Chapter Text
"Hey, Kaaaaarl!"
There was a shout from across the Great Hall, and Hufflepuff turned around with bacon in his teeth, frowning.
It was Sapnap. As always with shaggy hair, as always without shame tearing him away from conversations with his House.
Irresistible as always.
"Well, I'm sorry I'm late for breakfast again, move your bag! I brought you news, have mercy!" pleaded Gryffindor, and Karl, no longer trying to hide a smile, gave him a seat next to him. “Dream will be interrogated at the Ministry today. You definitely won't see him around for a week or so."
Last weekend, their friend who visited his home was arrested in a completely ridiculous accident. On Saturday night, Dream was walking through the Muggle neighbourhood trying to find herbs for one of his projects. He happened to be near a house where two children were left unattended. They started playing and decided to launch the fireworks found in their shed, and people from the ministry, who had long been looking for an excuse to slander Dream's father, accused him of having bewitched the children.
"Well," Karl sucked in a slice of bacon and chewed it thoughtfully, without taking his eyes off the Ravenclaw table. “Today you will keep George awake in lectures, and no objection is accepted."
"Hey, my turn was the day before yesterday!" Sapnap was indignant, reaching for a glass of pumpkin juice. “Let's just replace one snake for him with another. Let Quackity take over today."
"Our lovely duckling is not with us today, have you forgotten? He was also invited to the Ministry, but as a witness." Karl examined the table, looking for a glass of juice for himself, but did not find - Sapnap took the last one.
Naturally, the accusation was delusional, which was understandable to everyone who knew him at least for a bit. But given that Dream studied at Slytherin - a House that never let up notoriety - and was a rich pureblood wizard, the court still had doubts. Quackity, who also studied at the Snake House, was sent to tell about what kind of person Dream was in ordinary life.
Karl moved closer to Sapnap with a sly smile and put a hand on his shoulder, hugging him and bending over to his ear.
"But we will have time to finish the surprise without worrying that he will understand everything. Project "Kinoko" can be finished in a day if we try really hard, and we no longer have to postpone dates with our boyfriend for weeks." Gryffindor relaxed and closed his eyes, melting in Karl's touch. "I really hope he will like it …”
“I’m sure he’ll like it,” Karl answered him quietly, not wanting to give away their little secret to the whole Great Hall. “When in December, on his birthday, he sees our show, he will instantly understand where we have been disappearing and will forgive us. Don't worry.”
“Okay, you're right.” After that, Gryffindor switched to a louder and more confident tone so that Quackity's friend, who was sitting nearby and apathetic eating fish-shaped cookies, wouldn't suspect anything. "Well, for a good school day?"
Sapnap held out his hand, but there was no longer a glass of juice near the plate - it was peacefully lying in the palm of Karl, who, giggling, instantly drank it, not giving even a chance to change the situation.
"Hey, that was my juice! This is the third time in a week! Well, what can I do with you to make you stop, huh?" Sapnap was known for his irascibility, and the students who sat next to him pressed their heads to their shoulders, fearing for the fate of the one at whom the anger was directed.
The "victim", laughing quietly, got up from the table and quickly kissed Sapnap, who was ready to ignite, on the cheek, and fled with a wave of his mantle.
“You're lucky I love you,” Gryffindor muttered under his breath, folding his arms across his chest and bowing his head so that no one would notice his red cheeks.
It is clear that by the evening the whole school was talking about this kiss.
*****
It was almost always quiet in the corridor of the eighth floor of Hogwarts castle. After all, it was one of the most distant, and there were almost no classes in the local classrooms. Only the rare elf cleaners came here to dust off the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. They and, for the last few years, a certain student in black and yellow robes.
"One..."
Now, this same Hufflepuff walked up and down this corridor near the seemingly unremarkable wall.
"Two ... The Room of Hidden Things, please...."
The guy was so focused on his ritual that he didn't notice the obvious pursuit: around the corner, holding his breath, with a magic camera at the ready, the curly-haired student of Slytherin, Wilbur Soot, stood with a malicious smile.
Alas, only the tapestry hanging on the wall could see it.
“Three!” Hufflepuff quickly opened his eyes and sighed with relief when he saw the carved door that appeared on the wall.
His pursuer took the first picture, covering the flash with his hand and smiling as Christmas came early.
With a grunt, opening the heavy door, Karl stepped into the cluttered room behind it and Slytherin, who had taken a few more photos, quietly retreated into the shadows, waiting for the door slam behind his back to leave unnoticed.
Meanwhile, in the Room of Requirement, Hufflepuff was rushing about between the closets, pulling out clothes and some papers.
"So, there is still half an hour before the lecture on potions ... I can make it into the 16th century if I start right now," he whispered under his breath, and a Quick-Quotes Quill wrote his words down in his diary.
Clothes, money, bag, journal. Everything is collected.
Stopping in the centre of the room and taking a deep breath, Karl pulled out from under his robes an old Time-Turner. One of a kind, kept secret by his family from generation to generation and once given to his grandmother, Hermione Granger. He knew the rules of use by heart, the required number of turns - too, and now in a second, he disappeared, leaving the room empty.
Time travel was once strictly regulated by law, and now it is completely forbidden. But the Jacobs family didn't care. Each wizard of their family, having kept this thing for about a year, usually gave it back to the owner, finding no use and fearing punishment. But with Karl, everything turned out differently: at the age of twelve, for the first time taking the Time-Turner in his hands and travelling with it, his eyes lit up, and he asked for it forever. Naturally, they did not give him to the child right away, saying that it was dangerous and violating tradition, but when Mrs Granger herself arrived and said her word, everyone calmed down.
The dust that Karl stirred up with his abrupt intrusion into the room to help out had not yet had time to settle after his disappearance, when he appeared in the same place - dishevelled, in a torn mantle and with thorns clung to his bag, but very pleased.
Quickly changing back into his school uniform and placing used clothes on the shelves of an old closet, he dictated to his journal:
"The journey passed without any troubles ... No one cleaned the Forbidden Forest in those years, and the burdock was enormous ... The caretaker of Hogwarts then was just a pain in the neck, but the ingredient was obtained ... If only I didn't forget anything, like that time ..."
The quill, after writing down everything, fell on the table. Karl, already indistinguishable from himself at breakfast, hurried out of the room.
He did what was needed.
He perfectly knew how to change his facial features, and didn't even forget to change them back to normal. He was an expert in the history of the castle and knew all about the uniforms worn by students from different centuries. He hid the ingredient he had found in the past and poured everything that wasn't related to his studies out of his bag.
But something on the periphery of his consciousness didn't let him calm down. As if he had missed something important again.
Having the door already closed behind him and with a brisk step towards the exit from the corridor, Karl frantically went over everything in his head that he could forget.
Journal? No, it's in the front pocket of the bag.
Mantle? No, it seems that everything is alright with it too…
"Ay!”
Turning the corner, Hufflepuff crashed into something soft and almost fell, but he was caught and hugged.
"Where have you been? Decided to escape my punishment for juice?" Sapnap whispered in his ear, grabbing him comfortably around the waist. “I just wanted to give you back your quill: it was in the History of Magic homework you made for me yesterday."
Karl took a breath, resting his cheek on the collar of the Gryffindor robes.
Quill. He just forgot the quill again.
“Now if I can't find you, I always go straight to this wing. You once again sat in an empty classroom again and dreamed, didn’t you?" Sapnap took him by the shoulders and gently pulled him away to look into his eyes, but his gaze was caught by a glint of something on the chest of his boyfriend. "And what is this necklace? I think I saw him at one of the lectures on..."
Karl quickly jumped back, eyes widening, and covered his treasure with his hands. Sapnap started to move towards him, but recognition flashed in his eyes, and he raised his eyebrows and began:
"Is this a Time-Tur?.."
"Obliviate! " Karl gasped, pointing the wand in his face.
He will never forget the spell of oblivion. Looking guiltily at the absent gaze of Gryffindor, he stepped up to him and took his hand, awakening him from obsession, and boldly led him to the stairs.
"Karl? You so unexpectedly jumped out of the corner at me, and now you take my hand too? Admit it, you just wanted to touch me," as if nothing had happened, Sapnap began cheerfully, and the time traveller smiled at him, squeezing his hand tighter. "I'm very glad I found you. I can always find you when you go somewhere. It seems to me that this is fate."
“Or maybe I only want you to find me,” Karl replied softly. "By the way, I forgot to say at breakfast. I got that mushroom, and now nothing is stopping us from finishing the surprise for Quackity."
"I'm amazed at your skills in herbology. Grow a mushroom, which became extinct hundreds of years ago, from scratch in a greenhouse... My boyfriend is so talented," they have already gone down the stairs, and it was time to split up. Karl had Potions class on the schedule, and Sapnap had Defense Against the Dark Arts. “I'll see you in the library this afternoon, I’ve already spoken to George about that. Have a good day!"
Gryffindor hugged him at last and ran to his classroom, and Karl watched him with sadness in his eyes.
This time wasn't the first and wouldn't be the last. With each erasure of his fiery boyfriend's memory, his own is getting worse, but his secret is safe, and the Time-Turner is safely hidden under his shirt. Fortunately, his second boyfriend, Quackity, has never noticed anything suspicious - Karl couldn't deceive two loved ones at once, even for their good.
Everything is still alright, isn't it?