Archive of Our Own

“Did you hear about that Ravenclaw guy who got his soulmark like, two days ago?”

“No! What? Who?”

“I think his name is… Minseok? He’s from seventh year.” Your friend Emily had an amused expression on her face, which only encouraged you to ask further.

“Ah! Yes, he’s their Quidditch team’s keeper!” Yixing said.

Of course you knew him! Ravenclaw hadn’t been an easy team to beat in the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup. Minseok happened to be a damn good keeper, and it had taken you, Jongin and the other Hufflepuff chaser hours and hours of practice to come up with the strategy to fly past his solid defense and score some precious points.

“Oh, woah, him? And what did he get?” you asked.

“Well, he says it’s a dragon, but people are telling him it’s a lizard just to piss him off.” Emily laughed. “But I’ve seen it and, honestly, I think it’s a dinosaur.”

“What kind of shitty soulmark is that that no one can tell what it is?” you laughed.

“I don’t know, it’s just some sort of lizard-looking animal! That’s unfortunate enough! At least my soul mark is a cute dog.” As she said this, Emily lifted her sleeve to reveal a mark on her forearm in the shape of a basset hound, an image you were all already familiar with. “It’s super generic, so I’ll probably never find my soulmate, but, you know… It’s better than a lizard.”

The thing with soulmarks was this: they represented a person’s soulmate’s patronus animal, and they only appeared after said soulmate had already fallen in love with the person in question. But that wasn’t the main drawback. The Patronus charm happened to be what they call ‘advanced magic’: very few people could conjure one, so pretty much no one knew what their own patronus was. As a result, soulmarks’ main purpose was to tell people that someone, somewhere, was their soulmate, and was in love with them. Pretty useful if you were already in a relationship, and completely useless if you had no idea of who could it be, at least in your humble opinion. 

Most people never got any mark at all. Some people who did have a mark could go their entire lives, get married, and have kids, and still not have found their soulmate. And both your friend Emily and you seemed to be going down that exact same path. It wasn’t really anything worth creating a lot of drama about, honestly. People finding their soulmate was an extremely rare thing, after all. In all of Hufflepuff, only you and Emily had a soulmark. In fact, you had met because of it. Right after she got hers, one of her classmates had introduced you to her, and you showed her the owl-shaped soulmark you’d had on your forearm since your second year.

“This has to be a Ravenclaw” Emily had gasped immediately.

“Y-you think?”

Wasn’t that too straightforward to be true? You didn’t even know many people on Ravenclaw for that to make sense. Well, yes, you shared some classes, just like with the other two Houses. Maybe there was someone in Ravenclaw gazing lovingly at you from a distance long enough for you not to notice and, most importantly, for them not to know you did have a soulmark. But all of that sounded just way too elaborate. It made more sense to you that your soulmate wasn’t actually in Hogwarts. They could be one of your muggle friends, and you would never know; or one of your older brother’s friends who had already left school… Really, there were so many possibilities…

“Why would it be a Ravenclaw?” intervened one of Emily’s friends. “The lead singer of The Horrible Hippogriffs is a Hufflepuff and his patronus is an owl, that means nothing.”

But Emily insisted:

“This is someone who’s introverted, quiet and intelligent. Remember this! You’ll see!”

“Maybe my soulmate is the lead singer of The Horrible Hippogriffs!” you joked. 

Emily and you became friends after that. Even though she was a year older than you, your best friend Jongin was a year younger; and your other best friend, Yixing, was two years older, so you had no problem integrating Emily into your age-diverse group of friends. She didn’t even seem to mind the fact that most of what you talked about was Quidditch, since you had met both Yixing and Jongin when you joined the Hufflepuff team.

This was exactly your topic of conversation at the current moment, sitting at your favorite table at The Three Broomsticks, when you were interrupted by a group of Slytherin girls who called Yixing over to talk to him in private. Polite as he was, he stood up and went with them. The three of you followed him with your eyes.

“Oh! Oh!” you noticed, and immediately you tried to feign innocence. “They’re looking this way. They’re talking about Jongin." 

Jongin just kept his best neutral “i’m-going-to-pretend-those-girls-aren’t-checking-me-out” face. He had become quite good at it.

"Oh my God, well, if you don’t mind me, I’ll go get another butterbeer”. Emily said.

“And a pumpkin juice for me, please.” You added. 

Once you were left alone with Jongin you tried to go back to the issue that concerned you the most: the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup. With only 6 official matches throughout the entire year, each of them was highly anticipated by pretty much the entire school. And since Hufflepuff had completely crushed the Ravenclaw team back in November, you couldn’t be more excited about the very awaited Hufflepuff-Gryffindor match, which was just around the corner.

“So,” you clapped to get Jongin’s attention back to you and away from the Slytherin girls who were still talking to Yixing. Not that you needed it, since his eyes were already on yours. “We are counting on your reverse passes on the match against Gryffindor. Their chasers aren’t all that good. You’re going to obliterate them with just your pinky finger!”

Jongin let out an adorable laugh at your hyperbolic statement.

“What we need to focus on now is the beaters, Jongdae and… what was the tall one’s name?” you gestured at Jongin for help.

“Chanyeol.”

“Ah, right. Chanyeol. Well. They’re fifth-years, and they made the team in their second year, which not only means that they’re more experienced than us, but also that they’re good. I say in our next training session we focus on–”

“Shhh, shut up!” Jongin suddenly interrupted you, pointing at the door. “Speak of the Devil…”

“Oh, my…”

Ah, there they were, of course. It was hard to miss them. 

That Chanyeol guy was tall as a tree, and Jongdae was noisier than anybody you’d ever known. Anywhere they went, they had another very noisy Gryffindor fifth-year named Baekhyun with them, whom you didn’t know much about, and a Ravenclaw fourth-year named Kyungsoo whom you actually shared some classes with. The four of them together were like a tornado, always managing to be the center of attention, making themselves be seen and heard anywhere they went. And what annoyed you the most, if you had to be really, really honest, was how handsome they all were. They weren’t Jongin-levels of handsome, of course. They hadn’t become a living legend in Hogwarts yet, but at the very least, they were handsome enough to make it really hard to just not look at them whenever they made an appearance.

“Close your mouth. You’re drooling.” Jongin whispered, guessing exactly what you were thinking. 

His hands playfully smacked your chin and lips.

“I’m not! Shut up!” You replied, offended, fighting to get his hands off your face and lowering your voice as much as you could, because they were about to walk right past your table.

If looks could kill, you had no idea which of the four would’ve dropped dead faster. The tension between Jongin, you, and the two Gryffindor beaters could’ve been cut with a knife, their eyes sending you piercing glares in anticipation of your upcoming match. 

Next you checked their other friend, Baekhyun. He was laughing about who knows what, not even paying attention to Jongin and you. He wasn’t even worth bothering with. Lastly, you met Kyungsoo’s eyes. You had no reason to send him a death glare. He was your classmate after all, and had never even been involved in Quidditch matters, so you quickly switched your defiant expression to a friendly smile. However, you were met with the sternest gaze you had ever seen on him.

What the hell? The Ravenclaw wasn’t exactly known for his cheerful demeanor. You would’ve known. He sat right behind you in Transfiguration class, always trying to hide from McGonagall at your expense. You still vividly remembered the feeling that crept up your spine and neck the first time you heard his deep, soothing voice behind your ear during attendance. You had turned your head to look at the owner of the voice only to be met with such a handsome face it made you nervous to even stand next to him, thinking your legs would melt if you heard him say a simple “hello”. But the feeling vanished with the passing years until he became just another guy, one with an exceptional, seductive voice. Had he realized his potential to melt women’s hearts by only speaking, he would’ve become probably even more popular than his rambunctious Gryffindor friends but, instead, he chose to keep mostly to himself. He always sat in the front row in Potions class, his best subject, and managed to make Snape adore him, mostly by becoming the top student in Potions in all of the school, but also by being fairly quiet in class, only opening his mouth to make some, admittedly, quite funny, smart-mouthed comment at the expense of one of his friends.

So, the graveness of his usually calm big, round eyes in that moment took you by surprise. Had those Gryffindors brainwashed him about you already?

You didn’t have any time to reflect on it because, suddenly, Yixing was back with a request from the Slytherin girls, who, oh, surprise, only wanted to know whether or not Jongin was single.

Jongin let out an alarmed noise.

“What did you tell them?!”

“The… truth?” Yixing answered.

Jongin groaned.

“C’mon, Yixing, man…!” He complained. “You have to lend me a hand sometimes!”

You started laughing just in time for Emily to come back with the drinks and ask what was going on.

“Yixing can’t lie to save his life, that’s what’s going on!” Jongin grumbled with an exasperated sigh.

“But what if they asked me who you are dating?! What do I tell them then?” argued Yixing.

“I don’t know, tell them I’m dating her!” He pointed at you. “I do it all the time!”

You gasped loud enough for the entire inn to hear.

“Excuse me?!” you screeched. “Who gave you permission to do that?”

Jongin looked only slightly ashamed. Definitely not as much as he should, you thought.

“So that’s why I’ve been getting so many dirty looks and stares from girls all around the school!” You screamed. “Do you hate me, Jongin!? Do you want me to stay single and friendless forever!?”

He then gave you a sheepish look, and it reminded you you weren’t really able to stay mad at him for much longer.

“It’s just that I don’t know what else to say to get rid of them!” He justified himself.

You let out an exasperated sigh and hid your face into your hands dramatically. Emily looked at you two with a smile on her face.

“You would make a cute couple, to be honest.” She said.

But you were quick to dismiss the comment:

“Which is funny, because every girl in our year seems to have had a crush on Jongin, except me, apparently.”

The night before the match against Gryffindor, Jongin received a box of chocolates that he immediately threw into the trash.

For better or worse, Jongin knew better than to accept random gifts given to him by random girls. He had fallen for it once in his second year, and had been extremely wary of such gestures ever since, especially since it had also affected you and Yixing. 

It had become a classic anecdote to retell….

That one time, the girl in question hadn’t predicted that, with his kind and generous nature, Jongin would of course share the amortentia infused chocolates with you, Yixing, and a few other Hufflepuff members. As a result, seven different people from Hufflepuff ended up banging on Ravenclaw’s Common Room door in the middle of the night, alerting the entire Ravenclaw House plus Filch, and some professors. 

It had been a busy night at the hospital wing, especially when it came to keeping hold of the seven of you so that you wouldn’t fight one another for the girl’s love.

The worst part of the story was that it hadn’t exactly benefited the Hufflepuff reputation. Ever since then, people loved to laugh about “that one time seven dumbass Hufflepuffs managed to get love potion poisoned at once”. Yes. Somehow, what people remembered from the story wasn’t a Hufflepuff’s kindness to share some chocolates with his friends, but the fact that you had been dumb enough to not suspect anything. People were cruel like that.

And the thing was the fact that neither Jongin nor you were particularly brilliant academically speaking wasn’t helping either, but you felt you could redeem yourselves, at least partially, with your splendid performance on Quidditch matches.

But the story kept repeating itself, it seemed.

He started to show symptoms shortly after breakfast. You found out about it soon enough, because Jongin rarely, if ever, showed any kind of romantic interest in anybody at all, so, when he started talking about some Slytherin girl’s luscious hair, you looked at Yixing, Yixing looked back at you, and you both immediately grabbed Jongin’s arms and dragged him towards the hospital wing. The match against Gryffindor was that afternoon, and you didn’t have much time to revert the symptoms. You definitely couldn’t wait until its effects faded away.

“I can’t believe this is happening to us, TODAY of all days.” You complained to Yixing while you were waiting for Madam Pomfrey to administer the antidote.

Yixing was massaging his temples with the back of his wand, looking absolutely defeated.

“He’s going to feel sick until tomorrow night, if I remember correctly from last time.”

You let the back of your head rest against the stone wall.

“God, this isn’t even about how important he is to the team, it’s also a terrible blow to our team morale. Who’s going to tell the Captain? You?”

“I’ll do it if you want to. It doesn’t matter. Prepare for the storm.”

Jongin came out of the infirmary looking sick and pale, with barely any energy left to stay standing by himself, but, at the very least, he was no longer infatuated.

“Jongin! How are you feeling?”

“I’ve been better.” He replied weakly, placing a hand over his stomach.

“Do you think you can ride your broom?”

Despite his state, there was not a hint of hesitation in his voice when he replied:

“I will.”

You bit your lip.

“It’s getting late, c’mon, we need to get going.”

You had a hard time keeping an eye on Jongin and another on the quaffle while constantly making dangerous sharp turns with your broom to avoid the bludgers that those two damned Gryffindors wouldn’t stop sending your way. It was admirable how Jongin managed to dodge each and every one of them, even if he wasn’t able to score many points for once. It was more than enough, given the state he was in.

Thankfully, a few minutes before you were about to start feeling really desperate, Yixing spotted the snitch on the corner of the field and, after a very effective distraction maneuver, he grabbed it in his usual, very spectacular way, like only he could, and Hufflepuff won the match.

“YEEESSS! YIXING!” You screamed atop of your lungs, while rapidly descending towards the ground.

There was no time for your customary celebratory flight around the field. Your triumphant smile was erased from your face when you saw Jongin fall to his knees and start throwing up as soon as his feet hit the ground.

You rushed to the infirmary again, his arm draped over your shoulders, and you were so worried doing so that you didn’t even notice someone was following you.

“Jongin, for real, I thought you’d learned your lesson!”

Now that the danger had passed, the euphoria from the victory was starting to loosen your tongue. Even if you, deep inside, believed none of what happened had been his fault, you still felt the need to scold him just a little.

“I opened the box, saw the chocolates, and threw them away. I’m telling you! I didn’t even touch them!”

He kept repeating that, but it didn’t even made any sense.

“Well, there must have been some sort of cross-contamination because how would you explain this then!?”

“Beats me.” Jongin answered, tiredly, and then he apprehensively shook your hand that he’d been holding the entire time for support. “Can we get out of the infirmary already? I want to go back to the Common Room as soon as possible.”

“Oh,” you grabbed the door handle, opened it and stepped outside, pulling Jongin with you by the hand, a smile now back on your face. “You won’t get any rest in there. People are going to be celebrating, you know. Yixing is probably shitfaced drunk by no–”

“Hey. Congrats on the win.” An unmistakable voice said. 

From the shadows and columns of the hallway emerged Do Kyungsoo, the same stern look on his face from the last time you’d seen him, back in Hogsmeade. 

“Can I talk to you in private for a moment?”

Honestly, he was one of the people you’d least expect to be waiting for Jongin and you outside the infirmary. You glanced at Jongin. He had a blank expression on his face, like he had no idea what to expect from this exchange either.

Kyungsoo had his deep penetrating gaze fixed on you, alternating from your face, to Jongin’s, to your joined hands. You released Jongin’s hand immediately.

“Uh.. sure.” You said.

Kyungsoo cleared his throat, and, with that captivating velvet voice of his, he spoke:

“Jongin being poisoned wasn’t a coincidence. It wasn’t that Slytherin girl who did it. You were sabotaged. By Gryffindor.”

“What?” You said.

“What?” Jongin’s weakened voice sounded pretty much like a whine next to yours.

“It was Chanyeol and Baekhyun, from the Gryffindor team.”

Your mouth fell open.

With the memories from the match still fresh, but your mind a lot clearer, it was obvious now Jongdae and Chanyeol had definitely chosen both you and Jongin as their objectives, almost not leaving you a single moment to catch your breath. You felt your blood boil. What, had they come to the conclusion that Yixing was way too fast for them to waste their time with him, so they had come for Jongin and you? What a bunch of losers!

“Those motherfuckers…!” You spoke, through your clenched teeth.

“Baekhyun isn’t even on the team!” came Jongin’s weakened whine. 

Kyungsoo just shrugged. You still couldn’t believe what you had just heard.

“But, did they plan all that together with that Slytherin girl, the one whose hair was in the potion?”

“No, no.” Answered Kyungsoo. “They just took her hair from her jacket during one of the classes they share. She doesn’t know anything about all of this.”

“And it’s better if she never does.” Jongin said with a sigh.

“But did they put the poison in the chocolates? He didn’t even eat them!" 

"Uh… No, what chocolates? They put it in his juice this morning. You see, Baekhyun has a rat that he’s trained…”

“Oh my God.” You interrupted him with a frustrated hand gesture.

Kyungsoo scratched his head.

“Since you are, you know, prone to, eh, these things, they thought no one would guess it was them…” He was looking attentively at Jongin, taking in his appearance, like he was trying to guess what exactly it was that made him the focus of the romantic attention of every girl in the school. 

“God, they had everything in their favor…” You mumbled, hiding your face behind your hand. “ They completely planned this from the beginning. I honestly didn’t take them for such cheating cowards.” You kept saying. “This is… this is…!’

"We should tell McGonagall.” Suggested Jongin.

“We should beat those motherfuckers up!!” You countered.

At your words, Kyungsoo took a step forward, his expression immediately softening. You face heated up at his proximity despite the seriousness of the situation.

“If I can say something in their favor…” He said, gesturing with his hands in an appeasing way. “They’re not bad people… It’s just that Chanyeol is really competitive.“ He emphasized the ‘really’ with a roll of his eyes. "He’s usually honest and straightforward, and takes pride in his flying skills, but his thinking gets clouded with ambition sometimes. He wanted me to make an even stronger love potion, but since I refused, they ended up getting one from Weasley’s.” He then suddenly grew red and bashful at his own words and shut up, despite looking like there was something else he wanted to add.

“Yeah, whatever.” You said. “I’m going to punch their eyeballs out for this, but thanks for trying.”

You put your hands on Jongin’s shoulders and gently pushed him towards the end of the hallway, only one thing on your mind.

“Thank you for this valuable information, Kyungsoo!” You yelled over your shoulder before you both disappeared behind the corner. “When I turn Chanyeol into a giraffe I won’t tell him who told us!”

Suffice to say, your plan to run your revenge on Chanyeol and Baekhyun didn’t go as expected. You weren’t counting on Baekhyun’s ability to cast the expelliarmus spell for one thing, or on how fast Chanyeol was able to run. Ignoring Jongin’s advice to report foul play on the match, you decided to take the matter into your own hands, which only served to get you the wrong kind of attention from Professor McGonagall. So, in the end, the only thing you managed was to get you and Chanyeol on detention for getting into a fight, and 30 points deducted each.

As a punishment, Professor McGonagall also had you both classify what seemed like ten thousand forms and all sorts of boring paperwork. Surprisingly, Chanyeol wasn’t even mad at you because of the deducted points, or the punishment. In fact, he was behaving like everything had been a joke to him, and his laidback attitude had you in doubts about how to feel about the whole thing.

“You’re lucky we beat your asses, because you would be DEAD right now if we’d lost.” You stopped scribbling on the paper for a second to point accusatively at him with your fwooper quill.

“Ah, but Kyungsoo is such a traitor.” He shook his head with a light laugh. “I can’t believe he gave us away.”

No, you hadn’t run your mouth about Kyungsoo. Chanyeol had guessed it on his own, somehow. You decided not to comment on it.

“I guess you can’t always choose friends who are RATS, like you.”

Chanyeol laughed, not even bothered by your comment.

“It’s really my fault. I should’ve known we couldn’t trust him. He’s liked you for years. Did you know that?”

“What?” You stopped in your tracks. “You’re messing with me again?”

“No! No!” Chanyeol waved his hands very effusively. “For real. He’s been into you since, I don’t know, second year or something. Like, for real. He’s never told you, right?”

It seemed like the sun filtering through McGonagall’s office window was taking its toll on you and your increasingly heating face. Or maybe you were just flustered. Either way, you were feeling hotter by the minute, and you needed a distraction anyway, so you started to take your sweater off.

“He barely talks to me!” You said, struggling to make your head go through the sweaters hole. “Like, the most we talk is, every now and then during Potions class, when I ask him for help, or whatever.”

“Ahahaha! He’s so lame! That’s because he’s shy. And also maybe because you’re dating Kim Jongin and all that, and Kyungsoo is all about that whole ‘Ooh, I don’t wanna meddle in’ bullshit.” He mocked. 

“Oh my god.” You said in a monotone voice, not even surprised anymore, and stopped fighting with the sweater for more emphasis. “For the last time, I’m not dating Jongin! And also I’m stuck. Can you lend me a hand?”

You heard Chanyeol approach you and then he started pulling at the fabric to help you.

“Wait, what? You’re not dating?”

“No! I don’t know why everybody thinks we are!” Although maybe now you did.

“Uh, maybe because you two are like flesh and bone? You’re always together.”

“Yeah, because we’re friends!” You were starting to feel exasperated with both the conversation and the sweater.

“Wow.” Chanyeol stopped helping you for a moment only to resume his efforts moments later with more energy than before. “But this is such good news! I’m gonna tell Kyungsoo. Listen. For real. He likes you so much that last summer my cousin tried to hook up with him and he told her, listen closely, he told her he couldn’t do it because he liked someone else. Like, who does that?” Chanyeol sounded indignant. “Who wastes a perfect chance like that for someone who’s already taken?!”

With a final yank on his part, you were finally free of your fabric prison, your face for sure red and your hair disheveled. But suddenly, the look on Chanyeol’s face was more serious than it had been the entire afternoon. He was looking at your left arm.

He pointed at it.

“You have a soulmate?” 

From the tone of his voice, he must really care about his friend, you thought.

“I have a soulmark.” You clarified, emphasizing the word ‘mark’. “I don’t know who my soulmate is.”

You physically saw the light return to Chanyeol’s face at your words.

“And it’s an owl? Can I?”

He didn’t even wait for your answer before grabbing your arm and examining it closely, a smile slowly forming on his lips. He couldn’t really be thinking…

“Listen, don’t you think he’s cute?” Your mouth fell open at Chanyeol’s words. The nerve of him! You had no idea he was someone who would so willingly play matchmaker like this. “Kyungsoo?” He insisted. “He’s quite popular with the ladies, or at least he would, if he wasn’t so shy.”

“I… I…” You stuttered. Now you were sure it wasn’t that warm today, and you weren’t feeling so hot because of your sweater. “I mean… He’s… Yeah, he’s kinda cute, but, like, I don’t know…”

Chanyeol was smiling bright like he could tell exactly what you were thinking, and he started clapping noisily as soon as he heard the word “cute” come out of your mouth.

“That’s great!! Listen, do you have any plans for this weekend at Hogsmeade? We can all hang out: you, Kyungsoo, me, Jongdae, Baekhyun, and your friends. Bring whoever you want! Jongin, Yixing… We share some classes with Emily, bring her too! What do you say? C’mon, he likes you a lot…!”

Chanyeol talked a lot, and you seemed to have lost the ability to speak without stuttering.

“Uhh… I-I’ll… think about it.”

“Good! Good!” Chanyeol winked at you. “Do think about it!”

Friday arrived soon enough after having witnessed Kyungsoo turning beet red from just being in your presence during Potions class, fleeing as soon as the class ended. You were baffled to assure Chanyeol hadn’t lied to you.

You were not surprised to discover Jongin was strongly opposed to the idea of hanging out with the guys who had given him a love potion to win a Quidditch match, no matter how you tried to word the fact that you thought Chanyeol wasn’t really that bad of a guy.

“What Kyungsoo said it’s true, he’s just very competitive, but he’s friendly when it’s not about Quidditch.” You tried to justify.

You were positive Jongin looked even madder when you mentioned Kyungsoo’s name.

“Oh, right. Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo is also super friendly, right? That’s why he knew about the potion but didn’t say anything until after the match was over.”

You looked at Yixing for support, but Yixing gave you a resigned look.

“He’s got a point.” Yixing said, and you bit your lip. 

Jongin went on.

“Why do they even want to hang out with us all of a sudden? To make peace? Did McGonagall force them to?”

You hesitated. Oh, boy, there you went. For some reason you couldn’t pinpoint, you just weren’t able to bring yourself to tell him the truth.

“No one forced him to. I guess he does want to make peace?”

Had you ever told a bigger lie to anyone’s face? You didn’t think so. Jongin had a hard expression on his face that made you believe he knew you were lying.

“That honors him” said Yixing.

“I don’t care.”

This was frustrating. Since when had Jongin become such a resentful person? He hadn’t even been that mad at them in the first place. For God’s sake, he had even tried to stop you when you tried to hit Chanyeol and Baekhyun!

“Well, what are you going to do?” Jongin asked. “Are you going to hang out with them tomorrow?”

“Well…” You answered. “They’re going to be at The Three Broomsticks, as usual. It’s not like we’d have to do anything different from our usual…”

“If they sit with us at The Three Brooms I’ll leave.”

And that was exactly what happened the next day, as soon as the three Gryffindors walked past the inn’s door with Kyungsoo in tow, Chanyeol sporting a huge grin on his face.

“Hey, look, there they are!” Came his loud booming voice. “Hi, guys, how are you? Good match last week, eh? Let’s all conveniently forget about the whole poisoning incident, shall we? Especially since you bastards still managed to win.” 

You ignored Chanyeol’s crazy rambling to look at Kyungsoo, his intense eyes instantly meeting yours. He was looking like a shaking pudding, and Baekhyun was shameless in pushing him towards the empty chair closest to you. 

Kyungsoo sat down and waved a shy “hi” at you. You didn’t even have time to answer before Jongin suddenly got up from his seat and started walking away from the table, towards the exit.

“Woah, woah,” Chanyeol called for him unsuccessfully. “Jongin, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean any harm, it was just a joke!”

“Oh, c’mon, don’t be like this! Come back, please!” You turned to the recently arrived boys just as Jongin slammed the door on his way out. “I’m sorry, I’ll go talk to him.”

He hadn’t wandered very far when you stepped outside. He was just standing a few steps away from the door, like he didn’t exactly know what to do or where to go now that he was all by himself.

“You seem to have chosen who you want to be friends with.” He said, dramatically enough, when he heard you approach him. “It’s fine with me.”

You walked up to him and looked him in the eye. You couldn’t tell if he was more hurt or furious.

“Jongin, there’s no reason why we can’t all be friends if you just give them a chance. Look, Yixing is fine with them, he’s given them a second chance.”

“Yixing gives everybody a second chance.”

“Yeah, because everybody deserves a second chance, so–”

“No, not everybody!”

You looked at him, perplexed by his harsh words. It was wrong of them to do what they did, that much was true, but it’s not like Chanyeol had murdered someone.

“Jongin….” You began, as softly as you could. “You’re not usually like this. You… you’re always kind and forgiving. Why do you feel so strongly about them? We’ve suffered worse offenses from other peo–”

He interrupted you.

“You have no right to tell me how to feel about anybody. It wasn’t you who got poisoned.”

You were still thinking about what to answer when the inn’s door opened again and Kyungsoo stepped outside. Jongin shut up immediately.

“I’m very sorry about everything.” Kyungsoo said, approaching you with a very serious expression on his face. “I don’t want you to fight because of us, so I’m going to be leaving now. Don’t leave Yixing and Emily alone with those three much longer. They might get them drunk, or who knows what.”

You stared at him for a few seconds, absolutely speechless. 

“See you tomorrow in class.” Said finally Kyungsoo.

And, with that, he disappeared into the crowd of students at Hogsmeade before any of you were able to come up with anything to say.

You turned to Jongin and begged.

“This is enough, Jongin. Please, let’s get back.”

To your surprise, Jongin followed you inside.

For some reason, Jongin never mentioned the incident again, and you definitely had no desire to bring it up, after seeing the way he had reacted. However, during the following weeks, you noticed Kyungsoo started to make more straightforward attempts to get close to you, whenever he found you alone. 

For example, on the next Potions lesson after that day, he approached your desk, his walk uncharacteristically stiff, and asked you:

“W-would you mind if I sat here for today?”

You felt your face color and your throat run out of words, so you opted for a nod and started making space on the desk for him. The way he took his time carefully placing his ingredients and potion tools on the desk, next to your stuff, all while ignoring Professor Snape’s disapproving glare, showed how flustered he was to be in your company, clearly needing anything he could come up with as a distraction. And it definitely didn’t escape you how his eyes kept stealing quick glances at your soulmark whenever it happened to be exposed.

You couldn’t help but grow restless. What had Chanyeol said? That he liked you since… his second year? The same year you got your soulmark? It couldn’t be. It must be a coincidence.

Kyungsoo mostly ignored you whenever he saw you with your friends, like during meals at the Great Hall, which made everything a lot more awkward. Chanyeol was right in saying he was shy, you thought. 

Maybe it was for the better, though, because you were sure it would take you a long time to forget Jongin’s face when he caught you once sitting together at Kyungsoo’s favorite spot at the library, your heads leaning close to each other over the same book.

“What are you two doing here?” He’d asked, looking completely caught off balance.

“We have an assignment.” You’d simply answered.

You had an assignment. It wasn’t a group assignment. It wasn’t even about the same topic. You didn’t feel Jongin needed, or would’ve liked to know that. 

Then Jongin had seen the tray of peanut caramel shortbread Kyungsoo had brought with him, and raising his eyebrow, had asked:

“You can’t bring food into the library, didn’t you know?”

“I do it all the time.” Had replied Kyungsoo. “And they’ve never caught me.”

“He’s baked it himself, do you want some?” You had offered, just because you were hating the atmosphere at that moment, and you didn’t know what else to say.

“No.”

And, just like that, he’d left.

You and Jongin had been growing distant lately. There was no denying it anymore. 

He was cranky most of the time. He talked to you rudely, and you kept feeling guilty, although you were almost a hundred percent positive nothing you had done made you deserving of this kind treatment from him. You two talked so little you didn’t even have any idea where he and Yixing had been all the time you’d spent studying with Kyungsoo.

You should’ve felt the upcoming disaster, in retrospect, but you were pretty much blind until one monday evening, when Kyungsoo decided to walk you to the Hufflepuff Common Room after your umpteenth studying session together, and then stayed for the most part of an hour talking with you at the door. 

Honestly, did you want him to leave? No. Did you care about the entire Hufflepuff house already knowing about his huge crush on you? Not really, either. Were you concerned about Jongin seeing you talking to him so closely, his head leaning on the wall, his facial expression blatantly showing he was completely captivated by you, the tips of his fingers grazing yours in a shy attempt to hold your hand? Maybe, a little.

It eventually got too close to dinner time, when you were supposed to meet with Jongin, Yixing and Emily to sit with them at the Grand Hall, so Kyungsoo said his goodbyes.

“Ahem…” He played with your fingers as he cleared his throat. “See you after dinner, maybe?”

“Yeah, sure!”

You were ready to release his hand and enter your Common Room to get ready for dinner, but he didn’t seem very willing to let you go just like that. He held onto your hand, and, when you looked up back at him with surprise, he was smiling shyly.

“What?” You laughed.

“Nothing.” He replied. 

And, just like that, he kissed you.

The brush of his lips against yours was quick, but warm, and soft, and all sorts of delicious. It left you wanting more, expecting him to repeat it, this time with more intent, more pressure, more of everything. But, instead, he just gave you a small smile and said:

“See you later, then.”

And, with a last squeeze of your hand, he let you go and finally left.

You brought a shaky hand to your lips, still not believing what had just happened.

Then you turned around to enter your Common Room and jumped in fright at the sight of Jongin standing at the door, an unreadable expression on his face.

“J-Jongin…!” You started, still taking some time to recover your breath. “Wh-what are you doing there?”

“Hey.” He said. “ Don’t mind me. I’m just going to the Great Hall for dinner.” His voice was uncharacteristically shaky.

And he left, taking big hurried steps in a direction that was, most definitely, not the Great Hall. You had to follow him.

You found him at the end of the hallway, standing by himself in a dark corner. His shoulders were shaking; you could hear his breathing, heavy and agitated. You approached him slowly and, when you turned to step in front of him, he covered his face with his arm. In the spare second it took him to do that, you were able to see his eyes, reddened and shiny with tears. Your mouth fell slowly open, your blood running cold at the sight.

You had never seen him like this.

“Jongin, what is wrong?” You asked, as carefully as you could.

There was a brief moment of silence before he answered.

"I’m never going to be good enough for you, am I?” he spit, choking up a sob.

“W-what? What are you talking about?”

He moved his arm from his face to look you directly in the eyes. The intensity in his gaze made you stumble one step backwards.

“Why is it that every time someone thinks we’re dating you’re so quick to remind everyone of how unattractive you find me?” 

You just stared at him, seemingly having gone mute at his words. Unattractive? You didn’t think he was unattractive. When had he started to care about how attractive you found him? He went on speaking, not without difficulty:

“No matter what other girls might think of me, you’re always making sure everyone knows you would never date me or even look in my direction in that way, not even in my wildest dreams and I… I…” He choked up a sob and took a big breath, then closed his eyes tightly, like he was in pain.

And you thought he might as well be, with how much effort it was taking him to speak.

“I’m sorry.” He suddenly said, his voice much less under control than he seemed to think. “I’m being so stupid. You deserve none of this.” He hid his reddened eyes from you with his hand, and then, almost inaudibly, as his voice was shrinking in his throat, he added: “Please, forget this. I don’t want to stop being friends.” 

And he just ran away down the hallway.

You were left standing there, completely frozen, trying to comprehend the situation.

Jongin skipped dinner that evening. 

You didn’t feel like mentioning any of what happened to Kyungsoo when you met him later. You just allowed him to kiss you senseless under the candlelights of a hidden corner in the fourth floor until curfew, all previous shyness seemingly forgotten.

Later that night, when the Common Room was already empty, Yixing called you from outside the girls bedroom. You came out and sat down with him next to the dimming light of the fireplace.

“You do like that Do Kyungsoo guy, don’t you?” he asked, without preamble.

“I-I guess I do…”

You could still feel his kisses and touches fresh on your skin, the flood of new sensations making you feel like you weren’t the same girl from a few hours ago.

“He told me he saw you kissing. Are you dating?”

“N… no… Not yet.” You answered.

Yixing raised his eyebrows at your “yet”, not with surprise, but looking like he was expecting something more from you. Then he made a defeated expression with his mouth.

“He’s been crying all evening.” He said.

You pulled your hair in desperation.

“Yixing, I don’t know what to do. I had no idea he felt that way about me. I don’t want to hurt him.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, honestly. I just found out about it too.” He stopped to think for a second. “I mean, it makes sense, given that he’s never gone on any of the many dates he’s been asked to.”

“Literally every girl in the school would give an arm and a leg for a date with him, and he had to go and like me?”

Yixing just stayed silent, looking at the fireplace.

“We have quidditch training tomorrow evening. He won’t skip that, right?” You insisted. “The final against Slytherin is in less than a week.”

“I…” Yixing didn’t sound certain at all. You were Jongin’s best friend, after all, not him. “I’m sure he’ll do his best.”

You hoped Yixing was right.

Jongin avoided you for two entire days, until your next Quidditch training session. He was still distant during all of it, but at the very least, he was talking to you. Could you blame him for trying to put some distance between you, though? Not really. You would’ve done the same. You just hated that things had to happen this way.

When training was over, after you had exited the changing rooms, your first instinct was to look for Yixing and join him to walk to the Common Room together. You were bitterly reminded of the current situation when you saw him leave with Jongin, sending only an apologetic look your way.

However, you didn’t have much time to dwell on it, because three annoyingly recognizable voices suddenly made their way across the hallway. Chanyeol, Baekhyun and Jongdae were coming, speaking loudly among themselves, as usual, except this time it seemed like their ranting was somehow directed at Kyungsoo. They stopped in their tracks when they saw you. Chanyeol loudly slapped him on the back, with enough force to push him in your direction, and Kyungsoo stumbled a few steps forward.

He was stuttering when he finally opened his mouth, and you wanted to laugh, because he definitely wasn’t that shy yesterday night, but you could see the determination in his eyes, so you just let him speak.

“C-can I talk to you for a second?”

“Sure.”

He pulled something from the inner pocket of his robe, a long, flat box, and handed it to you. He waited until you’ve started opening it to talk:

“I saw this at a shop the other day and I thought of you.”

“Oh, Kyungsoo, you didn’t have to!” You said, with a small smile on your face.

You carefully took the object inside of the box in your hands: it was a beautiful hand-painted wooden lucky charm, in the shape of a fwooper bird.

“You once said fwoopers are your favorite magical creatures.” He explained.

It was true, although you didn’t remember ever telling him, of all people. Did he remember from the one time in third year you mentioned it in class?

“And since finals weeks is near I thought it would be a nice gift a-and, by the way, I was thinking that i-if you’re free during the summer holidays maybe we c– AH!!”

You looked at him, your eyes open wide, and he was holding his forearm like he was in pain.

He then moved his hand to reveal nothing but a fwooper bird, freshly printed on his skin, the borders of the tattoo red with the flow of his blood pulsating around his soulmark.

He looked at you. He looked like a deer caught in headlights, his cheeks a furious shade of red.

You took his arm in your hand gently and lightly brushed your fingers against his reddened soulmark. Just as you were about to speak, a burst of electricity traveled from the spot where your fingers were touching Kyungsoo’s skin towards your own soulmark, which started burning in a really funny, almost pleasant kind of way. And then, both of your soulmarks started glowing bright.

Kyungsoo looked just as stunned as you were. You were trying to think of something to say, but your thoughts were drowned by the cheers and howls of Chanyeol, Baekhyun and Jongdae, who were noisily jumping and high fiving one another to celebrate the moment.

It was hard to tell what was happening anymore, with all the screaming and movement around you. Kyungsoo’s friends were calling over anybody who happened to be near. For you, the world was spinning.

“I knew it!” Chanyeol was yelling. “I knew it!! I knew Kyungsoo would be the only lucky bastard –of all of us!– to find his soulmate before we graduated!”

He came towards you and started affectionately but roughly rubbing Kyungsoo’s head. Meanwhile, Jongdae’s voice could be heard all over the entire floor.

“Professor Sprout, Kyungsoo’s found his soulmate! Professor! Yaxley! Bell! You three, with the slytherin robes, come over! Baekhyun, go fetch some butterbeer or juice or whatever from the kitchen, we need to celebrate!”

“I knew it from the moment I saw her owl! She’s had it for two years, and that’s when Kyungsoo started crushing on her! I’m telling you, I knew it!!”

In the midst of all the ruckus, you saw Baekhyun sprinting in the general direction of the kitchen, calling people over on his way. When he flew past your friends, they’d all seemed to go completely still, unlike the rest of the world, and you pretended not to see Jongin’s broken expression.