Chapter Text
'it's bearable', renjun thinks as he feels the silken insides of a cape glide across his face amid his reading. there's a potions' test tomorrow but he can't be bothered enough to go to the library because, frankly, it's just ten times as worse. with the amount of first-years loitering there, pretending to care enough about their classes, renjun decides he would rather put up with the lot at slytherin house.
that's why he balls his hands into fists and allows jisung, a carefree blonde newbie, to run around the common room with his gryffindor companion, chenle. now the latter was a year older than the younger, but if renjun didn't know him as well as he did, he would've believed someone if they said chenle was a first-year.
it's hard though, it really is. with chenle's ear-piercing laughter encouraging jisung's obnoxious behavior, it takes an incredible amount of patience to not be vexed and renjun was the last person when it came to that. so when a fellow third-year points out the paling of his knuckles as the grip on his textbook tightens, he excuses himself to retire into his dormitory.
when he gets an 'A-' stamped on the top of his paper the following day, renjun mentally notes to himself that he should try visiting ravenclaw's prefect, kim doyoung, in his tower the next time he has to study. the people there seem more civilized and doyoung was the best tutor anyone could score. much to renjun's luck, doyoung seemed to have taken a liking to him ever since that one time they had a heated debate over exposing the wizarding world to muggles.
(renjun think it's worth a shot, they could learn how to advance with one another. doyoung thinks it's pointless, the muggles would get greedy and the magical folk would defeat them with their eyes closed and a wrist handcuffed to a pole.)
and yes, renjun knows an 'A-' is anything but bad for an average student but renjun is not average; the grade is lower than what he normally receives and that leaves him unsettled.
sliding the parchment into the thin pockets of his folder, he tucks the entire thing under his arm, feeling the bony curve of his elbow prod at his side even through his robe and the plastic material of the folder. it's lunchtime and he's famished so his legs waste no time in catching up with the aforementioned infamous duo: jisung and chenle; oddly enough, they were his bestfriends. renjun's life was a lot more dull before chenle had entered, and by the time jisung came — chenle exasperatedly telling him it was 'friendship at first sight — renjun was used to the rowdiness. the three of them made their way to the cafeteria, the path practiced and embedded into their minds.
"—so she turns myunie's fur pink! can you believe that? the nerve of this woman!" renjun encloses his incisors around his inner cheek to prevent a snort that threatens to evade him upon hearing the distress in chenle's voice as he explains what happened after his partner in herbology snuck into the boys' dormitory at the gryffindor house just to confess to him.
"and you said she used polyjuice potion?" jisung inquires from the other side of renjun, causing the latter to turn and spare him a glance. "she did!" comes chenle's pitched response, as if offended that jisung hadn't listened to him clearly the first time. (actually the second for renjun, as chenle had came to him first for help in changing his owl's fur back to its normal hue).
"well who'd she take the form of if you fell into her trap that easily. you treat your confessions the same usually, boy or girl," jisung continues and renjun's a little surprised by how deeply the youngest is thinking, for the first time in forever. they turn the corner and enter the spacious hall filled with chatter and a mouth-watering aroma.
"not important. all you need to know is i almost let her kiss me," a look of disgust simultaneously surfaces all three of their visages, "yeah, gross. thank god she's a brunette, because her hair changed back first." with that, chenle raises his eyebrows as if to say 'see you, losers,' before hopping over to the gryffindor table. jisung and renjun both roll their eyes; this is also practiced.
when the two of them reach their usual spots at the far end of the table, closest to the door in case they had to bolt for it during an attack (they're kids with wild imaginations), slytherin's headboy, youngho, opens his mouth. the two teenagers zone out everything he says after he calls their names.
"so, who do you think chenle was deceived by?" jisung asks, steam bun in one hand, orange juicebox in the other.
'aren't you a little too interested,' is on the tip of renjun's tongue when a flash of brown hair enters his vision.
"mister chaser? MISTER CHASER? oh my fuckin' god, he fuckin' dead," says the obnoxious brunette beater of slytherin house, yuta, whilst slinging a sweaty arm around jisung's neck. renjun makes a face of distaste as if he were the one touched.
"gross, get off me," comes jisung's whiny response, which only causes yuta to grab him in a headlock; playfully, though, he's gotten enough detentions to last him until his graduation — if he even graduates.
"dude, sehun's gonna kick your ass out of the team if you miss another practice," yuta claims, walking around the corner of the table to sit beside renjun. (much to renjun's displeasure.) "you haven't come for the past 4 days."
jisung's palm raises to land on the nape of his neck, the way it usually does when he has to make up an excuse. "sorry, i've been studying for this dumb transfiguration test. you know how professor mcgonagall gets," he lies through his teeth. renjun has to hand it to yuta for being a complete dense idiot because he nods sympathetically and goes 'yeah, yeah i do, you poor thing'.
renjun knows very well why jisung has been too preoccupied to head to practice, even when he loves the sport with all the bones in his body. it's because chenle's birthday is coming up and the two of them have been dumbfounded on what to do for it. chenle's usually the one who comes up with the wild, spectacular plans. without him, jisung and renjun were a little dull. this also meant pleasing chenle would be a hassle.
(the last time they threw a party for chenle was for his 'A' in his history of magic class. they spent a whole week coming up with the idea of creating a pinata with packages of those rose-shaped soaps chenle loved. it ended with chenle poorly forcing a grin and jisung being whisked away to the infirmary because a package had flew right at him and hit him in the eye.)
"well, get your shit together, man. sehun said he might repla—" and yuta's cut off by the booming voices of gryffindor third-years flooding into the dining hall.
they look just like him: sweaty, dirty, and irritatingly happy off of adrenaline.
renjun doesn't look at them longer than he has to, which is until he finds out what the commotion is about. turns out gryffindor's well-known seeker, mark lee, just set a new record for how fast he caught the snitch.
"dude, mark caught the snitch in 3 minutes and 40 seconds," jeno's repeats to — probably — the 20th gryffindor he's made eye contact with. renjun espies their own seeker, donghyuck, glaring at the rowdy crowd and forgetting about the sandwich in his hand which, after a second, falls into a bowl of soup.
"i can beat that," donghyuck says to nobody in particular and renjun offers him a smile of reassurance. they were partners in potions last term. although they didn't speak much, as the former boy was usually hanging out with the older females of their house (sooyoung and yeri), renjun appreciated the boy for his boldness and sense of humor.
jisung, on the other hand, looked distressed. "3 minutes and 40 seconds?" and then he repeats that a second time, a little louder. "dude i can score one goal, max, in 3 minutes and 40 seconds," he groans, forehead meeting the wooden surface of the table with a loud thud. "and that's if jongin gets high and stops guarding the goal."
yuta pipes in, "that's never gonna happen, sungie baby. jongin's like the embodiment of every ravenclaw girl's wet dream." he then points to his head to signal how jongin's too wise to succumb to breaking the rules.
"gross, yuta, what the fu—"
"hey, yuckie," the slight accent in the voice makes it easy for renjun to guess who it is looming by their table.
"what do you want, bowl-cut boy," donghyuck's now fetching the remnants of salad still swimming in his soup with a fork. renjun and jisung look at each other, both admiring donghyuck's lack of embarrassment whilst he carries out the action in front of his 'enemy'.
"did you hear that i —"
"caught the snitch in 3 minutes and 40 seconds? yes, yes i did. how could i not with you and your friends' prepubescent voices squealing about it."
coughs erupt from all across the slytherin table, trying to disguise their laughter in a 'courteous' manner.
mark's expression is comical: jaw slack, eyes narrowed, cheeks pinker than his headboy's — taeyong's — hair. lucky for him, and unlucky for renjun, the star-player of gryffindor's team speaks up on his behalf.
jaemin, a third-year like renjun and donghyuck (and jeno, who was comfortingly patting mark's back and whispering 'no homo' at the same time), flashes the vexed slytherin his infamous grin. it's lopsided and more like a smirk, if anything.
"fiesty. you never fail to entertain me, donghyuck," and if he were a part of their house, jaemin sits in the narrow space between renjun and donghyuck. an elbow rests on the table and his chin perches upon the palm of that arm.
"you scared?"
donghyuck rolls his eyes heavenward, having had enough with the childish trio, and takes his bowl of soup in his hands before standing up. "if i stay here, i might puke on you. so let me spare you, your highness." with an exaggerated curtsy, he heads to the far, far end at the other side of the table.
jaemin doesn't miss a beat and yells a, "you're too unfair to me, baby!" as donghyuck's exterior shrinks in size the further he storms away.
then he's getting ready to stand again and renjun can finally let go of that breath he didn't realize he had been holding in.
"honestly, mark, i don't know why you bother talking to th— oh, injunnie."
renjun wants to — for a lack of better imagination — die.
jaemin's facing him with that ridiculous expression he'd just sent donghyuck off with and renjun does not have the patience to even say a word to the brunette. the arrogance that radiated off the boy was enough to have renjun suffocating and wishing for the sweet, sweet touch of death.
and thank the heavens for chenle's quick thinking from the table behind them (which is where jaemin, jeno, and mark should be). the mentioned male shrieks, feigning horror, and points at jeno's back. "rat! rat on your cape!"
needless to say jeno almost chokes himself when ripping his cape off in a panic and mark, with a fear of rodents, flees the scene quickly.
jaemin looks perplexed, confidence minimizing without his friends standing conceitedly beside him, and he stands. "i'll catch you later, babe," he doesn't forget to mumble with a matching, disgusting wink aimed in renjun's direction, before he's helping jeno calm down and head back to the comfort of their 'fans' — aka: the first-year girls of their house.
yuta makes a noise at the gesture. he's either offended he didn't get a wink or threatened that his title of 'greasiest fuccboi' is getting snatched right out of his palms. (and he's had it for 6 years now.)
"why's he so obsessed with you anyways?" jisung asks this with a mouth full of rice and hot-sauce staining the edges of his lips. (renjun grimaces.)
when he's about to reply, mcgonagall's voice cuts through the chatter like a knife and renjun finds himself turning to face her like he's programmed to.
"attention students! tomorrow's quidditch match will be between slytherin house and gryffindor house. i know many of you have been anticipating this for weeks now but some of you have been displaying your excitement in unacceptable ways. if i see or hear anything inappropriate 20 points will be taken from your house and you will serve a whole month of detention! that will be all. please resume eating."
and then the hall bursts in wicked laughter, hushed nasty remarks, and mock fear as if mcgonagall had asked the opposite of what she'd just announced.
"match? more like practice for gryffindor. i bet jaemin's gonna score 5 goals that game."
"3 minutes and 40 seconds. baekhyun's gonna announce the start of the match and mark's gonna end it the second after."
"sehun's gonna knock that fucking canadian off his broom! the entire gryffindor team look like tree branches."
"heard slytherin's little star hasn't even showed up to practice. talk about no team spirit."
"donghyuck's gonna get the snitch right under mark's nose! mark's always busy showing off. it's like he's trying to impress donghyuck or something. gaaaaaaay."
the chatter goes on and on and on. by now the 'fangirls' have started their chant for the gryffindor team, eyes practically hearts, all while slytherin house 'boos' in response.
it's when yukhei — of his house — begins to mock the crack of mark's voice as he brags about his record time that renjun's head is about to burst and he stands up, slamming his palms on the desk and effectively scaring the piece of chicken out of jisung's hands. he's about had it and he's far past the point of thinking rationally.
"can you guys just fucking shut up! it's a game!"
he's met with silence but even from where he stands, he can feel mcgonagall's rage. he expects a scolding but what he hears instead is —
"aw. is the little baby mad because all he has to win a girl over is his grades?"
renjun's body turns around in a fit of fury, eyes lethal slits. he can espy chenle wincing from where he sits next to the only other person standing in the room. provoking renjun when he was mad was definitely not a wise choice for anyone.
"beats having a big, fat ego, asshole."
"i'll show you what else is big and fat, baby."
"save a life and spare me."
"aw, c'mon. don't be like that, beautiful. i can show you the world. heaven, even."
renjun wonders why underaged, virgin males are always like this. however, before he has a chance to retaliate, mcgonagall finally speaks, charm amplifying her voice despite the hall being dead silent unlike earlier.
"mister huang and mister na, you will follow me now. do not make me repeat myself."
renjun thinks he needs new friends when jisung wiggles his eyebrows in a sucks-to-be-you fashion and chenle smacks his lips way too loud to send him an airborne goodbye kiss.