Archive of Our Own

Wind whistled past his ears at an almost worrying rate, but Jaehyun’s mind was clear. His eyes narrowed at a tiny golden speck in front of him, growing closer to it inch by inch.

He grunted, pushing his chest down against the broom and stretching his arm as far as he could, extending his fingertips to the point that his muscles were screaming. He was so close, so tantalizingly close. Far below him the crowd was screaming, chanting his name, but they were muffled to him. He knew that if he dared to glance behind him, the other seeker would be practically grabbing at his heels.

The snitch was more visible now, Jaehyun could see the tiny wings buzzing as the golden ball darted through the sky. He was so close, if he could just reach one inch further— 

Suddenly, the snitch dived towards the ground. Jaehyun’s eyes widened for a second, but in a flash he too was hurtling toward the field. The wind was deafening with its roars and Jaehyun could faintly hear the sound of the announcers as he approached the field at a hundred miles an hour.

“It looks like Jung is chasing the snitch! Victory is in sight for NC United!”

Jaehyun grunted, begging his Nimbus to go even faster. He could practically feel the cold metal in his palm.

“I wouldn’t be so sure Jones, Daveys is right behind him!”

The grass below was becoming more and more clear but Jaehyun just narrowed his eyes and continued to dive.

“It’s within inches of his grip!”

The crowd was screaming, everyone watching the two seekers zip through the sky. Jaehyun cried out bursting forward with the last of his energy, magic flowing through his body. The snitch was practically in reach.

“I think NCU is going to be celebrating tonight!”

The snitch was practically grazing the grass now, Jaehyun smirked, it had nowhere to go. But then—

“Dear God, I think the snitch just darted left!”

Jaehyun blinked. There was no snitch in front of him, instead he saw green so bright his eyes hurt.

“Fuck! Pull up you bastar—”

And then everything went black.

“Do you think I have enough parchment to last me a term?”

“C’mon Doyoung, give it a rest. The kids will be here in no time, it’s too late to worry now.”

Doyoung turned his head away from his bookcase, shooting a glare at his companion. “Shut up Taeyong, or I’ll tell my students that your class is just horoscopes and star gazing again.”

Taeyong rolled his eyes, “I’ll have you know that astronomy is a perfectly good form of magic and is more ancient and powerful than your little charms class ever will be.”

Doyoung scoffed, “sure it is. I’m an aquarius, can you tell me how my year will be?”

“Horrible. You’re going to run out of parchment and your students are going to harass you about your personal life. Also, since I’m not 100% a dick, you’ll get with the love of your life.”

Doyoung turned around, leaning on the table Taeyong was sitting opposite of, “sounds wonderful, can’t wait.”

Taeyong hummed, sipping from the cup of tea he always seemed to have with him, looking around at the desks that surrounded them. “I wouldn’t be so excited if I were you, another year in this castle, another year of monotony.”

“Careful, I wouldn't want Headmaster Moon to hear his deputy headmaster speak like that.”

“Oh Taeil is an old softie, he doesn’t care. He knows that the only thing interesting going on in Hogwarts is the gossip.”

“Speaking of gossip, is there anything new you’ve heard about?”

“Not much,” Taeyong shrugged, glancing up at the ceiling. The painted stars on a midnight background twinkled back at him, clouds slowly meandering through the ceiling beams. “There was that quidditch guy who got into a pretty nasty injury a year ago, I think he officially retired.”

Doyoung scoffed, “Did Yuta and Sicheng get together over the summer? Their sexual tension literally makes me want to gag when I’m in the same room as them.”

“Unfortunately no. Instead Sicheng had a fling with Kun when they visited China together, but they broke up weeks ago.”

“Disastrous,” Doyoung sighed.

“Taeil told me they’re bringing in a new Care of Magical Creatures Professor, he said that he’s a nice guy.”

“Do you know his name?”

“Honestly, no,” Taeyong blushed, “during the meeting Johnny kept handing me notes, Doyoung you should’ve been there to see the way he looked at me—”

“Gross.” Doyoung deadpanned.

Taeyong rolled his eyes, “stop being so negative about our relationship, I know you don’t like change but he’s a really nice guy.”

Doyoung sighed, glancing out the window. His eyes widened when he saw the telltale boats crossing the Great Lake. “Shit, we have to run.”

“Oh fuck you’re right. I’m supposed to be greeting those first year brats in like 2 minutes.”

“What if they don’t like me?”

“How could they not like you? You’re Jung Jaehyun. You were literally on the cover of Witch Weekly’s Most Eligible Bachelors issue last year.”

Jaehyun gulped, “yeah but this is,” he glanced around quickly, “preteens.” He whispered conspiratorially. “Johnny, my niche has always been 40 year old housewives, not teenagers.  They can honestly be the rudest people in the world.”

“You get over it.” Johnny patted his friend on the back, “you know, one time my fifth year class got a hold of photos of me back from that semester abroad in Japan when I had long ass hair,” he shuddered, “it was terrifying.”

“I remember that, it was a bad time for us all.” Jaehyun nodded gravely.

“But anyways, after that there’s nothing they could do that would shock me. These kids just like having fun, and sure they can be ruthless at times, but just take it all in stride and you’ll learn that they really do have hearts of gold. Red and gold.”

Jaehyun and Johnny high fived, yelling “Gryffindor!” insync. Their voices echoed off the stone walls and Jaehyun smiled at the familiar surroundings. “I did miss this place.”

“Who can forget the place where Jung Jaehyun became the best quidditch star Hogwarts had seen in years?” Johnny smiled, “I bet you’re just glad to be back on the pitch.”

Jaehyun winced, “it’s been a year since that accident. Honestly I’m thankful, I thought I’d never have anything to do with Quidditch again. Letting me coach for Gryffindor was the best thing Taeil’s ever done.”

“I know you guys weren’t friends back in school, but honestly Taeil is a nice guy, and he always makes the best choices for the school. Plus, you always had Care of Magical Creatures as a backup in case going pro didn’t work out, so this position is really a win-win situation. Besides, don’t forget a certain someone is also here.”

Jaehyun blushed, “I don’t know about that last part, but the rest is a good way of looking at it,” Jaehyun smiled, “thanks Johnny, you’ve always been my best friend.”

“No problem man, now c’mon, the Great Hall is waiting to meet their newest professor.”

Doyoung arrived just in time, shuffling past the chairs of the staff table before sitting down next to Jungwoo. “Thank god.”

Jungwoo snickered, “running late already? At least you made it before the students.” Doyoung turned to glare at his friend and Herbology professor. As if Jungwoo summoned them, the Great Hall doors opened and the older students started filing in. Doyoung smiled, spotting some of his favorite students sitting down at their respective tables. He caught the eye of Mark Lee, and grinned proudly as the Ravenclaw waved and flashed his Head Boy badge at Doyoung.

The room started to fill with voices and Doyoung turned back to Jungwoo, “sorry, Taeyong and I got caught up talking in my classroom.”

“Gossipping you mean?” Jungwoo smiled innocently, although Doyoung knew that it was far from innocent.

“What’s this about gossipping?” Another voice chimed in from next to Jungwoo.

Doyoung craned his neck to see Ten, the enigmatic flying professor grinning expectantly at them. “Nothing you probably haven’t heard already Ten.”

“I bet it was about the new Care of Magical Creatures professor. He’s pretty fucking hot. I can’t wait to absolutely destroy his ass on the quidditch field. And I wouldn’t mind doing it off the field too,” Ten waggled his eyebrows.

“Likewise—about the quidditch thing,” Jungwoo said in a tone that made Doyoung shudder. “You as well Ten, Slytherin might have Na Jaemin, but Changbin has just been getting better and better.”

“I’ll make sure Chenle sends a bludger directly your way, Jungwoo,” Ten responded sweetly.

“Do you guys ever shut up about quidditch?” Doyoung asked.

“Considering being coaches is part of our job, no.” Jungwoo responded. “So, what do you think, Doyoung?”

“Think what?”

“About the new professor, don’t you agree that he’s hot?” Ten prompted.

Doyoung shrugged, “I haven’t even seen him yet.” he glanced at the other side of the table, but he couldn’t see over Yuta’s head to the left end.

“Oh?” Ten grinned evilly, “you don’t know who he is?”

Doyoung’s eyes narrowed, “am I supposed to?”

Before Ten could answer, Taeil cleared his throat and his magically amplified voice filled the hall, quieting everyone. Doyoung turned away and scanned the room, watching amusedly as Taeyong desperately tried to shush the wide eyed first years. “Welcome to another year at Hogwarts.” Taeil smiled, “we are so excited to have you back. And to those of you just joining us, welcome to your new home!” The students clapped politely before Taeil spoke again. “I hope we all have a great year, good luck to you all. Let the sorting ceremony commence!”

Having seen five or six of these already, Doyoung’s eyes sort of glazed over, although he still clapped proudly when a student was sorted into Ravenclaw. Gradually, the long line of first years dwindled down until each student was finally sorted.

“Congratulations to all of you,” Taeil said, “I am so looking forward to having you for the next seven years. However, there are some much needed introductions I should make. First is Professor of Astronomy Lee Taeyong, my deputy headmaster and the Head of House for Hufflepuff.”

Taeyong stood up and waved, smiling excitedly at his new students. “I’d also like to introduce you to Professor Johnny Seo, professor of Transfiguration and the Head of House for Gryffindor.” Johnny stood, grinning at the red and gold table who immediately started roaring with cheers, whooping loudly.

Doyoung held himself back from rolling his eyes. “Please also say hello to Kim Doyoung, your Charms professor and the Ravenclaw Head of House.” Doyoung stood up politely, smiling at his Ravenclaws who beamed back at him.

“And to round off the Head of Houses, Professor of Potions and the Head of Slytherin, Qian Kun!” Kun, like the rest of them, stood up and nodded towards his table.

“To those of you who are interested in quidditch, you should familiarize yourselves with the coaches. Chittaphon Leechiapornkul for Slytherin, Dong Sicheng for Ravenclaw, Kim Jungwoo for Hufflepuff, and last but certainly not least, the newest member of our staff, Jung Jaehyun for Gryffindor!” Whispers broke out through the Great Hall at the mention of the last name and Doyoung almost choked.

His eyes widened as he turned to see the man himself stand up hesitantly to wave at everyone. He paled as Taeil continued, welcoming the newest professor of the Care of Magical Creatures. Jaehyun glanced quickly at him and Doyoung paled before his eyes turned back to the students.

“See?” Ten whispered, “don’t you wish you did your research?”

Dinner went much better than Jaehyun thought it would. No one even asked him about the injury, and he spoke the entire time with Yuta, an old friend and the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. However, one thing itched at the back of his brain the entire time.

That itch was what caused him to do what he did after dinner, walking back to his apartments in the North Tower. Without thinking, he grabbed the arm of the man in front of him and ducked into an abandoned classroom.

“What the actual fuck?” The man bristled, stumbling into the darkened room. He turned around the glare at Jaehyun and Jaehyun’s lungs jumped into his throat. “What do you want?” The man hissed.

“Uh,”

Doyoung glared, “spit it out Jaehyun.”

“Um,” Jaehyun winced, realizing how bad this looked, “I wanted to talk.”

“About what?” Doyoung raised a single eyebrow. God dammit, Jaehyun forgot how Doyoung’s annoyed face was so demeaning.

“Uh, about us? I guess we’re working together now—”

“There is no us,” Doyoung said, “not since we were both at school. You made that very clear in the summer after we graduated when you joined that team.”

“Listen Doyoung, I’m sorry—”

“Do you realize how inappropriate this is? We haven’t spoken to each other in years.”

 “I know, and that’s my fault.”

"Hell yeah it is.”

"Doyoung, just listen for a second.”

Doyoung paused, before folding his arms and glaring. “Fine.”

Jaehyun sighed, this wasn’t going to be easy. Then again, interacting with Doyoung rarely was. “I know we had history,” he said lightly.

Doyoung scoffed, “that’s one way of putting it.”

“And I know I fucked up, but you gave me an ultimatum! It was completely unfair.”

“Was it?” Doyoung asked, putting his hands on his hips, “because the way I saw it, you were about to leave me and the future you promised me to go off and play professional broomsticks for three fourths of the year and you expected me to just wait patiently for you for the rest of my life!”

“You told me to choose between my career or you!”

“Well clearly, one meant more! And how did that go? Look at where you are now!”

Jaehyun winced, “I know,” he said.

Doyoung’s glare softened slightly, “sorry, that was out of line.”

“It’s okay,” Jaehyun said, looking up, “I deserved it.”

“Well,” Doyoung glanced around, “is this what you wanted to talk about? Closure after eight years of nothing?”

“Well, uh—”

Doyoung’s eyes widened, “don’t tell me you thought we were going to get back together.”

Jaehyun winced, burying his next words. “No,” Jaehyun said, “I just think since we’re about to see a lot of each other, it might be a good idea to have an agreement to be, uh, to be—”

“To remain professional and polite to each other?” Doyoung asked quizzically, “of course. You know me. I’m always professional.”

Jaehyun blinked, “of course.” He said before hesitantly extending his hand. “So we have a deal?”

Doyoung looked at his hand wearily before reaching out his own and sliding it into his. Both of them ignored the familiar feeling. “Yes.”

“Repeat after me, aguamenti.” Doyoung instructed.

“Aguamenti.” The class repeated. Doyoung looked around at the seventh years. Since it was a N.E.W.T. level class, there were only around fifteen students from all houses.

“All you need to do after that is make a sideways S shape with your wand,” Doyoung lifted his wand, flicking it through the pattern that was now ingrained into his muscle memory. “Aguamenti.” A wave of water rushed from Doyoung’s wand, sailing over the student’s heads and directly into one of a line of buckets placed on the other side of the room.

“I trust you guys by now to start practicing the charm on your own, remember, do not direct it towards anyone. If I have even one student leaving here soaked, I’ll take points off to whoever cast the spell. Now go grab a bucket and start!” The noise of chairs being pushed back as the students bustled back to pick up their buckets.

Twenty minutes later Doyoung had already had to deal with Yeri, who only seemed to be able to summon pond water, and Dejun, who somehow managed to soak himself. Doyoung refrained from taking points off since it seemed like it was self-inflicted. “Good job Mark,” Doyoung smiled as the student swirled a tube of water around his head before dispensing it into his bucket.

“Thanks sir,” Mark grinned, “I feel like Katara.” One of Doyoung’s other students, a Gryffindor named Wong Yukhei, snorted in the background and Mark whipped around to glare at him.

Doyoung blinked, not understanding the muggleborn’s references. He rarely did. “I hope that’s a good thing. Since you were the first to perform the spell correctly, 10 points to Ravenclaw.” Mark smiled again while the other students around him groaned.

“Hell yeah Mark,” Mark’s deskmate and fellow Ravenclaw Guanheng, who insisted on being called Hendery, whispered and fistbumped Mark.

“Thanks Hen,” Mark grinned.

Doyoung raised an eyebrow but said nothing, turning back and sitting down behind his desk.

Another few minutes passed with other students also mastering the spell and Mark going on about “water bending” or whatever it was, when there was a knock at the door.

Doyoung’s eyes went cold as he looked at the intruder, “Professor Jung, I’m teaching right now.”

Jaehyun rolled his eyes, “yes I know, but I need to talk to Yukhei.”

Doyoung looked at the Gryffindor student who was following around with his friend Lee Chan, also in Gryffindor. “He can talk to you after he masters aguamenti.”

“Please Doyoung?” Jaehyun asked. A couple students paused, glancing back at Jaehyun in surprise when he used Doyoung’s first name. Jaehyun flushed ever-so-slightly but continued, “it’s about practices, Yukhei is the captain.”

“Ah,” Doyoung rolled his eyes, “quidditch, what else could you want. That game is not more important than my class.”

Jaehyun’s eyes narrowed, “you know, there was once a time when you loved watching the game almost as much as I loved playing it.”

Doyoung refused to acknowledge his reddening face. Glancing away from the other professor he muttered, “fine, but only for a few minutes.”

Jaehyun smiled cockily before gesturing for Yukhei to follow him and stepping out into the hallway.

“He better be back!” Doyoung called after them. He looked around the students who were all looking at him. He spoke, flustered, “did I tell you all to stop?”

Yukhei returned, and Jaehyun ducked in again to say thank you. Doyoung ignored him, just like how he ignored the growing whispers coming from his students.

“Good job today team,” Jaehyun called as the students landed on the pitch around him. “Donghyuck, I know you like being the center of attention—”

“Drama queen,” Jeno teased the chaser, who shoved him back.

“But you need to pass the quaffle to Chan and Jeongin more, the third play depends on your teamwork.” Donghyuck frowned but nodded. “And Jeno,” Jaehyun turned to the keeper, “you let a few easy shots past you, stop focusing on the top ring, you have a tendency to hover there.”

“Yes sir.” Jeno said.

“Call me Jaehyun. Yukhei, did you finish the plays we talked about?”

“What plays?” Yukhei asked.

Jaehyun rolled his eyes. “When I talked to you during Charms.”

“Oh,” Yukhei said, “to be honest Coach, I was distracted.”

Jaehyun frowned, “by what?”

“Uh,” Yukhei stammered, glancing around his team to save him.

“He wants to know what's going on with you and Professor Doyoung, Coach.” Chan said.

“Dino,” Yukhei hissed, “he wasn’t supposed to know about that.”

“Oh?” Jaehyun raised his eyebrow, “what are you talking about?”

“To be honest Coach, we’ve all been talking about it.” Jisung, one of the beaters, said.

“Han!” Yukhei groaned exasperatedly, “what happened to not telling him about this shit?”

Their seeker, Seungmin, rolled his eyes, “he was going to eventually know Cap.”

“There’s nothing going on with us.” Jaehyun said evenly, hoping to put an end to the situation. “Where did you even get an idea like that?”

Yukhei gave up. “We saw the way you guys talked to each other during class and were curious,” he admitted. “Then when Dino and I were talking we walked by Professor Johnny and he started laughing and said that you guys quote ‘had more history than all of the Goblin Wars combined’ unquote.”

“God dammit,” Jaehyun whispered. “I mean, he was just kidding.”

“You really don’t expect us to believe that,” Donghyuck said, “what was it? Were you guys sworn enemies? Secret liaisons? Former lovers?”

Jaehyun almost choked at the last one before he slapped a hand over his mouth.

“I knew it!” Yukhei cried out, “the sexual tension was so obvious.”

Jaehyun flushed bright red, “guys, that isn’t true. We have never been involved, I’ve never even met him before this year.”

“With all due respect Coach,” Jeno said, “bullshit.” Jaehyun looked around at the group of rascals smiling evilly at him.

“Fuck.” He said, “this doesn’t leave the pitch.”

“Of course Coach, we can keep a secret.” Donghyuck said sweetly. Somehow, Jaehyun seriously doubted that.

“So how has your year been so far Mark?” Doyoung asked, glancing from behind his desk at the student who was munching on the cookies Doyoung had offered him. Doyoung liked spending time every week catching up with his seventh years and helping them prepare to leave Hogwarts.

Mark swallowed, “pretty good. It’s kind of hard to juggle quidditch and being Head Boy, but I think I can manage.”

“Of course,” Doyoung nodded, “I have complete faith in you.”

“Thank you sir.” Mark said.

“So have you thought about next year—”

“What do you think of Jung Jaehyun, sir?”

Doyoung almost spat out his tea, “excuse me?” He stuttered.

“Oh, oops.” Mark said, reaching for another cookie, “I don’t know if that was a good thing to ask. I was just curious.”

“Uh,” Doyoung grabbed a napkin and wiped his mouth, “no it’s fine Mark, why do you want to know?”

“Some people are talking,” Mark shrugged, “these cookies are pretty good, did you get them from the kitchen?”

“Talking about what?” Doyoung asked, “and no, I made them.”

“Oh man, you’re a good baker. Can I have the recipe?” Mark asked.

“Sure,” Doyoung said hurriedly, “what are some people talking about?”

“I guess it’s more like the whole school, someone from the Gryffindor quidditch team let it spill that you guys used to date.”

“Excuse me?” Doyoung exclaimed.

“Uh, sure. Do you have somewhere to go?”

Doyoung blinked. Then his eyes narrowed. “Actually, yes.” He stood up from his chair, marching out of the room, his robes billowing behind him.

“Okay see you later sir!” Mark called after him, “are we going to reschedule?”

“Next Tuesday!” Doyoung yelled back from the end of the hallway before continuing on his angered filled rage. Before he knew it he was standing in front of an office door, ‘Jung Jaehyun’ inscribed into the side in runes. Doyoung knocked furiously.

The door swung open, “Johnny stop fucking knock—oh.” Jaehyun’s surprised face was barely registered by Doyoung, who shoved past him into the office and began pacing around the room. Jaehyun crossed his arms, turning around and standing in the doorway. There was a radio crackling next to him and a tune which reminded Doyoung of an old jazz singer played faintly in the background. Before Jaehyun spoke, he turned the knob down. “And to what do I owe the pleasure?” Jaehyun asked.

“You!” Doyoung stopped, shoving a finger into his face, “how do the students know we used to date?”

Jaehyun’s face immediately darkened. “Those little brats.” He muttered. “Some of my kids figured something was going on and confronted me about it.”

“And you told them?” Doyoung exclaimed, voice raising on volume and pitch.

“No,” Jaehyun rolled his eyes, “contrary to what you think, I’m not a dumbass. They figured it out on their own.”

“Did you know that all the students are talking about us now?”

“Well,” Jaehyun frowned, “this is bad.” He looked up with a strange look in his eyes, “you know, it’s kind of like how it was back in school.”

“We need to shut them up.” Doyoung stated.

“The star quidditch player discovered in a secret relationship with his mortal enemy, the stuffy prefect.” Jaehyun smiled wryly.

“We are no longer that,” Doyoung hissed, “you need to stop this.”

Jaehyun sighed, “listen Doyoung, there’s nothing we can really do about it. Kids talk, the only thing we can do is wait.”

“There has to be something we can do!”

“Nope,” Jaehyun shook his head.

“Fuck you,” Doyoung spat.

Jaehyun sighed, leaning against the doorframe. “Sure, but it used to be the other way around.”

Doyoung sputtered, the tension in the air suddenly pressing against his chest, “that’s not what I meant.”

Jaehyun smirked casually, “I know.”

Doyoung scoffed, having had enough. He pushed past Jaehyun, ignoring how hard his chest was against his palm and stormed out of the office with as much conviction as he entered with.

There was a student standing outside the door, who squeaked at the sight of Doyoung’s angered form. “Hi Professor.” He said meekly.

Doyoung inhaled deeply to calm down, “Park Jisung,” he looked at the fourth year Ravenclaw, “what are you doing here?”

“I mean to ask Professor Kun about my potions project,” Jisung stuttered, pointing at the office door next to Jaehyun’s.

“Well maybe you should knock,” Doyoung said thinly.

Jisung jumped, “yeah good idea Professor,” he laughed nervously. “I’ll get to doing that.” He stood there until Doyoung gave him a look and he jumped again before knocking on the door in front of him. Doyoung sighed and turned around to walk back to his quarters. “Have a great night Professor!” Jisung called after him.

“Doubt it,” Doyoung mumbled.

Jaehyun shoved his textbooks into his bag, glancing at his watch and cursing. During his last class he got a little too into the topic of thestrals, causing the class to run overtime. He was about to be late to quidditch practice, and as the coach, this was a big no-no.

Jaehyun pushed open the door of his lecture room and hurriedly walked through the hallways, barely looking at his surroundings. In hindsight, this was a mistake.

Jaehyun never tripped. He was, after all, famous for his coordination. However, that didn’t stop his feet from flying out from underneath him over seemingly nothing, and he tripped forward, crashing into a pile of billowing robes. A pile that contained another person. Another person who seemed pissed.

“Get off of me!” Doyoung shrieked as his cheeks reddened. Jaehyun blinked before looking down and realizing that he was lying directly on top of the other professor, in a position that was straight out of one of those cliche erotica novels his mother liked to read. Unfortunately for Jaehyun, this wasn’t a chapter of Merlin and the Maid, it was real life.

Jaehyun turned deep red, matching Doyoung’s cheeks. “I’m so sorry, I just randomly tripped!”

Doyoung inhaled shakily, his chest brushing against Jaehyun and he felt a warm burst run through his body. “You’re still on top of me.”

Jaehyun froze, “oh right, shit, fu—I’m so sorry,” he said while scrambling to his feet, hand extended to help Doyoung up.

The other professor pushed his hand away and haughtily stood up, brushing off his robes with as much dignity as he could muster. Jaehyun slowly started to become aware of his surroundings as he avoided eye contact with Doyoung and noticed a small group of students giggling behind him and pointing at them, one of the brats hiding a previously extended wand behind his back.

Doyoung seemed to have noticed as well, looking past Jaehyun and glaring at the kids. “Na Jaemin, 10 points from Slytherin.”

The student in question groaned half-heartedly. “It wasn’t me Professor, I think Professor Jaehyun is just clumsy.”

Jaehyun scoffed, Jaemin didn’t even try to sound convincing. However, before he could speak up, someone else did. “The star seeker of NC United being clumsy? I don’t think so,” Doyoung scoffed, “I’ve seen him ride a broom like a skateboard, he’s even used just one arm.” Jaehyun’s eyebrows flew up.

“You knew about that game?” Jaehyun asked, eyes narrowing. It was a stunt he was famous for, but only after he went pro.

“Well,” Doyoung sputtered, “of course not.” Doyoung glanced away from Jaehyun and pushed past him, “don’t you have a quidditch practice to get to?”

Jaehyun watched Doyoung stalk down the hall, more amused than he had been a few seconds ago. “How’d you know I was going to practice?” He called after Doyoung.

Doyoung’s shoulders flinched before he responded, “that’s the direction of the pitch, obviously.”

Jaehyun shook his head, smiling slightly. “With all due respect sir,” Jaemin chimed in and Jaehyun turned to look at the Slytherin, “that’s the direction to a lot of places in this castle.”

Jaehyun chuckled, “I am aware of that.” Maybe this was worth being late to practice.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Doyoung slammed the paper on Taeyong’s desk. The Astronomy professor didn’t even look up, continuing to grade a star chart.

“What now Doyoung,” Taeyong sighed. He glanced up. “Hi Jungwoo. Do you have any idea about what’s going on?”

“Nope,” Jungwoo shrugged from behind Doyoung, “he just barged into my office and told me to follow him.”

“Wonderful,” Taeyong replied, “go on then, I believe you were about to tell us what’s upsetting you?”

“This!” Doyoung picked up the paper and shoved it in Taeyong’s face, “can you believe their nerve?”

Taeyong raised an eyebrow and Jungwoo walked around his desk to look at the paper, “isn’t this The Hogwart’s Gazette? The student newspaper? What are you doing with a copy of it?”

Doyoung flushed briefly, “I like to keep up with the students,” he muttered. “Now go to page three!”

Taeyong flipped through the paper, “the romance section?” He glanced up at Doyoung

Jungwoo rolled his eyes, “it’s just kids talking about the latest gossip, not very interesting.”

“Read it.” Doyoung demanded.

Taeyong shrugged before clearing his throat. “Enemies-With-Benefits: Mark and Yukh—”

“No, the one underneath,” Doyoung hissed.”

“Star Crossed Professors Transcend House Rivalry, an article by Haechan.”

Jungwoo’s eyes widened, grabbing the paper and laughing.

“Shut up,” Doyoung grimaced.

“Oh my god, this is priceless,” Jungwoo giggled, starting to read, “Recently, the castle has been abuzz with the news that we could have a new star couple on our hands. However, it doesn’t come from the usual common rooms or dormitories, but rather from those that oversee us all, the faculty.” 

Taeyong started grinning, the realization coming upon him. “They didn’t!” He exclaimed excitedly.

Jungwoo continued, “a source recently told us that Professor Kim Doyoung and Professor/Coach Jung Jaehyun used to date when they attended Hogwarts and then broke up for unknown reasons. Although their relationship allegedly ended badly, sparks flew two weeks ago when one of our reporters overheard the two arguing in Coach Jung’s office where ‘flirtatious comments’ were exchanged. Na Jaemin has claimed that a few days ago he tripped Coach Jung on his way to practice, causing the two to fall into each other's arms. Multiple students confirmed Na’s eye witness account, and when asked, Na responded with ‘the tension between the two literally almost suffocated me.’ ”

“What the fuck am I supposed to do?” Doyoung asked after Jungwoo finished his humiliating oration and Taeyong finally stopped laughing.

Taeyong bent over his desk, red at the face, “what can you do? It’s done, the kids ship it.”

“Ship it?” Doyoung asked, confused.

“It’s a muggle thing, it means they want you two in a relationship,” Jungwoo said, “like how all the girls swoon when they see Kun and Ten talking in the hallway about Slytherin stuff.” He paused, “that one is actually really funny, because I know they’ve been hooking up since Kun and Sicheng broke it off.”

“That’s disgusting!” Doyoung flinched.

“Well, I think they’re good for one another—”

“Not them! I mean ‘shipping’ Jaehyun and I, the concept itself just makes me,” Doyoung scowled, “so—”

“What if we called them ‘Dohyun?’” Taeyong chimed in.

“Guys stop it!”

Jungwoo scoffed, “Dohyun? That name sucks, leave it to the kids old man.”

The minutes before a game had always been tense for Jaehyun, but now that he was a coach he felt the pressure tenfold. Maybe this was why his coaches had always been cranky right before a match. He looked around the locker room at his team, some of them looking just as queasy as he felt. “Guys, we’ve practiced a lot for this, I know we have the skills to beat Ravenclaw, just remember the plays.”

“Hell yeah we will!” Yukhei said from where he was standing next to Jaehyun, hyping the team up. “Let’s crush those Eagles!” He grabbed his beater’s bat and swung it in the air.

Donghyuck rolled his eyes, “yeah we all know you just want to beat Mark.”

Jeno blinked, “but I like Mark.”

“We all like Mark,” Donghyuck said gently.

“Guys,” Yukhei said frantically, “this isn’t about Mark.”

The entire team sighed, including Jaehyun who said, “sure Xuxi.” He looked at his team, getting back on topic. “It’s the first game of the season, I know a lot of you are nervous, but I believe in you guys. We’ve put in the hours, now all we have to do is go out there and play.” Jaehyun looked up, hearing the roar of the crowd above them. “I think that’s our cue. On the count of three, Gryffindor!” The rest of the team stood up, crowding around Jaehyun and extended their hands. “One, two, three, Gryffindor!” They roared, picking up their brooms and dashing onto the field.

Jaehyun loved the feeling of emerging on the pitch. The crowd was deafening as they ran out, and the green grass was so bright it hurt as the shade pierced Jaehyun’s eyes. As the team lined up in the center of the pitch to greet the Ravenclaws, Johnny walked up behind Jaehyun, patting his friend on the back.

“I have confidence in you,” Johnny smiled as they walked towards their opponents.

“You should,” Jaehyun teased back before looking forward to greet Ravenclaw’s coach, Dong Sicheng, and Doyoung. “Good luck.” Jaehyun said, shaking Sicheng’s hand.

Sicheng smiled politely, removing his hand from Jaehyun’s grasp. “You as well.”

The announcer's voice rang through the stadium. “Welcome to the first game of this year’s quidditch season! Right now, Coach Jaehyun and Coach Sicheng are greeting each other and their respective heads of houses to launch the game!”

Jaehyun placed his hand inside Doyoung’s, a familiar feeling which sparked a faint memory from years ago. He grimaced, “I look forward to the game.”

Doyoung responded, “so do I.”

“If I recall correctly, you used to really love these games.” Jaehyun said. “Was there any specific reason?”

He narrowed his eyes, “just the house competitiveness, I guess.” Jaehyun smiled.

“Of course.”

“It looks like Captains Mark Lee and Yukhei Wong are already engaging in that competitive spirit, they’re practically about to abandon their brooms and just brawl!” At the announcer’s voice, both Jaehyun and Doyoung turned quickly.

“I’m going to fucking murder you on the pitch Wong!” Mark Lee, fumed while the taller Captain glared down at him.

“Not if I do it first!” Yukhei bit back before Jaehyun reached him, pulling him back from the other while Doyoung grasped Mark’s elbow and did the same.

Jaehyun turned to the rest of the team, “what happened?”

“No clue,” Jeno said helpfully, “all of a sudden they just started yelling.”

“There’s been tension between them for some time,” Donghyuck said, “a tension you’d probably be very familiar with,” he said sneakily. “However, for them it usually just means that they’re ready to jump each other at any second, and not in the hot way.”

Jaehyun stared at Donghyuck before shaking his head and choosing to ignore him. “C’mon Yukhei,” he grunted against the Captain who was struggling to get away, “don’t be an idiot. You can beat them in a game, but keep the rivalry on the pitch.”

Yukhei reluctantly stopped shoving but not before he threw one last glare at Mark, who was most likely getting a similar speech from Doyoung.

“And we’ve begun!” The announcer cried out just minutes later. Jaehyun watched as the players kicked off of the field, soaring in the air, his fingers drumming nervously against his crossed arms.

Johnny eyed the players in the sky. “I hope we win, it’s so funny when we win.”

“Funny?” Jaehyun asked, raising an eyebrow before wincing as Donghyuck was nearly struck in the stomach by a bludger.

“Funny.” Johnny repeated, “Doyoung always gets so pissed when they lose.”

“I thought he didn’t like quidditch anymore.”

Johnny shrugged, “that’s what he tries to say, but I guess once the game starts it’s like old times again.”

“Huh,” Jaehyun responded before he was distracted by Guangheng, one of Ravenclaw's Chasers, stealing the quaffle from Jeongin and zooming toward the other side of the field.

The game was tense, and Jaehyun’s stomach was turning so much he felt like he was going to throw up. Next to him, Johnny was furiously muttering to himself, his eyes glued above him where the teams battled it out. The score was currently 130 to 110 with Ravenclaw in the lead and Jaehyun was running his hands through his hair frantically to calm himself. “Shit, Jeno you dumbass,” Johnny cursed as the keeper let a quaffle fly past him. 140 to 110. Jaehyun nervously looked at his players who looked just as tense as him. He quickly glanced at the other side of the pitch and saw Sicheng looking equally nervous. Doyoung next to him had his eyes locked above him, expression unreadable.

Just as Jaehyun tore his gaze away from the professor there was a streak of crimson and blue, chasing after a tiny golden dot. “I believe they’ve spotted the snitch!” the commentator screamed into the stands. The crowd rose in volume, all eyes on the two players. “Ravenclaw’s Park Jisung is in the lead but Gryffindor’s Kim Seungmin is right on his tail!” All eyes were on the two players as Jaehyun breathed in sharply. Suddenly a bludger was shot through the sky, nicking the back of Jisung’s broom. Jaehyun winced as Jisung struggled to regain control, breathing out when the Ravenclaw was stable again. However, that was enough for Seungmin to pull ahead, fingers outstretched. “And Seungmin’s caught the snitch! That’s 150 points for Gryffindor and the end of the game, 260 to 140!”

Jaehyun was swept up into a massive hug with Johnny as the rest of his team flew to the ground and joined in, cheering around them. “Oh my god we did it!” Jaehyun screamed, practically sobbing into Johnny’s crimson robes.

“Hell yeah!” Yukhei screams, nearly knocking Jaehyun over with the impact of his hug. “Coach you did it!” Jaehyun laughs before weaving out of the player’s grasp.

“You’re sweaty,” Jaehyun says, “team! Hit the locker rooms and then go celebrate afterwards!” He grinned, watching his excited team exit the pitch but his view was immediately shadowed by a billowing black set of robes storming towards him.

“Uh oh,” Johnny said helpfully, “looks like someone’s out to get you,” Johnny patted the back of Jaehyun’s shoulder before immediately exiting the scene.

“Fuck,” Jaehyun muttered under his breath as Doyoung approached.

“Jung Jaehyun you fucking cheat!” Doyoung yelled, causing those on the pitch and in the stands to pause.

“Doyoung—” Jaehyun attempted to interject but the fiery Ravenclaw would have nothing of that sort.

“That bludger was completely out of bounds! Your brute of a captain could have killed Jisung! You’re lucky it just hit the back of his broom.”

Jaehyun scowled, he wouldn’t stand for Doyoung insulting his players, “it was completely legal! I know more than anyone about the risks of this game, if Jisung didn’t want to face the danger he shouldn’t have signed up for this sport!”

Doyoung’s nostrils flared and suddenly there was a sharp cracking sound. Jaehyun clutched his cheek, red from where Doyoung had slapped him. He glared, opening his mouth before a voice roared over them.

“Enough!” Taeil’s amplified voice rang through the stadium as he marched toward the duo. “You two, my office, now!”

Doyoung fidgets nervously like he’s a student again while he sits across from Taeil’s desk. He’s refusing to give eye contact to Jaehyun, who’s slouched over in the chair next to him, hand still clutching his cheek. Doyoung rolled his eyes. How dramatic.

“I cannot believe,” Taeil fumed, “that you two would display such immaturity in front of the entire student body.”

“With all due respect—” Doyoung began.

“I don’t want to hear it.” Taeil glared. “Both of your actions today were deplorable. Not only were both of you acting as bad influences to the students, but considering your positions of authority, I would have assumed that you both knew better.” He looked disappointed and Doyoung fidgeted in his chair.

“I’m sorry,” Jaehyun said, “it won’t happen again.”

Doyoung nodded, “we’ll make sure of it.”

Taeil’s eyes narrowed, “yes I’m certain you will.” There was a slight spark in his eyes that made Doyoung uneasy. “That’s why I’m assigning you both to run detention together for the duration of the term and decorate the Great Hall for all events this year.”

“What?” Doyoung jumped forward in his seat, “Taeil—”

“No buts.” Taeil said with finality. “This is your punishment.”

Doyoung scowled before standing up and marching out of the office, Jaehyun following behind him. Right as the doors start to close, Doyoung turns around to give Taeil a piece of his mind but pauses when he sees the headmaster lean back in his chair, pulling out a copy of The Hogwart’s Gazette, opened to page three.

“God Johnny, I just want to go to sleep.” Jaehyun yawns, walking through the dark halls of Hogwarts.

Johnny laughed sympathetically, “I know buddy, but someone’s gotta run detention. Looks like Kun got these kids for stealing potions ingredients, and he picked a rough punishment. Probably because he knew he wouldn’t have to be there.”

“I just got off of a four hour practice!” Jaehyun complained, pausing at the entrance of the castle and mentally preparing himself for the cold night air which would greet him. It was early October, and the chill had started to seep into Jaehyun’s bones.

“Have fun,” Johnny said, “don’t die out there in the Forbidden Forest.”

Jaehyun rolled his eyes before waving goodbye to his friend and pushing the heavy doors open. Walking across the damp grass, he looked at the checklist that Kun had provided of all the ingredients he wanted the students to collect that night. Apparently the senior classes were making Amortentia that week. “Fairy wings, rose thorns, powdered moonstone,” Jaehyun muttered to himself, “hold up, what’s Love In A Mist blooms?”

“It’s a type of flower,” a voice said behind him and Jaehyun almost jumped out of his socks. He turned around to see Doyoung walking on the same path, followed by the three students.

Jaehyun’s eyebrows raised at the sight of Jeno and Donghyuck. “Really guys?”

“Sorry Coach,” Jeno smiled weakly while Donghyuck grinned with no shame.

“We’re working on a side project.” Donghyuck said innocently. Jaehyun sighed, this would probably bring trouble for him later.

“Where’s the fourth?” Doyoung asked.

“Renjun?” Jaemin said, “oh he got out of detention since he has his prefect rounds tonight. Annoying.”

Jaehyun looked up, realizing they were right on the edge of the forest. “Alright, does everyone have their lists from Professor Kun?” The three students nodded, holding up pieces of parchment. “Okay, make sure you have your wands on you, we’ll see you in three hours.” Jaehyun sighed, prepared to spend the night in the cold damp, his socks already feeling the chill.

“Wait Coach,” Donghyuck said, like an angel. Jaehyun knew that tone of voice was never good. “Jaemin is allergic to Love In A Mist blooms.”

Jaemin coughed weakly, “terribly allergic.”

“Can you and Professor Kim collect those? Or else we’ll be out for much longer since Jeno and I will have to split up. We have practice tomorrow, I’d hate to be tired—”

Jaehyun groaned, “whatever, fine we can get them.”

“What?!” Doyoung exclaimed, “no, it’s your punishment—”

Donghyuck jabbed Jeno in the side with his elbow. The boy jumped before immediately putting the cutest puppy-dog look on his face and staring straight at Doyoung, “please Professor? It gets so scary in the dark.” He even whimpered, for Christ’s sake.

Doyoung sighed, pinching his nose bridge with long elegant fingers. “Fine,” he muttered, after a prolonged period of silence.

That’s how they ended up deep in the woods, cold and almost lost. “Well this sucks,” Jaehyun said.

Doyoung didn’t give a response, just rolled his eyes which were illuminated from the light of his wand.

“So you’re just not going to respond?” Jaehyun said, “I remember when you used to do this while we were dating.” He paused for an answer but received none, “well I’ll just break you the same way I did then.” Doyoung whipped his head towards Jaehyun. “By annoying the shit out of you.”

Five minutes later, Jaehyun was rattling on about the proper hand grips for Keepers when Doyoung finally broke. “So since they need to be ready to fly in all directions, a wider grip is more—”

“Shut up!” Doyoung snapped.

“Oh so you’re talking to me now?” Jaehyun grinned.

“Just to make you be quiet,” Doyoung grumbled. “You know, this is all your fault.”

“My fault?” Jaehyun snorted, “I’m not the one who slapped someone.”

“Yeah well I wasn’t the one who let their player almost kill another student!”

Jaehyun frowned, “I’ll admit, it was a narrow miss, but—”

“But what?” Doyoung glared accusingly at Jaehyun.

“But no one ended up getting hurt!”

“Whatever,” Doyoung scoffed.

Jaehyun rolled his eyes, turning away from Doyoung and facing the darkness. “Where is this stupid flower anyways?”

“It loves darkness and only grows under oak trees, so actually, we should be right within a huge patch of it.”

“Well I don’t see anything.”

Jaehyun narrowed his eyes at Doyoung, was he blushing? “Um, that’s because there’s another thing about Love In A Mist blooms, they glow.”

Jaehyun snorted, “you should get your eyes checked. There’s nothing but darkness right now.”

“They glow when you tell someone you love them.” Doyoung muttered.

Jaehyun paused, his breath stuttering. “Oh,” he said.

“Yeah,” Doyoung replied awkwardly. “So I guess—”

“I mean if we have to—” both Professors quickly spoke at the same time, avoiding making eye contact with each other.

Doyoung gulped before looking at Jaehyun. “Nox,” he whispered and the light of his wand dissipated, leaving them in darkness. “We, uh, need complete darkness in order to see the glow.”

“Yeah,” Jaehyun said, just barely making out Doyoung’s face in the slivers of moonlight passing through the leaves above. His heart was beating at a mile-a-minute.

Doyoung reached out, fingers brushing against Jaehyun’s shoulders, “sorry,” he said quickly, “just have to make sure you’re still here.”

“I’m not going to leave,” Jaehyun said, his voice unusually soft for what they were doing right now. Doyoung’s fingers froze for a second.

“Good,” Doyoung said back slowly, “um now. I guess we’ll say it, on a count of three?”

Jaehyun nodded before feeling like an idiot in the darkness. “Sounds good,” he said, hoping the nervousness didn’t show through in his voice.

“Alright, 1… 2… 3…”

“I love you,” they both said in unison. Jaehyun’s heart was definitely about to literally jump out of his chest, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a soft blue glow. At first there was one small pinprick of light, and then another, and another, and another until they were bathed in light blue as hundreds of flowers lit up beneath them.

Jaehyun stared at Doyoung, almost imagining that he could hear Doyoung’s heart beating just as fast. He swore he saw Doyoung’s lips part, eyes staring straight back at them. Doyoung’s fingers against his shoulders felt like they weighed a million pounds, he was so aware of their presence. Doyoung’s breath hitched and Jaehyun felt his face start to softly turn pink.

And just like that, the spell was broken. Doyoung jerked his hands back and Jaehyun had to prevent himself from following them. He blinked. “So it worked,” Jaehyun laughed nervously, trying to clear whatever weird tension had formed between them.

“Yeah,” Doyoung responded. If Jaehyun was crazy, he would have said that Doyoung looked conflicted. Doyoung shook his head, looking around them. “Let’s grab as much of these as we need.” He said quickly, avoiding eye contact with Jaehyun.

“I agree,” Jaehyun quickly turned around, grabbing a handful of the flowers and dropping them into their basket.

Doyoung and Jaehyun emerged from the forest with an entire basket full of the soft blue flowers, and when Donghyuck, Jeno, and Jaemin saw them, the three couldn’t help but smile mischievously.

Doyoung was cursing to himself, walking into the great hall and filling out the stupidly long order form.

“What’s wrong Doyoung,” Taeyong asked as Doyoung sat next to him. “I mean, what’s more wrong than usual.”

“I ran out of parchment for my students,” Doyoung moaned, “I swear I did the correct inventories at the beginning of the year, I should’ve been more than prepared for the term! Now I have to order more from Flourish and Blotts, and that’s going to take days to arrive—”

Taeyong snickered, “it’s what you deserve.”

Doyoung scowled, “shut up, no one asked you.” He grumbled, looking down at the form. “Why do they never save my account information? I order from them all the time!”

“Uh, Professor?” Doyoung’s head jerked up, ready to give whatever student who dared disrupt his process an earful, when he saw Mark. His gaze softened at the sight of his favorite student.

“Yes Mark?” Doyoung asked.

“I was wondering if you could smell this potion I made. I’m trying to come up with a line of new perfumes.”

Doyoung preened at the idea that Mark trusted him enough to ask for his opinion. “How entrepreneurial! Of course I will!” He picked up the small vial in Mark’s hand, uncorking the bottle and taking a deep breath. “Well, I’m getting a lot of sandalwood,” he said thoughtfully, “and leather?”

Mark nodded eagerly, taking notes.

“Some outdoorsy scents too, like oak and freshly cut grass. This is a pretty masculine scent.”

“Uh huh,” Mark muttered, writing that down.

“It smells like rain,” Doyoung said softly, putting down the vial. “Good job Mark, I really like it.”

Mark put the cork back in and smiled sheepishly, “thanks Professor, I’ll let you know if I end up making the perfumes.”

“Yes, please do,” responded Doyoung, “I’d love to purchase a bottle.” Mark thanked him one last time before scurrying back to his seat, where he was quickly pulled into a conversation with his friends. Doyougn raised an eyebrow at the sight of Donghyuck among the hoard, but he figured he was just visiting a friend.

Taeyong snickered next to Doyoung. “You’re a dumbass.”

“What are you talking about?” Doyoung asked, “I was just helping an eager student—”

“That wasn’t perfume, you idiot.” Taeyoung sighed, “how is he so smart and yet so dumb?”

“Shut up,” Doyoung scoffed, “if it wasn’t perfume, then what was it?”

“Well what known potion always smells good to the user, and what potion did you help Kun collect ingredients for during detention?”

Doyoung’s eyes widened, “no—” Amortentia, fuck.

“I smelled Johnny, by the way,” Taeyong cackled gleefully, “and I think we all know who you were describing.”

Doyoung blushed furiously, boring eyes into his order form. “Never speak of this again,” he hissed.

Before Jaehyun knew it, it was mid-October and he was sitting across from Doyoung in a carriage headed to Hogsmeade, staring out the window while the man across from him outlined their five-point shopping plan.

“—then we’ll go to The Magic Neep to pick up the pumpkins, followed by Scrivenshaft’s for candles, and then maybe Honeydukes for sweets—”

“Should we stop by Madam Puddifoot’s as well?” Jaehyun asked sarcastically.

Doyoung rolled his eyes, “now why would we do that?”

“Then we could make it a date,” Jaehyun smirked.

Doyoung scoffed with indignation, “absolutely not. We’re here on official business to gather supplies to decorate the Great Hall for Halloween. Not to meander through Hogsmeade holding hands.”

“That last part sounds fun,” Jaehyun said, laughing when Doyoung scowled. “Fine, fine, now what do you think we should buy on our ‘not-date,’ if you’re so insistent about that.”

By the third store, Jaehyun was officially shopped out. While Doyoung was discussing with the shop clerk which length of candle would be the “spookiest,” he was spacing out and looking across the street at the pastel colored tea shop.

“Doyoung,” Jaehyun said. The man in question paused and looked at Jaehyun, “are you sure we can’t stop in Madam Puddifoot's? I really want a hot cup of tea right now.”

“Oh you two make such a cute couple,” the store clerk gushed.

“We aren’t—” Doyoung began but Jaehyun cut him off.

“Thank you,” Jaehyun said, grabbing onto Doyoung’s waist—holy shit it was tiny—and smiling. “Babe, why don’t I save us a table? That way you can finish your shopping and you’ll have a fresh cup of hot chocolate waiting for you.” Jaehyun grinned, staring at Doyoung who was glaring back. To put the cherry on top, Jaehyun leaned in quickly and pecked Doyoung on the cheek before, regrettably, letting go of his waist and dashing out of the store.

“I hate you,” Doyoung marched up to where Jaehyun was sitting, sipping his tea with a satisfied smile on his face. Jaehyun gestured to the seat across from him.

“Sit down, I even got extra whip cream for you.”

Doyoung paused, glancing down at the cup. “You remembered how I liked hot chocolate?”

Jaehyun blushed, “of course, who could forget how surprising it was that the perfect headboy had a massive sweet tooth.”

Doyoung rolled his eyes, sitting down across from Jaehyun. “It’s been so long since I’ve had one of these.”

Jaehyun flashed back to a time when the much younger versions of themselves were doing the same thing they were now. “Not that long ago,” he teased, but there was a bit of wistfulness in his voice.

Doyoung didn’t respond, bringing the cup to his lips. “I forgot how good this was.”

Jaehyun stared.

“What? Do I have something on my face?” Doyoung asked, head tilting adorably.

“Uh,” Jaehyun said dumbly and before he could stop himself, he was reaching forward and letting his thumb drag across the top of Doyoung’s upper lip, picking up the whipped cream which rested there.

“Uh,” Doyoung replied, his cheeks burning bright red, staring at Jaehyun’s hand which lingered between them.

“Oh shit,” Jaehyun snapped back to reality, “sorry I didn’t even realize I did that,” he said nervously.

“It’s fine!” Doyoung said, his voice high pitched, avoiding Jaehyun’s eyes. “Let’s just enjoy our drinks.”

“So um,” Jaehyun desperately tried to change the subject, “where are we going next?”

‘Doyoung sighed with relief at the idea of moving on, “Honeydukes, we’re getting—”

“Sweets,” Jaehyun finished, “I remember now.”

“Good,” Doyoung muttered, staring holes into his hot chocolate.

“Good,” Jaehyun responded again, also avoiding eye contact and cursing himself in his head. Why did he have to be such an idiot?

Before Doyoung knew it, Halloween had come upon them. Jaehyun and he had spent hours leading up to this date perfecting the Great Hall and frankly, he was pretty impressed.

“Good job Doyoung,” Taeil smiled, “the hall looks incredible!”

Doyoung smiled at the compliment. The hall was illuminated with hundreds of floating jack-o-lanterns and autumn leaves dusted the ground beneath the students feet. Jaehyun had charmed the ceiling to show a dark and stormy night, for ambience—he had said, and the occasional lightning strike was enough to give a spooky atmosphere to the dinner. Students chattered excitedly as they piled their plates high with sweets and special treats the house elves had whipped up for the occasion. “Thanks Taeil.” The headmaster grinned before taking his seat at the head of the table.

“Where is your partner, anyways?” Taeyong asked from beside Doyoung, “I haven’t seen him all night.”

Doyoung glanced around the room, “that’s odd, he was definitely here before to help me charm the pumpkins. I’ll go look for him.” Taeyong nodded absentmindedly before going back to his conversation with Ten.

The outside air was chilly, and Doyoung quickly muttered a warming charm before the wind cut through his robes. He immediately beelined for the one place he was sure Jaehyun would be, and sure enough, he found the man sitting on the grassy field in front of the Great Lake. “What are you doing out here?” Doyoung called, striding across the grass to Jaehyun. “Come inside and eat, we worked so hard on this!”

Jaehyun turned around, started by Doyoung’s appearance. “How’d you find me?” He asked.

Doyoung rolled his eyes, “you really haven’t changed much since we were at Hogwarts. Your special spot is still the same.”

Jaehyun laughed, patting the ground next to him. Doyoung reluctantly sat down. “Yeah I guess you’re right.”

“You never answered my question,” Doyoung said, “what are you doing out here?”

Jaehyun paused before pulling a bag out of his robe, “eating candy, actually.” Doyoung peered into the bag to see unfamiliar sweets staring back at him. “They’re muggle candies. Here,” Jaehyun took out a piece and handed it to Doyoung, “you’ll probably like this.”

“Reese’s?” Doyoung read the label curiously before cautiously tearing open the foil. He bit into the small chocolate bar and chewed thoughtfully before grinning. “This is good!” Doyoung popped the rest into his mouth.

“I knew you’d like it,” Jaehyun laughed.

Doyoung fished another piece out of the bag, looking at the pouch of ‘Skittles’ with intrigue. “Why do you have all this stuff?”

“Halloween isn’t complete without candy,” Jaehyun said wryly. “This stuff reminds me of when I was a kid,’ Jaehyun frowned, looking out at the lake.

“Oh,” Doyoung said, pausing in his investigation of the colorful dots. Back when they were dating, Jaehyun always avoided the topic of his childhood, preferring to talk about Johnny’s family which took him in soon after he started Hogwarts and became best friends with Johnny. “What was that like?”

“We did this thing called trick-or-treating, back when I lived in Connecticut.” Doyoung remembered this ‘Connecticut’ place, it was where Jaehyun lived in the states before coming to London. “You’d dress up in costumes and go door to door, asking for candy.”

“Sounds fun,” Doyoung said, placing one of the Skittles in his mouth. He grinned, these were equally as delicious as the Reese’s. “I wish we did stuff like that on Halloween.”

Jaehyun nodded, not really paying attention to what Doyoung was saying as his fingers laced through the grass beneath them. “My parents kicked me out on Halloween.”

“Oh,” Doyoung said, slightly awkwardly. That was definitely unexpected. “I’m sorry.”

Jaehyun shrugged, “it’s fine, it’s been years now. But that’s why I get moody on Halloween.”

Doyoung frowned, thinking back to their Hogwarts days. Now that he thought of it, he never saw Jaehyun around on Halloween despite all of his friends running rampant around the castle. “What happened?”

Jaehyun snorted, “are you sure you want to hear this? It’s the classic muggleborn story.”

Doyoung nodded.

“Well once they found out that I wasn’t joking when I said I could turn our dog’s hair any color I wanted, they immediately came to the conclusion that I was cursed by the devil or something so I started having to spend every day in the church.”

“Like from our muggle studies class? The Catholics?” Doyoung asked.

Jaehyun shook his head, “it’s amazing how much you guys don’t know about religion and shit. But yeah, that Catholic guilt really fucks you up. Halloween when I was 10, we had just moved to London and I was locked in my room. I got really bored watching all the other kids trick-or-treating and so angry and sad and not in control of my powers that I uh, turned the dog into a lion.”

Doyoung stifled a laugh, “shit sorry,” he said, quickly looking at Jaehyun worriedly.

Surprisingly, Jaehyun’s face was just as amused. “No, in hindsight it’s really funny. But my parents didn’t agree and then they threw me out. Luckily, I only had to stay at an orphanage for a few more months before I got my Hogwarts letter and found Johnny.”

“Yes, very lucky,” Doyoung said, smiling softly. “I’m glad that you came here.”

Jaehyun met Doyoung’s gaze. “Me too.” The air around them was suddenly very intense but Doyoung broke the spell by glancing down quickly at the grass between their fingers. There was one, maybe two centimeters between the edge of Doyoung’s pinky and Jaehyun’s. 10, 15—no probably around 25 blades of grass separated the two and in that moment Doyoung felt the distance—the 25 blades of grass like a mile apart.

Jaehyun sighed, shifting positions. 24 blades. “Sometimes I like listening to the music they listened to.”

“Who?”

“My parents.”

“Oh,” Doyoung said dumbly. He was so busy counting grass he completely forgot.

“It’s pretty old muggle music, like Sinatra and stuff.”

“Are those the songs you always used to sing when we were studying together?”

Jaehyun looked at Doyoung, surprised. “You remembered?”

“Yeah, duh.” Doyoung said, “it annoyed me so much.”

Jaehyun laughed, “yeah I know. The songs just remind me of good times, like the candy,” Jaehyun waved a lollipop in the air, “back when I was normal before all the magic stuff started happening.”

Doyoung frowned, “hey don’t be stupid, this is normal.” He gestured at the Great Lake which definitely had a giant squid living in it. “Your parents were the weird ones for not accepting you.”

Jaehyun nodded, “I guess. Thanks.”

Doyoung looked at Jaehyun as the other sucked on his lollipop. Then he looked down at the tiny bit of space between their hands. He thought about moving his hand but he was conflicted about which direction he wanted to move it. So he decided to do nothing.

For now, this was enough.

“Jeno, if you let another one of Dino’s quaffles through that goal I’m going to fly up there and kill you!” Jaehyun yelled, his voice amplified to ring through the stadium.

“Sorry Coach!” The boy responded.

“Gather around everyone,” Jaehyun waited while his team flew towards him. Jaehyun was also on a broom, but flying much lower to the ground so he could get a good view while avoiding the action. “Good job, but we can do better. Let’s do that play again, Slytherin’s chasers are the best I’ve seen this season, we better be ready for them!” His team nodded and Jaehyun blew his whistle, announcing the start of the play.

As he watched the players zip back and forth across the pitch, his attention was caught by the sight of familiar billowing robes marching toward him. He smiled unconsciously.

“Jaehyun!” Doyoung called out to him, walking across the pitch. “I need to talk to you about detention later today!”

Jaehyun groaned, he almost forgot about it. The librarian had asked them to help students organize the Care of Magical Creatures books, and as much as Jaehyn loved the subject, he knew that those books were just as hostile as some of the creatures they talked about. “Yeah, what’s up?” Jaehyun asked. He glanced quickly upwards, everything looked like it was going smoothly. “Yukhei, balance out, it looks like you’re relying on your left too much right now!”

The beater gave him a thumbs up, straightening his position on the broom.

“We’re gonna need to show up early so—” Jaehyun whipped his head around at the sound of something barreling towards him. He had been so distracted by Doyoung that he flew too close to the team and a bludger was headed right his way.

Jaehyun froze. He couldn’t move out of it’s way if he wanted to, and his body was currently working against him. Time slowed, and it felt like ages before it slammed into his chest like a punch to the gut and Jaehyun was shoved off of his broom. His body was paralized, unable to move as the all too familiar sight of grass hurtling towards him flooded his senses.

Except this time, he didn’t slam into the ground. Jaehyun pried his eyes open, grass inches from his face as he was suspended in mid-air. He jerked his head to the side, seeing Doyoung staring at him with panic in his face, wand extended. Doyoung let him down gently before rushing over to Jaehyun, his team not far behind.

“Shit, I’m so sorry Coach!” Han Jisung said frantically, “are you okay?”

Jaehyun for some reason was unable to form any words, his mind and heart rate competing to see who could go faster.

Doyoung kneeled next to Jaehyun, staring into his eyes, “he’s conscious, and I think he’s fine, just in shock.” He looked at the worried students around him, “I’ll take him to the infirmary, just resume whatever it is that you were doing.”

“You mean playing quidditch?” Donghyuck asked, one eyebrow raised.

“Yes, that,” Doyoung said primly, before magically lifting Jaehyun into the air and leading him out of the pitch.

Doyoung paced in the infirmary’s waiting room until the healer motioned to tell him to come over. “Is he okay?” He asked, his voice betraying how worried he was.

“There were no internal injuries,” the healer responded, “just a nasty bruise.”

Doyoung snorted, “he deserves it.”

“Hey,” Jaehyun said from where he was lying in the hospital bed Doyoung was being led to. “I could’ve died.”

“I’ll leave you two to chat,” the healer said, looking suspiciously pleased with herself.

Doyoung shook his head. “Glad to see you’re back to normal.”

Jaehyun hummed. “It wasn’t a bad accident. I’ve had worse.” Jaehyun smiled sadly, looking out the window. “Obviously.”

Doyoung coughed awkwardly. “Well anyways, I wanted to talk to you about detention tonight. We’re supposed to go early to help set up the—”

“Why did we break up?” Jaehyun asked suddenly, turning towards Doyoung.

If Doyoung was drinking water, Jaehyun would be soaked. “What?” He managed to ask.

“Well, when my life was flashing before my eyes—”

“Didn’t you say that it wasn’t a bad accident?”

“—I started thinking about my regrets. And that made me realize that I really want to know why you broke up with me.”

Doyoung paused, the silence thick. “Regrets?” He asked.

Jaehyun blushed, looking down at the white sheets. “Well, yes. Regrets.”

“Oh,” Doyoung said, his cheeks matching Jaehyun's. “Um, well I broke up with you because our career paths were going down completely separate routes and we wouldn’t be able to see each other—”

“No I know that, what’s the real reason?”

Doyoung avoided Jaehyun’s curious eyes. “I felt abandoned,” he said weakly. “We always talked about having a future and that I’d teach at Hogwarts while you owned a shop in Hogsmeade. Then all of a sudden you were talking to scouts and you got recruited and it was so out of the blue. And you seemed so excited, but all I saw was you giving up on our future.”

Jaehyun’s hand met Doyoung’s against the crisp white sheets. “I was never intending to abandon you.”

“But it would have happened anyways,” Doyoung insisted, “we’re both so ambitious and work driven, we would have never made it work. You know I’m right, there’s a reason you were named most eligible bachelor year-after-year.”

Jaehyun paused before smiling, his dimples appearing on his cheeks. “You kept track of who I dated?”

Doyoung blushed, “well, lack thereof.”

“Still,” Jaehyun said, reaching up and poking Doyoung’s cheek, “you kept up with me. Also I think you’re wrong.”

Doyoung furrowed his brows, “what do you mean?”

“I love—loved you, you were always my number one priority. It was only after you ended things that I threw myself into quidditch like that.” Jaehyun said quietly, “but it was partially my fault too.”

“How?” Doyoung asked, surprised. He was the one to initiate the breakup.

“I think we could’ve gotten back together, if I had reached out to you. I was so angry after you left me, and that anger turned to resentment for a really long time. I hated how you made me choose between the two most important things in my life, but mostly I hated myself for making the wrong choice. It was only after the accident that I realized that.”

Doyoung smiled sadly, “we both fucked up then.”

“Agreed.” Jaehyun responded, lacing his fingers through Doyoung’s. A stream of golden sunlight through the window illuminated their intertwined hands on the soft bed. Doyoung sighed, breathing easily like a huge weight had been lifted off of him.

And in a way, it had.

“Hello students—Yukhei!” Jaehyun stared in shock at his team’s Captain after flinging open the door to the library, ready to start monitoring detention. “What are you doing here?” He said accusatorily.

“Don’t worry, I was just as disappointed.” Doyoung frowned, looking at the other occupant, Mark. “Apparently they got into a screaming match in the library.”

Jaehyun tsked, “Xuxi, I expected more from you.”

Yukhei avoided eye contact and tried to make his giant frame as small as possible. “Sorry Coach,” he mumbled, “but he started it!”

Mark scowled, “I did not!” He snapped, “Yukhei was the one annoying me while I was studying!”

“Enough,” Doyoung said, clapping his hands together, “it doesn’t matter, you both still ended up here.”

“Boy do we have a fun task for you,” Jaehyun said, “it seems that the librarian has tasked you guys with organizing the Care of Magical Creatures textbooks.” Both students groaned.

“We’re here to make sure one of your hands doesn’t get bitten off.” Doyoung said, “and we’ll help a little bit.”

Minutes later Jaehyun was laughing while watching Yukhei try to shelve a book which was currently fighting back. And winning. The sentient book was nearly biting Yukhei’s face off who was yelping while Mark tried to squeeze the book shut and wrestle it into its harness.

Doyoung slapped his shoulder, bringing Jaehyun’s attention back to the book they were trying to jam into place. Their heavy leather gloves helped little with control but Jaehyun still managed to pull the leather straps of the harness together, successfully closing the book’s gnashing teeth. Doyoung sighed in relief and placed the book into its slot on the shelf. “That book kind of reminded me of you,” Jaehyun commented while they were catching their breaths.

“Oh?” Doyoung asked, eyebrow raised. “How so?”

“It was very aggressive, pretty agitated, and you know,” Jaehyun trailed off.

Mark yelled “fuck!” in the background but both professors ignored him.

“Know what?” Doyoung continued.

“It liked biting,” Jaehyun smirked and winked while Doyoung turned bright red.

“Shut up,” Doyoung mumbled, avoiding his gaze.

“Shit, shit, shit! Down boy!” Yukhei squealed.

“It’s true!” Jaehyun insisted, laughing. “I remember I had to wear a turtleneck in May because of you.”

Doyoung rolled his eyes, trying to hide his flush.

“Guys!” Mark screamed, finally getting their attention, “stop flirting and help us!”

Jaehyun’s eyes widened at the sight of Yukhei, arms covered in scratches, shivering at the top of bookcase while a very angry book tried and failed to grab at his teeth. Mark was hiding behind another bookcase, occasionally throwing random spells at the book, but the magical tome continued its assault.

“Oops.”

“How many Christmas trees is too many?” Doyoung asked, stepping away from the blackboard which held his masterpiece, the 12-step plan to a perfect Yule Ball.

“Is there such a number?” Jaehyun asked from where he was draped over a desk in Doyoung’s classroom. “I saw we just keep adding them until it feels right.”

Doyoung widened his eyes with shock, “feels right?” he exclaimed, “absolutely not, Christmas is a science!”

“I watched enough animated movies as a kid to know that Christmas is the exact opposite of that,” Jaehyun snorted. Doyoung furrowed his brows, not really understanding the reference. “Christmas is about love and family, about coming together. So, an arbitrary number of trees.”

“Absolutely not,” Doyoung frowned, “we’ll circle back to this later. What about the food—”

“We’ll talk to the house elves about creating a feast with ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, yule logs, and other various accoutrements,” Jaehyun droned. “Oh, and snowflake cookies.” Jaehyun looked proud of himself, he added in that item.

“Decorations?”

“Mistletoe, holly, and charmed snow on the ground and falling from the ceiling.”

“Dancing?”

“All the kids are being taught by Ten right now, I heard they hate it.”

Doyoung begrudgingly nodded, “good.” He glanced at the whiteboard, “well than that just leaves music.”

Jaehyun grinned, “I have the perfect set of songs!”

Doyoung rolled his eyes, “we’re not going to use your old muggle music—”

“Just listen,” Jaehyun insisted, waving his wand and sultry music filled the air.

“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,” the singer crooned.

Doyoung sighed, folding his arms. He paused, tilting his head to the side to listen. “It’s not bad,” he admitted, “but—”

“Shush,” Jaehyun stood up, extending his hand, “dance with me?”

Doyoung looked at the hand suspiciously before hesitantly placing his hand in Jaehyun’s. Jaehyun placed his other hand gently on Doyoung’s waist and Doyoung grasped his shoulder, slowly starting to sway to the music.

“Just like the ones we used to know.”

 “This is nice,” Doyoung said, looking down at his feet, he glanced up quickly but soon regretted it, the soft look on Jaehyun’s face making his stomach feel funny.

“Yeah,” Jaehyun whispered in agreement, staring at Doyoung.

Doyoung switched positions, wrapping both hands around Jaehyun’s neck. His partner dropepd his hand to meet the other one at Doyoung’s waist. The air around them was heavy but Doyoung didn’t really want this moment to end, slowly leaning his head against Jaehyun’s shoulder, faced away from him so that Jaehyun couldn’t see the pink flush dusted across his cheeks.

They stayed like that, lost in their own world, swaying gently to the music.

It’s a shame Doyoung didn’t look back up, because if he had, he would’ve seen the same pretty pink blush on Jaehyun’s face.

“And may all your Christmases be white.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Jaehyun muttered, poking his tongue out while he concentrated on not falling from the top of the ladder, placing a wreath on the wall as he precariously teetered in the air. The Yule Ball was tomorrow, and Jaehyun, Doyoung, and the “student decorating squad” (Jaehyun’s team, their friends, and Doyoung’s favorite students) had been working nonstop for the past two days to get the hall into shape.

“Hey Coach, I need some help!” Yukhei called from down below, distracting Jaehyun who let go of the wreath. Jaehyun watched sadly as the green mass fell to the floor with a heavy thunk. “Oops.” Yukhei said.

Jaehyun sighed before stepping down, walking across the hall to see the freakishly tall student standing next to Donghyuck, both holding boxes filled with decorations. He briefly glanced across the hall at his partner, chuckling when he saw a very stressed out looking Doyoung speaking with Mark and Jeno. “What do you guys need?”

“We aren’t sure where to put these,” Yukhei said, pushing the box towards Jaehyun, “Professor Kim told us to hang them up, but we’re pretty confused since we think this can’t be right.”

Jaehyun glanced in the box, his brows furrowing with confusion at the contents. “These are the jack-o-lanterns from Halloween!” He exclaimed, “you guys are right they’re not supposed to be here.” He frowned, grabbing the boxes out of their hands and stacking them into a tower, “I’ll go put these back, Doyoung’s been so stressed out planning he probably just handed you guys the wrong boxes. Go hang up the wreathes I was working on instead!”

Yukhei and Donghyuck grinned at each other in a way that made Jaehyun uneasy, but he brushed off the feeling. “We sure will Coach,” Yukhei said.

“You can count on us,” Donghyuck added mischievously. Jaehyun probably should have been more suspicious by his tone, but he again ignored it, carrying the teetering boxes of pumpkins towards the entrance of the Great Hall.

In hindsight, he should have been watching where he was going, but to be fair, he couldn’t exactly see over the tower of boxes. He also wasn’t paying a lot of attention, mind focused on his mental checklist of the long list of tasks he still had to complete. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise when his journey to the entrance was interrupted by him slamming into another person. “Oh shit, sorry!” Jaehyun frantically said, stepping over the piles of pumpkins that were rolling out of the overturned boxes.

“It’s okay, I wasn’t watching where I was going—” Doyoung paused, picking up one of the jack-o-lanterns. “Pumpkins?” He asked quizzically.

Jaehyun plucked an object from the ground, “hearts?” He questioned. It seemed like Doyoung was also carrying boxes of mismatched non-Christmas themed supplies. “Wait a second—”

“Did they tell you that we asked them to put these up too?” Doyoung’s eyes narrowed, connecting the dots.

“Yeah I was just going to put them back in the storage room.” Jaehyun said suspiciously, “and then I told Yukhei and Donghyuck to finish hanging up the wreaths.”

“I asked Mark and Renjun to put the mistletoe on the—” Doyoung paused before his eyes widened with horror, glancing up at the doorway where they collided. “Fuck,” he whispered, staring at the innocent green leaves hanging above them. “Mark!” He yelled, “you worked with them?!” Jaehyun was just as surprised that Yukhei would work with Mark to enact this plan.

“Sorry!” The Ravenclaw yelped before being dragged out of the back door by Donghyuck, leaving the two alone in the hall.

“Well what do we do now?” Jaehyun said, glancing towards Doyoung and wriggling his eyebrows.

Doyoung rolled his eyes, “don’t be stupid. Everyone knows you don’t have to kiss,” Jaehyun tried not to let his smile fall at those words. Doyoung brushed off his robes before walking away but was blocked by a wave of magic which sent him stumbling back to Jaehyun. In the confusion, a charmed piece of parchment fell from the green bundle and landed on top of them.

“It’s charmed you dipshits,” Jaehyun read, “you have to kiss.”

“I’m going to kill them,” Doyoung growled, “I taught them this charm.” He scowled upwards.

“Wow, don’t sound so excited to kiss me,” Jaehyun pouted.

Doyoung sighed, “Shut up,” Doyoung said, “let’s just get it over with.”

Jaehyun exhaled slowly, suddenly realizing what situation they had gotten into now that Doyoung was stepping closer into his personal space. “Hi,” he said weakly.

Doyoung blinked, also slowly growing red, “hi,” he responded, placing his hands slowly on Jaehyun’s shoulder, much like how they were dancing just a few nights ago.

Jaehyun was distinctly aware of the blood rushing through his veins and his heartbeat racing a mile a minute as he lowered his head towards Doyoung’s. The hushed rumblings of the castle faded into the background and the soft golden light from the candles that floated around them illuminated onto Doyoung’s face, making him look like an angel. Well, more than he usually did. “C-” Jaehyun stuttered like he was in middle school asking out his crush, “can I kiss you?” he said more solidly, although his volume never exceeded a whisper.

Doyoung stared into Jaehyun’s eyes, his mouth parting slightly before he responded. “Yes.”

It was a gentle kiss, Doyoung’s lips were soft as Jaehyun pressed just as tenderly against them. The kiss was nothing more than a brief brush, a passing touch of their lips but Jaehyun felt a deep warmth sinking into his body, his eyes hazy as he stared at Doyoung.

He brushed a stray lock of dark hair out of Doyoung’s eyes, his pupils dilated. “We can get back to work now,” Jaehyun said quietly, secretly not wanting to let Doyoung go.

Doyoung stared up at him before his eyes narrowed slightly. “Shut up and kiss me.” He said firmly before grabbing Jaehyun’s collar and pulling him towards himself for another kiss, a real kiss, one that made Jaehyun’s toes curl and fireworks explode.

“It’s been two months since the Yule Ball and we still don’t have anything juicy for our column!” Donghyuck scowled from behind his desk in the makeshift office of the Hogwart’s Gazette. “I want love, romance, and passion! Instead we just have another article from Chenle about Mark and Yukhei being found in a broom closet again.”

“Hey, I think it’s a good scoop,” the reporter in question defended himself.

“This is the fifth time this week!” Donghyuck slammed his hand against the desk, “we can’t keep reporting on old gossip. I want new stuff!”

“We can come up with a story for you,” Jaemin smirked, wrapping his arms around Renjun and Jeno. Renjun scoffed, ducking out of Jaemin’s grasp.

“I literally could care less about what you guys do in each others’ dorms at night.” Donghyuck rolled his eyes.

“That’s not what I meant,” Jaemin said, “unless,” he wiggled his eyebrows. Donghyuck threw a crumpled up piece of newspaper at him in response. “I meant we could try following up on the DoJae story again.”

Donghyuck groaned. “Not again, you know that they’ve run their course. We haven’t seen them flirt with each other a single time since the mistletoe incident, and we don’t even know if they kissed because someone insisted on giving them privacy!” Donghyuck glared at Jeno.

“It was polite!” Jeno argued, “besides, we know they kissed since the mistletoe was charmed and they had to. We just aren’t sure what happened afterwards.”

“I have a good feeling about this Donghyuck, let’s tail them tonight. If there’s no story, then I’ll write your potions essay for you!” Jaemin declared. Donghyuck hummed, thinking it over. He did hate potions.

“Deal,” Donghyhuck agreed, grabbing his robes and pulling them on over his uniform, “let’s go catch a story.”

It was easy enough to follow Doyoung. He kept to a certain routine, graded in his classroom until dinner, then retired to his quarters to presumably do more grading. Donghyuck, Renjun, and Jaemin (Jeno and Chenle had too much homework to work on, coincidentally for Doyoung’s class) crept silently behind Doyoung, their invisibility cloak just barely covering them. 

Donghyuck was just about to call it quits when after dinner, instead of walking straight to his quarters, Doyoung dipped into an empty corridor and a hidden alcove. Under the shimmery fabric, Donghyuck’s eyes widened and Jaemin nearly squealed, pushing them forward quickly behind Doyoung. Donghyuck’s heart beat wildly. Would they catch their professors in a wild embrace? A steamy entanglement? ANother phrase commonly found in the romance novels he kept hidden under his bed?

Soft music trickled past them, causing the students to pause in confusion. Renjun’s ears perked up in recognition. Sinatra. He mouthed at the other two. They turned the corner, prepared for the worst when they saw Doyoung and Jaehyun in a very PG embrace, softly swaying to the music and chatting quietly.

Jaehyun’s hands were on Doyoung’s waist as he laughed at something the other said he quickly stole a peck from Doyoung who smiled back at him. The two were engrossed in their conversation, dancing slowly to the music and acting like they were the only two people in the world.

Donghyuck paused, his reporter’s brain racing before he sighed, glancing at Renjun and Jaemin. This was honestly the softest thing he’d ever seen, and he’d watched Chenle cuddle with Jisung on the couch when he thought the others weren’t looking. He turned to his accomplices from under the cloak and they all nodded, in agreement, before turning around and sneaking down the hallway, away from Doyoung and Jaehyun. DoJae would not be the top headlines of the Hogwart’s Gazette. There were always other stories.

Doyoung stilled against Jaehyun’s shoulder before he smiled, “I think they’re gone.”

“Finally,” Jaehyun responded, and Doyoung leaned up to face his boyfriend—oh it felt great to use that word again—who was grinning back at him. “I thought they’d never leave.”

Doyoung leaned forward, resting his head against Jaehyun’s. “Jung Jaehyun, I don’t think I’m over you.”

“Good,” Jaehyun responded, his dimples appearing with a vengeance, “because I’m certainly not over you either.”

Their lips met in perfect unison and Doyoung practically felt Jaehyun’s smile grow beneath his lips, sighing into their kiss. Indeed, this was truly perfect.