Chapter Text
It was common knowledge that Dazai and Chuuya were sworn rivals. Pretty much every single student in Hogwarts knew. The teachers who conducted both their classes during the same hour knew as well. After all, they never tried to hide it.
Nakahara Chuuya, fourth year at Hogwarts, member of Gryffindor and Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He was a short boy with vibrant read hair, ocean blue eyes, and a clear obsession for hats and butterbeer. He was rather short-tempered (pun absolutely intended) and would rather get into trouble than staying quite when provoked by his sworn enemy Dazai.
When Chuuya was strictly kept away from Dazai, he was very pleasant to be around. He was nice to everyone, was really kind and helpful, and even though he swore in literally every sentence he spoke, it wasn't in a mean way. In fact, it was funny and all his friends found it amusing. Speaking of friends, he had lots of them.
Yosano Akiko, the Gryffindor sixth year, and Akutagawa Gin, the Gryffindor second year, were both quite good friends of Chuuya. He was also friends with a few Hufflepuffs, namely two boys named Nakajima Atsushi and Tachihara Michizou. There were also two other Ravenclaws, who Chuuya knew well enough, but he wasn't very to close to them. Kunikida Doppo and Edogawa Ranpo were more of Dazai's friends. And Chuuya wanted nothing to do with that shitty asshole.
On the other hand, Dazai Osamu was a fourth year at Hogwarts as well, member of Slytherin and of the opinion that "Sports are stupid. Why would I want to watch people flinging around a bunch of hazardous balls?" He was rather tall, his brown hair almost always perfectly tousled, and his brown eyes always hinted with the Slytherin brand of evil. He was an absolute genius; top of every single class he took with zero efforts. In fact, everyone knew him to be the Demon Prodigy from Slytherin.
Every visible part of his body, other than his face, was always covered with bandages. Tendrils of white gauze curled up his neck, down his hands and everywhere in between. Nobody had ever figured out if he wore bandages for medical purposes, or if they were merely an accessory. Other than that, it appeared that Dazai's one purpose in life was to be a constant annoyance to everyone around him. Despite that, he had a few friends too, for some reason.
The Slytherin third year Akutagawa Ryuunosuke practically worshiped the ground Dazai walked on. But one wouldn't say that they were exactly friends. The Ravenclaws Kunikida and Ranpo hung out with him sometimes, much to the former's annoyance. Ranpo however, was just as much of a genius as Dazai, and hence the two of them usually got along pretty well. The Hufflepuff boy, Miyazawa Kenji, who liked literally everyone, hung out with him as well. Surprisingly, Dazai didn't mind his presence at all.
Despite having these four "friends", the Prodigy genius wasn't very close to any of them. However, there was one person who he would genuinely consider as a friend, and that was Kouyou Ozaki, Slytherin sixth year. She was alright. Dazai didn't mind her as much.
Anyway, the point is that Dazai and Chuuya did not get along. Everybody knew that. They were sworn rivals, ready to kill each other at any given point of time. And that is exactly why the whole school was taken by horrid surprise when "The Amortentia Incident" happened.
The day started like any other. Everyone had breakfast in the Great Hall before going off to their respective classes. After hours of gruelling classes, the final period arrived. The Gryffindor and Slytherin fourth years had Potions with Professor Snape as their last class of the day. The situation would be fine if Dazai and Chuuya weren't in this class too. But of course, they were in the class, and worse, they were partners.
Since Professor Snape liked to torture his students, he'd fixed everybody's class partner for the year on the very first day of their fourth year at Hogwarts. Since most of Dazai and Chuuya's friends from their own house were not in the same year as them, those two had ended up sitting next to each other on their first combined Potions class of the year. Obviously, Professor Snape just had to pair them up; he knew of their rivalry very well, but of course, he wouldn't be Snape if he didn't go against his students' wishes, right?
Hence, Dazai and Chuuya were stuck as Potions partners. It was absolutely infuriating for the other students in the class, as well. The infamous duo constantly bickered throughout the whole class, Dazai calling the other too dumb to understand simple potions, and Chuuya screaming bloody murder at the genius.
That day too, everybody was expecting the Gryffindor-Slytherin potions class to proceed in the same, annoying routine. But that is not what happened at all. See, that day, Professor Snape had instructed the students to brew Amortentia, the most powerful love potion in existence. It causes a powerful obsession or infatuation from the drinker. But that's not all. Amortentia smells different to each person, according to what attracts them the most. Hence, the potion is supposed to smell like who or what you're attracted to. It was a simple enough concept to understand.
Dazai was very well known for being unpunctual for most of his classes. If he had to share the class with Chuuya, he would be late on purpose. The teachers couldn't even deduct points from his house for it; Dazai was perfectly capable of regaining the lost points within ten minutes, by answering a really difficult question correctly, even if he wasn't paying attention. It was annoying for the teachers, truly.
Dazai was late to class that day as well. Fortunately, Professor Snape had left the class for a bit, having gone to tend to an urgent matter in the infirmary. The genius fourth year easily snuck into the Potions classroom and made his way to his usual table, where his partner was busy brewing the potion their professor had asked him to. Mind you, Dazai didn't know which potion was being brewed.
He clicked his tongue when he finally took his seat next to Chuuya, "Whatever you're brewing, you're probably doing it wrong."
The Gryffindor redhead growled at him, "Shut up, asshole. You don't even bother to show up to listen to the instructions and then you have the nerve to tell me I'm doing this wrong? Even though you don't know what we're making?"
Dazai hummed thoughtfully, "Hmm, you're probably right, but chibis can't possibly right, ne Chuuya?"
"Why, you!!!"
The taller of them grinned before asking, "Ne, Chuuya, what are we making today then?"
Chuuya just glared him, "I'm not gonna tell you. Go ask somebody else."
Dazai whined before draping his arms around Chuuya, "Chuuya~ Don't be mean now! Why must I socialise with other peers when I can just annoy you for the rest of my life anyway?"
Chuuya pushed him off almost immediately, "Shut up, bastard. Anyway, do you smell something from the potion yet?"
Dazai made a show of wrinkling his nose, trying to pick up a smell. Then he rolled his eyes before speaking up loudly, a lame attempt to embarrass his partner, "Ne Chuuya, how can I possibly smell anything over all that wine scented perfume you're wearing?"
The room was overcome with pin drop silence within a second of Dazai's question. Everybody paused brewing their potions to turn around and stare at the genius Slytherin. Chuuya had stilled too, his hand holding on to a spatula. The redhead blinked a few times, his eyes fixed on Dazai's face.
Dazai could feel a ball of tension settle in the pit of his stomach, "What? What did I say?"
Some random Gryffindor responded from next to him, "Um, you said Chuuya-san is wearing a lot of wine scented perfume."
The bandaged man tilted his head, "Yes, and? He wears that perfume every day."
He must have said something wrong again, because the whole class was staring at him even more now. He simply turned back to Chuuya, trying to assess his reaction to everything.
Chuuya swallowed once, before simply asking, "Are you wearing your usual lotion today?"
Dazai blinked, "What?"
Chuuya tapped his foot impatiently, "Your lotion. The one scented with cocoa and shea butter."
Dazai could practically hear everybody's thoughts. The Dazai Osamu uses cocoa and shea butter lotion? What the fuck? He simply ignored all of that and shook his head at Chuuya, "Um, no? I woke up late today, so I didn't have time to wear lotion."
Chuuya's face paled faster than Dazai could suck in an anxious breath. The redhead hurried to stand up and gather all his things before muttering an "I have to go" and leaving the classroom as fast as possible. Dazai was left behind in the classroom, in utter confusion. What even just happened?
The question was probably evident on his face, because the Gryffindor from before answered his unspoken question hesitantly, "Um, Dazai-san. Chuuya-san wasn't wearing any perfume at all today. None of us could smell it on him when we spoke to him before class."
By now, the gears had started turning in the Demon Prodigy's head. He asked in a whisper, "What... What are we brewing today?"
The other Gryffindor student provided him with an answer, a sympathetic expression decorating his face, "Amortentia."
Dazai cursed as realization finally dawned, "Oh fuck."
Fast forward a few hours later, specifically right after dinner time, when all the students were allowed to sit in their respective common rooms and do whatever they wanted. Dazai had somehow managed to sneak up to the entrance of the Gryffindor common room. (He'd heard about the Marauder's Map and made his own version. So, he pretty much used it to find secret passageways to lead him up to the Gryffindor common room.)
He didn't know the password to the common room, but that was okay because he was friends with Yosano. He'd spoken to her in the Great Hall, right after dinner, and she'd agreed to meet him outside the Gryffindor common room at a decided time.
Soon enough, the door to the Gryffindor common room opened, and Yosano Akiko stepped out. She raised her hand in greeting, "Hey, Dazai. What's up? You've never needed my help for anything before."
The Slytherin sighed, "I know, I know. I need you to fetch Chuuya for me, Yosano-san. I don't care what he says. You have to get him out of the room so I can talk to him."
The older Gryffindor member smirked knowingly, "Is this about the Amortentia incident?" She added when Dazai's eyes widened in surprise, "Why are you surprised? The whole school already knows, of course. After all, it's not every day that Hogwarts' sworn rivals smell each other as the scent of Amortentia."
With that, she retreated back into the common room, presumably to fetch Chuuya. Dazai was left behind once again, wondering what she meant by 'smell each other'. As far as he knew, he'd only given away that he had smelled Chuuya as the scent of the wretched love potion. Despite being a certified genius, Dazai seemed to think that Chuuya was avoiding him because he was weirded out. Chuuya probably didn't see him that way, anyway. So, Dazai was just here to apologize for making things awkward. Nothing less, and nothing more.
Five minutes later, Dazai heard his Potions partner's heavy cursing first. This was followed by the sight of Yosano and Gin carrying Chuuya out of the common room, the short man screaming his had off. Dazai swore that he could feel the Fat Lady glaring at all of them as the Gryffindor girls deposited Chuuya at his feet. The girls were clearly smart as hell, because they ran back into their common room almost immediately.
Dazai helped the shorter man on his feet, "I'm sorry they had to take such drastic measures."
Chuuya glared at him before dropping his shoulders and sighing, "It's whatever. What do you want, shitty Dazai?"
The Slytherin offered a small smile, "I just want to talk. Care to join me in the Observatory?"
Chuuya regarded him with wary eyes for a minutes before sighing in agreement. The two of them then made their way to the top of the Astronomy tower, where the Observatory lay in beautiful silence. The night sky outside was clear, and the two boys could see the stars through the sturdy glass dome. They made their way to the little protruding balcony-like structure before making themselves comfortable on the railings.
The utter silence lasted about two minutes, before Chuuya spoke, "So, what did you want to talk about? I have things to do, you know."
Dazai hummed, "I know."
Chuuya sighed in exasperation before looking at the other properly, "Look, bastard. You were the one who wanted to 'talk'. So, get to it already!"
Dazai sighed one last time before turning to face Chuuya properly, "I just wanted to apologize. I know I made things really awkward back in Potions class today. And now apparently, the whole school knows. Something about rivals smelling each other as the scent of amortentia"
Chuuya wasn't sure what he was expecting, but it sure as hell wasn't an apology. He blinked, "You're apologising? For what exactly?"
Dazai waved his hands around explanatorily, "You know! For making things awkward."
Chuuya let out an exasperated groan, "Bastard, we're literally out here in the Observatory by ourselves talking about something so stupid. I assure you that things are not awkward."
The other boy blinked, "Oh? You just left hastily, so I just assumed..."
The older of them huffed, "Yeah, well. I realized a bunch of stuff and had a lot of thinking to do."
Dazai nodded carefully, "Oh. Alright then. So um, that's settled. We should get going then."
He had just started to leave when Chuuya pulled him back by his hands. The redhead was staring at him incredulously, "Oh my god, are you actually an idiot, shitty Dazai? Is all that genius of yours just a big joke?"
Dazai tilted his head in confusion, "What do you mean?"
Chuuya's eyes widened even further, "Oh my god. You're actually that oblivious. This would be hilarious if I was watching this interaction from the side-lines, you know."
The bandaged boy frowned, "I don't understand."
Chuuya finally decided to take pity on his wretched rival. He curled his fingers in the taller boy's robes and asked, "Shitty Dazai, do you like me in that way?"
Dazai cocked his head, "Well, yeah. I thought that was obvious. You know, with The Amortentia Incident and all. But you don't like me back, obviously, so I just wanted to apologize so everything can go back to the way it used to be."
It was Chuuya's turn to frown this time, "Why would you think I don't like you back?"
Dazai's reply was one hundred percent serious. He blinked, "Why would you?"
Chuuya let out another exasperated sigh, "Why wouldn't I?! Shitty Dazai, my precious idiot, you said it yourself. 'Something about rivals smelling each other as the scent of amortentia' Emphasis on 'each other'."
Dazai gasped this time, as he finally understood what his partner was trying to say, "Wait, you...?"
Chuuya admitted sheepishly, "I smelled cocoa and shea butter. And you said you weren't wearing any lotion today."
Dazai gaped at the other for a few seconds, not knowing what to say. He then settled on a teasing remark, "You do know that I know that it was Chuuya who put the cocoa and shea butter lotion under the Christmas tree as a gift to me, right?"
Chuuya blushed furiously and smacked the other boy, "That was in our first year!! Let that go, god damnit. I was eleven and had the biggest crush on you."
Dazai noted, "You got me the exact same lotion as an 'anonymous gift' for all our three Christmases at Hogwarts."
The short boy was super flushed now. He smacked his partner again, "Don't bring that up! I was young and I had a crush on you, damn it, asshole!"
The genius grinned, "You have a crush on me."
Chuuya huffed, "So, what if I do?"
Dazai's eyes sparkled, "I have a crush on you too!"
Chuuya snorted, "I know that already. You know, with the Amortentia Incident and all. Are you sure you're a genius, shitty bastard?"
Said shitty bastard whined softly, "Uwah, my boyfriend is so mean to me!"
The older of them rolled his eyes fondly, "Shitty Dazai, you can't just declare somebody as your boyfriend."
Dazai buried his face in the other's hair, pulling the latter in a hug, "Yes, I can. It's just Chuuya after all~"
Chuuya sighed in fond exasperation before pushing his new boyfriend away and getting up on his tiptoes to kiss said boyfriend, "You are truly such an asshole."
Internally, they were both squealing like high school girls. Boyfriend.
Of course, now, the rest of the Hogwarts student body would be forced to put up with Dazai and Chuuya as the cliché rivals turned lovers. Somebody save their souls, honestly.