Chapter Text
The students of Hogwarts were a month into the new school year, excitement of being back to their second home having died down with the weight of school work returning full throttle. Mark Lee, the male prefect of Gryffindor, had settled in much quicker than most of the other students as a sixth year prefect which meant he moved in early to help professors prepare for the always anticipated Sorting Day and to thoroughly go over (more like be lectured on) the responsibilities of prefects. Being a sixth year also meant that the extreme teenage anxieties of underclassmen trying desperately to find as many new friends as possible was far beyond him since Mark had already been with his friend group for so long they were more like siblings at this point (he swears his mom was more proud of when one of his bffs and roommate Jeno became a beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team than when Mark became a prefect).
Speaking of his best friends, Mark is currently walking to the Great Hall at ass o’clock in the morning on a Saturday to catch breakfast with Jaemin before they had to make moves all the way near the greenhouse to go feed the fairies. Thankfully, Jaemin was also chosen as a Hufflepuff prefect this year so he had someone to suffer with when they got either super early morning or super late night duties.
Mark grumbles when he exits the dim corridors of West Hall and gets hit with sun directly in his eyes as he’s passing by the distant Quidditch field. He always hates getting fairy duty because those little buggers are always so bitchy towards him about his glasses (he learned in his Mystical Creatures class last year that those vain motherfuckers find joy in picking on people’s physical appearances), and to make matters worse, they seem to adore Jaemin. Really, that Hufflepuff just has a way of flirting that not even creatures can resist, apparently. Hm, now that Mark thinks about it, maybe that’s how he got two boyfriends.
He shifts his head towards the Quidditch field in the hopes that the sun won’t be so in his eyes while he walks the long open walkway leading to the Great Hall, and is surprised to see a figure flying around on a broomstick on the field. The figure who he can make out as a guy with silver hair in Slytherin green sports wear, is doing drills alone, looping in and out of the 3 goal posts at a speed that Mark has to admit beats Jeno by a mile (he already knows Jeno would yell back “beaters are built for pure strength not speed!!!”).
“Damn, I know ‘Quidditch is life’ is like meant to be half serious but it’s 6:40am on a Saturday,” Mark mumbles before finally making his way to the ginormous Great Hall doors. The doors are closed which means he’s the first person to get there, which isn’t surprising considering the house elves apparate everywhere and Mark eventually learned that most professors like to, gasp, sleep decent hours like normal people. Never expecting Jaemin to arrive earlier than him, the bastard had a real problem with waking up but then also always had to go back to his room for forgetting his wand. Mark opened the double doors and recited a quick charm to keep them bolted open for the rest of the day. He savors in the sight and sound, or lack thereof, of the completely barren Great Hall that’s usually the most bustling part of Hogwarts and smiles to himself. ‘Truly a prefect privilege,’ Mark thinks to himself before he jumps, startled from a screeching Hufflepuff sprinting down the hall.
“MARK LEE MY FAVORITE NERD, I’M HERE!”
“FUCKING SHI- Merlin’s Beard Jaemin, I swear your voice echoes all the way to the damn owlery when you scream like that, you crackhead.”
Jaemin just laughs and hooks his arm around Mark’s shoulder to drag him to sit at the Gryffindor table. A second after their butts touched their seats, their section of the table was filled with the special Saturday morning breakfast which always reminded Mark of when he’d visit his cousin Johnny’s house in America. He wrote a mental note to write to his favorite cousin who was in his last year at Ilvermorny.
“Aw, Markie no need to be mean, I’m sorry I was a little late okay? I just had a super late night with… well you know,” Jaemin drifted off, at least having the decency to be sheepish.
“Yeah, yeah you were being disgusting with Renjun and Jeno, I know- I heard Jeno coming at like 3AM. I literally don’t know how you’re a prefect Jaem, you break, like, all the rules,” Mark deadpanned as he watched Jaemin stuff his face with treacle french toast.
Mark grimaces when his friend tries to speak with his mouth still full and hands him a glass of milk to wash it down first.
“Yeah but you know I would never get caught, plus even if I did get caught, the profs love my love of love too much to do anything.” Mark gags when Jaemin winks at him.
“I still don’t know how you ended up with two boyfriends by the end of the summer, one of them being our other best friend, Jeno fucking Lee. Though, can’t say that’s the one I’m surprised about- how’d y’all even find someone else that was willing to put up with two idiots?”
Jaemin gasps dramatically, “Mark how can you call your two bestest friends idiots?! Jeno and I are catches! Plus, you’ve met Renjun enough times by now to know we need a Slytherin like him to keep us in check and balance out our relationship.”
“Hm, that’s true, I guess I just never imagined either of you guys to date a Slytherin but tbh Renjun does carry all the brain cells so all respect to him,” Mark laughs as he dodges Jaemin’s smack.
The Hufflepuff chuckles as Mark fixes his glasses that almost flew off his face from the abrupt dodge, “come on, we better get to the fairies before they throw a fit about not getting enough antioxidants in their strict diet.”
They get up and make their way to the grand doors, but are startled by the sudden entrance of a certain tan skinned Slytherin Quidditch seeker. Nearly bumping into him, a flustered Mark apologizes profusely, “Oh Merlin, I’m so sorry I didn’t see y-you!”
The Slytherin, silver hair still slightly damp from the morning workout, smiles at the other’s stuttering and let’s out a quiet “it’s okay, don’t worry about it, Prefect Mark” before walking to the Slytherin table. Mark is left standing there with his mouth open and a giggling Jaemin pushing him out of the Great Hall. How did the Haechan Lee know his name?
🍪
Mark throws a “see ya later, Jeno” behind his shoulder as he leaves the warmth of their shared room. He hears a “bye Markly, have fun!” and rushes down to exit the Gryffindor common room. He mentally prepares himself for a boring, lonely hour of patrolling the halls for any student that might be out after curfew. By now, Mark knows the exact spots that all underclassmen think are super sneaky, because well, he and his friends hid in those same places years back. Now, of course they’ve upgraded considering they now know the castle like the back of their hands and is also why Jeno, Jaemin, and Renjun never get caught in their midnight escapades.
He’s halfway done with his route, boredom slowly creeping in as there hasn’t been a single soul in sight- besides, the occasional passing ghost. Mark contemplates on straying from his usual route today to just head for the prefects bathroom to take a much needed hot bath, maybe even get in a quick wank if he’s lucky enough for no ghost to bother him. He decides that sounds pretty damn good for a Monday night and takes a sharp left to cut past the kitchens to get to the stairs quicker.
He abruptly stops in his tracks, almost tripping over his own foot, when he hears whispers coming from directly ahead near the kitchens. The prefect inwardly groans, “I mean for real, I haven’t deducted points in so long, why tonight of all nights when I just wanna be lazy?”
He gets as close to conversation as possible without being seen, hoping it’ll just end soon and he can go on his merry way without writing anyone up, but his eyes go wide when he sees a house elf handing a student a baggie of some sort. Mark squints to try and see who the student might be or what was being handed over in the baggies but they were a little too far, plus Mark really needed a new glasses prescription. The two figures are now hugging- the student on his knees to be eye level with the house elf- and Mark can’t help but think he’s intruding on a private moment, so he ducks his head back behind the wall he’s hiding behind. Though, as he knows very well from Jaemin’s antics, Hogwarts walls echo quite a bit when the rest of the castle is dead quiet and he can’t help but hear parts of their conversation.
“Ugh, thanks so much Ollie, I really needed this. I’ve been looking forward to these alllll week!”
“It is no problem for Ollie to provide Donghyuck’s favorites for him because Donghyuck is my friend!”
Mark hears this Donghyuck giggle as they bid goodbye as Ollie the house elf pads back to the kitchens. He waits for a few seconds of silence and determines Donghyuck has left through a different hallway, so he finally leans off the wall and turns towards the kitchens.
“OH FUC-!” “AHH!”
The next thing he knows, their both on the ground. A shocked Mark looks at the culprit, about to reluctantly scold a second-year or something but gasps when he realizes he’s face to face with Haechan Lee. Said boy is still rubbing a sore spot on his forehead with a pout on his lips.
Haechan grumbles to himself, “hmph I just got over a Quidditch injury last month, now another one?” paying no mind to a shocked Mark.
Haechan suddenly perks his head up, realizing the situation, making eye contact with Mark for the first time that night.
“O-oh uhm… Prefect Mark! It’s not what it seems, I swear! I was just… sleepwalking?” He looks at Mark with big round puppy eyes, knowing that was the lamest excuse any Slytherin could have conjured up. Mark clears his throat and shakes his head to get himself out of the trance he was in- he swears Haechan’s sparkly eyes, still adorned with the soft pink eye shadow he had on that day, could hypnotize people. He gets up and reaches a hand out for Haechan to take.
“I-it’s okay, I’ll just let you off with a warning. It’s only like 30 minutes after curfew and to be honest I was about to dip rounds anyways heh. Are you okay though, did you hurt your head?”
Haechan takes his hand with the one that’s not holding the two baggies and sighs in relief.
He giggles, “no no, I’m all good now that I’m not in trouble by Prefect Mark!”
Mark chuckles and suggests “well, you’re not in trouble but I do need to make sure you get back to the Slytherin dorms safe so let’s start walkin. Also, you really don’t need to call me ‘Prefect Mark’ every time you say my name, which by the way, how’d you even know?”
They begin walking towards the dungeons and the Slytherin replies with a blush, “Oh, okay… Mark. Well lots of people know you? You’re like one of the smartest sixth years and you’re a prefect a-and you work at the library so whenever I go, I see you with your little nametag on, so yeah.”
Mark blinks at him, “huh wow I didn’t think those things would ever accumulate to me being noticed by Haechan Lee, the hard carry of the Slytherin Quidditch team and the flower arranging club, might I add, who’s like beloved by the entirety of Hogwarts.”
“Oh! So you do know my name… you’ve never said it before so I thought…”
“Merlin, of course I know your name Haechan, who doesn’t?”
“I mean, I didn’t wanna assume, besides there’s plenty of students who aren’t that interested in sports… oop, here we are!”
They reach the entrance of the Slytherin common room, which normally would freak the fuck out of Mark but oddly tonight it seems to look cozy- it might have to do with a caramel toned, round-eyed, pink lipped boy who was caught after hours. Haechan looks to the floor at his feet for a couple seconds, but builds up the courage to hand Mark one of the two baggies in his hand. He holds it up near Mark’s chest and gives him a bright smile that reaches his eyes, turning them into crescents.
“Here, these are uber special cookies that are my absolute favorites in the world, they’re double chocolate chunk with cinnamon and vanilla bean filling! It’s a thank you for letting me go, coach would’ve been so mad if I was late to practice cus of detention,” Haechan says, a little embarrassed.
Mark takes the baggie from Haechan’s hand and grins so hard he knows he looks like a dork, “you’re lucky I have a sweet tooth, maybe I should catch you sneaking around more often so I can get more sweet treats.”