Chapter Text
jeonghan is a student from beauxbatons academy and seungcheol is from durmstrang institute. the triwizard tournament is upon the wizarding world once again but darkness still looms above.
“ah, hogwarts, i’m excited. the walls hold so many stories!” the head boy of beauxbatons says quietly, looking down at the fast approaching castle with a small smile.
“of war? minhyun, are you high?” jeonghan turns to stare at him, ponytailed hair flying back as their carriage begins its descend.
“no, of heroes! aren’t you excited? we get to meet neville longbottom!”
“he’s also like fifty years old or something.”
“you know i don’t mean it in that way."
jeonghan’s squint down at the castle shows his exact disinterest. they were here to watch people die. he isn’t about that life at all. the triwizard tournament was in its first year after the great battle of hogwarts. twenty years of preparation for more people to die in the name of sport, jeonghan could not agree less. the beauxbatons carriages land with loud neighs sounding in the empty field, their horses’ wings slowing their flapping and jeonghan is pushed out of the carriage following an exhilarated laugh from minhyun. he almost trips but is grabbed roughly by his cape, “aww, you don’t have to be so excited, jeonghan.”
“shut the fuck up. or i’ll curse you to be the champion and you can die in glory.”
“no one’s going to die, they’ve done all the precautionary measures. the only thing dying here is your love for life. where’s your joie de vivre? fleur would be disappointed.”
“it died the moment you chose me to be part of this delegation.”
“you’re going have fun! stop being a wet blanket.”
jeonghan sighs, about to to grab their trunks when a commotion rises from the port and red flags start to appear on the horizon.
“oh, minhyun, maybe dumb-strang’s champion will die first.”
“jeonghan, i’m going to Silence you if you don’t stop wishing death upon other people.”
jeonghan doesn’t hate durmstrang. their old headmaster was a voldemort conspirator and look at where that got the rest of the world? but they all say things have changed, so change he hopes to see. hopefully. he can’t be that asshole to pin their unfortunate past on their fresh blood. he grabs their trunks and sets them on the floor, right beside seungkwan’s and seokmin’s.
“hyung, i heard the durmstrang champion is supposed to be their pageant king and also their best quidditch player!” seungkwan says giddily, grin bright as he adjusts his hat.
“really?”
seokmin chimes in then, appearing out of thin air. “yeah! he’s apparently being considered for the norwegian national team!” and jeonghan really was not surprised even in the least, they were always together and only missing -
“guys! they’re here!”
there, kwon soonyoung.
now the trio was complete and hogwarts wouldn’t know what hit them.
the ship docked, anchors thrown out like an assembly line and they were loud, boisterous laughter and shouting only amplified by the vast seas behind them.
“they sailed their own ship? across the atlantic? it’s massive!” jeonghan says unwittingly, “impressive. i thought that was a myth.”
“their headmaster believes in hard work or something. i heard they even chop their own wood for the fireplaces back home in durmstrang!” tzuyu pipes up from the back with a bright smile, dahyun nodding vigourously from her side.
“isn’t that illegal? to enslave your students to hard labour?” but he truly is impressed, he’d always only heard stories of bratty durmstrang students from prominent wizarding families, thought they’d be all wimpy and pretentious. cries of “oh my god” and gasps of amazement and jeonghan resisted rolling his eyes, how handsome could they be? granted, they seem fit with all the physical work they do but he isn’t going to join in with the worshipping. he can fly too, maybe just as well as whichever furboy durmstrang sends. durmstrang was always cold, stiff winter winds the only movement in their mountain top perch, the students were bound to be cold and boring too. and pale.
he was wrong.
the durmstrang students were not the broody ones from stories, they were actually bright, happy, energetic and they seemed to have great camaraderie. their ship was docked in record time, students methodically checking the ship before unloading the cargo and assembling in straight rows to greet beauxbatons and the newly arrived hogwarts delegation.
it looked almost too perfect, and jeonghan couldn’t help but to wave his wand so beauxbatons’ belongings weren’t strewn so messily in their area. to make a good impression on the other schools. not for the leader of the durmstrang delegation. not at all. not that jeonghan looked too closely. he didn’t, shut up, junhui. minhyun ushers the beauxbatons convoy into their usual two long lines and they prepare to greet their counterparts from lands far away.
“wonwoo, isn’t it amazing? even the skies seem clearer here!” seungcheol says in awe and wonwoo nods, glasses glinting in the light. they, with a wave of the famous viktor krum's hand, bowed formally in unison to greet beauxbatons and the newly arrived hogwarts delegation getting similar greetings from the other schools in return. the beauxbatons kids bowed almost regally, hats taken off their heads.
it goes well, headmistresses delacour, mcgonagall and headmaster krum politely stepping to the front to speak as their students follow closely. hogwarts' students seemed casual and relaxed as they were said to be, head boy scorpius malfoy the second, whom jeonghan notices looks just like his father, steps forward, "headmaster krum, headmistress delacour, the prefects will be showing you to your rooms. please follow us." with coordinated wand swishes, except maybe little lee chan, the young hopes of the wizarding world stepped into the fabled hogwarts castle.
"please, no dying." jeonghan mumbles under his breath and he earns a slap on his back from tzuyu.
"jeonghan, stop scaring yourself."
he snorts and pats her head lightly, "we just gotta be sure, y'know." he didn't grow up in a divinity-endowed family to waste his talents. (his tea leaves always say otherwise but he's always tended to be on the side of safe than sorry.)
seungcheol is leading the durmstrang students, with wonwoo by his side and he finds that britain is far less cold than what he’s used to, glad that their headmaster allowed them to leave their furs for the formal welcome dinner later. for all that both durmstrang and hogwarts were castles from ages long past, hogwarts was far more inviting. the harsh weather conditions they lived with couldn't compare to the sun and actual azure skies of britain, he loved durmstrang, but this new weather is an experience.
he notices a blonde boy in the entrance of the great hall, staring up at the ceiling with starstruck eyes, literally. the blue of his uniform matches the sky. when the boy turns to catch up with his schoolmates, he catches seungcheol’s eyes and smiles.
seungcheol doesn’t know if a smile can be graceful but the boy looks like the milky way, the ocean, the soft breeze of spring personified and /different/.
“what are you staring at?” vernon asks and seungcheol finds himself at the back of their procession.
“nothing!” seungcheol almost stutters but he didn’t, good job, choi.
he runs up to wonwoo’s side again, ignoring the other’s smirk.
“entranced, huh?”
“i have no idea what you’re talking about, i just went to talk to vernon.”
“mmhmm, sure.”
“his name is yoon jeonghan, delacour loves him.” wonwoo says over dinner, in between his bites and seungcheol chooses to nod nonchalantly.
“is he a metamorphorgus?” blonde hair is not common in asians and seungcheol can’t help but to ask, eyes looking over every once in a while
jeonghan is popular among his schoolmates, it's obvious from how he never seems to be able to get through a few bites before he's sucked into a conversation and he smiles like a little turtle, it's cute.
"hey, wonu, remember that thing mingyu showed us? the green turtle thing?"
"it's a squirtle, hyung. from pokemon, right?" wonwoo says with a sigh, "are you really comparing yoon jeonghan to a cartoon character?"
"he does look like it, mingyu has a moving thing in his mobile call device thing, it looks just like jeonghan."
"hyung, a gif and a phone."