No Pads, No Helmets, Just Balls and Brooms for bulletthestars 2/2
“Congratulations,” Joonmyun tells Sehun when they meet in the Great Hall later. He’s already laid out a bunch of different Herbology textbooks, but he’s not really interested in reading or teaching any of them.
“Hm? On what?” Sehun asks lazily.
“Quidditch,” Joonmyun says. “I went to your game yesterday. I’m still in awe of you standing on the broom, to be honest.”
Sehun laughs quietly and reaches for the next textbook. “Thanks,” he says, and it’s then that Joonmyun notes what a good mood Sehun is in. “It’s a trick I learned at Durmstrang.”
Joonmyun nods before he realizes he has no idea what to add on. “That’s cool,” he says lamely and reaches out for a first year Herbology textbook. “So do you remember what I taught you about Devil’s Snare?”
Sehun isn’t in a good mood anyway. Neither is Joonmyun. They’ve been sitting in the Great Hall for two hours now. Joonmyun’s half an hour late to his Alchemy class, and doubts he’ll even go at this point.
“Do you remember anything I taught you from last time?” Joonmyun finally asks, exasperated. He wonders if Sehun is even passing Herbology. “Devil’s Snare, Mandrakes, Poppy plants, anything?”
Sehun sighs and flips over a page in his notebook. His handwriting is so messy Joonmyun can’t tell the difference between his notes and his doodles. He doubts that Sehun even has notes. “Herbology is stupid,” he says, and Joonmyun remembers how he was only mildly offended when Sehun told him that the first time. Now, anger pumps through his veins, not because Sehun thinks Herology is stupid, no, most people do, really. It’s probably the most boring subject next to History of Magic. He’s angry -- almost blinded with anger that Sehun doesn’t care about Herbology, doesn’t listen to Joonmyun, doesn’t do his assignments, yet he still shows up every time they arrange for a new meeting. He’s mad Sehun still sits next to him or across from him and still brings parchments and quills and bottles of ink and watches as Joonmyun gets overly excited about things he’s never given a damn about, and continues to watch, day after day. It’s this kind of false hope, false joy, false trust that Joonmyun hates.
“If Herblogy is so stupid,” Joonmyun snaps, “why do you show up every single day? If you don’t listen to anything I say, why do you come every week? It’s not because you like me -- If I had a sickle for every time you glared at me, I wouldn’t have to go to Hogwarts. I could just live in content in some far away castle.”
Sehun is staring at Joonmyun like he’s turned into Medusa and is going to turn into stone if he dares to blink. He says nothing though, and Joonmyun’s patience has worn thin.
“I think we’re done today,” Joonmyun says, rather calmly, and gathers up the textbooks he’s brought. “We’re not meeting tomorrow, or the day after that.”
Joonmyun’s put everything in his bag and is about to leave when Sehun asks, “Then when?” and Joonmyun tries not to hit him across the head with the bag.
“When you decide to stop being a piece of shit and just confess why you hate me so much. Is it because you hate Hufflepuffs? Is it because we’re rivals? Is it because I’m a mudblood?”
Sehun flinches at the last one, and Joonmyun purses his lips, too angry to even say anything. Of course it would be that one.
“I’ll see you at Quidditch,” Joonmyun says curtly and leaves.
“If you give me two seconds, I will beat him up so hard you won’t even have to have a Quidditch match with him,” Jonghyun says gruffly, and it takes the efforts of Yixing, Minho, and Himchan to hold him back from jumping the next Slytherin who walks into the courtyard. Joonmyun thinks they’ve just saved four poor lives.
“Did he say the word?” Minho asks.
“I did,” Joonmyun says, sighing. “Then I left.”
“At least he didn’t say the word,” Yixing mutters. “For now, just concentrate on everything else, okay?”
“You didn’t even have to tutor him,” Minho points out. “It was the professor’s request. Say something about you two both being too busy with Quidditch.”
“The final round is next week,” Yixing says. “Let’s just keep practicing.”
So they practice. The times Joonmyun spent tutoring Sehun, he dedicates to practicing Quidditch. He asks if anyone wants less practices, and gets requests for more practice. So they do. He skips an entire day of classes just to stake out the Quidditch field and practice nonstop. On days where Slytherin have the field booked, Joonmyun makes them practice over the lake. Losers in their practice matches have to go into the water and find the bludgers and quaffles.
“Ten points from Ravenclaw,” Joonmyun snaps when he finds Chaerin out after hours.
“I’m just here to send you a message,” she says. “From Sehun.”
“You can tell Sehun I don’t want to hear it,” Joonmyun says. “Five more points from Ravenclaw if you don’t leave in the next ten seconds.”
“Jeez, you’re so strict now,” she mumbles. “I was gonna also give you the notes you missed that Joohyun saved for you. Don’t shoot the messenger.”
Joonmyun sighs. “Sorry Chaerin. I’m just stressed, and would really like to be left alone.”
“Feel better,” she says sympathetically, giving Joonmyun one last look before leaving. Joonmyun considers skipping his Charms class in the morning just to sleep in.
He does skip his Charms class, but that’s just to practice more Quidditch. By lunch, the rest of the team has joined him, and now, around five, they’re just throwing the quaffle around as Joonmyun and Yixing think up strategies. Sunyoung joins them a while later, and stares down at Yixing’s poorly drawn plan in the dirt.
“I’m not an artist,” Yixing says in defense, and Sunyoung shake her head.
“These three spots are open with that strategy,” she says, and points them out with her foot.
“That’s my girl,” Joonmyun preens, and ignores Yixing’s glare.
“I’m not Ravenclaw, okay,” Yixing groans. “I can’t plan these things out. Our strategies never work, why are we making them?”
“Because I’m desperate,” Joonmyun states.
“Desperation won’t get you anything,” Sunyoung scolds, and Yixing nods.
“Well, in the Quidditch cup of 1964, Lee Min--”
Someone pats him on the back, and he turns to see Minho throwing an arm around his shoulder. “You have a point,” he says, then, “except this is not the Quidditch cup of 1964, and you are not Lee Minho, famous Quidditch player from Beauxbatons. You’re Joonmyun, a future Herbologist, and you’re a seventh year Hufflepuff.”
“Oh no,” Yixing suddenly moans. “We’re seventh years.”
Joonmyun groans with him and turns to Minho. “You really can’t tell me to calm down now.”
Sunyoung puts her hands on her hip and glare at Minho. “You’ve let out the beast. How am I supposed to help him now?”
Joonmyun and Yixing look at each other like they share some huge inside joke and start to fake cry very loudly.
“I’m not here for this,” Sunyoung, who was, sadly, not part of the inside joke, sighs and turns to Minho. “Shall we practice?”
Minho laughs. “Yeah, let’s leave them to rot in their old-ness.”
“You’ll be our age one day!” Joonmyun calls out as they fly away on their brooms, and turns to Yixing.
“Come on,” Yixing says, motioning for Joonmyun to follow. “Let’s practice some more. Don’t worry. This’ll be the year Hufflepuff takes home the trophy.”
That night, Joonmyun spends about half an hour looking out of the window before he finally decides to get up and sneak out of the dorm. Every prefect he’s run into lets him pass, and he makes his way out of the castle and to the Quidditch field.
As Joonmyun nears the field though, he sees a figure lying down in the middle of the it. Joonmyun would recognize that body anyway, and smiles as he walks over.
Yixing hears him when he’s a few meters away from him, and gives Joonmyun a grin and a wave as he nears.
“Isn’t the field closed at this time?” Joonmyun asks as he sits on the ground next to Yixing.
“Yeah,” he says, and turns his head to give Joonmyun a smirk.
Joonmyun smiles in return and rests back on his elbows. “I’m pretty sure this is trespassing.”
“So why are you here, star prefect? Gonna write me up?”
Joonmyun laughs. “What good would that do now? This is the end.”
“It is,” Yixing agrees, and they lapse into silence.
Joonmyun picked a good night to come down. It’s a clear sky, and the stars twinkle far above them. When he was little, before he knew he was a wizard, Joonmyun dreamed of becoming an astronaut and flying up, up, up into the sky to grab a star.
“I should have payed more attention,” Joonmyun suddenly says, and Yixing picks his head up.
“What?”
“Divination. There was something there, right? I took astronomy at the same time. Man, if I could read the stars right now; I’m sure they have something to say.”
“Now is not the time to be reminiscing on Divination, to be honest,” Yixing says, amused.
Joonmyun’s shoulders sag. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. This is the end. We’re seventh years.” He turns to Yixing, who frowns at his solemn expression. “Do you think we’ll win tomorrow, Yixing?”
“Lie down,” Yixing orders, and Joonmyun does.
“Now what?”
“I don’t know. My neck just hurt looking at you from down here.”
“You’re useless.”
“We’re gonna win,” Yixing says, very calmly. “I don’t need to read the stars to know that.”
“Welcome to the Quidditch finals!” Baekhyun’s voice booms around the Quidditch field. Joonmyun doesn’t think he’s ever seen the stands so full before. He could’ve sworn every single Hufflepuff ever was up there.
It wasn’t the first time Hufflepuff had made it to the finals in Joonmyun’s time, but it would be the first time they win it.
That morning had brought some sort of deep Hufflepuff pride Joonmyun didn’t know he had. He loved Hufflepuff, it was his home. It was the house where he belonged, and he loved everyone in it, but this morning -- this morning -- when he walked into the Great Hall, almost everything was Hufflepuff themed. A few Slytherin’s had gotten to the candles and the drapes, so the room looked like an odd clash of black and green versus brown and yellow. But since the Hufflepuff dorms are next to the kitchens, some of the students had gotten to the house elves and asked for them to play around with the food, so Joonmyun was greeted with badger shaped bread and biscuits. The Fat Friar seemed especially happy that morning, because -- “They made scones after me! Scones!”
During Arithmancy, Jonghyun and Minho started a ruckus by charming all the candles into firecracklers that spelled out Hufflepuff is the best!, which earned them both detention, and some curious stares for Jonghyun, a Gryffindor, but Joonmyun didn’t really think either of them cared.
Now, as he stands on the field, next to his broom, with Sehun standing across from him, he doesn’t think he’s ever felt so clear headed before a Quidditch match.
The referee orders them to mount their brooms, and then gets on his own broom. In his hand is the quaffle, and down below them is the bludger, one buckle away from unleashing havoc.
“Get ready,” the referee tells them, “I’m going to send up the flare. At the crack of the flare, the game begins.”
Joonmyun and Sehun both nod, having heard this countless times, and wait. Joonmyun watches as a purple flare shoots up into the sky and bursts into a rainbow of colors. It makes a loud banging noise when it explodes, and suddenly the bludger is flying up in between them, and Joonmyun whips out of the way when it starts straight for him. Luckily, Jongup is already behind him with bat on hand and smacks it in Slytherin’s general direction.
Joonmyun is up and looking around for the snitch. It would never show up this early, Joonmyun knows that (except for that one time when Joonmyun was a first year and Gryffindor won against Ravenclaw in five minutes), but he’s still not going to sit there and wait for it to fly in front of his face. Below him, Jieun has just passed the quaffle to Dongwoo, who throws it to Sunyoung, who throws it into the goal ring. It’s blocked by Lu Han and thrown to Youngjae.
“So far,” Baekhyun announces, “both the teams are playing very calmly. I hope it gets more heated, I really want to see Minho and Lu Han finally bash each other’s heads in--”
“Baekhyun.”
“Right,” Baekhyun says, “sorry professor. I’m still just waiting for their epic star crosses hate lovers to end-- oh! Minho’s got the bludger! I really hope he doesn’t throw that at me, he looks like wants to.”
Minho does look very much like he wants to throw the bludgers at Baekhyun’s face. Instead, he directs it to Lu Han’s, and looks even more frustrated when Lu Han blocks it and makes an obscene gesture at him.
The first point is scored by Slytherin, by Chunji, who does a celebratory lap around the field and high fives Junhong.
Sehun has been surprisingly tame this game, but that’s probably because he’s as desperate as Joonmyun to find the snitch. There’s been no sighting, by any of the players, so Joonmyun continues to circle the arena from above and hope to spot gold whizzing by.
The game has to be stopped after the third goal is scored because Jieun gets hit by a bludger in the side. She, surprising, and very admirably, asks not to be taken out of the game and scores two goals in less than five minutes.
Sehun finally sees the snitch after the game is 40-30, and then Joonmyun’s off after him and the snitch. It goes over the Gryffindor stand, and Joonmyun and Sehun almost crash into a few poor students who manage to duck right in time.
The snitch goes in all different direction, and one time Sehun would have almost caught it when it comes back the way it came from, if not for Joonmyun, who roughly shoved him out of the way and turned around.
The game has almost gone on for an hour and a half, the snitch is always just out of reach for Joonmyun and Sehun to grab, until someone, Joonmyun can’t tell who they are or what time they’re on, yells, “Sehun! Joonmyun! Move out of the way!”
They split just in time for the bludger to fly right in between them, and it lets out a particular unfriendly snarl that has Joonmyun reeling in the opposite direction of the snitch, but it doesn’t matter, because it doesn’t a spiral downwards towards Joonmyun, and he can see Sehun charging right at him out his peripheral vision, but he decides to stand his ground, because the snitch is right there.
No one has ever held their ground long enough to see what would happen if Sehun tackled them, and the surprise shows on his face mere moments before the impact happens. There’s an ugly cracking noise, and then Sehun is spinning off in another direction.
Joonmyun doesn’t recognize what’s going on until he’s holding a tiny piece of the front part of his broom and the second part is somewhere under his feet, and then he’s falling very quickly to the ground.
His head hurts and he can feel blood smeared across his forehead, but usually that doesn’t really matter when someone is about to die.
Someone grabs at the back of his collar when he’s a good ten feet above the ground, before their grip loosens and he falls the rest of the way.
He mainly lands on his left arm, but his head hits the ground rather painfully, and Joonmyun is starting to feel rather woozy and thinks maybe he’s about to pass out. That makes sense, right? That’s a bit of a bummer though, because how is he supposed to play the rest of the Quidditch match when his broom is broken and he’s about to pass out?
“Amazing!” Joonmyun hears Baekhyun yelling. A bell chimes in the distance. “The Hufflepuff seeker has caught the snitch! For the first time in practically a decade, Hufflepuff has won the Quidditch cup!”
That’s weird, and extremely inaccurate, because Joonmyun hasn’t caught the snitch, he’s not even holding anything in his hand, except for the tip of his broken broom, which, now that Joonmyun thinks about it, doesn’t feel like the wooden tip of his broom. In fact, it feels smooth, and cold, and more metal than anything, and he looks down to see dismayed wings fluttering, and the golden shine of the snitch in his hand.
Oh.
“Seventh year team captain Kim Joonmyun can walk away with his first and final win! And what a glorious win it is - you should see the look on Sehun’s face right now--"
Oh.
"Baekhyun!" a shrill voice cries, and a chorus of voices laugh in the background.
"Yes, yes, sorry Professor. Anyway--"
His arm still feels tingly, like it’s not completely there, and he has to look down to make sure it is. You can never be too sure about these things. Once in the Quidditch cup of 1874--
He doesn’t get to finish, because there are multiple pairs of arms thrown around Joonmyun someone is yelling very, very loudly in his ear. There are many people yelling very, very loudly in his ear, actually.
“That hurts,” he says to no one in particular, and then there’s Yixing and Dongwoo very much in his face shouting something about Joonmyun being the best seeker ever, and it’s only then that he remembers Sehun’s general existence.
“Right,” he says prying himself away from the jumble of arms he’s tangled. “That’s all awesome, but I can’t really think of anything coherently right now. There’s blood all over my face, too, and I can’t feel my arms. But I have something to do real quick, and then you all can, I dunno, drag me to the hospital wing? That sounds nice.”
Minho snorts, but he and the rest of the team let him walk off to where Sehun is standing a few meters away, standing at the ground in dismay. His team is just getting onto the ground, so only a few of them are nearby, like Lu Han and Soojung, both of whom Joonmyun dismiss entirely. Sehun looks up at Joonmyun’s arrival, almost fearfully, and once again Joonmyun is filled with that same sort of anger as before.
"There's one thing you should learn about Hufflepuff," Joonmyun says, trying his best to ignore the blood running down the side of his face (hopefully it makes him look intimidating) as he fixes Sehun with a pointed look, "It's that we don't give up."
Joonmyun doesn’t think there’s been a bigger party in the Hufflepuff common room in all of his years here. He comes in hours later than everyone else, after having his arm mended and head bandaged.
Streamers pop in his face, and Dongwoo starts to cheer almost obnoxiously loudly, despite it being somewhat close to bedtime. He doubts any of them are going to bed for a very long time anyway.
“I almost had a heart attack,” Jieun tells Joonmyun as they all sip on butterbeers and eat cauldron cakes. “When you were falling? I thought you were going to die. Minho dropped his bat right then and went after you.”
“I thought I was going to die too,” Joonmyun admits. “Was Minho the one that grabbed me?”
Jongup and Yixing exchange glances. “No,” Yixing says slowly, clearing his throat. “That was Sehun.”
Oh.
That’s... unexpected, to say the least. “I-- oh,” Joonmyun says dumbly. “I didn’t know.”
He can feel his blood turning cold and suddenly his butterbeer is much harder to drink than it was two seconds ago. Nothing spread out on the table before him feels very appetizing.
“I’m going to take a nap real quick, before I go out to do my prefect duties.”
“You don’t have prefect duties today. It’s Yongguk’s turn.”
Joonmyun shrugs. “I’ll switch with Yongguk. He won’t mind getting to sleep early.”
“Yongguk is the head boy. He’d rather die than let someone take his responsibilities,” Sunyoung retorts, but Joonmyun is already heading up the stairs to the beds.
Joonmyun had been pretty stupid to think he could get some sleep. He’d also been pretty stupid to act that way to Sehun right after saving his life. Granted, he didn’t do a very good job, since he let go, but he supposes it’s the thought that counts. And the fact that he’s actually not dead. Mainly that.
Still. Scolding Sehun right after he saved his life doesn’t sit very well with Joonmyun. So, okay, he assumes most normal people wouldn’t let him die, unless they hated Joonmyun that much. He doesn’t think Sehun hates him that much. He hopes not. Despite his tantrum at Sehun in the previous times they met, Joonmyun doesn’t hate Sehun. Likes him, even. He’s just very frustrated with his attitude. Right. Enough, that’s not what he’s supposed to be thinking about. He doesn’t like Sehun. Well, he does, but not like that, and-- This is definitely frustrating, Joonmyun groans. He might as well get up and ask to trade places with Yongguk tonight. He doubts he’ll let Joonmyun take his place, with his newly mended arm and head, but dammit he’ll try.
It takes a fare amount of begging for Yongguk to finally sigh and pat Joonmyun’s head with a very concerned, but fond expression on his face when he leaves. Just an hour, he tells Yongguk. I wouldn’t be able to sleep even if I tried, which I already have. Just let me tire myself out.
It takes nearly fifteen minutes for a student to try to sneak past him. It’s a first year from Gryffindor, who tries to convince Joonmyun that he’d just been looking for the bathroom.
“Look, I’m not in a mood to argue with you. Your story is ridiculous, and if you don’t tell me the real reason why you’re out, I’m going to get Himchan to personally escort you back to your dorm.
The first year flinches, before their face turns into something very passive and not what Joonmyun expected. They take out their wand, and Joonmyun is ready to immobilize them until they mumble, “Reveal”, and then his face breaks down into something much more familiar and much more Sehun.
“I’m surprised you didn’t catch on.”
“Oh,” Joonmyun says for the hundredth time that day. “It’s you.”
“It’s me.”
Now Joonmyun has no idea what to say. He hasn’t exactly thought about what would happen when he does run into Sehun again. “Why are you out here?” he asks.
“To see you,” Sehun states bluntly. “You, um, won. It was a good win,” he finishes lamely. Joonmyun tries not to laugh, but it’s nice to know that neither of them have planned what they want to say.
“Thanks,” Joonmyun says. “And, er, thanks again. For saving me.”
Sehun shrugs. “I didn’t do a very good job.”
Joonmyun pretends to dramatically look himself up and down. “No, I think you did a pretty good job.”
Sehun doesn’t laugh. “Does it hurt?” he asks, looking at Joonmyun’s forehead. It’s obvious he’s skirting around some issue, and Joonmyun wants to know what it is.
“I’ve had worse,” Joonmyun shrugs. “They didn’t want to charm my head and accidently do it wrong, so they’re letting me heal the nonmagical w--”
“I’m sorry,” Sehun blurts. “You were right. It was all three of the things you said. Being my Quidditch rival, being a Hufflepuff, being a mud-- uh, having muggle parents. I liked you, and I didn’t want to. So I made up excuses, and then I believed my excuses.”
“You what?”
Sehun stills, looking very nervous. “Um. I-- the first day. On the Quidditch field, when Lu Han wanted to practice. I liked you.”
“So you made up excuses not to like me?” Joonmyun asks incredulously. “What, you pretended to care that I’m a mudblood?”
Sehun shifts uncomfortably. “You know Durmstrang only accepts pureblooded wizard. Most of them think that’s an okay word to say. Most of them usually really believe people with muggle parents are second class people. I did.”
Joonmyun laughs hollowly. “So what made you stop?”
Sehun shifts on the balls of his feet. “Lu Han.”
“What did Lu Han do?”
“Lu Han showed me around everywhere when I first came in, y’know. He really helped me out and helped me adjust. He also confused me at first, because he was friends with everyone, no matter what house they were in. I called you that word once, and he nearly set the dungeons on fire.”
Joonmyun must have this fond smile on his face, because he feels like he does, also because Sehun scowls.
“So, I’m sorry,” Sehun finishes.
“And you like me.” Joonmyun says, just to make Sehun uncomfortable.
It does. Sehun flushes, deep pink spreading across his face, and Joonmyun smirks in silent victory. “And I like you,” Sehun says, much more quietly.
“What about Herbology?” Joonmyun asks.
“Herbology?”
“Are you going to pay attention now?”
Sehun’s face brightens. Now that Joonmyun looks at it, Sehun is actually very easy to read. “It’s boring, though,” Sehun groans.
“We’ll have fun with it,” Joonmyun says, and realizes much, much later how differently Sehun takes it.
“You two are really gross,” Jonghyun says, about two weeks later. It’s dinnertime in the Great Hall, and there are about four or five different textbooks around Sehun and Joonmyun instead of food.
“Don’t mind him,” Minho says to Sehun, patting Jongyun’s head, “He’s just mad someone’s stole his best friend.”
“It’s okay,” Sehun says pleasantly. “I feel more bad for him than anything. He’ll have to face it again with you and Lu Han.”
“You brat--”
Jonghyun saves Sehun’s life by laughing too hard, and gets punched in the shoulder.
Joonmyun looks at him brightly and kisses him square on the lips, and Jonghyun and Minho both groan together. “I’m sitting with someone else,” Jonghyun mumbles. “And I’m watching you,” he snaps at Sehun.
Sehun shrugs and kisses Joonmyun again, much slower. Joonmyun hopes Jonghyun isn’t really watching when Sehun’s fingers dance along this thigh.