which was right at the moment.
Hiding around the corner from the potions lab, he waited for the class to be dismissed, his wand at the ready. The plan was to summon a flock a doves to spell out a specific message for Yixing, which would be the first clue to him figuring out who he was.
It was brilliant, if he did say so himself. All he needed was for Yixing was to come out-and here they come! The sixth years began filing out the classroom in pairs of twos and threes, each bearing a disgruntled expression on their faces that was likely due to Snape’s uncanny ability to insult people with very few words.
It seemed that Yixing, who came out next with that boy Ernie, was the only one who retained a bit of cheeriness about his face. This made Yifan smile before he prepared himself to put phase two into motion.
Pointing to the space above Yixing’s head, he whispered, “Avis!” A flock of delicate white birds flew out from the tip of his wand and proceeded to converge around Yixing’s head. Everyone in the hallway stopped to see what was going one, including Yixing, who was staring at the birds with adoration clear in his eyes. Grinning, Yifan flicked his want and the birds began to sing:
My sweet, my love, my everything
It is for you we have come to sing
Of love, of life, we wish to share
For you, my sweet, I will only care
And now, we’ve come, to take this chance
With me, shall you come, to the Yule Ball dance?
Yifan was ecstatic. The birds had done their job and delivered their message. All that was left was for him to come out and reveal himself as the suitor behind the lovely message. He prepared himself and took a step forward-only, his robes had somehow gotten caught in the knight in armor he was hiding behind and it was with a great CLANG that both Yifan and the knight came tumbling down to the floor in front of Yixing and Ernie.
To make matters worse, Peeves happened to be flying by at the moment and with a yell that he started, “OH HO THE MIGHTY WU HAS FALLEN! WEE SLYTHERIN DOWN! THE SHAME! THE HORROR!” Cackling, Peeves flew through the ceiling to spread the news.
Still sprawled on the floor and tangled with the knight, Yifan’s face felt so hot that he thought he might burn through the metal. The other students were now laughing openly at both Yifan and Peeves, to his horror and utmost embarrassment. He thought that he might lay there and wait for everyone to leave before trying to free himself from the heavy metal until he felt the knight right himself seemingly all on its own.
With the armor no longer obstructing his view, Yifan saw that it was Yixing, along with Ernie, that had managed to get the suit of armor off of him. Yixing’s brow was creased with worry and he looked as though he were about to speak but Yifan didn’t give him the chance. Truly horrified by his own clumsiness, he uttered out a quick thank you before high tailing it out the hallway and running all the way back to his dormitory.
News spread fast about what had happened to Yifan the day prior. At breakfast the very next day, as Yifan walked to the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, the students were snickered and laughing as he walked by. Yifan was miserable. He’d failed spectacularly at his mission. Yixing had noticed him yesterday, but who hadn’t? Dejectedly, Yifan knew it was futile and sat down next to Zabini.
Zabini, the good friend that he was, made care not to mention the events of yesterday and tried to engage Yifan in a conversation about who he was bringing to the Yule Ball the coming Friday. That only made Yifan feel worse. Angry stabbing a sausage with his fork, he proceeded to swallow the thing whole, nearly choking in his haste.
Coughing violently, Yifan did not notice someone approaching him until Zabini prodded him in his ribs. Agitated, he prepared to tell Zabini off until he noticed who was standing behind him. Yixing was looking as radiant as ever with his light brown hair swept to the side and his dimple winking at Yifan cutely.
Still being unable to speak, Yifan stared confusedly up at Yixing. Yixing read into his bag and produced and eerily familiar looking wand. He held it out for Yifan to take. “You left this yesterday. Also, I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Forcing the rest of the sausage down his throat, Yifan said, “No, yeah, I’m fine. Uh, thanks for asking. And my wand. Thanks.” He took the wand from Yixing and their hands brushed briefly. Yifan turned pink and mumbled another thanks and Yixing….Yixing just smiled brighter. So, Yifan, what time should I expect you on Friday?”
Yifan was confused. “Huh?” he replied smartly. Yixing’s smile turned vaguely into a smirk. “The dance, Yifan. What time are you picking me up?” Yixing paused. “It was you, right? The one who cast the doves?”
At this, Yifan nodded. The fact that Yixing had even acknowledged his proposal had rendered him incapable of speech. Yixing grinned once more. “Great! I’ll see you at 8, then? At the entrance of the great hall?”
At Yifan’s nod, Yixing beamed and waved, and then he was gone. Kris stared after him, mouth agape, as he processed this turn of events. Snidely, Zabini said, “I suppose being a bumbling idiot is attractive to some people.”
This time, Yifan really did punch him in the jaw.
Prompt: #65
Length: 2,445
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Summary: Yifan devises a plan to get the boy. All doesn't go as planned.
Notes: Ah~ I hope you like this anon! I tried my best ;A;
Yifan fidgeted awkwardly in his bright yellow robes. He was not a fan of the color, really, and who could be? It was yellow for Salazar’s sake!
It may or may not have something to do with the fact that at the moment he wasn’t even his own body. No, this one was short and stocky with sparse strands of brown hair cut in a bowl cut atop his head as opposed to his usual mop of blonde hair and six foot one stature.
This quite shocking change in appearance was the result of a perfectly concocted polyjuice potion that he’d managed to convince some fourth year Gryffindor girl to make him a month prior. It was simple, really. All he’d had to do was agree to join some sill club of hers that advocated the rights of house elves. He’d believed it was called SPIT. Or was it SPAT? Well, it didn’t really matter. Yifan had no real intention of joining. Why should he? House elves were meant to serve wizards and he’d had the same elf named Mitzy since he was a child.
All that’d mattered was that he get his hands on an efficiently made batch of the forbidden potion and he’d used his Slytherin cleverness to do just that. Yifan had no qualms about lying to that girl, because the ends justified the means and this was a rather important mission he was embarking on.
See, it’d all started when he was a mere second year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was anxious to get on with the opening feast and the promise of delicious food was making him irritable but alas, the Sorting Ceremony had to be done first. Professor McGonagall began to read the names of the nervously twittering first years and Yifan quickly lost interest. He’d been engaged in a heated conversation over Quidditch playing brooms with another Slytherin when the final name was read.
“Zhang, Yixing!”
Curiously, Yifan looked away from his conversation to see what would happen. There were not as many Chinese students at Hogwarts and he vehemently hoped that this round faced first year would be placed in his house.
The quivering boy with a slightly larger than normal head placed the tattered sorting hat upon his head and less than a second later, the hat roared, “HUFFLEPUFF!”
Yifan didn’t have time to be disappointed when the boy took off the hat and smiled the most beautiful smile that Yifan had ever seen. His eyes turned to little crescent moons and a dimple in his right cheek flashed brilliantly. Yifan’s mouth hung, agape, until the boy he had been talking to, one Blaise Zabini, had prodded him in the ribs. Flushing red, Yifan resolved in his mind that he wanted to be the one to make the adorable boy smile that stunning smile.
That was roughly five years ago and Yixing had only become more and more attractive. Somewhere between fourth and fifth year, he had lost his boyhood chubbiness and grew into his handsome face. Yifan kept as close an eye on him as possible and noted that Yixing now moved with a grace about him that left him speechless. Now, in his seventh year, Yifan was running out of time to woo his precious dimpled Hufflepuff. And thus, Mission: Make Yixing Mine came to fruition.
He was putting into action phase one, which consisted of him figuring out of Yixing had any interest in him at all. Seeing as he couldn’t simply come out and ask him as that would be far too simple, he’d expertly disguised himself as one of the Hufflepuffs that he saw speak to his love on nearly a daily basis.
The only problem was that he was standing in front of the portrait that led to the Hufflepuff common room with no clue how to get inside because he hadn’t thought to get their password beforehand. Yifan could have punched himself. He came this far just to have the mission fail before anything had even happened.
Right as he resolved himself to waiting out the end of the potion in the abandoned girl’s bathroom, he heard a pair of footsteps approaching from behind. He turned around and was pleasantly surprised to see the object of his affections smiling in his direction. Yixing slung his bag onto his other shoulder and said, “Hello Ernie. What are you doing just standing there?”
Yifan stared blankly, not sure who he was talking to, until he remembered himself. “Uh…I just, er, forgot the password?”
Yixing nodded understandingly, and then shot him a puzzled look before he said, “Fizzing whizzbees,” and the portrait swung open. He gestured for Yifan to go first and Yifan stumbled his way into the common room, not at all used to being so short.
The Hufflepuff common room was very similar to the Slytherin one, just draped in yellows instead of the mossy green he was used to. Shrugging, he plopped himself into the easy chair that was closest to the roaring fireplace.
The room was empty save for a few first years playing exploding snap on the other side of the room and for that Yifan was thankful. He’d needed some semblance of privacy for this phase of the mission to work out as he wanted it to.
Yixing dropped his bag on the carpet and lay idly across the floor in front of Yifan. He stretched, much like a cat, and Yifan gulped. He could only imagine the flat expanse of stomach underneath all of those robes tensing and shifting along with him. Yixing rolled onto his stomach and looked at Yifan expectantly. “So,” he began, “Are you going to tell me what’s on your mind?”
Yifan started out of his less than innocent thoughts and turned a light shade of pink. He straightened his posture and steeled himself. It was go time. Mission…start!
“You know,” Yifan began in what he hoped was a casual tone, “I was just wondering what you thought of that Yifan bloke from Slytherin. You know him, the seventh year?”
Yixing cocked his head. “Hm….tall and blond right? The one with the angry eyebrows?
Affronted, Yifan just barely caught himself before mumbling out an affirmative.
Yixing continued, “I guess I never really thought about him all that much? He seems nice enough.”
Yifan leaned forward. “That’s it? Just nice?”
Yixing looked at him oddly. “Well, yes. I haven’t really spoken to him and he’s a year above us. Why do you ask? Are you interested?”
Yifan’s (Ernie’s?) eyes widened briefly before he backtracked. “Uh no, not really. Just, um, wondering, because he seems like a cool guy. That’s all. Nothing else. Heh heh.” Chuckling nervously, Yifan searched his mind to find an excuse to get out of there. It was not as bad as it could have been. At least Yixing knew who he was. It would have been bad if he had to start completely from scratch.
Yixing yawned (cutely, Yifan thought, internally squealing. But only internally. Slytherins don’t squeal. Ever.) and stood up, hauling his bag up with him. “I’m a bit sleepy so I’m heading up. Are you coming?”
Yifan looked up at the beautiful ray of sunshine standing before him and shook his head quickly. “Er, no, I think I’ll stay down here and, um, think for a bit? Yeah think.”
Yixing smiled kindly down at him. “Well, alright then. Good night, Ernie.”
“Good night, Yixing.” He patted his shoulder and proceeded into the staircase leading to the boys’ dormitory. Yifan sat there in the chair, musing over the events that just happened.
“It would seem that it is time to proceed to phase two,” he mused and with that, he left the Hufflepuff common room and proceeded to trek back down to the dungeons.
Meanwhile, in a broom closet around the corner, the muffled screams of Ernie MacMillan were heard by no one until roughly two am, when Snape was conducting his usual patrol of the hallways. Despite being tied up and gagged, he earned himself a week of detentions and lost Hufflepuffs 50 house points for being out past curfew.
The following day saw Yifan anxiously awaiting his Potions class in the afternoon. He happened to know that the class prior to his was for the sixth year Hufflepuffs and Revenclaws and he also happened to know that Yixing was among the students in that class. This knowledge was essential for Mission: Make Yixing Mine to go off without a hitch.
Now, he was employing phase two. See, the Yule Ball was just around the corner and Yifan had every intention of going with his beloved Yixing. Seeing as directly asking him would be far less dramatic and fun, he had something special prepared for his date-to-be. All it required was for Yixing to be around at the same time Yifan was, which was right at the moment.
Hiding around the corner from the potions lab, he waited for the class to be dismissed, his wand at the ready. The plan was to summon a flock a doves to spell out a specific message for Yixing, which would be the first clue to him figuring out who he was.
It was brilliant, if he did say so himself. All he needed was for Yixing was to come out-and here they come! The sixth years began filing out the classroom in pairs of twos and threes, each bearing a disgruntled expression on their faces that was likely due to Snape’s uncanny ability to insult people with very few words.
It seemed that Yixing, who came out next with that boy Ernie, was the only one who retained a bit of cheeriness about his face. This made Yifan smile before he prepared himself to put phase two into motion.
Pointing to the space above Yixing’s head, he whispered, “Avis!” A flock of delicate white birds flew out from the tip of his wand and proceeded to converge around Yixing’s head. Everyone in the hallway stopped to see what was going one, including Yixing, who was staring at the birds with adoration clear in his eyes. Grinning, Yifan flicked his want and the birds began to sing:
My sweet, my love, my everything
It is for you we have come to sing
Of love, of life, we wish to share
For you, my sweet, I will only care
And now, we’ve come, to take this chance
With me, shall you come, to the Yule Ball dance?
Yifan was ecstatic. The birds had done their job and delivered their message. All that was left was for him to come out and reveal himself as the suitor behind the lovely message. He prepared himself and took a step forward-only, his robes had somehow gotten caught in the knight in armor he was hiding behind and it was with a great CLANG that both Yifan and the knight came tumbling down to the floor in front of Yixing and Ernie.
To make matters worse, Peeves happened to be flying by at the moment and with a yell that he started, “OH HO THE MIGHTY WU HAS FALLEN! WEE SLYTHERIN DOWN! THE SHAME! THE HORROR!” Cackling, Peeves flew through the ceiling to spread the news.
Still sprawled on the floor and tangled with the knight, Yifan’s face felt so hot that he thought he might burn through the metal. The other students were now laughing openly at both Yifan and Peeves, to his horror and utmost embarrassment. He thought that he might lay there and wait for everyone to leave before trying to free himself from the heavy metal until he felt the knight right himself seemingly all on its own.
With the armor no longer obstructing his view, Yifan saw that it was Yixing, along with Ernie, that had managed to get the suit of armor off of him. Yixing’s brow was creased with worry and he looked as though he were about to speak but Yifan didn’t give him the chance. Truly horrified by his own clumsiness, he uttered out a quick thank you before high tailing it out the hallway and running all the way back to his dormitory.
News spread fast about what had happened to Yifan the day prior. At breakfast the very next day, as Yifan walked to the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, the students were snickered and laughing as he walked by. Yifan was miserable. He’d failed spectacularly at his mission. Yixing had noticed him yesterday, but who hadn’t? Dejectedly, Yifan knew it was futile and sat down next to Zabini.
Zabini, the good friend that he was, made care not to mention the events of yesterday and tried to engage Yifan in a conversation about who he was bringing to the Yule Ball the coming Friday. That only made Yifan feel worse. Angry stabbing a sausage with his fork, he proceeded to swallow the thing whole, nearly choking in his haste.
Coughing violently, Yifan did not notice someone approaching him until Zabini prodded him in his ribs. Agitated, he prepared to tell Zabini off until he noticed who was standing behind him. Yixing was looking as radiant as ever with his light brown hair swept to the side and his dimple winking at Yifan cutely.
Still being unable to speak, Yifan stared confusedly up at Yixing. Yixing read into his bag and produced and eerily familiar looking wand. He held it out for Yifan to take. “You left this yesterday. Also, I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Forcing the rest of the sausage down his throat, Yifan said, “No, yeah, I’m fine. Uh, thanks for asking. And my wand. Thanks.” He took the wand from Yixing and their hands brushed briefly. Yifan turned pink and mumbled another thanks and Yixing….Yixing just smiled brighter. So, Yifan, what time should I expect you on Friday?”
Yifan was confused. “Huh?” he replied smartly. Yixing’s smile turned vaguely into a smirk. “The dance, Yifan. What time are you picking me up?” Yixing paused. “It was you, right? The one who cast the doves?”
At this, Yifan nodded. The fact that Yixing had even acknowledged his proposal had rendered him incapable of speech. Yixing grinned once more. “Great! I’ll see you at 8, then? At the entrance of the great hall?”
At Yifan’s nod, Yixing beamed and waved, and then he was gone. Kris stared after him, mouth agape, as he processed this turn of events. Snidely, Zabini said, “I suppose being a bumbling idiot is attractive to some people.”
This time, Yifan really did punch him in the jaw.