Seven Year Story for artgirl/DancingWithDragons
Title: Seven Year Story
Author: themeltyway
Characters/Pairing: zelo/jongup (loosely)
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Wordcount: ~3,200
Summary: Junhong's new to this wizardry, magical, spell casting, potion making, broom flying business. Thankfully, Hogwarts is not. HP AU
Seven Year Story, More Like Seven Year Curse
First Year: Choi Junhong and the Wizarding World
Junhong spills his breakfast on himself, blackberry jam sliding straight off the knife and into his lap, staining his grey pants. He stares at his lap, not awake enough to figure out what he should do with his knife in one hand and piece of toast in the other. These were his best pair of pants, and the only pair that fit him properly at the ankles having out grown his other good pair since he stopped wearing them last winter. He should have followed his mom’s advice and tried them on before packing.
He was so excited to start classes this morning that he left his year mates sleeping in their beds, tiptoeing past quiet snores and packing his bag without a sound. Perhaps he should have stayed tucked away in bed an extra thirty minutes to not land himself in such a sticky spot.
“Here, I can fix that.” The older boy to his left says a spell Junhong hasn’t read about yet and flicks his wand. “Scourgify.”
In the blink of his eye the jam is gone and his pants look the same as when he slipped them on this morning.
“You’ll learn that spell later,” his housemate at his left says, “really handy for cleaning up messes.”
Junhong’s knife is already in the jam jar again for a second attempt. “Thanks for the spell.” His feet knock knock together under the table. “I’m a little nervous.”
He has so many new things to remember from memorizing the barrel tapping pattern to figuring out the moving staircases and the winding hallways of the castle. Not even the amazement of Diagon Alley has prepared him for the complete immersion that is Hogwarts.
“First day first classes, you’ll do great. If you need any help you can ask me.” The boy smiles and spears a sausage with his fork. “I’m Youngjae, we muggleborn’s need to stick together right? Some of these guys can be a little loony -”
“Excuse me, don’t speak lies into the first year’s ears.” A second boy from his house sits down, clothes immaculate, yellow and black striped tie clipped to his uniform shirt with a shiny silver pin. “He just says that because I told him his spidernet doesn’t make sense.” Junhong had met the second boy yesterday at their house welcoming party. He’s Himchan, a house prefect though Junhong doesn’t know what he does exactly.
“Internet not spidernet, I’ve told you a thousand times.” Youngjae pulls a face, corners of his mouth dropping. “Seriously.”
“Don’t worry kid,” Himchan says, making Junhong feel very much his young age of eleven. “You’ll be fine. Here,” - he grabs the sleeve of a boy walking past them - “Jongup can show you the ropes. Won’t you Jongup?”
The boy Himchan grabbed shrugs his shoulders, book bag slipping off his shoulders, his yellow and black tie hanging half knotted around his neck. “Dunno, I guess.” Junhong thinks Jongup can’t be much older than himself. He saw so many of his new house mates at the welcoming party, but he can’t remember seeing Jongup.
Himchan frowns, black wizarding robes billowing out as he raises his arm to tighten Jongup’s tie. “Where’s your hufflepuff loyalty this morning?” He pulls Jongup to sit down at the table, directly opposite of where Junhong’s sitting.
Shy, Junhong smiles around a bite of toast, wishing again that he’d waited for his fellow first years instead of rushing to breakfast right away. The clouds keeping the sun at bay in the illustrious ceiling of the great hall appear to clear enough for for light to filter down at the long rows of heavy tables.
“Sorry, I’m tired.” Jongup drops his book bag on the stone floor. A set of silverware and a plate appears in front of him, and Junhong tries his best to not look like a fish out of water. He’s still not used to this magic thing. Jongup lips quirk into a small smile, “Hi, ‘m Jongup. Second year.” He speaks slowly with a soft voice.
“Junhong,” he introduces himself. “You’ve got.” Junhong pauses, touching the corner of his mouth, “You’ve got drool here.”
“Oh.” Jongup scrubs at the side of his face with his sleeve. “Now?”
“Gone.”
Jongup’s already loading his plate with sausages, “Thanks.” His hair falls into his eyes and Junhong feels like he’s caught under some type of spell.
Blackberry jam smears over Junhong’s fingers, but he doesn’t care because he may have just made his first friend. Plus, he can always get Himchan the house prefect to do that fancy spell again. After all, hufflepuff’s are supposed look out for each other.
Of course, Junhong doesn’t know now that look out for each other can also lead to one breaking their arm and nearly turning into an iguana for two days from a spell gone wrong.
Second Year: Choi Junhong and the Hufflepuff Cup
Junhong flops down into one of the chairs in the common room, “So, I’m thinking about trying out for the quiddich team this year.” He glances over at Jongup on the couch near him, history book open in his lap and a half eaten sugar quill hanging out of his mouth. Sunlight pours in from the open windows, warming Junhong in his seat.
Jongup looks up from his book, “Oh?” He turns the page, “What position?”
“Chaser. I’ve been practicing for fun with the quiddich club and maybe I can get a reserve position.” Ever since his first flying lesson last year, Junhong has had a love affair with flying, so much so that he begged his parents to buy him a broom for his early birthday present. They didn’t understand why he wanted to play ‘such a dangerous sport,’ but came around after Junhong said he’d work harder to get better grades this year. “Do you have any tips?”
He was years away from being as prepared as these kids born into magical families who were riding brooms before they could walk.
And, Jongup was on the Hufflepuff quiddich team after all.
“Uh…” Jongup pops the sugar quill out of his mouth, “Don’t screw up?”
“That’s not helping!” Junhong curls his legs up in the chair and leans over the arm rest pouting, “How’d you make it on the team?”
“I scored a lot of points against the keeper and was the only one who didn’t get the crap beat out of them by the bludger, hey did I ever show you the scar I got from tryouts- ”
A hand ruffles the hair on the top of Junhong’s head, making him tilt his head and look up; it’s Yongguk, the other Hufflepuff prefect and captain of the quiddich team. Junhong rather idolized Yongguk and his strong ideas, not to mention Yongguk’s helped him figure out his transfiguration homework many a time.
“Work hard, aim straight, and stay focused while you’re on the pitch,” Yongguk says, “You can’t cut corners in the tryouts, but we always give everyone a fair shot, so just do your best.”
“Are you preaching again?” Himchan comes out from the seventh year boys room. “You should really look into a job at the ministry. Or is that too mainstream.”
Yongguk shoves at Himchan’s head, “Sure Mr. young students of Hogwarts calendar month of September.”
Junhong lowers his head. He really only wanted to speak to Jongup about this.
He did end up making the team, playing in the last fifteen minutes after one of the team chasers went down from a bludger, and his one lucky goal off the back of his broomstick gave them the points they needed to win (after the golden snitch of course).
Third Year: Choi Junhong and the Dragon Wand
Charms class doesn’t come easy to Junhong; he has to put in twice the amount of practice to prefect the swish and flick motions required of his wand. The amount of feathers he’d exploded first year almost made a new school record, or so their professor said. His difficulty with charms doesn’t come any easier when the Slytherins tease him for being a clueless muggleborn.
Well, he’d rather be a muggleborn than an annoying Slytherin, and everyone knows how they made out in the war. Junhong has read his history book for the important bits.
Biting his lip, Junhong tries out a new spell he learned in class today at dinner. With a swish of his wand, he points it at the bowl of brightly colored candies - some of Jongup’s favorites - “Locomotor.” The bowl wobbles up in the air as if hesitant with the spells intent. Go towards Jongup, Junhong thinks, focusing on directing the bowl across the table where Jongup is sitting next to another one of the fourth years.
An elbow nudges Junhong’s arm, “Hey Junhong, what did you say was the best use of the color changing charm?”
Off balance, Junhong’s wand arm lurches to the side, sending the bowl careening to the side, held by Junhong’s wobbly spell, and spilling candies over the table. They spill over the almost finished platter of ham, but several roll across the table and bump into plates and glasses. His housemates roll their eyes and flick the candies away with the simple but effective sigh of exasperation. It’s common knowledge that Junhong’s spells are penchant to go awry before he’s mastered them.
One candy bounces up onto Jongup’s plate. “Oh,” Jongup says, “I love these.” He picks it up, unwraps it, and pops it into his mouth. “Thanks Junhong.”
Junhong smiles and sets his wand down on the table.
He spent the whole year with different shades of neon hair because every time he tried to turn his hair blond something went terribly, horribly, and horrifically wrong.
Fourth Year: Choi Junhong and the Lord of Dance
His year mates were all a twitter about who they were going to invite to the winter ball, having discovered the benefits of dating. Too shy to ask a girl out, Junhong isn’t sure how he’s going to go to the ball. Can he even go without a date? What girl would even want to go with him when his hair is still a bright pink color due to an accident in potions class after he finally got it to go back to black again. However, he really wants to go and dance with the rest of the school.
Perhaps, just perhaps, he could go solo. He heard that Jongup’s going solo and maybe he could ask him if they could go together.
Junhong spends an hour charming an envelope to flash colorful text in all bold letters saying ‘hey if you’re not going to the ball with anyone let’s go to the ball together :)?’ He’s going to slip it into Jongup’s bag at breakfast since they normally eat together before going their separate ways to class.
That evening in the hufflepuff common room Junhong is both scared and excited to get an answer from Jongup. He waits, curled up in a chair, pretending to be reading his history textbook. When Jongup comes through the entrance, he sees Junhong in the chair and gives him a small wave and walks towards him.
Junhong’s heart flutters something fierce.
“Is this from you?” Jongup asks, pulling out a letter from his bag. The colors have all run together, making the letter illegible in a puddle of dripping text. “I can’t read it. Spilled some pumpkin juice on my bag at lunch and it melted.”
Junhong’s heart drops, so much for his comedic try at getting Jongup’s attention about the ball. He grabs the letter out of Jongup’s hands and surveys the damage - it’s gone beyond repair. “It was a joke. I wanted to ask if you wanted to go the winter ball together.” He laughs it off.
“Oh.” Jongup rubs his nose. “Sure.”
“Really?” Junhong’s eyes widen.
“Yeah. My crystal ball said to go with the person who asked me today,” Jongup says, shrugging his shoulders and taking the letter back from Junhong. “Want me to read your tea leaves?”
The rest of the year went great, except for the fact that their dance instructor turned out to be a former sympathizer with you who shall not be named and tried to sabotage the castle because he, well, he needed to go to Azkaban.
Fifth Year: Choi Junhong and the Astronomer’s Prediction
Junhong’s running down the steps from the astronomy tower, his wand illuminating the way down the darkness. Thirty minutes past curfew and the prefects should be trawling the castle, searching for students to send to detention and house points to deduct. At the end of the steps, Jongup, who’s been following behind him because he needed extra time looking at the stars tonight, grabs his arm and pulls him behind a tapestry.
To Junhong’s surprise, there’s a secret passageway behind the tapestry he didn’t know existed.
“This way,” Jongup whispers, pointing his glowing wand down the dark tunnel.
“Where does this go?” Junhong asks as they proceed forward, taking careful steps around uneven stones on the floor. He almost trips, bumping into Jongup’s side, not noticing the declining slope towards a cramped stairwell.
“Third floor near the portrait of the Lady knight. Not sure why.”
The knowledge leaves them with three floors to sneak down to get to the hufflepuff common room near the kitchens. Hopefully no one is patrolling the common room tonight to see them come in late. If they’re lucky, it’ll be empty except for the few insomniacs playing wizard chess.
“I don’t want another detention.” Junhong bites his tongue, “You’re always getting me in trouble.”
Somewhat out of breath, Jongup turns his head back, “You’re the one getting me in trouble!”
Junhong can see his shadow looming over Jongup as their wands light up the narrow staircase. “Nox.” His light goes out, leaving them with only Jongup’s wand to guide the way. “You better know what you’re doing.”
“I did a reading this morning, we should be fine.”
Junhong keeps one hand on the back of Jongup’s robe; he doesn’t trust Jongup’s readings.
Mars was particularly bright that night.
Sixth Year: Choi Junhong and the October Sorcerer
The autumn leaves are beginning to fall off the trees in the forbidden forest in droves, sprinkling the grounds with shades of brown, orange, red, and yellow. Soon snow will begin to fall, and trips to Hogsmeade will bring warm mugs of spiced cider and butterbeer.
Warmth from the central fireplace sets the hufflepuff common room a glow as many a student enjoys a relaxing Saturday before diving into rolls of parchment for unfinished essays.
“Jongup,” Junhong says after swallowing the last bit of his chocolate frog. “What did you decide about after graduation?” He doesn’t want Jongup to graduate and leave him just like the rest of his older housemates did after their seventh year. Every now and then he gets owls from Himchan, who’s working for the ministry in cleaning up messes when charms go wrong. Youngjae sends him pictures from his travels as he conducts research on magical creatures for the preservation of potentially endangered beings (PPEB).
“I’m going to work in my parents shop.” Jongup looks up from his star charts, “Then maybe work on my own after a few years.” Jongup’s parents were both avid astronomers and operated a prediction and consulting business out of their own home. “I’ve got an apprenticeship.”
“Oh.” Junhong stretches out his long legs that are still growing, but he’s learned a handy spell to lengthen the ends of his pants until he can buy new ones. “I didn’t do so well on my OWL’s last year.” It isn’t that he did horribly, but more so average in several subjects.
Jongup folds his star charts up into a nice bundle, “I know how you can improve your grades this year.”
“How? I don’t have time with quiddich practice and well…I’m busy.” Junhong considers spending time with Jongup has led to his poor studying skills. He may or may not want to spend all day everyday staring at Jongup’s face.
“You need to talk to the October wizard.”
“Who?”
“Well…I think his real name is Daehyun. He’s got all the studying cheat sheets for a price. I got my fourth year history notes from him, cost me a few sickles.”
Sounds like a loser, Junhong thinks.
Daehyun did in fact turn out to be a loser.
Seventh Year: Choi Junhong and Moon Jongup
Straightening his graduation robes, Junhong feels stuffy even though the great hall is so vast, it’s ceiling displaying a sunny day without many clouds up above. He should be cheerful, but he’s not really because the ceremony is short, no parents make the trek to Hogwarts, and after tonight he boards the train the next morning with the rest of the school. When he gets off at platform 9 and 3/4 his parents will be there to get him, and he’s going to have to find some sort of use for himself.
The party is grand, the food is spectacular (thanks to the house elves), and the music sung by the choir is well put together. Junhong can’t complain, or he can’t find himself complaining. His Hogwarts career is over and after seven years worth of memories in the school, it almost feels like he’s leaving home.
As the Hogwarts express chugs back into platform 9 and 3/4, Junhong almost doesn’t want to get off the train. Except for one reason only waiting for him amongst the crowd of parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends and more standing at the station.
He hoists his trunk down from the overhead compartment and says goodbye to his friends, promising to send an owl once he gets settled. The attendant helps him get his trunk down the step and onto a trolley. With both hands, he rolls his trunk out of the way and waits, checking his watch, a gift from Yongguk, and searching the crowd in both directions.
“Junhong!” A voice comes from behind him, so Junhong turns to the side and sees Jongup in dark blue robes with faintly embroidered stars around the collar. Junhong’s face morphs into a huge grin, smiling so wide his cheeks hurt with the strain on his muscles.
“Jongup!” Junhong lets go and gives Jongup a quick hug. He hasn’t seen Jongup for three months ever since they met up at Hogsmeade while Jongup was on break from his apprenticeship.
“So you’re all graduated?” Jongup takes a hold of Junhong’s trolley, pushing it towards the exit to the muggle side of the train station.
“Yep.”
“Ready to move in?”
“Yep.” Junhong takes a brightly colored candy out of his front robe pocket. “I have something for you.”
Jongup tilts his head to the side and takes the candy, “Hey my favorite.” He unwraps the candy and it bursts into multi colored confetti that rains down to the ground before disappearing. In the air hovers the words, ‘will you be my bestest?’ before exploding into hot pink hearts and stars.
For once, Junhong’s charm works perfectly as intended.
Jongup laughs, “Of course. Here.” He takes out his wand and a piece of paper out of his robe pocket and transfigures it into a shining star pin. “Congratulations Junhong.”
Junhong pins the star to his robe and walks alongside of Jongup.
They were after all going to go study the stars together. Maybe studying star charts isn’t the only rubbing the crystal ball they’ll predict for their future.
But Junhong won’t tell.
Author: themeltyway
Characters/Pairing: zelo/jongup (loosely)
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Wordcount: ~3,200
Summary: Junhong's new to this wizardry, magical, spell casting, potion making, broom flying business. Thankfully, Hogwarts is not. HP AU
Seven Year Story, More Like Seven Year Curse
First Year: Choi Junhong and the Wizarding World
Junhong spills his breakfast on himself, blackberry jam sliding straight off the knife and into his lap, staining his grey pants. He stares at his lap, not awake enough to figure out what he should do with his knife in one hand and piece of toast in the other. These were his best pair of pants, and the only pair that fit him properly at the ankles having out grown his other good pair since he stopped wearing them last winter. He should have followed his mom’s advice and tried them on before packing.
He was so excited to start classes this morning that he left his year mates sleeping in their beds, tiptoeing past quiet snores and packing his bag without a sound. Perhaps he should have stayed tucked away in bed an extra thirty minutes to not land himself in such a sticky spot.
“Here, I can fix that.” The older boy to his left says a spell Junhong hasn’t read about yet and flicks his wand. “Scourgify.”
In the blink of his eye the jam is gone and his pants look the same as when he slipped them on this morning.
“You’ll learn that spell later,” his housemate at his left says, “really handy for cleaning up messes.”
Junhong’s knife is already in the jam jar again for a second attempt. “Thanks for the spell.” His feet knock knock together under the table. “I’m a little nervous.”
He has so many new things to remember from memorizing the barrel tapping pattern to figuring out the moving staircases and the winding hallways of the castle. Not even the amazement of Diagon Alley has prepared him for the complete immersion that is Hogwarts.
“First day first classes, you’ll do great. If you need any help you can ask me.” The boy smiles and spears a sausage with his fork. “I’m Youngjae, we muggleborn’s need to stick together right? Some of these guys can be a little loony -”
“Excuse me, don’t speak lies into the first year’s ears.” A second boy from his house sits down, clothes immaculate, yellow and black striped tie clipped to his uniform shirt with a shiny silver pin. “He just says that because I told him his spidernet doesn’t make sense.” Junhong had met the second boy yesterday at their house welcoming party. He’s Himchan, a house prefect though Junhong doesn’t know what he does exactly.
“Internet not spidernet, I’ve told you a thousand times.” Youngjae pulls a face, corners of his mouth dropping. “Seriously.”
“Don’t worry kid,” Himchan says, making Junhong feel very much his young age of eleven. “You’ll be fine. Here,” - he grabs the sleeve of a boy walking past them - “Jongup can show you the ropes. Won’t you Jongup?”
The boy Himchan grabbed shrugs his shoulders, book bag slipping off his shoulders, his yellow and black tie hanging half knotted around his neck. “Dunno, I guess.” Junhong thinks Jongup can’t be much older than himself. He saw so many of his new house mates at the welcoming party, but he can’t remember seeing Jongup.
Himchan frowns, black wizarding robes billowing out as he raises his arm to tighten Jongup’s tie. “Where’s your hufflepuff loyalty this morning?” He pulls Jongup to sit down at the table, directly opposite of where Junhong’s sitting.
Shy, Junhong smiles around a bite of toast, wishing again that he’d waited for his fellow first years instead of rushing to breakfast right away. The clouds keeping the sun at bay in the illustrious ceiling of the great hall appear to clear enough for for light to filter down at the long rows of heavy tables.
“Sorry, I’m tired.” Jongup drops his book bag on the stone floor. A set of silverware and a plate appears in front of him, and Junhong tries his best to not look like a fish out of water. He’s still not used to this magic thing. Jongup lips quirk into a small smile, “Hi, ‘m Jongup. Second year.” He speaks slowly with a soft voice.
“Junhong,” he introduces himself. “You’ve got.” Junhong pauses, touching the corner of his mouth, “You’ve got drool here.”
“Oh.” Jongup scrubs at the side of his face with his sleeve. “Now?”
“Gone.”
Jongup’s already loading his plate with sausages, “Thanks.” His hair falls into his eyes and Junhong feels like he’s caught under some type of spell.
Blackberry jam smears over Junhong’s fingers, but he doesn’t care because he may have just made his first friend. Plus, he can always get Himchan the house prefect to do that fancy spell again. After all, hufflepuff’s are supposed look out for each other.
Of course, Junhong doesn’t know now that look out for each other can also lead to one breaking their arm and nearly turning into an iguana for two days from a spell gone wrong.
Second Year: Choi Junhong and the Hufflepuff Cup
Junhong flops down into one of the chairs in the common room, “So, I’m thinking about trying out for the quiddich team this year.” He glances over at Jongup on the couch near him, history book open in his lap and a half eaten sugar quill hanging out of his mouth. Sunlight pours in from the open windows, warming Junhong in his seat.
Jongup looks up from his book, “Oh?” He turns the page, “What position?”
“Chaser. I’ve been practicing for fun with the quiddich club and maybe I can get a reserve position.” Ever since his first flying lesson last year, Junhong has had a love affair with flying, so much so that he begged his parents to buy him a broom for his early birthday present. They didn’t understand why he wanted to play ‘such a dangerous sport,’ but came around after Junhong said he’d work harder to get better grades this year. “Do you have any tips?”
He was years away from being as prepared as these kids born into magical families who were riding brooms before they could walk.
And, Jongup was on the Hufflepuff quiddich team after all.
“Uh…” Jongup pops the sugar quill out of his mouth, “Don’t screw up?”
“That’s not helping!” Junhong curls his legs up in the chair and leans over the arm rest pouting, “How’d you make it on the team?”
“I scored a lot of points against the keeper and was the only one who didn’t get the crap beat out of them by the bludger, hey did I ever show you the scar I got from tryouts- ”
A hand ruffles the hair on the top of Junhong’s head, making him tilt his head and look up; it’s Yongguk, the other Hufflepuff prefect and captain of the quiddich team. Junhong rather idolized Yongguk and his strong ideas, not to mention Yongguk’s helped him figure out his transfiguration homework many a time.
“Work hard, aim straight, and stay focused while you’re on the pitch,” Yongguk says, “You can’t cut corners in the tryouts, but we always give everyone a fair shot, so just do your best.”
“Are you preaching again?” Himchan comes out from the seventh year boys room. “You should really look into a job at the ministry. Or is that too mainstream.”
Yongguk shoves at Himchan’s head, “Sure Mr. young students of Hogwarts calendar month of September.”
Junhong lowers his head. He really only wanted to speak to Jongup about this.
He did end up making the team, playing in the last fifteen minutes after one of the team chasers went down from a bludger, and his one lucky goal off the back of his broomstick gave them the points they needed to win (after the golden snitch of course).
Third Year: Choi Junhong and the Dragon Wand
Charms class doesn’t come easy to Junhong; he has to put in twice the amount of practice to prefect the swish and flick motions required of his wand. The amount of feathers he’d exploded first year almost made a new school record, or so their professor said. His difficulty with charms doesn’t come any easier when the Slytherins tease him for being a clueless muggleborn.
Well, he’d rather be a muggleborn than an annoying Slytherin, and everyone knows how they made out in the war. Junhong has read his history book for the important bits.
Biting his lip, Junhong tries out a new spell he learned in class today at dinner. With a swish of his wand, he points it at the bowl of brightly colored candies - some of Jongup’s favorites - “Locomotor.” The bowl wobbles up in the air as if hesitant with the spells intent. Go towards Jongup, Junhong thinks, focusing on directing the bowl across the table where Jongup is sitting next to another one of the fourth years.
An elbow nudges Junhong’s arm, “Hey Junhong, what did you say was the best use of the color changing charm?”
Off balance, Junhong’s wand arm lurches to the side, sending the bowl careening to the side, held by Junhong’s wobbly spell, and spilling candies over the table. They spill over the almost finished platter of ham, but several roll across the table and bump into plates and glasses. His housemates roll their eyes and flick the candies away with the simple but effective sigh of exasperation. It’s common knowledge that Junhong’s spells are penchant to go awry before he’s mastered them.
One candy bounces up onto Jongup’s plate. “Oh,” Jongup says, “I love these.” He picks it up, unwraps it, and pops it into his mouth. “Thanks Junhong.”
Junhong smiles and sets his wand down on the table.
He spent the whole year with different shades of neon hair because every time he tried to turn his hair blond something went terribly, horribly, and horrifically wrong.
Fourth Year: Choi Junhong and the Lord of Dance
His year mates were all a twitter about who they were going to invite to the winter ball, having discovered the benefits of dating. Too shy to ask a girl out, Junhong isn’t sure how he’s going to go to the ball. Can he even go without a date? What girl would even want to go with him when his hair is still a bright pink color due to an accident in potions class after he finally got it to go back to black again. However, he really wants to go and dance with the rest of the school.
Perhaps, just perhaps, he could go solo. He heard that Jongup’s going solo and maybe he could ask him if they could go together.
Junhong spends an hour charming an envelope to flash colorful text in all bold letters saying ‘hey if you’re not going to the ball with anyone let’s go to the ball together :)?’ He’s going to slip it into Jongup’s bag at breakfast since they normally eat together before going their separate ways to class.
That evening in the hufflepuff common room Junhong is both scared and excited to get an answer from Jongup. He waits, curled up in a chair, pretending to be reading his history textbook. When Jongup comes through the entrance, he sees Junhong in the chair and gives him a small wave and walks towards him.
Junhong’s heart flutters something fierce.
“Is this from you?” Jongup asks, pulling out a letter from his bag. The colors have all run together, making the letter illegible in a puddle of dripping text. “I can’t read it. Spilled some pumpkin juice on my bag at lunch and it melted.”
Junhong’s heart drops, so much for his comedic try at getting Jongup’s attention about the ball. He grabs the letter out of Jongup’s hands and surveys the damage - it’s gone beyond repair. “It was a joke. I wanted to ask if you wanted to go the winter ball together.” He laughs it off.
“Oh.” Jongup rubs his nose. “Sure.”
“Really?” Junhong’s eyes widen.
“Yeah. My crystal ball said to go with the person who asked me today,” Jongup says, shrugging his shoulders and taking the letter back from Junhong. “Want me to read your tea leaves?”
The rest of the year went great, except for the fact that their dance instructor turned out to be a former sympathizer with you who shall not be named and tried to sabotage the castle because he, well, he needed to go to Azkaban.
Fifth Year: Choi Junhong and the Astronomer’s Prediction
Junhong’s running down the steps from the astronomy tower, his wand illuminating the way down the darkness. Thirty minutes past curfew and the prefects should be trawling the castle, searching for students to send to detention and house points to deduct. At the end of the steps, Jongup, who’s been following behind him because he needed extra time looking at the stars tonight, grabs his arm and pulls him behind a tapestry.
To Junhong’s surprise, there’s a secret passageway behind the tapestry he didn’t know existed.
“This way,” Jongup whispers, pointing his glowing wand down the dark tunnel.
“Where does this go?” Junhong asks as they proceed forward, taking careful steps around uneven stones on the floor. He almost trips, bumping into Jongup’s side, not noticing the declining slope towards a cramped stairwell.
“Third floor near the portrait of the Lady knight. Not sure why.”
The knowledge leaves them with three floors to sneak down to get to the hufflepuff common room near the kitchens. Hopefully no one is patrolling the common room tonight to see them come in late. If they’re lucky, it’ll be empty except for the few insomniacs playing wizard chess.
“I don’t want another detention.” Junhong bites his tongue, “You’re always getting me in trouble.”
Somewhat out of breath, Jongup turns his head back, “You’re the one getting me in trouble!”
Junhong can see his shadow looming over Jongup as their wands light up the narrow staircase. “Nox.” His light goes out, leaving them with only Jongup’s wand to guide the way. “You better know what you’re doing.”
“I did a reading this morning, we should be fine.”
Junhong keeps one hand on the back of Jongup’s robe; he doesn’t trust Jongup’s readings.
Mars was particularly bright that night.
Sixth Year: Choi Junhong and the October Sorcerer
The autumn leaves are beginning to fall off the trees in the forbidden forest in droves, sprinkling the grounds with shades of brown, orange, red, and yellow. Soon snow will begin to fall, and trips to Hogsmeade will bring warm mugs of spiced cider and butterbeer.
Warmth from the central fireplace sets the hufflepuff common room a glow as many a student enjoys a relaxing Saturday before diving into rolls of parchment for unfinished essays.
“Jongup,” Junhong says after swallowing the last bit of his chocolate frog. “What did you decide about after graduation?” He doesn’t want Jongup to graduate and leave him just like the rest of his older housemates did after their seventh year. Every now and then he gets owls from Himchan, who’s working for the ministry in cleaning up messes when charms go wrong. Youngjae sends him pictures from his travels as he conducts research on magical creatures for the preservation of potentially endangered beings (PPEB).
“I’m going to work in my parents shop.” Jongup looks up from his star charts, “Then maybe work on my own after a few years.” Jongup’s parents were both avid astronomers and operated a prediction and consulting business out of their own home. “I’ve got an apprenticeship.”
“Oh.” Junhong stretches out his long legs that are still growing, but he’s learned a handy spell to lengthen the ends of his pants until he can buy new ones. “I didn’t do so well on my OWL’s last year.” It isn’t that he did horribly, but more so average in several subjects.
Jongup folds his star charts up into a nice bundle, “I know how you can improve your grades this year.”
“How? I don’t have time with quiddich practice and well…I’m busy.” Junhong considers spending time with Jongup has led to his poor studying skills. He may or may not want to spend all day everyday staring at Jongup’s face.
“You need to talk to the October wizard.”
“Who?”
“Well…I think his real name is Daehyun. He’s got all the studying cheat sheets for a price. I got my fourth year history notes from him, cost me a few sickles.”
Sounds like a loser, Junhong thinks.
Daehyun did in fact turn out to be a loser.
Seventh Year: Choi Junhong and Moon Jongup
Straightening his graduation robes, Junhong feels stuffy even though the great hall is so vast, it’s ceiling displaying a sunny day without many clouds up above. He should be cheerful, but he’s not really because the ceremony is short, no parents make the trek to Hogwarts, and after tonight he boards the train the next morning with the rest of the school. When he gets off at platform 9 and 3/4 his parents will be there to get him, and he’s going to have to find some sort of use for himself.
The party is grand, the food is spectacular (thanks to the house elves), and the music sung by the choir is well put together. Junhong can’t complain, or he can’t find himself complaining. His Hogwarts career is over and after seven years worth of memories in the school, it almost feels like he’s leaving home.
As the Hogwarts express chugs back into platform 9 and 3/4, Junhong almost doesn’t want to get off the train. Except for one reason only waiting for him amongst the crowd of parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends and more standing at the station.
He hoists his trunk down from the overhead compartment and says goodbye to his friends, promising to send an owl once he gets settled. The attendant helps him get his trunk down the step and onto a trolley. With both hands, he rolls his trunk out of the way and waits, checking his watch, a gift from Yongguk, and searching the crowd in both directions.
“Junhong!” A voice comes from behind him, so Junhong turns to the side and sees Jongup in dark blue robes with faintly embroidered stars around the collar. Junhong’s face morphs into a huge grin, smiling so wide his cheeks hurt with the strain on his muscles.
“Jongup!” Junhong lets go and gives Jongup a quick hug. He hasn’t seen Jongup for three months ever since they met up at Hogsmeade while Jongup was on break from his apprenticeship.
“So you’re all graduated?” Jongup takes a hold of Junhong’s trolley, pushing it towards the exit to the muggle side of the train station.
“Yep.”
“Ready to move in?”
“Yep.” Junhong takes a brightly colored candy out of his front robe pocket. “I have something for you.”
Jongup tilts his head to the side and takes the candy, “Hey my favorite.” He unwraps the candy and it bursts into multi colored confetti that rains down to the ground before disappearing. In the air hovers the words, ‘will you be my bestest?’ before exploding into hot pink hearts and stars.
For once, Junhong’s charm works perfectly as intended.
Jongup laughs, “Of course. Here.” He takes out his wand and a piece of paper out of his robe pocket and transfigures it into a shining star pin. “Congratulations Junhong.”
Junhong pins the star to his robe and walks alongside of Jongup.
They were after all going to go study the stars together. Maybe studying star charts isn’t the only rubbing the crystal ball they’ll predict for their future.
But Junhong won’t tell.