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jeno lee is a complete dumbass. he knew that. his friends knew that. the whole world knew that.
he isn’t dumb, not at all. he does pretty well in classes, he got top of the class in charms once. he just managed to get himself in the worst situations with nobody to blame but himself. situations like the one he experienced on the 3rd of March 2015 at nearly midnight. he’d managed to forget his scarf in the astronomy tower, and he’d snuck out of his dormitory to retrieve it.
jeno regretted his decision once the cold winter air hit his face. he should have convinced jaemin to come with him, he probably would have known a heating spell. jeno had always told jaemin that it was a stupid idea to only learn spells that you only needed at specific times. unluckily for jeno, now was one of those times.
shivering, he stuck his hands in his robes pockets and speed walked to the tower, keeping close to the wall. the last thing he wanted was to get caught by filch or his devil cat and end up in detention scrubbing the boy’s bathroom with a toothbrush. he observed the way his breath swirled around his face whenever he blew out a particularly strong breath. definitely too cold to be outside.
within a few minutes, he had managed to make it to the tower and began his ascend up the never ending stairs. he winced every time a board creaked or moved, any small sound could alert a prefect or a teacher. he couldn’t afford to get a detention so close to a quidditch match. hufflepuff were playing against ravenclaw the next saturday and jeno had to be in his best condition if he wanted to grab that snitch before jisung did and put hufflepuff in the running to be quidditch champions.
as he climbed the last few steps, jeno noticed a figure sat by the edge of the platform. jeno didn’t want to scare them. one stumble and they could fall off the side. it wouldn’t be the first time.
“uh” jeno didn’t know what to say “hi?”
the figure shot their head up and moved their wand towards where jeno’s voice was coming from.
“what are you doing here” they asked. jeno couldn’t see their face clearly, but they looked like a fourth year, maybe a third year.
“i was getting my scarf” jeno said “i thought i left it here”
from what jeno could see in the darkness, he noticed the persons eyes become more alert as they turned around to look through their bag. they put their wand down, still shining. it was then jeno noticed who the person was.
renjun huang. alternatively nicknamed askaban boy by a bunch of gryffindors in first year before his older brother hexed their mouths shut for 72 hours. jeno shared astronomy and herbology with him. he had never actually talked to renjun though. he’d heard of him. they’d all heard of him.
renjun stuck his arm out, in his hand was jeno’s scarf.
“i was going to leave it outside your common room on my way to bed” he said as jeno took his scarf back and wrapped it around his neck.
“oh. thanks” jeno smiled, he saw this as an opportunity to introduce himself, as he had never done during his four years at hogwarts. “i’m jeno lee”
“i know” renjun said quietly “you know my name too don’t you”
“can’t say i don’t” said jeno.
an awkward silence fell between them. neither knew what to say after that. jeno knew that it would have been rude to just turn and leave, so he just carried on standing there.
“i don’t believe the rumours by the way” said jeno quickly, cutting through the silence like it was a pumpkin pasty. “i think it’s all a load of crap. i mean isn’t that just what a rumour is? a lie with a story?”
renjun chuckled quietly “i suppose”
jeno thought that by that point, there was no backing out. he was going to have a full conversation with renjun huang. jeno noticed the sketchbook and pencil in the slytherin’s hand and decided to go from there.
“what’re you drawing?” he asked, sitting down. he pretended he didn’t see renjun tense up.
“the moon” said renjun, looking passed jeno “it looks pretty against the lake”
jeno followed renjun’s gaze and landed on the black lake. the reflection of the crescent moon glimmering against the ripples. another small gust of cold wind came, and renjun wrapped his own slytherin scarf closer around himself.
“do you come up here often?” jeno asked out of pure curiosity
“after lessons usually. i’ve got this special permission slip from professor moon saying i can stay for an hour after everyone’s gone for ‘extra studies’” he made the slip of paper float slightly “but he knows i just come here to draw”
jeno came slightly closer before he spoke again
“don’t you think everything looks a bit weirder in the dark?”
“what do you mean?” asked renjun, facing him.
“i mean, look at that mountain over there” he pointed “don’t you think it looks like filch’s nose?”
renjun laughed at that. he laughed so hard that he dropped his pencil over the edge of the tower. jeno felt himself swell up with pride, having made the boy smile so wide that it exposed his little snaggle tooth. jeno might just have made another friend.
—
if any teacher or prefect noticed the laughing coming from the astronomy tower until the early hours of the morning, they didn’t say anything