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“Where’re we going?” Iwaizumi whispers, glancing at the boy huddled beside him under the invisibility cloak. They’re heading up into a hallway somewhere on the third floor, which is a deviation from their usual routes to the broom closets on other floors or outside to the Great Lake.
“Charms classroom. I think I left my homework in there,” Oikawa responds in the same hushed tone, both of them worried about being caught by the black cat that wanders around the school and pops up in the most unexpected places (the Slytherin suspects that the cat is really Professor Nekomata’s Animagus form. How else would the professor find out that he’d been sneaking into the kitchens to make agedashi tofu in their second year?).
Iwaizumi shakes his head but follows his best friend into the Charms hallway anyway, muttering, “Dumbkawa.”
“Iwa-chan, you’ve literally left your wand lying in the middle of the Quidditch field before,” Oikawa retorts, sticking his tongue out at the other boy—a gesture that Iwaizumi can (unfortunately) see thanks to the moonlight filtering in through the windows.
“Well, at least I’m not the one who left my entire trunk at home and almost missed the Hogwarts Express last year.”
“Iwa-chan! You promised to purge that from your mind!” Oikawa wails, earning him an elbow in the side from Iwaizumi.
“Keep your voice down, idiot,” the Gryffindor hisses, scanning the hallway up and down for the shadow of a certain dreaded feline. “And, as if I’d give up the opportunity to make fun of you for the rest of your life.”
Oikawa’s about to grumble something in response but his attention is diverted when they arrive at their Charms classroom. The door’s unlocked, so the two boys walk right in and inch the door shut behind them before removing the invisibility cloak, both of them gulping down deep breaths gratefully after being under the fabric for so long.
The serenity of the room at night is a stark contrast to the day when it’s filled with the hubbub of teenagers all articulating spells and laughing at each other’s failures. Iwaizumi folds up the cloak in his arms while Oikawa surveys the room for his piece of parchment, emitting a triumphant “aha!” when he spots it on one of the desks in the back of the classroom.
“Got it?” Iwaizumi asks, sauntering down the rows of desks to where Oikawa is standing.
“Yeah, let’s g—”
“Wait, was that there during class today?”
Oikawa swivels around to follow Iwaizumi’s line of sight, his eyes landing on a tall structure covered by a black sheet standing in the corner. “Huh, I don’t think so.”
The Gryffindor turns around, already ready to leave, and says dismissively, “It’s probably something for another Charms class. Let’s go.”
“Iwa-chan, aren’t you curious about what it is?” Oikawa questions, grabbing onto the other boy’s sleeve.
“Nope.”
“Not even one tiiiiiiiny bit?”
“Nope.”
“What if it’s Godzilla under that?”
“What if it’s a three-headed dog that can bite our heads off under that?”
Oikawa continues his pestering until Iwaizumi relents with a huff because he knows that his stupid best friend won’t ever shut up about this if he doesn’t allow Oikawa’s curiosity to be sated. With a beam and a victory hop, Oikawa rushes excitedly to the structure while Iwaizumi follows exasperatedly, cursing himself for pointing out the mysterious structure in the first place.
With a little bow, Oikawa tries to whip off the sheet dramatically but it’s stuck on a protrusion at the top of the frame. Iwaizumi watches with increasing amusement as his best friend struggles with the sheet, twisting and grunting.
Finally, the Gryffindor sighs and takes out his wand. “I can’t believe I’m friends with a weenie who’s losing against a sheet.”
“Shut up! It’s not my fault that it’s stuck!”
Iwaizumi shakes his head and waves his wand, the sheet flying off smoothly as Oikawa crosses his arms petulantly. The sulking boy opens his mouth to protest further, but he falls silent at the unveiled sight.
A gold-framed mirror with clawed feet greets them, its surface angled away from the two boys. There’s a moment of silence as they stare at the item in awe, enticed by its magnificent grandeur.
“Look, there’s an inscription on the frame,” Iwaizumi points out, moving closer to read the engraved words.
Erised stra ehru oy tube cafru oyt on wohsi.
“What does it say?”
Iwaizumi cocks his head in confusion, squinting at the words in an attempt to understand them. “I don’t know… it’s in some weird language.”
The Slytherin pushes his way through impatiently, eyes brightening when it lands on the frame. “I know this! Iwa-chan, it’s the Mirror of Erised!”
He reaches out to caress the frame like he can’t quite believe that it’s real. “It’s supposed to be hidden somewhere in the castle that’s difficult to find though. A room that only appears when the user needs it…”
“The what of what?”
“Mirror of Erised! It’s mentioned in our History of Magic textbook. Does dumb Iwa-chan not know how to read?”
Iwaizumi socks his best friend in the arm, his usual response whenever Oikawa teases him. “Shut up, I do read. The book was just too boring.”
“Of course, the content’s probably too difficult for your level of IQ to comprehe— Iwa-chan, no, put your wand down! Don’t you want to know what the words say?”
Lowering his wand, Iwaizumi gestures for Oikawa to go on. The Slytherin stands right in front of the mirror as he runs a finger down the inscription on the side, explaining as he goes.
“Read it backward and it says I show not your face but your heart’s desire! Isn’t that so cool?” Oikawa remarks excitedly, turning towards Iwaizumi. However, his attention is snagged by the surface of the mirror and his eyes widen, his words trailing off from whatever elaboration he was about to make. “It’s supposed to…”
Iwaizumi tilts his head to try and look at what Oikawa’s so captivated by, but he only sees the reflection of a boy dressed in an old slightly-too-small volleyball is life T-shirt and grey sweatpants with an unreadable expression. It’s rare for the Gryffindor to fail to gauge the emotions of his best friend, which just makes him more intrigued.
“What do you see?” Iwaizumi questions, watching his best friend stare intensely into the mirror as if entranced by the sight. Despite the genuine curiosity in his tone, he does have a hunch.
Someone like Oikawa—who shines brighter than any star in the sky—would only desire something on par with his worth.
“I… Um…” Oikawa starts to say, eyes never leaving the mirror. “I’m holding the Quidditch Cup…”
“And?” Iwaizumi prompts because although Oikawa’s eyes are clearly filled with awe, there’s something else he can’t quite identify. Something almost like… melancholy? Longing?
Whatever Oikawa’s seeing, it’s definitely something that the boy desires above everything else.
“I beat Tobio-chan and I’m the best,” the Slytherin finishes.
Iwaizumi can’t help but grin softly at this, knowing how much that would mean to the Chaser, who seeks validation in every way possible despite not needing to.
“Haha, that would be great!”
The Gryffindor’s just relieved that Oikawa’s desire is something undeniably attainable because he thinks—no, knows— that his best friend deserves everything he wants and more.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
He lied.
Oikawa finds himself unable to tear his gaze away from the vision in front of him—Iwaizumi’s arms around him while they’re locked in a passionate kiss.
The Slytherin finally forces his gaze away from the mirror, his stomach twisting in bitterness and guilt. The temporary comfort that the mirror had given him was enough to satisfy the years of yearning and pining for those few minutes, but now he’s just angry at himself for allowing himself to look into this mirror when he knew what he would see.
After all, the only thing that Oikawa doesn’t have and has no control over is Iwa-chan’s feelings in return. Even if Tobio-chan and Ushiwaka are constant threats to his position as Hogwarts’ best Chaser, Oikawa does have some degree of influence on this situation. He can practice every evening by himself, day after day, and he could end up surpassing those geniuses.
What he can’t influence, however, is Iwa-chan’s feelings. If his best friend doesn’t feel anything for him, Oikawa can’t make the other boy develop feelings. Sure, he could use a love potion, but it doesn’t have the authenticity like a hard-earned Quidditch Cup would. Ultimately, feelings just can’t be forced, and that’s what scares Oikawa the most. The powerlessness.
Which is why Oikawa prefers to lock his sad, pathetic crush into a little box in the depths of his heart so that he doesn’t have to deal with this, but the vision in the mirror has tugged on his heartstrings strong enough to unlock that box. He hates how he’s wondering if he should confess to Iwaizumi just for that slim chance of his best friend requiting his feelings and being able to genuinely experience what he saw in the mirror.
But he cannot afford to lose Iwaizumi’s companionship, and that’s the thought that shuts up the dilemma in his mind.
“It’s getting late, Iwa-chan. Let’s go so that you can get the beauty sleep that you really need!” Oikawa chirps as energetically as possible, already stepping towards the door lest he tries to look into the mirror just to feel the solace again.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
“Shut up.”
Iwaizumi’s lips move on their own, uttering his usual reply without any real bite because his mind is occupied by the person in the mirror.
To be more exact, it’s two people in the mirror.
He’d meant to give a quick glance just to see what this magical mirror would deem as his greatest desire, but now he’s frozen in place, his eyes glued to the vision in front of him.
Oikawa’s smiling softly as Iwaizumi hugs him firmly from behind with his own eyes closed, his mouth resting next to the Slytherin’s ear as if telling a secret.
Iwaizumi’s heart feels like it’s being submerged in ice-cold water—has he been harboring romantic feelings for his best friend this entire time? But there’s no kissing, so it could totally be platonic, right?
Still, something about the tender way that his best friend looks at him in this vision has Iwaizumi’s stomach twisting in knots.
Could he actually feel something for his obnoxious best friend? He thinks about everything they’ve been through in the past eight years—how hard he practiced volleyball just so he could be on the team with Oikawa in elementary school, how he gave up afternoons of free time to help the other boy with potions last year, how every single happy memory he could think of for the Patronus charm had involved Oikawa—and wonders if his feelings have been dangling right in front of his face this entire time.
Was he just too blind to see them?
“Hey Iwa-chan, are you coming with me or not? I’m leaving your ugly butt behind if you don’t hurry up!”
“Y-yeah,” Iwaizumi responds distractedly, tearing his eyes away from the fantasy in front of him. His mind’s still spinning from the sudden revelation that Oikawa might be his biggest desire.
Oikawa—a pain in the ass, a whiny crybaby, and his best friend. It’s not supposed to be anything more than that.
At least, that’s what Iwaizumi tells himself as he turns and catches up to the Slytherin waiting a few steps ahead. With end-of-year exams coming up, he can’t afford to overthink tonight’s events. Besides, didn’t Oikawa mumble something about this mirror being meant to stay hidden somewhere? Maybe the one they saw tonight wasn’t even the real thing—just a prank.
It would make a lot more sense than his biggest desire being his best friend.
“And you, Iwa-chan?”
Oikawa’s voice cut through his thoughts as he looks up to find the Slytherin looking at him in anticipation.
“Huh?”
“What do you see when you look in the mirror?” Oikawa clarifies.
So his best friend had noticed him staring, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Oikawa’s always quietly observing, always assessing his surroundings.
“I see myself and I’m taller than you,” Iwaizumi lies easily with a smirk. “A lot, actually. More than ten centimeters.”
“Ha, impossible. There’s no way Iwa-chan will be taller than me,” Oikawa teases in a sing-song voice as he reaches out to pat the Gryffindor’s head to demonstrate the so-called “height difference” of two centimeters. Iwaizumi always argues that it can barely qualify as a height difference while secretly praying that Oikawa won’t grow any taller even though he’d grown a centimeter in just half a year.
At this point, Iwaizumi should just accept the fact that he’s not going to grow much taller and that he’ll be a midget in Oikawa’s eyes for the rest of their lives.
At least you’ll have him for the rest of your life, a voice whispers in his mind.
Iwaizumi briefly contemplates banging his head against the wall to shut up his thoughts but if he sustains brain damage, there’d be no one to stop Oikawa from doing stupid things.
Sighing, he slips the invisibility cloak over the two of them just before they slip out of the classroom. It seems like everything always comes down to Oikawa.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
“It was right over here, I swear!”
Slytherin’s prankster duo regard Oikawa with blank stares as he searches through the scattered items in the back of the Charms classroom. The blank stares slowly turn into bemused expressions as their friend starts to run his hand up and down the wall, occasionally patting the stone bricks.
“Um, why are you feeling up a wall? I mean, I know you’re lonely sometimes, but you still gotta have standards,” Matsukawa drawls, obviously finding the situation somewhat amusing even though he still has no idea what Oikawa’s trying to find.
Oikawa turns his head around to glare at the accusation. “Shut up, Mattsun. It was definitely right here yesterday!”
“What, your brain?” Hanamaki asks as Matsukawa snickers, earning them both another glare.
“No! It was the Mirror of Erised that was mentioned in our History of Magic textbook.” Oikawa takes one look at his friends’ empty expressions and sighs because apparently nobody does the required reading other than him. “It’s a mirror that shows your heart’s desire.”
“Oh?” The pink-haired boy suddenly looks intrigued as he smirks teasingly, his breezy tone dangerously similar to the one that he uses whenever he brings up a certain Gryffindor. “What did you see?”
There’s a brief pause before Oikawa answers, his voice as steady as he can make it when his mind is suddenly doing a playback of last night’s events—especially the flighty feeling in his stomach when the mirror showed Iwaizumi’s arms around him.
“I was holding the Quidditch cup, and I beat Tobio-chan!” The Quidditch captain-to-be throws up a peace sign to sell the lie.
Unfortunately, his best friends seem to have built-in lie detectors when it comes to Oikawa.
“Really. We thought that it’d definitely involve a certain Gryffindor,” Matsukawa responds with a waggle of his eyebrows.
“Well, you’re wrong, Mattsun,” Oikawa chirps casually, which leads to a shared glance between his two friends that is a nonverbal yeah, we definitely don’t buy that.
Still, they don’t push the issue further because it seems like the mirror has basically conveyed everything that the two Slytherins want to say to their clueless, unknowingly pining friend.
Instead, Hanamaki tilts his head and questions innocently, “You sure you didn’t dream the whole thing?”
“Of course not! I was with Iw—with myself when I passed by the classroom yesterday ni—afternoon and saw this mysterious tall object and when I pulled the sheet off, ta-da! The mirror!”
Oikawa’s slip-ups in his explanation have revealed exactly what happened, but his two friends will never pass on an opportunity to poke fun at their dear star Chaser.
“Are you sure? You know what they say about your dreams being your repressed desires,” Matsukawa mentions, enjoying the way that Oikawa’s ears go slightly pink—whether from annoyance or embarrassment, he doesn’t know, but it’s probably both.
“I’m sure it was real, but whatever! I already know that the mirror will show brains if you two gremlins look into it,” Oikawa finishes his attempted insult by sticking out his tongue childishly.
His two friends give him their most unimpressed looks (Oikawa’s very familiar with them by now).
“Hiro, I think Oikawa’s finally found out that we’re secretly zombies.”
“Yeah. Now our plan to eat his brains has been ruined. What a shame.” Hanamaki shakes his head dramatically. “Oh wait, he doesn’t have any. Looks like our plans would have been thwarted anyway.”
“Huh. You’re right—”
“Shut up! You two are the worst,” Oikawa grouses as sparkles shoot out of his wand to form a middle finger. “I’m leaving!”
His two friends cackle as Oikawa stomps out the door and trips over Hanamaki’s pet toad Pepe, who croaks twice before hopping onto the fuming Slytherin’s head.
That night, Oikawa has to wash his hair three times to get the smell of toad out of his head while Hanamaki and Matsukawa laugh about it all night.