Chapter Text
“There's no sleeping at the library,” Seonghyeon says to the Gryffindor boy, who is slumped on the forest green-coloured beanbag.
The 3rd-year Ravenclaw is standing in front of the peacefully sleeping Gryffindor from the same year. Seonghyeon is still wearing his reading glasses and hugging his books tight to his chest. He went to the library to pick up a few books—The Mystery and Romance of Wizardry Alchemy, The Quintessential Lexicon of Spells, and A Wrinkle in Space (from an Astronomer’s Eyes!)—for self-study. From the start, all that Seonghyeon wanted was a quick checkout of his books. But he doesn’t think that the ancient books of Hogwarts deserve to be violated by a random student’s snore.
“Ahn Keonho, you know that I’m talking to you,” Seonghyeon adds, kicking Keonho’s right shoe lightly.
The Gryffindor student lazily opens his left eye. Keonho has been half-awake since he heard the Ravenclaw student's footsteps. They are quite distinct. Most people, while wearing the large, heavy Hogwarts robes, just shuffle and scrape their shoes on the floor. Different and peculiar from most Hogwarts students, Eom Seonghyeon walks with dignity. Each step makes a light sound that echoes to Keonho's perky ears.
Keonho sighs. “They say you shouldn't be noisy, too. Here you are, talking on a level a little too high in the library volume bar.” He raises both of his hands to illustrate a vicarious volume bar. The left hand is placed in front of his chest, while the right hand is then placed a few centimetres above his head.
“Now, now, you were literally snoring for the last five minutes. It was echoing through the library hall. My voice hardly reaches that level of indecency,” Seonghyeon tuts.
“Oh, really?” Keonho snorts, humourously challenging the Ravenclaw.
“Oh, really, without a shadow of a doubt. You should even be grateful I gave you at least five minutes of deep slumber,” Seonghyeon says as he stares at the watch on his left wrist.
“Alright then, can you be a darling and let me sleep for a couple more minutes? It won't hurt.” Keonho pouts and bats his eyelashes.
He knows those attempts are futile in front of the strong-headed Seonghyeon, but he still does it to mess with the Ravenclaw student anyway. Accurate to the core of the Gryffindor student's prediction, Seonghyeon's face visibly froze for a few milliseconds, confused by the sheer audacity of his schoolmate.
They barely interacted in the corridors, the Great Hall, the Courtyard, the shops at Hogsmeade, and wherever they might be. Their paths never crossed outside of the quidditch field. Even so, they have different positions. Seonghyeon is Ravenclaw's seeker, while Keonho is Gryffindor's beater. So, their only interactions were grunting, pushing, pulling, and shouting profanities at each other while riding on top of their brooms. The loudest yet silent profanity for Seonghyeon was getting knocked by a bludger that Keonho swung with his bat.
Then, Seonghyeon’s eyes squint and blink. Keonho quietly watches every motion of Seonghyeon's dark pupils and the minuscule creases on his face. His dimple appears slightly. It would only appear if Seonghyeon smiled from ear to ear, but he cannot do that when he is in deep annoyance against Keonho. The bell suddenly rang. The Ravenclaw shakes his head; another nerve on his head bursts.
“I can't, and I won't. It's no use; recess is over. Be an agreeable student and go to your class,” he says with a cadence like instructions written on the blackboard. Seonghyeon points firmly at the library door.
“Whatever.” Keonho rolls his eyes. He grabs his brown shoulder bag that was lying on the floor and wears it. “What an archaic fellow,” he whispers just under his breath as he stands up.
Seonghyeon's neck turns sharply back at Keonho. Now that both of them are standing, there's only a short distance between them. As they face each other intently, their eyes lock.
“Pardon?” He tilts his head and blinks.
The Gryffindor looks at the Ravenclaw from the corner of his eye. “Nothing. Pardon me.”
“You're pardoned,” Seonghyeon remarks.
Keonho chuckles and lightly punches Seonghyeon on the shoulder. “You can be quite funny, huh?”
The Ravenclaw blinks again. His face softens, a thin smile drawn on his lips. “Only to my liking.”
Seonghyeon shrugs, trying to appear nonchalant despite the appearance of a smile as rare as sapphires. He tries to hide his delight since nobody has ever complimented his sense of humour. Seonghyeon is known as someone straightforward and dry, which is quite unfair because nobody has ever tried to develop any kind of friendship with him. They never try to strike up a conversation outside of schoolwork, play gobstones, challenge him for mini quidditch sparrings, or even offer a simple greeting.
The two of them received two loud fake coughs from the librarian, Madame Murphy. Seonghyeon immediately heads toward the door. After three steps of his speedwalking, he turns his head around. He hasn’t heard any footsteps following him from behind. Seonghyeon stretches his hand to grab Keonho’s wrist and pulls him. With Seonghyeon driving their motion, they speedwalk together from the corner of the library to the door.
Keonho can’t stop looking at Seonghyeon as they walk hand in hand. He stumbles twice or thrice through the short rush, and Seonghyeon glances at him and lowers his speed, tightening his grip. Their palms aren’t pressed on each other, and their fingers are intertwined, but he can’t believe that the Ravenclaw is holding him tightly without any intention to ever let him slip away.
Does he have a firm hold on me that’s as unyielding as he holds his three thick books to his chest? Keonho wonders as he swings the large, dark cypress door open for both of them to get out. The door then creaks shut. Keonho looks at his left arm again earnestly, still secured by Seonghyeon’s hand. Now, I'm wondering if the Ravenclaw will hold him longer than those books. The Ravenclaw looks at him. Curious about the keen glint in the Gryffindor’s eyes, he follows the earnest gaze to his own hand. His ears turn pink in an instant.
“Sorry,” he mutters quietly in embarrassment. Then, he finally puts his books into his shoulder bag. The Gryffindor shrugs at him.
“It’s fine. I think it’s good to befriend someone by first having them peevish at you,” Keonho replies. “You get controlling when you are cross,” he adds unadornedly.
“I’m not cross. That’s not true,” Seonghyeon opposes. His eyebrows furrow.
To suppress, or perhaps channel even more of his irritation from the confrontation of his bad habit instead, Seonghyeon continues to walk briskly. He wants to head to his class, but before that, he also wants to drop Keonho to his own class. Keonho catches up to the Ravenclaw and walks by his side.
“See? You even try to modify the facts,” Keonho points out. His eyes crinkle with his smile, instead of a smirk, because he's excited that his claim was immediately supported by live evidence.
“Oh, please. Be quiet, and let’s get you to class,” Seonghyeon huffs as they walk down the precarious moving stairs. “What class do you have?” He raises an eyebrow.
“You should know. It’s the same as yours,” Keonho replies plainly. His fingertips brush whimsically.
“Seriously, don’t play any more of your games with me, Keonho,” Seonghyeon groans.
“I’m not playing; I’m serious!” Keonho shakes his head aggressively, unaccepting of this baseless vindication. “Don’t tell me… Seonghyeon, you don’t know that we’re in the same class?” He asks with wide eyes.
Seonghyeon pauses in five steps. He tries to remember any particular memories of Keonho's face when he's in the potions class. “You have potions, too? Exactly at this specific period?” he asks, confused.
“Yes, yes. Right at this moment,” Keonho concedes while nodding.
“Oh, well… I never noticed,” Seonghyeon blurts, his voice lowering to a whisper with each syllable.
Finally, they arrived on the dark, gloomy dungeon floor. Attempting to not make Seonghyeon uncomfortable in this chat that's going awkward, Keonho makes himself the spectacle of the conversation instead. “I suppose it means that I should be more flamboyant in class. It's quite hard to catch your attention, is it?” He winks teasingly.
“I don't like to look at other people's cauldrons,” Seonghyeon enunciates.
“But people certainly do look at yours. It catches on fire at least twice a quarter,” Keonho jests wittily.
Flushed, sudden flames of rosy carmine crash on Seonghyeon's cheeks. He turns his head to his left, stressing how to hide himself from the surge of fiery and ashy memories Keonho brought back. If he does know that and even kept note of the statistics, then that unequivocally means the Gryffindor and he have potions in the 5th-6th period every Tuesday and in the 2nd period every Thursday.
As Seonghyeon's mind drifts about potions class, flashing all the memorable scenes like a film projected from a wand, he remembers one crucial thing for class. They were instructed to bring fresh mayflowers, a spring-flowering plant that blooms in May. He was just planning to check out his books, then cut some mayflowers from the greenhouse, and finally enter the classroom well-prepared. However, all of it slipped his mind when he heard a vexing snore in the library.
The Ravenclaw stops in his tracks and then abruptly increases his pace. “Blimey, I forgot to bring the additional ingredients for today's assignment,” Seonghyeon grumbles desperately.
“Oh, dear, don't worry now,” Keonho calms him down.
From his shoulder bag, he pulls out beautiful mayflowers or hawthorn wrapped in brown paper and stretches them to Seonghyeon. Someone who only took a brief glance would think that Keonho is giving Seonghyeon a charming bouquet of flowers under the dim lights of Hogwarts’ dungeon. After all, the white and soft-pink flowers looked quite romantic, shining on their own in the dark corridors.
“You're giving it to me?” Seonghyeon asks, stunned yet hopeful.
“It's a bother to walk around keeping an extra in my bag's pocket for the rest of the day. It's better for you to use it instead,” Keonho answers. He stretches his hand even further since Seonghyeon still keeps his hands to himself, he then moves the Ravenclaw's hands to hold the flowers.
“Thank you, Keonho. How can I settle this up with you?” Seonghyeon asks.
“I have no pleas. I'm just quite pleased to see you chuffed after telling my arse off in the library.” Keonho smirks.
“Cheeky, are you? It's your own fault to—”
Suddenly, Professor Byron slams the potions class's door wide open. “Ah, whose fault is it? Late to class for twenty minutes to the Advanced Potions Class – truly a daredevil.” Professor Byron asks with a raised eyebrow.
“Professor Byron, I apologize for being late and dragging Keonho into it—”
“It's my fault, Professor. I crumpled and ruined Seonghyeon’s mayflowers, so I had to take responsibility by replacing them with fresh new ones.”
Keonho grabs Seonghyeon's wrist and pushes it up and forward gently towards Professor Byron to show the pale pink mayflowers in the brown paper bouquet that the latter’s palms are cupping delicately.
“I see. Where'd you get the replacements for your friend, Mr Ahn?” Professor Byron narrows his eyes at the Gryffindor.
“We had to rush to the greenhouse beside the herbology class. I knew the flowers would be in full bloom since I planted them a month ago for my extracurricular project,” Keonho explains as easily as telling the truth. “So, don’t worry, Professor Byron. Both of us are ready to start today’s experiment with these beautiful flowers!” Keonho shows his white mayflowers from his shoulder bag.
“Thank you for the accountability towards Mr Eom and your integrity towards me, Mr Ahn. Still, I must mark both of you as tardy,” Professor Byron explains monotonously. “Due to Mr Ahn’s cascading lack of punctuality and an oversight of negligence in the safety of ingredients over frail potion ingredients, even if it’s outside the class, I must deduct 25 points from Slytherin.”
“Enchanté, Professor. I’ll be more mindful next time,” Keonho promises.
“I’m truly sorry, Professor Byron,” Seonghyeon apologises with a worried face. There are visible creases on his forehead. “None of this will ever happen again.”
“Yes, now, just go over to your cauldrons.” Professor Byron shoos them with his hands, motioning towards the one last empty table. “I won’t repeat anything we’ve covered for the twenty minutes you were gone. Simply look over page 256, and you’ll find that we’re already on step 4.”
The red and blue students walk to the last empty table in the back corner of the classroom. Red, blue, green, yellow. A lot of students looked at them while giggling and gossiping with each other. Seonghyeon walks past them with his eyes on the floor while Keonho just looks straight to the front, towards the table he’s heading.
They place their shoulder bags on the table and get their Advanced Potion-Making (Inferus-Level) textbooks out. Seonghyeon's textbook is plastic-covered, which is something he does with all his textbooks before school starts during summer break. On the other hand, Keonho's textbooks look like he's the 10th owner already. There are illegible notes even on the book's hardcover.
“Hey, mate, what happened?” Yerrick, a fellow 3rd-year Ravenclaw, asks.
“You already heard what Keonho said,” Seonghyeon replies as he turns through the pages of Advanced Potion-Making.
“Who knows? Perhaps what actually happened was that you wanted to jump out of the window to quit Advanced Potions, but Keonho grabbed your hand and convinced you to just go through this class.” Yerrick wrote such a creative prompt. Perchance the creative writing workshop he attended was truly worth it to elicit anger in others.
“Oh, enough, Yerrick.” Seonghyeon shakes his head disapprovingly, not even bothering to look at his classmate.
“I like that story better.” Keonho chuckles at Yerrick, then looks at Seonghyeon, who doesn't even dare to lift up his head from his book and look at anyone. “You guessed right. That was closer to the truthful turn of events.”
“Like bloody hell anything close to that ever happened!” Seonghyeon protests, trying to hide how flustered he is. He puts his round-rimmed reading glasses down on the table. “Can we just begin with our potion-making, please? We already wasted too much time.”
Yerrick raises his hands in a fictitious defeat. “I’ll leave you two with the quarrelling," he mumbles.
“The person who’s wasting too much time is Professor Byron, who has to pause and lecture us on non-essential things for around ten minutes after reading aloud each procedural step,” Keonho complains as he observes Professor Byron yapping endlessly in front of the classroom. “I bet you all my mayflowers at the greenhouse that we can finish this in less than ten minutes.”
“Alright, Keonho,” Seonghyeon replies without much thought. He opens his mouth with a hint of hesitation but quickly closes it again by biting his lower lip. He takes a sharp breath in and exhales it fully. “And I also want to say thank you for saving me with the flowers and taking all the blame for our tardiness. I would’ve gladly accepted a stern scolding and handled a few losses of points for Ravenclaw.”
“Don’t even mention it, mate. We were late in the first place because I was too stubborn to get my arse off the beanbag and get out of the library. Or am I wrong?” Keonho tilts his head, waiting for an answer.
Seonghyeon scoffs and rolls his eyes with an unconscious smile on his lips. He doesn’t blame Keonho at all. He could’ve just gone on with his day, leaving Keonho to slumber in the library. The librarian would’ve woken the Gryffindor up once the bell rang anyway. Yet, there was a sense of responsibility towards someone familiar. Someone he met once in a while but never spoke to.
Somehow, today, Seonghyeon feels like he’s gravitating towards Keonho, an unlikely saviour for his advanced potions class. Because even if the Ravenclaw actually went to the greenhouse, he actually has no idea where the hawthorns are planted. He’d be lucky if it were near the entrance, but it would’ve been a total waste of time if he were to search every inch of the area.
“Shall we begin with the first procedure?” Keonho asks.
“Right, yeah.” Seonghyeon nods.
He places the brass cauldron on top of the tripod stand. Casting Wingardium Leviosa from his wand, Seonghyeon levitates a prepared beaker of distilled water from the Great Lake that was placed on the shelves and pours the liquid into the standard cauldron. Keonho watches how many millilitres are spent.
Before the distilled water overflows more than his prediction, he whispers just for Seonghyeon to hear, “That’s it. Just 505 millilitres is enough.”
Seonghyeon raises an eyebrow. “Really? The book says we should at least have 800 millilitres,” he asks with suspicion.
“Trust me, 505 millilitres is what my book says.”
That’s quite an odd number, Seonghyeon thought. His raging curiosity wants to press Keonho with more questions on the matter. He isn’t pleased with a ‘he said, she said’ argument by the Gryffindor. Their books were the same, but how could Keonho give an entirely different direction? Even a difference of a nanolitre could blast the cauldron into his face. Seonghyeon knows this by heart due to countless experiences. To his defence, he wasn’t the only student whose face kept getting ashy after difficult experiments.
However, the intense expression on Keonho’s face translated to no more questions. If anything goes discordant, the Gryffindor looks as if he's going to slam the table and knock out everything on top of it out. Seonghyeon gulps at the scenario he imagined and can only go along with his potions partner, trusting him enough to let him go from any inquiry, just for this short moment. After all, Keonho already saved him with the hawthorn flowers.
Every two procedural steps, they switch places. One would prepare the ingredients and tools in advance, and the other would pour and stir the cauldron with technique. Seonghyeon notices something about Keonho when he is in charge of preparing the powdered ingredients and weighing them on the scale. The Ravenclaw never thought that his potions partner would have a slight characteristic of a klutz, since the one beside him is Gryffindor’s best beater in Inferus Hogwarts.
When Keonho uses the tiny potion spatula to scoop the ingredients, his hands tremble. Just like the way he’s preparing 2.42 grams of crushed frog brain. His mind overthinks too much about being precise. 'Focus, don’t mess this up,' he’d always say to himself. Yet, it was almost always that he accidentally leaned the spatula a little to the left or right or knocked his hand against the table, and then a few nanograms would fall over like dust. Quickly, Keonho casts scourgify to clean the tiny mess that’d fall on the table.
He has tried using spells instead of his own bare hands. However, even when he pronounces the incantations perfectly, his hands tremble at trying to control the movement. Perhaps it's because Keonho's wand is made up of a recherché Veela hair, which can act quite chaotically and temperamental, especially when the wizard hasn't fully mastered using it. Still, it's quite a loyal wand made from oak wood. Keonho was very sentimental when he first received his wand, but perhaps he wouldn't react the same way if he knew that it was going to cause some hindrance in potion-making.
After pouring four drops of castor oil into the cauldron, Keonho sneaks in one strand of light green kelp. Seonghyeon freezes, and his eyebrows furrow in confusion. Although he has been tolerating slight changes in the ingredients’ measurements, unfortunately, he draws a clear pale chalk line at the point of entirely changing the whole potion-making procedure by adding an unnecessary ingredient outside their textbooks. He leans closer to Keonho, his head right behind the Gryffindor’s shoulder.
“That wasn't even in the procedure,” Seonghyeon dictates.
The Gryffindor turns his head to the right to glance at Seonghyeon from his periphery. Then, he looks back down to his cauldron, continuing to stir it indifferently. “I know. Why do you think people find it so hard to create the perfect elixir of pyrexio remedium?"
“Because people don't follow the procedures right to the bone?” Seonghyeon remarks.
“Wrong! Perfection doesn't happen due to the conformity to texts in schoolbooks written by old men,” Keonho refutes.
“Those old men are expert potioners of the international wizarding world,” Seonghyeon notes, pointing his finger at the names of the authors in the preface.
“The thing is, there's no set rule in wizardry potion-making. What works for those experts might not work for us. Look at our century-old cauldrons and even the pigmentation of our hawthorn flowers. These variables might seem small and won't affect our potion, but they totally do!" Keonho explains passionately. “That is why we must do what works for us. I already tried experimenting with this a few days ago, so I know,” he reassures.
Seonghyeon could only nod quietly. Then, he looks over at Keonho’s textbook and finds various handwritings scribbled around the yellowing pages.
“And so have the previous owners of this book, I suppose?” the Ravenclaw deduces.
“Yes, they were my older cousins,” Keonho clarifies. “Only three of them wrote notes about their experiments on the margins here. Every year, they improve the recipe. And I’ll be the 4th to do so.”
Seonghyeon could see the distinctly different handwriting. Intriguingly, they were even in different-coloured inks. Cousin 1 is black, cousin 2 is azure blue, cousin 3 is pine green, and Keonho’s is merlot red. He looked at the pages on the back, but the handwritings were all only in black. Seonghyeon skims through the pages from the preface until the very end. Turns out, only experiments that were done in class had colour-transfigured handwritings.
A bit in disbelief at Keonho’s persistence, Seonghyeon asks, “Did you manually put a spell on each fragment of the handwriting to change its colour?"
“Um, yeah,” the Gryffindor affirms.
“That's quite a difficult way.” Seonghyeon sucks in his tongue with his head tilted. “Mhm, I'll teach you later on,” he says after contemplating carefully.
“We'll meet again?” Keonho asks playfully.
“Even if we don't, we'll meet at the field.”
“You're such a nice friend.” Keonho nudges Seonghyeon’s shoulder with his own. “But, Eom Seonghyeon, I won’t let you win next month’s match. I mean this as much as I meant the previous statement."
“It’s on! Ravenclaw is going to get that cup, this season.” Seonghyeon exclaims. “Alright, then what should we do next?” He peeks into the cauldron.
“We're onto the final ingredient,” Keonho answers.
“Hawthorns. What colour?" Seonghyeon’s fingers hover over the hawthorn bouquet.
Keonho smiles gently. “The pink pigment will make the remedy taste more bitter, but it does have stronger healing attributes. The recovery time for the patient will be very fast. In contrast, the white flower tastes sweeter.”
“Let’s go with the pink one. I’ve always liked special things that taste bitter. It’s such a unique taste in medicine, vitamins, vegetables, and fruits,” Seonghyeon chirps.
Keonho pretends to puke. “Ugh, you sound so miserable!” he cringes, shivering dramatically. “Though, is there any particular reason?”
“Bitterness, the taste itself, is quite an intriguing property in food. It reminds us that we consume not to feel but to be filled. A prime example would be this pyrexio remedium. It heals not because it tastes bitter. It just so happens that things that heal taste a tad bit bitter. Yes, it’s possible to make it taste sweet to the potioner’s liking. Yet, there are benefits to bitterness that cannot be replaced by a temporary feeling on the tongue,” Seonghyeon elaborates.
“Whoa” was the only thing Keonho could manage to respond with after the Ravenclaw’s grand speech.
Seonghyeon puts a spell to pluck all the pink petals of the mayflowers. He
“It's crazy how you have the perfect cadence to the manner you speak and a sophisticated diction to the words you utter. That suaveness persuaded me entirely!” Keonho confesses, yet he sounds like he’s joking.
“You sound like a loony,” Seonghyeon grimaces.
“Hey, I'm not!” Keonho detests.
“Well, you surprisingly act like one all of a sudden. I’m even seriously getting suspicious about the after-effects of the smoke coming from the smoke of the brewing pyrexio remedium." The Ravenclaw brushes the smoke out of the air that’s coming to his face.
“For your eyes only.” Before Seonghyeon could ask what that meant, Keonho quickly clinked the stirring rod at the large black cauldron. “Finished! Do you want to extract it into the cordials?” Keonho asks as he wipes the string rod and puts it on the table. Seonghyeon nods at the suggestion.
The pyrexio remedium potion was completed flawlessly. Its colour looks bright rouge-pink, with dark cyan swirls and white sparkles in the middle.
He reaches for the ladle that’s almost sinking into the cauldron. Keonho lifts the ladle a bit so his partner can hold it easily. Their hands brush, and it stays like that for a moment; Seonghyeon’s hand is on top of a few of Keonho's fingers. The latter slowly pulls out his hand, letting go of the ladle into the Ravenclaw’s hand. The Gryffindor gazes at Seonghyeon, seeking to find a meaning in this interaction. There is only indifference on his face.
Left disappointed, Keonho presses his lips. His eyes just focus on the way Seonghyeon scoops the elixir cautiously with the ladle, then pours the solution into six cordials. Two large, two medium, and two small. So, two for each. Everything else is a blur in the Gryffindor’s eyes. He has steady hands, and not a single drop escaped from the ladle. Keonho envies people who can breathe steadily and not feel even an ounce of electrifying nervousness on the tips of their fingers when concentrating in potions class.
So, Seonghyeon is not just skilled at casting spells. He has steady hands in handling the ingredients despite a history of failed experiments in advanced potions. Seonghyeon's not steady because his wand was tailored with the exceptionally powerful thestral tail hair and the visionary vine wood. He has unsentimental and steady control over his strength, so that's why the ingredients chose him.
“Finished!” Seonghyeon exclaims. Unconsciously, he feels joyful since he didn’t end the potion-making with a cauldron that blasted off in his face.
“Fantastic job, mate!”
Keonho offers a fist. Seonghyeon looks at it, then smiles at the Gryffindor and bumps his fist.
“Thank you, Keonho. You truly helped me a lot; it’s like a blessing in disguise,” Seonghyeon says sincerely. His eyes looked at Keonho not with the earlier confrontational distaste but now with a sense of amiability.
“No, I did nothing. It’s a blessing that I get to make Eom Seonghyeon say the three magic words to me today,” Keonho replies.
They chuckle together with a deeper sense of understanding toward each other. They are friends now. Not just competitive rivals on the quidditch field, mere potion-making partners in class, or distant classmates in other class subjects. It was the turn of a page for their own kind of Hogwarts adventure.
─── ⋆⋅ ☾ ִ ࣪𖤐ᝰ.ᐟ⋅⋆ ───
When it comes to playing quidditch, Seonghyeon tries his best to look calm on the surface. Yet, deep inside the neural pathways of his mind, he just wants to hide under his shell like a hermit crab who abruptly senses a human’s touch. Before entering the stadium, as both teams prepare themselves for fifteen minutes before the game, he observes the field from below. His eyes scan thoroughly at the stadium seats, the goal rings, the humidity in the sky, the colour of the freshly pruned grass, and everything in between. All textbook scenarios run through his head like a film reel.
On the other side, Keonho smiles at the field. He notices the crowd starting to fill in the seats. The Ravenclaws are very punctual, coming in to sit in an orderly manner. If he recalls, the blue house recently designed optimal seating arrangements so everyone can sit based on their extracurricular role, height, and interest in the game. Say, if there were a group of students from the journalism club, broadcasting club, and quidditch club, then they’d be prioritised to sit at the very front.
He noticed the pattern during last week's Inferus match of Slytherin versus Hufflepuff. He was intrigued when he saw that the students with cameras and notepads were mostly spread in the second to third rows. Juhoon—a 4th-year Ravenclaw and its goalkeeper—is sitting in the front row. Weirdly, Seonghyeon didn't sit right beside his Magnum teammate. Instead, he sat right behind Juhoon.
Juhoon talked to Seonghyeon with his head turned to the back for a bit. He pats hard on the back of his own shoulder, the clavicle, and the scapula. Seonghyeon scooted a bit from his seat to lean nearer to Juhoon's ears, his delicately sharp, sloped nose almost brushing his upperclassman's ear. Keonho almost rose from his seat, along with a hint of jealousy.
After seeing his new friend Adam's apple rise sharply, he knew that Seonghyeon was shouting something at Juhoon. Talking on a normal volume level or even whispering is something quite impossible to do in the middle of a heated quidditch match. And when you're actually playing out in the field, you need to shout and scream your lungs out just to communicate with your teammates or taunt your rivals.
The Gryffindor's eyes stayed glued on the pair. After a few seconds of shouting, Seonghyeon straightened up the way he sat and then stretched out his hands. Those hands were then placed on Juhoon's back and shoulders. Keonho pressed his index finger's nail on the edge of his thumbprint.
Seonghyeon massaged Juhoon's back and shoulders for a whole five minutes. Pleased, the latter gave him a thumbs-up. However, the 4th-year student suddenly caught the Gryfindor's eyes that had been focusing solely on them. Keonho immediately diverted his eyes back into the match, where the snitch suddenly passed in front of Gryffindor's box.
Two days later, during the Altior quidditch match between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, Seonghyeon and a few of his teammates couldn't find a seat at Ravenclaw's stadium box. So, he sits in one of the mixed stadium boxes. The rest of Ravenclaw's Inferus quidditch team sat at the very front of their stadium box seats, along with the higher years of Ravenclaw journalists, photographers, podcasters, and broadcasters.
Ravenclaw had always been textbook-heavy, but not in the classic playbook. Rumour has it that they have their own playbook on every scenario that ever happened and could possibly happen. There are even some rules on audience etiquette. It doesn't forbid them from bullying other houses, no; that thing is very human, and Ravenclaws always have the most elegant yet stingy sarcasm. It just instructs them to have humility and generosity to prioritise the seats for those closely related somehow to the match so they can see upfront.
Footsteps start coming closer. Keonho figures that it’s one of his teammates. There’s a heavy air of conviction that surges when a Gryffindor walks. A whole bunch of them in a group? A full red of it. And yet, there are different shades of red, at least to how Keonho illustrates them in his head.
“Bloody hell, look at them lining up like the Prime Minister of Magic's gyarfs,” Artemis—Gryffindor’s quidditch chaser and captain—comments as she walks closer to Keonho, looking in the same direction up as he is. Up at the Ravenclaws’ stadium seats.
“You spoke the words right out of my mouth. It’s quite a creative rule. I wonder who made all of that up,” Keonho ponders, his head still up to the blue house with a somewhat intent look in his eyes.
“Why?” Artemis leans her back against the wall with a smirk on her face. “You have a crush up there?” She tilts her head curiously.
Keonho chuckles while shaking his head. “No. Nobody’s up there.”
“M’kay. No time for Gryffindor’s best beater, huh?”
Artemis punches Keonho’s right shoulder lightly. It’s supposed to be light, but the strength in her hand muscles, trained diligently, causes slight pain in the beater’s shoulder. A little more force in it, and Keonho is sure that he might stumble.
“No time to beat around the bush just to find love. I only beat bludgers,” Keonho blurts.
“That’s right, mate.” They bump their fists. “Anyway, I heard that it was Ravenclaw’s seeker. It was Eom something.”
“Eom Seonghyeon.” He says the discrete name with a peculiar enunciation, like the way he says the name of a starry constellation he just learnt in astronomy class. More specifically, like the way he can say the name of a new constellation he just learned with calm confidence after he hears Seonghyeon say it in class with the brightest eyes.
“Yup, I think that’s the name to the role.” Artemis nods. “D’you know him?”
“I’m friends with him,” Keonho answers nonchalantly. He tries to suppress his giddiness at the fact that they're friends.
“Aight, you haveta bludgeon his head with no hard feelings.” Artemis pounces on her own palm, gritting her teeth.
“You got it, mate. No need to worry about that.” Keonho winks to assure her completely.
Artemis pats his back, and it almost makes him fall forward. She walks to the other chasers to review their strategy and warm up together. Both chasers and beaters always prioritise arm day. Their palms are so flexible that they can do a full rotation, as if they possess no joints at all. The difference lies in what they grip. Chasers are experts at holding round objects like the quaffle. On the other hand, the beaters grip and swing their bats.
There was suddenly a quiet feeling that tingled the soft hair right on the back of his neck. It's as if there were a persistent, zealous gaze on him. Keonho looks around at Gryffindor's headquarters. Everyone is busy stretching, jogging in circles, doing individual drills, or chatting with each other. Nobody in his reddish team is paying any special attention to him.
Keonho becomes even more confused because he still feels a thick yet distant atmosphere between him and the mysterious person. He tries to get rid of the feeling. As he slowly lifts his head up, he notices a familiar blue figure, a bit hidden by the blue-and-white checkered drapes, far away in the opposite direction from him. Like the white tiger and the phoenix, north and west.
Seonghyeon has been gazing at Keonho for a while now. The Gryffindor caught the former's eye because he was observing Ravenclaw's box. Seonghyeon gets curious about the reason for that. Could there be someone or something? Unfortunately, Seonghyeon can't see the people right above while he's still standing on the ground.
Looking closely at Keonho from afar made Seonghyeon realise how much the former's thick eyebrows build his visual character. The Ravenclaw chuckles at the realisation, his right hand loosely covering his mouth. Keonho caught him at that moment. Stunned when he realises the pair of eyes under those eyebrows are looking back at him, Seonghyeon's chuckle dies out abruptly. His lips are still parted with a small gap in the middle.
With his hand already up in mid-air, Seonghyeon hesitantly waves at Keonho. The latter's eyes widened. He points at himself, mouthing, ‘me?’ The Ravenclaw nods while grinning and points at him. A smile cracked on Keonho's lips, and he waved back at Seonghyeon. Soon enough, their captains dragged them so each team could do group drills.
After both teams finish their respective warm-ups with seven minutes left, the quidditch captain then lines their members up according to their positions. The captain is always at the very front, no matter what position they hold. They're followed by the chasers, beaters, seekers, and keepers. In total, there are five chasers, four beaters, two seekers, and two keepers. The main team is composed of three chasers, two beaters, one seeker, and one keeper.
Keonho is the sixth in line for the Gryffindor team; his quidditch uniform number is 14. Meanwhile, Seonghyeon is the tenth in line for the Ravenclaw team with a quidditch uniform number written '14'. Both are using the newest release of the Nebulae broom, which is the Nebulae N020. It's a fairly new brand of broom compared to Nimbus, but its speed is top-tier in the current era of quidditch. It's very sensitive to the rider's movements, boosting players in becoming more agile at dodging bludgers and catching the snitch. When the rider leans too much to the left or right, the Nebulae N020 might just rotate a full 180° or, even in more extreme cases, a never-ending 360° rotation like a feverish carousel.
Before the match starts, everyone must stand up with a fist on their chest while singing “Hoggy Warty Hogwarts", led by the school's Frog Choir. Ironically, Keonho enjoys the song and knows every word of the lyrics by heart. Meanwhile, Seonghyeon's mouth just moves and sings, powered by pure muscle memory. He’s not singing, yet he’s not lip-syncing either. In actuality, if someone were to approach him in the corridor and ask him to recall this song, he'd fail after the first two lines.
Afterwards, the starting players get on their precious and ferocious brooms and fly off to their positions. Finally, the long-awaited game is starting. The referee throws all the quidditch balls high into the sky. The two seekers were the fastest. Artemis immediately soars up towards the sky, competing with Kuroha—Ravenclaw's main chaser—to catch the quaffle.
Eventually, Artemis was the one who caught it and soon flew to the opposing field. Keonho went to his offensive position, entering Ravenclaw's side of the field. The snitch passes right through his ear. He could feel its sharp, nimble wings flick past his earlobe. It stings as soon as it passes, making Keonho wince in pain. Seonghyeon giggles at him as he zooms by. The Gryffindor seeker, a 2nd-year student named Bronwyn, tries to catch up from behind.
Terrifyingly, a bludger came flying wildly towards Bronwyn. Keonho immediately sets his eyes on it. He swings his bat before it could terribly impact Bronwyn's face. Going with the direction of Keonho's hit, the bludger ends up curving to Seonghyeon.
But, bollocks, the Ravenclaw seeker can't see it coming from behind him as his eyes are solely focused on the golden snitch. Seonghyeon is leaning towards the very edge of his broom. He outstretches his right hand. A seeker always feels that the golden snitch is right within reach, touching right on his fingertips.
“Eom! Watch out! Behind you!” Juhoon shouts while standing up as Seonghyeon flies past the Ravenclaw stands.
The Ravenclaw seeker can't hear a thing. He continues to focus on the shimmering golden snitch still. He looks over the scoreboard to see that they're 30 points behind so far, fifteen minutes into the game. The Gryffindor team is on a passionate, fiery streak of throwing the quaffle right into Ravenclaw's goal hoops, totalling 100 points.
Then, Seonghyeon feels a switch in his aerodynamics due to a bludger coming closer to him. He leans his body to the left and does a 180° rotation trick. Seonghyeon's arms and legs hug his broom for dear life as he hangs down.
The trick got some cheers and applause from the audience near him. The Ravenclaws stood, erupting in awe with their golden seeker's tenacity. He can see Juhoon grinning at him, and Seonghyeon chuckles in reply.
Seonghyeon's witty spirit blazes through the whole stadium. It became a meaningful moral boost for his team members. Yerrick, one of Ravenclaw's beaters, used the moment to swing the bludger towards the Gryffindors instead. Bludgeoned by the impact the Gryffindors never saw coming, the quaffle dropped from one of the Gryffindor chasers’ hands.
Kuroha flies off to catch it and signals his teammates to get into an offensive position. The Ravenclaws on the stands lean closer to witness their house's comeback in this prideful quidditch match. Quickly, in less than six minutes, they score forty more points, overturning the scale in the game.
Always, the seekers look like they're playing a whole different game. Seonghyeon likes this isolated feeling even when he's burdened with arguably the toughest responsibility of a quidditch match. Only he can end the game. At this moment, Bronwyn is in the lead in catching the golden snitch. Seonghyeon tries to bump her off her tracks, but she's very headstrong in keeping her lead position.
Frustrated but not yet giving up, Seonghyeon flies a few metres below the golden snitch. Bronwyn is quite obstructing his view, so he tries to strategise. He signals with his pinky finger raised and pointed to the sky while swinging it frantically for Yerrick to see, and the beater relays the message to all his other teammates.
The chasers purposely get close to the bludgers that are flying berserkly nearby. Before they hit Kuroha’s face, one of the beaters comes to the rescue. She deflects it off to another beater.
The audience gets confused, but those well-versed in the Ravenclaws’ quidditch techniques know that they’re doing the ‘Passing Swing’. They get insanely close to the bludgers and utilise them as an actual ball, not just wild, horrible objects that are disrupting their game. As one is used to being passed around with the swings of the beaters, the other bludger is an added element of surprise: it’s fended off towards the oblivious beaters of the opposing team.
Then, that beater fends it off or, rather, passes it to Yerrick. Fully armed and prepared, Yerrick swings his bat and deflects the bludger to a projected location where Bronwyn will be in a few milliseconds. Unsuspecting, she increases her speed by leaning even further on her broom.
Wham!
The Gryffindor’s seeker woefully gets knocked off her broom. Seonghyeon grabs this opportunity to immediately incline his broom to a sharp angle, facing horizontally towards the golden snitch. With the perfect momentum caused by pure adrenaline, encouragement by the audience, hopes of his teammates, and wind velocity, Seonghyeon flies and stretches his hand towards the golden snitch. It might be pure gold or just pure alloy, but it’ll always taste of the end of a victorious match.
Seeing how close the Ravenclaw seeker is towards victory, Keonho searches for a bludger nearby, but all of it is under Ravenclaw’s strict control with the Swinging Pass manoeuvre.
“Hurray!” the Ravenclaws exclaim with extreme excitement.
“Wo-hoo!” the fans who were rooting (or betting) on the Ravenclaws shout enthusiastically.
Seonghyeon caught the golden snitch, earning 50 more points for Ravenclaw to end the game. He’s standing on his broom with a prideful grin. Kuroha, Yerrick, and all his other teammates gather around him. A never-ending cheer crowds the Ravenclaw team, while a melancholic gloom storms into the dark eyes of the Gryffindor team. The matches ended with a distinguished winner and a graceful loser, 260 points and 110 points, respectively.
It was indeed an intense quidditch match of Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor as spring ends, ending the Inter-House Quidditch Cup. Artemis gathers with the team to apologise for letting them down, especially feeling full of sympathy towards Bronwyn and stroking her bumpy head. Keonho is always amazed at how his captain always keeps morale high. Keonho just nods to whatever she says, pretending to listen. His attention can’t seem to fade away from Seonghyeon’s enchanting smile. Although he can’t fully see the Ravenclaw seeker who’s crowded by his teammates, Keonho can still catch a glimpse of Seonghyeon through the gaps.
Similarly, Seonghyeon tries to catch a few glances at Keonho by peeking through the gaps of his friend's shoulders. The view is very blurry because the Ravenclaws are pushing and pulling each other, exhilarated with winning. They didn’t just win the match, they won the cup! Even so, Keonho looks like he’s doing just fine along with the Gryffindors.
“It’s official! Ravenclaw won this season’s Inter-House Quidditch Cup! Congratulations to them!” the commentator shouts through his microphone.
After each team celebrates and weeps, they gather back in the middle of the field, and each team lines up to shake hands. When Seonghyeon reaches Keonho, both at the very end of their team’s lines, a gentle smile slowly curves into the ends of their lips.
“A party for the Ravens, I bet,” Keonho jokes.
“No hard feelings. So, are you coming to the after-party?” Seonghyeon asks, expecting an affirmative answer.
“Why not? It’s good to see your competitor enjoy their victory while it lasts. Because Gryffindor won’t let that happen next season.” Keonho smirks
“Oh, dream on.”
Seonghyeon rolls his eyes and jokingly punches Keonho’s stomach. They chuckle at each other with a growing friendliness. Then, they go back to their respective teams’ quidditch headquarters. Tonight will be a blast.
─── ⋆⋅ ☾ ִ ࣪𖤐ᝰ.ᐟ⋅⋆ ───
Tonight is a blast. Everyone’s gathered in the ballroom, dancing along with the music played using the magical gramophones. Juhoon is in the middle, popping open a non-alcoholic champagne. He slumps his free hand onto Seonghyeon’s shoulders. He’s red, not because of any consumption of alcohol (because there are no such beverages allowed, obviously), but because he’s very embarrassed about being the centre of attention. It’s entirely different when you’re out in the middle of the quidditch pitch. Students and professors are watching you for the game. Now, people are watching you in the spontaneity of the party, giddy and drunk in entertainment.
He tries to escape from Juhoon, but the latter just holds him even closer. The 4th-year Ravenclaw barely says a word to others, but he’s quite attached to Seonghyeon, seeing him as a cute younger brother.
“Seriously, Juhoon, you need to let me go,” Seonghyeon shouts to Juhoon’s ears. It’s very loud; it’s certainly not the library.
“Okay, okay,” Juhoon says in defeat. “Not before you finish what’s left in the bottle, though.” He shakes the bottle in his left hand.
“Ugh, fine,” Seonghyeon groans. “Wingardium Leviosa!” he casts on the champagne bottle and then pours what’s left into Kuroha’s empty cup.
Kuroha raises his cup with a grin. “Cheers!” The Ravenclaw seeker nods back with an awkward smile.
“Finished!” Seonghyeon shouts, then slips off from Juhoon’s arm.
“Hey, no fair!” Juhoon shouts back, watching as Seonghyeon slips into the crowd.
Outside, Keonho is standing exactly in front of the door. He turns back and forth, straightening his shirt. It’s not even a black-tie event, and he’s just wearing casual attire like everyone else, but he’s worried for nothing nonstop. Not because of how rare it is for Ravenclaw to have a casual dress code for a party they spontaneously planned (what other houses don’t know is that the Ravenclaws were already dead set on winning the cup this season and planned this since February), but because he doesn’t exactly know what he’ll do.
Should he congratulate every Ravenclaw he meets in the room? Should he just walk straight to the punch bowl and pour one for himself? Should he start dancing in the middle of the dance floor? After a minute or two, he musters up the courage to open the door.
“Alohomora!” he casts at the door, which only opens wide enough for him to pass through, not violently slammed open.
He enters the ballroom quietly as the door creaks shut behind him. Then, he accidentally bumps into a familiar face.
“Oh, hey there,” Seonghyeon greets him. His face was tensed up, but it relaxed at the sight of a friend. Just a few hours ago, they were rivals on the pitch.
“Hey. Congratulations on winning the cup; you deserved it.” Keonho puts his hand on Seonghyeon’s shoulder and strokes it gently with his thumb.
“Thank you,” Seonghyeon replies. He can’t stop beaming like a winner. “Today’s match was the most points we have had this season. We scored more goals per second than the average quidditch play. It’s amazing! So, we won the cup with
“That’s a fantastic geeky statistic. You’re really rubbing salt in the wound, huh? Trying to start a fight with a Gryffindor?” Keonho crosses his arms and raises one of his thick eyebrows.
"Pardon me, sorry. I really didn’t mean to do that.” Seonghyeon puckers his lips, rubbing the back of his neck with regret.
“C’mon now, I was just joking.” Keonho elbows his Ravenclaw friend. After making sure that Keonho is actually in a good mood, Seonghyeon chuckles with him.
“I shouldn’t be a jerk of a host either. Here, now. Let’s put your shoulder bag on an empty chair, then I’ll get you a drink,” Seonghyeon offers, sliding Keonho’s shoulder bag from the owner.
They walk together to an empty table with knocked-over over plastic cups all over it. Seonghyeon casts Tergeo and Scourgify with his wand to clean the mess. Keonho wants to apologise because he knows it must be the Gryffindors. They were discussing in the locker room about how they can make Ravenclaws a bit cross at their after-party.
Seonghyeon does look peeved at the mess, his eyes squinting. Then, the Ravenclaw places Keonho’s shoulder bag on an empty chair tidily. He pulls out a chair for the Gryffindor to sit on and wait in, in case he wants to. Before Seonghyeon could walk off to the beverage and snacks table, Keonho grabbed his hand before he could go any further. Seonghyeon blinks, confused.
“Let’s just get the drinks and enjoy the party together. I’d like that better,” Keonho suggests.
“Mhm, yeah. I’d like that too,” Seonghyeon agrees.
They walk with Seonghyeon in front of Keonho, leading the way as the host. At the beverage and assortment table, Seonghyeon grabs two blue plastic cups and fills them with a grape-flavoured punch. He extends one cup to Keonho. The latter grabs it gladly, mouthing a ‘thank you’.
Together, they spent the rest of the evening of the after-party in deep conversations over a variety of things. It includes, but is not limited to, quidditch; what Seonghyeon always does wrong in potion-making and what Keonho does right; wizarding world myths; and what muggles do in their parties.
To Keonho’s surprise, Seonghyeon dances when he’s in a good mood. The Gryffindor takes the chance and dances sillily along with his friend. Other Ravenclaws were also dancing with their friends or lovers. It only lasts two songs before the Ravenclaw’s inhibitions return to him.
Afterwards, they return back to their table. And again, there’s an even messier stack of plastic cups. Apparently, the blue colours were also transfigured to red. Seonghyeon sighs. Before he casts Tergeo and Scourgify, Keonhos stops him and offers to do it instead. He makes sure that it’s as clean as what a perfectionist Ravenclaw wants it to be. Then, they sit facing each other.
“Thank you. They’re lions, but they’re so immature,” Seonghyeon expresses.
“We can terribly be so, yes,” Keonho admits sheepishly.
“I suppose I can’t discriminate against your house so much for finding entertainment in childish things,” Seonghyeon trails off.
He looks at the shoulderbag that Keonho places on top of his thighs.
“That bag surprised me because it’s heavy. No one else really brought their bags here. What’s in there?” Seonghyeon points.
“Ah, right. Before I even realised it, the bag already slid onto my shoulders like a habit. And I never pull out my Advanced Potion-Making textbook out of it, just in case I have free time to experiment.” Keonho pulls out his favourite textbook.
“Right! I was supposed to teach you Lorare Muto.”
“Lo-what now?" Keonho’s surprised at the delicate pronunciation of the spell.
“It’s the spell to colour-transfigure general things for a massive amount, including specific, repeated handwritings. Colo Muto is used to colour-transfigure one thing, while Lorare Muto can change any colour of a certain category of an object that the caster points at. You must’ve used Colo Muto over and over again to the point of not sleeping,” Seonghyeon elaborates in detail.
“I see; that’s interesting,” Keonho comments.
“Here’s how you cast it. Like writing a cursive ‘L’ that has a hair strand, then flick it upwards at the very end,” Seonghyeon explains. “Loracae Muto!”
All of Keonho’s second cousin’s handwriting on the book transforms to azure blue.
“Loracae is used to change it into blue. To make sure it’s the shade you want, you have to concentrate on that exact colour and imagine it vividly in your mind,” Seonghyeon explains before Keonho could ask why the incantation was slightly different. “Honestly, you just use Lorare Muto, but it’s very exhausting to use your brainpower to only think about one specific tint. So, I managed to learn all seven colours of the rainbow.”
“That’s amazing! Could you teach me all?” Keonho’s eyes sparkle with enthusiasm. He finally has the solution, so he doesn’t have to flip through the pages endlessly.
“Calm down, lion. We’ll go with the colours you use for the handwritings here first.” Seonghyeon taps Keonho’s textbook.
So, Seonghyeon teaches him the techniques for the colours blue, green, and red. Keonho felt ecstatic. He doesn’t have to waste time turning over each page and analysing each handwriting to transform the colours.
“Lorarens Muto!” Keonho casts as he waves ℒ at the cousin two’s handwriting. It turns to pine green. His lips curve into a smile at his success. “Loraseues Muto!” he casts at his own handwriting, transforming it to merlot red.
“Terrific! Glad that’s sorted out now,” Seonghyeon says.
In the middle of their moment, Juhoon sneaks up on Seonghyeon from behind and spooks him by pushing his chair slightly. Seonghyeon gasps, and Keonho laughs at his surprised face.
“Both of you are the perfect pair of blue-red friends. Come with me, we’ll go do a lovely tradition.” Juhoon grabs Seonghyeon’s and Keonho’s hands, pulling them to the middle.
The said pair of friends looks at each other, confused. What tradition could it be? There are too many Hogwarts traditions at this point; they should write a special book for it. Even so, their pair of legs just keeps on walking, following the 4th-year Ravenclaw who directs them to the middle of the after-party. Artemis chuckles and shakes his head in disbelief when he sees Keonho getting dragged. ‘What are they going to do to me?’ he mouths. ‘You’ll see,’ Artemis mouths back.
From the Ravenclaw side of the crowd, Yerrick grabs a camera. He sets the camera settings so it can take a clear HD-quality video. When he starts the camera rolling, the flash shines so brightly in Seonghyeon’s eyes, almost blinding him. He tries to block the rays with his hand. He then turns to Juhoon, pleading for an answer.
“The latest loser will pour a drink into the winning cup,” Juhoon announces to the room.
“You mean the winner’s cup?” Seonghyeon tries to correct.
“I mean what I said.” Juhoon winks at him.
He grabs the large golden cup that their house just won and lifts it high proudly. Seonghyeon facepalms. He could finally guess what the tradition is. He'd heard about Juhoon ranting about it during today’s breakfast, but he thought that it was just a baseless joke. Keonho, on the other hand, is still greatly oblivious to what will ensue.
Juhoon pops open another champagne and then gives it to Keonho. The Gryffindor stares at the bottle weirdly. What is he supposed to do with it? He looks over the 4th-year Ravenclaw, the same boy he was a tinie tiny bit jealous of last week. Then, Juhoon whispers to him the directions he must follow, according to the supposed tradition.
Keonho’s mouth hangs partly in the air. Seonghyeon looks at him apologetically. The Gryffindor gulps down his ego and then pours the champagne into the golden cup. The Ravenclaw also gulps, preparing himself.
“What are you waiting for? Just chug it!” Kuroha shouts. The crowd roars, agreeing with him.
Seonghyeon curses his teammate in his heart, then looks in the cup. He does like the unique taste of this brand’s non-alcoholic champagne. What he doesn’t enjoy is the hundred pairs of eyes perceiving his every move. Keonho gives a squeeze on his hand and a reassuring nod at him. Seonghyeon nods and downs the champagne.
Surprisingly, the drink and the act as a whole taste excellent. It tastes exactly like what victory is. Like a confirmation that he truly is a great quidditch player. The whole room erupts and cheers for Eom Seonghyeon, the game turner of today’s match, the switch of momentum that leads Ravenclaw to a victorious path. Not only is he celebrating it with his teammates and excited audiences, but Seonghyeon is also accompanied by a friend that he deemed unlikely at first. Keonho joins in with the crowd to cheer for the Ravenclaw seeker.