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The teachers of Hogwarts often talked about their students, of course, they did. During their years at the prestigious school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, they had met many young people, smart ones and foolish ones, coldhearted ones and friendly ones, some of them born to do great things, some of them born to succumb to the temptations of the dark side.
But if you’d asked, who the most troublesome had been, they would share a look of utter despair and answer in unison.
*
“Courfeyrac! What the fuck did you do?”
Bahorel’s booming voice broke the peaceful silence in the Hufflepuff common room. Usually, he wasn’t a Hufflepuff student, but it was the Winter break and the ones of the Amis, who had stayed behind had managed to convince their headmaster Valjean to let them stay together at one house. It was like a two-week-long sleep-over party! During the last two days, they had managed to disperse the handful of other Hufflepuffs away, with their behavior, but yeah Bahorel didn’t care. That just meant more room for him.
Sleeping on the floor probably wasn’t his most favorite thing to do, but whoever had made the interior design for the Hufflepuff common room had been a fucking genius. The walls were lined with shelves filled with plants (yeah, okay most of them probably belonged to Jehan), books and all kinds of tat. The mustard yellow curtains were the only sign of house pride, something Bahorel very much appreciated. After six years of living in Gryffindor, the color red really made him aggressive. But the best thing was definitely the giant fireplace and the old worn-down but still comfortable sofas. There were mismatched quilts thrown each of them, probably made by Jehan. It made the whole place, that seemed to constantly smell of smoke and heavy and sweet flowers, feel like home.
And yeah, the fluffy carpets also were not so bad to sleep on. But right now Bahorel didn’t care about any of that because he was about to strangle Courfeyrac. Or he would if he were able to try. He was kinda glad, that nobody else was in the room safe for him and Feuilly. The others had probably went to get breakfast.
Next, to him, Feuilly began to stir, shifting around but not ready to open his eyes.
Fucking hell.
In front of him lay a package, with Courfeyrac’s scrawling handwriting on it, addressed to him. Maybe he should have waited before opening, or hell it’s from Courfeyrac, he shouldn’t have opened it at all. But he had and now there was a blinking monstrosity of a mistletoe over his head and he couldn’t fucking move.
Courfeyrac was so dead.
“Bro, I can hear you plotting someone’ murder from over here, what’s up?”, Feuilly asked eyes still only half open. Great, he was awake.
“I can’t fucking move.”, Bahorel answered through gritted teeth. He had tried getting up, but something had held him down, he had tried crawling away, but it was like he was glued to the floor. He had even tried to roll away.
“What?”, Feuilly sat up and then let out a shriek when he leaned forward.
Oh, please no.
“Why the fuck can’t I stand up? Bahorel what did you fucking do?”, Feuilly was struggling to move his leg, but it was in vain. He wouldn’t get away from the floor.
In lieu of an answer, Bahorel only pointed to the mistletoe over them and Feuilly’s face now fell completely.
The wait was he blushing?
Bahorel quickly decided that must have been an illusion when the other boy spoke up.
“You got to be kidding me? Courfeyrac is going to fucking die!” He grunted frustratedly, when he tried to get up again, just to almost fall over and onto Bahorel’s chest.
“Are there any instructions?”, he then asked, bringing a bit more distance between himself and his best. Bahorel only snorted in response.
“Dude, it’s a mistletoe, I guess it’s pretty self-explanatory.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, I figured that 5 minutes ago.”
“Ugh shut the fuck up, no way I am going to kiss you.”
“No? Then I guess we’ll have to spend our Christmas on the floor sugar cube.”
“You are the worst!”, Feuilly tried to his Bahorel in the face, but missed him, still not able to move much. Bahorel was quick to response shoving him playfully until Feuilly fell over. But he didn’t go down, without grabbing the collar of Bahorel’s shirt and dragging him with him.
Now that their faces were only inches apart, Bahorel was pretty sure, that Feuilly way blushing.
“So Bro, wanna get some breakfast?”, he asked trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.
“Ugh, get over with it, you asshole.”, Feuilly rolled his eyes, but the red on his cheeks didn’t fade and his eyes didn’t meet Bahorel’s.
“Yeah, love you too you idiot.”, Bahorel said with a laugh before he closed the last distance between them and kissed the other boy softly.
The softness didn’t stay long and soon enough they were rolling over the floor shoving, kissing and biting each other. It wasn’t much different than before, only there was kissing now.
“Maybe we should thank Courfeyrac.”, Bahorel mused when he held Feuilly down easily and sucked a bruise onto his neck.
“Nah, he would never let us live it down.”, Feuilly answered before he went to pinch Bahorel and take back control.
*
Merely two hours later Marius stumbled into the Hufflepuff common room with a small package in his hands. Courfeyrac had shoved it into his hands this morning before he had announced that Marius wasn’t allowed back in their room for the rest of the day. Jehan had only waved awkwardly from, where he was sitting on his bed. After six years Marius had stopped questioning the things Courfeyrac did, he just played along and hoped he wasn’t the one to burn off his eyebrows (again).
So after he had eaten some breakfast and had a short talk with Cosette, he was now back to deliver the package. According to Courfeyrac, he was supposed to give it to Enjolras, but only when Grantaire was with him, and Enjolras had to open it immediately.
The good thing was, that Enjolras and Grantaire, despite fighting all the time spent most of their free time during the break with each other. Courfeyrac was busy with Jehan and Combeferre had gone home, so Enjolras favorite partner for talking (arguing) was Grantaire.
And sure enough, Marius found them standing in front of the fireplace, so close that their chests were almost touching and shouting. The two of them were probably the reason, the most other Hufflepuffs, who had stayed back were sleeping somewhere else.
“I am just saying that the rules during the Christmas Break are fundamentally wrong! Why can’t you listen for once?”, Enjolras had one hand fisted in the front of Grantaire’s jumper.
The other boy only rolled his eyes and shot back. “For fuck's sake, since when do you purebloods even know what Christmas is?”, he spat. And that had Enjolras actually pause for a second. Marius, a pureblood himself, had never thought about this. But most pureblood families didn’t know Christmas. Why should they? Wizards didn’t know religion, the way muggles did.
“I…” Wow, seeing Enjolras at a loss for words was weird, but apparently, it wasn’t anything new for Grantaire, who suppressed a laugh. How much time were they really spending with each other? Marius truly wondered.
Anyway, this wasn’t his problem, he was just the messenger. He gave Enjolras the package and told him, he should open it immediately. Grantaire, curious about what it might be, took place next to Enjolras on the sofa, as the boy sat down.
Marius said goodbye with an awkward wave and went back to meet Cosette and her father for tea. This was going to be embarrassing.
“I am not sure, I want to know, what this is.”, Enjolras said, shaking the package lightly.
He knew Courfeyrac well enough, to not trust him.
“Ah, come on, it’s probably something funny!”, Grantaire countered, taking the package. “If you don’t want to open it, I will.”
Enjolras only muttered “Famous last words.” and rolled his eyes.
He had thought about moving out of the way, in case the thing inside the package would explode (that had only happened four times), but it was too late.
Grantaire tore the wrapping paper open a green thing flew up into the air, where it floated over their heads.
“This must be a joke…”, Grantaire said with a shocked expression.
“Is this…?”
“I think so.”
“But why?”
“I have no idea, but fuck! I can’t move away.”
And true Grantaire tried to get up from the sofa or shift away, but he couldn’t. Enjolras watched him with a horrified expression and then tried moving. He couldn’t, no matter how hard he tried, it was like his legs were glued to the spot.
“I am going to kill him. And Marius.”, Enjolras decided with a murderous expression.
“Woah, calm down Apollo! Don’t shoot the messenger!” Grantaire put his hand on Enjolras shoulder, but the other boy only gave him an angry look.
“Look, I don’t care about your Muggle proverbs. Somebody is going to pay for this.”
“Yeah, okay. But first of all, we should find out, how to get free?”, Grantaire suggested.
“I… Wait look! There’s a piece of paper!”
And trued. Between the wrapping paper, a small slip of paper was lying on the ground. It had Courfeyrac’s handwriting. He picked it up and read aloud.
“Just because it’s Christmas and at Christmas, you tell the truth. I know you have something you want to tell R. Do exactly that.”
Courfeyrac didn’t!
Enjolras’ heart dived when his brain processed the words.
Dammit, he had told Courfeyrac about his crush or whatever this was in private. Next, to him, Grantaire snorted.
“What’s so funny?”, Enjolras demanded.
“He quoted ‘Love actually’, that boy is such a sap.”
Then he paused looking at Enjolras with a shy smile.
“So what’s that thing you wanted to tell me?”
Enjolras bit his lower lip, this wasn’t how he had wanted to tell Grantaire. Okay, who was he kidding he didn’t have any idea how to tell Grantaire. Courfeyrac was a damn evil genius, he had taken the chance to run away from Enjolras.
“I uhm…”, he felt the heat rise in his cheeks. Really this was ridiculous.
“I think I like you. I mean, I really like you!”, he blurted out, not meeting Grantaire’s eyes. He wanted to run, but his legs wouldn’t let him.
“What the fuck, why can’t I move?”, he asked, panic in his voice.
Grantaire put a hand on his shoulder and when Enjorlas looked up at him, he was smiling.
“Apollo, do you have any idea, how mistletoes work?”
Enjolras only shook his head, he had never really cared about such traditions.
Grantaire leaned forward and then stopped abruptly.
“Wait. No, let me do this different.” He then took a deep breath and took both of Enjolras’ hands into his. “You might not believe it, but I really like you too, have been for a long time.” Enjolras blinked at him unbelievingly.
“Can I kiss you?”, Grantaire asked and Enjorlas couldn’t do more but nod.
As Grantaire’s lips touched his he felt the tension drop. When he pulled Grantaire closer, he noticed that they were both able to move again. And it wasn’t until he was sitting in Grantaire’s lap with his hands in the other boy’s hair, that he fully processed, what had happened.
He broke the kiss.
“Wait, you really like me back?” he asked out of breath and Grantaire laughed at him, tugging at one of his curls lightly.
“Of course I do.”
*
“Do you really think this will work out?”, Jehan asked his breath tickling the skin on Courfeyrac’s neck. The two of them wouldn’t leave their room today, in order to let the other’s calm down, before they were going to try and kill him (yes he had head Bahorel’s shout this morning).
“Of course it will. If there is one person, who can identify oblivious idiots in living, it’s me. And the spells Combeferre has put on the mistletoes are amazing an perfect as always.”, he insisted.
With his left hand, he was drawing patterns on the skin of Jehan’s back. Yeah, he could probably spend the rest of the break here like this.
He felt the vibrations of Jehan’s giggles and his boyfriend answered with a mocking tone. “Oh really, you of all people see when people are in love? How long had it taken you to understand your own feelings?”
Now that was unfair.
“Two years, but that’s different!”
“No, it isn’t!”, Jehan insisted placing small kissed on his jawbone. “I had to trap you under a mistletoe, albeit a normal one to finally figure it out. Everyone had seen you pining.” He met Courfeyrac’s look and winked at him. “It was adorable in a pathetic way.”
“Please tell me you’re not going to turn this into a poem.”, Courfeyrac groaned.
“Well, if you ask so nicely, I just might. But for now, I have better ideas on how to spend the time.”
“Is that so?”
“Hmm.”
And then out of nowhere, Jehan held up a mistletoe.
“Are you serious?”, Courfeyrac laughed as Jehan sat up looking at him with a serious face.
“Yes.”
“You know you don’t need a mistletoe to kiss me.”
“Yeah, but I thought it would be nice for our anniversary. And also I wanted to say…. I love you.”
As Jehan spoke the words, Courfeyracs eyes lit up and he pulled his boyfriend closer kissing him once before answering. “I love you, too.”
*
Meanwhile in Hogsmeade Bossuet was just on his way back home, from a morning walk. He had slipped twice on the frozen ground and was pretty sure his wrist was sprained. He should have listened to Joly when he had pointed out, that the weather was too bad for going out. Little did he know, he also missed Courfeyrac’s most amazing prank.
“Babe there’s a package from Courfeyrac in the mail!”, Joly shouted and Musichetta walked up to him with a curious look on her face.
“Open it up! I haven’t heard from them for so long!”
“They were here three days ago. Yeah, an eternity ago as I said.”
“What the hell?”, Joly asked, “Is that a mistletoe?” He tried to take a look from afar, but his legs didn’t allow him to move.
“Shit I can’t move!”, Musichetta exclaimed.
“Me neither. Hey wait, there’s a note!” Joly picked up the paper and read it. Once. Twice, before he started laughing softly. Musichetta snatched the note from his finger and snorted after she had read it. Dammit, Courfeyrac.
“So I guess, I’ll better tell Bossuet to come home?”, Joly asked with a smirk and his girlfriend only nodded.
“Yeah, please. I love you, but I’ also like to move again soon.”
Christmas is all about love. So show some love.